Sweden SWEDEN 2025 - KAJ - Bara bada bastu

[ESC United Mod Team]

 

[Stargazer]

My ranking for tomorrow:

GREAT
Maja Ivarsson
KAJ
Saga Ludvigsson
Erik Segerstedt

GOOD
John Lundvik
Greczula

OK
Scarlet
Annika Wickihalder

MEH
Dolly Style
Måns Zelmerlöw
Klara Hammarström
Meira Omar

 

[aef]

Mans giving mostly critical/ salty comments, I know why I don’t like his personality, from what I see…

All the other participants gave quite funny/ well-thought comments, nice.

Klara: „Wow all the the songs are so good this year!“ Hahaha, well…

 

[deletingpoint]

Honestly, Mans is just talking like a typical Eurovision fan, who hasn't touched grass for a while, which I get, there probably isn't any grass in Sweden yet.

 

[Stargazer]

Mans giving mostly critical/ salty comments, I know why I don’t like his personality, from what I see…

All the other participants gave quite funny/ well-thought comments, nice.

Klara: „Wow all the the songs are so good this year!“ Hahaha, well…

I find his honesty refreshing, actually. With some of the others, I couldn't tell whether they actually loved all those entries or felt they had to act like they did because they were on camera and were "expected" to give nice comments.

 

[freerider]

Perhaps Måns should have some dancers in chains that they break loose from during the song to symbolize a revolution.

 

[Realest]

Hopefully the televoters and juries vote with eurovision in mind tomorrow.

 

[freerider]

Hopefully the televoters and juries vote with eurovision in mind tomorrow.

For Måns? I think he has the greatest chance in Eurovision.

 

[AlekS]

Audience poll after the jury show.

 

[AlekS]

Princ will be a spokesperson of the Serbian jury, which makes this international jury thing even more awkward. Thankfully, he's not in the jury, it seems. lol.

Spoilers and fake results:

Not putting faves in reverse

KAJ were perfect vocally. The loudest applause in the arena.
Flops: Lundvik is coming for the bottom 3 (the jury will save his ass tho). Annika's vocals in the beginning.
Dolly Style didn't receive loud audience reaction comapred to KAJ or Mans, but they performed well.
Petra Vaidotas is mine

 

[Stargazer]

I fear the international jury will tank KAJ unfortunately, and will give such high points to Måns that the televote won't be able to make a difference either way. It wouldn't be the first time this happened in MF.

 

[freerider]

Part of the point with KAJ:s song is that you understand their gimmick text. Will european listeners understand the vibe in the song when sung in swedish and some finnish? I believe Måns will recieve more votes from the jurygroups if qualifying but he may also get more popular votes then KAJ would recieve because of the languagebarrier.

 

[b4ld3r]

Aftonbladet managed to dig out a 10 year old picture of Måns and KAJ when they were on stage together at a music festival in Vörå

 

[hwyl]

Part of the point with KAJ:s song is that you understand their gimmick text. Will european listeners understand the vibe in the song when sung in swedish and some finnish? I believe Måns will recieve more votes from the jurygroups if qualifying but he may also get more popular votes then KAJ would recieve because of the languagebarrier.

You know, who cares - Sweden should let their hair down for once, it's not really serious, it's just fun, it's Eurovision! Winning is good, participation is better...

 

[MAD20]

Is there any remote chance that KAJ wins tonight instead of Mans? Something fresh in Swedish would be amazing, plus the song is an earworm!!

 

[tsegaye]

Is there any remote chance that KAJ wins tonight instead of Mans? Something fresh in Swedish would be amazing, plus the song is an earworm!!

I think so, it all depends on how many jury points KAJ will get. They will definitely win the televote, Måns will win the jury vote.

 

[Jupiter]

KAJ cracked 3 Million views on Youtube

And that is nearly the same amount of views as Baby Lasagnas RTTD performance in the Dora final (which has 3.4 million currently), and about half of Käärijäs UMK performance at this moment (at 6.6 million). It's also, from what I could find, the most watched Eurovision Video of this season. So to say, that is just an insanely high nunber for a song that hasn't even won it's NF yet.

I also send the song to most of my Eurovision watching friends (who do not watch NFs) and everyone loved it. It's basically on everyone playlist now

So, Sweden: do something different this year, send the potential televote winner! Beat the "jury darling" allegations and make most of us happy! Please please please

 

[Mainshow]

Part of the point with KAJ:s song is that you understand their gimmick text. Will european listeners understand the vibe in the song when sung in swedish and some finnish? I believe Måns will recieve more votes from the jurygroups if qualifying but he may also get more popular votes then KAJ would recieve because of the languagebarrier.

We do understand "sauna", though.
The whole entry is accompanied by a very joyful performance. We can sense the vibe of the song perfectly: Being joyful in a sauna - no worries about everyday life.
Also, the melody is great - that entry is full of life.

Moreover, the way they sing "Bada bastu" and Yksi, kaksi, kolme.. SAUNA" is amazing - and will stick to people's minds - with or without knowledge of Swedish/Finnish.

What about Mans? He sings in English about a revolution - a perfectly staged pop song sung well but it's braindead, imo - no soul.. what's the revolution about? Does he want me (the listener) to get politically involved? Or is it a love song? A revolution of love?

Funnily, fans/viewers from a country often level criticism at a song in their own language that no one understands the message but if the performance is great/the melodies are there/the charisma (of an artist), people will like it/it will be understood, e.g. Italy, 2021, Ukraine 2021, Finland 2023 or Portugal 2017.

It's bad to opt for a generic ballad in a foreign language but if you come up with something genuine, authentic, fun - the language isn't important at all and I wholeheartedly believe that's the case with KAJ this year.
The juries might think differently, but KAJ is a serious contender for a Top 5 televoting this year.

 

[Mainshow]

I honestly dislike it that Mans and Benjamin spoke out about "Europe hating on Sweden in Eurovision" - That's simply not true.

I can understand that it must have been a tough moment for Benjamin to hear the audience go wild when Sweden "only" got 21 pts from the public in 2018. It wasn't hatred towards Sweden, though. It was a heavy reaction towards the juries which are usually over-estimating Swedish entries in Eurovision. They ranked him #2 in a very competitive year even though his song was generic.
He wouldn't have got that reaction if he got 153 pts from the juries and 121 pts from the public instead.

Of course, Sweden is a powerhouse in Sweden and rightfully so since they are very competitive, treat Melodifestivalen well and come up with a very entertaining show but I think that the juries are after lured by the great performances and forget to rank the song (e.g. "Unstoppable" wasn't good at all either).

When it comes to Mans, he shouldn't feel bitter at all. He won ESC and "Heroes" was a mosnter hit across Europe - We (fans) are just tired that a) our choice didn't win thanks to the juries over-estimating Sweden again and b) we had to hear "Heroes" and see Mans in almost all editions afterwards (2016 as a host and performance, 2017 as part of cameos, 2019 when Conchita performed "Heroes" and Mans performed "Fuego"), 2020 when ESC cancelled and we got a on-tape performance of Mans/Heroes A-G-A-I-N, 2021 when Mans performed as part of the "roof performance". ).

All in all, Mans popped up/performed in every year from 2015 to 2021 apart from 2018 when the contest was hosted by Portugal and in that year, the hosts sang "Euphoria" - another Swedish winning entry.

I just think that we fans (and that's only us fans because the general public don't care about it at all) just feel oversaturated when it comes to "Hereos" and "Euphoria" and even "Waterloo".
We don't need to hear them in every ESC edition, either.

Loreen, however, came back with another great performance and "Tattoo" (even though it wasn't as great as "Euphoria") had "international hit/ESC winner" written all over it.

"Revolution", however, is simply generic and flat - and it's not as good as "Heroes", imo - even the staging (whilst still being ambitious) isn't great either (way too dark for my liking)

So no, Europe doesn't "hate Sweden because they are too successful" - Sweden can win ESC every 5 years, imo, if the material is there - but we are just fed up being served generic to good material which are praised by the juries - making our televoting winners lose (Il Volo, Käärjä); and it's just tiring to see Mans in 8/9 out of 10 editions in the past decade.

 

[SpiritofKeiino]

Really not getting the Mans hype. Very boring cliched song IMO and even the staging isn't that great. Go KAJ!

 

[Realest]

Unfortunately tons of negativity and toxicity is awaiting him in case he wins. I fear he wont be able to enjoy his ESC-Experience this year.