Benjamin Ingrosso on Bringing "Good Lovin'" to Melodifestivalen and Loving the DCEU

Benjamin Ingrosso is no stranger to show business. Coming from a known family with relatives already having success in the music industry means an easier access to meeting professionals to help with his career. But having already released a few singles to get his career going, Benjamin aims to jump-start things further by competing in Melodifestivalen. His entry, "Good Lovin'", is a song he penned himself and was tapped to close semi-final 2. "I love my song, it's a great up-tempo soul-pop, funky sometimes, a love song."

"Good Lovin'" marks a shift in genre for Benjamin, as it's soulful influences are new to what audiences have heard from his prior releases. "This is my style definitely. My other singles that will be coming out maybe this year, hopefully, they will be more like this. Some of them are not this up-tempo but very much more soul than for example, 'Fall in Love'".

In addition to composing his song, Benjamin took a hands-on approach to the staging of his entry. "Me and Daniel, my choreographer, we did the number together. We had the same kind of idea and he's a great choreographer. We got some amazing dancers and I'm very thankful to work with him."

With an established family name, particularly in Sweden, there is an extra element of pressure to live up to expectations. "You have a lot of pressure because people think that you can sing and that you can perform so you really have to show them that you can sing and perform so that's a little bit scary."

Though competing in Melodifestivalen is new territory for Benjamin, he is well aware of the opportunities participating in it can offer. "It's a huge show in Sweden. I think like half of Sweden watches it every Saturday. People are talking about it the whole week and it's all about music. That's fantastic and that you have three minutes to show Sweden what kind of artist you are, that you have that opportunity is fantastic."

Benjamin not only demonstrates an impressive work ethic in his multi-faceted approach to the contest, including song-writing, production design, but he offers something else that's new to typical Melodifestivalen practices: a music video. Benjamin is one of two acts competing this year from the Ten Music Group label (the same label that represents Zara Larsson), the other being The FO&O (formerly know as The Fooo Conspiracy). Their uniquely impressive business savvy has manifested not only in promoting Benjamin with gusto on social media but for having a music video already shot and completed before he has even premiered the song to the Swedish public. Generally speaking, the Swedish music industry is notoriously bad at getting music videos made for their domestic artists. Those that compete in Melodifestivalen almost never get music videos made for their competing songs, much to the upset of the fans of the show. "It was done, like a month ago. I love music videos. I think we should do music videos every time. That makes the song even better. I can spoil maybe that I will not wear a shirt in the music video but I will not show my whole body. But I will have paint on my..."

Benjamin is also a fan of the DCEU films, which he is more than happy to talk about when the topic arises. We thought it the perfect opportunity to ask him about the news of Ben Affleck bowing out as director of The Batman film. "I'm a little bit sad because I love him as a director. I thought The Town was a great movie. Although it may be too much for him, to direct, write, and act, especially in that suit. It's very difficult to stand behind the camera and take off the mask. But I hope that he will find a great director and I think that they will do it together."

Watch our full interview with Benjamin Ingrosso here: