Loreen has recently had a realisation – that she doesn't just make music, but instead "creates worlds" that truly transport her listeners. "That's why I love Eurovision so much – because it allows me to create an entire world when I'm on stage," Loreen says. As the only woman to win the iconic song contest twice, with Euphoria in 2012 and Tattoo in 2023, Loreen is acutely aware of Eurovision's platform as a "beautiful loving space where people gather around sounds and images". Now, every new song she puts out is conceived as an experience to be savoured on several levels. "As a listener, you have all the elements there: you can see it, hear it, feel it, smell it," she says. "My art isn't about one thing – it's the whole, it's the layers, it's the message."

There's no doubt this message is travelling far and wide: globally, Loreen has more than 2 billion streams to her name. Her intoxicating electropop gem Tattoo topped the charts in 10 countries including her native Sweden and peaked at number two in the UK. The music video for Is It Love?, her equally heady follow-up single, exceeded a million views in less than two weeks when it premiered in October and she will soon hit 1 million TikTok followers. But of course, stats alone only tell half the story. Loreen's fans are so passionate that they make supercuts of her saying "darling" – a term of endearment she picked up at Eurovision in Liverpool – and flood her posts with the LGBTQ+ community’s highest compliment: “Mother!” "At first when I saw that, I was like, 'I'm not that old!'" Loreen says with a laugh. "But then it hit me, that whenever I was performing Tattoo, I had so much love in my body for everyone collectively that there was a very motherly energy there."

Loreen fans have also branded her emotive, evocative songs "spiritual pop" – a description she fully approves of because it acknowledges that "there is no separation" between her and the audience. "When they see a spiritual element in what I do, it means they understand and see it in themselves," she says. "I'm pretty sure that whatever I'm going through in life, we're all going through it in a way." Loreen always knows precisely what energy she wants to give out to the world. She had devised a narrative for Forever, her transcendent new single set in the same world as Tattoo, before she even recorded it. "In the first chapter of the story, which is Tattoo, you meet this entity – she's male, she's female, she's everything. She comes from the earth, from the dust, and it's very spiritual," Loreen explains. "And now in the second chapter, Forever, there is an awakening. It's about a moment where you've gone through all the earth and dust – you've gone through life – and you can see things clearly. You're leaving all your illusions behind and you're free."

Loreen says she went into the studio knowing that Forever "needed to coexist with Tattoo" sonically, but the actual songwriting process was "simple" and really about "trusting my intuition". Once she got on the mike, she sang "the melodies from beginning to end in one take" and knew she had the "skeleton of the song" nailed. "At that moment, which is almost like a divine moment, it's so important not to have any negative energy in the studio," she says. "You need playful, almost childish energy to be able to access the beautiful information that you need." At this point, she and her collaborators began "stitching together" lyrics, shards of melody and sonic details to make sure Forever told the right story. The result is a rousing, richly emotive rave anthem destined to become an enduring club classic like Euphoria, which still fills dance floors all over the world.

07.05.2024