‘Hold Me Closer’ by Cornelia Jakobs
Sweden in Eurovision
Sweden debuted at the third Eurovision Song Contest in 1958 and have competed in all but three years ago, and missed the competition in 1964, 1970 and 1976. They have won six times, making them the second most successful Eurovision nation after Ireland with their seven wins.
Sweden is one of only two countries to have won Eurovision in four different decades (the other is the United Kingdom). Wins for Sweden came in –
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1974 – ABBA – ‘Waterloo’
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1984 – Herreys – ‘Diggi-Loo Diggi-Ley’
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1991 – Carola – ‘Caught by a storm’
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1999 – Charlotte Nilsson – ‘Take Me To Your Heaven’
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2012 – Loreen – “Euphoria”
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2015 – Måns Zelmerlöw – ‘Heroes’
Since the semifinal system was introduced in 2004, they have only missed the final once when Anna Bergendahl finished 11th in her semifinal in 2010.
2022 Contribution: Cornelia Jakobs – ‘Hold Me Closer’
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Semifinal: Sweden has been drawn to compete in the second half of semifinal 2.
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My Eurovision Scoreboard Fan Ranking: 1st out of 40 entries
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Odds to win ranking: 3rd out of 40 entries
(Ranking as of March 25, 2022)
About the artist
Cornelia Jakobs (Anna Cornelia Jakobsdotter Samuelsson) is a 30-year-old Swedish singer-songwriter and daughter of Jakob Samuel, singer in the glam metal band ‘The Poodles’.
After a failed Swedish Idol audition at the age of 16, Cornelia was one of five young women who won a place in the girl group ‘Love Generation’ in 2010 and beat over 500 hopefuls. In 2011, the group was down to four members and entered the Swedish national final Melodifestivalen with ‘Dance Alone’. The song went to Andra Chansen’s second chance but did not make it to the final (it’s Cornelia with the blonde hair)!
The girls returned in 2012 as a trio with “Just A Little Bit” but finished sixth in their semifinals and were eliminated. A name change to Stockholm Syndrome caused the group to release another five singles before they were disbanded in 2016.
Cornelia started releasing music as a solo artist in 2018, with one of her singles “Weight of the World” which became the soundtrack to the HBO Nordic series “Björnstad”. She also co-wrote Efraim Leo’s contribution to the 2021 Melodifestivalen ‘Best Of Me’, which made Andra Chansen’s second chance. In 2022, Cornelia entered the Melodifestivalen as a solo artist for the first time.
About the song
‘Hold Me Closer’ is an emotional ballad about the difficult end of a relationship, written by Cornelia in collaboration with her best friend Isa Molin and the author and producer David Zandén.
Cornelia told The Euro Trip Eurovision podcast about the writing process with Isa –
“We have written a couple of times before, but this was the first time we really went in to write for me and I think we both became a bit like why have we not done this before? Because we are so good at writing together … as it works so well! Even with David … we are like a fantastic trio, we have written eight or nine songs after this … “
How she was selected for Eurovision
Cornelia was chosen to represent Sweden after winning the Melodifestivalen 2022. The six-week annual event, which contains 28 songs, is used as the national selection show for Eurovision.
‘Hold Me Closer’ won the first heat on 5 February 2022 and went straight to the final on 12 March where it won the jury vote and came second among the public, which was enough to take the win and get the ticket to Turin.
Sweden competes in semifinal 2 on May 12 (European time) in Turin.