On Friday November 25, Idol Sverige crowns its latest winner. The 2022 series draws to a head, and either Nike Sellmar or Albin Tingwall will be the Swedish public’s choice to take the title. Of course, that also means we get the obligatory winner’s single. The Idol format can’t always guarantee a long and fruitful career along with the win, but one certainty has always remained since its inception in the UK in 2001 – a grandiose debut single that gets each winner out of the starting blocks mere minutes after the result of the vote has been announced.
This year’s winner’s single will be ‘Anything You Say’, written by Ola Svensson, Victor Crone and Jonas Jurström. And with that songwriting team, paired with the legacy of all of the songs that have gone before it, we look forward to hearing it, whichever of the two candidates gets the honour of releasing it.
To mark the occasion, we’ve cast an eye (and two ears) over the history of the Swedish Idol winner’s single. Mostly a positive experience all in all, it began life in much the same way as in many other Idol series across the world – the climactic ballad of hope, of aspiration, and of only the most acceptable hint self-belief. In Sweden at least, the overall quality of the songs did deteriorate somewhat in the latter half of the ’00s, as the winner’s single took on the guise of something that would have been declined when offered to a middle-tier ’90s boyband as filler material for their album. The 2010s very quickly reversed this decline though, and TV4 and Universal Music started offering their winners contemporary compositions that would make them seem like credible popstars in waiting, as opposed to… well, competition winners.
From the 18 years of Swedish Idol thus far, we’ve picked our Top 10 winner’s singles – ranking them from tenth to first/best. We didn’t see fit to go any further than ten, as otherwise things might have gotten a bit unkind. But this Top 10 is utterly exceptional. Put these 10 songs on the album of an Idol winner, and they’d have been in good stead to become one of the biggest artists the show – across the globe – has ever produced!
10: Treading Water (Chris Kläfford, 2017)
09: Playing With Fire (LIAMOO, 2016)
08: Can’t Hold Me Down (Martin Almgren, 2015)
07: Everything (Sebastian Walldén, 2018)
06: Dreaming People (Jay Smith, 2010)
05: Weightless (Birkir Blær, 2021)
David Kreuger, Fredrik Kempe, Niklas Carson Mattsson
The most recent of the winner’s singles, ‘Weightless’ is one of the rare exceptions to the general rule of strict balladry. Composed by Melodifestivalen-winning heavyweights, the song had more in common with a Smith & Thell Swedish radio airplay hit than it did the traditional Idol fare. But one trademark of the genre remains mercifully intact – that almighty key change!
04: Higher (Erik Grönwall, 2009)
Joakim Olovsson, Pär Westerlund
Ending a miserable few years’ run of winner’s single mediocrity, ‘Higher’ eschewed the standard composition blueprint and instead revealed itself to be a top-quality product of its time – that time being when Ryan Tedder-penned pop ballads were ruling the radio airwaves across the globe. Like many of those, ‘Higher’ too has stood the test of time.
03: Belong (Kevin Walker, 2013)
Alessandra Günthardt, Anton Eklund, Elias Näslin, Jakke Erixson, Karl-Ola Kjellholm, Rasmus Palmgren
The very first up-tempo Swedish Idol winner’s single! It broke the mold and it made a bang. Arriving just a few months after Avicii’s signature hit ‘Wake Me Up’, ‘Belong’ rode the wave of country-tinged EDM with admirable gusto. Kevin went back to his career as a professional footballer after his Idol win, save for a few low-key releases here and there, and so ‘Broken’ unfortunately remains one of the lesser recalled winner’s singles. But there’s no doubt about it – it’s one of the very best.
02: Right Here, Right Now (Agnes, 2005)
Jörgen Elofsson
The finest example of the old guard. A Jörgen Elofsson-penned super-ballad that all of the other Idol winner’s singles in the years following it (and preceding it!) were trying to be. Despite her young age, Agnes sang this like a seasoned superstar – which is exactly what a song of this calibre deserved. The perfect match of singing talent with songwriting accomplishment.
01: Rain (Tusse, 2019)
Herman Gardarfve, Melanie Wehbe, Patrik Jean
A modern, beat-heavy ballad with a blockbuster production and a lyric that pays a respectable nod to the “I got this” theme of the Idol winner’s singles of yesterdecade. The songwriting trio behind this went on to win Melodifestivalen in 2020, and of course Tusse himself took the Melfest trophy in 2021. On that note, this song could well have gone further in any other given year – and taken the Eurovision Song Contest win back to Sweden. In and outside of the context of this countdown, it’s exceptional.
