Sweden: John Lundvik – Too Late For Love

Felix: Now this is not an easy one to write about. This time, my problem isn’t a lack of words, but finding a way to express my thoughts precisely enough.

Let’s begin with the positive aspects: John Lundvik is a very charismatic, talented artist. He oozes joy, and you get the feeling he lives in the moment, loves doing what he’s doing, and is thankful for every second he can be on stage and sing. The backing singers are another highlight, and it surely wouldn’t do them justice to just attest them the radiance of Sister Act vibes. So far so good.

All that dismantled from Sweden 2019, though, what remains is a quite poor song. The chorus would make for a good bridge, and it could well be that it was meant as a bridge, but then a suitable strong chorus couldn’t be found. Oops. Whatever the truth of the matter, the song isn’t strong enough to make me really like it. I do “like” it just about, and the positives mentioned above do help, but I just find Sweden very overrated.

But well, many people do like it. And at Eurovision, it’s the points scored that matter, not the reasons why people award them to a specific entry. And dismantling the song from Sweden 2019, we have a potential points monster.

If only John would sing “Bigger Than Us“.

Shi: Some Eurovision performers have this secret magic superpower which helps them to convince you that their song is way better than what it actually is. John Lundvik is definitely using that particular superpower to the max this year.

Martin: Exactly that – John lifts this to something far better than it actually is, though I actually do like the underlying song too. I see no reason this shouldn’t get what has almost become (with no apologies to Mary Kennedy) the annual really good Eurovision result for Sweden.

video and title image source: eurovision.tv