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because-its-eurovision · 1 year

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i actually would love sweden to win after they didn't last year when in my opinion they deserved too, tattoo is an amazing song and i love the staging she had for it at melofest.

Sure. It’s not that Tattoo isn’t a great song or that the staging isn’t impressive and of course you want your favorites to win. While I’m not a huge fan of the live performance, it does look like Eurovision winner. I really enjoy the studio version of Tattoo, it’s powerful and catchy and has nice lyrics, and currently Sweden is sitting on the sixth place in my personal ranking of this year’s entries.

I also get why some of the fans are very eager to see Sweden catch up on Ireland with their number of victories, make Loreen the first woman to win Eurovision twice and get Sweden to host exactly 50 years after their first victory. I'd want that too if I were Swedish.

What bothers me is that I’m just so tired of Sweden doing well year after year. Them being our neighbour and eternal rival only makes it worse. When Finland – with more last places than any country (11), qualification rate of 50%, three times kicked out of the final by juries, average placing of 43 out of 50, and only one placement in top-5 during 55 years – finally, finally seems to have risen from the ashes and actually might have a shot of even winning, of course Sweden is the one who is there in front of us.

Winning and hosting Eurovision is a great opportunity to showcase the host country’s history and culture to the world and giving a spotlight to the places around Europe that may not get much of it otherwise. It is a great way to grow tourism and interest in the host country at large, but also to strengthen the country’s brand, national identity and self-esteem.

Sweden doesn’t need any of that. They are already great, liked and well-known. They’ve hosted twice within the last decade and it’s not like many people weren’t familiar with Abba, Ikea, H&M and Swedish meatballs before that either. Not to mention the grip Sweden has on EBU too and how there have been recent changes in Eurovision that were modeled after Melodifestivalen, such as the new voting system, allowing pre-recorded backing vocals and producers deciding the running orders instead of it being random.

To use a school analogy, Sweden is the one student that constantly is one of the best in their class (most top-5 results of the 21st century) without seemingly putting much effort into it, but they are also the teacher’s (EBU’s) pet (always a great place in the running order) and from a rich family (can afford 1800 kg heavy led screens and other fancy technology). They get picked first to the sports teams in P.E. class (always qualifies to the final) and have a fawning court of other students (the juries) admiring anything they do.

Wouldn’t you start to dislike them at some point?

#sweden #eurovision #asks #eurovision song contest #esc #loreen

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deep-hearts-core · 1 year

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A post about the Loreen thing,

which I'm making separately so that it isn't hidden under the cut when I do my yearly review.

First of all it is necessary to state that I don't hate Tattoo. I have it fifteenth for the year. I liked Euphoria and I like some of Loreen's other music. I am not jumping on the hater train because I hate Loreen or hate the song. She sounded good on the night and the staging was, as we expect of Sweden, showy and mostly visually interesting.

HOWEVER. I think that there are two reasons that people are angry right now and both of them are justified. Firstly, it's because of the way the voting system works currently and what narratives work well on a television show (which Eurovision, ultimately, is). Secondly, it's because some more discerning fans are picking up on some of the circumstances surrounding Loreen's participation and win and have gotten out their red string.

To point one: This is the first time since the split voting system was implemented in 2016 that the winner of the jury vote won the contest. We've previously had entries who won neither, but there was too big of a split between the jury and televote winner (2016, 2019), an entry who won both votes (2017), and entries who won the televote (2018, 2021, 2022). Eurovision has changed a lot since its inception and in some ways the juries are a holdover from when it was a song contest rather than a performance contest (they were also reintroduced to combat bloc voting and then just made the bloc voting worse so do with that what you will). These days, the people like to vote!!! The people also like an underdog, which we went into the contest knowing that Finland was--or at least, the only other contender with a fighting chance of beating Queen Loreen. So seeing Loreen absolutely sweep the jury vote, country by country, with a margin of over 100 points, got boring and frustrating real fast.

I'm not saying down with the juries necessarily. I'm a somewhat serious musician who often loves jury bait songs and the juries have played an important role in supporting the songs I really like. And sometimes, the tension between the jury vote and public vote is okay! Sometimes it's interesting and makes for good television! But last night was not, narratively, good television.

I mean, maybe it was for some people.

Which leads me to point two: the red string. Now, I am not usually a conspiracy theory person at Eurovision. I mean, my first Eurovision was 2016 and I remember how the Russia fans got about that. My second Eurovision was 2017 and I hated APD with a burning passion at the time and I didn't get out the red string then.

But this... I think a lot of more serious fans are looking at the big picture. So, when a country wins, they get to be on the reference group and participate in decision-making about contest rules and such. The last time Sweden won was 2015. This win put them at 6 total, one behind Ireland. Sweden has made being good at Eurovision part of their national identity. The split voting system was introduced the following year, at the 2016 contest, hosted by Sweden.

Fast forward to this year. Sweden have placed 5th three times, 4th once, and then 7th and 14th which are less interesting, in the years since. Objectively very good results. But this year, the contest final was due to take place on Johnny Logan's birthday (Johnny Logan being the first, at that time only, competitor in history to win twice). The fiftieth anniversary of Abba's win is next year. And Loreen decided to come back to Melodifestivalen.

Loreen had previously tried to return in 2017 with the song "Statements" but wiped out in Melfest's second chance round. So it wasn't necessarily guaranteed that she would sweep. However, many fans felt that this year's Melfest entries were really weak songs, which made it easier for "Tattoo", with its flashy staging and name recognition, to soar to a win. In a real monkey's paw moment, I said after watching Melfest that the only way I could accept Loreen winning Melfest was if she Johnny Logan'd. Lol.

Even before Melfest, though, there were also the new voting rules. For the first time this year, semifinal qualifiers would be decided only through televote, not based on the juries. As I noted last night, this meant that the televote would likely be split among many songs--we'd still have a televote winner, but if the jury coalesced behind one song, the jury winner would win the contest. This... happened.

It's also worth noting that the current executive supervisor of the contest is Swedish, and that even before the voting sequence there were references to Abba and Johnny Logan throughout the night. That, in addition to the weak Melfest, timing of both voting changes, and the timing of the contest, adds up to a conspiratorial picture, for those who are so inclined.

And, lastly, I also think some of us are having fun arguing with Loreen fans, especially those who are like "well, YOU voted for her, so you don't get to complain!" Reader, I did not vote for Loreen. I in fact voted for Finland, among others. Most of us who are complaining did not, in fact, vote for Loreen. And look I don't wanna be like last year's Spain fans who to this day say that Chanel was the true winner of the 2022 contest but it is pretty fun to be a hater.

At the end of the day, it is what it is and there isn't anything we can do to change it, but it's fun to be angry in the meantime, and I personally had fun assembling all the reasons why people are angry into a nice little tumblr post for you all. Thank you and goodnight <3

#shispeak #esc reviews #eurovision #full contest review + top to come later #wanted to do this first #ALSO: the circumstances in part 2 can easily be explained away #or taken as a GOOD tv narrative where loreen comes back and takes her rightfully destined second win #i have my own opinions but i'm not the arbiter of what is true #and if you're happy for loreen: i am happy for you. i can be happy for you and also angry at the tv narrative.#so don't come for me!!!!!! lol

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literaryslave · 1 year

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I guess I became tooooo conservative for eurovision. Just woke up and got really surprised by the public's reaction on social media. I personally always enjoy the simplest songs and performance with the focus on vocals and the last couple of years it is really hard to watch an insane amount of "theatrical", over the top and obnoxious (to me) stages. I was so excited for Sweden and was happy for their win, but

Oh my favourite time after eurovision when everyone shows their true personality and stops playing sweet, nice, tolerant, woke card. of course we support women and we scream about equality and female power BUT only of it is our favourite, if we voted for someone else, then we have a right to say tones of shit and swear a person for no reason.

I love how people bring history and politics into it (like isn't the whole point is to avoid politics???), how people immediately start saying 'it was boring, it wasn't unique, it wasn't interesting'. well, Sweden was one of the rear number of countries that I truly enjoyed because they have:

- a song (not just random beats and shouts)

- powerful vocals

- adequate performance (can be boring for you, but I am so tired by all these unique and insane stages, we are not in the circus show)

Stop hating if you don't like the winner. There is no point in making a person's life hell and writing shit just because you are upset (grow up!!). Share your frustration and disappointment but don't call her names, don't hate on country, stop any sort of bullying and for a second remember that there is a real human being behind the stage.

I watch eurovision annually and every year people hate the winner, write shit and shout how unfair the contest is. No one ever is happy with the results. It just surprises me how much people forget about their equality agenda when it comes to shitting on others.

(P.S. that's a personal opinion, you can disagree with it of course. I understand Finnish people frustration and the historical/social context of their anger and disappointment. Unfortunately, it's a show, it was never ever fair and never will be. they have their own motives and plans for profits, they have their own political agenda and they know what trends they should follow. just chill, loreen herself did nothing wrong)

(if she did though, let me know)

#sweden #eurovison song contest #eurovison 2023 #eurovision #sweden eurovision #loreen #finland eurovision #käärijä

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nearmidnightannex · 1 year

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Eurovision: still a gift, still giving

Cha cha cha! Eurovision stars dominate UK Top 10 after record-breaking final (theguardian.com) Safi Bugel Fri 19 May 2023 18.05 BST

Winning singer Loreen reaches No 2 and fan favourite Käärijä earns first ever Finnish-language hit in the UK

For the first time in UK chart history, four songs from the Eurovision song contest have entered the Top 10 at once.

Representing Sweden, this year’s winner Loreen has reached the No 2 spot with her entry Tattoo, a bombastic pop-meets-EDM ballad which explores themes of love and acceptance. It’s the second time the singer has won Eurovision and the second time she’s entered the UK chart: her last winning entry, Euphoria, peaked at Number 3 in 2012...

[...] Joining Loreen is Finland’s Käärijä at No 6. The neon-bolero-clad vocalist became a fan favourite at the Liverpool-hosted final on Saturday night with his exhilarating performance of Cha Cha Cha, a romp through sleazy industrial sounds and high-camp Eurodance which landed him second place. The achievement also marks the first time a fully Finnish-language song has made the UK charts in its 71-year history.

Despite coming second to last in the final, the UK’s entry Mae Muller has clocked in at No 9 this week with I Wrote a Song, her Dua Lipa-esque mashup of sugary pop and Ibizan tech house. “It’s been a weird couple of days, but this has just been such an amazing end to my Eurovision journey,” she said. “I’m so, so grateful.”

Norway representative Alessandra follows at No 10 with her epic avant-pop anthem Queen of Kings, which reached fifth place on Saturday....

I am very glad that “Cha cha cha” is finding different audiences and being successful outside Eurovision itself. (’Cause he wuz robbed!) (Also, weirdly impressed that the Guardian ran with the main image being Kaarija rather than Loreen, given everything. They may be as surprised as I was to hear that an entirely Finnish-language song was making it big in British radio and radio-like substances. That said, describing “Tattoo” as “a bombastic pop-meets-EDM ballad” would seem to indicate that maybe it wasn’t their favorite.)

#eurovision #eurovison 2023 #käärijä #loreen

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gaymer-hag-stan · 1 year

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How we feelin' about our Liverpool 2023 Top 10?

Absolutely shocked by both Blanca Paloma and La Zarra not making it??? What happened here? La Zarra's performance was a little underwhelming, I took her out of my personal top ten too, but Blanca?? Blanca was amazing! Otherwise really happy for Gustaph and Vesna. A little surprised about Alika and Voyager but most of all Israel?? How did Noa get so many JURY votes? Käärijä was treated pretty ok by the juries too, all things considered. On the flip side, Marco got a lot more televote points than expected, I thought the juries were gonna carry him alone. Guess those arms helped, possibly that shirtless photo with his pants unbuttoned too 🤣

While only three of my personal top 10 made it to the actual top ten I'm actually pretty content?

We all knew Loreen was gonna win, and yes she absolutely deserved it and, at the end of the day, both Tattoo and Cha Cha Cha wrote Eurovision history tonight.

Please, hire ANYBODY but fucking Måns and Petra next year 🥲

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docholligay · 10 months

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First off, I agree with the fact that at the end of it all, there's little more that a human being could ask for than to have few regrets at the end of it all. No regrets is a fucking lie, but few regrets is a sign that you did fairly well, all told. hard to be mad about having a rich, full life and dying as an old man.

Secondly though, YES. I think a lot of times we gloss over the fact that to be a legacy is a huge amount of expectation and stress. I sometimes wish that media that wasn't me would go into the fact that it's GOTTA fuck with Fareeha's head that everyone is constantly comparing her to her mother, and even when she simply thinks her mother is DEAD, and not, you know, hiding out picking up mercenary work, she has to deal with the fact that everyone else is imagining this steely perfect icon and she's like, "She was that. She was an excellent soldier, and a distant, dismissive, chronically absent mother"

But all of that's too interesting of course.

ANYWAY, yes, being the lineage puts a lot of strain on you, ebcause you are never being judged simply for what you do, simply the expectation of what's been done. It's like how Loreen was criticized for this last song Not Being Euphoria (and it wasn't) while everyone else is just competing with what's onstage.

Gee I wonder if I can bring another niche interest into this post uhhhh...BUT, the good thing about being a lineage, is someone has already tilled the ground for you. That rich compost of history, of grounding in time, makes it much easier for a flower to bloom, and a person's career, too how's this is this working for anyone.

#In my internal what if where Lena gets to live to see her early 50s #and has a kid #I have fucked with the idea of her going into the RAF or thinking about it at least #thinking 'fantastic my mother was only at one point the best pilot in the world easy to live up to'#'oh and she saved London from becoming a crater and formed an elite defense force the Un wishes it was'#'second thought I'll just become a joiner'#Doc watches Showa Genroku Rakugo Shinju #Shounen Ragu Ep 10

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sinsofsummers · 10 months

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15 questions + 15 mutuals

rahhh ty for the tags!! @cupofjoel @thetriumphantpanda @swiftispunk

were you named after anyone?

yes! my first name (laura) was a modification of my maternal grandmother's name, loreen. my middle name (mae) is also my paternal grandmother's middle name!

when was the last time you cried?

monday morning at work. cause i was homesick. i was so delulu that day though

do you have kids?

nope nope nope! can't even see myself being responsible for a kiddo i'm hardly responsible enough for myself

do you use sarcasm a lot?

fuck no. u kidding? never heard a more heinous accusation in my LIFE.

(so i do actually use sarcasm like it's dopamine. shoot that shit straight into my veins)

what's the first thing you notice about people?

their smile methinks. general facial expression is usually helpful for me to figure out the vibes

what's your eye color?

brown! little flecks of gold around the pupils i'm told, call me y/n

scary movies or happy endings?

a third option; the most devastating ending that has me dehydrated from crying

any special talents?

i've been playing piano since i was like five and i like to think i can make people laugh

where were you born?

wisconsin, usa ! the good old cheese state where we drink beer for breakfast and have a "___ fest" for everything imaginable (ex: cheese fest, chicken fest, summerfest, lifest, brat fest, country fest, etc)

what are your hobbies?

reading, writing, analyzing tv shoes & movies, going to see the sunrise with sleep still clouding my vision, writing mediocre poetry, writing (hopefully) skillful prose

have any pets?

i have a little morkie at home in my hometown, i miss her v much her name is lucy

what sports do you play/have you played?

i've danced from the age of 3 to like 18, i played softball somewhere in there, and ran cross country (deeply regrettable) for two years

how tall are you?

5'10"

favorite subject in school?

english (major duh), history (smaller duh, still big duh), surprisingly i had a thing for calculus too

dream job?

big time, full time author putting out the book that i'm writing now!

this has been all over my feed recently so if you've already done it or don't feel like it, don't feel obligated! @huffle-punk @jupiter-soups @gracieispunk @joelmillers-girl @pedgeitopascal @tommymilllers @thursdaywritings @myillusions @tightjeansjavi @djarins-wife @cavillscurls @mkspector @dinsdjrn @juniperandthornz @chaotic-mystery

#laur speaks

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sereiaxz · 1 year

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Loreen making history as the FIRST woman winning for two times! Guys, for real you are hating on that knowledge? Celebrate that!

#lets remember she is a bisexual woman of color please #loreen #eurovision 2023 #esc 2023 #sweden

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eurotastic · 1 year

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exactly 2 months from now, loreen will win eurovision for the second time, making sweden the most successful country in the history of eurovision*. i can't wait, swedish domination 2023 let's fucking goooooooooo

(*tied with ireland but nobody cares because ireland hasn't had any kind of success in my lifetime and I'm basically pushing 30)

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because-its-eurovision · 1 year

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hey !! i was thinking about whether this year’s esc winner is already set in stone and the likelihood that käärijä could still manage to bag the win with a majority televote score …

i was feeling kind of nervous about it all but then i thought back to 2021 - (i haven’t watched it in a while so correct me if i’m wrong,) but did måneskin get that many high scores from the jury? I don’t think they got many 12 points there at least? (maybe just enough to get a rather average jury score i can’t remember)… they had some 12’s tho i think.

… obviously måneskin absolutely dominated the televote so i was wondering if there could be a similar situation in 2023 as to 2021, as 2021 had some hugely competitive acts and it was a nail biter up to the last minute ✨ (i’m tryna remain positive to manifest this win ahahah 💆🏻‍♀️)

This is one of those asks that lighted me up with need to answer with a thousand-word essay 😄 My take on why these cases are different and why Sweden is the winner Eurovision 2023 under the cut 👇

How to win with televote

Your arguments about Måneskin winning are correct. Italy got a set of 12 points from the Slovenian (neighbour), Croatian and Georgian juries but their average jury score was only 5,42. Both Italy 2021 and Ukraine 2022 won thanks to televote despite being only fourth in the juryvote. Here’s my explanation.

In 2021 the differences between jury favorites weren’t that big. Switzerland had 267 points, France behind them 248 points, Malta 208 points and Italy 206 points. Juries tend to go for artistic ballads but televote rarely shares that sentiment, so Switzerland’s “flop” was predictable. Malta is the biggest jury favorite in Eurovision history so their lower placing in televote wasn’t a surprise either. France did well in both components, deservedly so, and over all placed second behind Italy by only 25 points.

In 2022 Ukraine landslided the televote by getting exactly 200 points more than Moldova who came in second. They got an astounding average of 11,26 points from every country’s televote, and I don’t think we’re going to see a result like that for a while if ever. I believe that Ukraine would have won last year anyway, but understandably the war had a huge effect on televoters.

Sweden vs. Finland

Juries love Sweden. Or rather, Sweden has learnt to send entries that fit to the jury taste. These are the Swedish results from the last ten years: 2012: jury 1st, tele 1st 2013: jury 3rd, tele 18th 2014: jury 2nd, tele 3rd 2015: jury 1st, tele 3rd 2016: jury 9th, tele 6th 2017: jury 3rd, tele 8th 2018: jury 2nd, tele 23rd 2019: jury 2nd, tele 6th 2021: jury 17th, tele 11th 2022: jury 2nd, tele 4th

Eight times of ten, jury has loved Sweden more than televoters. Of those eight, they have placed Sweden in their top-3 seven times. Of those seven, they have won three times.

However, the juries' attitude towards Finland is very different. Since the juries came back in 2010, Finland has failed to make it to the final thanks to juries three times (2010, 2015, 2017) when the televote would have been enough for qualification. In comparison, here are our results from the last ten years.

2012: jury 12th, tele 12th in semi (NQ) 2013: jury 18th, tele 20th 2014 jury 7th, tele 17th 2015 jury 16th (last), tele 10th in semi (NQ) 2016 jury 12th, tele 15th in semi (NQ) 2017 jury 12th, tele 10th in semi (NQ) 2018 jury 24th, tele 21st (in semi jury 15th and tele 7th, thanks to televote 10th combined and qualified) 2019 jury 16th, tele 17th (last) in semi 2021 jury 11th, tele 4th (in semi jury 6th and tele 1st) 2022 jury 22nd, tele 16th

Why Sweden is the frontrunner

Just going into the contest, Sweden is almost guaranteed jury support. By looking at the results from previous years it is safe to say Loreen is going to be the jury winner. There is a slight possibility that we get a surprise jury winner like Austria in 2018 and North Macedonia in 2019. However, that would require there to be a clear jurybait song with great vocals, most likely a powerful ballad with innovative staging, and as far as I see, there are really no contenders for that this year. Who could surprise us? Switzerland, Spain, Estonia? Maybe Ukraine because their entry this year is so much slicker and more modern?

I'd also like to point out that in 2021 the jury winner placed sixth in the televote and in 2022 fifth. That is not going to happen in 2023. Loreen is a former Eurovision winner, fan favourite, charismatic, great singer and performer, the staging shows something never before seen on Eurovision stage (assuming they’ll bring the led screens with them to Liverpool) and Tattoo is already a huge hit so it’s not going to be too artistic or boring for the casual viewers. Sweden isn't even a country anyone would vote against for political reasons. I can’t see Loreen placing outside televote top-3. She can easily get over 300 points from the juries (average of 8,34).

Can we trust the odds?

There are years when neither the betting odds or fans have no clear idea which country is going to win, but those are in the minority. We’ve had some out-of-nowhere winners like Austria 2014 and Portugal 2017, who only begun to shine during the rehearsal week, but the way I see it that 2023 is going to be like 2009, 2010, 2012, 2013, 2015, 2018, 2019 and 2022 when the odds got the winner right weeks or months before the contest. As far as I can remember, the odds have always managed to predict a Nordic winner 😄

People have been pointing out to me that the odds might be wrong and Finland still has the chance to win despite being second in the odds. I do worry that the betting odds are failing us this year, but for a different reason. My concern is that thanks to the Käärijä hype that has been going on in Finland since January has made lot of Finns bet for their own country. In 2015 the night before the first semi final Pertti Kurikan Nimipäivät was sixth in the odds to win the whole contest, only to end up in last place of their semi.

It is not often that Finland believes in their own chances in Eurovision, but when we do it sometimes makes us blind for what is realistic. Not everyone making Eurovision bets is familiar with how the juries usually vote and how that might effect the overall result. Not to mention that despite Finland being second in the odds behind Sweden, their winning chance is now 40% and ours only 15%.

Personal prediction

Please keep in mind that I’m not an expert of betting odds nor Eurovision, just a fan with a love for statistics 🙃

As for Finland, just qualifying let alone a placement in top-10 is of course an amazing result for us – hell, we’ve never even qualified more than twice in a row! My wish is that we could somehow crack into top-5 for the first time ever (2006 not taken into account). There is a possibility that we could win the televote (depending on running order) but juries are going leave Käärijä outside top-10, which means our placing is around 6th/7th in the overall results. Juries rarely care about silly upbeat songs especially if they are sung in native language and based on that I see Finland going the same route as Moldova 2022 (2nd in tele, 20th in juries, 7th combined) or Norway 2019 (1st in tele, 18th in jury, 6th combined).

Sweden wins. Loreen either wins both the juries and televote or placing in second/third in one or both of them. We might have a different jury winner (Spain? Switzerland?) or televote winner (Finland? Norway? Czechia?) but it doesn’t matter because they both flop in the other component (still placing in top-10 though).

You can quote me May 14th 2023 🙂

#I'd love the winner to be anyone but Sweden more than anything #Czechia has never won #Spain hasn't won since 1069 #*1969 ooops 😂😂#Georgia and Armenia have never won #France hasn't won since 1977 #they came close in 1991 and lost to SWEDEN by a TIE-BREAKER ONLY :)#please feel free to comment who could be the dark horse this year in either tele or jury vote because I'd LOVE to see one!#eurovision #asks

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laforzadelvoila · 11 months

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Loreen: how a legacy of warrior women helped the star win Eurovision

I get to sit down not once, but twice, with Loreen, all in the space of a week. Our time together has done my soul a lot of good, she’s definitely calmed me. The first thing you need to know about the Swedish pop star is that spirituality is everything to her. This also leads to the Libra quickly trying to guess every crew member’s star signs on set for her Rolling Stone UK digital cover shoot. We’re meant to delve into the enigma that is Loreen right at the end of a frankly delirious day on set (soundtracked nearly solely by FKA Twigs’ and Pa Salieu’s banger ‘honda’). But everything runs well over and a planned eight-hour day, quickly slips into 11 hours, and she’s pretty exhausted. Our interview is subsequently moved to the weekend to take place at her London hotel. And breathe.

Loreen, a name now so synonymous with Eurovision, never watched the singing event, or its Swedish feeder, Melodifestivalen as a child. She’s one of six kids, raised by a single mum. “I was just a weird kid. I preferred my own company,” she recalls. “I was raised in a big family. A lot of siblings, a lot of helping Mother out because she was alone, trying to make ends meet. We didn’t have much. We had three channels and I didn’t know anything about Melodifestivalen or Eurovision. I just knew at some point in my life, very late though, that I wanted to work with music. I was just trying to find my way wherever I went.” Loreen, 39, has now competed in the Swedish Eurovision selection process four times, making it through twice, and winning both years – pretty good going. Her determination means her name will forever appear in pop music history books.

Raised in a spiritual family, it continues to act as a key component to her personality and outlook on life. She loves nature, star signs, meditating and even has a house she can take herself away to on the remote Swedish island of Gotland. Her Moroccan roots and heritage, she says, provide for a very spiritual backdrop and are a massive influence here, too. “I know what suffering feels like. If you’ve been in pain, and allowed yourself to be in pain, or life has given you painful situations, at some point, when you see another person in pain? Ooof, I can feel that, and I know what you’re going through, I can imagine what you’re going through. That’s why you can’t stop from reacting.”

Her childhood wasn’t easy. Along with her five siblings she grew up “poor”, which led her to start questioning things at an early age. “Why is that happening? Why am I doing that, what is this all about? That’s where spiritually starts,” she says. “So in my house, these conversations happened. ‘Why don’t we have what they have? What’s the purpose of that? That’s unfair. Those people died over there. Why is it like that?’ Spirituality is about questioning your environment and understanding the bigger picture of things.”

Meeting the artist for a second time feels like a huge intake of fresh air. I arrive at Kings Cross, albeit 10 minutes late, and there’s a massive air of calm ready to greet me. Loreen is sitting in the lobby of The Standard London hotel drinking a slightly tepid cup of Earl Grey tea. This time she’s dressed down in an all-black ensemble and instantly recognises me when I arrive. After giving me a hug, she is desperate to know what we’re going to talk about. We settle on: everything.

The star has been vocal about her initial reluctance for a possible Eurovision return. So much so that she originally turned down the idea of using fiery pop anthem ‘Tattoo’ for Melodifestivalen after being sent a demo. How different things could have been. “I was afraid,” she admits. “That was just my initial reaction [when asked to return to Melodifestivalen], because everything went so fast for us. First there was a song, and I loved the song. There was no talking about Melfest. It was just a beautiful song and I wanted to release it.”

From all directions, she was firmly nudged into entering it, in what turned out to be her fourth whirl at Melodifestivalen. “Initially, I said, ‘No, no, no, no!’ I usually do that when I don’t know the purpose of why I’m doing something. Initially, I said no, because I needed time to figure things out. When I say time to figure things out, what I mean is, I need to understand why I do things.”

Everything that happens in Loreen’s life acts as a test, she believes. The prospect of a Eurovision return is a prime example. “What is the story? What can I give you guys? Is this meant for me to do? If you’re at a crossroad, are you going to go right? Or are you going to go left? You can’t really rush into that. That’s why I said no. I said no for a while. I just thought, ‘How do I navigate this?’”

As time passed, signs it was lining up to be a good call started to appear, pointing in her direction. “They were beautiful, beautiful signs. The first was the song, the second sign was the people that I trusted around me, they were so happy whenever I said, ‘Yes’. There were so many positive things happening. People were happy and curious. That’s why I said yes, basically.”

There is such a strong sense of purpose that ripples through everything Loreen does. When she competed in Azerbaijan back in 2012, a country marred by its questionable human rights record, she was the only entrant to meet local human rights activists. She told reporters: “Human rights are violated in Azerbaijan every day. One should not be silent about such things.” An Azerbaijan government spokesman responded critically, calling for the contest to not “be politicised”, and demanded the EBU (European Broadcasting Union) prevent such meetings. But Swedish diplomats stayed firmly on her side. They replied that the EBU, the Swedish broadcaster SVT and Loreen had not acted against the competition’s rules.

Loreen is publicly bisexual, coming out in a TV interview in 2017. Eurovision and the LGBTQ+ community have strong ties, too. Previous LGBTQ+ contestants and winners such as trans star Dana International, drag queen Conchita Wurst and Duncan Laurence have all found success in the competition. She loves her queer fans dearly, too. The ‘Euphoria’ singer told TV host Renée Nyberg at the time: “Many people are so focused on sex, on sexuality. Love is so much more. I usually say ‘Love is where you find it’”. When asked to clarify whether this meant she identifies as bisexual, Loreen said she “quite simply” was.

Unsurprisingly, she has LGBTQ+ fans messaging her all the time. “I absolutely love that. Queer or not queer, I don’t see that, I just see us as people with certain attributes. That’s why I say these are my people. We have the same mindset. The thing is, if somebody asked me, ‘What is freedom, what is feeling free?’, that is just doing exactly what you feel like, expressing yourself exactly the way you want to express yourself. Clothe yourself the way you want to clothe yourself, talk the way you want to talk. Don’t care about what other people think. This is true freedom.”

She goes on passionately: “This community, we know what freedom is about and what that feels like. If you compare it to another community where there are rules and regulations… where someone says, you need to talk like this and be like this, that’s a f**king jail! I cannot do that. For me, when somebody says, ‘You are weird’ to me, that’s [them saying] that I’m free.”

“The women from my mother’s mother’s side, these are real warriors. Historically, the women from my tribe, they’re called Berber.” She explains that this word comes from ‘Barbarian’, and adds: “They were called Barbarians by the Egyptians because they were so aggressive. The women were so aggressive. Isn’t that interesting?” She smiles: “The women from my tribe, they weren’t so interested in monogamy, but being in a relationship. Historically, they went out to the village in search of a man. ‘You’re coming with me,’ right? They did whatever they wanted to do. Then they said, ‘Ta ta,’ and they raised their children by themselves. This whole concept of husband and wife was never a concept. They used these women in war, because they were like, ‘Ahhhhhh!’”

This energy is “generational”, Loreen confirms, but that seemed obvious from the get-go, and especially reflective, she says, through her grandmother. “My great grandmother, my grandmother, all of these women, they had a life presented to them. They were told, ‘This is what your life is going to be like,’ by men, but instead, they were like, ‘F**k no!’ They fought for their freedom. My great grandmother, she loved her husband, he died in the war. They wanted her to marry someone else. So, what does the bitch do? She says, ‘F**k no’.”

Her grandmother took her two children away to a different city, dressed as a man “with a kaftan and everything” and they fled, alongside her housekeeper. “I have pictures of her at home, seriously! She left everything behind, dressed as a man, so that nobody would notice her. She had a cousin in the next city, opened up a store, still dressed as a man, till she got f**king old. She raised those two children by herself with some help from her cousins and never married again. I have a picture of her; she didn’t stop wearing male clothes, she did until she died. The kaftan, the hat, the gold tooth. That was hardcore from my grandma!”

The unravelling of these “huge” stories leads her to repeat my initial question back to me: “So how was it, raised by these women? It’s a lot of pressure!” she laughs. “They have a lot of expectations of me. Like, girl, you better step up your game, change something in the world. It’s crazy to see what women can do. Women are so much more powerful, stronger than men are. That’s why we can have babies and s**t like that, just saying!”

It’s not just the women in her family who provide inspiration, but “all women within the industry that stand their ground”, she tells me. “You can tell when women are standing their ground and not buying into that whole concept of what a woman’s supposed to be. I’m not saying that women aren’t supposed to be sexy. Grace Jones, for instance, she owns her sexuality. She can run around naked. She’s still doing it! There are so many, not even just in the industry. All women [inspire me] because they’re taking positions for the next generation, they’re balancing things up. It’s necessary and it’s inevitable. It’s going to happen. The shift is going to happen, and men will take a step back. The thing is, they’re longing for it, because they’re messing things up…”

Her Eurovision victory was Sweden’s seventh win, and means the nation will host the competition on the 50th anniversary of Abba’s 1974 win. Many fans are begging the group to make a triumphant return to the stage, but after Abba recently created the Voyage experience featuring avatars of themselves, surely that amounts to a deliberate act to make sure they’d never have to perform again? Loreen is convinced they will be at the event. If I were a bookmaker, I’d feel inclined to back her on this.

“They’re going to be there,” she insists. “Maybe not all of them, but they won’t miss it. I promise. How old are they? They all have their own lives. They haven’t really played together in a while. But I’m pretty sure that some of them will be there. Don’t tell them I told you!”

Before she returns to Eurovision again, there’s a giant 2023 in store for Loreen. With tickets for her ‘Tattoo’ tour selling out in literally seconds, it seems Loreen’s going absolutely nowhere. “I’ve been waiting for this tour for years,” she exclaims. “My fans are like, ‘Can you please come to England? Can you please come to Spain? Can you please come to France?’ and now I’m coming! Finally, I’m doing this, and with everything that’s happened with ‘Tattoo’ it’s just a perfect time. I’m longing for it. I’ve longed for it for many years. So it’s going to be nice. I’m a people’s person, I just want to connect.”

Connection is the key feeling again for Loreen. It all feeds back to her spirituality, which has been the dominant force in her life since she was a kid. I point out that there’s no better place for an artist to connect with all their fans than taking themselves on tour. “Yeah! because we gather,” she notes. “They’re there because they want to be there, and I’m there because I want to be there. It’s effortless.” Loreen is already full of ideas. She is, she reminds me, “a bloody creative” after all. “I’m working with the same team that I did ‘Tattoo’ with. It depends on the venues, but it’s going to be a visual performance, obviously.”

She’s heading straight to the studio after our interview. “I haven’t released that much music over the years,” but she promises that absolutely will change. “Now there’s a shift going on, there’s going to be a lot more releases, which is nice. This year and next year. My medium, she told me that!” A move to London is likely, too. “I think it’s actually going to happen. I’m pretty sure. Hello, London! I don’t know what it is, but it’s almost like the UK is a creative hub.” Her top picks of UK artists to work with? Labrinth and Burna Boy. Watch this space.

As our interview wraps, Loreen gives me a huge hug. She made a point of hugging the whole crew on our shoot day earlier in the week, too. It’s a warmth that exudes from her at every stage. “I know we’ll meet again soon,” she says before she departs. “I just know it will happen.”

• Source: Rolling Stone UK •

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