Marie Bergman and Roger Pontare teamed up in 1994 to represent Sweden with their entry, “Stjärnorna,” finishing dead middle of the pack.
For Bergman, this performance would represent her third and final time gracing the stage of the Eurovision Song Contest. She continued her already prolific music career, releasing several more albums, including a handful of jazz compositions, before being invited to be a guest professor at Jydsk Music Conservatory in Aarhus, Denmark.
There, she developed creative techniques for teaching voice lessons, including incorporating painting and meditative practices to help students reach their full potential. From Aarhus she moved first to the Copenhagen Royal Music Conservatory, then the Royal Stockholm Music Conservatory, before ultimately starting her own academy, called BergmanVoice.
For Pontare, this duet represented his first of two appearances on the Eurovsion stage. In 2000, he came seventh, representing Sweden with his song “When Spirits are Calling my Name.” Not one to be deterred, he competed in Melodifestivalen once again in 2006, making it to the Andra Chansen round before being eliminated. (Ironically, Eurovision icon Carola won that year, tying Marie Bergman’s record for the person who represented Sweden the most times at Eurovision. If Pontare had won, he would’ve shared the record with his former stagemate.) Most recently, Pontare competed once again in Melodifestivalen in 2017, but was eliminated in the second semifinal.