Runner-up: Sweden 1992

After Carola's victory in Rome 1991, it was decided to host the ESC in Malmö, in the south of Sweden. The task of organising the national final went, as planned, to Stockholm. Back in those days, Stockholm, Gothenburg and Malmö took turns organising melodifestivalen for the sake of variation in both production and song selection.

The newspapers were pretty sure that the final battle would be between veterans Py Bäckman and Kikki Danielsson, but in the end Christer Björkman won the heart of the juries. Or, honestly, his song, penned by mega popular Niklas Strömstedt, won.

The day after the final, however, the newspapers used a substantial amount of ink telling the world that the viewers disagreed with the result. According to Aftonbladet's phone poll, 25% of the viewers would have wanted the runner-up to win instead.



Lizette & Bizazz - Som om himlen brann (Sweden NF 1992)

Denmark had already used televoting for a few years in their national final and now the question was raised was Sweden couldn't do the same. As the juries kept voting for the wrong song.

The discussion was nourished further when Christer Björkman, despite chart success on home ground, ended second last on the scoreboard in Malmö. The shame! The second worst showing of a host country ever in the history of the contest.



Christer Björkman - Imorgon är en annan dag (Sweden 1992)

This was the end of Christer Björkman's career as a record selling artist, but he kept hanging around in the business, doing minor gigs, staying very present in the Swedish eurovision circuit.

When the new melodifestival (inaugurated in 2002) took shape Christer found himself a very active role in the organisation, and for the last years, he has been the strong man and point of focus for the press. He is even the Swedish member of the EBU reference group.

What if the Swedish televoters had decided instead and sent Lizette Pålsson to Malmö? Would she have scored better? Would Christer have managed to stick around for long enough without his victory? Who would have been in charge of Melodifestivalen now, in that case?