The Wiwi Jury — our in-house panel of music unprofessionals — continues to review the songs competing in the Andra Chansen round of Melodifestivalen 2017. After strolling around the streets of Gamla Stan, we sat down to discuss Lisa Ajax and her song “I Don’t Give A”. Did we give a bleep what she was singing about? Read on to find out!

Lisa Ajax – “I Don’t Give A”

About Lisa Ajax

The Swedish Idol 2014 winner made her Melfest debut in 2016 where her song “My Heart Wants Me Dead” placed seventh overall. Her song has been written by the “Heroes” songwriting team, The Family.

Wiwi Jury reviews “I Don’t Give A”

Jordi: Lisa’s is all about attitude and determination with “I Don’t Give A”. But behind this breakthrough and the you’re-worth-it track, it still feels sweet. Her voice is mesmerising, angelic and pure and she has mixed it with a current but really pop sound. It works. Her song is catchy and sassy, and she can definitely perform. Love the idea that there’s a bad girl burning inside her. Ready to smash it.

Score: 8/10

Robyn: For a song that’s essentially just saying “I don’t care what everyone is saying about us”, the frequent use of the F-word feels like overkill. It’s like a teen swearing just because she know it will upset her mum. But if you take all that away from the song, it doesn’t leave much. It’s a nice enough love anthem, but there’s not much to it.

Score: 6.5/10

Antranig: Lisa Ajax’s lyrical masterpiece might need a drastic rewrite to appear at Eurovision but she probably doesn’t give a f**k anyway. “I Don’t Give A” is very enjoyable for three minutes and Lisa is a confident performer on stage as usual. I can’t stop myself from drawing comparisons to “My Heart Wants Me Dead”, which is clearly the better of her two entries. This song won’t get Lisa to Eurovision but it’s a great development of her sound and image.

Score: 6.5/10

Bernardo: Close your eyes for the first 30 seconds of “I Don’t Give A” and you’re listening to Zara Larson. Open them to find not one but two Lisas. The song keeps you moving for three minutes. It’s catchy but don’t let little Lisa fool you. The F-word is there several times which makes this three minutes a rather awkward but still enjoyable performance.

Score: 7/10

Chris: For a song that desperately tries to have a memorable hook, this is forgettable. The lyrics scream “I want to be cool and edgy by swearing”, but that falls flat. The staging too is utterly confusing. I don’t know if it’s meant to make Lisa look vulnerable or empowered, but it comes off vain and conceited. Lisa sounds great and that saves it to a degree, but compared to last year, this is a non starter.

Score: 5.5/10

William: The girl-next-door gets frustrated — and sometimes she just has to let the world know. But unlike your neighbour, this girl has a voice, an adorable look and just the right amount of sex appeal. Some have called the background LED vain — I find it refreshing and if I had her face I’d put it on my LED, my fridge, my car and everywhere else. Musically she sounds sweet yet forceful and the chorus has a choir-like backing which gave me tingles on first listen. And while I like the song, I’m not totally in love with it. Since the semi-final it’s faded from memory, which is never a good sign.

Score: 6.5/10

Tobias: “I Don’t Give A” is a creation of someone pressing the repeat button for three minutes. I’m not feeling it at all. What’s missing in this song is a real chorus but instead the chorus is so repetitive that the whole song ends up being the chorus. I like the effort about the staging and it looks like they have tried to make it look more international but the whole package with the song is just a no for me. I can see this being played in a teenager’s room who’s going through a teenage crisis, but please let it stay there.

Score: 4/10

Dayana: It feels like Lisa is trying to have that Beyonce approach, but it just ain’t working. At all. The performance looks pretty nice and “stylish” indeed (I LOVE Lisa’s outfit!), but I can’t stop comparing “I Don’t Give A” to her last year’s entry “My Hearts Wants Me Dead”. And this year’s entry is losing 3-0 by the song itself, performance and the vocals.

Score: 6.5/10

Our jury for Melodifestivalen 2017 contains 28 jurors, but we only have room for eight reviews. The remaining scores are listed below.

Angus: 6.5/10

Anthony: 6.5/10

Antony: 4/10

Deban: 6/10

Edd: 8.5/10

Erdi: 4/10

Forrest: 3.5/10

Jason: 7.5/10

Josh: 8/10

Jovana: 6.5/10

Luis: 6/10

Mikhail: 5/10

Natalie: 7/10

Patrick: 7/10

Rezo: 9/10

Ron: 7/10

Sami: 6/10

Sinan: 6.5/10

Steinunn: 6/10

Zakaria: 5.5/10

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Before calculating the average score, the highest and lowest scores are dropped. This is to remove outliers and reduce potential bias. We have removed a low of 3.5 and a high of 9.

Wiwi Jury Verdict: 6.31/10

See our list of Melodifestivalen 2017 rankings here

Read more Melodifestivalen news here

8 Comments
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Lucien
6 years ago

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CookyMonzta
CookyMonzta
7 years ago

The problem with Lisa’s song is that, while Robin Bengtsson works the word into his song rather artfully and doesn’t go overboard for the sake of going overboard, Lisa throws the word around, here and there, like it’s a toy.

For that reason, like Hasse Andersson upsetting Kristin Amparo in A.C. in 2015 and SaRaha upsetting Isa in A.C. last year, I think Axel Schylström (who has a backstory of his own) will send Lisa packing.

Colin
Colin
7 years ago

Lisa is energetic on stage, but I find all of this profanity useless. I don’t mind cursing per se, but it needs to be there for a reason. ‘I Don’t Give A…’ is a title spicy enough and it suggests it all anyway. That’s like if Gunther’s song went from ‘Love Yourself’ to ‘J*rk it off’. It’s not needed to have the same punchline.

cheesecake
cheesecake
7 years ago

It took me a few listens to get into this. This won’t get her to Eurovision, but she might make it to the Melfest final again.

melfestandraa
melfestandraa
7 years ago

If i’m right someone that became 4th place in their semi has to battle it out with someone else that came 3th place in their heat, i do believe that Lisa gained herself a 3th place, with Dismissed on 4th place.

Boris: 3th
DevetDu: 4th
Lisa: 3th
Dismissed: 4th
Fo&o: 3th
Anton: 4th
Wiktoria or Jon or Loreen: 3th
Alice: 4th

I think it means that Lisa will get a free ticket to the final? The only song in 4th place that can stand a chanche against her is Alice-Running with Lions.

Kris
Kris
7 years ago

I don’t like it……Roger pontare should have come through instead!!

Polegend Godgarina
Polegend Godgarina
7 years ago

It’s my favorite Melfest song, it brings me back to when I was 14. What a bopT.

(J)ESC Fanatic
(J)ESC Fanatic
7 years ago

I absolutely love this. Almost as much as “My Heart Wants Me Dead”. We all know why Benjamin is going directly to the final instead of Lisa and I hope the teenage-girl power won’t be enough to kick her out in Andra Chansen in favor of a cute guy with a much inferior song.