Eurovision 2023 reaction: Sweden levels Ireland’s all time wins record as Loreen joins Johnny Logan in two-time winners club

Saturday night’s Eurovision song contest saw Sweden going level with Ireland for All time Eurovision victories. Sweden won their seventh Eurovision song contest, and their third in the last 12 years, with Loreen's Tattoo taking top spot.

Loreen is now a two time winner of the contest, having won by a landslide in 2012 with dance hit Euphoria. In 2023's contest, she beat out her nearest contender, Finnish rapper Käärijä, by a margin of 57 votes.

Loreen becomes only the second artist to win the #Eurovision Song Contest TWICE 🏆🏆 pic.twitter.com/DxKXqB0t2G

— Eurovision Song Contest (@Eurovision) May 13, 2023

She becomes the first ever woman to win the contest twice, and joins Ireland’s Johnny Logan in an exclusive two time winners club. Logan won with What’s Another Year in 1980 and Hold Me Now in 1987.

The Swedish 39-year-old was in favour of a future collaboration with Logan. When asked about it in her Winner's Press Conference, Loreen said: "That would be nice, a ballad maybe."

Sweden’s victory was hard fought, with Finland’s Käärijä capturing the hearts of European audiences with earworm Cha Cha Cha.

Finland took 376 points from the public vote, more than any other country. Sweden were second in the public vote, but won with a superior jury vote of 340 votes to Finland’s 150.

That winning moment! 🇸🇪 #Eurovision pic.twitter.com/z3HLXNvmJE

— Eurovision Song Contest (@Eurovision) May 13, 2023

Israel’s Noa Kirel took the bronze medal in Saturday’s final, with Italy’s Marco Mengoni taking fourth place. Norway’s Alessandra Mele rounded out a Scandinavia heavy top 5.

Sweden will now host Eurovision 2024, on the 50th anniversary of ABBA’s victory with the iconic Waterloo. Perhaps Eurovision’s most famous ever contestants, the Swedish four piece will no doubt play a prominent role in next year’s show, most likely being hosted in Stockholm.

Ireland, who no longer hold sole possession of top spot on the All time Eurovision wins leaderboard, failed to qualify for this year’s grand final in the M&S Bank Arena in Liverpool.

Ireland missed out on qualification from Semi-Final 1 on Tuesday, finishing 12th in Semi-final voting. Ireland's entry, We Are One, by Wild Youth, failed to excite European audiences, placing two places short of qualification for the Grand final.

The country have failed to qualify for the final at the last four attempts. Ireland last reached the final in 2018, when Ryan O’Shaughnessy’s Together finished 16th.

Ireland have not won the contest in this century, with their last victory coming in 1996, when Eimear Quinn’s performance of The Voice took victory in Oslo, Norway. We saw our greatest success in the ‘90s, winning three contests in a row from 1992 to 1994, before winning again in ‘96.

This year's show was hosted in Liverpool, and hosted by Graham Norton and Hannah Waddingham.

The contest was won last year by Ukraine and their entry Stefania, by the Kalush Orchestra. Despite their victory, Ukraine was unable to host this year's Eurovision due to the ongoing conflict between Ukraine and Russia. The band played a special rendition of their winning song on Saturday night in Liverpool, with a feature from Kate Middleton, the Princess of Wales.

The EBU decided not to host the contest in Ukraine due to what it described as a “severe risk” of attacks from aircraft or missiles in the country.

Russia was excluded from the contest for the second year running due to their illegal invasion of Ukraine.