Eurovision 2016: why Sweden and Swedish head honcho Christer Björkman really understand the contest

The Swedes have succeeded in Eurovision so many times over the years – so how do they do it?
UK hopefuls: Joe and Jake will be representing the United Kingdom in this year's Eurovision
PA / So TV
Mark Cook13 May 2016

We’ve bought their flat-pack furniture, become obsessed with their Scandi Noir dramas and idiosyncratic female detectives and now — heavens to Betsy — the Swedes have even hijacked Eurovision.

Tomorrow night Stockholm will host the 61st edition of the world’s biggest song contest, Sweden having won it for the sixth time last year — twice in the past four years — overtaking the UK on five victories and breathing down the neck of Eurovision kings Ireland on seven.

With the UK winning only once in the past 34 years (last time 1997), Sweden can now take the pop music high ground — not least for producing the mother of all Eurovision winners, Abba. Not content with penning their own winning entries, this year a quarter of the 42 songs are composed or co-written by Swedes. And they have introduced several changes to the show, including the much-loved voting. Talk about Stockholm syndrome.

The man at the forefront of the sort of Eurovision success that UK fans can now only dream of is head honcho Christer Björkman, Sweden’s answer to Simon Cowell, who nearly caused a diplomatic incident in London recently — well, raised eyebrows at least — when he criticised (horrors) the late national treasure Sir Terry Wogan. He argued that Wogan’s quip-laden commentary — and that of successor Graham Norton — over the decades had trivialised the contest in the UK and led to our, frankly, rubbish entries.

The sad truth is that Britain is now regularly beaten by the likes of Moldova, Europe’s poorest country, and last year’s Charleston-esque Still in Love with You was dismissed by the Swedish winner Måns Zelmerlöw, while Danish TV even accused the UK of lowering the tone of the contest. That’s some achievement. As Björkman said in London: “We all love you. We all want you to be good in this competition. It’s just that you don’t send any good stuff. Why don’t you?”

So why has Sweden done so well? Scandinavia in general is now a powerhouse of pop music writing. But Sweden’s specific Eurovision success can largely be put down to Björkman. He knows personally the ignominy of Eurovision failure, having come second last in 1992 on home soil with the weedy I Morgon är en Annan Dag (Tomorrow is Another Day). Perhaps that’s what led him eventually to take control of Melodifestivalen, the huge internal contest that chooses the Swedish entry.

It is Sweden’s equivalent of The X Factor, getting an 80 per cent audience share. A big family show with a welcome dose of glitz and fun coming at the end of those Scandi winters, it comprises five shows staged around the country. It’s entered by the country’s top stars, guaranteed weeks of publicity in the tabloids and a probable hit single.

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The sheer enthusiasm of audiences and those taking part reveals the abiding affection Sweden has for Eurovision. A recent YouGov poll showed that Swedes love the contest the most of northern European countries (surprise, surprise), and the UK heads the league of haters — 60 per cent of people asked wanted a Eurovision Brexit.

Yet such is the quality of its selection process that even before its 2016 final Sweden was top of the Eurovision betting. Having picked Frans and If I Were Sorry — a low-key affair sung in a mumbling style by a boy with a mockney-ish accent — they have slipped to fourth behind hot favourite Russia, with its interactive pyrotechnics (a clear copy of last year’s Swedish winner), though you wouldn’t bet against them winning for a seventh time.

Like Cowell, Björkman is all about creating an energetic, entertaining TV show. Most of the recent changes in the contest have his imprint, such as introducing the world’s campest moshpit — a standing room area for the legion offlag-waving fans. He was also largely responsible for dropping the use of a draw to determine the crucial running order (it is thought advantageous to perform later in the show — no one has won singing second in all 61 years), leaving it to the show’s producer to come up with a varied line-up.

Incidentally, Sweden as host was also the first to acknowledge the gay fanbase. “You just haven’t met the right girl yet,” joked comedian compere Petra Mede, who hosts again, this year with Zelmerlöw, to the assembled, mostly male throng in Malmö.

There has also been a bit of ruckus — and confusion — this year over major changes to the voting system, which will copy Melodifestivalen. While it may be shorter and more exciting by only revealing the winner right at the last vote, it will be harder for lovers of the contest’s famed geopolitics to discern which countries voted for who.

So is the UK destined for the Eurovision doldrums yet again? Perky, fresh twosome Joe and Jake’s You’re Not Alone — despite its unfortunate Cameron/austerity associations (“We’re in this together!”) and now jokily viewed by some as an anti-Brexit plea — was a song chosen by the public for the first time in six years. It’s not a winner but at least it sounds like a pop song from this century — though the Beeb hasn’t exactly splashed the cash on the staging. Our entry has already been dismissed publicly by Mr Björkman as a bit of a dud. Let’s hope he’s wrong this time...

BBC One, Saturday, 8pm

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