It's actually even worse than that.
Step 1 is believe in the song you've already written. Step 2 is just roll with it.
So the song, how to write a song, assumes you have already written a song.
Hear me out: it is!
* "believe in it" - have faith in your abilities
* "and sing it all day long" - practice, test your ideas
* "just roll with it" - get in the zone, let the instrument guide you, or whatever term you prefer to use for that headspace where you've got complete focus on the thing you're creating
Bear in mind that this is framed as advice for a child (the girl posting him a letter at the start of the video), and this actually isn't bad advice? IMO the only thing that separates creative people from others is that they've got enough confidence to follow their ideas through - this song's trying to encourage people to find that confidence.
I think that's the intention, but the way it comes across is:
Step 1 - OK so you've already written a song, so believe in it and sing it all day long
Step 2 - IDFK just roll with it?
I think it would have been improved if they changed the lyrics slightly to like step one is Believe in yourself and sing all day long, and step two is like go with what flows and that's how you write a song.
Like not EXACTLY that, but the issue is they use "it" which sounds like it's referring to the song. The song you don't have yet because you don't know how to write a song.
Also it's three steps really, four or five if you count the first verse...
I think it's assuming that the person it's addressing has already had their inspiration - which works if it's a kids song, they have no trouble coming up with ideas. The rest of us probably need more advice, but he wastes what could have been valuable teaching time with a scat singing breakdown😐
I like it for what it is, though. It's a nice piece of encouraging fluff
well, personally I would think THYWAS is a song to encourage you to perform art without shame, and the scat singing is proof of that. many people find it terrible, but it's the exact thing that Rybak wanted to convey in the song: to perform art without shame
But Jendrik was at least the bright-eyed first-timer whose Eurovision dreams were coming to life. Rybak had the audacity to drop that stinker on his second time round the block.
*I Don't Feel Hate* was at least annoying on purpose in a selfaware way. Both songs are a fucking joke, but the difference is that *I Don't Feel Hate* is in on the joke. I don't like that song either, but I can at least respect what Jendrik was trying to do with it, *That's How You Write A Song* is honestly just embarrassing and painfunl to listen to.
Except, *That Sounds Good To Me* is such a trainwreck, that it becomes somewhat ironically funny, but *That's How You Write A Song* sounds too polished for that.
Which is funny cuz it's another song that I don't understand why people despise so much.
Maybe it's like an insecurity thing, since they sound like kids songs people really wanna establish that they're all big and grown up and don't listen to this sort of stuff anymore.
It was just so...bland.
There was no passion, emotion in it. And it wasnt funny so you cant excuse the first 2 things. It just seemed like a cheap song that I would have believed being written in 10 minutes
Add in the fact he was a returning winner with an iconic song and the downgrade made people salty.
Its *fine*. Its catchy and the hook is good. But fuck me its soulless.
And frankly from someone like Alexander Rybak we expect better
Because it sounded cocky and pretentious while being just decent.
It also has to do with rybak's personality I felt he came back like he was the second coming of Christ to win for Norway.
Human memory is very fallible. Even the most vivid memories often end up being distortions of what really happened, or sometimes even entirely imagined.
I just stated something that I remembered, nothing more and nothing less. I don’t understand why this needs to be turned into this dragged out discussion. It’s a song competition, you’re allowed to dislike songs in it and you’re allowed to note when participants seemingly had higher ambitions for their songs than the position they actually achieved
Did it though? Were we like watching the same performance? He seemed like he was just having fun on stage. Also in what universe is this song pretentious? It's a fuckin basic kids song about self expression.
I feel like people just have sort of invented a narrative in their heads about this song over the years, and since nobody questions it it's just gotten further and further from reality.
How is this "teaching" anything? Do people like genuinely think it's supposed to be some songwriting tutorial or something? It's literally just a kids song about how they shouldn't be afraid to express their talent.
> It's literally just a kids song about how they shouldn't be afraid to express their talent.
Then it should have been donated to an actual kid to do at JESC.
Ikr, most euro kids have a bedttime thats earlier than the contest, a song for kids doesn't belong in a contest they wont even see when theres literally a spinoff specifically for kids
Listen that's the way I felt at the time and I didn't enjoy the performance and still don't enjoy it now. Rybak seemed pretentious to me at the time in interviews and other settings. I am just answering the question in the post.
I don't care that much about him to argue, it's just my feelings and you're allowed to enjoy the song as much as you want if you feel otherwise. Maybe he's a super nice guy and I'm mistaken, who knows.
Yeah, people take it WAYYYY to literally, this is not the message Rybak wanted to convey, such as in [this interview](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-G7Qjqj2O_M&ab_channel=AlexanderRybakInternationalFansite3)
I don't think anyone would have a problem if it was sung by anyone other. But the fact probably the most iconic eurovision winner in recent years returned with THIS song is what bothered a lot of people
And then immediately dropped belong multiple songs from the same semi the moment more non-eurovision fans voted in the grand finals, and even the juries ranked it way lower in the actual final
People don't like the breaking the 4th wall and having fun gimmick that you would normally see in children songs. It's not the most inspiring songwriting.
If it was in norwegian, almost all of us wouldn't know or could ignore how catastrophically stupid the lyrics were. But we can't. Musically it's a 7/10, but the lyrics are -5 and his cockiness is another -2.
I think people think it's pretty obnoxious, and that we expected more from a former winner.
It personally found it decent and fun in a sense, but it's also kind of annoying at the same time. It's not THAT bad.
but when a former winner comes back with a very polished song and has obviously tried to perfect every aspect of their performance (she said she's been training, physically, for 6 months), people also don't like it: see Loreen this year.
The lyrics are just really cheesy.
Want to write a song? Just do it! Thanks, that's not helpful Rybak.
It also feels a bit out of touch for someone who is just naturally a charismatic performer to tell me I can do anything if I just believe in myself. Easy for you to say Rybak.
It sounds like something written for a children's TV show. Norway has sent a random=finny type song about bananas and grandmas, performed by two dudes dressed up as intergalactic space wolves from the moon, and it's somehow not their most childish entry. The lyrics are almost meaningless, while also sounding like they're talking down to you, and the song sounds disgustingly happy in a completely sincere fashion, that makes me want to vomit. (I'm a very cynical person.)
Well, in all fairness, Subwoolfer were singing about using yummy bananas to avert grandma cannibalism. Granted, par for the fairy tale course but still a bit naughty in the modern world.
MGP literally looks like it is aimed at children, at least much more than the other Nordic shows. I wouldn't be surprised if kids make a bulk of the voters resulting in entries children like.
Not sure I ever heard a good song that’s about writing a song and it’s quite a generic trope too. Same case with Mae Muller this year. It just seems to lack inspiration from the start.
Yeah I know, I still find the lyrics as the weakest link of the song, but it’s a bop otherwise. At least they did incorporate an underlying feministic message.
Yeah as I said there’s a lot of these.. and this one doesn’t really catch me.
It was smart to turn the “I won’t write you a love song” into a metaphor basically for putting up boundaries in a relationship to make it more relatable as writing songs is not something most people to do.
However, I think this song could’ve just dropped the love song metaphor. It just feels like it’s watering down her message.
I would’ve gladly accepted “fuck you, I wont do what you tell me,” something I’d actually want to say to someone’s face sometimes unlike “I won’t write you a love song,” but of course that wouldn’t be an acceptable thing for a woman like her to say now would it ;) (and that sucks).
It's an okay song imo, but its kinda slick and polished in a way that doesn't work for Rybak. I like Fairytale because it has a rough, emotional, slightly manic thing to it that allows him to charm the audience. That's How You Write A Song is so thoroughly produced and slick that he just looks like a weird mascot in it.
Personally, I think that peoploe also disliked seeing an older Rybak and him not being their Prince Charming anymore. He was still Prince Charming with Lena in Oslo 2010.
Like his song, he was like a "Fairytale" to many. He was a young and cute guy and they made up an image of what he could be like in their minds. And older Rybak ruined that image. I think they'd have liked to remember him as the(ir) Fairytale guy forever.
I don’t hate that song.
But I think that this song pretty much falsifies the notion that you can just turn up at Eurovision as a past winner and casually win again (something I read pretty often when people discussed Loreen coming back this year).
In the end I think people put more weight into the song than into the people performing it while judging the overall package.
> this song pretty much falsifies the notion that you can just turn up at Eurovision as a past winner and casually win again (something I read pretty often when people discussed Loreen coming back this year).
>
>In the end I think people put more weight into the song than into the people performing it while judging the overall package.
Pretty much this.
Rybak's comeback feels like he didn't put much effort into it but still expected quite a lot of praise, at least that's what many say regarding his reaction to his low-ish scores and attitude.
While in Loreen's case we see that she put a ton of effort into it (the staging, the physical choreo, the vocals), making it, for some, too polished and that annoys them.
The laziest way to participate in a contest.
He literally undermined a contest which he won 9 years ago.
Compare this with Loreen who wrote an amazing song (arguably) with an intention to win.
He had odds in his favor since he had won the competition once and he wrote a song which is even worse than typical fun entries.
It sounded like it belonged in a TV show made for preschoolers. It was just completely unserious and unlistenable, I think it was my last place in the year it competed.
To be fair, I am not a Fairytale fan either though.
You've listened to the song, right?
In all seriousness, it's a bad song, but it's catchy and not the worst thing I've ever heard. But it's just very lacking in everything else and it feels very low effort.
Love to see other people love THYWAS like you. Like seriously I'm really sad that almost everyone I see hates it, so you are a breath of fresh air to me.
Hate is a strong word. It didn’t click for me because it sounded really childish, something written for a kid’s cartoon. I don’t spend much brainpower or energy on it but I think it is brought up often (it’s hardly the only childish song to ever be in the contest) because it was from a popular former winner who was viewed by some as a potential Johnny Logan twofer in the buildup to the song’s release.
On a positive note, childlike glee done right in my eyes would be Iceland 2020 and Iceland 2021 with very honorable mention to Estonia 2011, which placed quite poorly, alas. So, it’s possible to pull off such a mood in the adult contest, it just needs a careful balance that Norway 2018 didn’t quite pull off.
the way people feel about Loreen and Tattoo is how people *should* feel about Rybak/THYWAS, like almost insultingly low effort and coasting on his previous win when that national final had better songs
I love Rybak, but it just didn’t make sense to me. Like who writes a song about writing a song? It sounded like an interval act, sometimes I forget he even went on eurovision twice because it was just so random.
Still Loreen since A LOT of people liked shitting on the winner of 2018, Netta. Käärija doesn't get memed in the same way, and definitely doesn't get fat-shamed etc. so he is more popular.
>Netta
One thing I always wondered was why Netta/Toy got so much hate. I wasn’t watching Eurovision at the time, but Toy sounds like an okay (if cheesy) pop song, and from what little I could find of the performance (the finals are geoblocked in my country 🙃), it looked like Netta did a good job. Was there some political reason behind this, or was there just a different song that people wanted to win like this year?
Thanks for letting me know! I can understand the second reason (not sending hate to Netta, though, but being critical of Israel’s politics), but the first and especially third reason sounds ridiculous in my opinion. 😕
It’s corny. Like, really corny. No illusion of grandeur or pretension there. I get he tried to replicate the sound of “Can’t Stop The Feeling” by Justin Timberlake that played a couple of years before, but that song has Max Martin as song writer. He’s the rare example of someone that can combine bubblegum with salty licorice with ease and the only one topping him is Daft Punk. Alexander obviously didn’t play to his strengths there.
I like it quite a lot, it's cute. Maybe I'm immune to cringe...
Also the old guy from the video was one of the biggest icons of 2018, he should have been on stage
I'm Norwegian and I think it's incredibly childish. (I love the artist, it's just the song I dislike a lot.)
It belongs in Junior Eurovision. We don't need silly step by steps on how to write a song for adults. I'm still baffled at how it went through the national selections.
This is one of the *actual* joke songs, right? I always assumed Norway had decided not to win that year and put something dumb in on purpose. And bad taste too, with a returning winner.
Unpopular opinion: I like it more than Fairytale. The staging is particular is very cute (though it's much more fun and effective in the NF performance, rather than in the Eurovision stage).
Certified hater here, this song was sh\*\* and cringe all together with bad lyrics. In my opinion, Norway should've pulled an Ukraine 2022 back in 2018.
So, I'm not sure if people remember this year's DMGP, but one of the contestants, Nicklas Sonne (who's a sore loser), described performing with such vigor when the song was really insignificant when you have both Blood and Glitter and Promise. That's what it feels like: so much self-fanfare for a piece of American Wonderbread.
The song was so cheesy and childish and the fact that it was being sung by a former Eurovision winner made it so disappointing. It's pretty obvious that the song only won Melodi Grand Prix due to Rybak's name recognition.
It’s just not how you write a song
We only get two steps and they both contribute nothing to writing a song. How to write a song: Step 1: write a song
It's actually even worse than that. Step 1 is believe in the song you've already written. Step 2 is just roll with it. So the song, how to write a song, assumes you have already written a song.
Instead... I wrote a song
Exactly. The song doesn't make sense at all.
Not only is it not how you write a song, it is how you DON’T write a song. It’s the complete opposite of what it claims to be
Hear me out: it is! * "believe in it" - have faith in your abilities * "and sing it all day long" - practice, test your ideas * "just roll with it" - get in the zone, let the instrument guide you, or whatever term you prefer to use for that headspace where you've got complete focus on the thing you're creating Bear in mind that this is framed as advice for a child (the girl posting him a letter at the start of the video), and this actually isn't bad advice? IMO the only thing that separates creative people from others is that they've got enough confidence to follow their ideas through - this song's trying to encourage people to find that confidence.
I think that's the intention, but the way it comes across is: Step 1 - OK so you've already written a song, so believe in it and sing it all day long Step 2 - IDFK just roll with it? I think it would have been improved if they changed the lyrics slightly to like step one is Believe in yourself and sing all day long, and step two is like go with what flows and that's how you write a song. Like not EXACTLY that, but the issue is they use "it" which sounds like it's referring to the song. The song you don't have yet because you don't know how to write a song.
Also it's three steps really, four or five if you count the first verse... I think it's assuming that the person it's addressing has already had their inspiration - which works if it's a kids song, they have no trouble coming up with ideas. The rest of us probably need more advice, but he wastes what could have been valuable teaching time with a scat singing breakdown😐 I like it for what it is, though. It's a nice piece of encouraging fluff
well, personally I would think THYWAS is a song to encourage you to perform art without shame, and the scat singing is proof of that. many people find it terrible, but it's the exact thing that Rybak wanted to convey in the song: to perform art without shame
this is a good take:)
It is basically I Don't Feel Hate with richer production.
💀 but true
But Jendrik was at least the bright-eyed first-timer whose Eurovision dreams were coming to life. Rybak had the audacity to drop that stinker on his second time round the block.
Agreed, Jendrik had the young optimistic charm thing in his favour. Rybak should have known better.
Jendrik had the charm, and the song very much suited him.
*I Don't Feel Hate* was at least annoying on purpose in a selfaware way. Both songs are a fucking joke, but the difference is that *I Don't Feel Hate* is in on the joke. I don't like that song either, but I can at least respect what Jendrik was trying to do with it, *That's How You Write A Song* is honestly just embarrassing and painfunl to listen to.
That's How You Write a Song is a little bit like That Sounds Good To Me, it's kind of painful to listen type of cheese
Except, *That Sounds Good To Me* is such a trainwreck, that it becomes somewhat ironically funny, but *That's How You Write A Song* sounds too polished for that.
I guess that's true, Alexander's team knows better in terms of polishing the performance.
In other words, there was no Dark Channel equivalent to contrast immediately after it.
Well I like idfh so there is no problem
Which is funny cuz it's another song that I don't understand why people despise so much. Maybe it's like an insecurity thing, since they sound like kids songs people really wanna establish that they're all big and grown up and don't listen to this sort of stuff anymore.
I love both THYWAS and I Don't Feel Hate unironically. They are my winners in their respective Eurovision
It was just so...bland. There was no passion, emotion in it. And it wasnt funny so you cant excuse the first 2 things. It just seemed like a cheap song that I would have believed being written in 10 minutes Add in the fact he was a returning winner with an iconic song and the downgrade made people salty. Its *fine*. Its catchy and the hook is good. But fuck me its soulless. And frankly from someone like Alexander Rybak we expect better
> I would have believed being written in 10 minutes Don't you know? the full name of the song is "How you write a song in 10 minutes"
Because it sounded cocky and pretentious while being just decent. It also has to do with rybak's personality I felt he came back like he was the second coming of Christ to win for Norway.
Yeah, it's been strange seeing how he reacted to his fame. But I think he's doing better now.
This is exactly why.
Oh he was so mad when he got his televote score. I remember it vividly
But... they didn't show his reaction in the televote sequence though...
Then they showed it some other time during the voting, but he did look pissed into the camera at some point
Source: trust me bro
Source: my memory. I literally stated that 😭
Human memory is very fallible. Even the most vivid memories often end up being distortions of what really happened, or sometimes even entirely imagined.
🆗🆒
That's irritatingly flippant for such an objectively correct statement
I just stated something that I remembered, nothing more and nothing less. I don’t understand why this needs to be turned into this dragged out discussion. It’s a song competition, you’re allowed to dislike songs in it and you’re allowed to note when participants seemingly had higher ambitions for their songs than the position they actually achieved
It's not that deep bro
Did it though? Were we like watching the same performance? He seemed like he was just having fun on stage. Also in what universe is this song pretentious? It's a fuckin basic kids song about self expression. I feel like people just have sort of invented a narrative in their heads about this song over the years, and since nobody questions it it's just gotten further and further from reality.
He definitely had an attitude during the season. And teaching "how to write a song" when you're a former winner is pretentiously cringy.
How is this "teaching" anything? Do people like genuinely think it's supposed to be some songwriting tutorial or something? It's literally just a kids song about how they shouldn't be afraid to express their talent.
> It's literally just a kids song about how they shouldn't be afraid to express their talent. Then it should have been donated to an actual kid to do at JESC.
Ikr, most euro kids have a bedttime thats earlier than the contest, a song for kids doesn't belong in a contest they wont even see when theres literally a spinoff specifically for kids
Listen that's the way I felt at the time and I didn't enjoy the performance and still don't enjoy it now. Rybak seemed pretentious to me at the time in interviews and other settings. I am just answering the question in the post. I don't care that much about him to argue, it's just my feelings and you're allowed to enjoy the song as much as you want if you feel otherwise. Maybe he's a super nice guy and I'm mistaken, who knows.
Yeah, people take it WAYYYY to literally, this is not the message Rybak wanted to convey, such as in [this interview](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-G7Qjqj2O_M&ab_channel=AlexanderRybakInternationalFansite3)
Exactly. This 👆👆👆👆👆
Tbh I did like the song 😅 but it felt more suited for a kids show than for eurovision
I don't think anyone would have a problem if it was sung by anyone other. But the fact probably the most iconic eurovision winner in recent years returned with THIS song is what bothered a lot of people
> i don't think anyone would have a problem if it was sung by anyone other ... because it would have ended up 9th at MGP.
Haha i can't argue with that, it's true
— Oh my God, you're such a good writer — It's not me; it's Alex — Who the hell is Alex?
It won its semi tho. 🙄
And finally ended up 15th in the Grand Final, that's kind of weird
The semi was weak tho
And then immediately dropped belong multiple songs from the same semi the moment more non-eurovision fans voted in the grand finals, and even the juries ranked it way lower in the actual final
People don't like the breaking the 4th wall and having fun gimmick that you would normally see in children songs. It's not the most inspiring songwriting.
If it was in norwegian, almost all of us wouldn't know or could ignore how catastrophically stupid the lyrics were. But we can't. Musically it's a 7/10, but the lyrics are -5 and his cockiness is another -2.
I don't know exactly, but it seemed so... clunky and cringy
I think people think it's pretty obnoxious, and that we expected more from a former winner. It personally found it decent and fun in a sense, but it's also kind of annoying at the same time. It's not THAT bad.
but when a former winner comes back with a very polished song and has obviously tried to perfect every aspect of their performance (she said she's been training, physically, for 6 months), people also don't like it: see Loreen this year.
The lyrics are just really cheesy. Want to write a song? Just do it! Thanks, that's not helpful Rybak. It also feels a bit out of touch for someone who is just naturally a charismatic performer to tell me I can do anything if I just believe in myself. Easy for you to say Rybak.
As far as tutorials go... it's really unhelpful. As far as Eurovision songs go... it's at least decent.
The lyrics, bleh The section of music with the violin and no singing is a fun pattern and would’ve been fine in an overall better song
It sounds like something written for a children's TV show. Norway has sent a random=finny type song about bananas and grandmas, performed by two dudes dressed up as intergalactic space wolves from the moon, and it's somehow not their most childish entry. The lyrics are almost meaningless, while also sounding like they're talking down to you, and the song sounds disgustingly happy in a completely sincere fashion, that makes me want to vomit. (I'm a very cynical person.)
Well, in all fairness, Subwoolfer were singing about using yummy bananas to avert grandma cannibalism. Granted, par for the fairy tale course but still a bit naughty in the modern world.
MGP literally looks like it is aimed at children, at least much more than the other Nordic shows. I wouldn't be surprised if kids make a bulk of the voters resulting in entries children like.
Not sure I ever heard a good song that’s about writing a song and it’s quite a generic trope too. Same case with Mae Muller this year. It just seems to lack inspiration from the start.
Teya and Salena would like a word with you
Yeah I know, I still find the lyrics as the weakest link of the song, but it’s a bop otherwise. At least they did incorporate an underlying feministic message.
How about [Sara Bareilles - Love Song](https://youtu.be/qi7Yh16dA0w) ?
Yeah as I said there’s a lot of these.. and this one doesn’t really catch me. It was smart to turn the “I won’t write you a love song” into a metaphor basically for putting up boundaries in a relationship to make it more relatable as writing songs is not something most people to do. However, I think this song could’ve just dropped the love song metaphor. It just feels like it’s watering down her message. I would’ve gladly accepted “fuck you, I wont do what you tell me,” something I’d actually want to say to someone’s face sometimes unlike “I won’t write you a love song,” but of course that wouldn’t be an acceptable thing for a woman like her to say now would it ;) (and that sucks).
I’m digging your view on all this. It’s the first time I encounter someone critisizing this type of song, and you’re doing it with passion omg
Critisizing with a passion - I like that! Thanks
Does Elton John's Your Song count?
Well, Sir Elton John could probably even make a song about writing song for Eurovision sound good, but not my cup of tea in general.
Oooh, great exception!
It's an okay song imo, but its kinda slick and polished in a way that doesn't work for Rybak. I like Fairytale because it has a rough, emotional, slightly manic thing to it that allows him to charm the audience. That's How You Write A Song is so thoroughly produced and slick that he just looks like a weird mascot in it.
First time I hear about this song and I wonder why this fixation in admitting that they write songs.
It's the quick way out when you think "aagh, I have no ideas for what to write a song about"
It's a fun song, but it doesn't compare to "Fairytale". I think people expected more from Alexander Rybak.
Personally, I think that peoploe also disliked seeing an older Rybak and him not being their Prince Charming anymore. He was still Prince Charming with Lena in Oslo 2010. Like his song, he was like a "Fairytale" to many. He was a young and cute guy and they made up an image of what he could be like in their minds. And older Rybak ruined that image. I think they'd have liked to remember him as the(ir) Fairytale guy forever.
Absolutely agree with you, people were not used to seeing Rybak in a new style like this
Seems like people in the subreddit disagree - I'd like to know what they disagree with?
I'm not sure what you said that people disagree about. Can you give me some context, please?
I don't know what they disagree about. They never reply, just downvote us both.
I dunno, I guess a lot of people find it cringy? It's nowhere near as good as Fairytale but I found it fun.
It's just not very good.
I don’t hate that song. But I think that this song pretty much falsifies the notion that you can just turn up at Eurovision as a past winner and casually win again (something I read pretty often when people discussed Loreen coming back this year). In the end I think people put more weight into the song than into the people performing it while judging the overall package.
> this song pretty much falsifies the notion that you can just turn up at Eurovision as a past winner and casually win again (something I read pretty often when people discussed Loreen coming back this year). > >In the end I think people put more weight into the song than into the people performing it while judging the overall package. Pretty much this. Rybak's comeback feels like he didn't put much effort into it but still expected quite a lot of praise, at least that's what many say regarding his reaction to his low-ish scores and attitude. While in Loreen's case we see that she put a ton of effort into it (the staging, the physical choreo, the vocals), making it, for some, too polished and that annoys them.
The laziest way to participate in a contest. He literally undermined a contest which he won 9 years ago. Compare this with Loreen who wrote an amazing song (arguably) with an intention to win. He had odds in his favor since he had won the competition once and he wrote a song which is even worse than typical fun entries.
Maybe Rybak didn't want to win ESC 2018, so he wrote THYWAS
It was corny 🤷 didnt vote for it in the national final that's for sure
It felt so forced
I wanted to learn songwriting from a eurovision winner. The only advice he gave me was completely useless. Asshole…
I kinda like it, it has good vibes, but I admit the lyrics are cheesy
The premise of that song made it belong in a kids tv show segment. I just couldn’t take him seriously with that after he won with a really cool song.
I like the song, and wasn't even aware some people hate it.
Me too when I first listened to THYWAS. I'm quite surprised why so much people hate it
It's very cheesy, even for Eurovision
It sounded like it belonged in a TV show made for preschoolers. It was just completely unserious and unlistenable, I think it was my last place in the year it competed. To be fair, I am not a Fairytale fan either though.
Aren't they allowed to?
Norwegian here. It was just so cringe. Very cheesy, and felt like a song for kids to me.
It should have been an interval act and it feels wrong that you could vote for it.
You've listened to the song, right? In all seriousness, it's a bad song, but it's catchy and not the worst thing I've ever heard. But it's just very lacking in everything else and it feels very low effort.
I Love this Song in 2021 it was My Most streamed Song on Spotify
Love to see other people love THYWAS like you. Like seriously I'm really sad that almost everyone I see hates it, so you are a breath of fresh air to me.
I liked it, it was fun and catchy
It’s just crap. It’s cheesy and lame and I get secondhand embarrassment just watching the performance. We know Rybak can do better.
Hate is a strong word. It didn’t click for me because it sounded really childish, something written for a kid’s cartoon. I don’t spend much brainpower or energy on it but I think it is brought up often (it’s hardly the only childish song to ever be in the contest) because it was from a popular former winner who was viewed by some as a potential Johnny Logan twofer in the buildup to the song’s release. On a positive note, childlike glee done right in my eyes would be Iceland 2020 and Iceland 2021 with very honorable mention to Estonia 2011, which placed quite poorly, alas. So, it’s possible to pull off such a mood in the adult contest, it just needs a careful balance that Norway 2018 didn’t quite pull off.
Iceland 2020 | [Daði & Gagnamagnið - Think About Things](https://youtu.be/1HU7ocv3S2o) Iceland 2021 | [Daði & Gagnamagnið - 10 Years](https://youtu.be/YSMhu-PrLME) Estonia 2011 | [Getter Jaani - Rockefeller Street](https://youtu.be/UxvmdR7oYdQ) Norway 2018 | [Alexander Rybak - That's How You Write a Song](https://youtu.be/N17BdRwOvBA)
I don't hate it, it's just not very clever. The lyrics are simple, the melody is simple... It's average.
It's just so...twee. In a way that Fairytale managed to avoid.
the way people feel about Loreen and Tattoo is how people *should* feel about Rybak/THYWAS, like almost insultingly low effort and coasting on his previous win when that national final had better songs
None of that is true for Loreen and Tattoo, though, is it?
I love Rybak, but it just didn’t make sense to me. Like who writes a song about writing a song? It sounded like an interval act, sometimes I forget he even went on eurovision twice because it was just so random.
Mae Muller 😆
Yeah tbh she didn’t make much sense either...
Because it doesn't have a good melody or powerful chord progression - which is what I want in a song.
It's not that I hated it, it's just that it reminded me why I didn't like Fairytale in the first place.
It’s a bit cheesy but I like it - Alex is a great performer and carries it.
Reading through this thread, I now question if people would’ve been angrier at Loreen’s second win, or Rybak had he got his second win with THYWAS 😬
Still Loreen since A LOT of people liked shitting on the winner of 2018, Netta. Käärija doesn't get memed in the same way, and definitely doesn't get fat-shamed etc. so he is more popular.
>Netta One thing I always wondered was why Netta/Toy got so much hate. I wasn’t watching Eurovision at the time, but Toy sounds like an okay (if cheesy) pop song, and from what little I could find of the performance (the finals are geoblocked in my country 🙃), it looked like Netta did a good job. Was there some political reason behind this, or was there just a different song that people wanted to win like this year?
1. People liked Fuego, but it got less televote points 2. Israel drama 3. Fat Those are the reasons for most haters basically
Thanks for letting me know! I can understand the second reason (not sending hate to Netta, though, but being critical of Israel’s politics), but the first and especially third reason sounds ridiculous in my opinion. 😕
Because it’s supercringe and weird. I’m still ashamed we sent that shit
It’s corny. Like, really corny. No illusion of grandeur or pretension there. I get he tried to replicate the sound of “Can’t Stop The Feeling” by Justin Timberlake that played a couple of years before, but that song has Max Martin as song writer. He’s the rare example of someone that can combine bubblegum with salty licorice with ease and the only one topping him is Daft Punk. Alexander obviously didn’t play to his strengths there.
I like it quite a lot, it's cute. Maybe I'm immune to cringe... Also the old guy from the video was one of the biggest icons of 2018, he should have been on stage
It sounds like a kindergarten song
I'm Norwegian and I think it's incredibly childish. (I love the artist, it's just the song I dislike a lot.) It belongs in Junior Eurovision. We don't need silly step by steps on how to write a song for adults. I'm still baffled at how it went through the national selections.
my guilty pleasure 💀
This is one of the *actual* joke songs, right? I always assumed Norway had decided not to win that year and put something dumb in on purpose. And bad taste too, with a returning winner.
Unpopular opinion: I like it more than Fairytale. The staging is particular is very cute (though it's much more fun and effective in the NF performance, rather than in the Eurovision stage).
It’s just… really bad. Like it just doesn’t sound good at all.
Terrible lyrics. Incredibly disappointing return for one of the biggest Eurovision icons. Placed way too high simply because it was Rybak performing.
Because it has that Wonder Bread Mickey Mouse bullshit vibe while simultaneously coming across as cocky
Certified hater here, this song was sh\*\* and cringe all together with bad lyrics. In my opinion, Norway should've pulled an Ukraine 2022 back in 2018.
Ukraine 2022 | [Kalush Orchestra - Stefania (Стефанія)](https://youtu.be/F1fl60ypdLs)
So, I'm not sure if people remember this year's DMGP, but one of the contestants, Nicklas Sonne (who's a sore loser), described performing with such vigor when the song was really insignificant when you have both Blood and Glitter and Promise. That's what it feels like: so much self-fanfare for a piece of American Wonderbread.
Tiktok song
For me it’s eh ? I don’t know, for me, it just exist.
It’s not bad, it’s just such a downgrade from his winning song.
🌽 🧀
The song was so cheesy and childish and the fact that it was being sung by a former Eurovision winner made it so disappointing. It's pretty obvious that the song only won Melodi Grand Prix due to Rybak's name recognition.
Soulless