Taken from this week’s Future Pop mailer. Click here to subscribe.
As much as I like to discover innovative, fresh and exciting new music, sometimes all I really want is a song that will make me smile, and Sweden is the best at providing those tunes. The new single from Swedish Idol alumnus and Melodifestivalen 2016 star Robin Bengtsson is certainly not going to win any awards, but to me it’s a work of art. Stevie Wonder is a mashup of camp Scandipop and tropical house, with lyrics so ridiculous you just have to laugh (and cringe). It may truly be the least pretentious song in the history of music, and that’s why I had to feature it as my Song of the Week. No matter how many times you hear this song, you’ll never know for sure if you love or hate it – that’s exactly the joy of it. The most interesting fact about this track is that it’s not the work of some cynical old men, writing nonsense to patronise pop fans – in fact it was written by a trio of talent show stars: Robin himself, along with Fame Factory’s Jimmy Jansson and Idol 2013’s Gabriel Alares. I only wish they’d released it as a boyband… oh, what could have been.
Click here to watch the lyric video.