Lorine Zineb Nina Talhaoui, known professionally as Loreen, is a Swedish singer/songwriter/music producer of Moroccan descent. She first became known to Swedish TV audiences as a contestant on Idol, the Swedish production of the franchise, in 2004 where she eventually finished fourth.
Her first attempt at representing her country at Eurovision came at Melodifestivalen in 2011 with the song "My Heart Is Refusing Me". Although unable to advance from the Andra Chansen round, she released the song as a single soon after and it became a big hit in Sweden.
In 2012, she returned to Melodifestivalen with the song Euphoria. She easily advanced from the first heat and went on to win the final smashing several Melodifestivalen records in the process. This earned her the right to represent Sweden at the Eurovision Song Contest 2012 in Baku where she was considered the hottest of hot favorites to win according to oddsmakers. Qualifying from the second semifinal, she emerged the winner with 372 points (the second-highest point total of all time until 2016) and earning 18 sets of 12-point scores. "Euphoria" went on to become a massive hit across Europe.
She made another attempt to represent Sweden at Melodifestivalen 2017 with the song "Statements". She finished in 3rd place in the fourth heat, but was unable to qualify to the final from Andra Chansen, losing her duel to Anton Hagman.
She returned to Melodifestivalen again in 2023, becoming the red-hot favorite after winning the fourth heat. She won in dominant fashion and returned at the Eurovision Song Contest 2023 in Liverpool with the song Tattoo. She won the contest, becoming the second person to win the contest twice as a performer after Johnny Logan and the first woman to do so.
Trivia[]
- Shares her birthday with fellow 2012 competitors Jedward, being 8 years older, and 2009 competitor Yohanna, who is seven years younger than her.
- Both times after she won for Sweden, the Eurovision Song Contest was held at the Malmö Arena in Malmö. Funnily enough, this was the same case for Johnny Logan when he won for Ireland as a performer in 1980 and 1987 — both years following his wins were hosted in the RDS Simmonscourt Pavilion in Dublin.
- She is one of 6 artists to have 2 songs in the top 40 in a single year on the annual ESC Top 250 countdown (the others being Dima Bilan, Helena Paparizou, Lena, Željko Joksimović and Gjon's Tears).