Sweden in the Eurovision Song Contest 2023

Eurovision Song Contest 2023
Country	Sweden
National selection
Selection process	Melodifestivalen 2023
Selection date(s)	Heats: 4 February 2023 11 February 2023 18 February 2023 25 February 2023 Semi-final: 4 March 2023 Final: 11 March 2023
Selected artist(s)	Loreen
Selected song	"Tattoo"
Selected songwriter(s)	Jimmy "Joker" Thörnfeldt Jimmy Jansson Lorine Talhaoui Moa Carlebecker Peter Boström Thomas G:son
Finals performance
Semi-final result	Qualified (2nd, 135 points)
Final result	1st, 583 points
Sweden in the Eurovision Song Contest
◄2022 • 2023 • 2024►

Sweden participated in and won the Eurovision Song Contest 2023 in Liverpool, United Kingdom, with "Tattoo" performed by Loreen.^[1] The Swedish broadcaster Sveriges Television (SVT) organised Melodifestivalen 2023 in order to select its entry for the contest.

Sweden was drawn to compete in the first semi-final of the Eurovision Song Contest which took place on 9 May 2023. Performing during the show in position 11, "Tattoo" was announced among the top 10 entries of the first semi-final and therefore qualified to compete in the final on 14 May. It was later revealed that Sweden placed second out of the 15 participating countries in the semi-final with 135 points. In the final, Sweden performed in position 9 and placed first out of the 26 participating countries, winning the contest with 583 points.^[2]

This was Sweden's seventh win in the Eurovision Song Contest, having last won in 2015, therefore tying Ireland's record for the most victories in the contest. Loreen also became the second performer, after Ireland's Johnny Logan, and the first female artist to win the contest on more than one occasion.^[3]

Background

Main article: Sweden in the Eurovision Song Contest

Prior to the 2023 contest, Sweden has participated in the Eurovision Song Contest sixty-one times since its first entry in 1958. Sweden had won the contest on six occasions: in 1974 with the song "Waterloo" performed by ABBA, in 1984 with the song "Diggi-Loo Diggi-Ley" performed by Herreys, in 1991 with the song "Fångad av en stormvind" performed by Carola, in 1999 with the song "Take Me to Your Heaven" performed by Charlotte Nilsson, in 2012 with the song "Euphoria" performed by Loreen, and in 2015 with the song "Heroes" performed by Måns Zelmerlöw. Following the introduction of semi-finals for the 2004 contest, Sweden's entries, to this point, have featured in every final, except for 2010.^[4] This includes its 2022 entry, "Hold Me Closer" performed by Cornelia Jakobs, which finished in fourth place with 438 points.

The Swedish national broadcaster, Sveriges Television (SVT), broadcasts the event within Sweden and organises the selection process for the nation's entry. Since 1959, SVT has organised the annual competition Melodifestivalen in order to select the Swedish entry for the Eurovision Song Contest.

Before Eurovision

Melodifestivalen 2023

Main article: Melodifestivalen 2023

The 2023 edition of Melodifestivalen featured four heats, a semi-final (replacing the previously held Second Chance round) and a final, and saw 28 acts compete. It was held between 4 February and 11 March 2023, concluding with a final held at the Friends Arena in Stockholm.^[5] After the cancellation of the traditional tour around six cities of the country (namely Malmö, Gothenburg, Linköping, Lidköping, Örnsköldsvik and Stockholm) for the previous edition due to the COVID-19 Omicron variant, SVT subsequently announced that the six cities would host the tour in 2023 instead, with new dates.^[5]

Heats and semi-final

• The first heat took place on 4 February 2023 at Scandinavium in Gothenburg. "Where You Are (Sávežan)" performed by Jon Henrik Fjällgren, Arc North feat. Adam Woods and "Rhythm of My Show" performed by Tone Sekelius qualified directly to the final, while "Diamonds" performed by Victor Crone and "Raggen går" performed by Elov & Beny advanced to the semi-final. "Haunted" performed by Rejhan, "Inga sorger" performed by Loulou Lamotte and "Länge leve livet" performed by Eva Rydberg & Ewa Roos were eliminated from the contest.
• The second heat took place on 11 February 2023 at the Saab Arena in Linköping. "Never Give Up" performed by Maria Sur and "On My Way" performed by Panetoz qualified directly to the final, while "Mer av dig" performed by Theoz and "Now I Know" performed by Tennessee Tears advanced to the semi-final. "All My Life (Where Have You Been)" performed by Wiktoria, "Grytan" performed by Uje Brandelius and "Comfortable" performed by Eden were eliminated from the contest.
• The third heat took place on 18 February 2023 at the Sparbanken Lidköping Arena in Lidköping. "Air" performed by Marcus & Martinus and "Royals" performed by Paul Rey qualified directly to the final, while "Släpp alla sorger" performed by Nordman and "For the Show" performed by Melanie Wehbe advanced to the semi-final. "Låt hela stan se på" performed by Ida-Lova, "Sober" performed by Laurell and "Så kommer känslorna tillbaka" performed by Casanovas were eliminated from the contest.
• The fourth heat took place on 25 February 2023 at the Malmö Arena in Malmö. "Tattoo" performed by Loreen and "Six Feet Under" performed by Smash Into Pieces qualified directly to the final, while "Where Did You Go" performed by Kiana and "One Day" performed by Mariette advanced to the semi-final. "Gorgeous" performed by Axel Schylström, "Edelweiss" performed by Signe & Hjördis and "Mera mera mera" performed by Emil Henrohn were eliminated from the contest.
• The semi-final took place on 4 March 2023 at the Hägglunds Arena in Örnsköldsvik. All of the songs competed against each other in a single semi-final, with the top four songs advancing to the final, similar to the preceding heats. "Släpp alla sorger" performed by Nordman, "Mer av dig" performed by Theoz, "Where Did You Go" performed by Kiana and "One Day" performed by Mariette qualified to the final, while "Now I Know" performed by Tennessee Tears, "Diamonds" performed by Victor Crone, "For the Show" performed by Melanie Wehbe and "Raggen går" performed by Elov & Beny were eliminated from the contest.

Final

The final took place on 11 March 2023 at the Friends Arena in Stockholm.

Draw	Artist	Song	Juries	Televote	Total	Place
1	Jon Henrik Fjällgren, Arc North feat. Adam Woods	"Where You Are (Sávežan)"	23	58	81	4
2	Tone Sekelius	"Rhythm of My Show"	15	5	20	12
3	Mariette	"One Day"	35	16	51	8
4	Marcus & Martinus	"Air"	71	67	138	2
5	Panetoz	"On My Way"	22	25	47	10
6	Maria Sur	"Never Give Up"	10	37	47	9
7	Smash Into Pieces	"Six Feet Under"	53	59	112	3
8	Kiana	"Where Did You Go"	37	39	76	6
9	Nordman	"Släpp alla sorger"	8	36	44	11
10	Loreen	"Tattoo"	92	85	177	1
11	Theoz	"Mer av dig"	42	36	78	5
12	Paul Rey	"Royals"	56	1	57	7

At Eurovision

According to Eurovision rules, all nations with the exceptions of the host country and the "Big Five" (France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the United Kingdom) are required to qualify from one of two semi-finals in order to compete for the final; the top ten countries from each semi-final progress to the final. The European Broadcasting Union (EBU) split up the competing countries into six different pots based on voting patterns from previous contests, with countries with favourable voting histories put into the same pot. On 31 January 2023, an allocation draw was held, which placed each country into one of the two semi-finals, and determined which half of the show they would perform in. Sweden has been placed into the first semi-final, to be held on 9 May 2023, and has been scheduled to perform in the second half of the show.^[6]

Once all the competing songs for the 2023 contest had been released, the running order for the semi-finals was decided by the shows' producers rather than through another draw, so that similar songs were not placed next to each other. Sweden was set to perform in position 11, following the entry from Moldova and before the entry from Azerbaijan.^[7]

At the end of the show, Sweden was announced as a qualifier for the final.

Voting

Points awarded to Sweden

Points awarded to Sweden (Semi-final 1)[8] Score Televote 12 points  Malta  Netherlands 10 points  Azerbaijan  Latvia  Norway  Moldova 8 points  Ireland  Portugal   Switzerland 7 points  Israel Rest of the World 6 points  Czech Republic  Serbia 5 points  Finland  France 4 points  Croatia  Germany 3 points  Italy 2 points 1 point

Points awarded to Sweden (Final)[2] Score Televote Jury 12 points  Albania  Cyprus  Denmark  Estonia  Finland  Germany  Ireland  Israel  Lithuania  Malta  Moldova  Netherlands  Spain  Ukraine  United Kingdom 10 points  Albania  Australia  Azerbaijan  Belgium  Estonia  Iceland  Malta  Norway  Armenia  Austria  Azerbaijan  Croatia  Czech Republic  Latvia  Norway  Romania 8 points  Cyprus  Denmark  Greece  Latvia  Moldova  Netherlands  Romania  San Marino  Belgium  Italy 7 points  Armenia  Georgia  Lithuania  Poland  Portugal Rest of the World  Australia  Iceland  Poland  Slovenia 6 points  Czech Republic  Ireland  Serbia  France  Greece   Switzerland 5 points  Spain   Switzerland  United Kingdom  Portugal  Serbia 4 points  Austria  Israel  Slovenia  Georgia  San Marino 3 points  France  Italy  Ukraine 2 points  Croatia 1 point  Germany

Points awarded by Sweden

Points awarded by Sweden (Semi-final)[8] Score Televote 12 points  Finland 10 points  Norway 8 points   Switzerland 7 points  Czech Republic 6 points  Moldova 5 points  Croatia 4 points  Portugal 3 points  Israel 2 points  Netherlands 1 point  Serbia

Points awarded by Sweden (Final)[2] Score Televote Jury 12 points  Finland  Finland 10 points  Norway  France 8 points   Switzerland  Norway 7 points  Belgium  Italy 6 points  Italy   Switzerland 5 points  Croatia  Israel 4 points  Ukraine  United Kingdom 3 points  Czech Republic  Czech Republic 2 points  France  Estonia 1 point  Australia  Cyprus

Detailed voting results

The following members comprised the Swedish jury:

• Fredrik Kempe
• Robert Sehlberg
• Arantxa Alvarez
• Clara Klingenström
• Isa Molin

Detailed voting results from Sweden (Semi-final 1)^[8]

Draw	Country	Televote
		Rank	Points
01	Norway	2	10
02	Malta	13
03	Serbia	10	1
04	Latvia	12
05	Portugal	7	4
06	Ireland	11
07	Croatia	6	5
08	Switzerland	3	8
09	Israel	8	3
10	Moldova	5	6
11	Sweden
12	Azerbaijan	14
13	Czech Republic	4	7
14	Netherlands	9	2
15	Finland	1	12

Detailed voting results from Sweden (Final)^[9]

Draw	Country	Jury							Televote
		Juror 1	Juror 2	Juror 3	Juror 4	Juror 5	Rank	Points	Rank	Points
01	Austria	9	23	21	19	14	20		21
02	Portugal	13	20	18	21	16	22		23
03	Switzerland	5	8	2	8	9	5	6	3	8
04	Poland	21	25	9	22	12	19		11
05	Serbia	23	9	22	24	23	21		14
06	France	1	13	10	1	2	2	10	9	2
07	Cyprus	15	10	4	9	11	10	1	12
08	Spain	14	17	17	11	10	16		25
09	Sweden
10	Albania	25	14	24	23	25	25		16
11	Italy	3	16	1	6	4	4	7	5	6
12	Estonia	16	12	5	4	24	9	2	15
13	Finland	2	1	3	3	1	1	12	1	12
14	Czech Republic	10	11	12	2	21	8	3	8	3
15	Australia	11	15	8	14	17	14		10	1
16	Belgium	18	2	23	13	13	12		4	7
17	Armenia	12	24	7	7	19	13		22
18	Moldova	6	5	14	10	22	11		13
19	Ukraine	17	19	13	18	7	15		7	4
20	Norway	4	3	6	5	3	3	8	2	10
21	Germany	20	22	20	17	15	23		20
22	Lithuania	22	21	19	15	18	24		18
23	Israel	7	4	11	20	8	6	5	17
24	Slovenia	19	7	16	16	20	17		19
25	Croatia	24	18	25	25	6	18		6	5
26	United Kingdom	8	6	15	12	5	7	4	24

References

1. "Sweden: It's Loreen to Eurovision with 'Tattoo'". eurovision.tv. 11 March 2023. Retrieved 19 March 2023.
2. "Results of the Grand Final of Liverpool 2023". Eurovision.tv. European Broadcasting Union.
3. "Eurovision: Sweden's Loreen wins again, but UK's Mae Muller is second from last". BBC News. 13 May 2023. Retrieved 14 May 2023.
4. "Sweden". EBU. Retrieved 19 March 2023.
5. Ek, Tobbe (5 February 2022). "Redan klart: Datum och städer för Melodifestivalen 2023". Aftonbladet (in Swedish). Archived from the original on 11 June 2022. Retrieved 15 June 2022.
6. Groot, Evert (31 January 2023). "Eurovision 2023: Allocation Draw results". European Broadcasting Union (EBU). Retrieved 31 January 2022.
7. "Eurovision Song Contest 2023 Semi-Final running orders revealed!". Eurovision.tv. EBU. 22 March 2023. Retrieved 22 March 2023.
8. "Results of the First Semi-Final of Liverpool 2023". Eurovision.tv. European Broadcasting Union.
9. "Results of the Grand Final of Turin 2022". Eurovision.tv. Retrieved 15 May 2022.