Charlotte Perrelli

Anna Jenny Charlotte Perrelli (born 7 October 1974), known simply until 2003 as Charlotte Nilsson and later as Charlotte Perrelli, is a Swedish singer and television host.

She won the contest with 163 points, making her the fourth Swedish representative to win the competition since Carola Häggkvist's victory in 1991, the Herreys brothers' in 1984 and ABBA's in 1974.

Following her Eurovision success, Nilsson toured Europe and the Middle East, promoting her winning song.

She also started working on her first solo album, Charlotte.

Later that year, she was voted Sweden's sexiest woman by the magazine Café.

She later released "I Write You a Lovesong", together with debut album Charlotte, which was well received.

In 1994, Nilsson started singing with the well-established dansband Anders Engbergs.

After two albums, she left them and joined the highly successful Wizex in 1997.

Larger venues and professional management increased the band's reputation.

From 1997 to 1998 Nilsson starred as the instructor Millan Svensson in the Swedish soap opera Vita lögner.

In 1998, the band was nominated for a Swedish Grammis (Grammy) for the album Mot nya mål, and the album Tusen och en natt that went gold.

Under her maiden name, she won the 1999 Melodifestivalen and subsequently that year's Eurovision Song Contest with the song "Take Me to Your Heaven".

Since 1999 Perrelli has released seven albums and multiple singles.

After winning that year's national Melodifestivalen, Nilsson went to Jerusalem to compete as the Swedish representative for the 1999 Eurovision Song Contest on 29 May with her song "Take Me to Your Heaven".

She did not appear at the Eurovision Song Contest 2000 due to a dispute with Sveriges Television.

In 2001 Nilsson released her second album, Miss Jealousy, a pop/rock album which included the top-20 hit single "You Got Me Going Crazy", written by Mårten Sandén, Johan Åberg and Paul Rein as well as the radio hit "Light of My Life".

Following the release, she promoted the album throughout Europe and New Zealand.

Nilsson hosted the first semi-final of Melodifestivalen 2003 with Mark Levengood and Lena Philipsson.

In April 2003 she performed in Jesus Christ Superstar in Stockholm.

Charlotte Nilsson changed her name to Charlotte Perrelli after her 2003 marriage, and has retained the surname since her 2009 divorce.

After the success in Melodifestivalen 2003, Perrelli was once again asked to host Melodifestivalen 2004.

Perrelli, Peter Settman and Ola Lindholm ended up hosting the entire tour together.

After the festival, Swedish TV4 offered her own show on the channel, Super Troupers, a talent-show for kids.

In September she released a new single, "Broken Heart", which was followed up by the album Gone Too Long in June 2004.

The album contained songs such as "Gone Too Long", "Flashdance" and "Million Miles Away".

In mid-2004 she released her, until then, most successful album, Gone Too Long, which included songs by some of Sweden's top producers, including Jörgen Elofsson.

The album topped the Swedish top for weeks and contained hits such as "A Million Miles Away" and "Gone Too Long".

In the summer, she joined Robert Wells, Jill Johnson and others on the Rhapsody in Rock-tour in mid-2004.

In the spring of 2005, she was a judge on Inför Eurovision, a TV show which previewed that year's Eurovision songs.

In 2006, she released the album I din röst, in honour of the famous jazz singer Monica Zetterlund, which covered Zetterlund's most famous songs, along with some personal favorites and the soul ballad "I din röst", the title song written by Perrelli for the album.

The album was successful, and she performed many of the songs in Sweden's top shows such as Allsång på Skansen and Nationaldagen.

She also co-hosted the TV show Tillsammans för världens barn in October, where she also performed "The Greatest Love of All".

In May 2007 Perrelli was the Swedish expert in the Nordic preview show panel discussion about the Eurovision Song Contest.

In mid-2007 Perrelli toured Sweden with Diggiloo.

She once again won Melodifestivalen 2008 and represented Sweden in the Eurovision Song Contest 2008 with her song "Hero".

She is one of Sweden's most popular female singers, often performing at Sweden's top shows.

Throughout her career, she has worked with different types of music, ranging from dansband and schlager, via modern pop, to soulful ballads and jazz melodies.

Born in Hovmantorp, in the southern Swedish province of Småland, at the age of thirteen Nilsson joined a local dansband, Bengt Ingvars, which became "Bengt Ingvars med Charlotte".

After finishing her compulsory school education, she moved from Hovmantorp to the neighbouring town of Växjö where she attended the High School of Performing Arts.

She also became the lead singer of a band named Kendix.