SWITZERLAND

The Swiss Final was held on February 1st at the Bodensee Arena in Kreuzlingen, hosted by Sven Epiney. After combining the televoting (50%) and an "expert" jury (50%) votes, "Hunter of stars" by Sebalter was announced as the winner.

The 6 finalists were chosen through the sub-divisions of the French, German and Italian speaking communities as well as the internet voting. Unfortunately this final was not a good one in my opinion. The songs (and performers) were of varying quality. After seeing the recap of the songs during the final it seemed a bit of a foregone conclusion that this had to win (although I would have had places 2 and 3 the other way around).

The song and performance obviously take their cues from Mumford and Sons and the folk/country/bluegrass genre. From a Eurovision viewpoint is feels like a sped up version of Sjonni's Friends or even "Fairytale part 2". Seb is backed by a similarly styled 5 piece band. Most of the focus is on Seb and he certainly does have a very engaging singing style and personality. When he's not singing he's whistling and it he isn't whistling he's playing the fiddle. His singing style is, well, unconventional but then again so is the song.

Seb IS the show. There is not that much movement by the band - most of the moving is done by the camera and by Seb's eyebrows. However because the song is made up of so many different verses, bridges, choruses, slow bits and fast bits his stance and character makes you feel like a lot of moving is happening. He has a decent connection with a camera and you genuinely feel he is enjoying himself. The song is really catchy an you find yourself singing, clapping and/or whistling along. It is nice to see whistling making a comeback to Eurovision since the heady days of "Straatdeuntje" and "April, April"

However I do have some technical concerns about this song

1) He doesn't seem to keep on time during the quieter parts of the song either going to fast or too slow. This could have just been a issue with his earphones.

2) His accent and pronunciation are very odd. Although this does bring character, energy and memorable qualities to the performance - your connection to the song is lost. You have no idea what he's singing about.

3) Can he whistle that well under pressure?

If these concerns can be worked through, this could be an early contender. Although there are aspects that need work I feel that the song is a very well made piece of work with lots of memorable parts. His personality is unforgettable and the whole thing has a certain charm about it which could work to its favour.

Artist - Sebalter
Song - Hunter of stars
Music - Sebastiano Paulessi

Lyrics - Sebastiano Paulessi