Sweden in the Eurovision Song Contest - 2001

The Swedish Final, Melodifestivalen 2001,  was held at the Musikteater in Malmö on 23rd February, hosted by Josefine Sundström & Henrik Olsson. The winner was chosen by 11 regional juries (50%) and televoting (50%) - Friends were the favourite of both.

Winner was last year's runner-up, the group Friends with the typical schlager song Lyssna till ditt hjärta. It was written by Thomas G:son and Henrik Sethson.

Results:

01. Lyssna till ditt hjärta - Friends, 237 points
02. Allt som jag ser - Barbados, 192 points
03. Igår, idag - Sanna Nielsen, 172 points
04. Ingemansland - Jan Johansen, 107 points
05. Om du stannar här - Ellinor Franzén, 91 points
06. Om du förlåter mig - Date 57 points
07. Vända om - Annie Kratz-Gutå, 29 points
08. Kom ner på jorden - Teresia, 25 points
09. Jag känner dig - Popson, 23 points
10. Om du var här hos mig - Rosanna, 13 points

For the ESC, the song was rewritten into English and got the new title Listen To Your Heartbeat. It was performed in the 7th spot, in a total of 23. Despite not receiving any 12s, Sweden reached the 5th position with 100 points.

Listen To Your Heartbeat became part of a controversy after it was claimed that it was plagiarised from Belgium's 1996 entry Liefde is een kaartspel. At first this was denied by the Swedish composers, Thomas G:son and Henrik Sethsson, but after the Belgian songwriters and the author's organisation SABAM pressed for legal action, a cash settlement was agreed.

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Friends was a Swedish dansband or pop group formed in 1999 and made up of Stefan Brunzell, Tony Haglund, Kristian Hermanson, Nina Inhammar, Kim Kärnfalk and Peter Strandberg. They were put together from auditions on the reality television show Friends på turne (Friends on Tour), made by Bert Karlsson for TV4. The show was a success and Friends competed on Melodifestivalen 2000, reaching second place.

They won Melodifestivalen 2001 with Lyssna till ditt hjärta and represented Sweden at the Eurovision Song Contest 2001 with the English version of the song, Listen To Your Heartbeat wearing sexy, tight, leather fitted clothing.

In 2000, Friends came 2nd at Melodifestival with the song När jag tänker på i morgon and in 2002 they came 8th with The one that you need.

The band split in 2002, with Nina Inhammar and Kim Kärnfalk forming their own duo Nina & Kim, which continued until 2006, after which Kim Kärnfalk continued as a solo artist. In 2004 Nina & Kim stranded in the semi-finals of Melodifestivalen with the song En gång för alla.