But that's kinda how we relate to things these days right? The 2nd placers in the previous 2 years may sound like a novelty but they have a deeper meaning beneath the relatable daily stuff we do, observe or find fun from, which I think it's a great lens to look at, like a social commentary or some sort. Maybe I'm projecting here 😭 but especially in the recent difficult social circumstances we really needed that recession "pop". 🤔

Yeah I agree and at the core of it, Eurovision should be fun! Imagine if it was all songs like Revolution or just a load of ballads, obviously some of the ballads are great, there’s some great pop songs too, but there should always be some fun as well. I wouldn’t enjoy Eurovision half as much if it was full of the likes of Måns Zelmerlow and John Lundvik.

And a fun pop song doesn’t mean novelty, so many fans are acting like Bara Bada Bastu is Dustin The Turkey or something The genre is very entwined in Swedish youth culture and then yeah the lyrics are a bit silly but it’s performed well, it’s crafted to be a striking and catchy song, even the juries took to it. I think it’s a good balance of that Eurovision fun while actually being a well crafted song and performance. I would be very surprised if this didn’t do well.

12 hours ago, AaronTM said:

The KAJ song is catchy, but I think it's far too novelty for me and was in my bottom half of the 12 choices. I appreciate that Sweden have gone for something out of their comfort zone with a song that isn't in English and a bit of a comedy entry. I just think it's a shame that Eurovision seems to be going down the route of "what is going to go viral on social media for us?" like everything else in the world right now. The last two years the Eurovision final has been about a traditional good Eurovision song/performance vs a catchy novelty song and novelty has finished 2nd. Could Sweden take the novelty song to the top? There'd be something ironic about Sweden winning with a Finnish inspired novelty act.

I agree! It's a shame a song like this (which is novelty, whatever you look at it) is going to represent Sweden when they usually represent quality pop. Having said that I have no doubt it will do well and it's probably already viral (yawn) which makes it a very shrewd choice.

I don’t understand such a polarising response to this song. It’s always been a popularity contest and a SHOW where countries chase trends and try to one up the other. Nothing changed, it just became a lot more about social media overall, Eurovision desperately needs it in order to stay relevant nowadays.

Novelty in Eurovision has been around for decades too and Melodifestivalen constantly presents songs that could fit into that criterion. This time one of those just happened to have won. (Although technically not novelty but close enough for an average viewer - I’m still bitter about Snälla Snälla being so close to winning but not making it).

Måns’ song is an easy top 5 but Sweden actually have a bigger chance to win with this. People clearly liked it more this time.

I hope other countries take notes and do something more creative next year as 2025 seems to be a snooze fest so far from what I’ve heard. Honestly if we end up with 40 faceless Revolutions (in English) playing one after the other, I’ll be tuning out.

Also, it’s not even that much of a novelty song, it’s still a good old basic structure with a hook and catchy simple melody, with eye-catching staging.

To me this feels no different than songs like 'Hard Rock Hallelujah', 'Dancing Lasha Tumbai', 'Party For Everybody', 'Spirit In The Sky', 'Cha Cha Cha' & even last year with 'Rim Tim Tagi Dim' etc... It's just a well executed, pure pop FUN. It is exactly the kind of thing that people tune into Eurovision for. Just utter pop joy.

Adding onto what's been said already, I think there's a sliding scale between "novelty" and "camp" where at one end you've got those late 00s entries where people had stopped caring/treated the whole thing as a joke like Irelande Douze Points, Leto Svet or Baila Chiki Chiki (all conveniently 2008 examples since that year was the worst for it I think) and then on one end there's songs like Europapa, Cha Cha Cha and, I would argue, Bara Bada Bastu where they lead with the silliness but ultimately are strong, well crafted pop songs underneath the campery. My gut is we're in an era now where televoters (and juries too to a lesser extent) are looking more to those latter kind of entries rather than the safe, slickly produced numbers that Sweden are usually the masters of.

Will be interesting to see how KAJ's result at Eurovision, whatever it is, influences whatever comes through in Melodifestivalen 2026 and if this is a blip or the start of a new trend.

See I would have argued that 'Bara Bada Bastu' isn't novelty at all, I've been listening to and enjoying it in the same way as I was 'Cha Cha Cha', which is as an uptempo catchy track and a strong song. Of course its lyrical content and the performance aren't typical pop cliches and there's a bit of humour there, but it's all aimed at making it a more enjoyable performance. Which is starkly different from the novelty entries of the late 00s that were shit songs sent to make fun of the serious pop contest.

You can see this in the way the Melfest juries scored it relatively decently. There's good musical merit there and I am confused by some fans on Twitter heralding its win as 'nothing for the juries this year, Austria [or other supposed jury favourite] will walk this'. I'd expect KAJ to do just fine with the juries actually - not every uptempo song will get scored badly, because not every uptempo song is light on musical merit.

https://www.reddit.com/r/eurovision/s/wePLJ4u7ou

Yeah, I think Eurovision always had an element of the fun or less serious entries, it's just that social media didn't exist before the mid-00s, so 'going viral' was just how much you were talked about on the news or in public, or if your song charted somewhere. I don't see that anything has really changed in that respect, apart from the outlets and ways that people share their opinions on things.

I remember when I was at school everyone spoke about Marie N on the Monday after the contest, just because of her striptease routine, which looks so basic now but was clearly memorable at the time and would have gone viral on social media if it had been a thing then. Even despite the song being such a basic winner musically.

Some of the winners of the 10s (plus 2008's Believe) really had me wondering if the spark had gone out a bit from Eurovision, and it was about to turn into who could come up with the glossiest and most polished performance. Måns then obviously upped the staging game too. I'm quite relieved that some of the personality has come back to the contest in the last 5/6 years.

I can't add much to what people like Iz, Lex and Rich have already said perfectly. Fun doesn't always = novelty, I'd definitely listen to this song without the comedic performance just because it's such a fun and happy song, with a great melody.

And I also definitely have to agree with Iz that I don't think the juries will hate this either. I do think Revolution would've done better on that front but people seem to routinely forget that upbeat does actually still do well with juries. Cha Cha Cha and Rim Tim Tagi Dim came top 5 with the juries - they're also very aware of who the favourites are, who the public love, and this is also completely in tune, well staged, well performed. It is a professionally done job, just professional with its tongue planted firmly in its cheek.

I mean there has been instances where the more brash and experimental song has won over the more polished textbook Eurovision entry ("Toy", "Zitti E Buoni", "Stefania" to a lesser extent) so it's not like there isn't precedent. Eurovision has always been pretty unserious - for every Euphoria, Space Man, etc. there's always stuff like Verka or Epic Sax Guy that draws people's eyes in a different way and that's not really a problem 🤷‍♂️

now the question lies on whether Sweden will continue this route, fall back to a more polished entry next year, or find a happy medium? I thought Dolly Style was a good happy medium of camp and polished, could this be the new status quo for Swedish entries? we'll have to see how this goes for them obviously, but it's nice to have a change of pace

On 11/03/2025 at 00:54, Tafty said:

To me this feels no different than songs like 'Hard Rock Hallelujah', 'Dancing Lasha Tumbai', 'Party For Everybody', 'Spirit In The Sky', 'Cha Cha Cha' & even last year with 'Rim Tim Tagi Dim' etc... It's just a well executed, pure pop FUN. It is exactly the kind of thing that people tune into Eurovision for. Just utter pop joy.

I agree, it's fun and catchy.

Finally managed to start posting on the new site(was just getting a random circle before in reply box and couldn’t type)

Really happy with result. Also delighted with how well Dolly Style did in the final. The song just put a huge smile on my face. Good to see it doing so well in Sweden, being the second most listened to song behind Kaj

serving KANT 💜

On 13/03/2025 at 07:55, uhsting said:

serving KANT 💜

serving KAR

Måns' is going through an apparently messy and public divorce, the kind where it really doesn't look good for him.

Sweden really dodged a bullet huh.

Oh wow, did not expect that. This is career ending, Sweden really lucked out with not choosing him. I’m confident most people will not believe her and it makes me sad.

Absolutely horrible, I hope Ciara and her kids are safe and doing ok.