The fifth season of
Swedish Idol premiered on 3 September 2008 and continued until its grand finale on 12 December, when 22-year-old
Kevin Borg was crowned winner. It was the first season to feature new judges
Laila Bagge,
Anders Bagge and
Andreas Carlsson, a move that made it the first
Idol series in the world to completely replace its judging panel. The series took advantage of guest judges including
Charlotte Perrelli,
Desmond Child and
Cyndi Lauper, and the final 3 results show featured a performance by
X Factor winner and international superstar
Leona Lewis, who sang her hit "
Forgive Me". For the second year running, the grand finale was held in Stockholm's
Globen Arena with a live audience of 16,000 people, where operatic group
Il Divo also sang live. Season 5 of
Swedish Idol marked only the second time in worldwide
Idol history where neither of the final two contestants were born in the show's home country. Winner
Kevin Borg was born in Malta and runner-up
Alice Svensson was born in Vietnam. The only other Idol contest to have this occur was Greece's
Super Idol in 2004.