| Year: | 1981 |
| Country: | Sweden |
| Preselection: | Melodifestivalen 1981 |
| Preselection Date: | 21 February 1981 |
| Entrant: | Björn Skifs |
| Song: | Fångad i en dröm |
| Final Result: | 10th, 50 points |
Sweden chose their entry for the Eurovision Song Contest 1981 in the national selection Melodifestivalen 1981. After a tight race, the winner was a song called "Fångad i en dröm", which was performed by Björn Skifs. Björn was also the Swedish representative in the 1978 contest, and had written the song together with Bengt Palmers.
Melodifestivalen 1981 was the selection for the 21st song to represent Sweden at the Eurovision Song Contest. It was the 20th time that this system of picking a song had been used. 90 songs were submitted to SVT for the competition. The final was held in the Cirkus in Stockholm on 21 February 1981, presented by Janne Loffe Carlsson and was broadcast on TV1 but was not broadcast on radio. It was the second time that Lasse Holm and Kikki Danielsson had been beaten into second place by Björn Skifs, after 1978.
| Draw | Artist | Song | Songwriters | Points | Place | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | "Rocky Mountain" | Janne Lucas Persson, Göran Ledstedt | 50 | 3rd | ||
| 2 | "Det är mitt liv - det är jag" | 41 | 4th | |||
| 3 | Kicki Moberg | "Men natten är vår" | 28 | 5th | ||
| 4 | "Fångad i en dröm" | Björn Skifs, Bengt Palmers | 59 | 1st | ||
| 5 | "God morgon" | 57 | 2nd |
| Song | scope="col" | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| align=left | "Rocky Mountain" | 8 | 4 | 4 | 6 | 4 | 6 | 6 | 4 | 4 | 2 | 2 | 50 | |
| align=left | "Det är mitt liv - det är jag" | 4 | 6 | 8 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 6 | 1 | 1 | 8 | 41 | |
| align=left | "Men natten är vår" | 1 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 8 | 1 | 2 | 4 | 6 | 28 | |
| align=left | "Fångad i en dröm" | 6 | 8 | 6 | 8 | 8 | 4 | 1 | 2 | 6 | 6 | 4 | 59 | |
| align=left | "God morgon" | 2 | 2 | 2 | 4 | 6 | 8 | 4 | 8 | 8 | 8 | 1 | 57 |
At the contest, this year held in Dublin, Ireland, Sweden was drawn #20, at the very end of the start field. The song earned maximum points from France and 10 points from Germany, and finally ended up 10th with 50 points.[1]