Sweden in the Eurovision Song Contest - 1960

Sweden chose its entry for Eurovision Song Contest 1960 by the national final, Melodifestivalen 1960. The winning song, Alla andra får varann was performed once by Östen Warnerbring and once by Ingrid Berggren. However Sveriges Radio decided that Siw Malmkvist would represent Sweden, as she had been denied that the previous year.

Melodifestivalen 1960 was the selection for the third song to represent Sweden at the Eurovision Song Contest. It was the second time that this system of picking a song had been used. It was held on February 2 1960 at Cirkus in Stockholm. A semi-final had been held to select the 4 finalists on December 28 1959. Approximately 1100 songs were submitted to SVT for the competition. The final was broadcast on Sveriges Radio TV and Sveriges Radio P1 from Cirkus, Stockholm and the presenter was Jeannette von Heidenstam. Last year's winner Siw Malmkvist was selected to sing the winning son, Alla andra får varann, at Eurovision.

At the final of Melodifestivalen two artists sang the same song, one with a large orchestra and a second with a smaller orchestra.

Results:

1. Alla andra får varann - Östen Warnebring/Inger Berggren, 85 points
2. Underbar, så underbar - Inger Berggren/Östen Warnebring, 76 points
3. Alexander - Mona Grain/Britt Damberg, 67 points
4. Nancy, Nancy - Britt Damberg/Mona Grain, 56 points

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Siw "Siwan" Gunnel Margareta Malmkvist (born December 31 1936 in Landskrona, Skåne County, Sweden) is a Swedish singer who is popular in Scandinavia and Germany. She had a number one hit in West Germany in 1964 with Liebeskummer lohnt sich nicht and on 18 July 1964, a full decade before ABBA, she historically had also become the first Swede to have a hit on the US Billboard chart with Sole Sole Sole, a duet with Italian singer Umberto Marcato.

Siw Malmkvist is a performer with great versatility in the Swedish entertainment business as she, alongside her career in pop/schlager music, has performed in stage plays, musicals and in films. She played Pippi Longstocking in the popular children musical production of Astrid Lindgren's Pippi Longstocking in 1980, appeared in the musical version of Some Like It Hot and she played the part of Luisa in the original Swedish - and European - production of Maury Yeston's musical Nine in 1983. In 2002 she appeared as the Mother in Hasse Alfredson's stage play Lille Ronny at Maximteatern. With actor Thorsten Flinck she made a popular Swedish cover of Nick Cave/Kylie Minogue's 1995 hit Where the Wild Roses Grow.

In 2008/2009, she played the part of Fräulein Schneider in the musical Cabaret at Stockholms Stadsteater directed by Colin Nutley.

Having had some 40 hits on Swedish radio chart Svensktoppen and 20 on the German singles chart, Siw has altogether recorded about 600 songs (and has made recordings in ten different languages: Swedish, Danish, Norwegian, Finnish, Dutch, German, English, French, Italian and Spanish) throughout the past five decades, which makes her one of the most productive and successful Swedish female singers.

Siw Malmkvist has been a contestant in the Swedish Melodifestivalen several times, most recently in 2004 together with Towa Carson and Ann-Louise Hanson, singing the song C'est la vie, which finished 10th. She represented Sweden at the Eurovision Song Contest 1960 in London with Alla andra får varann which came 10th. In turn, the following year Malmkvist, who famously forgot the lyrics to the song during her performance, and Gunnar Wiklund both won Melodifestivalen with the song April, april, but then Sveriges Radio selected Barbro "Lill-Babs" Svensson as the Swedish representative at the international Contest, held in Cannes. In 1969 Malmkvist again returned to Eurovision, but then performing the West German entry "Primaballerina" at Madrid, incidentally finishing shared 9th with the Swedish entry "Judy, min vän", sung by Tommy Körberg. In 1988 Siw participated again at Melodifestivalen with the song Det är kärlek.

Siw also participated in the Deutsche Schlager Festspiele. In 1962 she came second with the song Die Wege Der Liebe Sind Wunderbar and in 1964 she won the Schlager Festspiele with the song Liebeskummer Lohnt Sich Nicht. In 1965 she came 3rd with Das Fünfte Rad Am Wagen and in 1968 she won the Schlagerfestspiele with Harlekin.