Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden,The United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names states that the country's formal name is the Kingdom of SwedenUNGEGN World Geographical Names, Sweden./ref> is a Nordic countries, Nordic c ...

has participated in the

Eurovision Song Contest The Eurovision Song Contest (), sometimes abbreviated to ESC and often known simply as Eurovision, is an international songwriting competition organised annually by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU), featuring participants representing pr ...

61 times since making its debut in

1958 Events January * January 1 – The European Economic Community (EEC) comes into being. * January 3 – The West Indies Federation is formed. * January 4 ** Edmund Hillary's Commonwealth Trans-Antarctic Expedition completes the third ...

, missing only three contests since then (

1964 Events January * January 1 – The Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland is dissolved. * January 5 - In the first meeting between leaders of the Roman Catholic and Orthodox churches since the fifteenth century, Pope Paul VI and Patriarc ...

1970 Events January * January 1 – Unix time epoch reached at 00:00:00 UTC. * January 5 – The 7.1 Tonghai earthquake shakes Tonghai County, Yunnan province, China, with a maximum Mercalli intensity of X (''Extreme''). Between 10,000 and ...

and

1976 Events January * January 3 – The International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights enters into force. * January 5 – The Pol Pot regime proclaims a new constitution for Democratic Kampuchea. * January 11 – The 1976 ...

). Since 1959, the Swedish entry has been chosen through an annual televised competition, known since 1967 as

Melodifestivalen Melodifestivalen (; literally "the Melody Festival") is an annual song competition organised by Swedish public broadcasters Sveriges Television (SVT) and Sveriges Radio (SR). It determines the country's representative for the Eurovision Song C ...

. At the contest, Sweden was one of the first five countries to adopt

televoting Televoting, telephone voting or phone voting is a method of decision making and opinion polling conducted by telephone. Televoting can also extend to voting by SMS text message via a mobile cell phone. Broadcast contest televoting Televoting ...

. Sweden hosted the contest six times: three times in

Stockholm Stockholm () is the capital and largest city of Sweden as well as the largest urban area in Scandinavia. Approximately 980,000 people live in the municipality, with 1.6 million in the urban area, and 2.4 million in the metropo ...

(, , ), twice in

Malmö Malmö (, ; da, Malmø ) is the largest city in the Swedish county (län) of Scania (Skåne). It is the third-largest city in Sweden, after Stockholm and Gothenburg, and the sixth-largest city in the Nordic region, with a municipal popul ...

(, ) and once in

Gothenburg Gothenburg (; abbreviated Gbg; sv, Göteborg ) is the second-largest city in Sweden, fifth-largest in the Nordic countries, and capital of the Västra Götaland County. It is situated by the Kattegat, on the west coast of Sweden, and has ...

(). Sweden is one of the most successful competing participants at the Eurovision Song Contest, with a total of six victories, second only to 's seven wins. Sweden also has the most top five results of the 21st century, with 12; in total, Sweden has achieved 26 top five results in the contest. After finishing second with

Lill Lindfors Maj Lillemor "Lill" Lindfors (born 12 May 1940) is a Swedish singer who has performed in Scandinavia since the 1960s. Career She was born in Helsinki, Finland, and made her debut as a revue actress in Uddevalla in 1960. The following year s ...

and

Svante Thuresson Svante Thuresson (7 February 1937 – 10 May 2021) was a Swedish jazz musician. He started his career as a drummer before joining the band Gals and Pals in 1963. Svante won the national selection and represented Sweden in the Eurovision song c ...

in , Sweden went on to achieve its six victories with

ABBA ABBA ( , , formerly named Björn & Benny, Agnetha & Anni-Frid or Björn & Benny, Agnetha & Frida) are a Swedish supergroup formed in Stockholm in 1972 by Agnetha Fältskog, Björn Ulvaeus, Benny Andersson, and Anni-Frid Lyngstad. The grou ...

(),

Herreys Herreys (), sometimes Herrey's or Herrey, is a Swedish pop group, consisting of the three brothers Per Herrey (born 9 August 1958), Richard Herrey (born 19 August 1964), and Louis Herrey (born 3 November 1966). They won the Eurovision Song Con ...

(),

Carola Carola is a female given name, the Latinized form of the Germanic given names Caroline or Carol. People named Carola include: Acting * Carola Braunbock (1924–1978), Czech-born East German actress *Carola Höhn (1910–2005), German actres ...

(),

Charlotte Nilsson Anna Jenny Charlotte Perrelli (; ; born 7 October 1974) is a Swedish singer and television host. She was the winner of the 1999 Melodifestivalen and subsequently that year's Eurovision Song Contest with the song "Take Me to Your Heaven". Sinc ...

(),

Loreen Loreen may refer to: *Loreen (singer), Swedish singer *Loreen Rice Lucas (1914–2011), a Canadian author * "Loreen" (song), 1986 song by German singer Sandra See also *Loren (disambiguation) *Lorene Lorene is a given name. Notable people with the n ...

() and

Måns Zelmerlöw Måns Petter Albert Sahlén Zelmerlöw (; born 13 June 1986) is a Swedish pop singer, songwriter and television presenter. He took part in ''Idol 2005'', eventually finishing fifth, won the first season of '' Let's Dance,'' and scored a hit wit ...

().

Contest history

Sweden's first entrant in the contest was

Alice Babs Hildur Alice Nilsson (26 January 1924 – 11 February 2014), known by her stage name Alice Babs, was a Swedish singer and actress. She worked in a wide number of genres – Swedish folklore, Elizabethan songs and opera. While she was best known i ...

in , who was placed fourth. This remained the country's best result until , when

and

were second. Sweden's first Eurovision victory was in with the song " Waterloo", performed by

. 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

finished third in , the

gave Sweden its second victory in with "

Diggi-Loo Diggi-Ley "Diggi-Loo Diggi-Ley" was the winning song in the Eurovision Song Contest 1984 performed in Swedish by the trio of brothers Herrey's, representing . Lyrics were written by Britt Lindeborg, and the tune by Torgny Söderberg. It was produced by ...

Kikki Danielsson Ann-Kristin "Kikki" Danielsson (born 10 May 1952) is a Swedish country, dansband and pop singer. Sometimes, she also plays the accordion and she has also written some lyrics. She has gained notice for yodeling in some songs. Danielsson gained ...

then finished third in . Carola returned to the contest in , eventually giving Sweden its third win with "

Fångad av en stormvind "Fångad av en stormvind" (; "Captured by a Storm Wind") is a song by Swedish singer-songwriter Carola Häggkvist. It was written and produced by Stephan Berg. The song is the best known as 's winning entry at the Eurovision Song Contest 1991 h ...

", defeating in a tie-break.

gave the country a second win of the decade in , with "

Take Me to Your Heaven Tusen och en natt is a 1999 album from Swedish dansband (; "dance band"), or in Norwegian and Danish, is a Swedish term for a band that plays ("dance band music"). ' is often danced to in pairs. Jitterbug and foxtrot music are often inc ...

". The 1990s also saw two third-place results, for Jan Johansen in and One More Time in . In the 2000s, the best Swedish result was fifth place, which they achieved four times, with

Friends ''Friends'' is an American television sitcom created by David Crane and Marta Kauffman, which aired on NBC from September 22, 1994, to May 6, 2004, lasting ten seasons. With an ensemble cast starring Jennifer Aniston, Courteney Cox, Li ...

in , Fame in ,

Lena Philipsson Maria Magdalena Philipsson (born 19 January 1966), known by her stage name Lena Philipsson, is a Swedish singer, songwriter and media personality. She represented Sweden in the 2004 Eurovision Song Contest, finishing fifth. Career Philipsson ...

in and Carola, who in , became the only Swedish performer to achieve three top five results. Together with Croatia and Malta, Sweden was one of only three countries to have never been relegated under the pre-2004 rules of the contest. In ,

Anna Bergendahl Anna Henrietta Bergendahl (born 11 December 1991) is a Swedish singer and songwriter. She took part in Swedish TV4 music program ''Super Troupers'' in 2004, and in '' Idol 2008'' where she reached the Final 5 before being eliminated. In 2009, ...

became the first Swedish entrant to fail to qualify for the final, finishing 11th in the semi-final, only five points from qualification (in ,

Charlotte Perrelli Anna Jenny Charlotte Perrelli (; ; born 7 October 1974) is a Swedish singer and television host. She was the winner of the 1999 Melodifestivalen and subsequently that year's Eurovision Song Contest with the song " Take Me to Your Heaven". Sin ...

finished 12th in the semi-final but qualified through the back-up jury selection). Since then, the country has been very successful, finishing in the top seven in all subsequent editions except two (

Robin Stjernberg Robin James Olof Stjernberg (; born 22 February 1991, Hässleholm, Sweden) is a Swedish pop singer, songwriter and producer. He represented Sweden in the Eurovision Song Contest 2013 on home soil on 18 May 2013 with the song "You". Stjernberg ...

in and

Tusse Toussaint Michael Chiza, better known as Tusse, is a Congolese-Swedish singer who represented Sweden in the Eurovision Song Contest 2021. Life and career Chiza was born in the Democratic Republic of the Congo When he was five years old he had t ...

in , both of whom came 14th). This includes a fifth victory courtesy of

's "

Euphoria Euphoria ( ) is the experience (or affect) of pleasure or excitement and intense feelings of well-being and happiness. Certain natural rewards and social activities, such as aerobic exercise, laughter, listening to or making music and d ...

" in , making Sweden one of only two countries (along with the ) to have Eurovision victories in four different decades, and a sixth victory courtesy of

's " Heroes" in . Sweden is one of only two countries – along with in and (as well as ) – 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. Additional top-five placements during this period are third places in and , a fourth place in , and fifth places in , and .

Melodifestivalen

Melodifestivalen is an annual music competition organised by Swedish public broadcasters

Sveriges Television Sveriges Television AB ("Sweden's Television Stock Company"), shortened to SVT (), is the Sweden, Swedish national public broadcasting, public television broadcaster, funded by a public service tax on personal income set by the Riksdag (national ...

(SVT) and

Sveriges Radio Sveriges Radio AB (, "Sweden's Radio") is Sweden's national publicly funded radio broadcaster. Sveriges Radio is a public limited company, owned by an independent foundation, previously funded through a licensing fee, the level of which is d ...

(SR). It has chosen 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 Sweden's first entry in 1958 was not selected through Melodifestivalen, having been selected internally by the Swedish broadcaster at the time, Sveriges Radio.

Participation overview

''Congratulations: 50 Years of the Eurovision Song Contest''

Hostings

Awards

Marcel Bezençon Awards

Winners by OGAE members

Related involvement

Conductors

Heads of delegation

Commentators and spokespersons

Over the years SVT commentary has been provided by several experienced radio and television presenters, including Jacob Dahlin,

Ulf Elfving Ulf Elfving (born 27 November 1942 in Stockholm) is a Swedish journalist and broadcaster."Elfving, Ulf", ''Nationalencyklopedin'' biographical entry, retrieved 24 March 2014 Elfving started his career in the 1960s. He was programme manager of th ...

Harald Treutiger Nils Harald Ossian Treutiger (born 5 June 1956) is a Swedish journalist and television host. Born in Göteborg, he is best known for co-hosting the 1992 Eurovision Song Contest held in Malmö

, Pekka Heino, Kristian Luuk and

Fredrik Belfrage Fredrik Belfrage (born Knut Fredrik Åkesson Belfrage; 29 July 1949, in Växjö) is a Swedish TV and radio presenter and sports reporter. He is the son of the dentist Åke Belfrage (1915–1985) and Vera Maria, born Vange (1914–1984). He is de ...

. From (except 2013 and 2016),

Edward af Sillén Edward af Sillén (born 1982 in Blumenau, Santa Catarina, Brazil) is a Swedish screenwriter and director for stage, film and TV. He has translated and directed many highly successful theatre shows including ''Twelfth Night'' by William Shakespea ...

provided the SVT commentary alongside various dual commentators.

Other shows

Stage directors

Costume designers

Photogallery

File:Eurovision Song Contest 1958 - Alice Babs.png,

Hilversum Hilversum () is a city and municipality in the province of North Holland, Netherlands. Located in the heart of the Gooi, it is the largest urban centre in that area. It is surrounded by heathland, woods, meadows, lakes, and smaller towns. Hilver ...

() File:Eurovision Song Contest 1965 - Ingvar Wixell.jpg,

Ingvar Wixell Karl Gustaf Ingvar Wixell (7 May 19318 October 2011) was a Swedish baritone who had an active international career in operas and concerts from 1955 to 2003. He mostly sang roles from the Italian repertory, and, according to ''The New York Times'' ...

Naples Naples (; it, Napoli ; nap, Napule ), from grc, Νεάπολις, Neápolis, lit=new city. is the regional capital of Campania and the third-largest city of Italy, after Rome and Milan, with a population of 909,048 within the city's adm ...

() File:Deelnemers Eurovisie Song Festival in Den Haag nr. 14, 15 Tomas Ledin (Zweden, Bestanddeelnr 930-7868.jpg,

Tomas Ledin Tomas Folke Jonas Ledin (; born 25 February 1952) is a Swedish singer, songwriter, musician, and record producer. He grew up in the town of Sandviken, Sweden and has sold 3 million records. Career Tomas Ledin started his career in 1972 when ...

The Hague The Hague ( ; nl, Den Haag or ) is a city and municipality of the Netherlands, situated on the west coast facing the North Sea. The Hague is the country's administrative centre and its seat of government, and while the official capital o ...

Carola Häggkvist Carola Maria Häggkvist (; born 8 September 1966), commonly known simply as Carola, is a Swedish singer and songwriter. She has been among Sweden's most popular performers since the early 1980s and has released albums ranging from pop and disco ...

Athens Athens ( ; el, Αθήνα, Athína ; grc, Ἀθῆναι, Athênai (pl.) ) is both the capital and largest city of Greece. With a population close to four million, it is also the seventh largest city in the European Union. Athens dominates a ...

() File:ESC 2007 Sweden - The Ark - The Worrying Kind.jpg, The Ark in

Helsinki Helsinki ( or ; ; sv, Helsingfors, ) is the Capital city, capital, primate city, primate, and List of cities and towns in Finland, most populous city of Finland. Located on the shore of the Gulf of Finland, it is the seat of the region of U ...

() File:Flickr - proteusbcn - Final Eurovision 2008 (75).jpg,

Belgrade Belgrade ( , ;, ; names in other languages) is the capital and largest city in Serbia. It is located at the confluence of the Sava and Danube rivers and the crossroads of the Pannonian Plain and the Balkan Peninsula. Nearly 1,166,763 mi ...

() File:Malena Ernman at ESC2009.jpg,

Malena Ernman Sara Magdalena Ernman (born 4 November 1970) is a Swedish opera singer. Besides operas and operettas, she has also performed chansons, cabaret, jazz, and appeared in musicals. She is a member of The Royal Swedish Academy of Music. Ernman repres ...

Moscow Moscow ( , US chiefly ; rus, links=no, Москва, r=Moskva, p=mɐskˈva, a=Москва.ogg) is the capital and largest city of Russia. The city stands on the Moskva River in Central Russia, with a population estimated at 13.0 million ...

() File:ESC2010 2nd rehearsal - Sweden 01.jpg,

Oslo Oslo ( , , or ; sma, Oslove) is the capital and most populous city of Norway. It constitutes both a county and a municipality. The municipality of Oslo had a population of in 2022, while the city's greater urban area had a population of ...

() File:Sweden at ESC 2011.jpg,

Eric Saade Eric Khaled Saade (; ar, إريك سعادة, ʾĪrik Saʿāda, ; born 29 October 1990), is a Swedish singer and songwriter. He spent two years with the boy band What's Up!, leaving the band in February 2009 to pursue a solo career. After winn ...

Düsseldorf Düsseldorf ( , , ; often in English sources; Low Franconian and Ripuarian: ''Düsseldörp'' ; archaic nl, Dusseldorp ) is the capital city of North Rhine-Westphalia, the most populous state of Germany. It is the second-largest city in ...

() File:Лорин.JPG,

Baku Baku (, ; az, Bakı ) is the capital and largest city of Azerbaijan, as well as the largest city on the Caspian Sea and of the Caucasus region. Baku is located below sea level, which makes it the lowest lying national capital in the world an ...

() File:ESC2013 - Sweden 07.jpg,

() File:ESC2014 - Sweden 02.jpg,

Sanna Nielsen Sanna Viktoria Nielsen (born 27 November 1984) is a Swedish singer and television presenter. On her seventh attempt, she won Melodifestivalen in 2014 with the song "Undo" and so represented Sweden in the Eurovision Song Contest 2014 in Copenh ...

Copenhagen Copenhagen ( or .; da, København ) is the capital and most populous city of Denmark, with a proper population of around 815.000 in the last quarter of 2022; and some 1.370,000 in the urban area; and the wider Copenhagen metropolitan a ...

() File:20150516 ESC 2015 Måns Zelmerlöw 9958.jpg,

Vienna en, Viennese , iso_code = AT-9 , registration_plate = W , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = , timezone = CET , utc_offset = +1 , timezone_DST ...

() File:ESC2016 - Sweden 02 (crop).jpg,

Frans Frans is an Afrikaans, Danish, Dutch, Finnish, Icelandic, Norwegian, and Swedish given name, sometimes as a short form of ''François''. One cognate of Frans in English is ''Francis''. Given name * Frans van Aarssens (1572–1641), Dutch diploma ...

() File:Robin Bengtsson (Eurovision 2017).jpg,

Robin Bengtsson Robin Bengtsson (born 27 April 1990) is a Swedish singer who took part in Swedish Idol 2008. He represented Sweden in the Eurovision Song Contest 2017 in Kyiv, Ukraine with the song " I Can't Go On" finishing in 5th place. Career Bengtsson was ...

Kyiv Kyiv, also spelled Kiev, is the capital and most populous city of Ukraine. It is in north-central Ukraine along the Dnieper River. As of 1 January 2021, its population was 2,962,180, making Kyiv the seventh-most populous city in Europe. Ky ...

() File:ESC2018 - Sweden 02.jpg,

Benjamin Ingrosso Benjamin Daniele Wahlgren Ingrosso (born 14 September 1997) is a Swedish singer, songwriter and record producer. As a child, he appeared in the leading role in several musicals, and in 2006 he won Lilla Melodifestivalen with the song "Hej Sofia ...

Lisbon Lisbon (; pt, Lisboa ) is the capital and largest city of Portugal, with an estimated population of 544,851 within its administrative limits in an area of 100.05 km2. Lisbon's urban area extends beyond the city's administrative limits w ...

() File:ESC2019 - Sweden 03.jpg,

John Lundvik John Lundvik (; born 27 January 1983) is a Swedish singer, songwriter, and former sprinter. He was part of the athletic team for IFK Växjö. Lundvik also has a singing and songwriter career having composed songs for films and the Wedding of V ...

Tel Aviv Tel Aviv-Yafo ( he, תֵּל־אָבִיב-יָפוֹ, translit=Tēl-ʾĀvīv-Yāfō ; ar, تَلّ أَبِيب – يَافَا, translit=Tall ʾAbīb-Yāfā, links=no), often referred to as just Tel Aviv, is the most populous city in the G ...

() File:ESC 2021 Rotterdam 1st Semi Jury Show Sweden.jpg,

Rotterdam Rotterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Rotte (river), Rotte'') is the second largest List of cities in the Netherlands by province, city and List of municipalities of the Netherlands, municipality in the Netherlands. It is in the Prov ...

() File:Eurovision 2022 - Semi-final 2 - Sweden - Cornelia Jakobs.jpg,

Cornelia Jakobs Anna Cornelia Jakobsdotter Samuelsson (born 9 March 1992), known professionally as Cornelia Jakobs, is a Swedish singer and songwriter. She is best known for representing Sweden in the Eurovision Song Contest 2022 with the song " Hold Me Closer ...

Turin Turin ( , Piedmontese language, Piedmontese: ; it, Torino ) is a city and an important business and cultural centre in Northern Italy. It is the capital city of Piedmont and of the Metropolitan City of Turin, and was the first Italian capital ...

()

Notes

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 Radio

''eurovisioncovers.co.uk'' {{Eurovision Song Contest's Greatest Hits Countries in the Eurovision Song Contest Melodifestivalen