When Måns Zelmerlöw won with “Heroes” in Vienna, Sweden happily clocked up its sixth Eurovision victory. But for Melodifestival and Eurovision boss Christer Björkman, this isn’t enough. As he recently told Swedish Radio, he has his eyes set on another victory: equalling Ireland’s tally of most wins.
A guest on P4 Sommar, Björkman talked about the experience of his second Swedish Eurovision win and how he doesn’t mind losing his summer to working on plans for Eurovision 2016.
But his big goal is for Sweden to achieve another win at Eurovision. Sweden is only one victory off equalling Ireland’s record of seven wins and – importantly – it’s been almost 20 years since Ireland’s last one. In those two decades Sweden have won three times, so in many ways a seventh win for Sweden would give them an overall more impressive Eurovision history than Ireland.
This echoes Björkman’s comments to Eurovision.TV in Vienna: “We are this close to tying with Ireland, and since the latest one counts more than the latter ones, we would be number one if we get another one. So that is definitely a goal.”
With Sweden’s recent track record at Eurovision, it seems a seventh win isn’t at all an impossible dream. So is the determination of Sweden the motivation that Ireland needs to start taking Eurovision seriously and go for an eighth victory?
I don’t really want to go to Sweden AGAIN and neither should the contests organisers. The novelty and gem of the competition is that we go to a new country every year which means it’s different and the country takes it own spin on it. If we went to Sweden again after next year, I can’t see it being great for viewing figures… since we won’t be seeing anything new.
I think that Wiwiblogs must have taken this guy to their hospitality room. This is what our press do when they want you to say things that might not seem so sensible the next morning….
Singing monkies? Please, Sweden can top juries even with a dog’s fart.
Wins from juries are easy. Is like – we run the show, we set the rules, we punish those that do not vote right – piece of cake and we get gazillions of “wins”. Luring people vote is much more challenging. And here Sweden has 1, Ireland has 0.
If this was released to people in the uk.We would never vote for them again. He is too cocky especially saying Sweden is more better with musical talent compared to the UK haha are u having a laugh. it shouldn’t be about being the best it should be about having fun and enjoying the music europe provides unfortunately the juries seem to favour certain genre of songs which is really unfair I don’t expect Serbia or Montenegro to win unless they send a pop plastic song.
Since I’ve heard it a thousand times now, I really need to ask; Why is a “generic pop song” not good enough? Tell me, what exactly is the right kind of song, to be good enough to win ESC? I would really want to know!
I still don’t understand why people voted for Sweden this year. There were so many good songs & Heroes was just a generic pop song.
And if a country wants a guaranteed place in the final, no problem. They can call you in their national selection to “help” them and fix them like you did with Cyprus this year.
Isn’t that right mr. Bjorkman?
Sure mr Bjorkman. You can have the juries hand you the award again like they did this year. This way you can win every year.
Even if Sweden catch up to Ireland with seven wins, Ireland will still be the only country to win seven titles outright, seeing as 1991 was tied. The Irish still have the “three in a row” card to play too. That said, the future looks far more promising for Sweden so in time I’m sure they’ll surpass the record with eight wins!
@RL: That actually looks pretty awesome. Wouldn’t mind Sweden being represented by that monkey for 2016.
@ OH Great :-)! and @Oostenrijk
Singing monkey? That sounds like a novelty act…
But it will probably be used by Sweden before anyone else…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NdT5jYlxn1E
@WTF: Oostenrijik would rather have a singing monkey win as long as it’s not representing Sweden.
well when there are 40 countries giving points instead of 22 its easy for sweden to say they’ve got more points than other countries. when the three highest scoring countries are all one block anyway, that’s not quite the achievement they think it is.
@Oostenrijk: Lol, so you would have rather had Russia win with their novelty crap in 2012? Nothing against the grannies, but entries like that one are the reason nobody takes the ESC seriously…
I think it’s time Portugal, Cyprus and Iceland had a win 🙂
Nordic countries, and Sweden especially, are the most successful countries in eurovision, but also the other countries sometimes surprise us, like Latvia did this year. I wouldn’t be so sure about a seventh swedish victory the next year or in a couple of years. We’ll have to wait more until Sweden will win again.
I think that a 7th win for Sweden would make them the most successful country in Eurovision based on 2 points: 1. Qualification rates (Sweden have failed once. Ireland 5 times.) 2. Points for wins (Ireland 1994, 226 points. Sweden 2012 and 2015, 372 and 365 points.). It’s also worth noting that Ireland are 3rd as far as garnering the most points over their history. Sweden are 2nd. The UK are 1st. SUMMARY: I think given Christer’s steely determination to match Ireland’s iconic Eurovision record and RTÉ’s cautious approach to Eurovision, Ireland need to put in a serious deal of… Read more »
So much salt, lol! Bunch of sore losers that’s what we have here.
I hope that Sweden can win soon for their seventh victory, but I want to see the UK or Ireland win again before I die (i’m 18, but it’s a long shot)
Yes, I love the winning spirit! So much more positive and interesting than…well, some of the comments below.
Ready your money and buy jury again, Christer.
In 1984 Sweden won over Ireland only because of Norwegian and Danish powervoting. A terrible Dinner! Ireland 8, Sweden 5 In 1991 Sweden won because Denmark gave 12 to them, but zero to France. Still the tie breaking rules would cut it for France now. France 6, Sweden 4 In 1999 Slovenia and Bosnia sucked up to Sweden, when the rest of Europe would have wanted Iceland . Horrible song. Iceland 1, Sweden 3 Although Sweden deserved to win in 2012 with a generic house Track, the deal was sealed by their neighbours and juries. Sweden 2, Russia 2 This… Read more »
I’m all for Sweden getting a 7th win but just not this year – I want the contest out of Scandinavia for a year and maybe go to deserving countries in the east such as Hungary (Who have been putting so much effort in recent years) or Ukraine (My favourite ESC country). I want the winning song to not be so generic and factory made as Heroes was.
Of course everything I said above is wrong and Denmark will win this year.
Thanks for the advice, Mitchel, because that is what I am gonna do
I guess I won’t say that curse word on this site from now on. Moving on, no surprise that he is becoming egotistical about Sweden’s numbers of victories. I wouldn’t wanna further my comments about how he has “good relations” with the juries in Melodifestival and Eurovision per se *cough* Eva Diva’s case *cough*. So there goes that.
Worst case of small dick syndrome
I don’t know why he is saying stuff in public already. It makes us want to knock him down a peg or two. how about some modesty from a man who came last when he was the actual eurovision entrant. Trends come and go, and Christer Bjorkman has actually had very little to do with it. I mean, so what if he’s been the producer of the show when they’ve had 2 wins? They’ve also had 11 songs that didn’t win. All this means is he got lucky and didn’t get replaced in 2010 when they failed to qualify. If… Read more »
This is all about trends… Songs in French used to be extremely popular on the contest, with France and Luxembourg being the most successful countries (5 wins each); and look where they are now: France can’t get out of the bottom 5, and Luxembourg even refuses to participate. Same goes for Ireland: they won it 7 times, including 4 times between 1992 and 1996 (3 in a row!), and now they can’t even clear the semi-finals. And same goes for the UK: won it 5 times, placed second 15 times, which means they were in the top 2 in 20… Read more »
I know a little country (and HoD) that’s a bit too obsessed with Eurovision…
We must change something in EBU Reference group for Eurovision, so many people from nordic and western countries in that group, and some one are in delegationg of their coutries. I thinki Crister is in EBU reference group for Eurovision and head of swedish delegation at Eurovision.
Thanks to juries it will happen in future years. From 2012 to 2015 , Sweden is so overrated in juries votes, in 2012 ( Loreen 296 points with juries, Zeljko on second place 176, Rona and Nina 157, Pastora 154 almost 48 % less then Loreen, Buranovskiye Babushki only 94 and only who had chance to bit Lorren that year, in televoting Loreen beats babuski only with 11 points higher ) ,2015 ( Mans 353 points with juries, Aminata 249, Polina 234… Il Volo only 171, almost 52 % point less than Mans, and only countrie who had chance to… Read more »
Filippa Bark to Christer Bjorkman:
Don’t compete in music!!!
sure, all they need is songs from Bon Jovi/Elton John/Sia or whoever that is top charts, to rip off and they will win year after year…
Well Based on my home country’s performance (Ireland). Sweden deserve to take the title for most wins, Jeez its like RTE don’t even try anymore.
I hope to god TG4 does well in Junior Eurovision in November. So that RTE can see how to do a national selection right :/
Go sweden go! Go for gold! I hope the lovely swedes will win again with mans or eric saade, mans deserve a second win and eric saade a win! I hope it will be Gothenburg 2017!
Sent another pop crap and you would win!
I hope i die before that happens