Go behind the scenes of Loreen’s Rolling Stone UK cover shoot

Loreen has opened up on her overwhelming success at the Eurovision Song Contest in a new behind-the-scenes video from her Rolling Stone UK cover shoot.

The Swedish singer, who triumphed at the contest for the second time last month, has discussed how the contest’s inclusive community has allowed it to be a beacon of tolerance and acceptance.

“It’s a community where everybody is accepted, regardless of where they’re from,” said Loreen of Eurovision.

“And also a place, a space, where we gather around creativity. So the way I see it, it’s a community that spreads a lot of positive vibrations. And these positive vibrations are needed today.”

The singer triumphed in May with ‘Tattoo’, ten years after she initially won with ‘Euphoria’ in 2012. But despite becoming only the second singer after Ireland’s Johnny Logan to secure such a feat, she says such a return almost never happened.

“I was afraid,” she admitted. “That was just my initial reaction [when asked to return to Melodifestivalen], because everything went so fast for us. First there was a song, and I loved the song. There was no talking about Melfest. It was just a beautiful song and I wanted to release it.”

Elsewhere in the interview, Loreen also opened up on how she has become a figure of support among her LGBTQ+ fans.

“I absolutely love that. Queer or not queer, I don’t see that, I just see us as people with certain attributes. That’s why I say these are my people. We have the same mindset. The thing is, if somebody asked me, ‘What is freedom, what is feeling free?’, that is just doing exactly what you feel like, expressing yourself exactly the way you want to express yourself,” she said.

“Clothe yourself the way you want to clothe yourself, talk the way you want to talk. Don’t care about what other people think. This is true freedom.”