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 programme 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.
Barbro Margareta Svensson, known by her stage name Lill-Babs, was a Swedish singer, actress and television host. From the early 1950s until her death in 2018, she was one of Sweden's best-known and popular singers. She represented Sweden in the 1961 Eurovision Song Contest in Cannes with the song "April, april". She was also well known for the song "Är du kär i mej ännu Klas-Göran?".
Sweden has participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 60 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 is the only country to have hosted the event in five different decades, three times in Stockholm, twice in Malmö and once in Gothenburg (1985).
Siw Gunnel Margareta Malmkvist is a Swedish singer and actress popular in Scandinavia and West Germany. She had a number one hit in West Germany in 1964 with "Liebeskummer lohnt sich nicht", and on 18 July 1964 she became the first Swede to have a hit on the US Billboard Hot 100 chart, when "Sole Sole Sole", a duet with Italian singer Umberto Marcato, entered the chart, peaking at No. 58.
Svante Thuresson was a Swedish jazz musician. He started his career as a drummer before joining the band Gals and Pals in 1963. Svante won the national selection and represented Sweden in the Eurovision song contest in 1966 with Nygammal vals and came in second place; he performed with Lill Lindfors.
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.
Sweden was in their second Eurovision Song Contest represented by Brita Borg with the song "Augustin". The winning song was elected in the Swedish national final: Melodifestivalen 1959. Eight semi-finals were held on the radio. During the semi-finals, Sveriges Radio decided that the winning song would represent Sweden at the Eurovision Song Contest 1959. The singer for Cannes had already been selected.
Sweden chose its entry for Eurovision Song Contest 1960 by the national final, Melodifestivalen 1960. The winning song, "Alla andra får varann" was performed once by Östen Warnerbring and once by Ingrid Berggren. However Sveriges Radio decided that Siw Malmkvist would represent Sweden, as she had been denied that the previous year.
Sweden was represented by Inger Berggren, singing "Sol och vår", in the Eurovision Song Contest 1962. Berggren was selected by a national final called Eurovisionsschlagern, svensk final. Another singer, Lily Berglund, also sung the song there. The song was written and composed by Ulf Källkvist and Åke Gerhard.
After a year of absence, Sweden competed in the Eurovision Song Contest 1965 with the opera singer Ingvar Wixell, and the song "Absent Friend" composed by Dag Wirén. For the first time, one singer sang all the songs in the national final, and Ingvar was also the first male singer to represent Sweden. It was the first ESC entry that was not performed in the country's native language; this led to the introduction of a language restriction the following year. The contest was held in Naples that year, and Sweden finished 10th out of 18.*
Sweden competed in Eurovision Song Contest 1966 with the song "Nygammal vals" performed by Lill Lindfors and Svante Thuresson. It was written by Bengt-Arne Wallin and Björn Lindroth. Much thanks to Scandinavian neighbours, Sweden took their best placement so far in ESC this year, held in Luxembourg, with 16 points and a 2nd place.
Sweden chose their entrant for Eurovision Song Contest 1969 through Melodifestivalen 1969. A tie occurred between two songs, but after additional voting, the song "Judy, min vän" with Tommy Körberg was selected. It was written by Roger Wallis and Britt Lindeborg. The other song, "Hej clown" was written by Lasse Berghagen and later ABBA member Benny Andersson.
The Swedish national selection for the Eurovision Song Contest was called Melodifestivalen 1974. It was, by far, won by the group ABBA, consisting of Anni-Frid Lyngstad, Agnetha Fältskog, Benny Andersson and Björn Ulvaeus. Their song was called "Waterloo", which was written by Björn and Benny. It was originally written in Swedish, but for the ESC final, it was translated into English, which the rules allowed the years 1973-1976.
Sweden was represented by One More Time with the song "Den vilda" in the Eurovision Song Contest 1996.
Germany competed at the Eurovision Song Contest 1969, held in Madrid, Spain. ARD, the German broadcaster, used a national final to select their entry.
The Netherlands was represented by Teddy Scholten, with the song "Een beetje", at the 1959 Eurovision Song Contest, which took place on 11 March in Cannes, France. Song and singer were chosen independently of each other at the Dutch national final, held on 17 February. Scholten went on to win the 1959 contest for the Netherlands, the first time a country had scored two Eurovision victories. The 1957 contest winner Corry Brokken failed in her bid to represent the Netherlands for a fourth consecutive year, while future Dutch representative Greetje Kauffeld was also among those taking part.
Germany was represented by Conny Froboess, with the song '"Zwei kleine Italiener", at the 1962 Eurovision Song Contest, which took place on 18 March in Luxembourg City. Twelve artists and 24 songs took part in the German preselection, which consisted of four semi-finals, followed by the final on 17 February. Each show was held in a different German city.
Norway was represented by Kirsti Sparboe, with the song "Oj, oj, oj, så glad jeg skal bli", at the 1969 Eurovision Song Contest, which took place on 29 March in Madrid. "Oj, oj, oj, så glad jeg skal bli" was chosen as the Norwegian entry at the Melodi Grand Prix on 1 March. This was the last of three Eurovision appearances in five years for Sparboe.
Sweden participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 2014 with the song "Undo" written by Fredrik Kempe, David Kreuger and Hamed "K-One" Pirouzpanah. The song was performed by Sanna Nielsen. The Swedish broadcaster Sveriges Television (SVT) organised the national final Melodifestivalen 2014 in order to select the Swedish entry for the 2014 contest in Copenhagen, Denmark. After a six-week-long competition consisting of four heats, a Second Chance round and a final, "Undo" performed by Sanna Nielsen emerged as the winner after achieving the highest score following the combination of votes from eleven international jury groups and a public vote.
This is a list of Swedish television related events from 1961.
Sweden 
