The clock is approaching three in the morning when Axel Åhman, Jakob Norrgård, and Kevin Holmström finally emerge after the final. A large press corps, family, and friends are waiting for them.
There are three tired but still happy artists who share their view on the remarkable trip in Eurovision.
I think we peaked just tonight. We had a fantastic time, a wonderful number where the audience gave everything, says Kevin Holmström.
The gang describes themselves as bad losers, but that doesn't seem to be the case, despite perhaps the most upset expectations in Eurovision history.
Set up for disappointment
During the final evening, KAJ's chances of winning increased by several percentage points on Eurovisionworld, and before the competition, they have consistently been ranked number one in the betting.
So, set up for disappointment, but KAJ doesn't let the bad feelings take over.
We are very competitive, but at the same time, we remember where we came from and what an incredible journey it has been. We thought we would participate in Melodifestivalen to get some gigs in Sweden, and now we're fourth, says Kevin Holmström.
The final evening was marked by a TV broadcast that beforehand seemed doomed, but turned out to be exactly the opposite. KAJ, who in Melodifestivalen were loved by the international jury, sometimes received high scores from Europe – and sometimes none at all.
The presentation of the jury's and viewers' votes was a bit confusing, the trio agrees.
It was hard to know what was what. At one point, I said, "now we haven't gotten any points for a long time," but we were still quite high up, says Jakob Norrgård.
We scraped together some votes all the time, but then came a twelve, says Axel Åhman.
How do you feel about the Finnish jury not giving you the highest score?
But ten, is that good? Ten is good. But twelve, you would have liked even more... says Jakob Norrgård.
Axel Åhman adds:
I boldly said it would be the easiest twelve Sweden has ever gotten. I'll have to take that back now.
45 million
The hype beforehand has been extreme when it comes to "Bara bada bastu". The song has over 45 million streams on Spotify, the most of all in the starting field, and since then, the odds have made all media want to talk to incessantly since they landed in Switzerland. Still, it didn't go all the way.
This is a reminder that speculations are usually very, very bad, says Axel Åhman.
Even if it might be too early to lift their gaze and look forward, the group says that's what they're eager to do.
We're looking incredibly forward to releasing new material, going out and playing. We've gotten so many new fans who also take to our old material. So, we're still winning in many ways. We came fourth tonight, but for the future, it's a win, says Kevin Holmström.
KAJ received 126 points and ended up in sixth place after the votes in the first round were revealed. Sweden got a single twelve-pointer – from Iceland.
From the TV viewers and the audience, the group received 195 points, which was the third most in the competition. Israel got the most public votes, followed by Estonia.
From Finland and Denmark, KAJ got ten points, from Denmark seven.
