Sweden in the Eurovision Song Contest
| Sweden | |
|---|---|
|
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| Member station | Sveriges Radiotjänst (1958) Sveriges Radio (SR) (1959-1979) Sveriges Television (SVT) (1980-) |
| National selection events | Melodifestivalen |
| Appearances | |
| Appearances | 52 (51 finals) |
| First appearance | 1958 |
| Best result | 1st: 1974, 1984, 1991, 1999, 2012 |
| Worst result | Last: 1963, 1977 |
| External links | |
| SVT Official Homepage | |
| Sweden's page at Eurovision.tv | |
Sweden has participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 52 times since their debut in 1958, being absent a total of five times, in 1956, 1957, 1964, 1970 and in 1976. Since 1959, the Swedish entry has been chosen through an annual televised competition, known since 1967 as Melodifestivalen.
Sweden is one of Eurovision's most successful countries, having won the contest five times as well as having reached the top 5 a total of 19 times. They have also made it to the top ten 35 times. 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, still being one of the best-selling pop groups of all time. Since then Sweden has won in 1984, 1991, 1999 and most recently in 2012 with the song "Euphoria", performed by Loreen. Sweden and United Kingdom are the only countries with Eurovision victories in four different decades, and the only country to host it in five decades (1975, 1985, 1992, 2000, 2013).
From 2005 to 2010, the Swedish results were less successful. Apart from Carola's "Invincible", which came 5th in 2006, their best result in that period was the 18th place. Prior to the 2010 contest Sweden was among the few countries not to have missed a Eurovision final since 1976, but this record was broken in 2010 when Anna Bergendahl failed to make it to the final in Oslo. Later it was revealed that Bergendahl had placed 11th in the semifinal, only 5 points from qualifying. The 2011 contest, however, marked a comeback for Sweden as a Eurovision country when Eric Saade came 3rd with the song "Popular" after a voting system change in Melodifestivalen. The positive tendency continued with the Swedish victory in 2012.
The Eurovision Song Contest has been hosted in Sweden five times, twice in Stockholm (1975 and 2000), twice in Malmö (1992 and 2013) and once in Gothenburg (1985).
Sweden was one of the first five countries to adopt televoting in 1997.
Contents |
Melodifestivalen [edit]
Melodifestivalen is an annual music competition organised by Swedish public broadcasters Sveriges Television (SVT) and Sveriges Radio (SR). It determines the country's representative for the Eurovision Song Contest since 1959. It is one of 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 one entry, 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.
In recent years Swedish songwriters have been involved in the writing of entries from several countries. For instance, in 2010 the songs from Denmark, 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 2013 the songs from Georgia, Finland, Norway, Russia and Netherlands.
Contestants [edit]
* In 2008, Sweden qualified through the back-up jury selection
- XX on Semi Finals denotes auto-qualification. This could be due to two reasons. If a country won the previous year, they did not have to compete in Semi Finals, or back in the early 2005-2007 era, countries who done well did not have to compete in Semi Finals the following year. The top ten non-Big four along with the Big four countries automatically qualified, for example, if Germany and France placed inside the top 10, the 11th and 12th spots were advanced to next year's Grand Final along with everyone within the top 10.
- XX on Finals denotes an unsuccessful attempt to qualify to the final.
Voting history (1975-2012) [edit]
Sweden has given the most points to:
| Rank | Country | Points |
|---|---|---|
| 1 |  Ireland |
200 |
| 2 |  Norway |
157 |
| 3 |  Denmark |
154 |
| 4 |  United Kingdom |
132 |
| 5 |  Germany |
118 |
Sweden has received the most points from:
| Rank | Country | Points |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Norway |
243 |
| 2 | Denmark |
232 |
| 3 | United Kingdom |
158 |
| 4 |  Finland |
155 |
| 5 |  Iceland |
136 |
NOTE: The totals in the above tables include only points awarded in Eurovision finals, and not the semi-finals since 2004.
Since introducing the semi-finals in 2004 until 2012 [edit]
Sweden has given the most points to...
| Rank | Country | Points |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Finland |
66 |
| 2 | Denmark |
65 |
| 3 |  Bosnia and Herzegovina |
64 |
| 4 | Norway |
57 |
| 5 | Iceland |
48 |
Sweden has received the most points from...
| Rank | Country | Points |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Denmark |
95 |
| 2 | Norway |
80 |
| 3 | Finland |
69 |
| 4 | Iceland |
65 |
| 5 | United Kingdom |
52 |
NOTE: The tables with points from 2004 include points awarded in both finals and semi-finals where the highest point from the final/semi-final is picked.
Hostings [edit]
| Year | Location | Venue | Presenters |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1975 |  Stockholm |
Stockholm International Fairs | Karin Falck |
| 1985 | Gothenburg |
Scandinavium | Lill Lindfors |
| 1992 | Malmö |
Malmö Ice | Lydia Cappolicchio and Harald Treutiger |
| 2000 | Stockholm |
Globe Arena | Kattis Ahlström and Anders Lundin |
| 2013 | Malmö |
Malmö Arena | Petra Mede |
Marcel Bezençon Awards [edit]
Artistic Award
Voted by previous winners
| Year | Performer | Song | Final Result | Points | Host city |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2002 | Afro-dite | "Never Let It Go" | 8th | 72 | Tallinn |
| 2006 | Carola | "Invincible" | 5th | 170 | Athens |
Voted by commentators
| Year | Performer | Song | Final Result | Points | Host city |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2012 | Loreen | "Euphoria" | 1st | 372 | Baku |
Composer Award
| Year | Song | Composer(s) Lyrics (l) / Music (m) |
Performer | Final Result |
Points | Host city |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2012 | "Euphoria" | Thomas G:son (m & l) and Peter Boström (m & l) | Loreen | 1st | 372 | Baku |
| 2013 | "You" | Robin Stjernberg, Linnea Deb, Joy Deb and Joakim Harestad Haukaas |
Robin Stjernberg | 14th | 62 | Malmö |
Winners by OGAE members [edit]
| Year | Song | Performer | Final Result | Points | Host city |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2008 | "Hero" | Charlotte Perrelli | 18th | 47 | Belgrade |
| 2012 | "Euphoria" | Loreen | 1st | 372 | Baku |
Commentators and spokespersons [edit]
 |
This section does not cite any references or sources. (March 2012) |
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. However since the 2009 Contest, Edward af Sillén has provided the SVT commentary alongside Shirley Clamp, Christine Meltzer Lind, Hélène Benno and Gina Dirawi.
| Year(s) | Television commentator | Dual Television commentator | Radio commentator | Spokesperson |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1957 | Nils Linnman | Dual television commentator introduced in 1992 | Radio broadcast began in 1958 | Sweden began participating in 1958 |
| 1958 | Jan Gabrielsson | Same as television broadcast | Roland Eiworth | |
| 1960 | Tage Danielsson | |||
| 1961 | Roland Eiworth | |||
| 1962 | Tage Danielsson | |||
| 1963 | Jörgen Cederberg | Edvard Matz | ||
| 1964 | Sven Lindahl | Sweden did not participate in 1964 | ||
| 1965 | Berndt Friberg | Edvard Matz | ||
| 1966 | Sven Lindahl | |||
| 1967 | Christina Hansegård | |||
| 1968 | ||||
| 1969 | ||||
| 1970 | No television broadcast | No radio broadcast | Sweden did not participate | |
| 1971 | Åke Strömmer | Ursula Richter | No spokesperson | |
| 1972 | Bo Billtén | Björn Bjelfvenstam | ||
| 1973 | Alicia Lundberg | Ursula Richter | ||
| 1974 | Johan Sandström | Sven Lindahl | ||
| 1975 | Åke Strömmer | |||
| 1976 | No television broadcast | Sweden did not participate | ||
| 1977 | Ulf Elfving | Åke Strömmer & Ursula Richter | Sven Lindahl | |
| 1978 | Kent Finell | |||
| 1979 | ||||
| 1980 | Arne Weise | |||
| 1981 | No radio broadcast | Bengteric Nordell | ||
| 1982 | Kent Finell | Arne Weise | ||
| 1983 | Agneta Bolme-Börjefors | |||
| 1984 | Fredrik Belfrage | No radio broadcast | ||
| 1985 | Jan Ellerås & Rune Hallberg | |||
| 1986 | Ulf Elfving | Jacob Dahlin | ||
| 1987 | Fredrik Belfrage | Jan Ellerås | ||
| 1988 | Bengt Grafström | Kalle Oldby | Maud Uppling | |
| 1989 | Jacob Dahlin | Kent Finell and Janeric Sundquist | Agneta Bolme-Börjefors | |
| 1990 | Jan Jingryd | unknown commentator from 1990 | Jan Ellerås | |
| 1991 | Harald Treutiger | Bo Hagström | ||
| 1992 | Björn Kjellman | Jesper Aspegren | Jan Jingryd | |
| 1993 | Jan Jingryd | Kåge Gimtell | Gösta Hanson | |
| 1994 | Pekka Heino | No dual commentator | Marianne Anderberg | |
| 1995 | Pernilla Månsson | Kåge Gimtell | Björn Hedman | |
| 1996 | Björn Kjellman | No Dual commentator | Ulla Rundqvist | |
| 1997 | Jan Jingryd | Gösta Hanson | ||
| 1998 | Pernilla Månsson | Christer Björkman | Björn Hedman | |
| 1999 | Pekka Heino | Anders Berglund | Pontus Gårdinger | |
| 2000 | Pernilla Månsson | Christer Lundh | Malin Ekander | |
| 2001 | Henrik Olsson | No Dual commentator | Josefine Sundström | |
| 2002 | Claes Åkesson | Christer Björkman | Kristin Kaspersen | |
| 2003 | Pekka Heino | No Dual commentator | Kattis Ahlström | |
| 2004 | Jovan Radomir | |||
| 2005 | Annika Jankell | |||
| 2006 | Jovan Radomir | |||
| 2007 | Kristian Luuk | Josef Sterzenbach | André Pops | |
| 2008 | Björn Gustafsson | |||
| 2009 | Edward af Sillén | Shirley Clamp | Sarah Dawn Finer | |
| 2010 | Christine Meltzer Lind | Eric Saade | ||
| 2011 | Hélène Benno | Danny Saucedo | ||
| 2012 | Gina Dirawi | Sarah Dawn Finer | ||
| 2013 | Josefine Sundström | No Dual commentator | Yohio |
Congratulations: 50 Years of the Eurovision Song Contest [edit]
| Artist | Title | Place | Points | Year | Place | Points |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ABBA | "Waterloo" | 1 | 329 | 1974 | 1 | 24 |
See also [edit]
- Melodifestivalen
- Sweden in the Junior Eurovision Song Contest
- Sweden in the Eurovision Dance Contest
References [edit]
External links [edit]
- 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
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