Take yourself back to November 2024, and the day we found out the artists & song titles of the 30 entries into the upcoming Melodifestivalen. Amongst them are not just Melfest returnees, but thereâs also former winners too – one, of which, had even won Eurovision. In between all of these names was a humour group from Finland called KAJ, with a song titled âBara Bada Bastuâ.
Fast forward to April and weâre currently, according to the odds, looking at yet another trip to Sweden for Eurovision 2026 – all thanks to that Finnish group and their song about a sauna.
But how exactly did KAJ go from outsider to front runner? And, if they are to win Eurovision – or even simply do well – how could this change things for Sweden going forward? Letâs find outâŠ
Defying The Odds: Melodifestivalen 2025
KAJ were not really on anyoneâs radar prior to Heat 4 of Melodifestivalen 2025. We had the former Eurovision winner eyeing up another trophy in Basel, last years acts returning for yet another chance, previous contestants from other years coming back to show Sweden their musical progression and debut entries from artists already known to Swedish audiences thanks to previous appearances on shows like Idol. Add this to a plethora of the usual Melodifestivalen writer names weâve come to know over the years (Jimmy Jansson, Jimmy âJokerâ Thörnfeldt, Anderz Wrethov, Thomas G:Son, Joy Deb and Linnea Deb) behind multiple different entries, and you start to wonder – where do KAJ fit in? Not only this, but Sweden have cemented themselves as the country that always sends a slick pop song in English with incredible staging – the idea that theyâd ever send something like âBara Bada Bastuâ (despite having a writing credit from Anderz Wrethov) was almost out of the question. The bookies thought so too – KAJ found themselves last in the odds for Melodifestivalen glory.
Fast forward to the week of Melodifestivalen Heat 4 in February, and very few people were talking about KAJ. All eyes were on that former Eurovision winner – MĂ„ns Zelmerlöw. He was back, a decade after âHeroesâ claimed victory in Vienna, with âRevolutionâ – a song he claimed was better than his previous efforts. Top of the odds to win even after three individual heats, MĂ„ns put all he could into âRevolutionâ, but despite this his song and rehearsal snippet left many feeling underwhelmed. Was the man – touted for another Eurovision glory prior to the show – potentially less of a clear cut winner than first thought? After all, Greczula – who sailed through a week prior – was building momentum with his entry âBelieve Meâ, as was returnee Klara Hammarström with âOn and On and Onâ. Queue the trio of Finns and a song in their VörĂ„ dialect about, well, letting go of stress by heading to the sauna and suddenly, from nowhere, the boys who were seen as non-qualifiers and potential last placers overall had done something very rarely seen in Melodifestivalen – theyâd created a crack in the foundations of formulaic pop that Sweden had built their modern Eurovision reputation on.
Heat 4 approached, and despite criticisms, it came as a shock to no one that âRevolutionâ sailed through the heat in first place. It was then game on for the second direct finalist position – and this is where we began to see a ripple in the waves. KAJ won the second round of voting with 2.1 million votes across both rounds – half a million more votes than Ella Tiritielloâs âBara Du Ăr DĂ€râ, which ended up in Finalkval. Songs in Swedish getting to the Melfest final had become pretty scarce in recent times, let alone one as âsilly yet seriousâ as âBara Bada Bastuâ – but it was clear from an almost immediate online and public frenzy for the song that this was not a Melodifestivalen like the others.
6 days after their Heat 4 appearance, âBara Bada Bastuâ hit the #1 spot on the Sverigetopplistan – with âRevolutionâ at #3. The video of their performance on YouTube quickly attracted millions of viewers, and KAJ went from the very bottom of the odds to the top 3 – slowly closing the gap between themselves and MĂ„ns to make Melfest 2025 a two-horse race leading up to the final. Adding lasers to their stage show and closing out the 12 competing entries in the final, the only thing KAJ supporters had to worry about was the jury vote, who typically donât lean towards an entry like âBara Bada Bastuâ. Melodifestivalen is decided by a 50/50 split of international juries and Swedish televoters – and surely, as many thought, âRevolutionâ was going to sweep up the juryâs highest points? Well as it turns outâŠit didnât. In fact the juries had other ideas – KAJ came just 2 points behind MĂ„ns (74 points vs 76 points) with the most amount of 12s awarded from the international juries (4). Things were looking good for KAJ going into the televote – the song had taken Sweden and the international audience by storm, and it was clear they were heading for a televote win – which they achieved. With 90 points from the public they went into the lead – MĂ„ns failing to catch them as his score rolled in, giving KAJ the title of Melodifestivalen 2025 champions with a total of 164 points. Not only this, but it was later revealed that âBara Bada Bastuâ received the most votes in history for a song in Melodifestivalen with 4,305,774 votes from the public – overtaking Loreen with âTattooâ in 2023.
The week after the final, KAJ hit #1 on Spotifyâs Global Viral Songs chart, entered the Viral charts of over 10 different countries and are currently enjoying their 10th week at the top of the Sverigetopplistan. They also have the highest-streamed song of Eurovision 2025, just ahead of Italyâs âVolevo essere un duroâ.
Why Is KAJâs Win So Significant For The Swedish Language In Eurovision & Melodifestivalen?
Melodifestivalen
Apart from the fact KAJ winning Melodifestivalen seemed off the cards back in November, their stunning path to glory isnât just impressive – itâs historical, and a real turning point for Sweden in Eurovision. First of all we have to look at the language – whilst Finland sent âNĂ€r Jag Blundarâ in 2012, Sweden last competed with a song in their native language in 1998 with Jill Johnsonâs âKĂ€rleken Ă€râ, and haven’t chosen a song in Swedish to win Melodifestivalen in 19 years – although Carola translated âEvighetâ to âInvincibleâ for Eurovision 2006. If thatâs not enough of a reason to realise the importance of KAJâs win, then we have to look all the way back to 1963 to find the last time the public voluntarily selected a song in their native language (âEn gĂ„ng i Stockholmâ) – 62 years ago.
Melodifestivalen isn’t missing entries in Swedish, but looking at the last 5 years those who do sing in Swedish have often found themselves out of the contest before the final:
- 2020: 10 songs in Swedish; 1 made the final (âVem e som ossâ), placing 5th.
- 2021: 9 songs in Swedish; 3 made the final (âDandi Dansaâ, âBehöver inte dig idagâ & âTĂ€nker inte alls gĂ„ hemâ), placing 7th, 5th & 9th.
- 2022: 8 songs in Swedish; 3 made the final (âSom du villâ, âĂnglavaktâ & âIn I Dimmanâ), placing 7th, 8th & 3rd.
- 2023: 10 songs in Swedish; 2 made the final (âMer Av Digâ & âSlĂ€pp alla sorgerâ) placing 6th & 11th
- 2024: 10 songs in Swedish; 1 made the final (âQue Seraâ) placing 2nd.
- 2025: 9 songs in Swedish: 1 made the final (âBara Bada Bastuâ) placing 1st.
5 of these songs -âVem e som ossâ, âBehöver inte dig idagâ â Som du villâ, âMer av digâ and âSlĂ€pp alla sorgerâ – only made the final through Andra Chansen.
In 2023, Sveriges Radio looked into why Sweden had only sent songs in English for the last 25 years – and there were some interesting opinions. Aftonbladet journalist Tobbe Ek expressed interest in Sweden venturing into sending songs in their native language again, saying:
I think it’s because Swedes realised at that point that to be able to win we need to attract a larger audience, and English was the language to do that in. Nowadays it is much more common that you can win and you can get a hit in other languages than English and I just dont think the Swedish audience have understood that – we still feel – a little bit like the Finns also – that our langauge is too small and too eccentric for the rest of Europe to actually understand what we’re singing. People are a little bit scared – they’re afraid of doing it in Swedish, they shouldn’t – we should send a Swedish song again. I would love for a really good song in Swedish to win Melodifestivalen.
They also quizzed that years Melfest competitors, with Victor Crone (who represented Estonia at Eurovision 2019) pointing to the large presence and influence of English music in Sweden, and Elov & Benyâs take was similar to Tobbe’s – that the Swedish public thought their native language wouldnât work at Eurovision. LouLou LaMotte, who won Melodifestivalen as part of The Mamas in 2020 but competed solo with a song in her native language that year, said Swedish audiences may feel like they need to accommodate to a European audience, who may not understand entries in their native language.
KAJ’s win isn’t just a win for Sweden’s approach to Eurovision, but it’s also a win for their native language too.
Eurovision
Looking back to Tobbe’s point about Finland, that same year they selected KÀÀrijĂ€ with ‘Cha Cha Cha‘ in a landslide UMK victory, which eventually placed 2nd in Liverpool behind Sweden. This song however changed the game for Finland – despite going back to English for ‘No Rules‘ in 2024, we’re this year set to see yet another song in Finnish, ‘Ich Komme‘ compete in Basel. Prior to ‘Cha Cha Cha’, the last song in Finnish in Eurovision came in 2015 and failed to qualify – meaning that before 2023, Finland hadn’t qualified for the final with a song in Finnish since 2008.
Looking at Eurovision in the current decade, native languages, or songs in English with elements of a countries native language, have seen a surge in success compared to the previous 4 years:
| 2016 – 2019 | 2021 – 2024 |
| 2016 1. ‘1944’ (English, Crimean Tatar) 2. ‘Sound Of Silence’ (English) 3. ‘You Are The Only One’ (English) 4. ‘If Love Was A Crime’ (English) 5. ‘If I Were Sorry’ (English) | 2021 1. ‘Zitti E Buoni’ (Italian) 2. ‘VoilĂ ’ (French) 3. ‘Tout L’Univers’ (French) 4. ’10 Years’ (English) 5. ‘Shum’ (Ukrainian) |
| 2017 1. ‘Amar Pelos Dois’ (Portuguese) 2. ‘Beautiful Mess’ (English) 3. ‘Hey Mamma’ (English) 4. ‘City Lights’ (English) 5. ‘I Can’t Go On’ (English) | 2022 1. ‘Stefania’ (Ukrainian) 2. ‘Space Man’ (English) 3. ‘SloMo’ (Spanish) 4. ‘Hold Me Closer’ (English) 5. ‘In Corpore Sano’ (Serbian; Latin) |
| 2018 1. ‘Toy’ (English) 2. ‘Fuego’ (English) 3. Nobody But You’ (English) 4. ‘You Let Me Walk Alone’ (English) 5. ‘Non Mi Avete Fatto Niente’ (Italian) | 2023 1. ‘Tattoo’ (English) 2. ‘Cha Cha Cha’ (Finnish) 3. ‘Unicorn’ (English; Hebrew) 4. ‘Due Vite’ (Italian) 5. ‘Queen Of Kings’ (English) |
| 2019 1. ‘Arcade’ (English) 2. ‘Soldi’ (Italian; Arabic) 3. ‘Scream’ (English) 4. ‘She Got Me’ (English) 5. ‘Too Late For Love’ (English) | 2024 1. ‘The Code’ (English) 2. ‘Rim Tim Tagi Dim’ (English) 3. ‘Teresa & Maria’ (Ukrainian) 4. ‘Mon Amour’ (French) 5. ‘Hurricane’ (English; Hebrew) |
Compared to 2016-2019 period which saw just 5 entries that were entirley in another language or featured another language place in the top 5, the 2021-2024 period has seen 13 songs in the same category place top 5. The presence of English in Eurovision is also decreasing – with 23 of 37 songs being in or featuring another language in 2025 – 10 years ago in 2015, only 7 songs weren’t completely in the English language. Not only this but the odds (as of April 2025) have just one song fully in English as a top 5 favourite (‘Wasted Love‘), with 2 songs (‘New Day Will Rise’ and ‘C’est La Vie‘) partially in English, French and Hebrew (for Israel), and 2 songs fully in another language (‘Maman‘ and ‘Bara Bada Bastu’).
Will KAJ’s Win Have An Impact On The Lineup For Melodifestivalen 2026?
We’ve already looked at language, but what about Melodifestivalen as a whole? I don’t think Sweden need to win Eurovision 2025 for ‘Bara Bada Bastu’ to have an influence on the 2026 lineup for Melfest – the reaction to the song and it’s momentum are enough to see people are really getting behind a change for Sweden in the contest.
Melodifestivalen is one of the biggest events in the national final calendar for Eurovision fans, but recent years has seen a rising level of criticism directed towards itâs overall quality, the amount of returnees, and the lack of excitement surrounding the final – especially when the winners have seemed obvious from day 1. Tusse, Loreen and Marcus & Martinus are three winners from the 2020s that had little competition, and all three of them are pop songs written by some of Melfest’s most prominent writers, mentioned earlier in this article. These names, that crop up almost every single year in contest contributions, are successful – there’s no denying that they know how to write a winning song – but over the years attitudes towards their (mainly) pop songs has soured, and this year it seemed like the contest itself also moved slightly away from their entries too.
Wrethov did have a hand in ‘Bara Bada Bastu’, but the rest of the writers (all members of KAJ, Robert Skowronski and Kristofer Strandberg) made their debuts in the contest in 2025, ‘Revolution’ didn’t have a single one of the âusualâ names in it’s writing team (Sebastian Atas, David Lindgren Zacharias, Ola Svensson, MĂ„ns Zelmerlöw), and ‘Believe Me’ (Kristofer Greczula, Amanda Nordelius, John Russell) had entirely new writers. In fact, the only song in the top 5 including more than one of the aforementioned names was ‘On and On and On’, which came 4th. Add this to the fact ‘Bara Bada Bastu’ doesn’t align with the Swedish pop that we’ve seen over and over in Eurovision not just from Sweden but also from countries like Azerbaijan (although they have started to move away from this style of entry too), and it seems as though viewers and fans are craving a move to authenticity. Selecting KAJ over a former winner of Eurovision, and one that has year-on-year made some kind of appearance in or in relation to it, never mind someone whoâs had a career spanning nearly 2 decades and is a well-known name in Sweden – is a clear sign that viewers want something new, and it seems to have massively paid off, as KAJ are currently are leading the odds at a 38% chance of winning at the time of writing.
That being said, Melodifestivalen doesn’t have to remove all entries from the recognisable writers or returnees to the contest, but if ‘Bara Bada Bastu’ manages to encourage more artists like KAJ, more songs in Swedish or more new writers to put songs forward, then hopefully we’ll start to see positive changes in the contest in future years. With 30 slots available in Melodifestivalen 2026, opening the contest up to diverse entries can help to reposition it as the unmissable national final it once was. Does it mean Sweden have to stop sending their usual pop tracks? No – but it can mean that viewers and the juries have more choice, as they did this year, to choose something else when it’s good enough and causes a shift in the system like KAJ have done. As we touched on earlier, KAJ’s win will hopefully have an impact on the amount of songs in Swedish too. In a lineup of 30 songs, just a third or less being in Swedish is a tiny amount, and one of those songs winning is a hugely significant moment opening the door for more Eurovision entries from Sweden that aren’t just English pop tracks.
Whether KAJ win Eurovision or not, they have made their mark on Eurovision. If they do win, they’ll make Sweden the country with the most wins in Eurovision, give them their 2nd win of the 2020s and 3rd win in the last decade. If they don’t win, they’ve been able to showcase Swedish (and Finnish) culture on the Eurovision stage and reignite an excitement around Sweden in Eurovision that will hopefully continue in the future.
You can see KAJ in Semi Final 1 of the Eurovision Song Contest on May 13th 2025.
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