Sweden was in their second

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 ...

represented by Brita Borg with the song "Augustin". The winning song was elected in the Swedish national final: Melodifestivalen 1959. Eight semi-finals were held on the radio. During the semi-finals,

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 ...

decided that the winning song would represent Sweden at the

Eurovision Song Contest 1959 The Eurovision Song Contest 1959 was the fourth edition of the annual Eurovision Song Contest, held on Wednesday 11 March 1959 at the in Cannes, France, and hosted by French television presenter Jacqueline Joubert. Organised by the European B ...

. The singer for Cannes had already been selected.

Before Eurovision

''Säg det med musik: Stora Schlagertävlingen''

''Säg det med musik: Stora Schlagertävlingen'' (retroactively often referred to 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 ...

1959'' was the national final for the song to represent Sweden at the Eurovision Song Contest 1959. It was held on 29 January 1959 and was the first time that this system of picking a song was being used.

Format

Already before the national final, it had been decided that Brita Borg would represent Sweden in the Eurovision Song Contest 1959. However, different artists were chosen to present the songs competing in the broadcast national selection process. Approximately 200 songs were submitted to SVT for the competition. Eight semi finals were held during Thore Erling's radio program ''Säg det med musik''. In each semi final, an artist performed two different songs with one of them qualifying for the national final. Östen Warnerbring was the only artist to have competed in two semi finals and hence would go on to present two songs in the national final as well.

Competing entries

There is no information on the songs that did not manage to qualify from the radio semi finals. Live recordings of all eight songs competing in the grand final have survived and the full results of the final could be reconstructed.

Final

The final was broadcast on Sveriges Radio TV and Sveriges Radio P1 from

Cirkus CirKus are a trip hop band formed by Burt Ford (Cameron McVey), Karmil (aka Matt Kent), Lolita Moon and Neneh Cherry. History DJ and producer Karmil was recruited by Burt Ford (Neneh's husband Cameron McVey) as an assistant recording engi ...

Stockholm Stockholm () is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in Sweden by population, largest city of Sweden as well as the List of urban areas in the Nordic countries, largest urban area in Scandinavia. Approximately 980,000 people liv ...

and the presenter was

Thore Ehrling Thore Ehrling (December 29, 1912, Stockholm - October 21, 1994, Stockholm) was a Swedish trumpeter, composer, and bandleader, who led jazz and popular music ensembles. Ehrling played with Frank Vernon's ensemble from 1930 to 1934, and concomitan ...

. "Augustin" was chosen by an expert jury. The winning title "Augustin" was written by

Åke Gerhard Åke Gerhard (Utansjö, Ångermanland, 26 March 1921 – 20 August 2009) was a Swedish songwriter. His songs won the title for the first three years of Sweden's Melodifestival: In 1958 "Lilla stjärna" Little star sung by Alice Babs, in 195 ...

and composed by Harry Sandin.

At Eurovision

On the night, "Augustin" was conducted by the host country musical director

Franck Pourcel Franck Pourcel (14 August 1913 – 12 November 2000) was a French composer, arranger, and conductor of popular and classical music. Biography Early life Born in Marseille, France, Pourcel started learning the violin at the age of six. Later, ...

, and was interpreted by Swedish singer Brita Borg which was chosen as the representative by SVT in advance, while the interpreter in Melodifestivalen was

Siw Malmkvist Siw Gunnel Margareta Malmkvist (born 31 December 1936) is a Swedish schlager singer and actress popular in Scandinavia and West Germany. She had a number one hit in West Germany in 1964 with "''Liebeskummer lohnt sich nicht''" (''"Lovesickness ...

. The song was performed seventh in the running order, following and preceding . At the close of voting it had received 4 points, placing Sweden 9th in a field of 11. The Swedish jury awarded its highest mark - 4, to Denmark.ESC History - Sweden 1959
/ref> The song was succeeded as the Swedish representative at the 1960 contest by "

Alla andra får varann Sweden chose its entry for Eurovision Song Contest 1960 by the national final, Melodifestivalen 1960. The winning song, "Alla andra får varann" was performed once by Östen Warnerbring and once by Ingrid Berggren. However Sveriges Radio decid ...

", performed by Siw Malmkvist, "Augustin" original interpreter.

Voting

References

External links

ESCSweden.com
(in Swedish)
Information site about Melodifestivalen
{{Melodifestivalen

1959 Events January * January 1 - Cuba: Fulgencio Batista flees Havana when the forces of Fidel Castro advance. * January 2 - Lunar probe Luna 1 was the first man-made object to attain escape velocity from Earth. It reached the vicinity of E ...

Countries in the Eurovision Song Contest 1959

Eurovision 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 ...