Sweden: douze points!

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[6.43]

Edward Okulicz: I’ve been a bit harsh about “Euphoria,” largely because it ran away with Eurovision while my faves flopped; I preferred the song Loreen sang last year in Melodifestivalen (the lovely “My Heart is Refusing Me“); and, worst of all, the song was daring to cross over and excite people who don’t even like Eurovision! Stupid me, that’s the reason why I should have been celebrating it. And it’s worthy of some celebration; it may be all chorus, but it’s a serious whomp of one, and Loreen’s delivery is worthy of the song’s title. In the context of the competition, I can’t love it as much as “Every Way That I Can,” “Satellite,” or “Wild Dances” but there’s something refreshing about it in the context of the kind of dense pop that charts and blares everywhere. There’s a reverent, guileless charm about it. Dare I say, if it got the chance, it could become the first Eurovision track to grace the upper reaches of the Hot 100 since “Ooh Aah.. Just a Little Bit” crossed over? Nah, it’s not as good, but it is at least somewhat good.
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Alex Ostroff: I have two huge soft spots when in comes to dance divas pop: (1) songs that sound like Robin S., and (2) songs that sound like trance remixes of Céline. While Loreen is Moroccan-Swedish, when she mumbles her way through the verses, barely enunciating, her vowels are nearly Gallic and delightfully Dionesque. In an age where build and release can no longer be taken for granted, the admirable restraint in the verses makes the chorus genuinely euphoric. Plus, that bonkers interpretive dance with the weird skittering foot movements was A++.
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Iain Mew: Was this the result of some kind of bosh challenge to not only conquer Europe, but do so with a song with as little to it as possible apart from UP UP UP UP UP? If so, well played.
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Anthony Easton: The up, up, up transforms it from a simple dance number to a piece of Eurocheese. Confusing Euphoria as ecstasy makes the cheese at least amusing.
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Katherine St Asaph: Half quietstorm reworking of David Guetta, half exuberant reworking of “Till The World Ends”; the halves don’t quite fit together, but the reworkings merit attention.
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Alfred Soto: Euphoric in a Britney singing-in-the-shower way, down to the stutter. But where Britney doesn’t project pleasure so much as pleasure itself, Loreen sounds like she learned it from, I dunno, Roland Barthes.
[5]

Brad Shoup: Hearing that Hans Zimmer-via-Kanye blurt, I thought Mr. God might have actually paid a visit. But it’s throwback bosh scattered on a vast expanse. Please don’t think I’m complaining.
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