Post-war With the influx of
American G.I.s into Europe in the 1940s, styles of American music seeded themselves into Swedish culture. Many Swedish
dansorkestrar ("dance orchestras") played
jitterbug,
foxtrot, and
swing music and other jazz-derived tunes for people to dance to. In the 1950s early
rock and roll, as well as
country music and German
schlager also infused the market, influencing Swedish musicians to build upon these styles, gradually moving them away from jazz, which was turning more toward the
avant garde.
1960s (pictured here in 1965) are widely considered one of the best Swedish bands of the 1960s. The jazz orchestra dancing in Scandinavia was interrupted by the
counterculture of the 1960s, whose influences of
left-wing politics and
LSD were altering the shape of popular music around the world. In 1967 the first
psychedelic and
progressive rock groups emerged in Stockholm's Filips club, including
Hansson & Karlsson, the
Baby Grandmothers, and
Mecki Mark Men. These groups were very popular in Sweden of the late 60s, with television appearances, sold-out concerts, and tours around Europe. Mecki Mark Men even spent three months in the U.S. where they played in big rock music festivals with
Sly and the Family Stone,
Jethro Tull,
Pentangle,
Mountain,
Grand Funk Railroad,
Paul Butterfield, and
The Byrds. Aside from this music that blended rock, jazz, and
folk music with
improvisation and
experimentation, Swedish progressive rock, or "
progg" as it became known, was also fiercely political. Progg bands would go on to support efforts against war and
nuclear power, or protest competitive events like
Eurovision, stating, "Music cannot be a contest." Due to the sheer popularity that
the Beatles received in Sweden, they inspired countless other bands to form and write original compositions. Some of the most popular bands performing pop-music during this era were
the Hep Stars,
The Shanes,
Ola & the Janglers and
Tages. All of these bands, to some degree, wrote their own material, including
Benny Andersson, who with the Hep Stars wrote the singles "
No Response" (1965), "
Sunny Girl", "
Wedding" and "
Consolation" (all 1966). Tages, despite their enormous success in Sweden, decided to try an international career. They recorded several albums in doing so, including one of the earliest psychedelic albums,
Extra Extra. In 1967, the band incorporated
traditional Swedish music into their performances. Their final album
Studio is a prime example of this.
Studio features solely original material and is considered one of the best Swedish albums of the 1960s.
1970s: Dansbandmusik and ABBA broke through with
Wizex in the 1970s. The term "
dansband" was coined around 1970, when Swedish popular music developed a signature style with brightly characterized lyrics and catchy melodies. The following decade became the golden era of dansband music, with groups like
Thorleifs,
Flamingokvintetten,
Ingmar Nordströms,
Wizex and
Matz Bladhs rising to popularity in Sweden. In 1977, the song "
Beatles", performed by Swedish dansband
Forbes, won the Swedish
Melodifestivalen 1977 and finished 18th (last) in the
Eurovision Song Contest 1977. For tax purposes, performers found a loophole in declaring "fantasy" outfits as deductibles to one's income, the reason being that it shouldn't be possible to wear the same outfit in your daily life. This led to many bands wearing highly extravagant matched outfits in their stage performances. April 6, 1974 marks the start of a new era in Swedish pop music. First,
Blue Swede reached No. 1 on the
Billboard Hot 100 with their cover of the
B. J. Thomas song "
Hooked on a Feeling". The combo (fronted by iconic actor/singer
Bjorn Skifs) also covered "Half Breed", "Never My Love", and "A Song For You"; as made famous by
Cher,
The Association, and
The Carpenters, respectively. These renditions appeared on at least one "best-of" album, though never officially offered for sale anywhere beyond Europe. The very same day,
ABBA won the
Eurovision Song Contest in
Brighton,
England, with "
Waterloo". It was a big success throughout Europe, and reached number six on the
Billboard Hot 100. Over the next few years ABBA had 18 consecutive top ten hits in the UK, nine of them reaching number one. Having sold an estimated 370 million units worldwide, ABBA became the best-selling band of the 1970s. In 1977, "Dancing Queen" became ABBA's only number one hit on the
Billboard Hot 100. ABBA and
Led Zeppelin are the only acts to have had 8 consecutive UK #1 albums. Andersson and Ulvaeus collaborated with
Tim Rice on the musical
Chess which premiered in London in 1986. Two songs from the musical were hugely successful singles: "
One Night in Bangkok" reached number three on the
Billboard Hot 100, and "
I Know Him So Well" topped the UK singles chart in February 1985. In 1975,
Harpo scored an international hit with the song
Moviestar, with ABBA's Anni-Frid Lyngstad on backing vocals. After a 35-year hiatus, it was announced in 2018 that ABBA had reunited and recorded two new songs for an upcoming "virtual" tour. In September 2021 they revealed a brand new studio album,
Voyage, their first for 40 years. Released in November 2021,
Voyage topped the album charts in numerous countries, including Australia, Germany and the UK.
1980s: Europe, Roxette and Neneh Cherry In 1986,
Europe, a
hard rock band from
Upplands Väsby, hit number one in 25 countries (including the UK) with the song "
The Final Countdown". The album of the same name also charted around the world and sold more than 7 million copies worldwide, 3 million copies in the United States alone. The single has sold 8 million copies. The following year included successful tours through Europe, Japan and the US. Their next album was
Out of This World, which produced "
Superstitious" as its biggest hit. This album sold about 3.5 million copies worldwide. These two multi-platinum albums placed
Europe as one of the most successful hard rock bands in the world with album sales of more than 23 million records. After the release of
Prisoners in Paradise, which sold only 1.2 million copies, Europe decided to take a break in 1992. They reformed in 2003 and produced six albums so far. They continue to record and tour. had four number-one hits on the
Billboard Hot 100 chart.
Marie Fredriksson and
Per Gessle formed the band
Roxette in 1986. Four of their songs, "
The Look", "
Listen To Your Heart" (both 1989), "
It Must Have Been Love" (1990) and "
Joyride" (1991), reached number one on the
Billboard Hot 100, while two further singles, "
Dangerous" (1990) and "
Fading Like a Flower" (1991), both peaked at number two on the Billboard Hot 100. To date, their best-selling albums are
Joyride (11 million units) and
Look Sharp! (9 million units). Overall, the duo has sold more than 45 million albums and 25 million singles worldwide.
Neneh Cherry released the worldwide hit single "
Buffalo Stance" in 1988. The song peaked at No. 3 on both the
UK Singles Chart and the US
Billboard Hot 100. Cherry's debut album
Raw Like Sushi was released in 1989, experimenting with merging hiphop and mainstream dance-pop. The album was
BRIT Certified Platinum four months after release. Cherry was nominated for "Best New Artist" with Buffalo Stance at the 1989
MTV Video Music Awards and the song was nominated for "International Hit of the Year" at the 1990
Ivor Novello Awards. Cherry's second single, "
Manchild" (1989), peaked at No. 2 in Germany, and at No. 5 in the UK, and was a top-10 success in six more countries. The music video was nominated for "Best Video" at the 1990
Brit Awards. Her third single, "
Kisses on the Wind" (1989), reached top-20 in seven countries including the US, where it peaked at No. 8 on the
Billboard Hot 100. In 1990 Cherry won two Brit Awards, and she was also nominated for "Best New Artist" at the 1990
Grammy Awards. Cherry would be high on the charts again in 1994 with the single "
7 Seconds", a duet with the Senegalese singer/songwriter
Youssou N'Dour. The song reached top-3 on charts in 14 countries including France, where it stayed at No. 1 for a record 16 consecutive weeks on the Singles Chart. It won "Best Song" at the 1994
MTV Europe Music Awards and was nominated for "International Hit of the Year" at the 1995 Ivor Novello Awards. In 2015 Neneh Cherry was inducted into the
Swedish Music Hall of Fame.
1990s: The Cheiron phenomenon on Swedish popular music is hard to overstate. Since the 1990s, Sweden's influence on the international pop music scene has been most evident via a number of heavyweight songwriters and producers.
Cheiron Studios, spearheaded by
Denniz Pop and his protégé
Max Martin, helped
Ace of Base become an international success, and then went on to creating some of the biggest hits of
Britney Spears,
Backstreet Boys,
NSYNC and
Westlife, to name just a few. Denniz Pop died from cancer in 1998 and Cheiron Studios was closed two years later, but Martin remains a superstar in the industry - only
Paul McCartney has written more #1 Billboard hits than Max Martin. Other prominent producers who were part of Cheiron include
Carl Falk,
Rami Yacoub,
Kristian Lundin,
Jörgen Elofsson,
Per Magnusson and
Andreas Carlsson.
Ace of Base's first album
Happy Nation (reissued as
The Sign) is one of the best-selling debut albums of all time, and was certified nine times platinum in the United States. The reggae-influenced song "
The Sign" was added to the album at its reissue in the U.S. and became a huge hit. It spent six non-consecutive weeks at number one on the
Billboard Hot 100 chart and even became the top song on Billboard's 1994 Year End Chart. Today Ace of Base's four studio albums have sold more than 30 million copies worldwide, making them the third-most successful Swedish band of all time after ABBA and Roxette. Several other Cheiron-propelled Swedish music artists reached international success in the 1990s, such as
Dr. Alban, eurodance rappers
E-Type and
Leila K, and not least
Robyn who had her US breakthrough in 1997 with the hit songs "
Do You Know (What It Takes)" and "
Show Me Love". However, not all success stories were created by Cheiron. Rock band
The Cardigans was formed in
Jönköping in 1992 and after steadily gaining popularity at home and in
Japan, they became a global name in 1996 through their third album
First Band on the Moon. The hit single
Lovefool was featured on the soundtrack to the film
Romeo + Juliet.
A*Teens were formed in 1998 as an
ABBA tribute band. Their 1999 debut album
The ABBA Generation consisted purely of ABBA covers and was a great success around the world. The album sold 3 million copies worldwide. The singles "Mamma Mia" (UK #12) and "Dancing Queen" (UK #21) topped the charts in Sweden. Their second album
Teen Spirit (2001) contained new songs and was certified Gold in the United States. Other notable Swedish acts who had international hits during this decade are
Army of Lovers,
Yaki-Da,
Stakka Bo,
Rednex,
Eagle Eye Cherry,
Emilia,
Teddybears and
Meja.
2000s: Continued international success The Cheiron legacy kept growing into the 21st century. Max Martin continued creating hit songs for stars like
Britney Spears,
Céline Dion and
Pink, and he also helped bring forward new talented producers such as
Shellback. Another producer who rose to fame during the 2000s is
Swedish/
Moroccan RedOne, who had huge success worldwide working alongside
Lady Gaga, and later other American stars. He has been nominated for eight
Grammy Awards and won two of those.
Robyn reappeared in 2007, after an absence of 10 years from the international music scene, with her No. 1 hit in the UK "
With Every Heartbeat". The self-titled album was certified Gold in the UK and Platinum in Sweden. "Dream On", the follow-up with
Christian Falk, was originally released in 2006 on his album
People Say. It was re-released in the UK in November 2008 peaking at No. 21. Robyn also collaborated with
Norwegian duo
Röyksopp for the single "
The Girl and the Robot" in June 2009. A number of dance-oriented Swedish acts became internationally successful during this decade. In 2004, Swedish DJ and producer
Eric Prydz topped the UK charts for five weeks with "
Call on Me", with lyrics performed in English under the title "
Now You're Gone". The second single "
All I Ever Wanted" peaked at number two in the UK.
September is a Swedish dance-singer whose song "
Cry For You" reached number five in the UK in 2008. He was also ranked as third on the Top 100 DJs list multiple years. His most popular song "
Wake Me Up" reached 3 billion streams on Spotify and 2.5 billion views on YouTube in 2026. Avicii, whose real name was Tim Bergling, released three successful albums,
True,
Stories, and
Avīci (01) before his death at 28 years old in April of 2018. The 2010s also saw successful releases from
Agnes Carlsson and
Robyn. Agnes, the winner of Sweden's Idol 2005, succeeded in Europe and especially the UK market in 2009/2010 with the single "Release Me", which entered the charts at number three and sold over 300,000 copies. It peaked at No. 6 on the Billboard
Eurochart Hot 100 Singles. Carlsson was also signed to Universal Music/Interscope in the US, and started the promotion for the forthcoming album
Dance Love Pop during the summer 2010. In 2012, Swedish
Eurovision Song Contest 2012 winner
Loreen charted at number one in several countries across Europe with her song "
Euphoria", making her one of the most successful winners of the contest in recent years. In 2013, Swedish duo
Icona Pop reached the top ten on the
Billboard Hot 100 and number-one on the
UK Singles Chart with their song "
I Love It". The song was certified gold in the United Kingdom and 2× platinum in the United States, selling 400,000 and 2,025,000 copies, respectively. Icona Pop's
Caroline Hjelt is close friends with singer/songwriter
Tove Lo, who had her international breakthrough shortly afterwards. Tove Lo charted at number 3 on
Billboard Hot 100 with her song "
Habits (Stay High)" and the song was certified 5× Platinum in the United States. Swedish singer-songwriter
Zara Larsson released her debut
EP album Introducing in January 2013. She later featured in the official song of
UEFA Euro 2016,
David Guetta's "
This One's for You". Her album
So Good produced eight singles and she charted at number 13 on the
Billboard Hot 100 with "
Never Forget You"; the song was certified 2× Platinum in the United States. Her biggest hit, however, is "
Lush Life" with over 875 million views on YouTube and 1.9 billion streams on Spotify; the song would later have a huge resurgence in the mid-2020s, owing to a viral dance trend which began during Larsson's
Midnight Sun Tour in 2025. In 2015,
Måns Zelmerlöw won the
Eurovision Song Contest 2015 with his song "
Heroes". The song charted in the multiple countries around Europe and Australia, peaking at number 11 in the United Kingdom. ==Styles==