Sweden in the Eurovision Song Contest 2014

Summary

Sweden participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 2014 with the song "Undo" written by Fredrik Kempe, David Kreuger and Hamed "K-One" Pirouzpanah. The song was performed by Sanna Nielsen. The Swedish broadcaster Sveriges Television (SVT) organised the national final Melodifestivalen 2014 in order to select the Swedish entry for the 2014 contest in Copenhagen, Denmark. After a six-week-long competition consisting of four heats, a Second Chance round and a final, "Undo" performed by Sanna Nielsen emerged as the winner after achieving the highest score following the combination of votes from eleven international jury groups and a public vote.

Eurovision Song Contest 2014
Country Sweden
National selection
Selection processMelodifestivalen 2014
Selection date(s)Heats:
1 February 2014
8 February 2014
15 February 2014
22 February 2014
Second Chance:
1 March 2014
Final:
8 March 2014
Selected entrantSanna Nielsen
Selected song"Undo"
Selected songwriter(s)
Finals performance
Semi-final resultQualified (2nd, 131 points)
Final result3rd, 218 points
Sweden in the Eurovision Song Contest
◄2013 2014 2015►

Sweden was drawn to compete in the first semi-final of the Eurovision Song Contest which took place on 6 May 2014. Performing during the show in position 4, "Undo" was announced among the top 10 entries of the second semi-final and therefore qualified to compete in the final on 10 May. It was later revealed that Sweden placed second out of the 15 participating countries in the semi-final with 131 points. In the final, Sweden performed in position 13 and placed third out of the 26 participating countries with 218 points.

Background edit

Prior to the 2014 contest, Sweden had participated in the Eurovision Song Contest fifty-three times since its first entry in 1958.[1] Sweden had won the contest on five 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, and in 2012 with the song "Euphoria" performed by Loreen. Following the introduction of semi-finals for the 2004, Sweden's entries, to this point, have featured in every final except for 2010 when the nation failed to qualify. In 2013, Sweden placed fourteenth in the contest with the song "You" performed by Robin Stjernberg.

The Swedish national broadcaster, Sveriges Television (SVT), broadcasts the event within Sweden and organises the selection process for the nation's entry. Since 1959, SVT has organised the annual competition Melodifestivalen in order to select the Swedish entry for the Eurovision Song Contest.

Before Eurovision edit

Melodifestivalen 2014 edit

Melodifestivalen 2014 was the Swedish music competition that selected Sweden's entry for the Eurovision Song Contest 2014. 32 competed in a six-week-long process which consisted of four heats on 1, 8, 15 and 22 February 2014, a second chance round on 1 March 2014, and a final on 8 March 2014.[2] The six shows were hosted by Nour El-Refai and Anders Jansson.[3] Eight songs competed in each heat—the top two qualified directly to the final, while the third and fourth placed songs qualified to the second chance round. The bottom four songs in each heat were eliminated from the competition. An additional two songs qualified to the final from the second chance round. The results in the heats and second chance round were determined exclusively by public televoting, while the overall winner of the competition was selected in the final through the combination of a public vote and the votes from eleven international jury groups. Among the competing artists were former Eurovision Song Contest contestants Helena Paparizou who represented Greece in 2001 as part of the duo Antique as well as in 2005 which she won, Martin Stenmarck who represented Sweden in 2005, Andreas Lundstedt (participating as a member of Alcazar) who represented Switzerland in 2006 and Sylvester Schlegel who represented Sweden in 2007 as part of the group The Ark.

Heats and Second Chance round edit

Final edit

The final was held on 8 March 2014 at the Friends Arena in Stockholm. Ten songs competed—two qualifiers from each of the four preceding heats and two qualifiers from the Second Chance round. The combination of points from a viewer vote and eleven international jury groups determined the winner. The viewers and the juries each had a total of 473 points to award. The nations that comprised the international jury were Denmark, Estonia, France, Germany, Israel, Italy, Malta, the Netherlands, Russia, Spain and The United Kingdom. "Undo" performed by Sanna Nielsen was selected as the winner with 212 points.[9]

Draw Artist Song Juries Televote Total Place
1 Anton Ewald "Natural" 4 14 18 10
2 Ellen Benediktson "Songbird" 31 30 61 7
3 Alcazar "Blame It on the Disco" 62 48 110 3
4 Oscar Zia "Yes We Can" 32 21 53 8
5 Linus Svenning "Bröder" 46 37 83 5
6 Helena Paparizou "Survivor" 57 27 84 4
7 Yohio "To the End" 39 43 82 6
8 Sanna Nielsen "Undo" 90 122 212 1
9 Panetoz "Efter solsken" 15 18 33 9
10 Ace Wilder "Busy Doin' Nothin'" 97 113 210 2

At Eurovision edit

 
Sanna Nielsen at the first semi-final dress rehearsal

To ensure fair ticket distribution in the Nordic region for the semi-finals, the Eurovision Reference Group, at the request by the host broadcaster for the 2014 contest DR, held a draw at the European Broadcasting Union headquarters in Geneva in November 2013 where Sweden was drawn to compete in the first semi-final on 6 May 2014.[10] During the semi-final allocation draw on 20 January 2014 at the Copenhagen City Hall, Sweden was drawn to compete in the first half of the first semi-final.[11] In the first semi-final, the producers of the show decided that Sweden would perform 4th, following Estonia and preceding Iceland.[12] Sweden qualified from first semi-final and competed in the final on 10 May 2014.[13] During the winner's press conference for the first semi-final qualifiers, Sweden was allocated to compete in the first half of the final.[14] In the final, the producers of the show decided that Sweden would perform 13th, following Germany and preceding France.[15] Sweden placed 3rd in the final, scoring 218 points.[16]

On stage, Sanna Nielsen was joined by five backing vocalists: Britta Bergström, Jeanette Ohlsson, Thérèse Löf Amberg, Dea Norberg and Jessica Marberger.[17][better source needed] The Swedish performance focused on Sanna alone on stage surrounded by lights which eventually shone on a large glitter ball on the ceiling.[18]

In Sweden, both the semi-finals and the final were broadcast on SVT1 with commentary by Malin Olsson and Edward af Sillén.[19] The shows were also broadcast via radio on Sveriges Radio P4 with commentary by Carolina Norén and Ronnie Ritterland.[20] The Swedish spokespersons revealing the result of the Swedish vote in the final was Alcazar.[21]

Voting edit

Points awarded to Sweden edit

Points awarded by Sweden edit

Detailed voting results edit

The following members comprised the Swedish jury:[24]

  • Michael Cederberg (jury chairperson) – playlist manager P3 radio, radio host
  • Robert Sehlberg – music director at RIX FM radio
  • Oscar Zia – singer
  • Sacha Jean-Baptiste [sv] – dancer, choreographer, creative director
  • Elli Flemström – artist, member of J.E.M
Detailed voting results from Sweden (Semi-final 1)[25]
Draw Country M. Cederberg R. Sehlberg O. Zia S. Jean-Baptiste E. Flemström Jury Rank Televote Rank Combined Rank Points
01   Armenia 11 4 5 6 2 4 2 3 8
02   Latvia 12 15 10 13 15 15 7 10 1
03   Estonia 4 6 6 4 3 3 11 6 5
04   Sweden
05   Iceland 6 7 4 3 12 6 4 4 7
06   Albania 13 11 15 11 4 13 10 13
07   Russia 8 2 11 12 13 8 12 9 2
08   Azerbaijan 15 10 7 10 5 9 13 11
09   Ukraine 5 5 3 7 11 5 5 5 6
10   Belgium 3 9 14 14 8 10 14 14
11   Moldova 7 13 13 9 6 11 15 15
12   San Marino 14 14 12 5 14 14 9 12
13   Portugal 10 12 8 8 7 7 8 7 4
14   Netherlands 2 3 1 2 9 2 1 1 12
15   Montenegro 9 8 9 15 10 12 6 8 3
16   Hungary 1 1 2 1 1 1 3 2 10
Detailed voting results from Sweden (Final)[26]
Draw Country M. Cederberg R. Sehlberg O. Zia S. Jean-Baptiste E. Flemström Jury Rank Televote Rank Combined Rank Points
01   Ukraine 11 16 11 18 17 13 11 12
02   Belarus 16 19 21 21 18 22 22 23
03   Azerbaijan 24 10 17 20 16 20 25 24
04   Iceland 6 6 13 6 15 8 7 7 4
05   Norway 17 8 5 2 6 5 10 8 3
06   Romania 18 12 24 12 14 16 12 14
07   Armenia 20 9 9 10 5 9 6 6 5
08   Montenegro 14 13 18 23 22 21 21 20
09   Poland 4 25 22 22 7 17 3 9 2
10   Greece 9 23 16 14 11 12 13 13
11   Austria 2 2 2 4 1 1 1 1 12
12   Germany 3 20 12 7 13 10 19 16
13   Sweden
14   France 7 5 8 17 8 7 14 10 1
15   Russia 13 7 19 15 24 14 16 17
16   Italy 15 24 7 19 21 19 24 21
17   Slovenia 10 18 23 25 19 23 23 25
18   Finland 12 17 3 3 10 6 5 5 6
19   Spain 19 14 15 13 23 18 18 18
20    Switzerland 21 21 20 24 25 25 15 19
21   Hungary 1 3 1 5 3 2 8 4 7
22   Malta 25 11 14 16 12 15 9 11
23   Denmark 8 4 10 8 2 4 4 3 8
24   Netherlands 5 1 4 1 4 3 2 2 10
25   San Marino 23 22 25 11 20 24 20 22
26   United Kingdom 22 15 6 9 9 11 17 15

References edit

  1. ^ "Sweden Country Profile". EBU. Retrieved 5 November 2014.
  2. ^ Dahlander, Gustav (10 September 2013). "Städerna klara: Hit kommer Melodifestivalen 2014" (in Swedish). SVT. Retrieved 10 September 2013.
  3. ^ Fisher, Luke (13 November 2013). "Sweden: Nour El Refai and Anders Jansson announced as hosts". escXtra.com. Archived from the original on 13 November 2013. Retrieved 13 November 2013.
  4. ^ Vranis, Michalis (1 February 2014). "Result: Melodifestivalen semi-final 1 concluded". ESCToday.com. Retrieved 1 February 2014.
  5. ^ Escudero, Victor M. (8 February 2014). "Two more finalists chosen in Sweden". Eurovision.tv. Retrieved 8 February 2014.
  6. ^ Vranis, Michalis (15 February 2014). "Result: the Melodifestivalen semi-final 3 concluded". ESCToday.com. Retrieved 15 February 2014.
  7. ^ Escudero, Victor M. (22 February 2014). "Last semi-final complete in Sweden". Eurovision.tv. Retrieved 6 March 2014.
  8. ^ Escudero, Victor M. (1 March 2014). "Melodifestivalen final line-up complete in Sweden". Eurovision.tv. Retrieved 6 March 2014.
  9. ^ Escudero, Victor M. (8 March 2014). "Sweden: Sanna Nielsen wins Melodifestivalen!". Eurovision.tv. Retrieved 8 March 2014.
  10. ^ Siim, Jarmo (24 November 2013). "Sweden and Norway drawn into Semi-Finals". Eurovision.tv. Retrieved 24 November 2013.
  11. ^ Escudero, Victor M. (20 January 2014). "Allocation Draw results: Who's in which Semi-Final?". Eurovision.tv. Retrieved 20 January 2014.
  12. ^ Siim, Jarmo (24 March 2014). "Running order for Eurovision Semi-Finals decided". Eurovision.tv. Retrieved 26 March 2014.
  13. ^ "First Semi-Final of Copenhagen 2014". European Broadcasting Union. Archived from the original on 4 May 2021. Retrieved 4 May 2021.
  14. ^ Brey, Marco (7 May 2014). "First Semi-Final: Meet the winners at the press conference!". Eurovision.tv. Retrieved 7 May 2014.
  15. ^ Storvik-Green, Simon (9 May 2014). "Running order for the Grand Final revealed!". Eurovision.tv. Retrieved 9 May 2014.
  16. ^ "Grand Final of Copenhagen 2014". European Broadcasting Union. Archived from the original on 4 May 2021. Retrieved 4 May 2021.
  17. ^ "ESCKAZ – Eurovision 2014 – Sanna Nielsen (Sweden)". ESCKaz. 18 April 2014. Retrieved 18 April 2014.
  18. ^ Roxburgh, Gordon (28 April 2014). "Hear the voice of Sanna Nielsen". Eurovision.tv. Retrieved 1 May 2014.
  19. ^ Albinsson, Mathilde (2 April 2014). "Malin Olsson och Edward af Sillén kommenterar Eurovision Song Contest" (in Swedish). SVT. Archived from the original on 4 April 2014. Retrieved 2 April 2014.
  20. ^ "Följ med bakom kulisserna i Eurovision Song Contest – Melodifestivalen och ESC" (in Swedish). SR. 5 May 2014. Retrieved 6 May 2014.
  21. ^ "Eurovision Song Contest 2014: ecco l'elenco degli spokesperson" (in Italian). Eurofestival News. 8 May 2014. Retrieved 8 May 2014.
  22. ^ a b "Results of the First Semi-Final of Copenhagen 2014". European Broadcasting Union. Archived from the original on 7 May 2021. Retrieved 7 May 2021.
  23. ^ a b "Results of the Grand Final of Copenhagen 2014". European Broadcasting Union. Archived from the original on 7 May 2021. Retrieved 7 May 2021.
  24. ^ Brey, Marco (1 May 2014). "Who will be in the expert juries?". Eurovision.tv. Retrieved 1 May 2014.
  25. ^ "Full Split Results | First Semi-Final of Copenhagen 2014". European Broadcasting Union. Archived from the original on 12 May 2014. Retrieved 7 May 2021.
  26. ^ "Full Split Results | Grand Final of Copenhagen 2014". European Broadcasting Union. Archived from the original on 13 May 2014. Retrieved 7 May 2021.