56	57	58	59
60	61	62	63	64	65	66	67	68	69
70	71	72	73	74	75	76	77	78	79
80	81	82	83	84	85	86	87	88	89
90	91	92	93	94	95	96	97	98	99
00	01	02	03	04	05	06	07	08	09
10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19
20	21

Sweden provided what is probably the most famous Eurovision winner of them all, and this accolade has at times been a bit of a burden to bear. 1975-1998 is a wasteland from our perspective, save the golden-hoofed glimmerings of 1984. That the drought was broken by glam stomp of a very similar mould to 1974's legendary entry is perhaps telling. But the two subsequent years of further decency demonstrated that Sweden are capable of more than bacofoil banging. By and large they bring a certain polish to proceedings: a Swedish sheen of professionalism. You only need to look at the 2012 winner to see an example of Sweden trying hard to deliver something solid and genuinely 'pop'. That is not to say that they are another Belgium, scraping at the musical coal-face to bring cutting-edge sounds to the EBU. Sweden take only the ripest, most tested pop forms and smooth them down into three minute capsules of concentrated perfection (as they might see it), perhaps typified somewhat by their 2001 entry: Sweden are innovators not in the sense of instilling novelty but in taking ideas from elsewhere and rolling them into little bullets of Eurovision effectiveness; bullets that continue to serve them well. Sweden have become a Eurovision powerhouse. Of course, when the defining character of Eurovision goes awry, as it did in the dark age of '80s and '90s power-balladry, reflective Sweden suffers worst of all; all too often their appearance elicits groans of pain from our jury. But when they're good...

	1pt	2004	AV: 1st Eur: 5th
	Lena Philipsson - "It Hurts"
	Lena Philipsson, in her pink boots and mini-dress, gives a captivating performance astride her microphone stand. Beyond the pole-dancing filth, the song is entirely competent Swedish dance-pop (the minimum an ex-Sugababe might expect), with an airport of a keychange, but it's a little too chilled to be considered a true classic.
	2pts	1960	AV: 3rd Eur: 10th
	Siw Malmkvist - "Alla andra får varann"
	1959's Swedish entry (the solid but outclassed "Augustin") was performed on the night by Brita Borg, but had won its national final out of the mouth of the magnificent Siw Malmkvist. 1960's entry had been sung by Östen Warnerbring and Inger Berggren during the national finals but it would be Malmkvist's year for Eurovision. Her song is a rather glitzy number with a very lengthy instrumental that sees her standing about a bit wondering what to do. Alas, it is no Prima Ballerina.
	3pts	2000	AV: 2nd Eur: 7th
	Roger Pontare - "When Spirits Are Calling My Name"
	In a bid to raise millennial spirits were 2000's hosts, Sweden. Desperate not to win, they lifted the novelty stakes a notch and took us another step towards Lordi with Roger Pontare, a sort of Bill Maynard character dressed like a Red Indian and surrounded by an awful lot of smoke and turkey feathers like an explosion at a Bernard Matthews factory. The song itself, divorced of its fancy dress performance, owes much to The Final Countdown and its ilk and is frankly let down by a rather weak chorus. It could've been so much better.
	4pts	1966	AV: 3rd Eur: 2nd
	Lill Lindfors & Svante Thuresson - "Nygammal vals"
	For 1966, Scandinavia embraced jazz. Sweden's offering that year was a memorably skittish and flirty duet from Lill Lindfors & Svante Thuresson (or is it Willie Rushton?) complete with a solo from notable jazz flautist Sahib Shihab (the first black on-stage performer in Eurovision). The title translates as NewOld Waltz.
	5pts	2012	AV: 5th Eur: 1st
	Loreen - "Euphoria"
	A chilled (if a little generic) dance-club smash, given a stripped-down and low-lit Kate Bush-style performance by a woman with a Winklefringe and a floaty kimono (joined, towards the end, by a dancer that appears from her bottom). Sweden's victory in 2012 seemed ordained from the start (not least as one of only a handful of countries with both an appetite to win and the cash to back it up). It's a perfectly adequate song, well (and distinctly) performed, and has become something of a Eurovision classic.
	6pts	2001	AV: 3rd Eur: 5th
	Friends - "Listen To Your Heartbeat"
	Making the "Eres tú" plagiarism questionmark of 1973 look like an insignificant comma that was probably just a mark in the paper, Sweden seemingly recycled the chorus from the 1996 Belgian entry, switching the words for something a little more vaguely lesbian to fit with the red-leather image of the performing duo. There's a difference, of course, between theft and innovation. Sweden have added a pounding verse (complete with sequencer) and a decent bridge too. They have, it is reasonable to say, improved upon the Belgian original. Or perhaps it is just some accidental musical Venn diagram.
	7pts	1961	AV: 3rd Eur: 14th
	Lill-Babs - "April, April"
	One of two 'April' songs that year. Sweden realised a trick with this one, combining the joyous whistling of recent UK entries with the kooky bounce of the Scandinavian sound and certain internationally recognised word-forms such as "ring-a-ding". Observe as a formula is created.
	8pts	1974	AV: 6th Eur: 1st
	ABBA - "Waterloo"
	This is the only entry in this list that we placed outside the top three on the night. Judging the 1974 contest was always going to be testing: "Waterloo" is, after all, a great song and a Eurovision classic, although without the fade-out it does seem to go on a little too long. Placing it 6th may seem surprising, but it was up against some very real competition (in addition to the contempt of familiarity). Nonetheless, it is, in our opinion, the third best song Sweden has had in the contest. Let's see what's better...
	10pts	1999	AV: 1st Eur: 1st
	Charlotte Nilsson - "Take Me to Your Heaven"
	For the second year running, in 1999 the AView jury and Europe as a whole came to the same conclusion regarding the winning song. This time it came from Sweden, who had evidently decided to examine for inspiration their history-book on the shelf, and gave us a pink-marbled woman (looking a bit like that female muppet in Animal's band) performing something profoundly Roy Wood-en. The verse owes a little something to ELO's "Turn to Stone" while the chorus is rather more Wizzard ("I Wish It Could Be Christmas Every Day" very specifically). "Take Me To Your Heaven" is utter cheese, but it's a particularly rubbery sort of cheese that bounces with a pounding glam-rock rhythm and is veined with sax-stabs. The key-change is one of the more perfect examples through which we've been dragged. The whole thing is a fitting tribute to Birmingham, albeit a year late.
	12pts	1984	AV: 3rd Eur: 1st
	Herreys - "Diggi-Loo Diggi-Ley"
	Our favourite Swedes then are those golden-booted dream-boys The Herreys and their charmingly up-beat, nonsense-titled "Diggi-loo diggi-ley": worth it if only for the musical upward curve in the middle of each chorus. Some of their arm actions are pretty fun too; it's a well choreographed piece of camp. It's worth pointing out that our Swedish top three was a very close call, and could easily have fallen in the other direction. But if you feel like you win when you lose, what's it matter anyway?