Sweden
Kaj – Bara Badu Bastu
Sweden, Eurovision’s perennial overachiever, has finally decided to stop pouting in profile and start smiling. Bara Bada Bastu, performed by Finnish-Swedish comedy-pop trio KAJ, is not just Sweden’s first Swedish-language entry since 1998—it’s also, whisper it, fun. Yes, really.
Let’s not call it novelty. That term’s for countries like Ireland or Malta when they wheel out a man in a cape with a talking puppet. No, when Sweden does a comedy song, it becomes “wry,” “self-aware,” and “a refreshing change of pace.” And to be fair, it is. Bara Bada Bastu is part sauna anthem, part schlager throwback, part tongue-in-cheek group therapy session—and it’s catchy.
This is Eurovision’s cleanest party. KAJ have wrapped up a nation’s obsession with sweating together in wooden huts and turned it into a song you’ll hear once and then find yourself singing while folding laundry. The melody is pure Nord-pop shimmer, the production is as polished as a freshly scrubbed pine bench, and the stage show? Expect towels, tiles, perfectly timed nods, and more than one bare leg kicking with suspicious precision.
Yes, the sixth slot in the semi-final isn’t ideal, and yes, if this were coming from anyone other than Sweden, fans might dismiss it as lightweight fluff. But this is a country that could submit a fax machine making toast and still top the odds. And Bara Bada Bastu isn’t just fluff—it’s immaculate, beautifully timed, and delivered with the kind of gentle theatricality that Eurovision juries will call “charming” and televoters will call “hilarious” after two glasses of Riesling.
It’s not my cup of lingonberry tea, but I’d be foolish to write it off. Sweden know exactly what they’re doing. And if Ireland do, as expected, trip over their own dead dog on the way to the semi-final exit, this could be the moment Sweden slips ahead and claims its eighth victory—this time, via group towel choreography and the gentle art of shared sweating.
6 points (from me, though the scoreboard will say otherwise)