I’m not a big fan of the Eurovision Song Contest, but here in Sweden, it’s massively popular. Preparing for the European contest, Swedes have their own contest called “Melodifestivalen” and the winner of that contest is sent to the big European stage. Many Swedes stay home to watch both the Swedish and European finale and since I’m not really into either one, I was surprised that it’s such a big thing.
Sweden is about consensus and that’s how the big question “who do we send to Eurovision?” is answered: the (by popular vote) chosen winner of Melodifestivalen goes to Eurovision. I might be wrong here, but I think we tried this a couple of times in the Netherlands, but that got us nowhere, so now, I think somebody just decides somewhere that someone else should go to Eurovision (this year, someone decided that Anouk should go). People asked me how we selected the artist to represent the Netherlands and when telling them that it’s often not a democratic process, they were shocked. Anyway, the whole consensus thing is probably a good topic for another post.
What I really wanted to share is a part from this years Eurovision that was held in Malmö, Sweden, where Sweden portrays itself spot-on. It pretty much sums up the things I have noticed about Swedes over the last couple of years.
Next to the fact that I think most of what is mentioned is pretty true, I love the fact that Sweden’s prime minister Fredrik Reinfeldt plays himself.
Jag fattar inte 