The Wiwi Jury — our in-house panel of music unprofessionals — continues its look at the contestants in Sweden’s Melodifestivalen, reviewing the acts battling it out for the four remaining places in the final via the andra chansen round. Next is the Swedish-born, Tanzanian-raised SaRaha with her song “Kizunguzungu” (“Dizziness”). Was she making us dizzy? Read on to find out…
SaRaha “Kizunguzungu”
“Kizunguzungu” reviews
Angus: This is weaponised pop musical sunshine! Dripping in joy, radiating sweetness and layered with a hella catchy beat “Kizunguzungu” has a stupidly catchy chorus that will have people humming for days.
Score: 7/10
Deban: This crossover tune, which successfully fuses the best sounds of native and contemporary cultures, is SLAMMING! The beats bite, and SaRaha stings with pizazz. For a debut outing, this is outstanding! I want every mix of this track.
Score: 9/10
Padraig: “Kizunguzungu” is so insatiably perky that it’s borderline irritating. This is partly down to the song itself. Even taking its bilingual nature into account, the lyrics make no sense. “You give me kizunguzungu… runaway, runaway, keep coming back for more” – what? I’m also not sold on SaRaha as a serious performer – she’s too kids’ TV for my liking. If Melfest must insist on dosing us with cartoon-like females, I’ll take it Dolly Style.
Score: 6/10
Robyn: SaRaha brings a Swedish sensibility to a modern African pop style. “Kizunguzungu” is a wonderfully upbeat and uplifting song, bringing plenty of African sunshine to warm the cold Swedish winter days. SaRaha is adorable and has delivered an almost perfect Melfest debut.
Score: 7.5/10
William: This isn’t a case of white girl going to Africa — it’s a case of a white girl bringing Africa to Sweden! This feels surprisingly authentic, managing to balance authentic sounds with Swedish production. Some of you will call her Stella Mwangi or Shakira. She is neither. She is SaRaha and she slays! That said, this does get a titch boring two-minutes in, but hopefuly the pyro of the final will save it!
Score: 8/10
Edd: I genuinely exploded when I first heard this. It just has everything I love – colourful costumes, catchy nonsense lyrics, a killer dance beat, African chanting, a key change, confetti, etc, etc, etc!!! Just because something is cheesy doesn’t mean it’s a bad song – that’s just something that society has (annoyingly) decided. This is pure fun, and what is life without fun? My favourite song of the national final season. BY FAR.
Score: 10/10
Antranig: If this is what dizziness is like, I don’t want a cure! I heard Swahili was going to be in Melfest this year and the “Haba Haba” fanboy within me started salivating. It’s such an adorable language and SaRaha serves up Tanzanian gladiator realness. This girl can work shoulder pads almost as well as she works an incredible song.
Score: 10/10
Sami: Ever since we first heard this in the third semifinal, it’s been stuck in my head and I start to get annoyed at that. Even with that said, I just can’t hate this. SaRaha is giving us that Tanzanian realness and it works for these three minutes. I wouldn’t buy her album, but I keep entertained for three minutes. And the dancers are amazing!
Score: 7/10
Mikhail: I like how the modern pop tune mixes with some African tribal melodies. It reminds me of Shakira’s “Waka Waka”. However, there is one problem — SaRaha’s voice. It feels like it is squeezed, especially in the verses. It spoils pretty much everything. It takes away the joy and the lightness of the songs, it starts to feel a bit heavy. Maybe the studio version it is better, but live is a no for me.
Score: 6.5/10
Josh: SaRaha is giving us some Tanzanian tribal realness, hunty! Do I think “Kizunguzungu” is going to make it out of Andra Chansen? No. The song is definitely upbeat, catchy and the chorus is memorable enough to make it one of the stand-out non-qualifiers of Andra Chansen, but I fear it won’t be enough.
Score: 7/10
In the Swedish Wiwi Jury we have 26 jurors but only have room for 10 reviews. The remaining 16 scores are below!
Bogdan: 7/10
Denise: 4/10
Marek: 0/10
Maria: 7/10
Patrick: 2.5/10
Rezo: 6/10
Sinan: 6/10
Chris: 8/10
Max: 9/10
Steinunn: 6.5/10
Bernardo: 7.5/10
Luis: 4/10
Anthony: 7/10
Ron: 6/10
Ramadan: 9/10
Tobias: 5/10
The highest and lowest scores are dropped prior to calculating the average score. This is to remove outliers and reduce potential bias. We have removed a low of 0 and a high of 10.
Worst song in the whole contest. if this beats Isa I will go on a rampage.
i have a dream and that dream is that this song will beat that raggedy-ass from isa, wins the whole melodifestivalen and compete against margaret!
I also 100% agree with Edd! It’s very much my favourite
Pure infectious entertainment! This has EVERYTHING! I really hope she has a little chance and doesn’t get steamrolled at AC. I’m just glad we get to see this fun explosion again!
I’ve had this song n repeat since the third semi final. The song is pure fun, blending african tribal sounds with modern day beats expertly. It’s such an ear worm, even the name “Kizunguzungu” is fun to say. SaRaha works the stage well, I just wish this wasn’t put up against Isa at Andra Chansen, otherwise it would’ve sailed through.
Score: 10/10