The Swedish Final, Melodifestivalen 1979, was held on February 17th at the Cirkus in Stockholm, hosted by Ulf Elfving. The winner was chosen by the votes of 11 regional juries. The popular pop singer Ted Gärdestad won with the song Satellit, which was composed by himself, while the lyrics were made by his brother, Kenneth Gärdestad.
01. Satellit - Ted Gärdestad, 105 points
02. Det ligger i luften - Tomas Ledin, 96 points
03. Om jag skriver en sång - Eva Dahlgren, 85 points
04. Det känns som jag vandrar fram - Ola+3, 85 points
05. Mer än bara över natten - Kjell Hansson
06. Tillsammans - Tomas Adolphson & Anders Falk, 58 points
07. Var det här bara början - Py Bäckman & Py Gang, 45 points
08. Nattens sång - Pontus Platin, 44 points
09. En egen fela - Timjan, 39 points
10. Johnny the Rocker - Magnus Uggla, 22 points
The contest was held in Jerusalem, and Sweden performed 15th. Ted finished only 17th out of 19, with 8 points.
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Ted Gärdestad (born Ted Arnbjörn Gärdestad, 18 February 1956 – 22 June 1997 in Sollentuna, Sweden), was a Swedish singer, songwriter and musician.
At he age of fifteen Ted contacted Stig Anderson, who recognized Ted's talent and offered him a contract and introduced him to Benny Andersson and Björn Ulvaeus. In fact, all four members of ABBA worked with Ted in different capacities throughout the 1970s. After Ted released a couple of very successful singles he became very popular in Sweden.
Ted participated several times at Melodifestivalen:
1973: Oh, vilken härlig dag, 4th
1975: Rockin' and reelin', 7th
1977: Det bästa som finns (sung by Lena Andersson), 8th
1979: Satellit, 1st
1980: Låt solen värma dig (a duet with Annica Boller), 5th
After an unsuccessful return to Melodifestivalen in 1980 and disappointing sales of his albums Ted dropped out of the music scene at the age of 25. Having left the music business Ted had a brief and unsuccessful stint at acting and shortly thereafter began exploring meditation and Eastern religions. In 1983 he became a Bhagwan disciple and changed called himself Swami Sangit Upasani.
In 1986 Olof Palme, the Swedish Prime Minister, was murdered. Ted was wrongly mentioned in the Swedish media as the 33-year-old, a suspect in the investigation of the assassination, an accusation that naturally hit him hard.
On June 23 1997 it was announced that Ted at the age of 41 suddenly had decided to end his life by jumping in front of a train. This came as a shock to the entire nation.
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