Sweden in the Eurovision Song Contest

Sweden
Member station	Sveriges Television (SVT) Former members 1958: Sveriges Radiotjänst 1959–79: Sveriges Radio
National selection events	Internal selection 1958 National Final Melodifestivalen 1959–1963 1965–1969 1971–1975 1977–2018
Participation summary
Appearances	58 (57 finals)
First appearance	1958
Best result	1st: 1974, 1984, 1991, 1999, 2012, 2015
Worst result	Last: 1963, 1977 Nul points: 1963 11th SF: 2010
External links
SVT official homepage
Sweden's page at Eurovision.tv
For the most recent participation see Sweden in the Eurovision Song Contest 2018

Sweden has participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 58 times since making its debut in 1958, missing only three contests since then (1964, 1970 and 1976). Since 1959, the Swedish entry has been chosen through an annual televised competition, known since 1967 as Melodifestivalen. At the 1997 contest, Sweden was one of the first five countries to adopt televoting. Sweden is the only country to have hosted the event in five different decades, three times in Stockholm (1975, 2000, 2016), twice in Malmö (1992, 2013) and once in Gothenburg (1985).

Sweden is one of the most successful competing nations at the Eurovision Song Contest, with a total of six victories, second only to Ireland's seven wins, and has the most top five results of the 21st century, with ten. In total, Sweden has achieved 24 top five results in the contest. After finishing second with Lill Lindfors and Svante Thuresson in 1966, Sweden went on to achieve its six victories with ABBA (1974), Herreys (1984), Carola (1991), Charlotte Nilsson (1999), Loreen (2012) and Måns Zelmerlöw (2015).

Contest history

Richard and Per Herrey of Herreys (1984), Carola Häggkvist (1991), Måns Zelmerlöw (2015), Loreen (2012) and Björn Ulvaeus of ABBA (1974)

Sweden's first entrant in the contest was Alice Babs in 1958, who was placed fourth. This remained the country's best result until 1966, when Lill Lindfors and Svante Thuresson were second.

Sweden's first Eurovision victory was in 1974 with the song "Waterloo", performed by ABBA. Thanks to their victory in Brighton, ABBA went on to gain worldwide success and become one of the best-selling pop groups of all time. In the 1980s, Sweden achieved three successive top three results. After Carola finished third in 1983, the Herreys gave Sweden its second victory in 1984 with "Diggi-Loo Diggi-Ley". Kikki Danielsson then finished third in 1985. Carola returned to the contest in 1991, to give the Swedes their third win with "Fångad av en stormvind", defeating France in a tie-break. Charlotte Nilsson gave the country a second win of the decade in 1999, with "Take Me to Your Heaven". The 1990s also saw two third-place results, for Jan Johansen in 1995 and One More Time in 1996. In the 2000s, the best Swedish result was fifth place, which they achieved four times, with Friends in 2001, Fame in 2003, Lena Philipsson in 2004 and Carola, who in 2006, became the only Swedish performer to achieve three top five results. Together with Croatia and Malta, Sweden was one of only three countries never to have been relegated under the pre 2004 rules of the contest.

In 2010, Anna Bergendahl became the first Swedish entrant to fail to make it to the final, finishing 11th in the semifinal, only five points from qualification (in 2008, Charlotte Perrelli finished 12th in the semifinal but qualified through the back-up jury selection). Since then, the country has been very successful, finishing in the top five in six of the last seven contests, including victories for Loreen, who gave Sweden its fifth victory in 2012 with the song "Euphoria", making Sweden one of only two countries (along with the United Kingdom) to have Eurovision victories in four different decades, and winning for the sixth time with Måns Zelmerlöw's "Heroes" in 2015. Sweden is one of only two countries - along with Ukraine in 2004 and 2016 with Ruslana and Jamala respectively - to win twice since the introduction of the semi-finals in 2004, performing the feat in both 2012 and 2015 with 372 and 365 points respectively, making Sweden additionally the first country to have scored 300 points or more twice. They also finished third in 2011 with Eric Saade and "Popular", third in 2014 with Sanna Nielsen and "Undo", fifth with Frans and the song "If I Were Sorry" in 2016, and fifth with Robin Bengtsson and "I Can't Go On" in 2017.

Melodifestivalen

Melodifestivalen is an annual music competition organised by Swedish public broadcasters Sveriges Television (SVT) and Sveriges Radio (SR). It has chosen the country's representative for the Eurovision Song Contest since 1959. It is Sweden's most popular television shows, and it has been estimated that more than 4 million Swedes watch the show annually.

Almost every Swedish entry for Eurovision has been selected through Melodifestivalen. Only Sweden's first entry in 1958, was not selected through Melodifestivalen, having been selected internally by the Swedish broadcaster at the time, Swedish Radio Service.

Contestants

Table key

NOTES:

a. ^ In 2008, Sweden qualified through the back-up jury selection.

b. If a country had won the previous year, they did not have to compete in the semi-finals the following year. In addition from 2004-2007, the top ten countries who were not members of the big four did not have to compete in the semi-finals the following year. If, for example, Germany and France placed inside the top ten, the countries who placed 11th and 12th were advanced to the following year's grand final along with the rest of the top ten countries.

Congratulations: 50 Years of the Eurovision Song Contest

In 2005 to celebrate 50 years of the Eurovision Song Contest, Denmark hosted a special one-off contest on behalf of the EBU to find Europe's favourite Eurovision song of the first 50 years. Tipped as the favourite from the start, ABBA won the contest by a landslide with "Waterloo" coming first in the semi-final with a record 331 points and then going on to win the contest with 329 points in the final. Alongside other Eurovision stars, Carola Häggkvist and Elisabeth Andreassen helped introduce and present small parts of the show.

Table key

Voting history

As of 2018, Sweden's voting history is as follows:

Most points given in the grand finals only Rank Country Points 1  Ireland 227 2  Norway 210 3  Denmark 207 4  United Kingdom 168 5  Germany 150 Most points received in the grand finals only Rank Country Points 1  Norway 343 2  Denmark 327 3  Finland 264 4  United Kingdom 209 5  Iceland 200

Most points given in the semis and finals Rank Country Points 1  Denmark 288 2  Norway 268 3  Ireland 244 4  Finland 194 5  Iceland 182 Most points received in the semis and finals Rank Country Points 1  Norway 411 2  Denmark 405 3  Finland 303 4  Iceland 268 5  United Kingdom 249

Hostings

Marcel Bezençon Awards

Artistic award

Voted by previous winners

Voted by commentators

Composer award

Winners by OGAE members

Commentators and spokespersons

Over the years SVT commentary has been provided by several experienced radio and television presenters, including Jacob Dahlin, Ulf Elfving, Harald Treutiger, Pekka Heino, Kristian Luuk and Fredrik Belfrage. From 2009 to 2018 (except 2013 and 2016), Edward af Sillén provided the SVT commentary alongside various dual commentators.

Conductors

All conductors are Swedish except those marked with a flag.^[4]

Photogallery

• 
  Alice Babs at Hilversum (1958)
• 
  Ingvar Wixell at Naples (1965)
• 
  Carola Häggkvist at Athens (2006)
• 
  The Ark at Helsinki (2007)
• 
  Charlotte Perrelli at Belgrade (2008)
• 
  Malena Ernman at Moscow (2009)
• 
  Anna Bergendahl at Oslo (2010)
• 
  Eric Saade at Düsseldorf (2011)
• 
  Loreen at Baku (2012)
• 
  Robin Stjernberg at Malmö (2013)
• 
  Sanna Nielsen at Copenhagen (2014)
• 
  Måns Zelmerlöw at Vienna (2015)
• 
  Frans at Stockholm (2016)
• 
  Robin Bengtsson at Kiev (2017)
• 
  Benjamin Ingrosso at Lisbon (2018)

Songwriting for other countries

No restriction on the nationality of the songwriter(s) and the artist exists in the Eurovision Song Contest rules, which has resulted in countries being represented by songwriters and artist who are not nationals of that country. In recent years Swedish songwriters have been involved in the writing entirely or partly of entries from several countries apart from Sweden.

In 2010 contest the songs from Belarus, Denmark, Georgia, Norway, Ireland and Azerbaijan were written entirely or partly by Swedes; in 2011 the songs from Russia and Azerbaijan; in 2012 the songs from Italy, United Kingdom, Ireland, Malta, Greece, Cyprus, Norway, Azerbaijan and Spain; and in the 2013 contest the songs from Georgia, Finland, Norway, Russia, Netherlands and Azerbaijan.

In 2014, the songs from Azerbaijan, Ireland, Denmark, Russia, United Kingdom and Ukraine; in the 2015 contest the songs from Azerbaijan, Georgia, Moldova, Macedonia, Netherlands, Spain and Russia.

In 2016, the songs from Azerbaijan, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Cyprus, Georgia, Lithuania, Norway, Malta, Moldova and Russia.

In 2017, the songs from Azerbaijan, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Macedonia, Greece, Ireland, Serbia and Switzerland.

See also

• Melodifestivalen
• Sweden in the Junior Eurovision Song Contest – Junior version of the Eurovision Song Contest.
• Sweden in the Eurovision Dance Contest – Dance version of the Eurovision Song Contest.
• Sweden in the Eurovision Young Dancers – A competition organised by the EBU for younger dancers aged between 16 and 21.
• Sweden in the Eurovision Young Musicians – A competition organised by the EBU for musicians aged 18 years and younger.
• Sweden in the Turkvision Song Contest – A contest for countries and regions which are of Turkic-speaking or Turkic ethnicity.

References

External links

• SVT's site for Melodifestivalen
• Swedish Radio's site for Melodifestivalen
• Gylleneskor.se
• ESC Sweden
• OGAE Sweden, the Swedish branch of the ESC fan club
• Schlager Party, a London series of schlager events
• Schlager Radio
• Points to and from Sweden eurovisioncovers.co.uk