Sweden turns up heat with wacky sauna song for contest

SWEDEN is getting up a head of steam for what could be a record number of Eurovision wins this year with a humorous sauna act.

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KAJ, a comedy group more accustomed to playing birthday parties than large arena shows, is already the bookies’ favourite to triumph at the extravaganza in Basel, Switzerland on May 17.

With their song Bara Bada Bastu (Just Have a Sauna), the Finnish trio pay homage to sauna culture, clad in brown suits and accompanied by an accordion in a wink to Finland’s other big cultural phenomenon, the tango.

Dancers in lumberjack shirts grill sausages over a bonfire before appearing in a sauna with towels around their waists, slapping their backs with birch branches.

"We're gonna have a sauna, sauna, steam up and let go of the stress of the day," they sing in Swedish, in a catchy chorus that sticks to the brain like chewing gum to the sole of a shoe.

"The melody works internationally. Even I am able to hum the chorus, and I absolutely do not speak the language," laughed Fabien Randanne, a French Eurovision expert and journalist.