Category Archives: Eurovision 2019

Eurovision 2019: Portugal

Hello welcome to my series of quick takes designed to get you ready for Eurovision 2019. Just some quick thoughts / my take on each of the 41 songs this year. The countries are in alphabetical order so without further ado: Portugal.

Country: Portugal
Singer: Conan Ósiris
Song: Telemóveis
Personal Score: 28 out of 41
My Prediction: Q

I don’t get this. I vaguely don’t hate it but that’s about all the emotion I can muster for what feels like an art piece that I need explained to me. I think this might qualify just on the basis that what its doing is so outside of what anyone else is going to do. I do hope that the performance at Eurovision is more refined than the one at Portgugal’s national final but I guess at the end of the day, in my heart of hearts, I’m just happy that Portugal isn’t sending fado. This is a really interesting song that I don’t quite like but when I talk about evolving and changing trends in music coming to Eurovision this is something I would certainly like to see more of. I feel like this is well executed and interesting even if its not to my taste and its great to see an artist bring their vision to the stage. I’m excited for this in the final because I’m unsure how a wider audience might respond to something as experimental and off-kilter as this.

Eurovision 2019: Poland

Hello welcome to my series of quick takes designed to get you ready for Eurovision 2019. Just some quick thoughts / my take on each of the 41 songs this year. The countries are in alphabetical order so without further ado: Poland.

Country: Poland
Singer: Tulia
Song: Pali się
Personal Score: 19 out of 41
My Prediction: Q

Despite being ranked in the middle of the pack for me this song is a grower and every listen it draws me in a little closer. There is something really interesting and dare I say, arresting about this song. I haven’t looked up the lyrics yet (I thought I heard a little English at the end of the song but I can’t really be sure) but I don’t feel like I need to ever understand what they’re saying because the song has such a good melody that I find myself rolling it over and over in my mind all day anyway. The rhythm and strength of their harmonic voices is actually quite mesmerizing and I hope that they can bring that alive at Eurovision. This song has the potential to be see as “boring” or “static” so the key to drawing in the audience will probably be (contrary to the video) colors and movement but I think that this has the ability to really draw people in. I kind of wonder if whatever I see in this song is what many other people are seeing in Slovenia’s song as both have this trance-like quality to them that can be, in the wrong light, a complete turn off. I’m unsure if the appeal will get them higher than 20th in the final but it’s always nice to see folk music that has a more modern evolution to it at Eurovision and I wish Poland well.

Eurovision 2019: Norway

Hello welcome to my series of quick takes designed to get you ready for Eurovision 2019. Just some quick thoughts / my take on each of the 41 songs this year. The countries are in alphabetical order so without further ado: Norway.

Country: Norway
Singer: KEiiNO
Song: Spirit in the Sky
Personal Score: 2 out of 41
My Prediction: Q

This is the total package. It reminds me of Euphoria because no matter who I play it for, they seem to get into the spirit of it right away (pun probably intended but I’ll leave it for you to decide how cheesy I am). This might not be a winner in the space future of 2019 in our post “1944” as Eurovision winner world but it certainly isn’t JUST a piece of plastic produced cynically which makes it absolutely worthy of the attention its getting from betting and fans alike. This song is a bop and its more Swedish-style dance music than your average song but bringing in nice touches of that Norwegian flare and an honest to go joiker blends modern and traditional in a way that is sure to win people over.

I don’t have a lot to say about this song despite how much I absolutely adore it, I think it will simply speak for itself as it combines a lot of good elements into something better than its parts. The upbeat and pleasant sound, the positive message, and the ties with Sami people are all big pluses and I see it easily passing into the top 10, possibly the top 5 with the right staging. Really happy to see Norway bringing their A game this year.

Eurovision 2019: North Macedonia

Hello welcome to my series of quick takes designed to get you ready for Eurovision 2019. Just some quick thoughts / my take on each of the 41 songs this year. The countries are in alphabetical order so without further ado: North Macedonia.

Country: North Macedonia
Singer: Tamara Todevska
Song: Proud
Personal Score: 36 out of 41
My Prediction: NQ

This song hits a bunch of my pet peeves. It’s the token lip service “girl you’re so strong don’t let people tell you know” ballad. A lot of countries looked at the top five of last year for inspiration of what to send this year and while so many countries leaned into the “Fuego” route, people at least recognized that trying to copy “Toy” was a much more monumental task. North Macedonia looked at them and then immediately mushed together Israel and Germany’s songs and got…this thing. The message is on point but the execution is so sloppy that it comes off as even worse than pandering, insincere and forced. I don’t have a lot to say about this song because it feels very minimal. Minimal music, minimal vocals, and what I assume will be minimal staging. There’s very little to disagree with because I like the message and Tamara has beautiful vocals but there’s absolutely nothing about this song that makes me want to return to it.

Eurovision 2019: Montenegro

Hello welcome to my series of quick takes designed to get you ready for Eurovision 2019. Just some quick thoughts / my take on each of the 41 songs this year. The countries are in alphabetical order so without further ado: Montenegro.

Country: Montenegro
Singer: D mol
Song: Heaven
Personal Score: 39 out of 41
My Prediction: NQ

I feel kind of awful about how much I don’t like this song. It’s sung by several 18 and 19 year olds who deserve much better than this extremely tepid outdated soft ballad. This is something I would almost expect to hear on a soft Christian spotify channel and it would make me cringe less than its place in Eurovision.

The only way to stage this is basically for them to all sing in a line or maybe turn and sing to each other but even if the song material wasn’t vapid and vaguely religious, the problems with this song are numerous. I’ve seen this live and no one is the “star” in this in that everyone is about high school chorus good. There’s nothing exceptional about anyone’s voice or performance, there’s nothing exceptional about the song, and worse yet, this is a song that would probably be much better served as a solo or a duet and when you add more people to it you lose all potential and interest. There’s a reason most ballads are solos or duets and its because you end up with something like this if you add more people. It reminds me (uncharitably) of Argo’s “Utopian Land” (Greece 2016). It has the same muddled vaguely ethnic-ness about it, the same too many cooks in the kitchen, the same lack of counter point to bring any interest to the song. Anyway this is three minutes of white noise basically and I don’t think that’s a fair thing to do to under 20s.

Eurovision 2019: Moldova

Hello welcome to my series of quick takes designed to get you ready for Eurovision 2019. Just some quick thoughts / my take on each of the 41 songs this year. The countries are in alphabetical order so without further ado: Moldova.

Country: Moldova
Singer: Anna Odobescu
Song: Stay
Personal Score: 38 out of 41
My Prediction: NQ

This song drives me nuts because it’s pinging me so hard for some song I heard on the radio in the 90s. Maybe something by Celine Dion or someone in that area of vocals. It’s definitely trying to bring back 1990’s power ballads and Anna’s voice is really doing the heavy lifting. The problem for me is that this song just never gets off the ground. I’m always waiting for the big moment but then it’s the end of the song and I’m left fairly cold.

The 90’s worked for Moldova last year but I don’t know if this really taps into the parts of that decade that anyone wants to remember. This wants to be a Celine Dion “Power of Love” but without the stunning off-hand charisma, the staging production, or the driving melody “Stay” ends up as a tepid-watery version that feels more like when you’re trying to remember the lyrics to an old song than the actual song itself. This should have been in my wheelhouse and it might have been if the sound had been updated to something more contemporary but this soundscape is probably best left in the 90s.

Eurovision 2019: Malta

Hello welcome to my series of quick takes designed to get you ready for Eurovision 2019. Just some quick thoughts / my take on each of the 41 songs this year. The countries are in alphabetical order so without further ado: Malta.

Country: Malta
Singer: Michela
Song: Chameleon
Personal Score: 9 out of 41
My Prediction: Q

This is basically my Macedonia 2018 of 2019. The first time I heard this I couldn’t make heads or tails or it. I thought it was like Replay, like Fuego, like a giant messy ball of songs that didn’t really go together… and so on but actually after the second and third listen I’ve decided I really enjoy this. It’s got a very interesting almost reggaeton vibe to the chorus contrasted with the a tense dance vibe during the verse. At the end of the day I actually think this song might have more in common with “Toy” than “Fuego” in terms of feeling and cadence but that’s not what is important, what’s important is that this gives me really cool vibes.

I think with the right staging (a feat Malta managed really well last year even though they didn’t qualify) this thing could really do quite well. Michela’s vocals were really good in all the appearances I saw her in and the song is so unique it should easily stand out against plenty of others. If anything tanks this it will be that either the stage direction or the clash between the chorus and verse is too much for people and I could easily see them dialing back on either to make sure that the whole piece works. I’m not usually excited about Malta’s chances but I think this could get to 10-15 at the finals with the right running order and that wouldn’t be anything to sneeze at.

Eurovision 2019: Lithuania

Hello welcome to my series of quick takes designed to get you ready for Eurovision 2019. Just some quick thoughts / my take on each of the 41 songs this year. The countries are in alphabetical order so without further ado: Lithuania.

Country: Lithuania
Singer: Jurij Veklenko
Song: Run with the Lions
Personal Score: 23 out of 41
My Prediction: NQ

I’m going to be the first in line to tell you that this is cookie cutter song. This is a mix and match of songs that are on the radio from the past five years and in a way that doesn’t really work. It doesn’t end up with a “personality” because there’s not anything to latch onto. It has a lot of repetitive lyrics, it’s got the weird cha-cha-cha shaking sounds, it’s got falsetto, it’s got overlapping female vocals, it’s got a pre-chorus that gets quiet before the chorus does…the same thing but now with slightly more backbeat. Oof. This is just a generic song and Jurji is far better than this song deserves.

I wouldn’t say that Jurji is really do anything to help the song specifically as he doesn’t really connect with me either but his vocal performance is one of the better ones and he basically crushes this song vocally in a way that some of the other performances doing these very cookie cutter songs seem to fail at. It’s pretty easy to fall into the Eurovision trap of having a radio-play song that isn’t sung well and sometimes those get high marks but Lithuania has an uphill battle with this song. I doubt it’ll make it out of the semi alive without amazing staging and a retooling of the song (neither of which is going to be coming any time soon). Kind of a waste of a good performer honestly.

Eurovision 2019: Latvia

Hello welcome to my series of quick takes designed to get you ready for Eurovision 2019. Just some quick thoughts / my take on each of the 41 songs this year. The countries are in alphabetical order so without further ado: Latvia.

Country: Latvia
Singer: Carousel
Song: That Night
Personal Score: 14 out of 41
My Prediction: Q

When I ranked all the songs the first time I was actually really surprised how high this song was for me but it is certainty a “grower” of a song. There’s not going to be a flashy stage show along with this piece but it has a beautiful folk quality that is as easy going as it is unstated. The piece feels finished in a way that Eurovision songs often don’t. The lyrics are surprisingly nice as well and don’t lean too far into cringe.

I think this was qualify because its in the easier of the two semi finals but it might be an edge case and if it does I wouldn’t be shocked to see it get stuck around 20th. There’s just not enough bells and whistles. A subdued stage preformance is likely, the vocals are polished but also quiet, and the mood is an even keel the entire time with no big moments or shocks. What I like about this song is the same thing I liked about “Calm Before the Storm”. It knows what it is and where it’s going and it’s just going to stay the course and give you the exact performance they want to put out. There’s something really appealing in a song that isn’t trying to be plastic to fit better into the mold. I don’t know if this is anyone’s #1 per se, but it’s easy to listen to if nothing else.

Eurovision 2019: Italy

Hello welcome to my series of quick takes designed to get you ready for Eurovision 2019. Just some quick thoughts / my take on each of the 41 songs this year. The countries are in alphabetical order so without further ado: Italy.

Country: Italy
Singer: Mahmood
Song: Soldi
Personal Score: 1 out of 41
My Prediction: Auto Qualified

It’s my favorite – everyone else can go home.

No, that’s not fair. Anyway I pretty much instantly connected with this song on a handful of levels and I’m so happy to see something that seems perfectly content to do its own thing at Eurovision. I don’t know how the jury will react to Mahmood’s almost-rap piece about his absentee father but I think this will really connect with audiences. Mahmood is wonderfully soulful singer with a soft, enchanting voice and while the lyrics in the verse may be too complex to catch for non-Italian speakers the repetitive portions of the song make it so that almost anyone can latch on to one of the hooks. The clapping sound also might be a really good entry point for people at home to get into the vibe of the song.

I’m not sure this will be the winner at Eurovision but it’s very likely to be in the top 10, the problem is probably the jury with this song. It’ll likely connect with viewers but due to the language barrier, the modern nature of the song, and Mahmood’s style and attitude I don’t know how the jury will respond to something outside of the pop dance – ballad continuum (it’s usually not well though). I think this will likely have a minimal staging but I hope they bring in some elements to help people understand the lyrics to drive this song home.