Released 23 February 2014 Recorded 2014 Label Parlophone | Format Digital download Genre Power pop, electropop | |
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Length 3:10 (official version) | ||
"Undo" is a song by Swedish singer Sanna Nielsen. The track was written and composed by Fredrik Kempe, David Kreuger, Hamed "K-One" Pirouzpanah. It premiered on 8 February 2014, as part of the second semi-final in Melodifestivalen 2014. The song successfully progressed to the final. The single was officially released on 23 February 2014, part of the EP of the same title. Undo is an uptempo ballad.
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On 8 March, the song won the Melodifestivalen 2014 final beating Ace Wilder's "Busy Doin' Nothin'" by only two points and represented Sweden in the Eurovision Song Contest 2014 in the first semifinal on 6 May.
In the final, on 10 May 2014, after the results came through, "Undo" finished the contest in 3rd place with 218 points. With this score, "Undo" became the second highest scoring Swedish entry at Eurovision after Euphoria.
"Undo" won the OGAE vote with 354 winning the voting after all countries had voted.
"Undo" was sung by Lucia Wu, a Chinese singer from Brazil on Season 1 of Sing! China in 2016. This led to the song charting on streaming platforms in China in October 2016.
Critical reception
The song's reviews were mostly positive and was often described as the selection's favorite. Olivier Rocher of Oikotimes described it as "the hot favorite of the night". He also said that "Undo" is less memorable compared to her previous Melodifestivalen entries. Billy Xifaras of Wiwibloggs said that Nielsen is perhaps one of the strongest artists in the second semi-final. He also compared the song with "Wrecking Ball" by saying that "in the beginning it is similar to Miley Cyrus' hit".
With 10 reviews from the Wiwibloggs, "Undo" received an average of 8.2 out of 10, the second highest score at the final of Melodifestivalen, with Elena Paparizou's "Survivor" being first with an average of 8.48 out of 10. Deban gave the song a rate of 8.5 and said that vocally the song is epic. He also said that "the song is well-crafted, and although the formula is predictable, Sanna Nielsen's performance keeps us guessing". Padraig gave the song 9 out of 10 and said that after developing an urge to listen very often, the song became his favorite of the selection. Both Deban and Padraig criticized the contestant's clothing appearance with the first saying "please don't age a beautiful twenty something year old girl. It doesn't win votes!" while the second said that "Sanna is 29 and not 49" and pleased the Melodifestivalen wardrobe department to "quit dressing lamb up as mutton." Angus described the song as an excellent entry that could do well for the Swedes and gave it 9.5 out of 10. Zach gave the song 10 out of 10 and said that as all her other Melodifestivalen entries, "Undo" was one of his favorites. Patrick said that the song is "a masterpiece of music" and gave it 10 out of 10. Even though Sami gave the song a rather good rating – 6 out of 10 – he said that the song is overrated and is just an okay pop ballad. He also compared it with a song by Eric Saade, "It's Gonna Rain", which is also written by one of "Undo"'s writers, Fredrik Kempe. Anthony gave it 8 out of 10 and described it as "a very good entry and I can see why it's one of the favorites to win this year". James and Franceska gave the song 8 out of 10 and 9 out of 10 respectively. Lastly, Ramadan gave the lowest score for the song – 4 out of 10 – and said that "it's alright song but it takes quite a while to get going" and also criticized Sanna's clothing.
Melodifestivalen
Being Nielsen's seventh participation in the selection, "Undo" participated in the second semi-final of the 2014 Melodifestivalen which was held in Linköping's Cloetta Center on 8 February 2014. The previews of the second semi-final songs, including "Undo", were published on 6 February 2014.
The song was performed sixth at the second semi-final. It direct qualified to the final as it got one of the first two places. Right after the second chance, the running order of the final was revealed with "Undo" being performed at the eighth place. "Undo" won the selection just with two points ahead Ace Wilder; it received 90 points from the international jury and 122 points from the public.