Melodifestivalen 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 Contest, and has been staged almost every year since 1959. In the early 2000s, the competition was the most popular television program in Sweden; it is also broadcast on radio and the Internet. In 2012, the heats averaged 3.3 million viewers, and over an estimated four million people in Sweden watched the final, almost half of the Swedish population.
Carola Maria Häggkvist, commonly known simply as Carola, is a Swedish pop singer. She has been among Sweden's most popular performers since the early 1980s and has released albums ranging from pop and disco to hymns and folk music. Her debut album, Främling (1983), sold around one million copies and remains the biggest-selling album in Swedish music history. She has also worked as a songwriter. During her career, she has recorded many top-selling albums and singles and is referred to as Sweden's most prominent female singer. Some of her biggest hits are "Främling", "Tommy tycker om mig", "Fångad av en stormvind", "All the Reasons to Live", "I Believe in Love", "Genom allt", and "Evighet". She has released records in various languages: Swedish, Dutch, German, English, Norwegian and Japanese.
Susanne Elisabeth "Susie" Päivärinta is a Swedish singer and artist of Finnish ancestry. She scored a number of hits in the 1980s and early 1990s with the duo Lili & Susie, with her sister Lili Päivärinta. Their most famous was their 1987 song "Oh Mama" which spent six weeks in the top five of the Swedish singles chart. They also competed at Melodifestivalen 1989 and in the Eurovision Song Contest with "Okey okey". In 1990, their song What's the Colour of Love also hit the top 5. The duo reunited in 2008 and competed at Melodifestivalen 2009 with the song Show Me Heaven, which peaked at number 6 in the Swedish singles chart. Päivärinta wrote C'est la vie! It's Alright!, performed by Lucia Perez, and Diamonds, performed by Melissa, which were both featured at Eurovision Song Contest 2011. Päivärinta helped write Baby Doll by the bad Top Cats, which was selected for Melodifestivalen 2012 and reached 20 on the Swedish national radio chart.
Charlotte Perrelli is a Swedish singer and television host. As Charlotte Nilsson, she was the winner of the 1999 Melodifestivalen and subsequently that year's Eurovision Song Contest with the song "Take Me to Your Heaven".
Sweden has participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 62 times since making its debut in 1958, missing only three contests since then. Since 1959, the Swedish entry has been chosen through an annual televised competition, known since 1967 as Melodifestivalen. At the 1997 contest, Sweden was one of the first five countries to adopt televoting. Sweden has hosted the contest six times: three times in Stockholm, twice in Malmö and once in Gothenburg (1985).
Sibel Redžep is a Macedonian-born Swedish pop singer. She is known from the Swedish television show Idol 2005, where she was the second runner up. She was also a semi-finalist of Idol 2004, where she placed fourth in her group but didn't make it to the finals.
Melodifestivalen 2006 was the selection for the 46th song to represent Sweden at the Eurovision Song Contest. It was the 45th time that this system of picking a song had been used. Five heats had taken place to select the ten songs for the final, in Leksand, Karlstad, Karlskrona, Gothenburg and a Second Chance round in Stockholm. The final was broadcast on SVT1 and Sveriges Radio's P4 network. Carola Häggkvist was the clear favourite to win the final, with bookmakers making her the favourite and an Aftonbladet web poll showing her to have a clear margin over the other participants. The rehearsals sold out for the fourth year running; however, Carola was unable to perform in the final rehearsal due to throat problems. This led to speculation that the final would be closer than expected. Aftonbladet claimed in April 2006 that the televote may have been tampered with, as various sources reported unexplained voting on their telephone bills. It is clear that this would not have affected the result. Various finalists and heatists entered the Swedish Hitlistan chart after the competition. The second placed song, "Temple of Love", finished fourth in the Eurovision Madrid National Finals Song Contest.
Sanna Viktoria Nielsen 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 Copenhagen, Denmark, finishing in 3rd place overall. Sanna was one of the Eurovision Song Contest 2015 commentators for Sweden and hosted Melodifestivalen 2015 along with comedian Robin Paulsson. She was announced as the new presenter for the sing-along show Allsång på Skansen for the summer of 2016. She hosted Eurovision The Party at the Tele2 Arena for the Eurovision Song Contest 2016.
Melodifestivalen 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 Contest, and has been staged almost every year since 1959.
Lars Björn Gustafsson is a Swedish comedian and actor. He is known from TV shows such as Parlamentet and Stockholm Live.
"Hero" is a 2008 pop song performed by the Swedish singer Charlotte Perrelli, written by Fredrik Kempe and Bobby Ljunggren. It was entered into the Melodifestivalen 2008, winning at the Globen arena on 15 March 2008. Due to this, it represented Sweden at the 2008 Eurovision Song Contest in Belgrade, Serbia.
Benjamin Daniele Wahlgren Ingrosso 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". He won the celebrity dancing TV show Let's Dance 2014, and has competed twice in Melodifestivalen in 2017 and 2018 respectively. He won in 2018 and represented Sweden in the Eurovision Song Contest 2018, with the song "Dance You Off".
Melodifestivalen 2016 was the 56th edition of the Swedish music competition Melodifestivalen, which selected Sweden's entry for the Eurovision Song Contest 2016. The competition was organised by Sveriges Television (SVT) and took place over the six-week period between 6 February and 12 March 2016.
Sweden originally planned to participate in the Eurovision Song Contest 2020. The Swedish broadcaster Sveriges Television (SVT) organises the national final Melodifestivalen 2020 in order to select the Swedish entry for the 2020 contest in Rotterdam, the Netherlands. However, the contest was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Mamas are a Swedish-American soul and gospel group. They won Melodifestivalen 2020 with their single "Move", which reached number one in Sweden in March 2020.
Klara Lovisa Hammarström is a Swedish singer and television personality. She has appeared along with her family in the SVT series Familjen Hammarström. She was previously a competitive horse rider.
Melodifestivalen 2022 was the 62nd edition of the Swedish music competition Melodifestivalen, which was organised by Sveriges Television (SVT) and took place over a six-week period between 5 February and 12 March 2022. The winner of the competition was Cornelia Jakobs with the song "Hold Me Closer", who represented Sweden in the Eurovision Song Contest 2022, where she came fourth with 438 points. All shows were hosted by Oscar Zia.
Sweden participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 2022 in Turin, Italy, with "Hold Me Closer" performed by Cornelia Jakobs. The Swedish broadcaster Sveriges Television (SVT) organised Melodifestivalen 2022 in order to select its entry for the contest.
Anna Cornelia Jakobsdotter Samuelsson, 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", placing fourth in the final.
"Hold Me Closer" is a song by Swedish singer and songwriter Cornelia Jakobs, released as a single on 26 February 2022. It represented Sweden at the Eurovision Song Contest 2022 in Turin, Italy, after winning the Melodifestivalen 2022 final with 146 points. At Eurovision, Jakobs performed 17th of the 18 acts in the second semi-final, where she qualified for the grand final. In the grand final, she performed 20th of 25th acts and finished in fourth place in the Eurovision grand final with 438 points.
