VIDEO: Three times Sweden poked fun at Eurovision
With Sweden one of the favourites to win Eurovision this year, let's take a look at the times when the country showed up the sheer ridiculousness of the song contest.
Eurovision is often known for eyebrow-raising entries featuring bizarre local traditions or, frankly, eccentric outfits. Although Sweden takes the contest seriously when it comes to its song entries, that doesn't mean Swedes don't sometimes celebrate the weirdness of Eurovision.
Love Love Peace Peace
Who could forget Måns Zelmerlöv and Petra Mede's run as Eurovision presenters in Stockholm in 2016? Zelmerlöw, who won the contest the year before in Vienna, was joined by comedian Mede, who had presented the contest in Malmö three years earlier.
The two performed a sketch titled, "Love Love Peace Peace", an attempt to make the perfect winning Eurovision song. The clip features former winners Lordi who won for Finland in 2006, and Alexander Rybak, the Norwegian violinist who won for Norway in 2009.
Watch the clip below and see how many references to previous Eurovision entries you can recognise.
Tingeliin
In this bizarre clip from Sweden's Eurovision Song Contest qualifiers Melodifestivalen in 2009, Swedish comedy group Grotesco perform a mid-show sketch full of Russian stereotypes, including Cossack dancers, matryoshka stacking dolls, and a chorus of men dressed like Russian soldiers. The choreography also featured several scantily clad women wearing tight-fitting shorts with a single red star splaying their legs toward the camera in unison.
The clip caused controversy in Russia, after The Local reached out to Russia's embassy in Stockholm for a comment - a spokesperson called the song "offensive" and "disconnected", and condemned the sketch in an official statement:
“We do not react to eccentricity by some lunatics whose Russophobia should place them in an asylum rather than on Globen’s stage.”
See the clip for yourself here:
Lill Lindfors and her wardrobe malfunction
Lill Lindfors, a Finnish-Swedish singer and comedian, presented the 1985 Eurovision Song Contest in Gothenburg following Sweden's win the previous year in Luxembourg.
Prior to hosting Eurovision in 1985, she had placed second in the 1966 contest with the song "Nygammal vals".
In a clip which reportedly displeased the European Broadcasting Union who manage the contest, the bottom half of Lindfors' dress was ripped off by a piece of set, exposing her underwear.
Lindfors paused, feigning shock, before quickly pulling a new dress down from the remaining top half of her outfit.
You can watch the iconic moment here (narrated by Terry Wogan, the BBC's Eurovision commentator for many years) and decide for yourself whether it was meant to happen or not:
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Eurovision is often known for eyebrow-raising entries featuring bizarre local traditions or, frankly, eccentric outfits. Although Sweden takes the contest seriously when it comes to its song entries, that doesn't mean Swedes don't sometimes celebrate the weirdness of Eurovision.
Love Love Peace Peace
Who could forget Måns Zelmerlöv and Petra Mede's run as Eurovision presenters in Stockholm in 2016? Zelmerlöw, who won the contest the year before in Vienna, was joined by comedian Mede, who had presented the contest in Malmö three years earlier.
The two performed a sketch titled, "Love Love Peace Peace", an attempt to make the perfect winning Eurovision song. The clip features former winners Lordi who won for Finland in 2006, and Alexander Rybak, the Norwegian violinist who won for Norway in 2009.
Watch the clip below and see how many references to previous Eurovision entries you can recognise.
Tingeliin
In this bizarre clip from Sweden's Eurovision Song Contest qualifiers Melodifestivalen in 2009, Swedish comedy group Grotesco perform a mid-show sketch full of Russian stereotypes, including Cossack dancers, matryoshka stacking dolls, and a chorus of men dressed like Russian soldiers. The choreography also featured several scantily clad women wearing tight-fitting shorts with a single red star splaying their legs toward the camera in unison.
The clip caused controversy in Russia, after The Local reached out to Russia's embassy in Stockholm for a comment - a spokesperson called the song "offensive" and "disconnected", and condemned the sketch in an official statement:
“We do not react to eccentricity by some lunatics whose Russophobia should place them in an asylum rather than on Globen’s stage.”
See the clip for yourself here:
Lill Lindfors and her wardrobe malfunction
Lill Lindfors, a Finnish-Swedish singer and comedian, presented the 1985 Eurovision Song Contest in Gothenburg following Sweden's win the previous year in Luxembourg.
Prior to hosting Eurovision in 1985, she had placed second in the 1966 contest with the song "Nygammal vals".
In a clip which reportedly displeased the European Broadcasting Union who manage the contest, the bottom half of Lindfors' dress was ripped off by a piece of set, exposing her underwear.
Lindfors paused, feigning shock, before quickly pulling a new dress down from the remaining top half of her outfit.
You can watch the iconic moment here (narrated by Terry Wogan, the BBC's Eurovision commentator for many years) and decide for yourself whether it was meant to happen or not:
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