and
Per Herrey of
Herreys (1984),
Carola (1991),
Måns Zelmerlöw (2015),
Loreen (2012 and 2023) and
Björn Ulvaeus of
ABBA (1974) (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 participates representing Sweden. Sweden's first entrant in the contest was "" performed by
Alice Babs in , who was placed fourth. This remained the country's best result until , when "" by
Lill Lindfors and
Svante Thuresson was 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 nadir 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 two (14th place in and ). 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 are 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 ==