The Wiwi Jury — our in-house panel of music unprofessionals — continues to rate and review the songs competing in the andra chansen round of Sweden’s Melodifestivalen 2019. Next up, we listen to Martin Stenmarck with “Låt skiten brinna”. We we feeling his heat?
Martin Stenmarck – “Låt skiten brinna”
“Låt skiten brinna” reviews
Anthony: Although he avoided crashing out as he did in 2016 and getting Dolly Style revenge in the process, I’m still torn on Martin. He’s a talented man and “Låt skiten brinna” may feel like an improvement on “Du tar mig tillbaks”, but he still lacks charisma and his stage presence makes “Las Vegas” look like a half decent entry. It’s just a case of whether he’ll make it to the final again.
Score: 5.5/10
Bernardo: This is what I call a Melfest filler. Not bad but not good enough. Martin is very charismatic but unfortunately it is not enough to make the song competitive. The chorus melody is very catchy and the “oh, oh, ohhs” give it an anthemic quality that Melodifestivalen tracks usually don’t have, but that’s probably one of its only qualities.
Score: 5/10
Deban: “Låt skiten brinna” is schlager by numbers. To the non-Swedish speaking listener, this song brings nothing particularly memorable to the table. Despite being forgetful, it marries decent vocals with modern instrumentation. However, as it builds nicely towards the bridge, it falls flat again just after it. Clearly, it is in need of a lift as much as Martin needs an expressive personality.
Score: 5/10
Lucy: I can’t help but think this is the most dull song to make it past the heats. I really don’t enjoy it — it just doesn’t take me anywhere. I would love Sweden to actually send a song in Swedish, just not this. I just don’t feel anything when I hear this, and I feel like his vocals really need some work before andra chansen. I’ll be amazed if this goes any further.
Score: 2/10
Robyn: Despite having a highly dramatic title (“Let the shit burn”), this is a surprisingly lacklustre song. “Låt skiten brinna” comes across like a wannabe uplifting ballad — though it may have more impact for its intended Swedish-speaking audience. Part of the problem is Martin himself. While he’s a good vocalist, he doesn’t have the same charisma as other artists in the competition. A song like this obviously has an audience, but I’m not part of that audience.
Score: 5/10
Tobias: This is not bad but it’s not good either — I find it rather boring. Martin’s voice is good and the light show behind him makes the whole performance stand out. But it’s just not a good and memorable melody or chorus — two of the most important aspects of a song. I give him two points for the voice and the light show.
Score: 2/10
In our Melodifestivalen Wiwi Jury, we have 12 jurors but only room for 6 reviews. The rest of our scores can be found below:
| Angus: 3/10
Antranig: 5/10 Cinan: 6/10 |
Florian: 3/10
Luis: 2/10 Ron: 6.5/10 |
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 and a high of 6.5.
Lat skiten brinna – At first, it comes off as regular Swedish mid-tempo pleasant background theme. Then you read that the lyrics contain profanity. Who’d say? It’s actually not that bad and the melody is quite light to sing along to. However, it still comes off as rather pedestrian and uninteresting, especially if it’s goal is indeed to be provocative. – 5/10
I dont remember the song, but the lyrics are very humm humm humm… “Let the sh*t burn”
Maybe he sings about Melfest or ESC?
2/10 implies that this is one of the worst songs in the selection. It really isn’t.
“Når änglarna går hem” is still his best entry so far.
I agree, it is still one of the best swedish songs to participate in the last decade. He deserved to make the final with it.
I don’t think people have ever forgiven him for getting in the way of Nanne’s victory.
On the plus side, it’s in Swedish. Everything else: It’s fine but needed an extra something to make the whole performance memorable.
That reminds me: This year marks 30 years since Sweden started sending songs not in their native language on the regular.
Correction: 20 years. 😀
Yeah, but not just Sweden. Most countries.