Today, June 6, is Sveriges nationaldag (The National Day of Sweden). The day celebrates the exact date many consider the start of modern Sweden when King Gustav Vasa was elected in 1523.
With Loreen recently making history as the first-ever female artist to win the Eurovision Song Contest twice, we at Aussievision have decided to celebrate this day in Eurovision fashion by taking a look back at all the Swedish artists who've competed at the beloved contest on multiple occasions.
Family Four - 1971 & 1972
Before there was ABBA, there was another Swedish band made up of two blokes, a blonde and a brunette named Family Four. The pop quartet was made up of Agnetha Munther, Berndt Öst, Marie Bergman, and Pierre Isacsson and they were the first Swedish artists to represent the nation twice at the Eurovision Song Contest.
As usual, SVT selected their entry via Melodifestivalen. This edition of Sweden's final was unique in the fact that all five competing songs were performed by Family Four as they won all five semi-finals, therefore meaning they were the only performers in the running to fly the flag at Eurovision.
Family Four went on the represent Sweden in Dublin at the 16th edition of the Eurovision Song Contest where they finished 6th out of 18 entries with the song 'Vita Vidder'.
Just one year later, Family Four were back at Melodifestivalen where they won it once again and returned to Eurovision in 1972 with the song, 'Härliga sommardag'. The contest was held in Edinburgh, Scotland and the band finished 13th out of 18 competing countries.
Björn Skifs - 1978 & 1981
The next Swede to do the double was Björn Skifs. Outside of the Eurovision bubble, Björn would be best known as the lead singer of Blue Swede whose single 'Hooked on a Feeling' went number one on the Billboard charts in 1974.
Just a short time after the hit single, Björn kicked off his solo career and ended up winning Melodifestivalen in 1978 in a tie-breaker round defeating Kikki Danielsson. Björn set off for Paris where the 23rd edition of Eurovision was being held with his song 'Det blir alltid värre framåt natten'.
Whilst at the contest, Björn intended to cause a bit of controversy when planning on singing his entry in English, which back in 78' would've meant disqualification for not singing in your native language. Instead, he sang the start of the song in complete gibberish but only the Swedes could tell he wasn't actually singing in Swedish. The entry finished 14th out of 20.
Skifs returned to Eurovision in 1981 after winning Melodifestivalen in an intensely close race, once again beating out Kikki Danielsson. The song 'Fångad i en dröm' meaning 'Captured in a Dream' finished 10th out of 20 entries at the 26th Eurovision Song Contest in Dublin, Ireland.
Kikki Danielsson - 1982 & 1985
After narrowly losing out on the chance to represent Sweden to Björn Skif on two separate occasions, Kikki Danielsson finally got her chance in 1982 after winning Melfest in 82' as part of the band Chips with duet partner, Swedish-Norwegian singer Elisabeth Andreassen.
The song 'Dag efter dag' finished 8th out of 18 songs at the 27th edition of the Eurovision Song Contest held in Harrogate, United Kingdom.
Just three years later, Kikki Danielsson got her chance to return to Eurovision but this time as a soloist. Kikki and her song 'Bra vibrationer' was selected to represent Sweden in 1985 on home soil as The Herreys won the contest the year prior.
Kikki managed a podium finish at Eurovision, finishing in third place, just 20 points behind the winners Bobbysocks from Norway. In a very strange coincidence, one-half of Bobbysocks was none other than Kikki's former Eurovision duet partner, Elisabeth Andreassen from Chips!
Tommy Körberg - 1969 & 1988
Swedish singer and actor, Tommy Körberg may be best known for playing 'the Russian' in Benny and Björn's musical 'Chess'. But before that, Tommy represented Sweden at the 1969 Eurovision Song Contest, held in Madrid. His song 'Judy, min vän' translates to 'Judy, my friend'.
At the song contest, Sweden finished in 9th place out of 16. Also tied for 9th place was Germany who was being represented by former Swedish Eurovision entrant, Siw Malmkvist.
Almost two decades later, Tommy returned to Eurovision in 1988. The song 'Stad I ljus' was the runaway winner of Melodifestivalen and was the first time in the 1980s that Sweden sent a ballad to the contest.
Whilst in Dublin at the 33rd Eurovision Song Contest, the song finished 12th out of 21 competing entries, losing out to the winner Céline Dion for Switzerland.
Carola - 1983, 1991 & 2006
The only person to ever represent Sweden three times at Eurovision as a solo act is none other than the icon herself, Carola. The first time she stepped foot onto the Eurovision stage was in 1983 with the song 'Främling' at just 17 years of age as a complete unknown in the Swedish music industry. Whilst a contender for the win, Sweden finished in third place that year.
Carola made her comeback to the contest in 1991, with the now legendary song 'Fångad av en stormvind'. The infamous 36th edition of the Eurovision Song Contest was hosted in Rome and Carola managed to finish in a tie for first place with France's Amina. Thanks to the four-way tie back in the 1969 contest, tie-breaker rules have been put in place for this exact scenario.
Because both countries finished first with the same amount of points, the winner would be determined by the country that received the most 12 points but both Sweden and France received four top scores each. This meant that the winner would be determined by the country who received the most 10 points which meant that Sweden took out the competition and Carola finally got the Eurovision crown.
It seems Carola couldn't get enough of Eurovision as she once again returned in 2006. After a controversial win at the Melodifestivalen national final that was latter dubbed, 'Carolagate', she managed to place 5th at Eurovision in Athens with the song 'Invincible'.
All three Eurovision performances by Carola managed to finish top five solidifying her place in Eurovision history.
Roger Pontare - 1994 & 2000
Roger Pontare is a Swedish folk-pop, schlanger legend and is of Sami descent. Roger won Melodifestivalen 1994 with a duet entry, 'Stjärnorna' sung alongside Marie Bergman. Maria is, of course, former member of Family Four, making this her third time at Eurovision.
The song opened the Eurovision Song Contest in Dublin, Ireland. Out of 25 competing entries, Roger and Marie finished in 13th place.
In the year 2000, Roger returned to Eurovision as the host entry with his rock ballad, 'When Spirits Are Calling My Name'. The song and performance were a celebration of indigenous culture and was inspired by Roger's Sami roots. The entry received an overwhelming reaction from the live audience in Stockholm's Globen Arena.
The performance finished in 7th place with a total of 88 points.
Charlotte Perrelli - 1999 & 2008
Eurovision in 1999 was a year of drastic changes to the competition, the Israeli host broadcaster opted out of using a live orchestra and the rule of singing in your native language was lifted entirely for the first time since 1976.
Sweden opted to exercise this new language rule and Charlotte Perrelli (then Nilsson) performed her Eurovision song 'Take Me To Your Heaven' entirely in English. The song ended up winning the whole contest giving Sweden their fourth win.
Charlotte returned to Eurovision in 2008 with a new last name and a new song to match. 'Hero' was tipped to do very well in Belgrade, Serbia but when the results were published, they painted a completely different picture.
The song didn't even place in the top ten of the semi-final round but thanks to a new rule, the 10th slot to the Grand Final was to be selected by a backup jury, thus Charlotte narrowly made advanced. In the final 'Hero' finished 18th out of 25 songs with 47 points.
Loreen - 2012 & 2023
Last but certainly not least is our reigning champion of Eurovision, Loreen. Back in 2012, Loreen and her song 'Euphoria' left a lasting mark on the song contest when it became the runaway winner in Baku, Azerbaijan.
At the time, the entry received the most 12 points in history and every country bar Italy gave Sweden points in the Grand Final. Eurovision fans completely fell in love with 'Euphoria' as it went on the win every single annual ESC250 song countdown from 2012 to 2022.
Loreen made her triumphant return to Eurovision in 2023, with her song 'Tattoo' which was partly written by much of the same team behind her previous winning song 'Euphoria'. Since the song was first performed at the national final, Melodifestivalen, Sweden sat at the top of the betting odds to win the whole contest.
With her mesmerising live performance, Loreen won Eurovision once again with a total of 583 points. 'Tattoo' won the jury vote in a landslide and also placed second in the public vote. This historic win meant Loreen joins Ireland's Johnny Logan as the two people in history to win the Eurovision Song Contest twice.
Happy Svenska Flaggans Day to all of our readers in Sweden, we can't wait to watch the Swedes host the Eurovision Song Contest next year!
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