EUROVISION 2015 – The Winner : MåNS ZELMERLöW

Måns Petter Albert Sahlén Zelmerlöw (pronounced [ˈmɔns ˈsɛlmɛrˈløːv]; born 13 June 1986) is a Swedish pop singer and television presenter.

He took part in Idol 2005, eventually finishing fifth, won the first season of Let’s Dance, and scored a hit with his 2007 song “Cara Mia,” which was his entry in that year’s Melodifestivalen.

Zelmerlöw was the host of Allsång på Skansen from 2011 to 2013. He participated in Melodifestivalen in 2007, 2009 and won in 2015.

He represented Sweden in the Eurovision Song Contest 2015 with the song “Heroes“, and won the contest with 365 points, the third-highest score in the history of Eurovision Song Contest.

Born in Lund, Måns Zelmerlöw is the son of Birgitta Sahlén, a professor at Lund University, and surgeon Sven-Olof Zelmerlöw.

Zelmerlöw studied music in high school in Lund and was part of a school choir project.

In 2002 he played one of the brothers in the musical Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat at Slagthuset in Malmö.

Zelmerlöw entered the public eye in 2005 when he took part in season 2 of the Swedish version of Idol, which was broadcast on TV4; …

… he came in fifth overall, being eliminated on 11 November after eight weeks on the show.

He was placed in the bottom three in the weekly shows after the performance and twice and the bottom two once.

Zelmerlöw took part in the first season of Let’s Dance in 2006, partnered with Maria Karlsson, and finished as the winner in the final against singer Anna Book.

In the same year he also appeared in the Swedish version of the musical Grease, playing the lead role of Danny Zuko.

As a result, Zelmerlöw signed a record deal to release an solo album with M&L Records, a division of Warner Music Sweden.

In November 2006 it was announced that Zelmerlöw would compete in Melodifestivalen 2007, Sweden’s national final for the Eurovision Song Contest 2007, to be held in Helsinki, Finland.

He competed with the song “Cara Mia” in the third semi-final on 17 February 2007 in Örnsköldsvik, and progressed to the final, which was held on 10 March at Globen in Stockholm.

There his performance of “Cara Mia” finished in third place behind winners The Ark and runner-up Andreas Johnson.

“Cara Mia” was released as a single and Zelmerlöw’s debut album Stand by For… followed shortly after.

The album reached number one in Sweden and was certified platinum by IFPI.

Four singles were released from the album, all of which reached the top 50 in Sweden. Stand by For… was also released in Poland in September 2007.

On 5 October 2007 Zelmerlöw was the presenter of Lilla Melodifestivalen on SVT.

He also participated in the musical version of Footloose, playing Tommy.

The musical was performed in both Gothenburg and Stockholm.

In 2008 he participated in the Diggiloo tour along with singers Lasse Holm, Linda Bengtzing, Lotta Engberg, Thomas Pettersson, Molly Sandén and Nanne Grönvall.

On 18 November 2008, it was announced that Zelmerlöw would once again compete in Melodifestivalen, this time with the song “Hope & Glory“.

The 2009 contest featured many former entrants including Sarah Dawn Finer, Sofia, BWO, and Amy Diamond.

He took part in the second semi-final on 14 February 2009 and once again progressed to the final on 14 March at Globen.

“Hope & Glory” ultimately placed fourth despite receiving the most votes from the jury.

In 2008 Zelmerlöw went back to the studio to work on his second solo album, MZW, which was released in late March 2009.

It was certified gold by the IFPI and reached number one on the Swedish album charts.

The album was also released in Poland. In 2009 he played a summer tour of Sweden performing songs from both albums.

On 10 November 2009 it was announced that Zelmerlöw would host Melodifestivalen 2010, alongside Dolph Lundgren and Christine Meltzer.

He hosted the first semi-final and the final with Lundgren and Meltzer, and the remaining semi-finals with only Meltzer.

In the opening of the Second Chance round, he performed the Duran Duran song “A View to a Kill“, and in the final he sang the Survivor song “Eye of the Tiger” with his fellow presenters.

He also acted as Romeo in the musical Romeo and Julietand also guest starred in the talent show Jakten på Julia at SVT, were he found his Juliet female lead after Lisette Pagler won the role.

The musical had its premiere in December at Göta Lejon.

In January 2011 Zelmerlöw was announced as the replacement for Anders Lundin as presenter of Allsång på Skansen, broadcast on SVT.

In March 2013, Zelmerlöw revealed plans for his third studio album, Barcelona Sessions, unveiling a new single, “Broken Parts”.

He also performed a new track on Swedish television called “Run For Your Life”.

In September 2013, Zelmerlöw unveiled the second single from the new album, called “Beautiful Life”, and performed another album track entitled “Parallels”.

The album was released on 5 February 2014, preceded by “Run For Your Life”.

In the summer of 2013 Zelmerlöw presented Allsång på Skansen on SVT and revealed that he was leaving the show in the final program on 13 August.

Singer Petra Marklund replaced him.

Zelmerlöw participated as a songwriter in Melodifestivalen 2013, co-writing the song “Hello Goodbye”, performed by Erik Segerstedt and Tone Damli.

The song made it to the second-chance round.

In late 2013 he had the lead role in the new version of the Swedish musical Spök along with Loa Falkman, Sussie Eriksson and Lena Philipsson.

In 2015, Zelmerlöw once again participated in Melodifestivalen with the song “Heroes” which scored 288 points and won the final.

In the same festival he co-wrote the entry “Det rår vi inte för” performed by Behrang Miri, which made it to the second-chance round.

On 11 May 2015, Zelmerlöw revealed the artwork and tracklist for his fourth studio album Perfectly Damaged which will be released on 5 June 2015.

On 17 May Zelmerlöw performed the song “Heroes” in Belgrade during the first live show of X Factor Adria.

Leading up to the Eurovision Song Contest 2015, Zelmerlöw was predicted as the winner by more or less all the betting companies.

Zelmerlöw participated in the second semifinal on 21 May, where he came first and qualified for the final.

Zelmerlöw won the Eurovision 2015 final scoring 365 points, which made “Heroes” the third-highest-scoring song in the history of the contest.

Zelmerlöw has one younger sister. He enjoys football, tennis and golf.

On 26 December 2004, Zelmerlöw and his family survived the Indian Ocean earthquake while on vacation in Khao Lak, Thailand.

Between 2008 and 2011, he was in a relationship with the Swedish singer and model Marie Serneholt, a former member of the Swedish pop band A-Teens.

In March 2014, while a guest on Swedish cooking show Pluras kök, Zelmerlöw commented that he considers homosexuality “a deviation”.

In the show, he said he doesn’t think there is anything wrong about homosexuality, but he believes it is not natural in the biological sense of the word, since it does not lead to reproduction.

He later apologised repeatedly for his remarks and explained that it was a miscommunication.

After his Melodifestivalen win a year later, the incident came under international media scrutiny, prompting members of gay, Swedish, and Eurovision media to come to Zelmerlöw’s defence.

He later claimed he could consider dating another man.

In May 2015, Zelmerlöw posted a photo of himself lying on a couch, with an object underneath his legs that resembled a folded Albanian flag.

The photo led to death threats towards Zelmerlöw, who later removed the photo and apologized claiming he had no idea what the object on the couch was.