Robyn Says Eurovision Is “Just Shit” Now: “It Really Is Embarrassing”

The entire history of Swedish pop music is all tied up with that of the Eurovision Song Contest. You could argue that the whole big-bang for Sweden's pop dominance was in 1974, when ABBA's "Waterloo" won Eurovision and rocketed the group to global stardom. But the current version of Eurovision holds absolutely no appeal for Swedish pop queen Robyn. Indeed, Robyn seems to really enjoy talking about how Eurovision sucks now.In 2023, the Swedish artist Loreen won Eurovision, which meant that Sweden hosted the contest in 2024. When that happened, Robyn was one of more than 1,000 Swedish artists who signed an open letter demanding Israel's exclusion for Eurovision during its ongoing genocide of Palestinian people. But Eurovision has continued to include Israel, even as multiple countries boycott the competition in protest. As it turns out, though, Robyn's objection to Eurovision isn't strictly a genocide-related issue. She just doesn't like it.Robyn is an elite podcast guest, which you already know if you heard her talking about hating Elon Musk on Las Culturistas earlier this year. Earlier this week, Robyn was on Amy Poehler's Good Hang podcast. Near the end of their interview, Poehler asked Robyn why Eurovision is such a big deal to Europeans, and Robyn immediately busted up laughing. She went on to sketch out Sweden's history of Eurovision greatness and to say that it's "just shit" now. She really put some mustard on the word "shit," too. Here's the full quote.We don't have ABBA anymore, so I don't really watch Eurovision. They were one of the first people to win the whole thing for us, with "Waterloo." Hard to beat. Then we had [1991 winner] Carola; both me and Zara [Larsson] grew up listening to her. Amazing artist. Now, it's just shit, I would say. I have American friends that I watch it with. My friend Bart has a blanket that he pulls up over his eyes while we're watching 'cause it's so embarrassing, and it really is embarrassing. And after I watched it, I feel really just overstimulated, and in a bad way. I was looking for words I'm not gonna say. But yeah, I don't like it.It's a lot more charming to watch her say all that.Check out the full episode below.Robyn's very good album Sexistential is out now on Konichiwa/Young.