"Bara bada bastu" (transl. "[Let's] just sauna"[2][b][c]) is a song by Swedish-speaking Finnish group KAJ, released as a single on 21 February 2025 through Warner Music Sweden.[5] The song was written by the group along with Anderz Wrethov, Kristofer Strandberg [sv], and Robert Skowronski.[6] It will represent Sweden in the Eurovision Song Contest 2025 after winning Melodifestivalen 2025.[7]

An epadunk[8][9][10] song that pays homage to Finnish sauna culture, its lyrics are in the Vörå dialect of Finland Swedish, with a few words in Finnish.[11][12][9] It will be the first song to be sung in Swedish to represent the country since 1998 ("Kärleken är" performed by Jill Johnson).[13][2] The last time a Eurovision Song Contest entry was performed in Swedish was in 2012 with Finland-Swedish Pernilla Karlsson's "När jag blundar", competing for Finland.[14]

Background and composition

From left to right: Strandberg, Skowronski and Wrethov, standing behind the members of KAJ at Melodifestivalen; all six are songwriters on "Bara bada bastu"

In preparation for the 2025 competition, Melodifestivalen producer and artistic director Karin Gunnarsson contacted KAJ in 2024 to see if they would participate after reading about the comedy group in Dagens Nyheter; at the time, the trio had just released an album, which meant they had to write a new song to compete.[15][16][17] "Bara bada bastu" was written by KAJ members Kevin Holmström [sv], Axel Åhman [sv] and Jakob Norrgård [sv], alongside Anderz Wrethov, Kristofer Strandberg [sv] and Robert Skowronski.[18] Members of the songwriting team worked on the song remotely and all met in-person for the first time at Melodifestivalen.[19] According to competition rules, at least one of the songwriters must be Swedish, so KAJ decided to work with Wrethov since they were fans of "Guld och gröna skogar".[16] Norrgård, who provides lead vocals, said the group wanted to write a song showcasing Finnish culture and that they were inspired by the "weirdness aura" of previous Finnish Eurovision entries, referring to Käärijä and Windows95man.[16] Strandberg explained that the idea behind "Bara bada bastu" was to make fun of how Swedes view Finns and aspects of their culture.[20]

The lyrics of "Bara bada bastu" are in the Vörå dialect, an Ostrobothnian variety of Finland Swedish, and also contains some words in Finnish, including the expletive perkele.[21][1] KAJ sent an "exaggerated" version of the song to Wrethov so that he could adapt it for a Swedish audience.[22] The song mentions Finnish singer Arja Saijonmaa, who reacted positively to being included.[23][24] KAJ expressed a desire for Saijonmaa to be featured in their performance for the Melodifestivalen final, and she ultimately appeared in a pre-recorded segment alongside competition hosts Edvin Törnblom and Keyyo.[8][24]

Skowronski and Strandberg revealed that an early demo of "Bara bada bastu" contained a line about "dropping the soap", which was ultimately cut.[25]

Critical reception

Swedish and Finnish media

Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
Barometern[26]
Dagens Nyheter5/5[27]
KULT Magasin [sv]10/10[28]
Yle5/5[29]

The song has received positive reviews from Swedish publications.[30] Jan Andersson of Göteborgs-Posten and Johan Hammerby of Hallandsposten both complimented the catchiness and comedic nature of "Bara bada bastu", in a break from Sweden's usual "serious" pop numbers it usually sends to Eurovision.[31][32] Ronny Larsson of QX called the song "wonderful Eurovision pop".[33] Reviewing the songs in the Melodifestivalen final, Christian Gustafsson of Barometern said it was not the best song but that it had charm, something he felt the others were missing.[26] "Bara bada bastu" was also praised by Finnish media.[34] Eva Frantz [sv] of Yle rated the song 5/5, praising KAJ's silliness and charm.[29]

Betting odds

Based on betting odds, Sweden was tipped to win the Eurovision Song Contest 2025 before its contestant was chosen.[35][36] Following KAJ's Melodifestivalen win, Sweden remained the bookmakers' favourite to win Eurovision, with their chances increasing by a few percentage points.[36][37][38]

Commercial performance

Following its release, "Bara bada bastu" debuted at number one on the Swedish singles chart.[39][40] In Finland, the song topped the singles chart in its second week.[41][42] Going into the Melodifestivalen final, the song had the most Spotify streams of all the entries, with twice the streams of the next most-streamed song, "Revolution" by Måns Zelmerlöw.[43] However, "Revolution" had the highest audience impressions on Swedish radio whereas "Bara bada bastu" was eighth among the twelve songs in the final, based on airplay data from Radiomonitor.[43]

The day after KAJ's Melodifestivalen win, the song reached the top of Spotify's global Viral 50 chart and was among the top 150 most-streamed songs that day.[35][38] On the same day, the song broke the record for the most-streamed Swedish-language song in a single day on Spotify, with 1,390,344 streams.[d][44]

Eurovision Song Contest

Main article: Sweden in the Eurovision Song Contest 2025

Melodifestivalen 2025

KAJ performing "Bara bada bastu" in Malmö

Sveriges Television (SVT), the Swedish broadcaster for the Eurovision Song Contest, organised Melodifestivalen 2025, a competition to select the country's entrant for the 2025 contest. A total of 30 entries competed, with KAJ performing during the fourth heat in Malmö on 22 February 2025.[45] KAJ came in second place in their heat, qualifying directly for the final, which took place in Stockholm on 8 March.[5] In the final, they came in second place with the international juries and first in televoting, ultimately winning the competition with 164 points.[46] KAJ received 4,305,774 votes, the most votes in the history of the competition, surpassing the previous record of 3,783,148 votes received by Loreen's "Tattoo" from Melodifestivalen 2023.[47][48]

KAJ's performance for the Melodifestivalen final in Stockholm made use of lasers.[49]

For their Melodifestivalen performance during their heat, the members of KAJ are surrounded by real spruce trees and sing the song in front of a woodshed, which is later converted to a sauna.[50] In addition, a real falukorv is grilled on stage,[1][51] and dancers wearing flannel shirts chop wood and later change into towels and dance with sauna whisks.[50] The sets reportedly cost a total of SEK 166,000 to build.[52] For the Melodifestivalen final, lasers and fog machines were added to the performance.[53][49]

At Eurovision

The Eurovision Song Contest 2025 is scheduled to take place at St. Jakobshalle in Basel, Switzerland, with two semi-finals on 13 and 15 May and the final on 17 May. Sweden was drawn to compete in the first half of the first semi-final, with the running order not yet decided.[54] "Bara bada bastu" is the first Swedish-language Eurovision entry for Sweden in 26 years,[e] and KAJ do not plan on changing the song's language for the competition.[4][f] For Eurovision, perkele may need to be replaced or removed from the lyrics, as the European Broadcasting Union forbids profanity in the competing songs.[56] In an interview with Finnish broadcaster Yle, KAJ revealed they have considered the minced variant perhana as an alternative, or another variant in the Vörå dialect.[57] Furthermore, the group plan on incorporating more lights and smoke effects for their Eurovision performance, in addition to having one less dancer in order to abide by competition rules that limit the number of people on stage to six.[57]

Charts

Chart performance for "Bara bada bastu"
Chart (2025) Peak
position
Finland (Suomen virallinen lista)[58] 1
Norway (VG-lista)[59] 39
Sweden (Sverigetopplistan)[60] 1

Notes

  1. ^ The song also contains a few words in Finnish.[1]
  2. ^ In the English-language translation of the song's lyrics published on the Eurovision website, "Bara bada bastu" is translated as "Just sauna".[3]
  3. ^ KAJ have sung an English-language version of the song as "Only Take a Sauna".[4]
  4. ^ The record was previously held by "Din låt" by Victor Leksell and Einár.[44]
  5. ^ At the Eurovision Song Contest 1998, Sweden participated with "Kärleken är" by Jill Johnson.[4]
  6. ^ Carola won Melodifestivalen 2006 with "Evighet" and Lena Philipsson won Melodifestivalen 2004 with "Det gör ont". Both artists went on to compete in Eurovision with their songs translated into English.[55]

References

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  2. ^ a b "Finnish band KAJ wins Sweden's Eurovision selection". Yle News. 9 March 2025. Archived from the original on 9 March 2025. Retrieved 11 March 2025.
  3. ^ "KAJ". European Broadcasting Union. Retrieved 13 March 2025.
  4. ^ a b c "Hör Kaj sjunga "Bara bada bastu" på engelska" (in Swedish). Sveriges Television. 11 March 2025. Retrieved 12 March 2025.
  5. ^ a b "KAJ går till final i Mello: "Helt magiskt"". Svenska Yle. 22 February 2025. Archived from the original on 22 February 2025. Retrieved 27 February 2025.
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  7. ^ "KAJ has won 'Melodifestivalen' and will represent Sweden in Basel". Eurovision Song Contest. 8 March 2025. Archived from the original on 12 March 2025. Retrieved 8 March 2025.
  8. ^ a b Jägerhorn, Jenny; Henriksson, Atte (26 February 2025). "Vi badar bastu och dansar med KAJ: "Aldrig vågat drömma om det här"" (in Swedish). Yle. Archived from the original on 26 February 2025. Retrieved 2 March 2025.
  9. ^ a b ""Vörådialekt deras främsta vapen"". Hufvudstadsbladet (in Swedish). 26 November 2024. Archived from the original on 11 December 2024. Retrieved 12 March 2025.
  10. ^ Svärd, Fanny (9 March 2025). "Melloeliten är kränkt och det är så roligt". Expressen (in Swedish). Archived from the original on 11 March 2025. Retrieved 12 March 2025. Man hade kunnat tro att efter åratal av spexiga nummer och Epa-dunk högt upp på listorna så hade artister vant sig vid tanken på att ett sådant nummer skulle kunna vinna. [One would have thought that after years of light-hearted numbers and epadunk high up on the charts that artists would have gotten used to the idea that such a number could win.]
  11. ^ "Vi badar bastu och dansar med KAJ: "Aldrig vågat drömma om det här"". Svenska Yle (in Swedish). 26 February 2025. Archived from the original on 26 February 2025. Retrieved 12 March 2025.
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  26. ^ a b Gustafsson, Christian; Lindström, Frida (7 March 2025). "BETYG: Så bra är bidragen i mellofinalen". Barometern (in Swedish). Retrieved 13 March 2025.
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  29. ^ a b Frantz, Eva (2 March 2025). "Kommentar: Det blir en hisnande Mellofinal" (in Swedish). Yle. Retrieved 9 March 2025.
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  31. ^ Andersson, Jan (8 March 2025). "Jan Andersson: Yksi kaksi kolme sauna – nu baxar vi bastun till Basel". Göteborgs-Posten (in Swedish). Retrieved 8 March 2025.
  32. ^ Hammerby, Johan (7 March 2025). "Jodå, vi kan visst skicka bastulåten till Eurovision". Hallandsposten (in Swedish). Retrieved 9 March 2025.
  33. ^ Larsson, Ronny (22 February 2025). "Mello 2025: Måns såklart – men ljuvliga KAJ måste till final!". QX (in Swedish). Retrieved 9 March 2025.
  34. ^ Haimi, Rebecca; Lundberg, Rebecca (24 February 2025). "Finländska glädjen över bastudängan: "Fördjupad kärleksrelation"" (in Swedish). Sveriges Television. Retrieved 9 March 2025.
  35. ^ a b Karlsson, Simon (12 March 2025). "KAJ:s framgångståg tuffar vidare – toppar inhemska och globala listor" (in Swedish). Yle. Retrieved 13 March 2025.
  36. ^ a b Jonsson, Ebbe (10 March 2025). "Oddsen: Sverige har bäst chans att vinna Eurovision song contest 2025". Aftonbladet (in Swedish). Retrieved 13 March 2025.
  37. ^ Haimi, Rebecca (11 March 2025). "Sverige favorittippat i Eurovision: "Bra att ni vågar någonting nytt"" (in Swedish). Sveriges Television. Retrieved 13 March 2025.
  38. ^ a b "Sweden's ESC song by Finnish group KAJ hits top of Spotify's global viral chart". Yle. 12 March 2025. Retrieved 13 March 2025.
  39. ^ Nylin, Lars (2 March 2025). "Sverigetopplistan: KAJ bastar hem en etta". Musikindustrin (in Swedish). Retrieved 13 March 2025.
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  49. ^ a b Källén, Matilda (8 March 2025). "Bastubad och grottrevolution – så bra är artisterna i Melodifestivalens final". Dagens Nyheter (in Swedish). Retrieved 13 March 2025.
  50. ^ a b Månsson, Annie (22 February 2025). "Vedträ som mikrofon och bastumössa – här är alla detaljer i KAJ:s bidrag". Aftonbladet (in Swedish). Retrieved 12 March 2025.
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  58. ^ "KAJ: Bara bada bastu" (in Finnish). Musiikkituottajat. Retrieved 8 March 2025.
  59. ^ "Singel 2025 uke 11". VG-lista. Retrieved 15 March 2025.
  60. ^ "Veckolista Singlar, vecka 9, 2025". Sverigetopplistan. Retrieved 1 March 2025.
Allikas: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bara_bada_bastu
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