Sunday, 24 February 2013

LATVIA

The Latvian Final was held on February 16th at the Juras Varti Theatre House in Ventspils, hosted by Martinš Meiers, Madara Botmane & Anta Aizupe. Before the final there were two semi-finals where the list of 24 was reduced to 12. The winner was chosen in two rounds - one to select the top 3 and then another to select the winner. The voting in both rounds was a 50/50 mixture of televoting and and jury and the winner was the group PeR with the song "Here we go".

The three members of Per are alone on stage and provide all the vocals and vocal tricks themselves. The lead singer is dressed in a silver suit but topless whilst the other two are in spangled black outfits. They look a little bit odd and not cohesive. The background is interesting and I like the way some of the words of the song appear there, although I'm not sure the phrase 'made in Latvia' will go down quite as well in Malmo. Maybe think of some Swedish ones to curry favour with the locals...

The song is a fun party number with a very repetitive and infectious chorus. It is just a shame they couldn't write the rest of the song. The verses are all in rap and cheapens the song that it almost becomes comical (memories of Kølig Kaj come to mind) and you don't know whether to laugh with them or laugh at them. We get a semblance of normality after 2 minutes when the beat boxing starts, however the backing track is so loud you don't hear its benefit, and the call and response with the audience takes us to the end.

The boys are really energetic and work well as unit but I think they need a lot of direction and work. They can't just run about, fall of their knees and point at stuff for three minutes. They are going to need either significant singing lessons or a number of backing singers to make the power of the song clearer. Plus they are going to have to be styled extremely carefully and choreographed within an inch of their lives.
Right now it is embarrassing but with some work it could be stunning.

Artist - PeR
Song - Here we go
Music - Ralfs Eilands, Arturas Burke
Lyrics - Ralfs Eilands
 

No comments:

Post a Comment