Friends (Swedish band)

Friends was a Swedish dansband or pop group formed in 1999 and made up of Stefan Brunzell, Tony Haglund, Kristian Hermanson, Nina Inhammar, Kim Kärnfalk and Peter Strandberg. They were put together from auditions on the reality television show Friends på turne (Friends on Tour), made by Bert Karlsson for TV4. The show was a success and Friends competed on Melodifestivalen 2000, reaching second place. They won Melodifestivalen 2001 with "Lyssna till ditt hjärta" and represented Sweden at the Eurovision Song Contest 2001 with the English version of the song, "Listen to Your Heartbeat.” Following their Eurovision participation, the Swedish delegation was forced to pay royalties to the team behind "Liefde is een kaartspel", the 1996 Belgian entry, making the song the first admitted case of plagiarism in Eurovision history.^[1]

The band split in 2002, with Inhammar and Kärnfalk forming their own duo Nina & Kim. In 2004, they attempted to represent Sweden with their song “En Gång För Alla” but came 7th in the second pre-selection round. After 2006, Kärnfalk continued as a solo artist.