Sweden is a Scandinavian country in Northern Europe. It borders Norway to the west and north, Finland to the east, and is connected to Denmark in the southwest by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund Strait. At 450,295 square kilometres (173,860 sq mi), Sweden is the largest country in Northern Europe, the third-largest country in the European Union and the fifth largest country in Europe by area. The capital city is Stockholm. Sweden has a total population of 10.3 million of which 2.6 million have a foreign background. Persons who have foreign backgrounds are defined as persons who are foreign born, or born in Sweden with foreign born parents. It has a low population density of 22 inhabitants per square kilometre (57/sq mi) and the highest urban concentration is in the central and southern half of the country.
Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorIn connection with an authoritative new report from Midia Research showing how songwriters are being dramatically short-changed by the streaming economy, ABBA’s Björn Ulvaeus says that “songwriters are last in line for streaming royalties.”In an op-ed that recently appeared in the U.K. paper The Guardian, Ulvaeus — pictured above left, who cowrote nearly every ABBA’s song and all of their hits with Benny Anderson, and is also president of the international author society CISAC — writes: “In 1973, Abba were invited to submit a song as Sweden’s entry to the Eurovision song contest.