As I mentioned in a previous post, we are back for another season of Eurovision. As countries begin to select their songs, I’m going to do a brief recap of what I think about the ‘current’ songs.
For this recap, I’m going to chat about (in no particular order): Italy🇮🇹, Estonia🇪🇪, Romania🇷🇴, CroatiaðŸ‡ðŸ‡·, Denmark🇩🇰, and Latvia🇱🇻.
This year, I’m going to do things a bit differently as we move through the national selection season:
Review songs in batches of 7 or 8 rather than doing a country-by-country recap.
These reviews primarily are going to be about the song rather than the complete package.
I’m only going to watch the national selection final (or internal selection) once or twice.
I’m not going to constantly listen to the songs until we get into semifinal week.
Reasons 1-2: For this edition, I don’t have time to write 35+ posts (one per country) before getting into the actual contest. Also, what’s the point of doing an in-depth or half-assed review (depending on how much free time I have) before the delegations either revamp the song and/or the performance (I guess this would fall under the Reason 3 category)? Reason 4: I don’t want to get tired of the songs before the contest. Last year, I noticed that I was pretty much over the songs that were released early in the national final (January/February) season by April.
Like always, I’ll use my cheezy Eurovision meter to describe the songs.
In last week’s post, I did mention my rankings with the ‘current’ songs. I have to say that I’m getting a little worried because I don’t think there are many songs that will move from my Eurovision playlist to my general and running playlists. I’m keeping hope alive because we still have quite a few songs that are going to be released in March.
ITALY 🇮🇹: MARCO MENGONI — DUE VITE
National Selection Performance – Sanremo (***)
LOL. It’s the 10-Year Challenge: Eurovision edition because Marco competed in Eurovision 2013 and came in 7th place. What do you think, with or without the beard?
Overall, I really enjoy this song and think that it will do very well in the contest . . . even though we are still waiting for the release of 17 or so more songs. 😉 While Italy tends to send songs that are well-received by the public, his voice really kept me engaged with the song from start to finish. In most cases, I think Italy does well in the contest because Italian sounds so melodic (if that’s the correct term).
ESTONIA 🇪🇪: ALIKA — BRIDGES
National Selection Performance – EESTI LAUL (***)
OMG, I’m really feeling this song. Right off the bat, I love when women sing in a lower register, which she nails, and her vocal range is impressive. I think this will be a grower for me because I do like the message of the song and her vocal prowess is the icing on the cake. I could see myself liking it more with additional listens especially once the song picks up the pace at 1:40.
Romania 🇷🇴: Theodor andrei -- D.G.T. (off and on)
National Selection Performance – Selectiva Nationala (***)
I think I can rock with this based purely on the song and his vocal even if it’s a little different than my typical type of song.
CROATIA ðŸ‡ðŸ‡·: LET 3 MAMA Å ÄŒ!
National Selection Performance – Dora (***)
My graphic doesn’t accurately reflect my feeling about the song, because you definitely will not fall asleep while listening to the song. In general, I kind of like the song, BUT there is WAAAAYYYY too much going on in the song – it’s like five or six songs in one. Even though there is a lot going on in the song musically, the song is very repetitive structurally (not necessarily a bad thing). Hey, I guess the group really wants to drive home the song’s message. However, I’m sure there are a lot of Croatian cultural references embedded in the song that I’m unaware of. While I have seen the national selection performance, I’m quite sure that it’s gonna be a unique experience on the ESC stage that will either make me want to watch it again and again or will make me want to give myself a lobotomy with a corkscrew.
DENMARK🇩🇰: REILEY -- BREAKING MY HEART
National Selection Performance – Melodi Grand Prix (***)
Soapbox moment: I really think the contest should go back to one where all vocals must be 100% live. Since 2021, Eurovision has allowed performers to use pre-recorded tracks, which was understandable because of the pandemic. Now, we are getting to a point where some artists might use these pre-recorded vocals to artificially enhance their vocals. *Maybe artificially and enhance are the wrong words.* While I’m sure Reily is singing in his natural voice during the verses, I don’t know what the hell is going on with the chorus – is it a vocoder, autotune, or something else? Eh, it is what it is. Yes, I get that it’s a song, not a vocal contest. In my opinion, the use of 100% live vocals was one of the things that it unique. Oh, back to this song. I’ll have to wait to see how this is performed on the Eurovision stage, before really commenting.
LATVIA 🇱🇻: AIJĀ -- SUDDEN LIGHTS
National Selection Performance – Supernova (***)
Only basing this brief review on the song, I’m sorry but this one does absolutely nothing for me. I guess I kinda like it when the song ramps/speeds up and ends on a slow note.
