Sweden has participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 61 times since making its debut in 1958, 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 and 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 Son ...

. 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 (, , ), 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 popula ...

(, ) and once in Gothenburg (). 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 and Svante Thuresson 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 (), Carola (), Charlotte Nilsson (), Loreen () and Måns Zelmerlöw ().

Contest history

Sweden's first entrant in the contest was Alice Babs in , who was placed fourth. This remained the country's best result until , when Lill Lindfors and Svante Thuresson were second. Sweden's first Eurovision victory was in with the song "

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", 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 Carola finished third in , the Herreys gave Sweden its second victory in with " Diggi-Loo Diggi-Ley". Kikki Danielsson 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 he ...

", defeating in a tie-break. Charlotte Nilsson 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 Wizex. The album included Charlotte Nilsson's hit " Tusen och en natt/Take Me to Your Heaven", and the album sold 235,000 copies. The album peaked at #16 at the Swedish album chart. Track ...

". 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 in , Fame in , Lena 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 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 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 Loreen'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 dan ...

" 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 Måns Zelmerlöw'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 Swedish national public television broadcaster, funded by a public service tax on personal income set by the Riksdag (national parliament). Prior to 2019 ...

(SVT) and Sveriges Radio (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 the ...

, Harald Treutiger, Pekka Heino, Kristian Luuk and Fredrik Belfrage. From (except 2013 and 2016), Edward af Sillén provided the SVT commentary alongside various dual commentators.

Other shows

Stage directors

Costume designers

Photogallery

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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 adminis ...

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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 ...

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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 repr ...

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 ...

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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 ...

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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 ...

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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 Copenhag ...

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 ar ...

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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 wa ...

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

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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" ...

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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 ...

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Rotterdam Rotterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Rotte'') is the second largest city and municipality in the Netherlands. It is in the province of South Holland, part of the North Sea mouth of the Rhine–Meuse–Scheldt delta, via the ''"N ...

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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: ; 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 from 1861 to 1865. Th ...

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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