Sanna Viktoria Nielsen (born 27 November 1984) is a Swedish singer,

television presenter A television presenter (or television host, some become a "television personality") is a person who introduces or hosts television show, television programs, often serving as a mediator for the program and the audience. It is common for people ...

and

musical theatre Musical theatre is a form of theatre, theatrical performance that combines songs, spoken dialogue, acting and dance. The story and emotional content of a musical – humor, pathos, love, anger – are communicated through words, music, ...

performer. On her seventh attempt, she won Melodifestivalen in 2014 with the song "

Undo Undo is an interaction technique which is implemented in many computer programs. It erases the last change done to the document, reverting it to an older state. In some more advanced programs, such as graphic processing, undo will negate the las ...

" and so represented Sweden in the

Eurovision Song Contest 2014 The Eurovision Song Contest 2014 was the 59th edition of the Eurovision Song Contest. It took place in Copenhagen, Denmark, following the country's victory at the with the song "Only Teardrops" by Emmelie de Forest. Organised by the European B ...

Copenhagen Copenhagen ( ) is the capital and most populous city of Denmark, with a population of 1.4 million in the Urban area of Copenhagen, urban area. The city is situated on the islands of Zealand and Amager, separated from Malmö, Sweden, by the ...

Denmark Denmark is a Nordic countries, Nordic country in Northern Europe. It is the metropole and most populous constituent of the Kingdom of Denmark,, . also known as the Danish Realm, a constitutionally unitary state that includes the Autonomous a ...

, finishing in 3rd place overall. Sanna was one of the

Eurovision Song Contest 2015 The Eurovision Song Contest 2015 was the 60th edition of the Eurovision Song Contest. It took place in Vienna, Austria, following the country's victory at the with the song "Rise Like a Phoenix" by Conchita Wurst. Organised by the European Broa ...

commentators for Sweden and hosted Melodifestivalen 2015 along with comedian Robin Paulsson. She was announced as the new presenter for the sing-along show ''

Allsång på Skansen ''Allsång på Skansen'' (''Sing-along at Skansen'') is a Sweden, Swedish show held at Skansen, Stockholm, every summer on Tuesdays between 8pm and 9pm. The audience is encouraged to sing-along, sing along with musical guest stars to well-known ...

'' for the summer of 2016. She hosted ''Eurovision The Party'' at the

Tele2 Arena 3Arena, formerly the Stockholmsarenan (and Tele2 Arena), is a retractable roof multi-purpose arena in Stockholm Globe City, Johanneshov, just south of Stockholm City Centre, Sweden. It is used mostly for concerts and Association football, footbal ...

for the Eurovision Song Contest 2016.

Career

Nielsen was born and grew up in the town of Edenryd in

Bromölla Municipality Bromölla Municipality () is a municipality in Skåne County in South Sweden in southern Sweden. Its seat is located in the town Bromölla. Bromölla was in 1967 reunited with Ivetofta (from which it had been detached as a market town in 1942 ...

Skåne Scania ( ), also known by its native name of Skåne (), is the southernmost of the historical provinces of Sweden, provinces () of Sweden. Located in the south tip of the geographical region of Götaland, the province is roughly conterminous w ...

. Her paternal grandfather was a Dane from

Århus Aarhus (, , ; officially spelled Århus from 1948 until 1 January 2011) is the second-largest city in Denmark and the seat of Aarhus municipality, Aarhus Municipality. It is located on the eastern shore of Jutland in the Kattegat sea and app ...

. Nielsen's career started at several talent searches, the first being in 1992 in Olofström. In 1994 she participated in a talent search in Kallinge and won with the song " Can You Feel the Love Tonight". Nielsen performed with the danceband Mats Elmes in 1995 and 1996 at the age of eleven. At the same time she reached the number one spot on the

Svensktoppen ''Svensktoppen'' () is a weekly record chart airing on Sveriges Radio. Until January 2003, the songs had to be in the Swedish language. Svensktoppen has aired since 1962, except for the years 1982–1985. In the years leading up to the January 20 ...

chart with the song " Till en fågel". Nielsen became the youngest person to reach number one at the chart. In September 1996, Nielsen's debut album "Silvertoner" was released. A reviewer of the album for ''

Göteborgs-Posten (), abbreviated GP, is a major Swedish language, Swedish-language daily newspaper published in Gothenburg, Sweden. History and profile was first published in 1813, but ceased publication in 1822. It re-appeared in 1850. Publication seven day ...

'' compared Nielsen to Carola Häggkvist and Sissel Kyrkjebø. During the following years Nielsen released the album ''Min önskejul'' in 1997 and the single "Time to Say Goodbye" in 1999. During her high school years, she studied the Estetichal programme and music at Helenehoms Gymnastin in Malmö. In December 2001, Nielsen participated in a Christmas tour along with Christer Sjögren, Sten Nilsson and Charlotte Perrelli. In 2002 she toured with Roger Pontare and in December the same year she participated in a Christmas concert with Kalle Moraeus and Tito Beltran in both 2003 and 2004. In February 2006, her second solo music album ''Nära mej, nära dej'' was released with lyrics and music by Fredrik Kempe and Marcos Ubeda. In July–August 2007 she was on a new music tour called ''Sommar, Sommar, Sommar'' along with

Shirley Clamp Shirley Natasja Clamp (born 17 February 1973) is a British-Swedish pop singer. She has achieved four Top 10 singles in Sweden including a Number 1 with " Med hjärtat fyllt av ljus" in 2009, and three Top 10 albums. She has competed seven times ...

and

Sonja Aldén Sonja Annika Maria Aldén (born 20 December 1977) is a Swedish pop singer best known for her 2006, 2007, 2012, and 2020 Melodifestivalen entries, as well as for working together with Shirley Clamp and Sanna Nielsen. She has also written songs f ...

. In April 2008 the album ''Stronger'' was released, an album completely in

English language English is a West Germanic language that developed in early medieval England and has since become a English as a lingua franca, global lingua franca. The namesake of the language is the Angles (tribe), Angles, one of the Germanic peoples th ...

, the first time Nielsen had such an album. The same year the album ''Our Christmas'' was released, containing Christmas songs along with

and

. In 2011, she released the album '' I'm In Love''. In December 2013 Nielsen released her seventh studio album called '' Min jul'', which contains

Christmas songs Christmas music comprises a variety of genres of music regularly performed or heard around the Christmas season. Music associated with Christmas may be purely instrumental, or in the case of carols, may employ lyrics about the nativity of J ...

Participation in Melodifestivalen

Nielsen has participated seven times in

Melodifestivalen Melodifestivalen (; ) 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 Contest, and has been staged almo ...

, Sweden's annual music competition and national selection for the

Eurovision Song Contest The Eurovision Song Contest (), often known simply as Eurovision, is an international Music competition, song competition organised annually by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) among its members since 1956. Each participating broadcaster ...

. She made her debut in

2001 The year's most prominent event was the September 11 attacks against the United States by al-Qaeda, which Casualties of the September 11 attacks, killed 2,977 people and instigated the global war on terror. The United States led a Participan ...

performing " I går, i dag", which finished third. She returned to the contest again in

2003 2003 was designated by the United Nations as the International Year of Fresh water, Freshwater. In 2003, a Multi-National Force – Iraq, United States-led coalition 2003 invasion of Iraq, invaded Iraq, starting the Iraq War. Demographic ...

with " Hela världen för mig" finishing fifth. After a one-year break, Nielsen returned again in Melodifestivalen 2005 with " Du och jag mot världen", this time as a duet with Fredrik Kempe, which finished eighth.

2007

On 3 March 2007, Nielsen participated in

again with " Vågar du, vågar jag". During the Second Chance round, the song qualified for the final at the

Stockholm Stockholm (; ) is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in Sweden by population, most populous city of Sweden, as well as the List of urban areas in the Nordic countries, largest urban area in the Nordic countries. Approximately ...

Globe Arena on 10 March 2007, where the song ended up in seventh place after the final of Melodifestivalen 2007.

2008

Nielsen participated in Melodifestivalen 2008, performing " Empty Room", written and composed by Bobby Ljunggren and

Aleena Gibson Aleena Gibson (born Anna-Lena Högdahl) is a Swedish songwriter living in Stockholm. Her credits include Jason Derulo, Mr. Big, Nick Carter, S Club 7, Chenoa, Tata Young, Rouge Jill Johnson, Girls' Generation, and Austin Mahone.

. She reached the final from the

Västerås Västerås () is a city in central Sweden on the shore of Mälaren, Lake Mälaren in the province of Västmanland, west of Stockholm. The city had a population of 127,799 at the end of 2019, out of the municipal total of 158,653, over 100,000 mo ...

semifinal on 16 February 2008. Although the song won the public televote in the final inside the Stockholm Globe Arena on 15 March, beating Charlotte Perrelli's second-placed song "

Hero A hero (feminine: heroine) is a real person or fictional character who, in the face of danger, combats adversity through feats of ingenuity, courage, or Physical strength, strength. The original hero type of classical epics did such thin ...

" by more than 50,000 votes, it was denied the chance to represent Sweden at the

after losing out to Perrelli in the overall points-based scoring system once the jury vote was factored into the results, thus finishing only second in the final official standings. During 2008, "Empty Room" won the OGAE Second Chance Contest 2008 with a 91 points lead to runner-up Coral from

Spain Spain, or the Kingdom of Spain, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe with territories in North Africa. Featuring the Punta de Tarifa, southernmost point of continental Europe, it is the largest country in Southern Eur ...

Return in 2011

Nielsen participated in the Melodifestivalen 2011, with the song " I'm in Love". She came first at the second semi-final which took place in Gothenburg on 12 February 2011. One month later, she finished fourth at the finale.

Melodifestivalen win and Eurovision 2014

Nielsen decided to return to the contest in 2014, this time with the song "

". She competed in the second semifinal held on 8 February, in which she qualified for the final, held at the

Friends Arena Nationalarenan, known as Strawberry Arena since 2024 for sponsorship reasons, is a retractable roof multi-purpose stadium in Stockholm, Sweden. Located next to the lake Råstasjön in Solna, just north of the City Centre, it is the largest stadi ...

on 8 March. She won the final and represented Sweden at the

in the first semifinal on 6 May. Nielsen made it to the final. In the final Nielsen placed third place with 218 points. That also placed Nielsen as the second highest scoring singer for Sweden at the Eurovision after Loreen in 2012. Undo became Nielsens first song to reach the UK Top 40 singles charts at place 40

After Eurovision 2014

On 29 September 2014, Nielsen was announced as the host for Melodifestivalen 2015 along with comedian Robin Paulsson. On 10 April 2015, it was announced that Nielsen and Edward af Sillén would commentate the SVT broadcast of the

. In August 2015 it was announced by SVT that Nielsen would become the new presenter for the all-sing show ''

'' at

Skansen Skansen (; "the Sconce") is the oldest open-air museum and zoo in Sweden located on the island Djurgården in Stockholm, Sweden. It was opened on 11 October 1891 by Artur Hazelius (1833–1901) to show the way of life in the different parts ...

in Stockholm in the summer of 2016. Nielsen returned to Eurovision when she hosted the "Eurovision The Party" event that was held at the

on the night of the Eurovision Song Contest 2016 final. Sanna returned to Eurovision travelling to Lisbon in May 2018 as a commentator for the national Swedish broadcaster,

Sveriges Television Sveriges Television AB ("Sweden's Television aktiebolag, 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 Riksd ...

(SVT).

Personal life

Sanna Nielsen got engaged in 2006 in

Las Vegas Las Vegas, colloquially referred to as Vegas, is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Nevada and the county seat of Clark County. The Las Vegas Valley metropolitan area is the largest within the greater Mojave Desert, and second-l ...

, the couple lived in

Lidingö Lidingö (), also known in its definite form Lidingön and as Lidingölandet, is an island in the inner Stockholm archipelago, northeast of Stockholm, Sweden. In 2023, the population of the Lidingö urban area on the island was 48,162. It is the ...

outside Stockholm before splitting up in 2008. She is currently living in Årsta south of Stockholm with her boyfriend Joakim Ramsell. Their son was born in October 2021.

Discography

Musical theatre

*'' Doctor Zhivago'' ( Malmö Opera, 2014), as Lara Antipova *'' Funny Girl'' (Malmö Opera, 2020, 2023), as

Fanny Brice Fania Borach (October 29, 1891 – May 29, 1951), known professionally as Fanny Brice or Fannie Brice, was an American comedian, Illustrated Songs, illustrated song model, singer, and actress who made many stage, radio, and film appearances. Sh ...

Awards

*2002 – Ulla Billquist-stipendiet, 25,000 kronor *2002 – Birgit Nilssons stipendium *2003 – Skåning of the Year *2008 – Song of the Year for " Empty Room" at the 2009 Gaygalan Awards *2008 – Lidingöbo of the Year *2018-2019 – female presenter of the year

References

External links

Official Website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Nielsen, Sanna 1984 births Living people People from Bromölla Municipality Dansband singers Swedish child singers Swedish pop singers Swedish women pop singers English-language singers from Sweden Swedish-language singers Svensktoppen Schlager musicians Swedish people of Danish descent Melodifestivalen winners Swedish television presenters 21st-century Swedish singers 21st-century Swedish women singers Swedish women television presenters Eurovision Song Contest entrants Musicians from Skåne County