Tommy Krångh’s performance during Saturday’s broadcast has become a social media sensation, with demands to ‘send Tommy to Vienna!’ for the finals

It takes a lot to steal the limelight at a soccer stadium packed with screaming pop fans. But Sweden’s glitzy extravaganza to choose a Eurovision finalist this weekend was outshone by the charisma of a 48-year-old who signed the songs for deaf people – and became a viral sensation.

Tommy Krångh’s exuberant rendition of one of the entries has been viewed more than 5m times on Facebook and YouTube. Social media exploded with demands to “Send Tommy to Vienna!” for the Eurovision finals.

“My world has been turned upside down,” Krångh said. “I am thrilled and happy; there has been so much love from the internet.”

Interpreting Sweden’s Eurovision final took five weeks of intense preparation, he said.

“I am always all in. I want to give the whole experience of the music. I have to give my whole body. When I get on the stage the music is pumping and I lose myself. I don’t know what’s happening. I am totally lost in the moment – but somehow I still know what exactly I am doing.”

Krångh and four colleagues signed the event for public service broadcaster SVT on Saturday night. He also signed for the winner, Måns Zelmerlöw’s song Heroes – a challenge because of the difficult English metaphors. He is self-taught and has never had formal training.

The idea of offering sign-language interpretation of musical events on national television emerged five years ago when Krångh and colleague Helena Wästborn were brought in at short notice to interpret a regional final in the build-up to Eurovision – a big social occasion in Sweden. There were no facilities and they covered the event from a shower room.



“We really want the deaf and hearing-impaired audience to feel the same experience as everyone else, and we can only accomplish that if we give them the whole package – the emotion, the message of the songs, the beat, the feeling of being present,” said Wästborn.

Krångh is the child of deaf parents and Wästborn has two deaf brothers so signing was part of their lives from an early age. Working for the municipal sign language service in Örebro, a small city in central Sweden, they spent a decade honing their skills by putting on musicals for small audiences of deaf people. “We were the only ones crazy enough to jump in and do this,” Wästborn said.

Krångh had a small hit in 2012 with his rendition of a song by Dead by April, a Gothenburg melodic metalcore band.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Tommy Krångh’s version of Dead by April’s Mystery.

Denmark offered sign-language interpretation for the Eurovision finals in Copenhagen last year. The finals in Vienna this year are offering willing nations an interpreting service in international sign language for the first time.

It remains to be seen if Krångh’s overnight success will see him sign the event for a Swedish audience.

“Music isn’t the first thing you think of when speaking to the deaf community,” said Håkan Björklund, who heads the sign language department at SVT. “But we felt we wanted to broaden the perspective and let everyone be a part of this big event.”

“We have been overwhelmed by the response,” said Björklund, who is keen to expand SVT’s music interpretation service for deaf people. “It puts sign language on the map – everybody’s talking about it.”