Every
now and then Eurovision song contest winners come back to the contest
and looking back quite often it hasn't been such a good idea. A total
of 14 previous winners have managed to return (and even more have
tried but failed to win the national final. Latest of them is Swedish
Loreen last year). In this series I have a brief look at them and how
did it go.....
If Dana International became the first Eurovision winner not to make the final again, it was a close call for Charlotte Perrelli. To her luck in 2008-2009 there was the jury wildcard rule or only the top-9 of the semifinalists qualified for the final and the jury chose the 10th one.
In 1999 Charlotte Nilsson won Melodifestivalen with Tusen och en natt, and thanks to the new rule of free language it became Take me to your heaven in Jerusalem and she beat Iceland's Selma with 17 points taking a somewhat surprise win. Conflicts with SVT caused her to stay out of Eurovision song contest in 2000, breaking the tradition of previous winner performing in the show.
In 2008 she was back with Hero and surname Perrelli and being a real fan favorite her 12th place in the semifinal - with a shortage of 10 points from the final - was a real shocker. Of course we didn't find out about that until the final was over and the results revealed. But the semifnal voters were right: she only placed 18th in final with only Malta giving her 12 (and in semifinal Denmark doing the same) while the others gave her nothing or generally 1-3 points. To her credit it must be said she did a good job while being in the middle of a very nasty divorce*, cheating drama and make up and styling disaster plus doing a worse show on TV thanks to Serbian tv's incapacity or will to deliver the tricks used in Mello...
She made another modest try of comeback in Melodifestivalen and Eurovision in 2012 but That girl didn't make the final placing 5th in her semifinal.... Last year she was back with Mitt liv and placed last in her semi... Everything has a beginning, everything comes to an end indeed.
Funfact: She should be Ingrosso instead of Perrelli as she was married to Nicola Ingrosso, Benjamin's uncle and Pernilla's ex. However, at some point they had a disagreement with the Ingrosso family and changed their name to Perrelli. But Nicola* also is history, the name stays. Oh drama!
Comments