Sweden's Debut Decade Begins With Brita Borg

MAY 15 1959 · 12:00

Brita Borg · "Augustin" · Sweden · 1959 Placement: 9 · Score: 4 · Language: Swedish · Composers: Lars Berghagen · Venue: Palais des Festivals et des Congrès · Host: Cannes, France · Type: national debut · Broadcast: pre color Borg — a Stockholm cabaret singer, 32 years old, black evening dress — performs a jolly accordion-backed waltz about the folk-legend tramp Augustin. The Cannes jury gives her 4 points, good for 9th place. Teddy Scholten wins for the Netherlands. Sweden would lose fewer than it won over the next sixty years. Context SVT had debuted Sweden at Eurovision in 1958 (Alice Babs) and returned in 1959 with the winner of its Melodifestivalen — the Swedish national pre-selection that would evolve into the most elaborate pre-Eurovision ritual in Europe. Borg was already a Stockholm stage regular. Legacy Borg kept performing into the 1990s and died in 2010. Melodifestivalen became the world's most-watched national pre-selection. Sweden won its first Eurovision with 'Waterloo' fifteen years after Borg's Cannes 9th. 'Augustin' is now a period curio — the sound of Sweden before the factory.