Exclusive interview: Loreen celebrates 10 years of 'Euphoria' 🇸🇪

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📺 Watch: Loreen – Euphoria (2012)

It’s show week of the 2022 Eurovision Song Contest. And while we have plenty to keep our minds on throughout the week, there is a certain anniversary that we can’t let slip by unnoticed.

On 26 May 2012, Loreen claimed Eurovision victory for Sweden when her song Euphoria triumphed in Baku, Azerbaijan. At the time, it received the highest number of 12 points of any entry in the Contest’s history, with 18 countries giving the song their top marks. After the Contest, the song continued its swift ascent to its now legendary status. In the aftermath of Baku, it peaked at number 1 in the singles charts of no less than 16 countries. Today, it is regularly cited by many as their favourite Eurovision song of all time.

Steve Holden, host of the Official Eurovision Song Contest Podcast, couldn’t let this moment pass without seizing the opportunity to chat to our forever Eurovision champ. Our pair of Eurovision icons chatted a lot about the performance we all remember so well. It was something of a personal victory, too, for Loreen at the time.

This was basically the first performance that I created and the first song where I didn’t compromise. I’m gonna go straight with what my intuition is telling me. And so winning that Contest with a concept that was purely a reflection of me inside; that was such a statement for myself. It was almost like life told me this is what happens when you trust your intuition.

Not only did Loreen have her own ideas about how the performance would be, but she also had her own message that she wanted to convey in the performance – a concept that perhaps many of us hadn’t picked up on. Until now…

I would say the whole performance is about female energy and male energy and what that is. We have a perception of female energy that’s about being feminine and being very gentle and sweet. I wanted to show that I, being barefoot and female in this performance, it was powerful; something you would call male energy, right? I was playing with the female and the male when Ausben [Ausben Jordan, Loreen’s dancer in Baku] came in – a different entity, being male. What I did was to just show that these are two different energies, but they’re still very powerful. And they’re playing with each other. And it’s beautiful. There is no hierarchy. Both energies are needed. And when they are in their own powers, and they’re full, they’re so healthy for each other.

Speaking of Ausben Jordan, we all remember one particular moment during the choreography, where it all could have gone horribly wrong for our Swedish singer. Loreen, too, remembers the unavoidable anxiety that came with this part of the performance.

I wanted it to feel a bit dangerous, which was… remember in the performance where he kicks over my head? I didn’t see him because it was so dark on the stage, I couldn’t see anything. And it was moving so fast. So I was counting and singing at the same time. 1, 2, 3, counting down. And if I missed that, I would have gotten a foot in my face! Everything needed to be exact.

In the end – mercifully – everything about the performance was exact. And Loreen was rewarded with a landslide victory with both the juries and the televote. Not that the artist herself was aware of it at the time…

Let me tell you, when we got all the 12 points, I was sitting there. And I hadn’t learned about the whole contest; like, how it works. I thought the 12 points was basically a jury. And then after that, the people had to vote. So I didn’t get that I had won.

📺 Watch: Loreen – Euphoria (live at Eurovision’s Greatest Hits)

Confusion arose, chaos ensued, and Euphoria very nearly turned into dysphoria for Loreen. But once she was back up on stage again, singing her winning Eurovision entry; that euphoric feeling started to creep up on her once more.

I was the last one to understand. I remember that. My producer was like: 'Loreen, you need to go up to stage and you need to perform the song’. And I’m like: 'No, I’m not ready. Wait, I have to do some meditation’. So I was stressed out because I knew I needed to perform the song again. Then halfway into that performance; I just want to stand here, sing the song and look at the audience and just be loved and give love. That was one of the happiest moments in my life, to be honest.

Loreen remains proud of what she achieved on that stage with that song. And to this day she acknowledges the big part that the Eurovision Song Contest has had in shaping her destiny as an artist. She looks back at it in a positve way, and is able to reflect on a decade of opportunity that’s been afforded to her since that May night in Baku ten years ago.

That Eurovision performance opened up so many doors. I got to meet so many people and perform all over the world, creating even more music. It opened things up for me spiritually, and also being able to work with what I do. I see it more that I was a part of a change at the time. That was what was really my goal with it. I see myself as being part of something huge. And that I had the stamina to believe in something.

To listen to the full interview, check out the special episode of the Official Eurovision Song Contest Podcast, hosted by Steve Holden.

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