The Wiwi Jury — our in-house panel of music unprofessionals — rates and reviews the songs competing in the grand final of Sweden’s Melodifestivalen 2020. Next up, we listen to Sweden’s Eurovision 2017 star Robin Bengtsson with his new song “Take a Chance”. Did we want to take a chance on him? Read on to find out!
Robin Bengtsson – “Take a Chance”
“Take a Chance” reviews
Angus: “Take a Chance” is a very catchy song and that’s not surprising since Jimmy Jansson co-wrote it. But despite a chorus you’ll be humming to yourself for days, it lacks the knockout punch one expects from a Melfest winner. Robin sounds great and the staging has a lot of similarities to “Constellation Prize”: alone on stage at microphone stand, lighting-driven staging etc. But the overwhelming feeling is wanting more. Even the big stadium chant climax feels underpowered. An unfortunate case of diminishing returns.
Score: 5/10
Florian: Even though it didn’t come across as his strongest vocal performance on the night, “Take a Chance” drives from very strong verses that transition into a catchy, upbeat chorus. The song brings together all of his qualities that he can deliver best in a song. Ahead of the grand final, he’ll surely work on his vocals and could once again be a contender to win the competition.
Score: 7.5/10
Luis: This is Robin’s worst Melfest attempt by far. “Take a Chance” sounds like the soundtrack of one of those terrible Swedish romantic films about the dramas of a high-class family. The song gets boring before it reaches the chorus, and the hook is not great either. Not even Robin’s undeniable charisma can save this. It’s sad that he’s back with such a piece of disposable pop.
Score: 3/10
Robyn: What’s going on with Sweden this year? There’s nothing at all wrong with this song, it just doesn’t stand out. It doesn’t need to have the same swagger as “I Can’t Go On”, but there still needs to be something. As it is, “Take a Chance” feels like a one-size-fits-all pop tune, that doesn’t give the listener anything special.
Score: 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:
Antranig: 4/10
Åri: 7.5/10 Barnabas: 5/10 Jonathan: 7/10 Lucy: 6/10 |
Natalie: 4/10
Pablo: 7.5/10 Ron: 8/10 Tobias: 7.5/10 Tom: 7/10 |
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 and a high of 8.
Sweden, please don’t take this chance! It doesn’t take any chance. Boring stuff.
His legs are better then his song x
This is my favourite song in the contest.
This is my favourite song in this year’s Melfest. And I still wouldn’t award it any higher than a 7 out of 10.
Imo Sweden really needs to rethink their approach and maybe go back to a one night edition with less returnees and has-beens and the some composers and maybe 7 or 8 competitive songs.
one my favs in Melo, but it is just a 6.75/10 for me, so consider the level…
I love this. It is so uplifting. My co fave to win.
Am not a fan of his vocal. Quite annoying.
You’re being very harsh with this one. I think it is pretty okay.
this song has as much personality as robin bengtsson himself, it’s appropriate for him
Are you being wicked?
Needs more treadmills.
I actually find the song really cute.
It’s one of my favourites but I think that tells you more about how I feel about this year’s lack of a standout Melfest song more than anything else.