The Wiwi Jury — our in-house panel of music unprofessionals — is now heading to Sweden, where we will rate and review the songs competing in Melodifestivalen 2020. We’re starting with the eight songs that will be battling it out in the andra chansen round on February 29. First up is Melfest 2018 runner-up Felix Sandman, who returns with “Boys with Emotions”. Did his song stir our emotions? Read on to find out!
Felix Sandman – “Boys With Emotions”
“Boys With Emotions” reviews
Åri: “Boys with Emotions” is not a bad song. I don’t hate it, but I take issue with a lot of things in it. The unique message deserves to be presented, but it feels like the songwriters decided on the song’s name and then built this lyrically mediocre track around it. Knowing Felix’s live abilities, giving him a song where the vocal melody is barely existent was probably a good choice. I did expect this to go DTF, but I’m glad I wasn’t alone thinking it shouldn’t. Something I do like about this song is the simple, fun instrumental.
Score: 5.5/10
Lucy: To be polite, I’m just really not into “Boys With Emotions”. The beat is interesting, but the lyrics really let it down, especially given the serious subject matter. I’m sure good intentions are there but it just comes across as going with a trend of conversation, as opposed to being sincere. The staging and moves that go with this unfortunately aid this. It’s fine, but it’s not a winner. Side note, go on YouTube and search “That’s so raven, boyz n motion”…ahem.
Score: 4/10
Pablo: Listen, I fully support the topic of this song being done, but this is not the way to do it. The different elements may work well individually, but the mix of ultra-slick performance, Bieberesque swagger, style, music, and message don’t fit well and I cannot take this seriously at all. It could even be said it comes across as comical, or even worse, cringeworthy. “Boys With Emotions” would need a complete overhaul, which I feel we are too late for and, depending on its fate, could face some trouble in andra chansen. As is, it’s a no.
Score: 2.5/10
Tobias: I’ve listened to this song several times and I still can’t tell if I like it or not. When I am watching the performance I love it and that is because of how the visual effects, the dancers and the song just perfectly blend together in the chorus. But listening to the song itself on Spotify I don’t get the same powerful vibe as when I am watching the live performance. This song needs the visual to be good. If I think about it, the only part that I appreciate is the chorus and the verse itself is very “meh”, it lacks something but I cannot tell what exactly.
Score: 6.5/10
In our Melodifestivalen Wiwi Jury, we have 14 jurors but only room for four reviews. The rest of our scores can be found below:
| Angus: 6.5/10
Antranig: 10/10 Barnabas: 3/10 Florian: 7/10 Jonathan: 7.5/10 |
Luis: 6/10
Natalie: 10/10 Robyn: 6/10 Ron: 7.5/10 Tom: 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 2.5 and a high of 10.
The song keeps my attention from start to finish and Felix as the performer too – he has a strong strong presence and transmits the message/song. I really hope it will win Melodifestivalen 2020. I hear a very good song and I really liked the staging.
Go Antranig! I play the song most days. Love it. Doing better than The Roop.
Caution: This one is my second risky hopeful opinion of the season. 🙂 I actually really like this song, and it is my favourite of Sweden’s output so far this season. I realise this may shock some of you. Why do I like it?… Because the music does exactly what the lyrics say; Like the boys in the song, the music itself tries not to show the emotions that are there, yet the music is still gripping and emotive through its underlying beat and snippets of melody. The Choruses are really the most divisive part of the song, but I… Read more »
Even though this is going into I still think this could win
The song is really good, contemporary, current, way appealing and very radio friendly. Felix’s voice isn’t strong enough for this style and arrangement, this is the down side. The problem with Sweden this year, excellent radio play songs, live versions are very weak. It isn’t going to work.
Oh god i can’t even express how much I love this song, it really frustrates me that it’s unfortunately not everyone’s cup of tea. I love it to the point that his place or qualification to the final don’t even matter anymore.
i luv this song
70% off all that chose to end their lives are men. Suisides by men could become less common
It’s time for boys to talk about their emotions, to cry and ask for a hug. Do I have to say anything more. Stop listen to your fathers that demand that you are a real man whith no emotions.
I don’t care if you like the melody, the correografy … but please. Think if you have a friend that need a hug and someone to talk to. What can you do for a friend? Listen to the message.
I really appreciate what Felix is trying to do here. For 2 reasons: the first is that it’s not an usual Melfest entry and the second is its theme. Sure, the lyrics can be too much on our face, but this is a subject that needs to be addressed and saying some things aloud may actually help spreading the word. What I think went wrong is that they probably noticed it’s a subdued entry (both for Melfest and ESC standards) and tried to make it more visually appealing by overstaging it, generating some disconnection from the material.
Yes! Were are all men when it comes to the metoo message?
Thank you Felix for discussing this in interviews.
I also think that he can help some young men to take a step towards asking for help when they have problems whith depressions and anxiety. It’s brave of him to talk about his own emotions in interviews. Every single days was all about his own emotions when he was in a bad shape himself.
Felix is genuine brave man whith his heart on the right place.
I like him for trying to speak about this topic. And of course for his feminist aspirations. I just lack a proper content. And compared to his former song actually a less emotional delivery. In a song about boys emotions he could 1. Be personal and express his actual emotions that he ironically hide. 2. Speak about male support, male friends listening to each other. Not joking when they open up to each other. To listen to each other for real. 3. Some role modeling. Sing about how he feels male emotions are surpressed and how we find them. Speak… Read more »
Sorry, to modern to win… you know ! We are not the cool cats that watch melfest here in Sweden.
But I aggre, it’s the most up dated song.
I really like the message of this song and the beat is interesting. It’s quite linear and with unusual progression. I’m a bit mixed about that aspect, but I respect Felix for trying out something new. My rating is still pending as my MF list is far from over.
Yes, he has a different sound and the melfest needs that. It’s good when songs whith modern sounds do well in melfest.
But honestly, those who win is not those whith the newest updated songs. The songs need to be a little traditional pop that all ages like. My 70 year old mother would not vote for Felix.
Yes the message and the lyric is really important for Felix. He is a feminist and talks a lot about the problem with men abusing women and that many men suffer of mental health problems which also have an impact on violence. So many men are suffering by mental health problems. He think that the way boys are bought up, Expected to be cool and hard has to change. It’s also a metoo message from a man. I have missed men that speak out and stand up in the meetoo debate. If boys are allowed to feel and develop emotions… Read more »
Well its obvious that this song is divisive. For me its a 10/10. But I understand why some people don’t get this. Anyway I would love to see this in Rotterdam!
This song has grown on me, i like its simplicity and it is really well produced. It feels very modern. But the lyrics are a MESS and the staging is quite cringeworthy… I think it should qualify to the finals but I would rank it at the bottom of the finalists (but before Mohombi).
i’d say it’s the only 2020-sounding song in this year’s melfest, production is on point, but the overall package could’ve been better. the performance is especially bad, but if we judged the song alone, it’s… better than whatever justin bieber tried to do with his album.
What is it that you don’t like about the performance. I think you have a point but just interested what you would like to change? Have my own thoughts but interested what other think! : )
i feel like it’s completely mismatched from the song. he doesn’t make it pass as cool at all, it looks very… embarrassing to witness! i’d definitely make a more stripped down performance.
Well, I had listen to an interview before his melfest performance. He mentioned that they had worked whit a lot of details that should strengthen the message., Whith the dancers expressions for example and the words.But I felt it was to subtile and to many of those details. I can see them now, but that is probably only because I look after them. I think most people don’t notice. He has a message, but I don’t feel that he manage to deliver it. Think he try to hard. I think Loreen as well tried to hard whit the corr in… Read more »
It’s the catchiest song of Melodifestivalen this year.
The performance was great imo. Felix needs to improve his vocals though.
I just want to say that the lyric is really important for Felix. He is the main reason for the message for the song. It’s he’s thoughts. He is a feminist and talks a lot about the problem with men abusing women and Thath many men suffer of mental health problems which also have an impact on violence. . He think that the way boys are bought up, Expected to be cool and hard has to change. It’s also a metoo message from a man. I have missed men that speak out and stand up in the meetoo debate. Felix… Read more »
Åri….from Wiwi. You are sooooo wrong when you write !!!!!!
” but it feels like the songwriters decided on the song’s name and then built this lyrically mediocre track around it.”.
Felix makes à statement in the meetoo movement! But it needs a little thinking to understand how!
Are you going to make a review on Ukrainian Vidbir?