Benjamin Ingrosso won this year’s Melodifestivalen, and will represent Sweden in Lisbon with the song “Dance You Off”. In the past couple of days he recorded a reaction video for another Eurovision fan portal, where he expressed his opinions on each and every of the participating songs in this year’s Contest.

Some of the comments were rather sharp and offensive, as he compared the male vocalist of Balkanika with Voldemort, commented on the Macedonian entry that they found their drummer in the streets and that the lead singer’s vocals sounded like a fart, stating that the entries of Albania and Hungary are aggressive and that they hate him, laughing out loud at San Marino’s entry etc (clips from the original video can still be found on random Youtube channels).

The full video has been removed from Youtube, and Benjamin now made a statement on this matter:

I sincerely apologize if I offended any artists and fans, I did it all with good fun and humor. I have so much respect for my fellow artists and I never wanted to upset anyone. Sometimes things get taken the wrong way when presented only through camera.

To all the entries, we are all great musicians who are in this competition to get together through the music. I’m looking forward to meeting you all in Lisbon and to show you my true reactions with love in real life. And once again sorry for offending anyone.