Loreen of Sweden is the 15th previous Eurovision song contest winner who has decided and/or managed give it another try. Only Ireland's Johnny Logan has managed to win twice, as we all know. One can't really do a ranking however as the contest had changed so much from the 1950's with maybe a dozen songs to the approx 40 we have these days. In coming days I will feature the winners who decided to come back after winning the contest as there also many winners who have won with their second or third try.
Charlotte Perrelli (48), ex Nilsson went solo in Melodifestivalen 1999 after having sung with several dancebands since she was 13. Her heavily ABBA inspired schlager banger Tusen och en natt won and went on winning in Jerusalem as well 17 points ahead of Iceland's Selma, the hot pre-contest favorite whose song was very up-to-date instead. Nostalgia won and Sweden took its 4th win. She gained great success at home and some abroad touring Europe and Middle East, was voted the Sexiest woman and all that but by the time Sweden was to host the 2000 contest SVT only wanted her to hand out the trophy while she insisted performing (as rightly so!) and no solution was met. She stayed home and did not hand over the trophy to the next winner.
But in coming years she hosted several Melodfestivalen, released singles and albums, did musicals, toured even New Zealand and then in 2008 she was back with Hero. She won and went to Eurovision as one of the main favorites, of course, but...... She placed only 12th in the semi-final! But that year only nine entries made the final and the 10th one was selected by a back up jury and they picked her (the year after same faith had Finland's Waldo's People) meaning 10th placed Macedonia was kicked out. But that didn't save her from placing only 18th in the final, worst for any previous winner that time. She was also going through a nasty divorce from Nicola Ingrosso at the time. Maybe that explains the very uninspired, forced and somewhat poor performance compared to the one in Melodifestivalen....
Does name Ingrosso sound familiar? Indeed, he was the other Pernilla Wahlgren's dancer in Piccadilly Circus 1985, the other Emilio marrying later Pernilla and fathering Benjamin. Due to disagreement they didn't adapt Ingrosso name but Perrelli, Nicola's mother's surname.
She has tried to get back to Euroviison a couple of times without luck, released an odd single or album here and there and taken part in various Eurovision related happenings but certainly internationally nor nationally her career didn't take any boost from the second participation.
1999 - Sweden - Charlotte Nilsson - Take me to your heaven 1./23
2008 - Sweden - Charlotte Perrelli - Hero 18./25
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