A victory for Sweden, a victory for Lund

Before you move to Sweden, you must be aware of the nation’s love for music. Not only is Sweden the number 1 country for exported chart music in relation to GDP, their love of music is so evident in many aspects of life in Sweden. Starting from music education in schools, a vast presence of choirs etc, to their very own Melodifestivalen – the most watched TV show.

What Sweden is also very known for is their love for the Eurovision Song Contest. They won it 6 times, and the latest victory happened last night. If there’s one thing to know about Sweden, it’s that Eurovision is important. Everyone watches it, everyone cares about it. So, we, the internationals, decided we should abide by the cultural rules and organise a Eurovision party. We had a TV, we had pop corn and chocolate and we were ready to follow the contest from the first minute to the last with the passion of a true Eurovision-loving Swede.

It was all fun and games until the voting started. Then it got serious. After a while, seeing that most of our own countries weren’t going to make it, the natural course of action was to join our fellow Swedes and cheer every time we heard:

“12 points go tooo….. Sweden!”

The whole Sweden is ecstatic about this victory. It is the second victory in the last 3 years, which is quite remarkable. So, all of us in Sweden are bracing ourselves for weeks and weeks of Eurovision-related news in the papers. 🙂

While Sweden is ecstatic… The whole Lund is even more ecstatic. Måns Zelmerlöv, the singer who brought Sweden this sweet victory actually comes from Lund! Ah, if only you could see the pride on the faces of our fellow Lundian Swedes last night…

And while the possibility of hosting the next Eurovision in small Lund is as slim as a piece of paper, that’s alright. We (hej. Yes, we: we were all involved in the cheering!) brought this victory home, and whichever Swedish city gets to host it, it’s probably going to be spectacular anyway. Because: Sweden, the hero of Eurovision.

P.S. Lund is also the town of Axwell, the DJ and part of Swedish House Mafia, just so you know. Lund is the town of cool people, ladies and gentlemen.

Image: screenshot from eurovision.tv

Dena

Written by Dena

24 May 2015