Sweden in the Eurovision Song Contest 1959


Sweden was in their second Eurovision Song Contest represented by Brita Borg with the song "Augustin". The winning song was elected in the Swedish national final: Melodifestivalen 1959. Eight semi-finals were held on the radio. During the semi-finals, Sveriges Radio decided that the winning song would represent Sweden at the Eurovision Song Contest 1959. The singer for Cannes had already been selected.

Before Eurovision

''Säg det med musik: Stora Schlagertävlingen''

Säg det med musik: Stora Schlagertävlingen was the national final for the song to represent Sweden at the Eurovision Song Contest 1959. It was held on 29 January 1959 and was the first time that this system of picking a song was being used.

Format

Already before the national final, it had been decided that Brita Borg would represent Sweden in the Eurovision Song Contest 1959. However, different artists were chosen to present the songs competing in the broadcast national selection process. Approximately 200 songs were submitted to SVT for the competition. Eight semi finals were held during Thore Erling's radio program Säg det med musik. In each semi final, an artist performed two different songs with one of them qualifying for the national final. Östen Warnerbring was the only artist to have competed in two semi finals and hence would go on to present two songs in the national final as well.

Competing entries

There is no information on the songs that did not manage to qualify from the radio semi finals. Live recordings of all eight songs competing in the grand final have survived and the full results of the final could be reconstructed.
ArtistSong Songwriters
Britt Damberg"Nya fågelsången" Sam Samson, Fritz-Gustaf Sundelöf
Britt-Inger Dreilick"Hösten är vår" Gösta Westerberg, Fritz-Gustaf Sundelöf
Lily Berglund"Dags igen att vara kära" Ulf Källqvist, Åke Gerhard
Siw Malmkvist"Augustin"Bo Harry Sandin, Åke Gerhard
Ulla Christensson"Lyckans soluppgång" Dag Lamberth, Bengt Haslum
Åke Söhr"En miljon för dina tänkar" Per-Olof Flodin, Åke Gerhard
Östen Warnerbring"Kungsgatans blues" Axel Flyckt, Sven-Gustaf Johnsson
Östen Warnerbring"Någon saknar dig" Britt Lindeborg

Final

The final was broadcast on Sveriges Radio TV and Sveriges Radio P1 from Cirkus, Stockholm and the presenter was Thore Ehrling. Augustin was chosen by an expert jury.

At Eurovision

On the night of the final Brita Borg performed 7th in the running order, following Germany and preceding Switzerland. At the close of voting "Augustin" had received only 4 points, placing Sweden 9th. The Swedish jury awarded its highest mark to Denmark.

Points awarded to Sweden

Points awarded by Sweden