page_title: Music of Sweden
section_title: Pop
hierarchical_section_title: Music of Sweden / Modern / Pop
caption_attribution_description: English: Max Martin in 2015.
context_page_description: The Music of Sweden shares roots with its neighboring countries in Scandinavia, as well as Eastern Europe, including polka, schottische, waltz, polska and mazurka. The Swedish fiddle and nyckelharpa are among the most common Swedish folk instruments. The instrumental genre is the biggest one in Sweden. In the 1960s, Swedish youth sparked a roots revival in Swedish folk culture. Many joined Spelmanslag and performed on mainstream radio and TV. They focused on instrumental polska music, with vocals and influences from other traditional genres becoming more prominent since the 1990s. By 1970, the "dansband" culture also began.
  Swedish music has also included more modern and pop influences. On a per capita basis, Sweden is one of the world's most successful exporters of popular music. Its most famous export is ABBA, which was a worldwide musical phenomenon. Sweden has also historically dominated the Scandinavian music scene, with Danes and Norwegians listening to music in Swedish rather than the other way around. In the late 1980s and early 1990s, Scandinavian death metal bands became very popular with the international heavy metal community.
context_section_description: Sweden is one of the world's biggest exporters of music relative to the size of its economy. The most famous Swedish popular music act of all time is a four piece group called ABBA, composed of members Agnetha Fältskog, Björn Ulvaeus, Benny Andersson and Anni-Frid Lyngstad. After winning the Eurovision Song Contest 1974, ABBA grew to become the dominant pop band of the 70s and early 80s. Their sales figures are disputed but claims have been made of 380 million records around the world, making them the second-most successful group ever after The Beatles. ABBA continues to sell around one million records a year worldwide. ABBA-members Benny Andersson and Björn Ulvaeus have been very successful in musical theatre, with their international hit Mamma Mia!, as well as Chess, and Kristina från Duvemåla, which was a huge success in Sweden. The female members also pursued solo careers after the breakup. Agnetha Fältskog has scored various hits as a solo artist, with her 2013 album 'A' selling up to 1.5 million copies worldwide. 
  ABBA marked the beginning of an era in which Swedish pop music gained international prominence, which it maintains today. Excluding the UK, Sweden is the European nation with the most number-one hits on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100: as of 2019, seven songs has reached the #1 position. The first one was a 1974 cover version of "Hooked on a Feeling", performed by Blue Swede, followed by Abba's "Dancing Queen" in 1977. Roxette had no less than four number-one hits between 1989 and 1991: "The Look", "Listen to Your Heart", "It Must Have Been Love" and "Joyride", and in 1994 Ace of Base reached the top with their hit "The Sign".
  Since the 1990s, Sweden's influence on the international pop music scene has been most evident via a number of heavyweight songwriters and producers. Cheiron Studios, spearheaded by Denniz Pop and his protegé Max Martin, helped Ace of Base become an international success, and then went on to creating some of the biggest hits of Britney Spears, Backstreet Boys, NSYNC and Westlife, to name just a few. Denniz Pop died from cancer in 1998 and Cheiron Studios was closed two years later, but Martin remains a superstar in the industry - only Paul McCartney and John Lennon have written more #1 Billboard hits than Max Martin. Other prominent producers who were part of Cheiron include Carl Falk, Rami Yacoub, Kristian Lundin, Per Magnusson and Andreas Carlsson. In Cheiron's and Max Martin's wake a number of successful producers have also emerged in later years, including Shellback, Bloodshy & Avant and Moroccan-Swedish RedOne.
  The success of Swedish popular music is also evident in the Eurovision Song Contest. The contest attracts great interest and the Swedish contestant is selected through Melodifestivalen, a series of qualifiers which is Sweden's most popular TV show. Since ABBA's win in 1974 Sweden has won the Eurovision Song Contest five more times: 1984 with Herreys, 1991 with Carola Häggkvist, 1999 with Charlotte Nilsson, 2012 with Loreen and 2015 with Måns Zelmerlöw. With these six wins, Sweden is the country with the second-highest number of ESC victories - Ireland has one more.
  Some of the most successful post-ABBA popular music artists from Sweden are Europe, Roxette, Madleen Kane, Agnes, Ace of Base, Kent, Carola Häggkvist, Army of Lovers, Neneh and Eagle-Eye Cherry, Leila K, Robyn, A*Teens, Nanne Grönvall, The Cardigans, Bodies Without Organs, Andreas Johnson, Alcazar, and September. A number of renowned rock and pop-oriented artists have come out of the country in recent years, including Loreen, Eskobar, bob hund, Clawfinger, The Sounds, The Hives, Hardcore Superstar, Millencolin, Sahara Hotnights, The Hellacopters, The Ark, Infinite Mass, Mando Diao, Looptroop Rockers and José González. The Knife and Jens Lekman have both received significant underground acclaim in recent years. Such has been the success of music abroad that clubs specializing in Swedish music have sprung up in major cities like Berlin, Barcelona and London. Swedish chart toppers Kent are also often regarded as a pop
caption: Max Martin is a popular songwriter who composed many hit songs for artists like Britney Spears and The Backstreet Boys
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