Introduction

• Participant(s): Cornelia Jakobs
• Song: Hold Me Closer
  
• Writer(s): Cornelia Jakobs, David Zandén, Isa Molin
• Composer(s): Cornelia Jakobs, David Zandén, Isa Molin
• Broadcaster: SVT
• Social media:      
  
• Team review: 

Cornelia Jakobs is no stranger in Sweden. She has been participating in the Melodifestivalen twice as a member of the group Love Generation, which was produced by RedOne: with “Dance Alone”  in 2011, and “Just a Little Bit”  in 2012. Unfortunately, the group did not reach the Swedish final.

The Melodifestivalen is the most important TV show in the Swedish television. It’s often called “The Swedish Fest”, as the entire country is watching and voting. This year was no exception, huge viewing numbers guarantee the success of the show. Cornelia Jakobs was von of the 40 participants, she has been working as a solo artist since 2018 and released her first single “Late Night Stories” . She is the daughter Poodle’s singer Jakob Samuel and was born in Stockholm 2000. Interesting to see the fact that Cornelia once wanted to enter the “Swedish Idol” in 2008, where she has been mocked by the judges. One of the judges was Anders Bagge, the competitor she has defeated in this year’s Melodifestivalen.

With her song “Hold Me Closer” written by Cornelia Jakobs, David Zandén and Isa Molin new doors will open for Cornelia. It’s a touching and likewise sophisticated song about the end of a relationship:

Guess all the good things come to an end
So baby bye bye, wish you the best
But most of alI I wish that I could love you less
Well maybe you‘re right, I‘ll find someone else
You say it isn‘t me but when did that ever help
Hold me closer, although you‘ll leave before the sunrise
Might be bleeding but don‘t you mind I‘ll be fine
Oh it kills me I found the right one at the wrong time
But until the sunrise

With her puristic stage performance, just have a round illuminated rotating screen, a great melody, combined with her tough voice, she will definitely have all the necessary attention, she needs to win the ESC. She is also declared as one of the possible winners this year.

History

• Debut: 1958
• Participations: 61
• Victories: 6
• Finals: 58 (16 since 2004)
• Top 10: 41

This year, it will the 61st Swedish entry in the Eurovision Song Contest. Sweden has been very successful over the years, especially in the new millennium, since 2000 there were 15 Top 10 songs including two victories! Ireland is still the most successful ESC countries with 7 victories, but Sweden is very close with 6.

Sweden had its debut in 1958 with “Lilla Stjärna” sung by Alice Babs, which made a fabulous 4th rank in Hilversum. But the first victory took a while, in 1974 ABBA could surprise the Europeans with the very contemporary song “Waterloo” for that decade, the song is still played in the radios around the world. Unfortunately, the ABBA hype did not start immediately, but two years later in Sweden and Scandinavia and even beyond. ABBA made a world career, they have had many #1 songs even in the USA, Japan and Australia. The style of ABBA music has often been copied and many Swedish ESC songs sounded like ABBA and furthermore even other countries copied that style. Not many people know that ABBA have even tried to enter the ESC with “Ring Ring”, which only came 3rd in the Melodifestivalen 1973.

After that big success the popular Swedish music, a new music genre was born: “Swedish Schlager”. Especially in Sweden there are “Schlagerkvälls” (only Swedish schlager is being played) in discotheques and bars. This is a very worthy experience for every visitor, who is interested in popular Swedish music. There is a certain enthusiasm for Eurovision in all Scandinavian countries, that’s why these countries have extensive pre-selection shows, it’s the highlight of the year.

Not even the winning songs became hits, also the lower ranked songs made it into European charts e.g. Frans with “If I Were Sorry”. Sweden hosted the ESC for six times, 3x in Stockholm, 2x in Malmö and 1x in Gothenburg.

Biggest successes

• 6x 1st place
  “Waterloo” | ABBA (Brighton 1974) 
  “Diggi-loo Diggy-ley” | Herrey's (Luxembourg 1984) 
  “Fångad Av En Stormvind” | Carola (Rome 1991) 
  “Take Me To Your Heaven” | Charlotte Nilsson (Jerusalem 1999) 
  “Euphoria” | Loreen (Baku 2012) 
  “Heroes” | Måns Zelmerlöw (Vienna 2015) 
• 1x 2nd place
  “Nygammal Vals Eller Hip Man Svinaherde” |Lilly Landforms & Svante Thurston (Luxembourg 1966)
• 6x 3rd place
  “Främling” | Carola Häggkvist (Munich 1983)
  “Bra Vibrationer” | Kikki Danielsson (Gothenburg 1985)
  “Se På Mej” | Jan Johansen (Dublin 1995) 
  “Den Vilda” | One More Time (Oslo 1996) 
  “Popular” | Eric Saade (Düsseldorf 2011) 
  “Undo” | Sanna Nielsen (Copenhagen 2014) 

Video Nostalgia

• “Beatles” | Forbes
  Rank 18, London 1977
  
• “Stjärnorna” | Marie Bergman & Roger Pontare
  Rank 13, Dublin 1994
  
• “La Voix” | Malena Ernman
  Rank 21, Moscow 2009
  
  

First Rehearsal