Sweden in the Eurovision Song Contest 2023 - Wikiwand

Sweden was represented at the Eurovision Song Contest 2023 with the song "Tattoo", written by Jimmy "Joker" Thörnfeldt, Jimmy Jansson, Lorine Talhaoui, Moa Carlebecker, Peter Boström, and Thomas G:son, and performed by Talhaoui herself under her stage name Loreen.^[1] The Swedish participating 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]

Prior to the 2023 contest,Sveriges Radio (SR) until 1979, and Sveriges Television (SVT) since 1980, had participated in the Eurovision Song Contest representing Sweden sixty-one times since SR's 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, Swedish 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.

As part of its duties as participating broadcaster, SVT organises the selection of its entry in the Eurovision Song Contest and broadcasts the event in the country. Since 1959, SR first and SVT later have organised the annual competition Melodifestivalen in order to select their entries for the contest.

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.