Loreen from Sweden stormed to victory with 372 points. Russia and Serbia earned 259 and 214 points respectively. Loreen also won the second Semi-Final with a total of 181 points compared to Serbia and Lithuania who came second and third respectively.
Loreen and Sweden also won two of the three The 2012 Marcel Bezençon Awards. The Artistic Award – Presented to the best artist as voted on by the commentators, and Composer Award – The best and most original composition as voted on by the participating composers: Thomas G:son and Peter Boström for Euphoria.
The Marcel Bezençon Awards were first handed out during the 2002 Eurovision Song Contest in Tallinn. The awards are named after the creator of the Eurovision Song Contest, Marcel Bezençon.
Loreen’s performance in the Swedish selection to the Eurovision Song Contest 2012 was in several aspects dreamlike. Her vocals and stage performance had a celestial quality that made commentators use words like ”otherworldly” after her experiencing contribution ”Euphoria”.
It came as no big surprise when she won the competition and made so with some distance. Loreen first took the votes from the specially invited international expert jury. Before winning the votes from the television viewers with record figures. More than 670 000 of the four million viewers – close to half the population – called in to vote for Loreen, twice the support of last years winner.
Afterwards Loreen was simply overwhelmed. ”A fantastic feeling, I almost started sobbing” she admitted to the television cameras.
“Two months of preparation can do miracles!” Loreen will bring “Euphoria” to Baku, Azerbaijan, where the 2012 Swedish entry will participate in the second of two semi finals for the ESC on May 24.
This attitude tells a lot about Loreen. Raised on the countryside outside Stockholm, in a family of Moroccan-Berber origin, she has a very detailed attitude to her music. She’s for example frustrated of the fact that she’s often tagged as an R&B artist.
”The music I get inspiration from is music that gets you into kind of a trance. Both musically and vocal vice. Artists like Björk, some of Enya’s music, and especially Lisa Gerrard.”
It’s fitting that Loreen learned to play the piano by imitating the very minimalistic Michael Nyman score to the 90’s film ”The Piano”. Loreen continues: ”I want to make music that really connects to my soul. I think that’s when my music affects the most.”
She describes herself: ”Somewhat a loner, a seeker that steers away from the information overload of today. I have no tv set. I have a laptop but I only use it for e-mails and music programs.”
Her general aim? ”To unite people in the thought that there is much more to life than the materialistic aspects. I know that it may sound hippieish and overblown. But is that really a reason to give up on this ambition? I’m certain the answer to that is no!”
Loreen’s third single release “Euphoria” has already spent some two weeks topping the Swedish single and airplay charts with sales quickly surpassing Platinum status. Neighbouring Norway and Finland were quick to discover this uplifting future anthem and are currently also reporting no 1 positions. The highly anticipated debut album is scheduled for a September release. “Euphoria” is written by Peter Boström and Thomas G:son and produced by Peter Boström and SeventyEight. An amazing journey has just begun and t