In early March, Swedish TV viewers and an expert panel chose “Bara Bada Bastu” (roughly “Let’s Just Sauna”) to represent the country at the annual Eurovision Song Contest (ESC) in Basel, Switzerland in May.
Accompanied by gleeful choreography, the song is a simple, catchy ode to the joys of Finnish sauna bathing, performed by KAJ, a Swedish-speaking trio from western Finland who refer to themselves as a humour group. Swedish, one of Finland’s official languages, is spoken by more than 5 percent of the population, mostly along the coast.
The song quickly hit number one on Spotify’s Global Viral 50 list. It also attracted over two million video streams in its first few days, along with numerous comments thanking the band for a moment of fun and escapism from the worries of the world.
KAJ’s songs always have a simple pounding dance beat and a light-hearted party atmosphere. “Bara Bada Bastu” contains hints of reggae, techno and stadium anthems.
Good-natured rivalries
Finnish singer Erika Vikman is Finland’s representative in the 2025 Eurovision Song Contest.Photo: Jussi Nukari/Lehtikuva
Kevin Holmström, Axel Åhman and Jakob Norrgård started KAJ on the west coast of Finland in 2009, when they were in their mid-teens. They formed the group’s name from their first initials, just like the most famous Eurovision champs of all time, Sweden’s ABBA, who won just over 50 years ago.
ABBA’s Björn Ulvaeus was among those who hailed KAJ’s victory at the Swedish Eurovision qualifying contest, known as Melodifestivalen. He posted a social media video from his own sauna congratulating them on their “super-catchy earworm.” The band reposted it, quipping, “We found our fourth member.”
Meanwhile, Finland will be represented in Basel by Erika Vikman with “Ich Komme,” which is steamy in an entirely different way from KAJ’s family-friendly sauna song. Vikman’s tune is the first Finnish entry ever with a German title and catchphrase.
Residents of European countries can’t vote for their own country’s entry in the ESC, so Sweden is assured plenty of Finnish votes, while Finland is hoping for votes from the German-speaking countries – and Sweden, of course.
Quirkiness is catchy
Finnish rapper Käärijä (Jere Pöyhönen) performs “Cha Cha Cha” during the 2023 Eurovision Song Contest.Photo: Vesa Moilanen/Lehtikuva
Finland was part of the Kingdom of Sweden for centuries, up until the early 1800s, and the two countries are good-natured rivals, especially in ice hockey and other sports. That rivalry spilled over into Eurovision in 2023, when exuberant Finnish rapper Käärijä’s “Cha Cha Cha” won the public vote but came in second overall behind Sweden’s Loreen, who notched her second ESC win.
Finland has competed in Eurovision since 1961, never placing better than sixth until 2006, when monster-metal band Lordi won with “Hard Rock Hallelujah,” scoring a record number of points.
In a way, KAJ is carrying on the goofy novelty-act tradition of Lordi, Käärijä and Windows95man (Finland’s representative in 2024). The successes of the first two showed that ESC voters are sometimes just looking for a song that’s fun and catchy, rather than the slick, melodramatic power ballads that often win – and often come from Sweden.
Hot topic
KAJ consists of three guys from western Finland (from left): Axel Åhman, Kevin Holmström and Jakob Norrgård.Photo: Erik Åhman
“Bara Bada Bastu” is a cheerful celebration of Finnish sauna culture. With some 3.3 million saunas in a country of 5.6 million people, Finland takes its steam bathing seriously. Unesco added “Sauna culture in Finland” to its list of Intangible Cultural Heritage in 2020.
Though various kinds of sweat baths have been in use around the world for centuries, Finland is the country most closely associated with the modern-day sauna. “Sauna” is also the only Finnish word widely used in other languages (the Swedish-language term, bastu, comes from badstuga, or “bath cabin”).
“Sauna” is one of a few Finnish-language words sprinkled into “Bara bada bastu,” along with yksi, kaksi, kolme (one, two, three) – as in the line, “Yksi, kaksi, kolme, sauna!” Let the hotly contested competition begin.
By Wif Stenger, March 2025
