I Love Europe is a song written by

Torgny Söderberg Sten Torgny Söderberg (26 November 1944 – 5 August 2022) was a Swedish songwriter. He was mainly known for working with Lena Philipsson and wrote schlager songs such as " 100%", "Kärleken är evig" and " Diggi-loo diggi-ley".

and Magnus Johansson, with lyrics by

Ingela Forsman Ingela Birgitta "Pling" Forsman (born 26 August 1950 in , Sweden) is a Swedish lyricist in popular music. As a student Forsman attended the Adolf Fredrik's Music School in Stockholm. 1981–2009, 33 of her songs have competed in the Swedish M ...

. It was originally performed by

Christer Sjögren Hans Christer Sjögren (born 6 April 1950) is a Swedish singer, songwriter and musician. He is best known as the lead vocalist of the dansband Vikingarna. Early life Hans Christer Sjögren was born in Hagfors, Sweden, on 6 April 1950, as the ...

Melodifestivalen 2008 Melodifestivalen 2008 was the 47th Melodifestivalen, and the selection process for the 48th song to represent Sweden at the Eurovision Song Contest. A new rule—''Lex Agnes''—went into effect in 2008 calling for each submitted entry to inclu ...

. On 9 February 2008, the song headed directly from the semifinal inside

Scandinavium Scandinavium () is an indoor arena located in Gothenburg, Sweden. Construction on Scandinavium began in 1969 after decades of setbacks, and was inaugurated on 18 May 1971. Scandinavium has been selected as a championship arena at least fifty t ...

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 ...

to the final in the

Stockholm Globe Arena Avicii Arena, originally known as Stockholm Globe Arena and previously as Ericsson Globe, but commonly referred to in Swedish simply as Globen (; "the Globe"), is an indoor arena located in Stockholm Globe City, Johanneshov district of Stockho ...

on 15 March that year. Once there, the song ended up 9th. Magnus Johansson also appeared on stage as a

trumpet The trumpet is a brass instrument commonly used in classical and jazz ensembles. The trumpet group ranges from the piccolo trumpet—with the highest register in the brass family—to the bass trumpet, pitched one octave below the standard ...

er.

The song lyrics describe the dream of friendship and peace all across

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...

, and compares the nations with one big

family Family (from la, familia) is a Social group, group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or Affinity (law), affinity (by marriage or other relationship). The purpose of the family is to maintain the well-being of its ...

. The single was released on 12 March 2008, and it peaked at 15th position at the

Swedish singles chart Sverigetopplistan (, lit. "the Sweden top list") is the Swedish national record chart, formerly known as Topplistan (1975–1997) and Hitlistan (1998–2007) and known by its current name since October 2007, based on sales data from the Swedish R ...

. The song als charted at

Svensktoppen ''Svensktoppen'' () is a weekly record chart airing at 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. The last years before the January 2003 cha ...

for 18 weeks between 6 April–3 August 2008, peaking at 5th position. The song also appeared as a bonus track on Christer Sjögren's studio album '' Mitt sköna sextiotal'', released in September the same year. The song was also broguth attention by radio station

RIX FM Rix may refer to: Places * Rix, Jura, a commune in France * Rix, Nièvre, a commune in France People * Rix (surname) * Rix Robinson (1789–1875), Michigan pioneer Other uses * ''Rix'', a Gaulish word meaning "king"; cognate with the ancient Gae ...

, where program host Gert Fylking launched a Rix Morronzoo campaign called ''Christer till Belgrad'' ("Christer for Belgrade"), to get people voting for the song. At

Dansbandskampen 2008 Dansbandskampen is a television show established by Peter Settman and his production company Baluba. Peter Settman is also the show host. The show is broadcast over Sveriges Television, with season 1 airing October–December 2008. In 2008, five b ...

the song was performed by

Larz-Kristerz Larz-Kristerz is a Swedish dansband founded in Älvdalen, Sweden in 2001, and winner of the 2008 edition of Dansbandskampen Dansbandskampen is a television show established by Peter Settman and his production company Baluba. Peter Settman is also ...

, turning the song into

accordion Accordions (from 19th-century German ''Akkordeon'', from ''Akkord''—"musical chord, concord of sounds") are a family of box-shaped musical instruments of the bellows-driven free-reed aerophone type (producing sound as air flows past a reed ...

-based. The band also recorded the song for the album '' Hem till dig'', released in February 2009. Swedish radio program

Framåt fredag The discography of Laleh, an Iranian-born Swedish singer-songwriter contains nine studio albums and three extended plays. Laleh first appeared on Swedish charts in early 2005 with the single "Invisible (My Song)" which instantly reached the top ...

did a parody called ''I Europa''.

Single track listing

#I Love Europe (radio edit) #I Love Europe (singback version)

Chart position

Contributing musicians

*Christer Sjögren – lead vocals *

- keyboards, songwriters, producer * Magnus Johansson - trumpet, keyboards, songwriter, producer *

Per Lindvall Per is a Latin preposition which means "through" or "for each", as in per capita. Per or PER may also refer to: Places * IOC country code for Peru * Pér, a village in Hungary * Chapman code for Perthshire, historic county in Scotland Math ...

- drums *

Lasse Wellander Lars-Ove "Lasse" Wellander (18 June 1952 – 7 April 2023) was a Swedish guitarist who played with ABBA. He first recorded with the group's backing band in 1974 and was featured on their debut album as well as on several subsequent hits. Wella ...

- guitar *Mats Johansson - guitar * Ingela "Pling" Forsman - song lyrics

References

External links

{{authority control 2008 singles Christer Sjögren songs English-language Swedish songs Larz-Kristerz songs Melodifestivalen songs of 2008 Songs written by Torgny Söderberg Songs with lyrics by Ingela Forsman 2008 songs Songs about Europe