Eurovision 2023: Sweden’s Loreen tells Lorraine Kelly her second win was better than her first

Eurovision winner Loreen has admitted her second victory was a better experience than her first competition. Following Saturday’s Eurovision final, she joined Lorraine Kelly via video from Heathrow Airport on Lorraine’s self-titled morning show ahead of her flight back to Sweden on Tuesday. 

Lorraine, 63, from Glasgow, began the segment with a clip of Loreen’s winning song ‘Tatoo’ – her second Eurovision win following her success in 2012 – and congratulated her, adding that she looked very calm, as she awaited her scores. 

Loreen said: “I was trying to balance myself because there were so many energies moving around me; I think my crew was more anxious than me, so I think I was trying to balance them.”

The conversation then turned to the topic of this being Loreen’s second Eurovision win, with Lorraine asking if this win was “just as good as the first or even better,” to which Loreen responded that this win was something else. 

“Honestly, it was something else,” Loreen said. “It was so beautiful; it was a bit better because the first time, everything was so new, but this time, it was almost like coming back to a family. You know the people, you know what not to do, and so honestly I was more present in the moment, and I enjoyed it very much; it’s been such a beautiful journey.” 

Following Loreen’s win, Eurovision 2024 will be hosted in Sweden exactly 50 years after ABBA won the competition, which Loreen said she thought and hoped next year’s competition would be “something else.” 

Loreen’s interview lasted only five minutes, as she was due to return to Sweden about 30 minutes after the interview concluded. She teased there may be a performance upon her arrival home, following which she would be heading straight to bed. 

Her Eurovision victory came after she scored a total of 583 points when the public and jury votes were combined, beating Finland’s Kaarija who scored 526. After collecting her trophy on stage, she said: “This is overwhelming. I’m so happy and I’m so thankful. “Thank you for this, this is for you [the crowd].”

The UK’s Mae Muller finished second to last with a total of only 24 points.