Sweden: Eurovision's Greatest Powerhouse
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When it comes to Eurovision, nobody does it like Sweden does. But what's behind their domination of the contest... and why don't some fans like it? Let's look at Sweden in Eurovision since 2010 and their national final, Melodifestivalen, and dig a little deeper.
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thank you for having me on gabe !! truly an honor
everyone will agree that you slayed xx
SELMA YOU ARE SUCH A QUEEN WE LUV U ON ESC HUB AND THE GABE COLLAB SLAYS
@@Yarshy.THANK YOU SM 🥹🩷
You are so right! There are even people outside predicting how certain songs could sound just based on the combination of songwriters (and they are not that wrong). I would like to see a video where you go full deep and do more than scratching the surface. I fully agree on the artists with UNIQUE songs. Love Cornelia, but also loved Clara Klingenström (even if she had two of the always-be-there songwriters in 2021)
Queeeeen!!
People seem to forget that Anna Bergendahl had been subjected to an unfair massive smear campaign against her, started by the official head of the Eurovision Fan Club. This is the reason I stopped blogging for the official website. I quit in protest.
Was it the Sweden-hating Estonian guy who was smearing Sweden's candidates?
Finnish@@manhere2019
I remember, it was insane how badly she was treated! In my opinion it was a good song, I still like it to this day. She did not deserve to get so much hate.
I've completely missed this. What was the smearing campaign about? What was she accused of?
Melodifestivalen has gone from actually being a quality national final to a show adapted for kids families. I swear every kids birthday party here in Sweden has at least 20 melfest songs on the playlist. But as u said, I really hope the viewers start taking risks in voting and who we should send. With us sending Cornelia (despite getting 2nd in televote) I think proves that we’re starting (just staaaaarting) to approach raw and unique songs in a new way. Clara Klingenström 2021 is a great example too. Agreeing to everything said here haha, love your videos! best esc channel!
Thank you!!
Jag håller med med dig!
@@eurovision_sweJag håller inte med
Statements is a MASTERPIECE. it showcased Loreen's personality, her vision and her gorgeous soaring voice so much better than any of her other entries. i hope we at least get it as an interval next year...
What everyone seem to forget is that Sweden dominates the international pop song market together with the US and UK in terms of exports. Sweden does pop and especially generic gum pop well and it sticks to that for obvious reasons. Swedish people are competitive. They will always vote for what they believe can make the greatest impact as well as what can have the best chance for a top placement in ESC just like they “only” compete against Norway in skiiing where it’s about beating your neighbor not about who comes first.
Eh, I think you're overstating how competitive melfest voters are and underestimating the impact of the melfest voting system, which inherently promotes safe, non-offensive and non-polarising songs, by giving everyone so many votes that you can effectively downvote whatever you dislike.
Then these safe songs go to Eurovision, and what kind of music do you think a pop-radio DJ would pick, potentially polarising music that makes a chunk of people switch channel or something safe?
I think pretty few Melodifestivalen voters are strategic and think about what "make the greatest impact as well as what can have the best chance for a top placement in ESC ", I think most people vote for the songs and artists they like the most. A lot of Melodifestivalen voters doesn't care about Eurovision at all, Melodifestivalen is a beast of it's own, less people watch Eurovision.
@@idomaghicI think you highly underestimate how competitive Swedes are and how that affects their voting.
Do not forget Sweden Music Producers also have office in Seoul, so Kpop is highly touched by Swedes.
Generic gum pop is far from the only genre Sweden does well though. Metal and hard rock bands like Sabaton, In Flames and Amaranthe plus bands like First Aid Kit that's a folkpop duo have international success. None of them have competed in Melodifestivalen.
The one thing that Robin Bengtsson’s staging gave Eurofans is an inability to travel through an airport terminal without humming that song
dude do u know how much i want sweden to just... send a metalcore band or something. dead by april is a heavy band from sweden that i love, i think if they sent something like that i would love it. i KNOW they have it in them.
I'm really hoping they send Smash Into Pieces next year if you don't know them definitely give them a listen they're an amazing band
I'd love to see them sending Diablo Swing Orchestra, but I think they're more than 6, so it wouldn't be possible
Completely agree. So bored with their bland pop songs. We need some quality rock from them
To me Smash into pieces is generic too! The song six feet under is such a generic american ”rock” song. Its on radio all the time.
I think Sweden should send some joik music instead! With northern lightening,Native Swedish! Like Jon Henrik Fjällgrens song in Swedens got talent 😅
Why is everybody seemingly forgetting the fact that swedish heavy metal band Scarlet is participating this year- They are really solid in their style
I actually love Dance You Off. It's my second of 2018, which is funny because my first is Hungary, which Benjamin wasn't a fan of.
He made a fool of himself critisizing the great Hungarian song
Tbh, I think it would be fun to have a "country breakdown" video about every country still competing at Eurovision. Love this one! ❤️✌🏻
This will be happening over the course of the next few months!! I’ll be making a video on every country (a few per video) so you’ll get 10 mins or so on average of content per country across 12 videos from mid Jan to mid April
@@escgabe Looking forward to it! 😊
Hold me Closer is the best song Sweden has sent in this century.
hard agree,
Facts
I like Heroes but it's certainly one of the best.
Absolutely, yes.
no tf its not 💀
In Sweden, there is:
1) The commercial music scene that dominates the charts all over the world. Making Sweden one of the three undisputed superpowers in music exports.
2) The Eurovision crowd. A handful of returning writers and artists that live solely on the marketing of Melodifestivalen to get any notoriety.
-These two do not mix. Any commercial act that goes to Melodifestivalen do it as an act of desperation.
Heck, if Sweden REALLY wanted to flex. It could just grab whatever American superstar that is in Sweden recording their latest album and put them on the stage representing Sweden.
-Like in 2016. Justin Timberlake with 'Can't stop the feeling' would have been a perfectly legitimate entry for Sweden, as it was written and produced by Swedes.
An idea- if you did a video essay about every country in eurovision that would be so fun😅
I will probably never get over us not sending Loreen to Eurovision with statements. I voted like crazy, my heart broke when she didn’t even qualify for the final. Statements to this day give me full body chills, it’s just something else.
I had the pleasure of seeing Loreen live on her tour and statements was hands down one of the absolute highlights.
It was trash and I actively voted against it.
Have a nice day.
@@Merecir You seem to be one of a few in this. Have a nice day to you too.
@@im.joeyb.Obviously part of a majority, as she lost.
@@Merecir The majority of the Swedes ≠ the majority of Europeans and Eurofans in general.
I had goosebumps during her live performance of Statements in Hamburg! It was amazing. Such a shame that it did not even qualify to the final!
The issue with Statements was the staging. It was utterly confusing and as a viewer you had no idea what was going on. It was just a mess and it was dead in the water due to just being incomprehensible. It was just a dark blob of people on stage. It was a song that needed to be longer to really display the message, so Eurovision was never the right forum for it.
Did it lose out to an awful entry? Holy f***, yes. Those tweens always voted for the most horrible songs as long as the artist was reasonable cute in their eyes.
But Statements would have lost to basically all the other entries in Andra chansen. It just didn't make sense.
I agree! The staging ruined it!
I feel the same. I LOVE Loreen, but I absolutely didn´t get Statements until way later. She did to many things in to short a time. If the message of the staging had been clearer, I think she would have gotten a better response. It felt "too artistic" and weird to the general public. And to me too, to be fair. I love the song though.
This was an interesting video. I think Käärijä shook up the system and showed you can do well with an alt genre song. UMK is also rising in quality and popularity which could overshadow Melodifestivalen. I think the jurys need more diversity so that countries would have more motivation to send interesting and diverse songs.
I honestly feel very disappointed in 2023 eurovision for 2 reasons...
1. I hated Loreens song, did not like it at all, yes I am from Swden.
2. I absolutely hated Käärijäs song aswell, so to see 2 songs I despise being the "Big Two" was not fun for me, sadly...
I want to see nations like Iceland to win! All nations should win at least once!
Agreed, the solution lies with diversifying the juries. There needs to be experts and professionals from more music genres, so the jury on the whole is better equipped to give every entry a fairer judgement with less of a pop bias, and thus less incentive for Sweden to be sending safe generic pop song after safe generic pop song
lovely analysis, thank you gabe! i really, really wish they would diversify the juries. at this point it's so predictable what they will vote for that it's just... a bit boring watching their voting segment. either make the juries more than just people who like marketable pop, or decrease their voting strength (to be honest, preferably both!)
Juries should never have less than 50% power in Eurovision. we have seen what the public rewards with the other 50% and most of the time it is not it
It's easy for you to judge us when you're not from here. Sweden's involvement with pop music has dominated the world for decades now, ever heard of britney spears and backstreet boys? Yeah, their careers were launched thanks to swedes, katy perry, pink, taylor swift, the weekend are just a few examples of artists who use swedish songwriters. Pop is ingrained in the swedish soul. I often hear commenters wishing we would send songs that are more ethnic to us not realising that we actually are. This is the music we've grown up with, and the concept seems to work what with our seven wins...
Ja, exakt! Äntligen någon som faktiskt har förstått hur det ligger till med det.
Drygt att en del inte tycks fatta...
I do very much agree with you, but it's not the only music we have, we used to have more rock/metal music represented in Mello before and we are the third in the world to export rock/metal music. I don't see why we can't send a rock song to Eurovision every now and then, it's arguable just as much swedish culture as pop. We had both rock/metal and pop/eurodance success in our music industry so it does not really have to be only pop.
YEs you tell everyone just how much of an impact swedish songwriters have had on the word. Max Martin alone is behind most of the iconic and popular music in america.
ABBA 🫶🏻
I would love to see a video about Italy since their return in 2011 and how they’ve dominated and carried the Big 5.
It was inevitable, meanwhile other countrys, had "cheap national finals" or internal selections, italy has a Almost TRADITIONAl contest called San Remo, the most important show for Italian music, only the best artist got through.
Fun fact: Eurovision was created taken inspire in San Remo
I recently discovered your channel and I've been loving all the content!! :)) greetings from Portugal
I was at the semifinal in Skellefteå when Loreen sang Statements and it blew me away. It was amazing and she was amazing. I was in shock when it didn't go straight to the final and when she was eliminated in andra chansen I was livid.
Would love it if you did this kind of commentary for countries who are not as popular in the contest and are quite unlucky like Macedonia or Latvia. Your videos are amazing keep it up
Just found ur channel today. I liked this video so much I watched all ur videos in one go. Congrats u got a new sub, keep it up
Thank you!!
We need to stop pretending Sweden absolutely flopped in the 2017 and 2019. they were both in the top 10
Both were top 5 in total and top 10 in the televote. Who pretends Sweden flopped in 2017 and 2019..?
The "flops" were in 2018, 7 in total, so in the top 10, but 23rd in the televote, and 2021, 11th in the televote and 17th in the juries, 14th in total. I wouldn't say that 7th and 14th place are even flops really, did better than a lot of countries.
i love everything about this video, you're so right in every aspect! personally, i can't wait for us to send a song in swedish.
No but you spilled bestie, I love this type of video omg
Bro. Gabe. Thank you so much for making these videos with all this commentary and info. I'm actually going to be going to Eurovision this year, for my very first time ever. If you and the ESCUnited team are going in person, I really hope I can connect with you guys! I could talk about Eurovision for 24 hours straight.
great video! good analysis too of the max verstappen effect, and like another comemnter mentioned, one could reasonably bring france jesc into this (but maybe you'll do that for another video?)
on a side note, who's your bet on winning melfest 2024?
10:43 The thing is that 'the people' actually prefered the song that was written by Thomas G:son and Jimmy Jansson over Cornelia's, and she had to be saved by the juries to win.
I kinda have to hold my hands up and admit to that Matt Verstappen thing with JESC this year. I really liked France's entry, and yeah, they totally deserved the win, but to have the same country win 3 times in 4 years, and win the jury vote all 4 of those same years - it's getting boring. So no matter how much I enjoyed it, I just wouldn't vote for France. I hope we get a different country win next year.
Honestly I think it’s possible to have diverse songwriters. I can admit it’s gets a bit annoying sometimes when it’s always the same people writing the songs. Now, diverse genres is another thing. There is not a guranteee that diverse genres will bring much to Melfest, except for maybe eurofans watching it and wanting different songs every year. Majority of the swedish people that are watching Melfest are usually the younger ones and teens which SVT wants to appeal to as much as possible. In most cases that ends up being pop music. I know many eurofans will now get so suprised over this fact but Eurovision isn’t that important to the majority of the Swedes😂 Melfest is much bigger here than Eurovision. It’s a part of the swedish tradition where families gather together to watch it and vote for the best song. It’s not all about Eurovision as you think.
Eurofans are just jealous and wanna see Sweden stop sending their strong music genre in the hopes to see lower results honestly
Loved this video!
Glad to add you to my list of European men who tell me about Eurovision Twitter in all its glory!
Melodifestivalen gets sent thousands and thousands of songs from all over Sweden.. Yet they keep picking the songs from the "known" songwriters in favor of other songs to showcase.. It is frustrating.. And a lot of the ones that do not do well end up being sold to other countries in Europe. Some years.. 40% of all the songs performed are actually songs made in Sweden.
Where's the lack of diversity in Melodifestivalen? I get the songwriters part, but the songs? We got rock, pop, r&b, folk, ethnic, schlager, edm, disco... If you wanna say they all sound generic, go ahead, but don't say it's not musically diverse because that's a lie.
And by next year, localized alt and afrobeat are expected to represent in melfest, so to think that melfest are "not diverse enough"??, they need to think again???
What was really terrifying for me was in melfest 2022 and Anders Bagge did REALLY well with the televote and threatened to kick Cornelia to 2nd place. Like Bigger Than The Universe isn’t *BAD* but it fits right into the “generic pop ballad sung by a man” category that Sweden oh so loves. I’m not sure how adventurous the Swedish public are willing to be but I hope melfest keeps giving us results after the last 2 absolutely amazing melfest winners
I think Hold Me Closer is much more boring and unoriginal than his song
I don't think people cared that much for "Bigger Than The Universe" actually. They voted for _Anders Bagge_ I think he could've sang basically anything and people would've voted for him. He's such a loved TV-personality in Sweden, and on top of that everyone knowing about him having huge anxiety and stage fright and overcoming that, people wanted to support him. I like him too, but I really didn't want him to win.
So I agree, I was terrified that Cornelia would'nt win, because I _love_ "Hold Me Closer" so much. I have never rooted so much for a song in Melodifestivalen, and never cried so much with happiness when she won.
@@Asa...SSame! I can’t remember the last time I wished for a song to win so bad as I did with Cornelia’s. I remember when I heard it the first time in the first show and I was instantly like, this is it. This is the one. There’s no one that’s gonna be able to beat this masterpiece
Gabe becoming my most loved esc chanel?!? YES!, no cause the amount of facts and relatable stuff in this video while still having research under it was like top notch content, btw statements is still till today my fav staging of loreen in all eurovision and the way it didnt even got to melodifestivalen final like i try to dont think about it cause my heart will never be able to believe it without breaking 💔
P.D.: ngl i never rlly followed melodifestivalen much cause of how generic i find it, kind of bored of swedish pop all over the place who is always the same, only liked hold me closer and tattoo and MAYBE undo (i also quite love it more when looking back at it lol) of all their entries who have done well in the last 15 years just cause of these not being just “generic” quality pop songs, i just pray for a song in swedish or something out of the box this next year now that theyre hosting and can try something different that will automatically be qualified, that ofc would still be quality cause we know sweden can do it… i believe in them! ❤🇸🇪
Statements and Selma in a video - double win
honestly you need to make one of these for every country as advice for the diff delegations, some of them could use it 👀
Max verstappen refrence
Love it
To be fair, Lasse Holm dominated the 80’s. Ingelina Pling Forsman the 90’s and 2000’s. Fredrik Kempe 2000’s and early 2010’s and Linnea Deb 2010's today. Thomas G Son late 1990’s-today.
Still not over the robbery of 'Statements'
5:49, okay, I did not expect that. Almost choked on my sip of water. Thanks Gabe XD
100% justice for Adrenalina! That was my favourite song for that year and I still play it all the time in my car and vibe to it! ❤
Actually yes, it was the best San Marino entry like all time
Hi! :)
I think what also is a good point here is that if we talk about people getting sick of Sweden succeeding are mainly the hardcore esc fans, us who also follow every NF and a lot of times the fan favorites don't win in favor of the 'generic man pop song' which fuels more gasoline in the flame and makes us dislike the entry they send even more. The professional juries (probably) arent for the most part hardcore esc fans so they most likely do not follow the NFs same as the casual esc fans who just watch the final and (at most) the semi finals.
I think the line up this year is pretty diverse and I hope that the songs will mirror that.
Also agree 10000000% about Statements being the true masterpiece of her 4 attempts, tho all of them are masterpieces for me Statements is truly as you said her most sincere and authentic entry! Getting chills even when I just think of it.
Great video :)
Thank you for this video! It must be said though, isn't Sweden second in terms of overall public votes in the past decade? Yes, they're favored by the juries, but it's not like they have no support from the public
Also Robin Bengtsson's staging was so good in melfest but so poor at Eurovision
Italy had been ahead of Sweden, but Loreen’s win means Sweden is ahead of Italy again.
Love how Sweden abandoned Italy and broke the tradition of not sending a woman to the contest
Hopefully queen Annalisa will brake the tradition this year
@@ReddoLeoMeme2401Angelina Mango broke it 🥰
So thankful for this video because it introduced me to Statements. Easily the best song she's ever done
For me, Melodifestivalen is not something i vote on to win eurovision, or make international fans happy. I watch and vote based on nostalgia. I truly dont care about winning eurovision, if it happens, sure. When i hear a song that brings back emotions from watching it growing up, i obviously like it. Outside of melodifestivalen, i would pick statements over many other songs but in the competition, id pick another cheesy eric saade song over it any day of the week. Swedish people love melodifestivalen and eurovision but i dont think people here actually care about winning, we watch the silly entertainers sing their little songs and we vote. There is not much more to it.
John Lundvik's song isn't a generic popsong? It's more of a popgospel song.
Statements by Loreen is BY FAR the BEST Eurovision song EVER. I don't care that it wasn't actually in the contest, it is STILL the BEST Eurovision song EVER. Nothing will change my mind.
And ADRENALINA is BY FAR the BEST San Marinese entry EVER. THANK YOU for this video! :D
I am so with you on Statements
I'm worry that Spain will fall in the same strategy of Sweden sending generic latin or pop songs, specially after what happened this year with Blanca Paloma and her 'nana'. We have an amazing artist for this edition of benidorm Fest called María Peláe, she sings modern flamenco, she is the favorite one (even if the songs are not out yet), and everyone is saying that we will not risk again with another Flamenco song.
If anyone want’s to watch a movie about Melodifestivalen, then watch Livet är en schlager (Life is a schlager) The big song Aldrig ska jag sluta älska dig (I shall never stop loving you) topped the swedish music charts and the movie became a hit. By the way, the title is just a translation, no english version exist, neither the movie or song. There are subtitles mind you.
I really need a chart to see the trend of certain songwriters monopolizing MelFest
my fav finnish eurovision youtuber!!1!
Main reason the fantastic Statements didn't win is because we let kids vote in Melodifestivalen. I mean, we have a agre group from 4-9 representing a voting result. Parents said kids got scared of her act. I was so angry that she didn't win that year. I love artistic songs written by the artists temselves and I love when you feel the passion, message and soul in the music. Jakobs had this 2022 and Loreen always put´s her heart and soul i everything she does. An true artist that can make a kind of generic song like tattoo into a goosebumps-giver with her artistic magic and her soul put into it. Cornelia and Loreen are 2 magical artists and such a lovely break from the soulless and mass produced crap we sent like 3 years in a row. Many second places in Mello would have had a better chance those years. And Anna Bergendahl was robbed in 2010. Her song was really good and she was just unlucky. One of my favourites until this day actually and she didn't deserve that at all. Norway are just jealous as always of their big brother :)
gabe fans r called gabe itches
Between 2004-2019 SVT tried different methods to get more interesting choices to Mello. First there we’re jokers, Björkman would ask 4 artists every year if they would like to take part in Melodifestivalen, 1 per quarterfinal. This ended in 2011 because he was critisized for his favoritsm. In 2012-2021 there we’re svensktoppen nästa where artists without contract could win a spot as starting position 2 in quarterfinal 3. But due to poor results in the voting it was scrapped in 2021.
My theory is that the reason why so many mediocre men get televoted for is because half of Mellos audience are 10 year old girls with tween crushes and 45 year old moms who think these young men are hot
That's why the age group system was implemented in 2019 so the kids who votes 100 times would get less power.
The 3-9 year olds gave both Cornelia and Loreen 1 p and Theoz 12p in both 2021 and 2022.
Norwegians love to gloat when Swedes fail, so do Finns, so no surprise their national broadcaster posted that clip of Anna in 2010
Finland were successful in scoring better than Sweden in 2021, but Norway was very close in 2019. We’re still yet to do it.
The only non-winning Swedish Eurovision entry I actively remember is The Worrying Kind by The Ark from 2007. And I remember that purely because I saw the semi-final and grand final rehearsals in Helsinki and was thus extra-exposed to it (I remember most of 2007 entries without prompting for the same reason, so Sweden isn't even special in this case). Swedish entries just tend to be a boring mass of generalness. Could they be good songs? Maybe, but as they don't interest me it doesn't really matter.
Granted, I'm also Finnish and live by the old adage: "Winning isn't important, as long as Sweden loses."
How are people still surprised that Sweden sends an accessible English pop song every year? I mean, international juries and voters favouring a song in a language they can understand and that doesn't really feel unfamiliar to any of them? What a shock!
Historically, even if a song won with Swedish lyrics they have then often been translated for Eurovision.
Remember that a lot of countries, often neighbouring ones, kinda "team up" and vote for eachother and the nordic countries being not that heavy populated the peoples vote often goes to bigger populated countries.
Yep that’s how it usually goes, the other Nordic countries vote heavily for Sweden, but not so much in return.
Why is that, you think?
The artists revealed are far more intersting this year compared to the last. Smash into pieces, Danny Saucedo, Dotter Liamooo. Great names within Mello.
Yes, Sweden's performances are sometimes impressively dull and repetative. Yes, Melodifestivalen has declined in quality in a lot of senses the last couple of years (both regarding songs and song writers, the hosts, the jokes, everything really). As this has been happening, my focus has moved more and more towards Eurovision instead because that has just been more fun. And I'll admit that it stings in my Swedish heart when people speak ill of our performance in the contest, even though I totally get where it comes from.
Personally, I think that there are qualities in the songs we've sent these past 15 years (at least some of them), and as winners of Melodifestivalen, those songs have become somewhat classics here. ((Thoooough I stand by the fact that both Robins (the first one wrote the song for the second one I believe...) are super mega generic and their songs were boring.)) I wish that the songs Sweden's sent would get recognition because they deserve it, and not for some generic-pop-bias.. Maybe that would lead to less success, but honest success is worth so much more than automatic success.
Something I, and probably a lot of other ESC-fans too, have noticed in the last few years is that more unique entries have had success in Eurovision. One of the most clear examples of this might be Serbia in 2022 where Konstrakta sang In Corpore Sano and washed her hands on the worlds largets music stage. This in an interesting trend, and honestly, I can imagine that it is a consequense of the success that generic songs, like Sweden's, have had recently. Like a kickback sort of situation.
They have just announced the contestants for Melodifestivalen 2024, and I am spontaneously skeptical looking at the list, but I hope that we can have some more original and special songs that will bring back a genuine interest in Sweden's ESC-entries going forward. Might be too much to hope for, but a girl can dream.
Sorry for an essay lol :P
Sidenote: I personally don't really get the hype around Loreen, I didn't in 2012, I didn't in 2017 and I barely got it now in 2023 either. She is fine, and her songs are bops, but some Eurovision fans seem to praise her, and I do not get that. Don't get me wrong tho, as a Swede, I am very happy for the success she has brought for Sweden in ESC.
(( Other sidenote because I am a nerd: Eric Saade competed in Düsseldorf, not in Baku ;) ))
Well, since Sweden can’t vote for themselves it is hardly their fault they end up in the top. It is the rest of Europe that voted.
Your editing just gets better and better with every video. Wiwibloggs pack up your bags.
"Statements" is brutal, maybe if she won with that would have opened the door to a new reality in Sweden and they were too afraid to open that pandora box Sweden had a regular round in the 00s after Carola's entry. It still hurts Anna had to live the hell she lived due to her NQ, she didn't deserve that, I loved that song. Only Loreen could rise the televote points above the 200. Cornelia was my winner in 2022, and my top1 at the end of the year.
I think one reason that statements didn’t get qualify is because so many kids are voting. And that’s also why the boring songs almost always win.
Love the JESC 2023 meme slotted in nicely lol
Moldova 2015, robbed, absolute banger.
i couldnt agree more with "statements".
Yeah Statments deserved much more😢
I was remember being so mad and angry. I feelt the passion and emotion put into that song. And wow I am glad Loreen got here comeback this year 😄
You: let's talk about Statements
Me: oh god no. I'm not ready to revisit the trauma.
Imo, Loreen has brought three songs to Melfest that had the potential to win ESC, the best of the three didn't even make it to the Melfest final.
I'm gonna have to be the counter-opinion right there because 2023 was one of my favorite Melodifestivalen editions. "Tattoo", "Air,", "Six Feet Under" & "Royals" are 4 of my favorite entries ever. I didn't really like Cornelia's "Hold Me Closer" and unfortunately I didn't feel any connection to it as you seem to. Thirdly, Statements is not my favorite Loreen song, I enjoy Tattoo and My Heart Is Refusing Me way more (yeah, Euphoria is my least favorite). All this rant to say, everybody's valid to like, dislike and think whatever they want, but I don't think it's fair to say that it's a true fact that Melodifestivalen has dropped in quality just because it's not bringing what you want or expect. Would I appreciate more diversity in the songwriters ? Yes, 100%, but if the current situation is what brings the best songs to the competition then it isn't that big of a problem to me. To clarify, during the whole classic-male-pop-song era, I did think there were better songs Sweden could send and I'm not a huge fan of most of them either, which means the issue isn't which songs are brought in Melodifestivalen.
Last piece I'll add, my favorite song in ESC 2023 was "Eaea" by Blanca Paloma for Spain, I do appreciate ethnic or cultural songs as well as more global pop ones.
I didn't write this comment to upset people or say you are all wrong but I feel like sometimes people satisfy themselves by interacting with similar opinions when in fact other people think otherwise and it's totally fine ;)
From someone who was born 1990 and grew up with 90s mello and then the early 2000 mello and the late mello, some of the best melodifestivalen songs that goes on repeat is from the 90s and its classics here in sweden, and also the ones who won in the 80s and ofcourse ABBA, but Carola: fångad av en stormvind, Cecilia Vennersten: Det Vackraste, Charlotte Perelli (then Nilsson): Tusen och en natt, Roger Pontare: Vindarna viskar mitt namn, they're all songs that still people knows and hears on the radio and when you go out to dance. The early 2000 wasn't the greatest of times for Sweden because it was not that great music, but at the time maybe they where... and as you said lateron there where more and more popsongs with young boys singing... If you ask me I think the thing was that more and more young people started having their own phones and the app melodifetivalen where you can vote as well came out so alot of younger kids/teens could start voting alot more since they dont need to ask their parents if they could use their home phone to call a number that will charge you 3-9sek per vote and me who grew up with a land line at home could maybe call ones on my favorite artist but that was it. Kids now adays, alot of them, vote for the pretty young boy you have a secret chrush on or the most popular band in sweden at the time, for exemple if "Hooja" who are sooo popular today in young generations would be at mello I think they might win or come second because all kids, young teen would vote for them.
When you had a landline more adults votet I would say and then the result showed the more mature and more musicaly pleasent songs that people acctualy wanted to hear.
So in my understanding alot of votes comes from kids and young teens now adays and thats why you see alot more plane pop songs with a pretty boy singing because theyre popular in that kind of group. Now we have the votes seperated into categories for age and you can clearly see there who is popluar in different ages.. Recomend you to watch the voting in every "delfinal" and see the different ages and whats more their taste and you will see a lot off different result, its not always the ones with the popular fanbase getting all the 12s because the fanbase my be 7-11 years old and the mid 30s listen to other kind of music and the mid 60s have another favorite so I would not blame the songwriters that much since it's become more accasible to vote for all generations.
Honestly the only good thing about Melodifestivalen 2017 was that Amar Pelos Dois and Euphoria are my 2 favourite Eurovision songs, so I think I would’ve had a stroke trying to choose between APD and Statements that year.
(I thought before typing this that it would somehow make Statements’ flop less depressing in hindsight. It hasn’t.)
Yeah I agree that we do send "safe" acts to ESC. Cornelia was the one year that I really felt proud. Melodifestivalen is a carneval in Sweden and that have somehow made it about children and their families. I like ESC more, am one of the few swedes that does i think. But I don't want to change pop quality for just outside of the box either. I really did not like Käärija even though its a charming performance. There have been rock acts, different pop and ballads that in my opinion could have been worth a ticket to ESC but somehow the swedish voting system does not want what I want. There has to be quality but quality can be found in "independent" acts in Melodifestivalen as well. Would love to send a song in swedish again, but I guess the low chance of that being a success make it almost impossible.
I think one main reason why "Statements" didn't qualify to the final of Melodifestivalen 2017 is because some swedes see her as "way too artistic" and "a perfectionist" i'm a swede myself and i can't help but to agree, i love Loreen hell we all do including alot of people from Sweden but when she gets way too artistic and a perfectionist it rubs us swedes the wrong way
As a Swede.. I don't mind the hate.. Just be honest about it. (Sweden has won a lot...and it gets boring) I can accept that.. But also.. The rest of Europe needs to get their SHIT together and ramp up their quality game.. Stop thrash talking the artist just for being the Swedish act, they are innocent.. and stop making up bull shit conspiracy stories about ABBA 50 years etc.etc...
Dom är avundsjuka. Det är därför
As a Swede, I am so fucking pissed about Statements. It's seriously the best goddamn song to ever EVER participate in mello. I really can't stand us, I just can't. I, along with you, hate the system and how short-sighted the voters are in Sweden. Words can't describe how strongly I feel this
anton hagman forever 💗💗💗💗💗💗
Gabe’s Angels of course
As a swede, I love the Max Verstappen reference because it is true. People learn to hate winners, it is only natural. The way people celebrated Sainz winning race was unreal.
And you know what, fine by me. Villains are a lot more interesting that heroes anyway!
With Sweden hosting this year… I hope they use the automatic qualification as an opportunity to send something completely different send a Swedish language rock song mabye Smash Into Pieces
Jimmy Jokers songs aren't the same at all? Compare Six Feet Under to Run To The Hills. 🌸
I got a pile on on another channel for saying that I thought that there was a better song than Tattoo and was told that I was in a cult...
well it started 1973 with ABBA and Ring ring in Melodifestivalen
Hi, you paused comments on your video about Israel and Azerbaijan. I know that it's OT here, but I felt that I just have to express how grateful I am for that excellent video. I'm ESC-fan from Sweden but I've decided not to watch the finals this year. It's important to remember that each song represents its country. And if a country is involved in committing war crimes and crimes against humanity, I just can't look the other way. Many say that the ESC isn't political, and that is mostly true. But sometimes, it's inescapable to realize the connection. Again, thank you so much for that great and very important video.
Thank you!
I actually love Anna Bergendahl's song. I was really surprised when it didn't go through. I mean, go back and just listen to the song - It's great!
Eric Saade sang in Düsseldorf! Not Baku.
Correct! I misspoke. Apologies 🙏
@@escgabe Great reaction video! 🤩😍.
The biggest insight to whom are sent forward in Sweden is who does the voting in melodifestivalen. Which is mainly middleaged mothers and teenage girls and children. So thats why cute boys are voted on mostly.
Also look at the songs that's popular in america, many of those songs are written by swedes, generic pop is our cultural heritage, you can find it boring, but that's only because it's gotten common and popular.
what I wish swedes would do is 1. stop thinking melodifestivalen and eurovision is corny and unwatchable, like most of our male population do. and 2. change the format into unknown unfamous people sending in their songs or sending themselves as artists, and we may have some extremly good songs presented and alot more diversity.
When we send what I think is a good song sung in Swedish we tend to not do that well. I guess I'm torn between wanting to send things I like but will do badly or something generic that will get a good placement.
Sweden has literally never voluntarily sent something in Swedish
I think we have. Take our first entry for example, 1958 there was no rule about languages and we sung in Swedish. As far as I can tell nobody forced us to do that. @@smultronpojke4010
Great analysis. I love Sweden's 2010 entry. It was a nice song, better than some of the ones they sent afterwards.
5:40 I can't blame you for this, 2015 just has so many great songs and Moldova was one of them in my opinion. Should have qualified.
I never understood the massive hype Anna Bergendahl had here in Sweden. I was not surprised about the result. She is a very.. unique.. singer and I feel like either you love it or you hate it. So yeah, I am not surprised. I was surprised she won Melodifestivalen. I agree with Selma, growing up it was SOOO good. There was a huge varity of artists and songs and now, even in melfest, they're all pretty much the same. It's not that fun to watch anymore, but it's a tradition haha..
I will forever be mad at Sweden for throwing Statements by Loreen under the bus. That song would have completed for the gold that year honestly
If you ask me it's not the people of Sweden, but they juries at the final(and also a bit of the song selections).
We all know that the national juires in Eurovision heavly favors pop songs and a portion of the national juris is a part of the final in Melfest and they get 50%.
This makes it hard for other songs to have a good chance since there's always a few pop songs in the final which will get points from the juries.
In 2017 there was an uproar that Robin win as he wasn't the favorite in the publics eye at all. I would say there have been a few times where a pop song won just due to the juries.
A few examples other examples:
2013:
Robin who won only got to the final through the second chance stage and only won becouse of the juries. On second place there was Yohio with Heartbreak Hotel which was the publics favorite and was a rock song.
2015:
Although Måns song wasn't bad, but the one who came second place was Jon Henrik Fjällgren with Jag är fri which is a jojk.
I don't want to remove the juries but a whole new way on how juries should work must be done.
Like have speific criterias for a some one to be a jury like they must work in the music industry one way or another, the whole jury group should have ages from 20 to 70 where there won't be an age group wiht multiple juries in, juris should have experiance in multiple genres, and there should be criterias juris must look at and judge by.
Don't think you can use Heroes as a example knowing it won both juries and public that year
Statesments was the best song of Loreen, ever. The Swedish public acted and shoosed the worst that year. I just made your point. Swedes dont want to deal with emotional controversy. Loreen brought it, and Sweden would not care for it. It is just sad.
Statements lost out to the best song of Melodifestivalen 2017 I'll have you know 😍
I actually liked the old points system with multiples of 11, that meant only 7 finalists got points which really increased tension.
And that resulted in the scandal of 2005 where Nanne Grönvall got the biggest popular vote in the history of the contest, but still lost because she only got a 11x12 and because the regional juries gave her zero points to promote their local boy. (who ended up dead last in Eurovision)
Not really, because Martin Stenmarck was a 12 från Örebro för att han bodde där en tid.@@Merecir