The name that many certainly reacted to when the starting field for Melodifestivalen was presented – Victoria Silvstedt.
After living abroad since she created the big headlines as a Playboy model and megastar in the 1990s, Victoria Silvstedt herself is a little questioning about how it has gone.
Yes, I'm a little surprised myself that I'm here, she says and laughs.
Hit songs 1999
But Victoria Silvstedt has actually released music. The hit singles "Hello hey" and "Rocksteady love" came in 1999, and after participating in a nostalgia festival last year, she was linked to songwriters, record labels, and SVT.
Now she will sing in Melodifestivalen's fifth qualifying round in Jönköping on Saturday.
It's a fun challenge, one of the bigger challenges I've done, she says.
Victoria Silvstedt is flying in from Monaco, where she has long had her base. When the headlines became fewer in Sweden, she became a bit under the radar as a giant name, especially in France and Italy, where she participated in several popular TV programs in the 2000s.
I started earning an incredible amount of money on TV in France and Italy and got huge contracts. Then I had just divorced, so why would I keep my "green card" and live in the USA when I can live in Monaco, I thought.
So Monaco feels like home?
I'm registered in Monaco, but then I live a bit everywhere. I have a place in Miami, one in New York, and one here at home in Sweden. And I still travel all the time.
Rejecting reality
Internationally, Victoria Silvstedt is still a big name. She is a model and businesswoman and a hot commodity for TV companies that want to make TV programs with her.
They're begging me every day, she exclaims in English.
You have no idea how many shows I've turned down.
Silvstedt tells us that she has rejected the reality classic "Real housewives of Miami", dissed Netflix which wanted to make a reality series about her life in Monaco, and waved away suggestions to participate in "Let's dance" in different countries.
I don't want to be in any reality show. I don't need it, I'm not that desperate, she explains. But they offer pretty good money.
But she is participating in Melodifestivalen, for the family's sake and because it's on home turf in Sweden. Then the question is whether the artist career continues after that?
No, no, this is it.
So no album or tour?
I haven't thought that far. Who knows... We'll see.
50 years old. Grew up in Umeå and Bollnäs. Came second in the beauty pageant Fröken Sverige in 1993 and undressed in Playboy, where she became playmate of the year in 1997.
Besides her modeling career, she has participated in films like "Baseketball" and "Boat trip", as well as the Swedish soap opera "Ocean Ave".
In 1999, the album "Girl on the run" was released with the hit singles "Hello hey" and "Rocksteady love".
Between 2006 and 2011, she was one of the hosts for the French version of "Lyckohjulet" and the talent show "Qui sera le meilleur ce soir" on TV.
She summer-talked in 2018.
