She has been among Sweden's most popular performers since the early 1980s and has released albums ranging from pop and disco to hymns and folk music.

Some of her biggest hits are "Främling", "Tommy tycker om mig", "Fångad av en stormvind", "All the Reasons to Live", "I Believe in Love", "Genom allt", and "Evighet".

[7][8] In 1977, Häggkvist won a talent competition and appeared on television for the first time, on Sveriges magasin, performing "Krokodilbarnets klagan".

Songwriter Lasse Holm offered Häggkvist two of his songs for Melodifestivalen 1983, "Mona Lisa" and "Främling".

"Främling" was chosen, and with it Häggkvist won the right to represent Sweden at that year's Eurovision Song Contest in Munich.

Sweden won the contest after a countback, having received five ten-point scores during the voting versus France's two.

Häggkvist was the first Scandinavian pop artist to perform in China—in front of an estimated 600 million television viewers[clarification needed]; she also released an album in China in 1992.

In 1994, Häggkvist released a rock-themed album, '"Personligt" (Personally), marking her debut as a songwriter and selling gold.

[9] "Så länge jag lever", "Sanna Vänner" and "Guld i dina ögon" became hits and received a great amount of radio airplay.

In 2001, she released Sov på min arm, an album based on Christian hymns, gospel melodies and intimate ballads.

The album, which marked Häggkvist's return to the pop scene, contained several hits such as "The Light", "I believe in love", which also topped the Estonian and Brazilian charts, and "A Kiss Goodbye".

[15] "Autumn Leaf" appeared on Häggkvist's next album, Guld, platina & passion, in Swedish as "När löven faller" (When the leaves fall).

This was followed by Störst av allt, which Dan Backman of Svenska Dagbladet wrote featured "spiritually aimed music…revolving around belonging, love, death and eternity".

She performed "Evighet" ("Eternity"), written by Bobby Ljunggren, Henrik Wikström and Thomas G:son, which she described as a "true winning song".

The song qualified from the fourth semi-final in Gothenburg on 11 March 2006,[19] and was widely tipped to win the festival outright as the final at the Stockholm Globe Arena approached.

Following Melodifestivalen, Häggkvist released a pop album, Från nu till evighet ("From Now to Eternity").

[23] On the other hand, Expressen's Anders Nunstedt wrote that on "Jag ger allt" ("I Give It All") "the title does not lie" and that "Vem kan älska mig" ("Who Can Love Me") features a "brilliant refrain".

[25] During the autumn, Häggkvist had problems with her voice but nonetheless sang "Because We Believe", a song written by Andrea Bocelli, with the Italian tenor.

In late 2007, Häggkvist released another Christmas album, I denna natt blir världen ny ("There is a New World This Night"), a sequel to Jul i Betlehem.

Although One Love did not become an enormous success, the song Lucky Star which they released a few months prior to the contest did sell well, and topped the Swedish charts for weeks.

In July, she performed, together with the Eurovision winner Alexander Rybak in Norway and sang "Fairytale" and "Främling" and The Jackson 5's "I'll Be There".

Carola attended in the final of the Eurovision Song Contest 2013 in Malmö and performed in a humorous interval act about Swedish culture.

[29] In the summer of 2010, Carola embarked on tour across Sweden, singing the hits of both Elvis Presley and Barbra Streisand.

She took time out from the tour to appear on Allsång på Skansen, and in March 2011 she released a studio album, containing twelve songs.

[31] Carola attended the final of the Eurovision Song Contest 2016 in Stockholm and was briefly interviewed on screen along with another previous Swedish winner Loreen.

In April 2021, it was announced that Carola would be the spokesperson for Sweden at the Eurovision Song Contest 2021, reading out the Swedish jury points at the Grand Final.

[33] She will perform "Waterloo" with Charlotte Perrelli and Conchita Wurst as an interval act for the final of the Eurovision Song Contest 2024.

She has often talked about her Christian faith and much of the focus has been around her membership in the controversial evangelical church Livets Ord (Word of Life).

[38] Four years later, her comment was brought up when she participated in the Swedish national selection for the Eurovision Song Contest in March 2006.

[41] In 2008, she spoke to the newspaper Aftonbladet and again revisited her opinions about homosexuality, which she insisted have evolved over the past two decades and are very inclusive.