Sweden was the host of the

Eurovision Song Contest 2000 The Eurovision Song Contest 2000 was the 45th edition of the Eurovision Song Contest. It took place in Stockholm, Sweden, following the country's victory at the with the song "Take Me to Your Heaven" by Charlotte Nilsson. Organised by the Europea ...

thanks to

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 ...

's victory the previous year.

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 ...

chose to hold the contest in Sweden's capital,

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 ...

. They were represented by

Roger Pontare Fred Roger Pontare (born Roger Johansson; 17 October 1951) is a Swedish musician. He lives in Bjuråker in Hudiksvalls kommun. Pontare was born in Arjeplog Municipality, and is of Sami descent. He has represented Sweden twice in the Eurovisio ...

with the song "

When Spirits Are Calling My Name The song "When Spirits Are Calling My Name" (original Swedish title "När vindarna viskar mitt namn", literally translated as "When the Winds Whisper My Name") was performed by Roger Pontare in the 2000 Eurovision Song Contest 2000, in representa ...

Before Eurovision

Melodifestivalen 2000

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 ...

2000 was the selection for the 40th song to represent

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 country located on ...

at 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 ...

. It was the 39th time that this system of picking a song had been used; 1,394 songs were submitted to SVT for the competition and 10 progressed to the final. The final was held in the Gothenburg Opera House 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 ...

on 10 March 2000, and was broadcast on

SVT2 SVT2 (SVT Två; commonly referred to as Tvåan), is one of the two main television channels broadcast by Sveriges Television in Sweden. Launched in 1969 by Sveriges Radio, the channel was until the 1990s the most watched in Sweden for many yea ...

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 ...

's P4 network.

( 1994 winner with

Marie Bergman Marie Bergman (born 21 November 1950) is a Swedish singer.''Biografi – Marie Bergman''
, ...

) won the MF again with the rock-inspired ballad " När vindarna viskar mitt namn", donning a folk-inspired costume and featuring

Sámi The Sámi ( ; also spelled Sami or Saami) are a Finno-Ugric-speaking people inhabiting the region of Sápmi (formerly known as Lapland), which today encompasses large northern parts of Norway, Sweden, Finland, and of the Murmansk Oblast, Rus ...

dancers during his performance. The 2000 Melodifestivalen was presented by no less than 10 past participants and winners, who performed a medley of selected Melodifestivalen entries from the past four decades as an interval act. These were

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 ...

Lotta Engberg Anna Charlotte "Lotta" Engberg (born Pedersen; 5 March 1963) is a Swedish singer. She represented Sweden in Eurovision Song Contest 1987 with " Boogaloo" after winning Melodifestivalen 1987. She also tried many times in Melodifestivalen in 1984 ...

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 ...

Loa Falkman Carl Johan "Loa" Falkman (born 24 July 1947) is a Swedish opera singer, actor and artist. He was appointed hovsångare by H.M. the King of Sweden in 2003.http://www.kungahuset.se/royalcourt Swedish Royal Court official home page After studying ...

Tommy Körberg Bert Gustav Tommy Körberg (; born 4 July 1948) is a Swedish singer, actor, and musician. English-speaking audiences know him best for his role as Anatoly/"The Russian" in the musical ''Chess''. He played the role on the 1984 concept album, and ...

Elisabeth Andreassen Elisabeth Gunilla Andreassen (; born 28 March 1958), also known as just Bettan, is a Norwegian-Swedish singer who has finished both first and second in the Eurovision Song Contest. Career Her talent was discovered in 1979 by Swedish musician and ...

Arja Saijonmaa Arja Enni Helena Saijonmaa (born 1 December 1944 in Mikkeli) is a Finnish singer, political activist and occasional actress. Life and career She studied at the Sibelius Academy and earned a Bachelor of Arts at the Helsinki University. She made ...

Lasse Berghagen Lars "Lasse" Nils Berghagen (born 13 May 1945) is a Sweden, Swedish singer, songwriter and actor. Berghagen is a well known singer-songwriter in Sweden. He released his first record in 1965, aged just 19. Four years later, in 1969, he released ...

Lasse Holm Lars-Eric Gustav "Lasse" Holm (born 9 December 1943) is a Swedish singer, songwriter and television host. Holm has also hosted and appeared in several television shows. As singer Since childhood, he was interested in music and was a member of ...

and

Björn Skifs Björn Nils Olof Skifs (; born 20 April 1947) is a Swedish singer, songwriter, actor, and screenwriter. Career Björn Skifs formed his first musical group, Slam Creepers, in 1962. Slam Creepers split in 1969 and Skifs went on to form a new ban ...

. Two of the presenters, Lena Philipsson and Carola Häggkvist, went on to win the Melodifestivalen in

2004 2004 was designated as an International Year of Rice by the United Nations, and the International Year to Commemorate the Struggle Against Slavery and its Abolition (by UNESCO). Events January * January 3 – Flash Airlines Flight 6 ...

and

2006 File:2006 Events Collage V1.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2006 Winter Olympics open in Turin; Twitter is founded and launched by Jack Dorsey; The Nintendo Wii is released; Montenegro 2006 Montenegrin independence referendum, votes to declare ...

, respectively (Carola had also won in

1983 The year 1983 saw both the official beginning of the Internet and the first mobile cellular telephone call. Events January * January 1 – The migration of the ARPANET to Internet protocol suite, TCP/IP is officially completed (this is consid ...

and

1991 File:1991 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Boris Yeltsin, elected as Russia's first president, waves the new flag of Russia after the 1991 Soviet coup d'état attempt, orchestrated by Soviet hardliners; Mount Pinatubo erupts in the Phil ...

before). The show was watched by 4,175,000 people, with a total of 525,567 votes cast.

Competing entries

Final

At Eurovision

Roger performed his song in 18th in the running order, following Croatia and preceding Macedonia, and received much cheers from the home public. The song had been translated into English and was now called "When Spirits Are Calling My Name", and the stage performance featured Native American and

Sami Acronyms * SAMI, ''Synchronized Accessible Media Interchange'', a closed-captioning format developed by Microsoft * Saudi Arabian Military Industries, a government-owned defence company * South African Malaria Initiative, a virtual expertise net ...

themes. At the end of the voting, Sweden received 88 points (including 12 points from Turkey), finishing in 7th place which was enough to qualify them for the next contest as well.

Voting

References

External links

TV broadcastings at SVT's open archive