Sweden – Dance You Off

Benjamin Ingrosso was a nice boy with a nice falsetto. Last year, he entered Melodifestivalen with Good Lovin’, a song of a lovelorn boy. Ingrosso wore his pants too high, and his staging made him look like someone excited to be taking the foil off a baked potato. It was a fun song, but edged out by my problematic fave I Can’t Go On.

I don’t know what’s happened to Ingrosso in the past year, but he returned to Melodifestivalen with a song of heartbreak and sass; the ultimate club banger for when you’re trying to get over a heartbreak. More importantly, teen idol Ingrosso has been transformed into juvenile delinquent Ingrosso, complete with leather jacket and sexy dance moves. It’s like watching the emergence of Sandy at the end of Grease.

Maybe this won’t come through at home. The camerawork can capture the choreography but not the absolute ease with which Ingrosso lewdly swivels his hips. His pelvis is so nakedly sexual in this song, it’s hard to reconcile with his Tiger Beat face. Surely someone with those boyish good looks should not know how to move his hips so….professionally. It makes people like me feel quite silly for being affected.

And speaking of his choreography, I don’t know who’s put this together for Ingrosso, but major kudos to whoever it might be. In particular, there’s a great move where Ingrosso pauses, looks coquettishly over his shoulder, and does a mini-head toss. It’s a dance move usually associated with women, and by using it, Ingrosso seems to be signalling that he’s ready to be picked up. He’s out looking for anyone to forget this person of heartbreak (including any sexy audience members, apparently). The one disappointment of the staging for the big show is that Ingrosso has apparently stopped shrugging his jacket off his shoulder, exposing one shoulder in a coy invitation to approach.

But how’s the music, you ask? It’s Sweden. It’s a competent and hummable banger that could easily win Eurovision and not shame the EBU. Some people may not dig the falsetto, but the music isn’t the point with Ingrosso. It’s the package – the leather jacket, the lights, the moonwalk – that sells this song.

TWITTER JOKES YOU SHOULDN’T BOTHER MAKING BECAUSE THEY’VE ALREADY BEEN DONE BETTER BY THE EUROFANDOM: No one jokes about Ingrosso, because they’re hypnotized by those swaying hips.

SHOULD YOU TAKE A PEE BREAK DURING HIS PERFORMANCE: No! At this point, you’re just going to have to hold it until the end of the show.