[Sweden Report] Hockey and music fever mixed in full swing

Sweden has been the focus point of Europe and other parts of the world as hosts of both the World Hockey Championship and the Eurovision Song Contest within a short span of time. After grabbing the ice-hockey gold, things did not fare as well in the music contest for Sweden’s participants.

Celebrations at Kungsträdgården (Photo: 2013 IIHF Ice Hockey World Championship Organizing Committee)

The IIHF World Championships is an ice-hockey tournament arranged once a year by the International Ice Hockey Federation. The 2013 edition was co-hosted by Sweden and Finland and saw underdogs Switzerland fight their way to the finals by winning nine straight games. Led by captain Mathias Seger, Switzerland made it to the podium for the first time since placing 3^rd in 1953. Their last silver medal came in 1935.

However, in the finals, Switzerland faced off with Sweden who proved to be the upper man in the bought. Much thanks to twin brothers Daniel and Henrik Sedin, playing for Vancouver Canucks in the NHL, Sweden managed to break the curse of no host country winning the gold medal since 1986 when the Soviet Union hosted and won the World Championships. Celebrating the end of seven lean years without any gold medal, over 20,000 Swedish fans gathered not far away from the Royal Palace of King Carl XVI and  payed tribute to the players.

Some voices go as far as to say that the Sedin brothers are the hockey heirs of legends Peter Forsberg and Mats Sundin. The latter two were selected on May 19^th as new members of the International Hockey Federation’s Hall of Fame where only the world’s best players are selected (over 250 players since its induction in 1945).

Much at the same time, namely on the evening of May 18^th, Sweden’s third biggest city Malmö hosted the Eurovision Song Contest with participants from all over Europe and parts of Asia. The Eurovision Song Contest is an international singing contest, televised all over the world, where contestants chosen from their home countries compete with one song performance each. The roots date back to 1956 in the aftermath of the Second World War when the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) formed the idea of a European song contest. The contest has been broadcasted yearly ever since and thus is one of the longest-running television programmes in the world. Musicians have used the competition as a platform for subsequent success. Some examples include ABBA, Celine Dion and Julio Iglesias. Following the live performances, telephone and expert jury voting is held in every country for a short period of time before the results are displayed live.

The 2013 edition was seen by over 100 million viewers worldwide and 3.3 million out of Sweden’s 9 million inhabitants followed the Eurovision Song Contest on TV.  Danish participant Emmelie de Forest placed 1^st with her song “Only teardrops” and thereby the competition next year will be hosted by Denmark.

Some voices say that the Eurovision Song Contest has been strongly embedded into the European collective mind and helped to bring the continent closer together. However, there are also cases where neighboring countries have been disappointed with each other due to lack of votes respectively. Russia’s foreign minister Sergej Lavrov claimed at a press conference that the lack of points from neighboring Azerbaijan will not go unnoticed and that ballot rigging seems to have taken place. (www.dn.se, 2013-05-22) This statement came after Russia awarded Azerbaijan with the highest possible vote but received no points in return. At the same time, the song from Belarus did not receive any points from Russia and president Aleksandr Lukasjenko claims that Russia’s voting was tampered with.

Eurovision Song Contest 2013 (Photo: Jessica Gow / Scanpix)

All things considered, it is safe to say that the Eurovision Song Contest, with its almost 60 years of history, has given people a chance to see other sides and cultures of fellow European countries. Could this kind of continent-wide competition possibly take place in Asia and have similar beneficial effects there?