Sweden was represented by the group
Friends in the Eurovision Song Contest 2001 with
schlager song "
Lyssna till ditt hjärta". It was written by
Thomas G:son and Henrik Sethson.
Before Eurovision
Melodifestivalen 2001
Melodifestivalen 2001 was the selection for the 41st song to represent
Sweden at the
Eurovision Song Contest. It was the 42nd time that this system of picking a song had been used.
Around 1,800 songs were submitted to
SVT for the competition, of which 10 were chosen to compete in the show. The final was held in the
Malmö Musikteater 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 pop ...
on 23 February 2001, presented by
Josefine Sundström
Carola ''Josefine'' Sundström Lindberg, (born 6 September 1976) in Upplands Väsby is a Swedish television host, author and singer. Sundström participated in Melodifestivalen 1999 with the girlgroup Ai with the song "Bilder av dej". The same ...
and
Henrik Olsson
Per Henrik Olsson (born 15 September 1970) is a Swedish television presenter who has hosted shows like SVT's Voxpop, Jupiter and Melodifestivalen 2001. He has also been a travelling reporter for the travel show Packat & klart on the same channel ...
, and was broadcast on
SVT1. The winners were the previous year's runner-up, the group
Friends with the
schlager song "Lyssna till ditt hjärta". It was written by
Thomas G:son and Henrik Sethson.
Competing entries
Final
At Eurovision
For the ESC, the song was rewritten into English and got the new title "Listen to Your Heartbeat". It was performed in the 7th spot on the night of the contest, following Russia and preceding Lithuania. Despite not receiving any 12s, Sweden scored 100 points at the close of voting, finishing in 5th position.
Controversy
After the song "Lyssna till ditt hjärta" won
Melodifestivalen 2001
Sweden was represented by the group Friends in the Eurovision Song Contest 2001 with schlager song " Lyssna till ditt hjärta". It was written by Thomas G:son and Henrik Sethson.
Before Eurovision
Melodifestivalen 2001
Melodifestivalen 2001 ...
, it was accused of plagiarism from the
1996 Belgian entry "Liefde is een kaartspel". At first this was denied by the Swedish composers,
Thomas G:son and Henrik Sethsson, but after the Belgian songwriters and the author's organisation
SABAM
SABAM is one of the Belgian associations of authors, composers and publishers. The bilingual acronym stands for "Société d'Auteurs Belge – Belgische Auteurs Maatschappij". Their headquarters is located at 75–77 rue d'Arlon in Brussels.
S ...
pressed for legal action, a cash settlement was agreed.
[Leif Thorsson. ''Melodifestivalen genom tiderna'' Melodifestivalen through time"(2006), p. 290. Stockholm: Premium Publishing AB. ]
Voting
References
External links
TV broadcastings at SVT's open archive
{{Melodifestivalen
2001
Countries in the Eurovision Song Contest 2001
2001
Eurovision
Eurovision