This year Sweden has chosen Cornelia Jakobs as its representative on Eurovision 2022 that will take place in Turin this month with the song “Hold Me Closer”. But who is Cornelia Jakobs? In this article you will have the opportunity to know more about Sweden’s singer for Eurovision 2022.
About Cornelia Jakobs
Anna Cornelia Jakobsdotter Samuelsson was born on 9 March 1992 in Stockholm and is the daughter of legendary musician and member of the band The Poodles Jakob Samuelsson and granddaughter of classical composers and songwriters Bengt Samuelsson and Kerstin Nerbe. She began her training at two institutes specialising in the arts and music in the Swedish capital, but it was not until 2008 that her brief stint on her country’s Idol TV show gave her some exposure.
Her leap to the forefront of Swedish music didn’t come until 2011, when, as a member of the girlband Love Generation, she took part in Melodifestivalen 2011 and 2012; she was eliminated in the Andra Chansen against Sara Varga in the first year with “Dance Alone” and in 2012 in the semi-final with “Just a Little Bit”. Almost 10 years later, she returned to the competition as the composer of “Best of Me”, the song with which the young Efraim Leo made it all the way to the Andra Chansen before being eliminated. In 2020, she composed and performed “Weight of the World”, the soundtrack for the HBO series Björnstad.
Finally, in 2022, Cornelia performed “Hold Me Closer” for the first time in the first qualifying round at the Avicii Arena in Stockholm, where she went straight through to the final in first position after the famous voting app glitch. After a more than exciting voting sequence in which Cornelia beat her competitors in the international jury. Tension built up as it was time for the crowd’s big favourite to be announced. Luckily for Cornelia, Anders Bagge, who eliminated her on Idol 14 years before, only managed to come second.
“Hold Me Closer” is the song with which Cornelia Jakobs will represent Sweden at Eurovision 2022. The song is written by her together with Swedish songwriters David Zandén and Melodifestivalen veteran Isa Malin. The song is about the pain of knowing that a love relationship must end for the sake of both but not wanting to leave the beautiful experiences behind.
Lyrics
No need to apologize
‘Cause there’s nothing to regret
Well, this is not what I wanted
Guess all the good things come to an end
So baby bye, bye
Wish you the best
But most of alI I wish that I could love you less
Well, maybe you’re right
I’ll find someone else
You say it isn’t me, but when did that ever help?
Hold me closer
Although you’ll leave before the sunrise
Might be bleeding, but don’t you mind, I’ll be fine
Oh, it kills me
I found the right one at the wrong time
But until the sunrise
Hold tight, hold tight
Maybe it happened too fast
I guess that I understand
You say that you’ve never felt this way for anyone
And that’s why it scares you to death
So baby bye, bye
Though it’s for the best
Still I can’t see how that would ease the pain in my chest
Hold me closer
Although you’ll leave before the sunrise
I’ll be bleeding, but don’t you mind, I’ll be fine
Oh, it kills me
I found the right one at the wrong time
But until the sunrise
Could you just hold me tight?
I know, I have to let go, but just give me the night
‘Cause tomorrow will hurt
Hurt really bad
‘Cause I’m about to lose the best I ever had
Hold me closer
Although you’ll leave before the sunrise
I’ll be bleeding, but don’t you mind, I’ll be fine
Oh, it kills me
I found the right one at the wrong time
But until the sunrise
Could you just hold me tight?
I know, I have to let go, but just give me the night (Hold me tight, hold me tight)
Can’t you see that you found the right one at the wrong time?
It was just the wrong time
Hold tight, hold tight
Sweden in Eurovision
Sweden made its debut in the Eurovision Song Contest in 1958. The country is known for the most successful Eurovision winners ever, ABBA, which was the first of Sweden’s victories in the competition. Sweden is one of the most successful countries in the Eurovision Song Contest with six victories to date, coming second behind Ireland’s record-breaking seven wins.
Sweden first entered the Eurovision Song Contest in 1958 but it would take them until 1974 to win the competition when ABBA famously took the trophy with the song Waterloo, which became a global hit and an all-time Eurovision classic. While Sweden has finished last on 2 occasions, in 1963 and 1977, over the past decade the country has come to dominate the Contest.
Since the Eurovision Song Contest semi-finals were introduced in 2004, Sweden has only once failed to qualify for the Grand Final. In 2010, Anna Bergendahl finished 11th in the semi-final and narrowly missed out on a place in the Grand Final with her song This Is My Life. Since then Sweden has only once been out of the top 5, in 2013, when the contest was hosted in the Swedish city of Malmö.
The Eurovision Song Contest is one of the most popular television programmes of the year in Sweden.