Which country has won Eurovision the most times?
Loreen is Eurovision’s queen, but has she helped Sweden make history? (Picture: Dominic Lipinski/Getty Images)
Thousands of Eurovision descended upon Liverpool in 2023 as the annual singing competition came to the UK for the first time since 1998.
Our hopeful, Mae Muller, unfortunately didn’t do as well as we might have hoped, but it was still a night to make the United Kingdom proud.
Eurovision icon Sonia returned on stage at Liverpool’s M&S Bank Arena, and the Princess of Wales even made a surprise appearance.
Still, princesses couldn’t even compete with queens. Enter Loreen. Sweden’s entry was the hot favourite going in, and she proved all the bookies right.
With her win, she became the second act (and first woman) to win Eurovision more than once, but what does her success mean for Sweden’s tally as a whole?
Are they now the ultimate Eurovision champs? Here’s what you need to know…
Which country has won Eurovision the most times?
After Sweden’s 2023 victory, they are now tied as the country with the most Eurovision wins.
Both Sweden and Ireland have won the competition seven times.
Sweden’s wins started with ABBA in 1974, and include 1984, 1991, 1999, 2012, 2015 and now 2023.
Although their fortunes on the Eurovision stage may have been more mixed of late, Ireland dominated the left hand side of the scoreboard from the 70s through to the 90s.
Their first win came in 1970 with Dana’s All Kinds Of Everything, then Johnny Logan snatched victory at the 1980 contest in The Hague with What’s Another Year.
Logan won again for Ireland in 1987 with Hold Me Now and is the only other person except Loreen to win the competition twice.
And in spite of some recent Euro-flops the UK also has an impressive track record with five victories – winning the contest in 1967, 1969, 1976, 1981 and most recently in 1997 with Katrina and The Waves.
Israel is next in the league table with four wins, while Norway, Denmark, Italy and Ukraine have notched up three victories each, and Spain, Austria, Germany and Austria have each won twice.
The list of countries with a single win to their name is even longer: it includes Monaco, Belgium, Estonia, Latvia, Turkey, Greece, Finland, Serbia, Russia, Azerbaijan, Portugal and Yugoslavia.
Meanwhile spare a thought for such long-term participants as Cyprus, Iceland, Slovenia, Malta, Lithuania, and Romania (among others) – who despite being a part of proceedings for a number of decades have yet to notch up their first victory.
Nobody ever said winning Eurovision was easy…
Eurovision 2024 will be available to watch on the BBC.
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