On this series of weekly posts, we remind you the winners of the past decade! Can you believe it? Another Eurovision decade has passed! The 10 songs that got the gold for their countries will be presented in random order!

In this decade we saw, of course, ten winners. From that number Sweden won two times. Azerbaijan and Portugal won for their first time and Germany and Austria for second time. The Netherlands won for the fifth time after 44 years! Moreover, Ukraine, Denmark and Israel mark their 2nd, 3rd and 4th win respectively. 

Sweden in ESC

Sweden debuted at the contest in 1958 with the song “Lilla stjärna” by Alice Babs. Her entry finished 4th with 10 points.

From 1958 until today Sweden has participated in a total of fifty-nine times, missing the contest three times – 1964, 1970, 1976. From the 59 contest, the country has missed the finals only one time, in 2010. Its entry “This Is My Life” by Anna Bergendahl finished 11th and missing the qualification for 5 points. The country has won six times in 1974, 1984, 1991, 1999, 2012 and 2015.

It has achieved the Top-10 forty-one times, six times the 1st, one time the 2nd place and six times the 3rd. It has also placed one time 6th, two times in 4th and 9th place, four times 7th and 8th, five times 10th and ten times in the 5th place. Its worst result in the final is the last place, two times, one of which with no points at all (1963), whilst in the semis, it has finished 11th with 62 points in 2010.

Sweden in 2012

In 2012, the contest was held in Baku, Azerbaijan, after its last year’s win. Sweden chose its representative for the contest through its national final, Melodifestivalen. The winner of the national final was Loreen. Her song “Euphoria” impressed the Swedes and international juries of Melodifestivalen, especially for its simplicity.

The song was composed by Thomas G:son and Peter Boström. The song came first in the semi with 181 points and on the night of the final achieved again the first place with 372 points.

Loreen

Loreen was born on 16th October 1983, in Stockholm, Sweden. Her full name is Lorine Zineb Noka Talhaoui and her parents are of Moroccan descendant. At the age of 21, she took part in the first season of the Swedish version of the Idol. She was eliminated on the 8th week, finishing 4th. After that, she took a break from the music and she worked behind the cameras as a producer and director.

In 2011, she competed in Melodifestivalen with the song “My Heart Is Refusing Me”, the song made it to the Second Round, but then it was eliminated. The year after, she tried again with “Euphoria” and won not only the national final but Eurovision too. In 2017, she competed again in melfest, but this time she was eliminated again in the Second Chance round. On 4th October 2019, she released her latest single titled “Walk with Me”.

That’s the end of our series of posts “Winners of the Decade”. In the past ten weeks, we recalled all ten winners of the past ten years. Stay tuned for more posts. Don’t forget that the national final season is just around the corner!

What do you think about the song? Do you like it? Do you think is it one of the most memorable entries from Sweden? Let us know in the comment box below.