Sweden has been represented at the Eurovision Song Contest 65 times since making its debut in , missing only three contests since then (, , and ). The current Swedish participating broadcaster in the contest is (SVT), which select its entrant through the national competition Melodifestivalen. Sweden has hosted the contest seven times: three times in Stockholm (, , ), three times in Malmö (, , ) and one time in Gothenburg (). At the , Sweden was one of the first five countries to adopt televoting.
Sweden, along with , is the most successful country in the Eurovision Song Contest, with a total of seven victories. Sweden also has the most top-five results of the 21st century, with 13; in total, Sweden has achieved 27 top-five results in the contest. After finishing second with "" performed by Lill Lindfors and Svante Thuresson in , Sweden went on to achieve its seven victories with "Waterloo" by ABBA (), "Diggi-Loo Diggi-Ley" by Herreys (), "" by Carola (), "Take Me to Your Heaven" by Charlotte Nilsson (), "Euphoria" by Loreen (), "Heroes" by Måns Zelmerlöw (), and "Tattoo" by Loreen ().
Participation (SR) is a full member of the European Broadcasting Union (EBU), thus eligible to participate in the Eurovision Song Contest. It participated in the contest representing Sweden since its in 1958. Since 1980, after a restructuring that led to the creation of its television subsidiary (SVT), it is the latter who represents Sweden on the Eurovision stage.
History
Sweden's first entrant in the contest was "" performed by Alice Babs in , who placed fourth. This remained the country's best result until , when "" by Lill Lindfors and Svante Thuresson came second.
Sweden's first Eurovision victory was in with the song "Waterloo", performed by ABBA. Following their victory in Brighton, ABBA went on to gain worldwide success and become one of the best-selling pop groups of all time. In the 1980s, Sweden achieved three successive top three results. After "" by Carola finished third in , "Diggi-Loo Diggi-Ley" by the Herreys gave Sweden its second victory in . "" by Kikki Danielsson then finished third in . Carola returned to the contest in , eventually giving Sweden its third win with "", defeating in a tie-break. "Take Me to Your Heaven" by Charlotte Nilsson gave the country a second win of the decade in . The 1990s also saw two third-place results, for Jan Johansen in and One More Time in . In the 2000s, the best Swedish result was fifth place, which it achieved four times, with Friends in , Fame in , Lena Philipsson in and Carola, who in , became the only Swedish performer to achieve three top-five results. Together with Croatia and Malta, Sweden was one of only three countries to have never been relegated under the pre-2004 rules of the contest.
With the exception of 2006, Sweden endured a poor run of results from to , placing no higher than 18th. The low point came in , when Anna Bergendahl became the first Swedish entrant to fail to qualify for the final, finishing 11th in the semi-final, only five points from qualification (in , Charlotte Perrelli finished 12th in the semi-final but qualified through the back-up jury selection). Since then, the country has been very successful, finishing in the top ten in all subsequent editions except three (14th place in and , and 20th place in ). This includes a fifth victory courtesy of "Euphoria" by Loreen in , a sixth victory courtesy of "Heroes" by Måns Zelmerlöw in , and a seventh victory courtesy of "Tattoo" by Loreen in . With her 2023 win, Loreen also became the second performer as well as the first female artist to win the contest more than once. Additional top-five placements during this period were third places in and , fourth places in and , and fifth places in , , and .
Melodifestivalen
To choose its entrant for the Eurovision Song Contest, SR and SVT have organised an annual music competition known since 1967 as Melodifestivalen. It is one of Sweden's most popular television shows, and it has been estimated that more than four million Swedes watch the show annually. All of Sweden's entries for Eurovision have been selected through Melodifestivalen, with the exception of its first entry in 1958, which was internally selected by SR.
Participation overview + Table key 1 First place 2 Second place 3 Third place ◁ Last place ◇ Entry selected but did not compete † Upcoming event
Year Artist Song Language Final Points Semi Points Alice Babs "" Swedish 4 10 colspan="2" rowspan="32" Brita Borg "Augustin" Swedish 9 4 Siw Malmkvist "" Swedish 10 4 Lill-Babs "" Swedish 14 2 Inger Berggren "" Swedish 7 4 Monica Zetterlund "" Swedish 13 ◁ 0 Ingvar Wixell "Absent Friend" English 10 6 Lill Lindfors and Svante Thuresson "" Swedish 2 16 Östen Warnerbring "" Swedish 8 7 Claes-Göran Hederström "" Swedish 5 15 Tommy Körberg "" Swedish 9 8 Family Four "" Swedish 6 85 Family Four "" Swedish 13 75 The Nova "You're Summer" English 5 94 ABBA "Waterloo" English 1 24 Lars Berghagen "Jennie, Jennie" English 8 72 Forbes "Beatles" Swedish 18 ◁ 2 Björn Skifs "" Swedish 14 26 Ted Gärdestad "" Swedish 17 8 Tomas Ledin "" Swedish 10 47 Björn Skifs "" Swedish 10 50 Chips "" Swedish 8 67 Carola Häggkvist "" Swedish 3 126 Herreys "Diggi-Loo Diggi-Ley" Swedish 1 145 Kikki Danielsson "" Swedish 3 103 Lasse Holm and Monica Törnell "" Swedish 5 78 Lotta Engberg "Boogaloo" Swedish 12 50 Tommy Körberg "" Swedish 12 52 Tommy Nilsson "" Swedish 4 110 Edin-Ådahl "" Swedish 16 24 Carola "" Swedish 1 146 Christer Björkman "" Swedish 22 9 Arvingarna "Eloise" Swedish 7 89 colspan="2" Marie Bergman and Roger Pontare "" Swedish 13 48 colspan="2" rowspan="2" Jan Johansen "" Swedish 3 100 One More Time "" Swedish 3 100 1 227 Blond "" Swedish 14 36 colspan="2" rowspan="7" Jill Johnson "" Swedish 10 53 Charlotte Nilsson "Take Me to Your Heaven" English 1 163 Roger Pontare "When Spirits Are Calling My Name" English 7 88 Friends "Listen to Your Heartbeat" English 5 100 Afro-dite "Never Let It Go" English 8 72 Fame "Give Me Your Love" English 5 107 Lena Philipsson "It Hurts" English 5 170 colspan="2" Martin Stenmarck "Las Vegas" English 19 30 colspan="2" Carola "Invincible" English 5 170 4 214 The Ark "The Worrying Kind" English 18 51 colspan="2" Charlotte Perrelli "Hero" English 18 47 12 54 Malena Ernman "" English, French 21 33 4 105 Anna Bergendahl "This Is My Life" English colspan="2" 11 62 Eric Saade "Popular" English 3 185 1 155 Loreen "Euphoria" English 1 372 1 181 Robin Stjernberg "You" English 14 62 colspan="2" Sanna Nielsen "Undo" English 3 218 2 131 Måns Zelmerlöw "Heroes" English 1 365 1 217 Frans "If I Were Sorry" English 5 261 colspan="2" Robin Bengtsson "I Can't Go On" English 5 344 3 227 Benjamin Ingrosso "Dance You Off" English 7 274 2 254 John Lundvik "Too Late for Love" English 5 334 3 238 The Mamas ◇ "Move" ◇ English ◇ colspan="4" Tusse "Voices" English 14 109 7 142 Cornelia Jakobs "Hold Me Closer" English 4 438 1 396 Loreen "Tattoo" English 1 583 2 135 Marcus & Martinus "Unforgettable" English 9 174 colspan="2" KAJ "" Swedish 4 321 4 118 Felicia "My System" English 20 51 9 96
Congratulations: 50 Years of the Eurovision Song Contest
Artist Song Language At Congratulations At Eurovision Final Points Semi Points Year Place Points ABBA "Waterloo" English 1 329 1 331 1 24
Hostings
Year Location Venue Executive producer Director Musical director Presenter(s) Stockholm Mats Olsson Karin Falck Gothenburg Scandinavium Curt-Eric Holmquist Lill Lindfors Malmö Anders Berglund Lydia Capolicchio and Harald Treutiger Stockholm Globe Arena Svante Stockselius Mattias Bratten rowspan="4" Kattis Ahlström and Anders Lundin Malmö Malmö Arena Martin Österdahl , Robin Hofwander and Sven Stojanović Petra Mede Stockholm Globe Arena Johan Bernhagen and Martin Österdahl Daniel Jelinek and Robin Hofwander Petra Mede and Måns Zelmerlöw Malmö Malmö Arena Ebba Adielsson and Robin Hofwander, Daniel Jelinek and Fredrik Bäcklund Petra Mede and Malin Åkerman
Awards Marcel Bezençon Awards
YearCategorySongPerformerComposer(s)FinalresultPointsHost cityArtistic Award"Never Let It Go"Afro-diteMarcos Ubeda872 TallinnArtistic Award"Invincible"CarolaThomas G:son, Bobby Ljunggren, Henrik Wikström, Carola5170 AthensArtistic Award"Euphoria"LoreenThomas G:son, Peter Boström1372 BakuComposer AwardComposer Award"You"Robin Stjernberg Robin Stjernberg, Linnea Deb, Joy Deb, Joakim Harestad Haukaas1462 MalmöArtistic Award"Heroes"Måns ZelmerlöwAnton Malmberg Hård af Segerstad, Joy Deb, Linnea Deb1365 ViennaComposer Award"Hold Me Closer"Cornelia Jakobs Cornelia Jakobsdotter, Isa Molin, David Zandén4438 TurinArtistic Award"Tattoo"LoreenJimmy "Joker" Thörnfeldt, Jimmy Jansson, Lorine Talhaoui, Moa Carlebecker, Peter Boström, Thomas G:son1583 LiverpoolPress Award
Winners by OGAE members
Year Song PerformerFinalresultPoints Host city "Hero" Charlotte Perrelli 18 47 Belgrade "Euphoria" Loreen 1 372 Baku "Undo" Sanna Nielsen 3 218 Copenhagen "Hold Me Closer" Cornelia Jakobs 4 438 Turin "Tattoo" Loreen 1 583 Liverpool "Bara bada bastu" KAJ 4 321 Basel
Related involvement Conductors YearEurovision conductorMelodifestivalen conductorNotes Dolf van der LindenHost conductor Franck PourcelThore EhrlingHost conductorThore EhrlingEgon KjerrmanWilliam LindGert-Ove AnderssonMats OlssonLars SamuelsonClaes RosendahlMats OlssonMonica DominiqueSven-Olof WalldoffLars SamuelsonAnders BerglundBengt PalmersLars SamuelsonAnders BerglundAnders EkdahlCurt-Eric HolmquistCurt-Eric HolmquistAnders BerglundCurt-Eric HolmquistAnders BerglundCurt-Eric HolmquistAnders BerglundAnders BerglundCurt-Eric HolmquistAnders BerglundCurt-Eric HolmquistAnders Berglundrowspan="2" Anders BerglundCurt-Eric Holmquist
Heads of delegation Each participating broadcaster in the Eurovision Song Contest assigns a head of delegation as the EBU's contact person and the leader of their delegation at the event. The delegation, whose size can greatly vary, includes a head of press, the performers, songwriters, composers, and backing vocalists, among others. YearHead of delegationRennie MirroChrister BjörkmanMari RybergerChrister BjörkmanLotta Furebäck
Commentators and spokespersons
Over the years Swedish commentary has been provided by several experienced radio and television presenters, including Jacob Dahlin, Ulf Elfving, Harald Treutiger, Pekka Heino, Kristian Luuk, and Fredrik Belfrage. Since (with the exceptions of 2013 and 2016), Edward af Sillén provided the SVT commentary alongside various dual commentators.