Sweden has participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 62 times since making its debut in 1958, missing only three contests since then (1964, 1970 and 1976). Since 1959, the Swedish entry has been chosen through an annual televised competition, known since 1967 as Melodifestivalen. At the 1997 contest, Sweden was one of the first five countries to adopt televoting. Sweden has hosted the contest seven times: three times in Stockholm (1975, 2000, 2016), three times in Malmö (1992, 2013, 2024) and once in Gothenburg (1985).

Quick Facts Participating broadcaster, Participation summary ...

Sweden in the Eurovision Song Contest
Participating broadcaster	Sveriges Television (SVT; 1980–present) Former members Sveriges Radio (1958–1979)
Participation summary
Appearances	62 (61 finals)
First appearance	1958
Highest placement	1st: 1974, 1984, 1991, 1999, 2012, 2015, 2023
Host	1975, 1985, 1992, 2000, 2013, 2016, 2024
Participation history 1958 1959 1960 1961 1962 1963 1964 1965 1966 1967 1968 1969 1970 1971 1972 1973 1974 1975 1976 1977 1978 1979 1980 1981 1982 1983 1984 1985 1986 1987 1988 1989 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022 2023 2024
Related articles
Melodifestivalen
External links
SVT official homepage
Sweden's page at Eurovision.tv
For the most recent participation see Sweden in the Eurovision Song Contest 2024

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Sweden, along with Ireland, 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 26 top five results in the contest. After finishing second with Lill Lindfors and Svante Thuresson in 1966, Sweden went on to achieve its seven victories with ABBA (1974), Herreys (1984), Carola (1991), Charlotte Nilsson (1999), Loreen (2012 and 2023) and Måns Zelmerlöw (2015).

Sweden's first entrant in the contest was Alice Babs in 1958, who was placed fourth. This remained the country's best result until 1966, when Lill Lindfors and Svante Thuresson were second.^[1]

Sweden's first Eurovision victory was in 1974 with the song "Waterloo", performed by ABBA. Thanks to 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 Carola finished third in 1983, the Herreys gave Sweden its second victory in 1984 with "Diggi-Loo Diggi-Ley". Kikki Danielsson then finished third in 1985. Carola returned to the contest in 1991, eventually giving Sweden its third win with "Fångad av en stormvind", defeating France in a tie-break. Charlotte Nilsson gave the country a second win of the decade in 1999, with "Take Me to Your Heaven". The 1990s also saw two third-place results, for Jan Johansen in 1995 and One More Time in 1996. In the 2000s, the best Swedish result was fifth place, which it achieved four times, with Friends in 2001, Fame in 2003, Lena Philipsson in 2004 and Carola, who in 2006, 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 between 2005 and 2009, placing no higher than 18th. The nadir came in 2010, 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 2008, 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 seven in all subsequent editions except two (14th place in 2013 and 2021). This includes a fifth victory courtesy of Loreen's "Euphoria" in 2012, a sixth victory courtesy of Måns Zelmerlöw's "Heroes" in 2015, and a seventh victory courtesy of Loreen's "Tattoo" in 2023. 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 are third places in 2011 and 2014, a fourth place in 2022, and fifth places in 2016, 2017 and 2019.

• Alice Babs in Hilversum (1958)
• Ingvar Wixell in Naples (1965)
• Tomas Ledin in The Hague (1980)
• Carola in Athens (2006)
• The Ark in Helsinki (2007)
• Charlotte Perrelli in Belgrade (2008)
• Malena Ernman in Moscow (2009)
• Anna Bergendahl in Oslo (2010)
• Eric Saade in Düsseldorf (2011)
• Loreen in Baku (2012)
• Robin Stjernberg in Malmö (2013)
• Sanna Nielsen in Copenhagen (2014)
• Måns Zelmerlöw in Vienna (2015)
• Frans in Stockholm (2016)
• Robin Bengtsson in Kyiv (2017)
• Benjamin Ingrosso in Lisbon (2018)
• John Lundvik in Tel Aviv (2019)
• Tusse in Rotterdam (2021)
• Cornelia Jakobs in Turin (2022)
• Loreen in Liverpool (2023)
• Marcus & Martinus in Malmö (2024)

• Melodifestivalen
• Sweden in the Junior Eurovision Song Contest – Junior version of the Eurovision Song Contest.
• Sweden in the Eurovision Dance Contest – Dance version of the Eurovision Song Contest.
• Sweden in the Eurovision Young Dancers – A competition organised by the EBU for younger dancers aged between 16 and 21.
• Sweden in the Eurovision Young Musicians – A competition organised by the EBU for musicians aged 18 years and younger.