Tattoo: Loreen Becomes the First Woman to Win Twice

MAY 15 2023 · 12:35

Loreen · "Tattoo" · Sweden · 2023 Placement: 1st · Score: 583 · Language: English · Composers: Loreen, Peter Boström, Thomas G:son, Jimmy 'Joker' Thornfeldt, Jimmy Jansson, Cazzi Opeia · Venue: M&S Bank Arena · Host: Liverpool, United Kingdom · Type: winner · Broadcast: streaming On May 13, 2023, at the M&S Bank Arena in Liverpool — hosting Eurovision on Ukraine's behalf for the second consecutive year of Russia's invasion — Swedish singer Loreen returned to the contest eleven years after her 2012 Euphoria victory and performed 'Tattoo' with her hands pressed against the walls of a narrow vertical-LED-screen corridor, lit from above. The staging was an iteration on her 2012 concept: one singer, controlled space, emotional architecture. Loreen won with 583 points, making her the first woman to win Eurovision twice and the second artist in the contest's history to win twice as performer after Johnny Logan (who won for Ireland in 1980 and 1987). The victory returned Eurovision to Sweden for 2024 — which would coincide with the 50th anniversary of ABBA's 1974 Brighton win — and cemented Sweden's status as the contest's all-time dominant nation. Context Eurovision 2023 was held in Liverpool under a 'hosted on behalf of Ukraine' framing after Ukraine's Kalush Orchestra victory in 2022 could not be followed by a Ukraine-hosted contest due to the ongoing war. The contest extensively incorporated Ukrainian branding and Ukrainian performers across the programming. Loreen's return had been signaled months earlier through Sweden's Melodifestivalen selection, which she won in February 2023 against a field that included multiple established Swedish pop acts. Her 2023 entry was seen widely as higher-risk than her 2012 win — the 'Euphoria' template was so imitated by 2023 that a second Loreen Eurovision song had to differentiate itself while staying recognizable. The Finnish runner-up, Käärijä's 'Cha Cha Cha,' dominated the televote so decisively that the jury system's role in Loreen's victory became the post-contest story. Legacy Loreen's second win is the defining Eurovision moment of the 2020s and a landmark in the contest's history: first woman to win twice, first artist to win twice in the split-scoring era, Sweden's seventh Eurovision victory. The 2024 contest was held in Malmö on the 50th anniversary of ABBA's 1974 Brighton win — the ABBA-to-Loreen Swedish lineage compressed into a single symbolic contest year. The Käärijä-vs-Loreen televote-vs-jury tension at Liverpool triggered sustained debate about the split-scoring system's legitimacy that has carried through 2026. Loreen's staging innovations — this time vertical-LED-corridor choreography — have been imitated across subsequent submissions. Mythology Loreen is sometimes described as the first artist ever to win Eurovision twice; she is the second after Johnny Logan. The 'Tattoo' staging is occasionally credited to a name-brand director; it was developed within the Swedish delegation. The scoreboard is sometimes retold as a closer margin than it was — 583 to 526 for Finland, though the televote-vs-jury split within those totals was dramatic (Käärijä led the televote, Loreen led the jury by a wider margin).