Per Loreen, in another of those remarks you’d expect to find printed on an Etsy yoga mat: “Sometimes the spirit or the body knows before the mind does.” She also overcame more prosaic mishaps like accidentally swallowing a fake snowflake mid-song.īut, since she didn’t understand the Eurovision rules, she didn’t realise she’d won. For Eurovision 2012, she fought to perform barefoot, to the bafflement of her team – and even herself, really. In fact, other than constantly playing with her long, dark hair, she radiates serenity – despite being in the midst of rehearsals and a busy promotional tour. It’s a peculiar juxtaposition of wellness-influencer Zen and one of the most madcap events in entertainment.
“I can feel the army energy running through me!” she wails.
That’s important too, because we need all those energies to be complete as humans.”Īs for Loreen’s own energy, she frets that her outfit – khaki-coloured baseball cap, T-shirt and trousers – is accidentally militaristic. “There are deep songs that have this cleansing energy, and there are those songs that are light. What about last year’s entry from Norway with their novelty song Give That Wolf a Banana – what uncompromising “truth” were they living?īut for Loreen – who refers to herself as “spiritual” several times and is deeply attuned to “energies” – even those eccentric acts fit into her bohemian theories. Before then I was compromising, which is physically painful for me.” Gosh. That was the first time in my life where I dared to open up and sing my truth. You can tell when the artist lives and breathes whatever they’re doing.” Her winning song Euphoria was “my soul, my spirit. “I just truly believe that you have to be 100 per cent authentic. “I didn’t know much about Eurovision or Melodifestivalen – I was in my own creative bubble,” she recalls. Speaking to me over Zoom from Universal Music’s offices in Stockholm, the 39-year-old asserts that this notoriously camp event, which has featured erotic milkmaids and a giant hamster wheel, is actually a haven of artistic authenticity.
Not according to Loreen, who won the contest for Sweden in 2012 in Azerbaijan and is back representing her country this year. Still, there surely must be a perfect formula: criteria that canny entrants can study and replicate. What’s the secret to Eurovision success? That question tortured our “nul points” nation until Sam Ryder broke the curse in 2022, coming second to Ukraine’s Kalush Orchestra – and hopes are high that the UK’s latest act, Mae Muller, might do us proud when Eurovision comes to Liverpool this evening.
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