Sweden was represented at the Eurovision Song Contest 1974 with the song "Waterloo", composed by Benny Andersson and Björn Ulvaeus, with lyrics by Stig Anderson, and performed by the group ABBA, comprising Andersson, Ulvaeus, Anni-Frid Lyngstad, and Agnetha Fältskog. The Swedish participating broadcaster, (SR), selected its entry for the contest through 1974. The song, that was originally performed in Swedish in the national final, was translated into English for Eurovision, something the rules allowed between 1973 and 1976.
ABBA was one of the favourites to win the 1974 contest, held in Brighton, United Kingdom. They sang in slot No. 8. In the voting, they received high points from the first jury to vote (), but it was a close race until the third last jury, , gave Sweden enough points to secure victory. Sweden received a total of 24 points, compared to runner-up 's 18. This was the first victory for Sweden. In 2005, in the 50th anniversary show Congratulations, Waterloo was chosen the best Eurovision song ever.
Before Eurovision
1974
1974 (on-screen title Melodifestival 1974) was the selection for the 15th song to represent at the Eurovision Song Contest. It was the 14th time that (SR) used this system of picking a song. Ten songwriters were selected by SR for the competition. The final was held in the SR television studios in Stockholm on 9 February 1974, presented by Johan Sandström and was broadcast on TV1 but was not broadcast on radio. ABBA went on to win that year's Eurovision Song Contest in Brighton, Sweden's first Eurovision victory.
Artist Song Songwriter(s) Points Place1Lena Ericsson"En enda jord"Håkan Elmquist 185 32Östen Warnerbring"En mysig vals"Bengt Hallberg, Östen Warnerbring 10 103Göran Fristorp"Jag minns dej nog"Georg Riedel, Stig Claesson 16 74Titti Sjöblom"Fröken Ur sång"Torgny Söderberg 148 45ABBA"Waterloo"Benny Andersson, Björn Ulvaeus, Stig Anderson 302 16Lasse Berghagen"Min kärlekssång till dig"Lasse Berghagen 211 27Inger Öst"En grön dröm om dej"Bo Sylvén, Bo Carlgren, Bitte Carlgren 61 58Sylvia Vrethammar and Göran Fristorp"En dröm är en dröm"Lars Färnlöf, Lasse Bagge 31 69Lena Bergqvist"Den sista sommaren av mitt liv"Björn Isfält, Lena Bergqvist 11 910Glenmarks"I annorlunda land"Bengt-Arne Wallin, Anja-Notini-Wallin 15 8
Voting Song scope="col" scope="col" scope="col" scope="col" scope="col" scope="col" scope="col" scope="col" scope="col" scope="col" scope="col" Total 1 "En enda jord"102015611103021152423 185 2 "En mysig vals"50000004100 10 3 "Jag minns det nog"70010200006 16 4 "Fröken Ur sång"12181914142010127157 148 5 "Waterloo"2627243541263416322417 302 6 "Min kärlekssång till dej"2621202517181214221818 211 7 "En grön dröm om dej"219349411936 61 8 "En dröm är en dröm"10050109348 31 9 "Den sista sommaren av mitt liv"00203400002 11 10 "I annorlunda land"13110003123 15
At Eurovision Voting Each participating broadcaster assembled a jury of ten people. Every jury member could give one point to his or her favourite song.
+ Points awarded to Sweden Score Country 5 points 3 points 2 points 1 point
+ Points awarded by Sweden Score Country 3 points 2 points 1 point
Congratulations: 50 Years of the Eurovision Song Contest
"Waterloo" was one of fourteen Eurovision songs chosen by fans to compete in the Congratulations 50th anniversary special in 2005. The contest was broadcast on SVT with commentary by Pekka Heino. It was the only Swedish entry featured in the show, although several Swedish entrants were featured (including Swedish winners Carola and Richard Herrey of Herreys). "Waterloo" appeared seventh in the running order, following "Nel blu dipinto di blu" by Domenico Modugno and preceding "Fly on the Wings of Love" by the Olsen Brothers. At the end of the first round, it was announced that "Waterloo" had advanced to the second round along with four other songs. It was later revealed that "Waterloo" won the first round with 331 points. This included 18 sets of the maximum twelve points, including from Sweden (who, unlike in usual contests, were allowed to vote for their own entry). Coincidentally, the first proper competing Eurovision song to receive a record 18 top marks was a Swedish entry: "Euphoria" by Loreen, the winning song of the 2012 contest.
"Waterloo" went on to win the second round and the anniversary contest as a whole, scoring 329 points.
Voting
+ Points awarded to "Waterloo" (Round 1) Score Country 12 points 10 points 8 points 7 points 6 points 5 points 4 points 3 points 2 points 1 points
+Points awarded to "Waterloo" (Round 2) Score Country 12 points 10 points 8 points 7 points 6 points
References
External links TV broadcastings at SVT's open archive