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. You can see my reason for this mode of attack in an earlier post (Link, ***)
For this recap, I’m going to chat about (in no particular order): Switzerland, Malta, Serbia, the Netherlands, Germany, and San Marino.
Current ranking:
SWITZERLAND🇨🇭: REMO FORRER — WATERGUN
Internal selection – Music Video (***)
I love how his deep vocal starts off the song. I thought it was going to be a super slow/depressing song, but it really picked up a bit as it progressed. Well, the lyrics are a bit depressing, but it’s not super slow and doesn’t make me want to fling myself out of my 2nd story window (phew). While he does a great job with singing Waterguns, the song itself leaves me wanting more. Perhaps, his staging will give me a bit more.
MALTA 🇲🇹: THE BUSKER — DANCE (OUR OWN PARTY)
National Selection Performance: Malta Eurovision Song Contest (***)
Ok, it already gets a couple of points because I do like the saxophone integration in the song. Because I’m cheesy, I think any song with a sax automatically will receive at least two hearts. ;) While I like the musical arrangement the most, I can see the lyrics and the vocals growing on me. I have to say that I wasn’t blown away by the song, which the exception of the saxophone (of course). Not sure if it’s me, but I would hope a song that mentions the word ‘dance’ so many times would be a bit more uptempo. Eh, oh well. Since the song is kind of mid-tempo, I probably would like it more if it had a bit more lyrical content. Buuuuut, who needs in-depth lyrics if you have great staging? Actually, instead of three hearts, I think this will be closer to 2.5 hearts for me. While it’s a decent package, I prefer the sax over the vocal.
SERBIA 🇷🇸: LUKE BLACK — SAMO MI SPAVA
National Selection Performance: Pesma Za Evrovizju (***)
Quick and random thought: Luke Black looks a bit like Ryan (BJ Novak) from the early seasons of The Office (when he didn’t have the beard).
Eh, maybe not, now that I’ve uploaded the side-by-side photos.
Ok, right off the bat, I know this song really isn’t my cup of tea. Right now, I do not think that I can really judge or rank the song because I think the staging will make or break it for me. However, it seems the folks on Twitter really liked this song and performance. Perhaps for this one, I need to rely on the ‘vision’ aspect of Eurovision to really appreciate the song.
THE NETHERLANDS 🇳🇱: MIA NICOLAI & DION COOPER — BURNING DAYLIGHT
Internal Selection: Music Video (***)
This is gonna bug me because this song sounds so familiar. Note: I’m not saying that they plagiarized the song, it just sounds like something that I’ve heard before, which tends to happen a bit in pop music. I’m really enjoying the slight vocal acrobats of Dion’s “I’m losing myself while chasing HIIIIIIIIIGHS”. He sings well, but I think Mia’s vocals really bring the song to light. Perhaps, it’s due to Mia singing the higher parts, which I guess would happen in a male-female duet. Since the Netherlands did well in last year’s contest with a song performed in Dutch, I’m surprised that they did not want to go with this option for this year’s contest.
GERMANY 🇩🇪: LORD OF THE LOST — BLOOD & GLITTER
Internal Selection – Music Video (***)
While I’m not a huge fan of heavy metal, I really like this one. Well . . . I hope it’s not because I just finished listening to the slow song from the Netherlands. Right off the bat, I really appreciated the lead singer’s voice. I dunno, there is something about the guttural tone that makes me want to pay attention to a song . . . or even a person speaking. I guess this is a good problem for me to have because I keep going back and forth between three and four hearts. After listening to the song a good four times, I’ll stick with the four hearts rating. Although I haven’t seen the stage performance . . . yet, I really hope that it’s going to be weird (in a good way) AF.
SAN MARINO 🇸🇲: PIQUED JACKS — LIKE AN ANIMAL
National Selection Performance – Una Voce Per San Marino (***)
I might have to listen to this one again. Since the song is not on Spotify (Grrrrr), I listened to the version from San Marino’s national selection. For whatever reason, the sound quality from Una Voce Per San Marino is terrible, which is not the group’s fault. I was somewhat vibing to the song until the lead singer tried for those high notes near the end of the song – she knows the WAAAAAAAAAYYYYYYY. I’m glad that someone knows the way because I sure as hell don’t know the way. Like I said, I’ll give this one another listen once the studio version is released on Spotify. That said, once they clean up the sound quality for the studio version, I don’t think this song (like many of San Marino’s entries) will do very well in the contest even if the group is in the second semifinal. Pretty much the fandom (including myself) has considered the second semifinal the weaker of the two.
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