Sweden's First Post-Language-Rule Win

MAY 15 1999 · 12:05

Charlotte Nilsson · "Take Me to Your Heaven" · Sweden · 1999 Placement: 1 · Score: 163 · Language: English · Composers: Marcos Ubeda, Gert Lengstrand, Lars Diedricson · Venue: Binyanei HaUma · Host: Jerusalem, Israel · Type: winner · Broadcast: digital hd Charlotte Nilsson — bright blonde, 25, Melodifestivalen winner — takes the Binyanei HaUma Jerusalem stage in an airy pink dress. 'Take Me to Your Heaven' is country-inflected pop with a bouncy ABBA-adjacent chorus. 163 points. Sweden's fourth Eurovision win — and first in the contest's new era where countries can submit songs in any language. 1999 repealed the mandatory-national-language rule. Context Christer Björkman, SVT's dominant Melodifestivalen producer, had been agitating for the language-rule change. The 1999 English-language win vindicated the argument commercially. The rule change dramatically expanded English-language submissions across the contest — by 2010, most entries competed in English. Legacy Nilsson returned as Charlotte Perrelli in 2008 (18th). The 1999 language-rule change is one of Eurovision's most consequential institutional shifts. Her win is now often framed as 'Sweden's bridge' between the 1984 Herreys victory and Loreen's 2012-2023 dominance. The plagiarism mythology around the song has never been formally resolved.