Tim: I got listening to my Melodifestivalen Best Of album again earlier.
Tom: Of course you have a Melodifestivalen Best Of album.
Tim: Of course I do – it’s brilliant. This is the winner from 1984, and I challenge you to listen to it without wanting to click your fingers in the chorus.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p-RRXHG00GY
Tom: Oh heavens, that’s astonishingly 80s right there. Matching white trousers.
Tim: SPOILER if you’ve got Eurovision 1984 on Sky+ and haven’t got round to watching it yet: this came first, as you can probably judge from the crowd’s reaction there, and why wouldn’t it? These guys are up there singing about the glories of being laughed at for their choice of shoes.
Tom: Ha! Somehow that elevates the song from ‘kitsch’ to ‘brilliance’ in my head, but I’ve no idea why.
Tim: Well good, because it should. Of course, since the vast majority of Europe didn’t know that, the lesson we can take is that the best tactic for victory is jumble a few singable syllables that don’t make sense to anyone and trust that they’re catchy enough to be remembered. And here: oh yes.
Tom: Plus a key change. Always a key change.
Tim: Always. This is catchy, nonsensical, and entirely JOYOUS, because that comes across even if the details don’t. LOVELY LOVELY TRACK.