Sveriges Radio’s Musikhjälpen celebration, six days of live broadcasting and musical special events where listeners can donate money to a worthy cause, kicks off again for its ten edition tonight in Umeå. For Musikhjälpen, Sveriges Radio opens up a live studio in a Swedish city and broadcasts 24/7 for six days straight. After the success of last year’s edition in Örebro, which raised 49 003 745kr to help children in war zones go to school, this year the studio opens way up north on Rådhustorget in Umeå. Farah Abadi, Molly Sandén and Kalle Zackari Wahlström are this year’s presenting trio, and this year’s theme is ‘Children Are Not For Sale’, with the money raised going to help in the struggle against children trafficking.

Listeners can contribute money to Musikhjälpen 2017 by downloading the app and paying a donation to request a song to be played during the broadcast, or by starting their own fundraising efforts, or by bidding for celebrity treats in the special Musikhjälpen auctions.

Musikhjälpen has also signed up an enormous range of guests across this year’s six days of broadcasting. Linnea Henriksson will be popping up everywhere in her role as roving reporter, and there’ll be an almost-impossible amount of live performances in the Umeå studio, including Erik Lundin, Tove Styrke, Anna Ternheim, Cherrie and more (full list here). Musikhjälpen 2017 will be broadcast live on P3, online via the app and SVT Play and on tv on STV 2, SVT 4 and SVT 24. It all starts at 20:00 tonight, kicking off with a live performance by Cleo and Syster Sol.

Musikhjälpen, Dec 11-17. See sverigesradio.se/musikhjalpen for more details

Photo: Farah Abadi, Kalle Zackari Wahlström and Molly Sandén, by Stina Stjernkvist/SVT