ButterTart's 100 Greatest Melodifestivalen Songs - 2002 to 2024

36. Behrang Miri ft. Victor Crone - Det rår vi inte för (2015)



AC – Beaten by Samir & Viktor​


“The singer with Behrang is RUINING this song!”
@Kala, 07/02/2015

My forty years on this Earth can broadly be split into two eras: my bleak, colourless existence before I heard the key change in ‘Det rår vi inte för’ and the vibrant carnival of joy after.

This is another instance where I feel like I’m very much in the minority on Moopy. I fucking LOVE this whereas general consensus seems to be slightly more... muted. True, Behrang Miri and Bohring Vic are the least credible pop duo in history and have the bearing of a couple of biology teachers doing Wham Rap for Children in Need, but for me they made absolute MAGIC here.

Behrang’s rap-like verses with the operatic accompaniment are fun and already set Det rår vi inte för apart from standard Melodifestivalen fare, but it’s the choruses where this truly comes alive. Who’d have thought VICTOR CRONE was capable of delivering actual drama?

The chorus is a STUNNER, soaring, uplifting and anthemic – basically all of the food groups. I actually like it more on the second verse when it comes out of nowhere to slap you right across the tits. Then there’s THAT key change, very possibly my favourite on this entire list. Say what you want about dour old Vic, he absolutely SMASHES it. I’ll happily forgive him for all of his later trespasses for granting me that one moment of absolute gold; it literally bumped Det rår vi inte för a good few places up this ranking on its own, it’s that good. The heartbeat, the drums, then THAT :disco:

Behrang and Vic have notched up a few individual appearances at Melodifestivalen between them but it’s with this that they shared their finest hour. A brilliant song which won’t get me any likes or reacts when I post this because nobody but me gives a shit.
 
Det rår vi inte för is surprisingly intriguing upon rewatch. While the performance may appear straightforward at first glance, hidden intricacies emerge upon closer inspection.

Notably, the performance showcases outstanding waving prowess from hype girl on the left, perhaps the most buoyantly exuberant fake drumming ever featured at Melfest and a guitar that seems to serve more as a dancing partner than an instrument.

However, what truly piques my curiosity is Behrang's clandestine snack-eating society, glimpsed beneath the stage during the opening verse.
 
ButterTart said:
41. Klara Hammarström - Run to the Hills (2022)



Finalist – 6th place
​

“this sounds like something from the waltzer circa 2006.”
@Pingu, 24/02/2022


Stop! It’s Hammar time.

Klara added an exclamation mark to her run of consecutive Melodifestivalen appearances with ‘Run to the Hills’ a song that was hyped as a big deal and actually lived up to the promise.

Wisely acknowledging the growing buzz around Gabry Ponte’s ‘Thunder’, a song widely regarded to be the greatest pop culture moment of all time, Klara borrows from it liberally to complete her ascent to Melodifestivalen immortality.

Klara bagged a much-deserved pimp spot in the series-rescuing fourth heat of the 2022 contest, going DTF for the first time with a song that literally made me gasp when I first head the clip.

Dressed in her customary Disney-era Power Rangers villainess garb, Klara employed every weapon in her arsenal to secure her ticket to the final; telekinesis, fratricide, ambitious and very nearly successful long notes… this was a real moment for her.

Run to the Hills is a BANGER. Like, a PROPER banger. It felt so refreshing on the night because it wasn’t trying to be anything other than a fucking good time to be had by all. It’s fair to say it was a rousing success on that front. This is a song that was clearly destined for my all-time favourites list; you can’t put this much of a donk on it and expect me to turn up my nose. Klara really gives it some welly, too. There are parts which seem very much beyond her vocal capabilities and, while she proves that to be true, the overall strength of the performance means they’re easy to forgive. This was a star-making turn from the metallic chanteuse, make no mistake.

Klara competed thrice in successive contests so it makes total sense that she’s had a couple of years off but I can’t imagine it’ll be too long before she pops up again. She may not have the lungs to transition to schlager perennial but she has an ear for a chunky pop song which should stand her in good stead for a good few invitations in years to come.
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Everything about this is absolute perfection, including the incredible Klara-tar
 
I haven’t really got involved in this thread as I KNEW something like this would happen AND I’D JUST GET ANNOYED. :D (LOVE YOU ETC ETC)

Inevitable as it was “before your time”, but I can only agree with @Apoca - Det Gör Ont is an all time MF classic and can’t ever be this low, let alone below middling shit like Victor Crone.

And yes, it was the runaway favourite as it was the comeback of a proper massive star. She more than delivered.

It was also one of the overall favourites for Eurovision itself. The English version just wasn’t good enough. The chorus of It Hurts is awfully basic.
 
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Sheena said:
I haven’t really got involved in this thread as I KNEW something like this would happen AND I’D JUST GET ANNOYED. :D (LOVE YOU ETC ETC)

Inevitable as it was “before your time”, but I can only agree with @Apoca - Det Gör Ont is an all time MF classic and can’t ever be this low, let alone below middling shit like Victor Crone.

And yes, it was the runaway favourite as it was the comeback of a proper massive star. She more than delivered.

It was also one of the overall favourites for Eurovision itself. The English version just wasn’t good enough. The chorus of It Hurts is awfully basic.
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I get that, it’s just for years It Hurts was the version I knew and It had never made a dent. I will say that everything in my top 50 is a 10/10 so I wouldn’t say the exact placements are a massive factor.
 
=35. Loreen – Euphoria (2012)



WINNER!​


“I prefer Afro-Dite to Loreen. WHERE'S THE TUNE LOREEN? WHERE'S THE TUNE?”
@cwej, 02/02/2012

Is this too high? Is it too low? The trouble I had with knowing where to place Euphoria is that it’s impossible to assess it objectively; at this point it’s so far BEYOND either Melodifestivalen and Eurovision that it’s hard to assess it in the context of either. This placing is more of a token – it needed to be in here and it needed to be high, but I honestly don’t know where to rank it as a Mello song by comparison to everything still to come.

I don’t need to go into specifics about Euphoria. It’s an everlasting piece of art, the second best Melodifestivalen entrant by the iconically inert Loreen. I can’t believe anyone ever thought Danny Saucedo had a look-in against this – it screams WINNER from that opening trump noise. The song is an absolute miracle and ushered in the dawn of modern Eurovision; it’s so influential that to this day there are still songs knocking about at Eurovision or in national finals that are accused of being Euphoria clones.

The performance is legendary, easily one of the best concepts ever to grace the stage at either contest. Mesmering, ridiculous, beautiful, flawless… I STILL get anxious before she ducks the kick whenever I watch it. It’s perfectly realised and, in hindsight, there was no way this was ever going to fail; watch THIS and then watch every other performance at Melodifestivalen and Eurovision that year - 2012 was SUPERB for both and this still kicks the living shit out of everything else around it.

Euphoria is a moment that will last forever more, make no mistake. The only reason I’m placing it here is that, as mentioned earlier, I don’t really consider it a 'Melodifestivalen' song at this point. Everything above is, to me, more synonymous with the contest. As a song in its own right, divorced from its origins, Euphoria is absolutely fucking brilliant.
 
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I’m starting to fear “Upp o hoppa” will be overlooked.
 
35. Wiktoria - As I Lay Me Down (2017)



Finalist – 6th place​


“Save Me was much better than this! Nice bed/gazebo hybrid but that's about IT.”
@COB, 25/02/2017

Oh man she’s a FLOMBLER, a straight-A BLOMBLER, and it’s about time she made an appearance in this rate.

I’m going to say this now and I don’t expect any dissenting voices: Biktopia is the rightful winner of 2017. I’m not about to pretend I didn’t enjoy ‘I Can’t Go On’ but ‘As I Lay Me Down’ would have just felt CORRECT. It was Sticky Biki’s most credible chance at victory so far and would have felt like a much more organic moment for the contest than default white man getting the nod yet again.

‘As I Lay Me Down’ is a breathless syllable-fest which starts at a knackering pace and only gets more hectic from there. The odd bit of dodgy diction aside, Wiktoria does a creditable job and would have ironed out any deficiencies in the performance come may. It has an urgency and immediacy which commands attention; it was obvious Bik was in it to win it with this one. The poor cow barely gets a second to inhale, either – she fucking WORKS for it here which makes it all the more impressive. The song manages to pack a ton into three minutes as well; in particular, the transition from the country-like verses to the gospel tinged chorus is superbly done. And WHAT A CHORUS it is, too – hopeful, stirring and basically all of the things I wanted from ‘Save Me’ but didn’t quite get.

Wiktoria has chucked her hat into the Melanie Festivals ring twice since 2017. ‘Not With Me’ was decent but by no means in with a shout of winning, while ‘Where Have You Been?’ was paper-thin pop which was entirely too ‘modern Melodifestivalen’ for its own good and failed to escape its heat. She always seems like a big deal when she turns up, so I wouldn’t rule out an eventual win whenever she rediscovers her mojo.
 
34. Medina - In I dimman (2022)



Finalist – 3rd place​


“The sound Medina have gone for is... unfortunate...”
@Pingu, 24/02/2022

Sami and his spherical life partner have already appeared once on this list with the EXCELLENT Que Sera and they’re back with their magnum opus, a song so astonishing it actually led to @ZenGiraffe championing MEN for the win that year.

These two very contrastingly-proportioned boys struck gold on their first go at the contest (although they’ve been around since 2003 so they’re not exactly new to this game). In I dimman is nothing short of a masterpiece – I’ve rarely had cause to call anything ‘cool’ so far in this rate (This is Sweden, after all), but there’s really no other word to describe the transition from Soviet to Souk in the chorus. It just flows SO WELL and sounds so outrageously fucking good. This is a full-on party banger with far more depth than was realistically required of it and it really works.

Performance-wise, this was set apart from most of the class of 2022 due to the sheer ambition and scale. The dancers, the fire, their faces on the screens… In i dimman feels BIG; it feels like THE moment of 2022. It helps that Little & Large are both confident, massively charismatic performers. They command the song and exude a sense of fun that came to serve them very well again a couple of years later. These are two old hands working their audience expertly and the result is an overall package it's surely impossible to not enjoy.

I feel like Medina have cemented their place among the legends of the game. Both of their joint efforts have been riotous successes, generally considered to be among the best of their respective years. Even Sami’s first effort in 2021 is regarded as a savagely ROBBED stomper. Each effort has sounded distinct from each other but with a through-line of crowd-pleasing joy connecting them. We’re in the MEDINA ERA now. Step aside, Rejhan, your time at the top is OVER.
 
33. Sean Banan – Copacabanana (2013)



Finalist – 6th place​


“Well, that's that then. Thank fuck I'm not going this year. RIP Melodifestivalen. 2002-2012. You were once wonderful. Now you're shit.”
@VoR, 09/02/2013, the moment Copacabanana was announced as DTF.

Oh VoR. That poor woman has been through so much :( The sad decline of Linda Bengtzing. The Shirley Clamp restraining order (He’s had to increase it to 750 metres). Being electrocuted by @Penelope in three separate plunge pools. And now the indignity of Sean Banan scoring big in a rate where Swedish House Wives don’t even feature.

You must have known this was coming. You must have braced yourself for the injustice of this beating so many first-rate Mello classics. You must be PAINFULLY aware this won’t be the last we’ll be seeing of our man Banan before the rate is over.

Why does this deserve such a high slot in the ranking? Sean Banan is a FREIGHT TRAIN of charisma and performance acumen. Love him or hate him, he’s fucking SUPERB at what he does. In a contest like 2013, Copacabana was a desperately needed injection of fun. The song SLAPS – if that chorus doesn’t burrow itself into your head then quite honestly you’re not living right.

The performance is one of my favourite things to ever happen in any medium ever, and it’s not even the best thing he’s done at Melodifestivalen. Cazzi Opeia could literally NEVER. It’s more akin to an interval act than a competing entry, it’s just. That. Good. In three minutes we get: A walkway dance party featuring a lift, a crowd sequence, some of my favourite ever choreography in the post-chorus, Sean accidentally losing his cap and putting it back on mid-dance move, a slow motion somersault, Sean transforming into an angel and ascending to heaven, Danny Saucedo shade… and an entire quick-change segment involving an audience plant in the final performance :disco: :disco: Every moment is MAGIC. The guy is an actual superstar.

I don’t want to gush too much here because I need to find more superlatives for the great man later in this rate and I’m mindful not to peak too soon. Suffice it to say Copacabanana is an incredible spectacle. If you’re going to do a novelty song featuring your own name, better to do THIS than some half-arsed country dirge with a chronically bland stage show.
 
32. Melody Club – The Hunter (2011)



Heat 4 - 7th place​


“The lead singer looks like he's had work done...which poses the question as to why he didn't start with the nose.”
@Penelope, 26/02/2011

FINALLY, I AM HOLLY HUNTER

@Suomi relentlessly championing The Hunter has been one of the most heart-warming subplots of my adventures through Melodifestivalen threads of yore; I genuinely believed I was the only person who didn’t think it was a steaming pile of shit.

We’ve established by now that I value three things in a song: a big chorus, an overall sense of positivity and a fucking awesome title. The Hunter understands the brief and delivers on each of these criteria magnificently.

Okay, the performance in 2011 was slightly vocally unfortunate but it doesn’t detract from how much I love this song. It’s an actual DELIGHT, a soaring, optimistic, anthemic three-minute crash course in unfettered joy. The Hunter achieves something that will guarantee it pride of place on any ButterTart playlist – it makes me happy. It’s infectious and it makes me actively look forward to listening to it. I don’t care that the lead singer looks like Mystic Meg, that his vocals are improbably bad for someone who’s been a frontman for 11 years or that this seems to have effectively ended Melody Club’s careers – I only care that The Hunter brings me such pleasure whenever I hear it.

This was originally much lower in the list and with every re-listen it wormed its way further and further up the rankings to the point where it’s out-performed a SEAN BANAN song and there’s really no higher honour I could bestow unto them. The Hunter is a go-to whenever I need an endorphin boost, It’s absolute MAGIC.
 
31. Samir & Viktor – Shuffla (2018)



Finalist – 4th place​


“The gay rhythm gene definitely skipped Viktor.”
@FetchFugly, 10/02/2018

These gobshites AGAIN? Yep, Samir Badran and the only person who can make Samir Badran look competent by comparison are making their THIRD appearance in this rate. Shuffla marked the first time the lads managed to go DTF (and the last time they managed to qualify…), and it honestly is their magnum opus.

Shuffla is remarkable in many ways but first among them is that it achieves the seemingly impossible: it makes Viktor Frisk look like he has a personality. Yes, our Vic actually banters and emotes throughout this as if his programming permits for human-like interactions. Sure, he still looks terrified and his execution of the choreography is at best Thunderbirds-tier, but he actually looks like he’s having fun.

Shuffla is yet another reinvention for our duo of sonic pioneers. This time, they’re trying their hand at electro swing and it REALLY FUCKING WORKS. Shuffla would be a banger whoever was performing it, but there’s something about the earnest, gung-ho scrappiness of Samir & Viktor that really makes it come alive. The spoken-word bridge just makes sense with them at the helm – enthusiastic shouting is their stock-in-trade and they properly go for it.

The performance is actually MASSIVE, a real party moment in the vein of Medina’s later efforts. There are far too many people on stage to ever be viable for Eurovision but there’s a sense of ‘fuck it, we know we’re not winning anyway’ which means that doesn’t matter. They shoehorn in a saxophonist and a pre-recorded cameo from future face of the contest THEOZ alongside around fourteen-dozen dancers. There’s a palpable joy to the whole thing which manages to offset the permanent terror in Viktor’s eyes.

In an ideal world, this would be the closing chapter of a perfect trifecta and Samir & Viktor would have bowed out of the contest on a high. They represent a very fun era of Melodifestivalen and I’d rather remember their participation like this – their return this year was all a bit depressing and neither they nor the contest benefitted from it.
 
We've reached the TOP 30 :disco:

I'm KNACKERED so I may not do any more write-ups tonight but I'm keen to hear what you're expecting to turn up in the upper third of the ranking. Any guesses?
 
Velvet Skies said:

Okay but despite the lack of certain trivial details (like a proper staging), Afro-Dite actually had a very catchy entry!
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It worked well with just choreo on the first outing for both Afro-Dite and The Mamas. A bigger issue for me is that the song consist of nothing more than a looped chorus with a bunch of passageways leading into it.
 
30. Linda Bengtzing - Ta Mig (2014)



Heat 4 – 5th place​


“Well that was disappointing. It screams 'album track' to me.”
@Madíson, 22/02/2014

It’s the beginning of the end of this rate so it seems only fitting that that it’s ushered in by Ta Mig, the beginning of the end for poor brave Linda as a major player in Melodifestivalen.

It annoys me that THIS was where her run at the top ended because it’s SO FUCKING GOOD. In my head it’s the quintessential LindaB (39) song, despite it being so different to what she’d fielded before. I just think it perfectly encapsulates the frenzy, chaos and tangible desperation that are her hallmarks.

Ta Mig is a tits, flaps and sundry orifices out BANGER, a sort of technoschlager juggernaut which marked an exciting – yet sadly unmarketable – new chapter for Linda. It’s a much harder sound (by Mello standards) than her previous efforts but comes complete with the standard smasher of a chorus. The middle-8 into musical interlude sequence is unusual but needed, given how relentless the rest of the song is. Seriously, this hits the ground sprinting and barely leaves poor L-Beng any room to breathe so those few seconds of calm are welcome.

Performance-wise, this is everything you could possible want from a Bengtzing bop. Absurd outfit, wind machine, lots of jerky dancing, a shitload of facial expressions and that bizarre yet abundant charisma which shines through even when she's in her most shamelessly 'please pick me' mode. I do find the hand on hips bit in the chorus pretty jarring; I don’t hate it but I don’t feel like she’s especially comfortable doing it.

Ranking the Bengtzing back catalogue is like trying to look cool while playing frisbee; there’s no way to do it correctly and you kind of feel an idiot for even trying. All I know for sure is that Ta Mig absolutely hovers somewhere near the top of the pile. I don’t know what the overall Moopy consensus is but I’ve a notion this is considered something of a step down for her. To me, the audacity and effort alone make it worthy of a podium placing in her discography, never mind the fact that it’s a bonafide STOMPER.
 
Yes, i rewatched the Ta Mig performance the other day and thought it’s far more realised and accomplished than it was in my memory. Deserved to get some acknowledgment
 
Kala said:
I love this song so much. It hits you in the face at the very start and just doesn’t let go. It deserved so much better.
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It sounded dated at the time but actually it’s a song that has aged so well for me - it’s just hook after hook, and most importantly, FUN :disco:

Aqua Playa deserved a Grammy (American)
 
29. Björn Ranelid feat. Sara Li – Mirakel (2012)



Finalist – 10th place​



“SUB-CASCADA WANK featuring DAVID FUCKING DICKINSON”
@Penelope, 18/02/2012

I’ve long thought that Christer did some of his finest work when he’d been at the crackpipe. Mirakel, for example, is very clearly the brainchild of a man thoroughly, deliriously off his cock.

Quite why the decision was made to pair the Cuprinol Woodstain Man with Sweden’s most beautiful woman on a spoken-word EDM track is a question I don’t believe there will ever be a satisfactory answer to. Nonetheless, it happened, it succeeded and it was fucking GLORIOUS.

Mirakel is essentially an unusually slutty Ted Talk in which renowned author Björn, with his smart new burgundy tan, delivers a seminar about someone called Shelley, punctuated intermittently by a beast of a chorus courtesy of shockingly fit Caracola alumni Sara Li. It shouldn’t work on any level but it somehow does, and does so magnificently. It may be the way Björn and Sara commit to the bit so fully; Björn in particular seems to be having an absolute blast and deploys camp with uncanny precision - isten to the way he rolls those ‘r’s theatrically :disco:. In one of the performances, he randomly starts singing along with the chorus which is such a fun, completely unscripted ad-lib and underscores the enthusiasm he brings to Mirakel. Sara is also a shockingly competent singer for an attractive woman who was once in Caracola – she’s already made it in life, being genuinely talented is just another string to her bow.

I actually credit Mirakel with getting me into Melodifestivalen because it was after I had this played to me back in 2012 that my interest in the contest was first piqued. Any competition which included something this downright awesome was something I wanted to be part of. It’s a song that brings me untold joy and I have no qualms putting it in my top 30 of all time.

Melfest has flirted with novelty entrants since this – food critic Edward Blom tried his hand in 2018, and the 2022 and 2024 contests featured the partially reanimated corpse of Dora Bryan – but Mirakel is one on its own. I don’t think anything similar would ever happen again, but the fact that it happened at all is enough for me.
 
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28. Lillasyster - Till Our Days Are Over (2022)



AC - Shanked and robbed by Grotbags Opeia​



“God this is awful”
@Alex, 26/02/2022

Jesus wept, heat 4 of 2022 was MINT. Imagine giving me In i dimman, Run to the Hills and Till Our Days Are Over ALL IN ONE NIGHT :disco: I also loved Tenori but I try not to advertise that fact as such things can get one sectioned.

Lillasyster debuted the year before with ‘Pretender’, a song I like but couldn’t find room for in this rate. They came back and absolutely wrecked the joint with ‘Till Our Days Are Over’, one of my favourite cock rock efforts in the history of the contest.

If this doesn’t excite you even a bit then you must have an eye-ron heart. I can understand if the insanely low register in the verses doesn’t do much for you (although I very much approve of it), but I refuse to accept that the chorus doesn’t do strange and wonderful things to you. It’s a thing of beauty – soaring, euphoric, absolutely blistering… it’s just glorious, an ANTHEM. There’s such an obvious sitter of a key change here that it frustrates me that they didn’t opt for one but it doesn’t diminish it. The song sounds MASSIVE either way.

The stage show is such a joy as well. The lads really go for it here – no bells and whistles, just a ton of effort and genuine heart. There’s a part here which is one of my very favourite moments on the Melodifestivalen stage; around 2:50 in the video when they all crowd around and just belt the chorus at each other. It’s so simple but SO effective – look how happy they are! The drummer looks like he’s on the cusp of a prolapse :disco:

Till Our Days Are Over is a song that gives me actual goosepimples whenever I hear its chorus. Sadly, it only got as far as Andra Chansen due to the pact Cazzi Opeia made with Satan to ensure her shitty songs always slither into the final. Make no mistake, though, it’s an absolute winner and counts among the very best rock songs to grace Melodifestivalen.
 
ButterTart said:
. There’s a part here which is one of my very favourite moments on the Melodifestivalen stage; around 2:50 in the video when they all crowd around and just belt the chorus at each other. It’s so simple but SO effective – look how happy they are!​
Click to expand...
same! It makes the hairs on my neck stand up, it’s so sweet
 
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