Tattoo (Loreen Song)

"Tattoo" is a song by Swedish singer Loreen, released as a single on 25 February 2023, through Universal Records. It represented Sweden in the Eurovision Song Contest 2023, and won the competition with 583 points, making Loreen the first female artist to win the contest twice, after previously doing so with " Euphoria" in .

After winning Melodifestivalen 2023, "Tattoo" debuted at number one on the Swedish singles chart. Following its Eurovision win, it reached number one in nine other countries including Austria, Belgium, Greece, Iceland, Israel, Netherlands and Switzerland. It additionally reached the top ten in seventeen other countries including Finland, Germany, Hungary, Ireland, Lithuania, Norway and the United Kingdom, later becoming the first Eurovision entry in over 27 years to spend two weeks inside the top five of the UK Singles Chart.

"Tattoo" garnered 4,275,290 streams on Spotify the day after the Eurovision final and thus broke the record for the most streams ever achieved in a single day by a Eurovision song (previously held by Måneskin's "Zitti e buoni", winner of the ). The number of plays also set another record for Loreen: the highest number of streams ever achieved in a single day by a Swedish female artist.

Background and composition

In November 2022, Swedish newspaper reported a rumored return for Loreen in Melodifestivalen, the music competition that selects Sweden's representatives for the Eurovision Song Contest. After previously competing in Melodifestivalen three times, Loreen decided to enter a fourth time with "Tattoo". According to Loreen, she initially did not want to enter Melodifestivalen 2023, but after a "feeling of positivity" and a sense of purpose, she decided to enter the song.

In interviews with ''NME'', Loreen stated that the song was "a love song... there is no day without night, and there is no love without the opposite either... We tend to think that the grass is greener on the other side but if you want to experience this deep, authentic love, you have to be aware that the struggle needs to be there too. We can’t run off the moment we feel a little bit of pain."

Eurovision Song Contest

Melodifestivalen 2023

Melodifestivalen 2023 was the 63rd edition of the Swedish music competition Melodifestivalen, the music competition that Sveriges Television (SVT) uses to select the country's representative for the Eurovision Song Contest. 28 songs competed, with the songs being split into four heats of seven songs. The top two in each heat immediately moved on to the contest's final, while the third and fourth place songs in the heats moved onto a semi-final round. In the semi-final round, the top four songsearned a spot in the final. In the final, a 50/50 system of juries and televoting was used to determine the winner in a final with 12 songs.

Before the contest, "Tattoo" was reported as a heavy favorite to win its heat. "Tattoo" was placed into the fourth heat, and would win the heat, earning an automatic spot in the final. During her heat performance, a stage invasion occurred, in which a person carried a banner with the message "" (), which, according to , the group that orchestrated the invasion, was a call to repair Sweden's wetlands.

Ahead of the final, "Tattoo" was reported as the top favorite to win the competition, winning fan polls on numerous Eurovision fan site polls and press polls. Along with this, she had also broken numerous Swedish streaming records on Spotify. In the Melodifestivalen 2023 final, "Tattoo" won both the jury and televote, earning 92 and 85 points respectively, for a total of 177 points.

At Eurovision

According to Eurovision rules, all nations with the exceptions of the host country and the " Big Five" (France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the United Kingdom) are required to qualify from one of two semi-finals in order to compete for the final; the top ten countries from each semi-final progress to the final. The European Broadcasting Union (EBU) split up the competing countries into six different pots based on voting patterns from previous contests, with countries with favourable voting histories put into the same pot. On 31 January 2023, an allocation draw was held, which placed each country into one of the two semi-finals, and determined which half of the show they would perform in. Sweden was placed into the first semi-final, to be held on 9 May 2023, and was scheduled to perform in the second half of the show.

Charts

Weekly charts

Monthly charts

Certifications

References

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2023 songs
2023 singles
Loreen songs
Melodifestivalen songs of 2023
Number-one singles in Austria
Number-one singles in Sweden
Number-one singles in Switzerland
Dutch Top 40 number-one singles
Songs written by Peter Boström
Songs written by Thomas G:son
Eurovision songs of 2023
Eurovision songs of Sweden
Ultratop 50 Singles (Flanders) number-one singles
Universal Music Group singles
Eurovision Song Contest winning songs
Songs involved in plagiarism controversies
Swedish dance-pop songs