Måns Zelmerlöw, 2015 Eurovision winner and the strongest contender in the Swedish national selection Melodifestivalen 2025, reveals he believes other contestants may win the ticket to Eurovision 2025 in Basel. All details on this surprising statement in the article.
Tomorrow marks the end of the 2025 national selection season, including Sweden’s largest Eurovision pre-selection, Melodifestivalen 2025, which will hold its grand finale next Saturday, March 8, after five heats and a “Save Round”. The winner will represent Sweden in the first semi-final of Eurovision 2025, which will take place on May 13 in Basel, Switzerland. The strongest contender to win the national selection and represent Sweden is Måns Zelmerlöw, who represented Sweden at Eurovision 2015 (exactly ten years ago) and won the competition in Vienna with his song “Heroes”. Now he intends to do it again a decade later, but in an interview he gave, he describes that in his opinion he faces a close and challenging competition, and he actually believes that he won’t win the national selection, but rather other contestants will.
Måns Zelmerlöw, who represented Sweden at Eurovision 2015 and made history by bringing the country its sixth victory with the song “Heroes“, is now bringing the powerful pop song “Revolution” to the stage, exactly ten years after his win at the 60th Eurovision Contest in Vienna. Currently, Måns holds the highest odds of winning the Swedish Eurovision selection, which likely also indicates the reason for Sweden’s stability at the top of the betting odds to win Eurovision 2025 overall.
However, in an interview with Aftonbladet newspaper, he surprises with an interesting statement: “In the public vote, I think KAJ will win by quite a margin. We’ll see. The only thing I can do is give my best, just like I did in Malmö, but even better. Of course, I would love to win. I’m just afraid that since the odds and predictions have me as the favorite, people might think they don’t need to vote for me. I really hope they do.”
Måns expressed his great appreciation for the KAJ band in the interview, alongside whom he competed in the fourth heat of the Swedish Eurovision selection held in Malmö: “I loved it live, and I loved it in Malmö. And most of all, I had a really, really great time with the guys. So I completely understand the impact they have had and how well their song has been received. And it would be completely un-Swedish to send ‘Bara bada bastu’ to Eurovision because, for 20 years, we have only sent big pop productions. This is something entirely different. It’s exciting.”
In the interview, Måns expressed that the band, which advanced to the Melodifestivalen final along with him from the Malmö heat, is a strong competitor against him for the right to represent Sweden in Basel. He expresses his concern about the public vote and, between the lines, also requests their mobilization for him and emphasizes its importance for the results. If Måns indeed represents Sweden at Eurovision 2025, Sweden will instantly become the leading contender to win the competition in Switzerland. Will KAJ make a revolution and win the Swedish ticket to Basel 2025?
Watch the interview we conducted last year with Måns Zelmerlöw, winner of Eurovision 2015 and the leading contender in Sweden’s Melodifestivalen, in which he talks about his intentions to compete in Eurovision again.
The band KAJ, consisting of Kevin Holmström, Jakob Norrgård, and Axel Åhman, will perform the song “Bara bada bastu” (English: “Just Sauna”) in the Swedish national selection finale. The band, completely anonymous, became a household name in Sweden overnight. The song deals with the Swedish sauna experience, describing the enjoyment and relaxation of bathing in a sauna and releasing stress while being exposed to heat and steam, using words like “stress break” and “100 degrees” to emphasize the intensity and excitement of the activity. This is a particularly catchy and humorous song, which received unwavering support from Käärijä, who even filmed a special video with the band members.
Melodifestivalen 2025 – All the details
Full List of Cities and Dates for Melodifestivalen 2025
Semi-Final 1: February 1, Coop Norrbotten Arena, LuleåSemi-Final 2: February 8, Scandinavium, GothenburgSemi-Final 3: February 15, ABB Arena, VästeråsSemi-Final 4: February 22, Malmö Arena, MalmöSemi-Final 5 & Second Chance Round: March 1, Husqvarna Garden, Jönköping- Grand Final: March 8, Friends Arena, Stockholm
Song Submission and Selection
The song submission window for Melodifestivalen 2025 opened on August 23 and closed on September 13. According to official information from SVT, a record 2,794 songs were submitted. Out of these, 30 songs were selected to compete in the contest, with one ultimately chosen to represent Sweden at Eurovision 2025, to be held in Basel, Switzerland.
Sweden in Eurovision 2024
“Unforgettable” is the name of the song performed by the duo Marcus & Martinus in the grand final of Eurovision 2024. The duo was chosen to represent Sweden at Eurovision after winning the Swedish pre-selection, Melodifestivalen. Sweden finished ninth in the final with 174 points.
Source: Aftonbladet
Eurovision 2025: This will be Sweden’s 63rd participation in the Eurovision Song Contest. Sweden joined the competition in 1958 and has won it seven times over the years. Sweden’s most recent victory was at Eurovision 2023 with the song “Tattoo,” performed by the singer Loreen.
