Tonight, a show celebrating the 50th anniversary of the Eurovision Song Contest was broadcast on Swedish television SVT. The programme called All time Melodifestivalen focused on the Swedish winners and songs the Melodifestivalen history is offering. Most of the previous winners were present when the programme was recorded a few weeks ago. Among them Carola (pictured) who also performed a special version of the ABBA classic Waterloo. The whole show is now online on SVT's Melodifestivalen website.

Former winners honoured
The previous winners throughout the history of Melodifestivalen made their entrance on the red carpet. During the evening they all received a special winners trophy called The Great Singing Bird created by the Swedish contemporary artist Ernst Billgren.

Well known Swedish artists performed their versions of Melodifestivalen classics from a top ten list of all-time Melodifestivalen songs. Carola in duet with Marit Bergman did a special version of ABBA�s Waterloo.

Hosts of the show were Christer Björkman, the Swedish representative in 1992 and Kattis Ahlström, hostess of the Eurovision Song Contest in 2000.

Celebrating history – creating new history
17 year-old Darin, runner-up of the Swedish Idols, sang a Michael Jackson inspired version of last year�s Swedish Eurovision entry Det gör ont. A performance Swedish critics already refer to as a milestone in the Swedish music and television history. Other artists performing in the show were Victoria Tolstoy, Cyndee Peters, Roger Pontare & Hammerfall, Wilmer X, Rikard Wolf, DJ Mendez and Håkan Lidbo, the latter doing a very special electro-clash version of Carola's 1983 entry Främling.

Photo gallery

Our partner site gylleneskor.se has created a photo gallery from the evening.

The top ten all-time Melodifestivalen songs performed in the show:

01. ABBA – Waterloo (1974)
02. Carola – Främling (1983)
03. The Herreys – Diggi-Loo (1984)
04. Roger Pontare – När vindarna viskar mitt namn (2000)
05. Lena Philipsson – Det gör ont (2004)
06. Tommy Körberg – Stad i ljus (1988)
07. Björn Skifs – Michelangelo (1975)
08. Charlotte Nilsson – Tusen och en natt (1999)
09. Carola – Fångad av en stormvind (1991)
10. Loa Falkman – Symfonin (1990)

People in Sweden could choose their favourite Melodifestivalen song ever during a two month lasting televoting procedure that took place autumn last year. The results were presented during a charity event on 13th November 2004.

Watch All-time Melodifestivalen

The show can be found here for a limited time.