JANUARY
7: Disaster strikes Hollywood. Large fires rage in Los Angeles, leaving many film workers homeless, including writer Sigge Eklund and Oscar-winning sound designer Per Hallberg.
24: Minister of Culture Parisa Liljestrand (M) is booed when she opens the Gothenburg Film Festival with a speech that many in the film industry consider hostile.
26: SVT "Kulturnyheterna" reveals that AI was used to dub Danish actor Jesper Christensen into Swedish for the prestigious drama venture "Trolösa", which was not entirely successful.
FEBRUARY
8: Host Edvin Törnblom steals the show in the middle act of the Melodifestivalen with his song "For the men who change channels" with help on stage from a wood-chopping Ferry Svan, a grilling Glenn Hysén and Brandsta City Släckers.
11: Just days after the mass murder at Campus Risbergska in Örebro, Simon Superti's song "Bullerbyn är död" captures the mood of the nation and becomes a hit on Spotify.
26: Movie star Gene Hackman and his wife Betsy Arakawa are found dead in their New Mexico home. They died more than a week ago under mysterious circumstances.
MARCH
8: KAJ wins Melodifestivalen with "Bara bada bastu" (Just a sauna), which creates hysteria around the Finnish-Swedish comedians Kevin, Axel and Jacob. Spotify later names the sauna tribute as the song of the year.
18: The favorite Måns Zelmerlöw comes "only" second in Melodifestivalen. Ten days later, his divorce from his wife Ciara becomes public and the grueling process that goes to court is closely monitored both in the press and on social media.
21: The reunited Kent plays the first of six shows in Stockholm. A total of almost a quarter of a million people see the band, who then withdraw again.
APRIL
4: Premiere of "A Minecraft movie", which will be one of the biggest blockbusters of the year.
4: Producer Rasmus Gozzi reveals that he has replaced Miss Snusk, but the "old" Miss, Felicia, is a success - in the reality show "Spelet" on SVT and gets a place in Melodifestivalen next year.
14: Katy Perry is launched into space as part of an all-female crew aboard Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin spacecraft. But the 11-minute trip is a PR disaster for the artist, which spills over into her album release and upcoming tour.
MAY
13: Per Morberg has had enough and dramatically quits the travel show he does with Mauri Hermundsson on TV4. Both deny accusations that it is just a publicity stunt.
30: Two people are arrested on suspicion of plotting to murder Yasin, who is due to perform his first concert in nine years. All three of this summer's shows are cancelled.
30: "Tusen spänn" with Tjuvjakt and Fanny Avonne enters the top spot on the Swedish charts and stays there for a full nine weeks, becoming the summer's big hit.
JUNE
5: The band The Velvet Sundown comes out of nowhere and reaches millions on Spotify. But the band doesn't exist, drawing attention to how AI-generated music is flooding music services and crowding out real artists. Spotify later reveals that they have purged 75 million AI-generated songs from the service – in one year.
11: Brian Wilson dies. The creative force behind the 60s group the Beach Boys turns 82.
12: “The Traitors” on TV4 is this year’s big TV phenomenon and the concept is being imitated in “Fortune Hotel” and “The Game”. In this spring’s round, reality TV personality Samir Badran stumbles his way to victory alongside comedian Kaeli Abdi.
