Thomas Gustafsson (born 25 February 1968) is a Swedish composer and musician from Skövde, Västergötland, Sweden, north-east of Göteborg. However, he is much more known nationally and internationally simply as Thomas G:son, his artistic name. Since 1998, Thomas has worked full time as a songwriter for the company G:songs. In addition to writing and composing songs for a living, he plays the guitar in a hard rock band. Thomas G:son is mostly known for the 58 songs he has written for national finals of eight different countries for the Eurovision Song Contest (ESC): 32 for Sweden, ten for Spain, five for Norway, four for Finland, three for Denmark, two for Poland, one for Latvia, one for Romania and one for Belgium. He has also reached the Eurovision Song Contest five times, twice for Sweden, once for Norway, once for Spain, and once for Denmark.
Thomas G:son wrote Lyssna till ditt hjärta for the 2001 edition of Melodifestivalen. The upbeat ABBA inspired song was performed by the young quartet Friends. From its Melodifestivalen victory, they went on to have a successful performance at the Eurovision Song Contest 2001 in Copenhagen, Denmark, placing fifth with the English version Listen To Your Heartbeat. The song sounded very much like the 1996 Belgian entry Liefde is een kaartspel, causing some controversy and earning it the nickname Listen to your Kaartspel among some Eurovision fans.[1].
This year, Thomas G:son has delivered the record amount of eight selected entries to three national finals - Sweden, Norway and Latvia. Six of them participated in the Swedish Melodifestivalen, sung by such Melodifestivalen and Eurovision veterans as Carola, Kikki Danielsson, Roger Pontare and former Afro-Dite member Kayo(all had represented Sweden at past ESCs), as well as Jessica Folker, a singer who already enjoyed international success. Such proliferation proved effective, as both Carola and Kikki reached the final of the contest, ironically taking the first and the last place, respectively. Carola and G:son's winning song was "Evighet" (Swedish for eternity) - it was performed at the Eurovision Song Contest in Athens, Greece in English as "Invincible", finishing 5th in the final, just like his 2001 entry "Listen To Your Heartbeat" did.
In the Norwegian Melodi Grand Prix, his entry performed by the drag queen duo Queentastic made it to the Super Final, but lost to Christine Guldbrandsen, a folk-ballad singer from Bergen.
Neither did Elina Furmane of Latvia make it through Eirodziesma; consequently, Thomas G:son had only one entry in that year's ESC.
In 2007, Thomas G:son experienced the peculiar situation of having two of his songs compete in Helsinki, neither of them being for his home country. Instead, the Norwegian, nationally famous musical artist Guri Schanke performed his fiery Latino song "Ven a bailar conmigo", (Spanish: Come Dance With Me). The song, which contains some elements of Argentine tango, was specifically ordered by the Norwegian state broadcaster NRK who invited Thomas G:son, who had already successfully composed three entries previously for Melodi Grand Prix, the Norwegian national final. Spain's 2007 entry "I love you mi vida" was also co-written by G:son, and was performed by boyband D'NASH.
In 2010 G:son sent his fifth Eurovision song in his fourth country: Denmark. He co-wrote the Danish entry "In a Moment Like This" sang by Chanée and Tomas N'evergreen.
The girl duo Indiggo which was going to perform the song was disqualified because they didn't turn up in time for a rehearsal. Additionally, an instrumental version of the song was not sent in time to the TV company.
The Swedish entry for Junior Eurovision 2010, Allt jag vill ha, was written by G:son, with Arash, Robert Uhlmann, and Johan Bejerholm. In Minsk, it placed eleventh.