Sweden was represented at the Eurovision Song Contest 1978 with the song "", written by Peter Himmelstrand, and performed by Björn Skifs. The Swedish participating broadcaster, (SR), selected its entry through 1978.

Before Eurovision

1978 1978 was the selection for the 18th song to represent at the Eurovision Song Contest. It was the 17th time that (SR) used this system of picking a song. 58 songs were submitted to SR for the competition. The final was held in the in Stockholm on 11 February 1978, presented by Ulf Elfving and broadcast on TV1 but was not broadcast on radio. The songs were not performed live, instead the performances were recorded the afternoon before, and inter-mingled with live pieces from the venue. There was a tie in the voting, and each regional jury was asked to award one point to their favourite song of "" and "Miss Decibel". The former won by eight votes to three.

Artist Song Songwriters Points Place 1Pastellerna"Idag är det vår" 52 6 2Thomas Munck"Nåt som gör dej glad" 11 10 3Tomas Ledin"Mademoiselle"Tomas Ledin 78 5 4Harlequin"Harlequin" 49 8 5Göran Fristorp"Längtan om livet med dig"Göran Fristorp 85 3 6Kikki Danielsson, Lasse Holm and Wizex"Miss Decibel" 100 2 7Kenneth Greuz"Åh, evergreens" 50 7 8Pugh Rogefeldt"Nattmara"Pugh Rogefeldt 85 3 9Jörgen Edman and Polarna"Lilla stjärna" 29 9 10Björn Skifs"Det blir alltid värre framåt natten"Peter Himmelstrand 100 1

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 "Idag är det vår"5473644526652 2 "Nåt som gör dej glad"1111111111111 3 "Mademoiselle"7810108568104278 4 "Harlequin"6265435635449 5 "Längtan om livet med dig"4712757810128585 6 "Miss Decibel"101048101212125710100 7 "Åh, evergreens"3534762463750 8 "Nattmara"126562101037121285 9 "Lilla stjärna"2322323242328 10 "Det blir alltid värre framåt natten"812812128778108100

+ Tie-break Song scope="col" scope="col" scope="col" scope="col" scope="col" scope="col" scope="col" scope="col" scope="col" scope="col" scope="col" Total "Miss Decibel" 1 1 13 "Det blir alltid värre framåt natten"11111 1 11 8

At Eurovision When Skifs was set to participate in the 1978 Eurovision Song Contest, he could not decide whether to sing in Swedish or English—possibly as a joke. This was a risky move, as the rules at the time required each country to perform its entry in its own language. The result was that Skifs became nervous and sang the wrong lyrics during the first verse—a moment that has since become a classic among Swedish TV blunders. The line "Dagarna och kvällarna, då lever jag – trivs med mitt jobb, har kompisar, att snacka med, det flyter" ("The days and the evenings, that’s when I live – I enjoy my job, have friends to talk to, things are going smoothly") instead turned into something along the lines of "Dagarna och kvällarna, då lever jag – röppni fälls, örr ur i knön, och gniblisåå, på kvällen." He finished 14th (out of 20).

Voting

+ Points awarded to Sweden Score Country 12 points 10 points 8 points 7 points 6 points 5 points 4 points 3 points 2 points 1 point

+ Points awarded by Sweden Score Country 12 points 10 points 8 points 7 points 6 points 5 points 4 points 3 points 2 points 1 point

References