Sweden: Måns Zelmerlöw with his “Heroes” wins Melodifestivalen 2015.

It is  Måns Zelmerlöw who will represent Sweden at the 2015 Eurovision Song Contest, after winning Melodifestivalen 2015 with his song Heroes.

The 12 finalists that have made it to the grand final through the 4 semifinals battled for the victory that leads to the  upcoming Eurovision Song Contest in Vienna. A 50/50 combined international jury vote/televote then took place in order to decide this year’s Swedish representative. This year’s international jury was made up of an expert panel from 11 countries; Armenia, Austria, Belgium, Cyprus, Estonia, France, Israel, Malta, the Netherlands, Slovenia and the United Kingdom.

After the the international Jury’s votes were in and the public voting was added the outcome was a clear victory for  Måns Zelmerlöw with his song Heroes.

Måns Petter Albert Sahlén Zelmerlöw  was born 13 June 1986. He was first known for taking part in Idol 2005 finishing fifth, for winning the first season of Let’s Dance, and for his 2007 song “Cara Mia,” which was his entry in that year’s Melodifestivalen. Zelmerlöw was the host of Allsång på Skansen from 2011 to 2013. He participated in Melodifestivalen in 2007 and 2009.Måns Zelmerlöw is the son of Birgitta Sahlén, a professor at Lund University and surgeon Sven-Olof Zelmerlöw. M. Zelmerlöw studied music in high school in Lund and was part of a school choir project. In 2002 he played one of the brothers in the musical Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat at Slagthuset in Malmö.

The story so far

Sweden debuted at the Eurovision Song Contest in 1958 when the late Alice Babs was selected to represent her country with her entry Lilla stjärna. Sweden received 10 points, ending in 4th position.

Sweden has won the Eurovision Song Contest a total of 5 times; in 1974 (Abba, Waterloo), in 1984 (Herreys, Diggi-loo diggi-ley), in 1991 (Carola, Fångad av en stormvind), in 1999 (Charlotte Nilsson, Take me to your heaven) and in 2012 (Loreen, Euphoria).

Last year, Sanna Nielsen was selected via the national selection Melodifestivalen to represent her country at the 2014 Eurovision Song Contest. With her entry Undo, Sanna qualified from the first semi-final and ended in 3rd place in the Grand Final with a total of 218 points.