The Secrets to Sweden's Success

Hello again! I’m Steven Perkins, and this is Douze Points - the Eurovision podcast from the lovely people behind Bingewatch. We are with you every Monday, checking out the latest headlines and taking deep-ish dives into the fascinating history of the Eurovision Song Contest.

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In a few minutes we’ll be taking a closer look at the Eurovision powerhouse that is Sweden, but first: what’s in the news?

The BBC has confirmed the performances we have in store for the semi finals. Semi Final 1 will open with a performance by host Julia Sanina, and will also feature Rita Ora performing a medley of her greatest hits and the world premiere of her new single, and Ukrainian singer Alyosha performing alongside Liverpool’s own Rebecca Ferguson.

the iconic hamster wheel from: 2014

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We’ve also got some one-off specials to look forward to here in the UK in the run-up to Eurovision. Jason Manford and Chelcee Grimes will present Eurovision Calling: Jason and Chelcee’s Ultimate Guide, which will offer us 20 reasons why the Eurovision Song Contest is the greatest show on Earth. Only 20? Elsewhere, Fleur East is set to host Eurovision: Everyone’s A Winner, where she counts down the 20 Eurovision performers who didn’t win the contest but still went on to achieve great success in the music industry and beyond.

And for those of you planning to head to Liverpool itself to enjoy this year’s contest, the first details of the Eurovision Village have now been announced. Last year’s winners, Kalush Orchestra, will be headlining at the Eurovision Village, which opens on Friday 5 May and runs until the 13th, which will include live music, DJ sets, special guest appearances and a unique Discover Ukraine area.

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€˜What’s Another Year’ in: 1980

So with that in mind, I wanted to take a little look at Sweden in the modern era of Eurovision and think about their track record - and what it might mean for this year’s contest.

Let’s travel back in time 11 years to Baku, Azerbaijan, where the contest was being held the year after Ell & Nikki won with ‘Running Scared’ (a track which I think is underrated by a lot of people, by the way). Sweden entered the contest with ‘Euphoria’ by Loreen, a song that was tipped to do very well, but was sharing the spotlight in the pre-contest publicity with ‘Party For Everybody’, the novelty song by Buranovskiye Babushki, a group of eight elderly women representing Russia whose performance involved them ‘baking bread’ on the stage.

t, looking back at Eurovision: 2012

Loreen’s win felt like a bit of a watershed moment for Eurovision - your mileage may vary of course, but it felt like the first time in a long time that the contest had been won by a majorly commercial pop song, and that was reflected in its chart performance, reaching number one in of course Sweden but also Belgium, Austria, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Luxembourg, Norway, Poland, Russia, Slovakia, Switzerland, and Turkey. It only made it to number three in the UK, but when you factor in that it was the highest-charting non-UK Eurovision song in 25 years, that’s still pretty impressive.

cularly successful stint from: 1983

had a national final back in: 2019

So Melfest is big in Sweden - but it hasn’t always been this way. Just as the UK fell out of love with Eurovision for a long, long time, and only rediscovered our affection for it last year - coincidentally the same year that we got our best result in over two decades - Sweden had its own spell of not being all that bothered about Melfest. In the mid-90s, the competition went from pulling in audiences of nearly six million in Sweden to almost half that - and the introduction of a televoting system also caused problems, with some critics claiming that it was skewing the results - so, just like Eurovision itself would end up doing in the future, Melfest rolled back to a hybrid jury/televote set-up.

eld on a single night, but in: 2002

ughs, and after Carola won in: 1991

hey hit their stride again in: 2011

appen every year - indeed, in: 2016

So why might this be? Well, their popularity with the juries is most likely due to Sweden’s international reputation for high quality pop songwriting, and the fact that their selection process - ie Melfest - highlights the songwriters as well as the artists. While I don’t think they exactly need to be hitting panic stations right now that they don’t have quite such a reliably strong televote, because their reliable popularity with the juries tends to make up that shortfall most years, it is interesting that Melfest hasn’t produced a televote winner in the final at Eurovision since Loreen - and that Sweden’s best hope in years of topping the public vote comes from Loreen again. Clearly, when it comes to Eurovision, you might be able to anticipate the sort of thing that juries will like and respond to - but the general public are a different beast entirely, and Sweden is as vulnerable to that as the rest of us.

So, if there’s any lesson at all to take away from this, I guess it’s that you underestimate Sweden at your peril - but at the same time, they do have a weak point which means they’re not invincible. And looking at this year’s contest, the momentum is definitely behind Loreen, whose song is already a huge international hit - and while I think the smart money is still on her to win, I also think we can’t entirely rule out an upset, particularly with the likes of Norway’s Alessandra, Finland’s Käärijä, Spain’s Blanca Paloma and Austria’s Teya and Salena going down a storm at the pre-contest parties. I think it’s Loreen’s to lose - but I also think we’ve got a real competition on our hands.

century - the UK last won in: 1997

That’s it for this week. I’ll be back with another minisode of headlines next Monday, and I’m also off to the official launch of this year’s contest in Liverpool later this week - so hopefully I’ll have a lot to talk about.

Don’t forget to hit that subscribe button to make sure you don’t miss an update, and until next time: good night Europe, and good morning Australia…