The Wiwi Jury has landed in Sweden and we’re busy reviewing the 12 acts that have made it to the final of Melodifestivalen 2016. Next up is the bookies’ favourite Frans, with his folk pop number “If I Were Sorry”. Did we accept his apology? Read on to find out…
Frans – “If I Were Sorry”
“If I Were Sorry” reviews
Angus: This leaves me wishing Frans had taken that vow of silence instead of embarking on “If I Were Sorry”. The faux Brit accent delivery is annoying, the song mediocre, and the staging a calculated play in anti-Melfest styling, which clearly resonated in Sweden. The whole thing feels lame and contrived.
Score: 2/10
Deban: I would’ve appreciated “If I Were Sorry” more if its chilled, laid-back vibe was driven with a ska beat. In its current state, it is rather underwhelming, too repetitive and sounds like a lazy pop effort. Frans’ attitude works well within the parameters of what he’s given. However, overall this entry is suggesting “Let’s Participate” not “Let’s Win”.
Score: 5/10
Padraig: I get the success of “If I Were Sorry”. It’s in a similar vein to Lukas Graham’s worldwide hit, and could be the ungodly love-child of Justin Bieber and Ed Sheeran. But that doesn’t mean I’m a huge fan. The vocals are average, the English accent is grating and the lyrics get repetitive. Nonetheless, it was refreshing to witness him knocking the wind out of Molly’s sails. Now I’m just hoping that Wiktoria can do the same to him.
Score: 6.5/10
Robyn: At the fourth semi-final, I thought this was just an adorkable guy singing a cute folk song (with a twist!) that wouldn’t translate to Eurovision. But it’s stuck with me. I am now convinced that if this wins Melfest, it will go on to give Sweden their seventh Eurovision victory, the second in a row – all with a song that’s going “lol, not sorry”. And, ok, even if it doesn’t win ESC, it’s still the perfect Swedish entry to follow Måns’ victory – an anti-“Heroes” of sorts.
Score: 10/10
Tobias: When I first heard this song I didn’t really understand the hype about Frans and after listening another 20 times I still don’t. Yes, he’s the bookies’ favourite to win and he is the most played artist on Spotify in Sweden. But this song doesn’t say anything to me. It’s an ok song, he is cute, but a winner? Not at all. I doubt that Europe will embrace Frans the way the Swedish audience has. If Frans wins, I think Sweden will end up with a bad result at Eurovision. The song is just so repetitive and the staging plain boring. At some points he almost looks scared to look into the camera, like he is uncomfortable on stage.
Score: 7/10
William: Chit-chatty, charming and quietly powerful, this bucks all the rules of Melfest, which leans toward the over-the-top and technical. Its simplicity and his slight awkwardness makes this endearing and his voice works well with the casual nature of the song. I don’t think it would win Eurovision — it’s perhaps too at-ease for Eurovision viewers. But that’s unlikely to stop the hype and goodwill he’s enjoying here in Sweden. Now go Wiktoria!
Score: 8.5/10
Sami: This song is so overhyped. It’s a good song, I can’t deny that, but I would never in a million years expect it to win Melodifestivalen. Of course it stands out for its simplicity and Frans has the charisma, but I think there are several stronger songs in the final. This will likely win Melodifestivalen, but I hope it doesn’t win in May.
Score: 7/10
Mikhail: First of all, I simply don’t like Frans’ style of singing. He is telling a story, but I don’t get why he is telling me or know what I should feel. Neither he nor his song stir emotions in me. He seems to just chill on stage, but at the same time I feel some kind of tension. Average at best.
Score: 6/10
Bernardo: Much like Wiktoria, Frans is not an artist I would bet my money on — but bless his soul for bringing us such a happy, catchy and unique song. I don’t know if he can really compete with the big names in the final — hello, international jury — but his sweet looks are going to conquer the televote for sure.
Score: 8/10
Luis: “If I were sorry” is likeable and Frans delivers it quite well, and that’s it. It’s not pitch perfect and it doesn’t have strong staging. I feel like people like this by default — because they don’t like the other numbers — not because it’s strong on its own.
Score: 6/10
In the Swedish Wiwi Jury we have 26 jurors but only have room for 10 reviews. The remaining 16 scores are below!
Bogdan: 10/10
Denise: 8.5/10
Marek: 10/10
Maria: 9/10
Patrick: 2.5/10
Rezo: 1/10
Sinan: 7.5/10
Edd: 9/10
Josh: 7.5/10
Ron: 7/10
Anthony: 5.5/10
Steinunn: 4/10
Antranig: 0/10
Chris: 2/10
Max: 7/10
Ramadan: 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.
Sweden is trying hard not to win again by sending him.
Ok nevermind just realized he actually IS British, my bad. Still sounds too exaggerated though.
Nice track, but his attempt at faking a Brit accent is just horrible LOL
not my cup of tea. here at south we like more powerful acts. where’s the joy and fun? or big sadness, or dark energy? it’s dull, hard to understand the reason he’s staying on stage for 3 minutes. why they zoomed to his lips? never do that when someone does not have sexy lips 🙂
After a few listens I’m starting to like the rhythm of it… if only it was sung by somebody, anybody else! I still can’t stand his voice.
He seems like a cocky little s**t.. The way he acted during the rehearsal. Sorry. And someone said he acted bad against journalists. That I don’t know about. But he has admitted that he doesn’t quite like the attention outside the stage. And if someone
enters Melodifestivalen with a great
chance of winning.. you don’t say that
it’s going to be 70% fun because he misses out on school if he goes to esc.! Why in the world did he enter then?? Go back to school!
I hope Frans wins on Saturday! If he does, Sweden will be in my top 3 🙂
I still believe that Robin and Molly are better options for Sweden than Frans.Frans is cute, his song possess quality but its boring.Anyway whatever you chose Sweden good luck! I hope you win!
Swedes love this because this is the sound of 2016. Enough with that pop divas (Moldova, Iceland, Finland, Norway etc.), bad in their styles (Cyprus, Montenegro, Romania – these songs are few of the worst rock songs I’ve ever heard, even Finland 2015 was better representitives of their style). Ace, Wiktoria, Molly and whoever more there is would be just another pop singer. Viktor & Samir would only be a joy for girls and homosexual men (which is a big part of esc fans, FIFA for gays, you know?). Song sounds as cheap as it could get (just like most… Read more »
LOL @ typo. Sinilarity* should be similarity. Sinful typing perhaps
Just a quick note on Robyn’s review in the article above – I can see where this is coming from. I can imagine Sweden winning again with this song, simply because it goes completely against their previous year’s genre of entry, and because there is that sinilarity to hit songs of this decade, as Robyn points out. When i first heard Frans’ song, I thought “this is the winner of MF,” but I wasn’t so sure about ESC. But now it seems ESC is going to have its weakest year of songs in about a decade, I can actually see… Read more »
I am so perplexed by the popularity of this song in Sweden and (more importantly) with the oddsmakers. It barely qualifies as a song.
If he win televote and juries place him 4-5 he will lose.I think that the juries will vote Robin, Molly, Oscar and maybe Ace.if for example Frans win televote and in juries is 4 and Robin or Molly win juries and is second in televote then one of them will win and Frans wont.Am I right?
Constellation prize is better than this.
He is underrated by wiwijuries..seriously, how this song doesn’t growing on your mind. This song is brilliant! But I agree that this song shouldn’t win the festival
Sweden forgotten that Mans Zelmerlow won Eurovision Song Contest and that’s why they have their Aminata.
Hate it and keep hating it as much as you want, it will win and it will have a great result in May. And for God’s sake, get some taste in music or get new people to write reviews.
Now I think that I gave too many points for Frans in rating. He is not better than other entries. 6/10 is optimum. Unfortunately he can get more points in final in Melodifestivalen than it is in my prediction, because he is “original”. But he is original only compared to entries in Melodifestivalen. He will be the same as many other craps in Eurovision 2016 in Stockholm. He will not withstand stage in Stockholm with his entry. It is too big and difficult.
Every entry from final of Melodifestivalen could be top 10 in ESC.
If Frans will get above 200 points in final of Melodifestivalen, it will be not his greatness. It will be because he is more original than other entries in Melodifestivalen, but it doesn’t mean that he is better, because Melodifestivalen is Premier League. In Premier League you have Leicester as leader, and Frans is Leicester of Melodifestivalen.
Don’t hate it, but it is not ending up in my playlist either. The song itself is alright to decent within its genre, so it is not enough to wow me since it is not my taste (and many others’ it seems).
So much hate coming from some Ace Wilder’s lovers in the wiwi jury! Antranig give a 0 to Frans but a 10 to Ace? Taste aside, even “If I were sorry” isn’t the best song this year, is much better than “Don’t worry”. But this song gets a 6.31 because of what? I think that some of the juries don’t have any standards while evaluating a song. They just see Ace and give her a 10, giving, at the same time, less points to other fav entries trying to decrease their global score (or atleast that what it seems). Anyway,… Read more »
STOP COMPLAINING ABOUT HIS ACCENT!!! He’s BRITISH for God sake. He speaks and sings in better english than most of us here!
I think he can be the “Lena of the year”. I’m very convinced that we won’t win again this year but top 10 is VERY possible.
It’s Frans that the swedes like. The song is nothing special. Yes it sounds very much like “Catch and release”. If we were not directly in the final we would have seen another Anna Bergendahl incedent. I hope somewhat that the esc-fans thoughts about this song will be like the international juries. That it will end up outside top 5 after they voted. Because I don’t think he is as superior as Måns last year.
DAMIII IMM AND HER SONG IS THE NEXT WINNER. AMAZING 🙂
I know why it’s doing so well in Sweden. It’s because songs like this aren’t the advertised in countries like that so it sounds alien to them but to the rest of Europe we have all heard it before especially the brits its nothing new and the accent is terrible! It may stand out only if non of the remaining countries don’t bring in a killer ballad they need to watch out for Azerbaijan and Serbia. But I understand why it’s doing well as songs like this don’t get that much advertisement in countries like Sweden they are just fed… Read more »
@Marc
That’s not true – it’s the one song that would bore people on the radio. As much as I don’t like it as a song, even Don’t Worry would do better.
This song has, unlike so so many of the Melfest songs this year, a spark of realness to it. Frans is able to convey the message of the song perfectly, and that’s a skill that even the most commercial producers in the world, the Swedes, can’t snuff out 😛
It’s not perfect, but I’m definitely good with this being the Swedish entry and if it’s between this and Sergey’s song for the win in May, I’d be on #teamFrans for sure.
“If I were sorry” is the only song we have this year so far that can be played on the radio, that’s a fact. This is another level seriously. Hopefully next year other countries will try better.
I don’t get the hate by some people towards this song. There are better ones in the final, but this one is a really pleasant surprise and feels refreshing in the melfest field of songs, which are either schlager or have a really busy stage presentation
I predict that this song will place 15 – 20 on ESC
@KC – Even so, what is the point?
Which Melfest song blows Frans out of the water? The problem is that all the songs this year are mediocre and have problems. As a result, Sweden are perfectly entitled to vote for somebody they like rather than someone else with only a SLIGHTLY better song.
Worst song in the final
Why wouldn’t the international jury like him? A Good song is a good song and Frans charm is universal. He will get around 35-40 % of the televotes.
I am in shock by some of the low marks for this song.
Just WHICH song at Melfest is that much better this year?