1987–1998 Born in
Hovmantorp, in the southern Swedish province of
Småland, at the age of thirteen Nilsson joined a local
dansband, Bengt Ingvars, which became "Bengt Ingvars med Charlotte". She also became the lead singer of a band named Kendix. In 1994, Nilsson started singing with the well-established dansband
Anders Engbergs. After two albums, she left them and joined the highly successful
Wizex in 1997. From 1997 to 1998 Nilsson starred as the instructor Millan Svensson in the Swedish soap opera
Vita lögner.
1999–2000 After winning that year's national
Melodifestivalen, Nilsson went to
Jerusalem to compete as the Swedish representative for the
1999 Eurovision Song Contest on 29 May with her song "
Take Me to Your Heaven". She won the contest with 163 points, making her the fourth Swedish representative to win the competition following
Carola Häggkvist's victory in
1991, the
Herreys brothers' in
1984 and
ABBA's in
1974. Following her Eurovision success, Nilsson toured Europe and the Middle East, promoting her winning song. She also started working on her first solo album,
Charlotte. Later that year, she was voted Sweden's sexiest woman by the magazine
Café. She later released "I Write You a Lovesong", together with debut album
Charlotte, which was well received. She did not appear at the
Eurovision Song Contest 2000 due to a dispute with
Sveriges Television.
2001–2003 In 2001 Nilsson released her second album,
Miss Jealousy, a pop/rock album which included the top-20 hit single "You Got Me Going Crazy", written by
Mårten Sandén,
Johan Åberg and
Paul Rein as well as the radio hit "Light of My Life". Following the release, she promoted the album throughout Europe and New Zealand. Nilsson hosted the first semi-final of
Melodifestivalen 2003 with
Mark Levengood and
Lena Philipsson. In April 2003 she performed in
Jesus Christ Superstar in Stockholm. In September she released a new single, "Broken Heart", which was followed up by the album
Gone Too Long in June 2004. The album contained songs such as "Gone Too Long", "Flashdance" and "Million Miles Away". Charlotte Nilsson changed her name to Charlotte Perrelli after
her 2003 marriage, and has retained the surname since her 2009 divorce. Perrelli,
Peter Settman and
Ola Lindholm ended up hosting the entire tour together. After the festival, Swedish
TV4 offered her own show on the channel, In mid-2004 she released her, until then, most successful album,
Gone Too Long, which included songs by some of Sweden's top producers, including
Jörgen Elofsson. The album topped the Swedish top for weeks and contained hits such as "A Million Miles Away" and "Gone Too Long". In the summer, she joined
Robert Wells,
Jill Johnson and others on the Rhapsody in Rock-tour in mid-2004. In the spring of 2005, she was a judge on
Inför Eurovision, a TV show which previewed that year's Eurovision songs. In 2006, she released the album
I din röst, in honour of the famous jazz singer
Monica Zetterlund, which covered Zetterlund's most famous songs, along with some personal favorites and the soul ballad "I din röst", the title song written by Perrelli for the album. The album was successful, and she performed many of the songs in Sweden's top shows such as
Allsång på Skansen and
Nationaldagen. She also co-hosted the TV show
Tillsammans för världens barn in October, where she also performed "
The Greatest Love of All". In May 2007 Perrelli was the Swedish expert in the
Nordic preview show panel discussion about the
Eurovision Song Contest. In mid-2007 Perrelli toured Sweden with
Diggiloo. She was joined by singers such as
Linda Bengtzing,
Lasse Holm,
Molly Sandén,
Lotta Engberg and
Jan Johansen. During the summer she released the love ballad "Som du" which she performed at the popular show
Sommarkrysset. During the autumn she released the single disco song "Jag är tillbaks" which she performed at the show
Babban & Co.
2008–2009 , 5 April 2008. On 15 March 2008, Perrelli performed at the
Stockholm Globe Arena and won
Melodifestivalen 2008 again with her song "
Hero", which topped the charts in Sweden for several weeks and became the most sold single of 2008 for a Swedish artist. She went on to represent Sweden in the
Eurovision Song Contest 2008 in Belgrade, Serbia, where she advanced to the finals. Preparing for Eurovision, she went out on a big tour, performing at popular TV shows in 17 nations, in order to promote the song. Despite being one of the favourites to win Eurovision, it finished 18th out of 25 entries in the final, with 47 points in total. The song "Bullet" was subsequently released as a single, performing moderately on the Swedish charts. Perrelli started rehearsals for Rhapsody in Rock along with Wells, with whom she toured with during that summer. Perrelli and Wells performed a concert in
Beijing, China during the
2008 Summer Olympics. She also performed on several of Sweden's top TV shows, such as
Sommarkrysset,
Victoriadagen and
Nationaldagen. On 31 October 2008 Perrelli was a guest judge and coach for the remaining contestants on
Idol 2008. In November and December, she promoted her Christmas album and toured Sweden. In the beginning of 2009, she travelled to Beijing to perform in a series of TV shows. She worked as a judge on the Swedish show
Talang 2009.
2010–present At the Schlager pride in Stockholm in July 2009, she announced that she would release a new album in 2010; however, this was later put forward to 2012. Perrelli recorded a new single for the
Swedish Royal Wedding in June 2010 together with pop singer
Magnus Carlsson titled "Mitt livs gemål", which was very well received and performed throughout Sweden. In August, she released a fitness book titled
Kan du Kan jag. In December 2010, she toured Swedish churches with her material from
Rimfrostjul. Perrelli continued as a judge on
Talang 2010 and
Talang 2011. As a result, she released
Don't cry for me Argentina as a single. She participated in
Melodifestivalen 2012 with the entry "The Girl" by
Fredrik Kempe in a bid to represent Sweden at the
Eurovision Song Contest 2012 in
Baku, Azerbaijan. In the fourth semi-final of the show, she came in fifth, and failed to qualify to the final. Nonetheless, she released her seventh album titled
The Girl, which contained eight new tracks, including "Little Braveheart", a duet with Belgian singer
Kate Ryan. Other hits include
Just not tonight and
No More Black & Blue. She also released her own perfume and shimmering lotion called The Girl. In the summer of 2012, she once again toured with
Diggiloo. After this, she released her second fitness book. In 2013, she released her second Christmas album titled
Min barndoms jul and toured extensively in Scandinavia. In 2015, she released the song
Bröllopsvalsen which she performed at numerous events. The song is a tribute to her husband. She also released a book about pregnancy. In 2017, she released the music album in Swedish titled
Mitt liv. She also toured with Diggiloo during the summers of 2014, 2015, 2017 and 2018. In 2018, she appeared on
Så mycket bättre which is broadcast on TV4. She released her autobiography in October 2018 titled
Flickan från Småland, which was also the name of her 2019 tour of Sweden. 2019 saw Perrelli commentate for SVT at the
Eurovision Song Contest 2019 in Israel beside
Edward af Sillén, 20 years after winning the contest in the same country. She participated in
Melodifestivalen 2021 with the song "
Still Young" when she qualified for the finale, where she came 8th with 60 points. Perrelli performed as one of the interval acts in the second semi-final and final of the
Eurovision Song Contest 2024 in
Malmö. ==Personal life==