Sunday 19 February 2017

POLAND

The Polish Final was held on February 18th in Warsaw, hosted by Artur Orzech. The winner was chosen by a 50/50 split of jury and televoting. The winning act was Kasia Moś singing the song “Flashlight”

Kasia is backed by a small band on stage. On the video screens there are images of Kasia herself as well as flocks of birds – all depicted in black and white There are also lots of beams of white light again the back background. She is dressed in a browny-beigey floaty dress which is see through in the skirt. There is not much movement on stage although there are a lot of long shots and sweeping camera movements.

There is a slow build up to the first beat when Kasia starts to sing. After the verse there is a short breakdown where she starts to sing low and in short bursts of rhyme. This catches you a little off guard as you would expect her to go straight into the chorus. She then sings the chorus but again catches you unawares as it is much lower than you would expect. What is also unusual about the pttern of the song is that the tune of the verse and chorus are practically identical which gets the tune into your head very quickly (and will also help when picking the 20s slot for the recap) The ending is a little poor as she sings her last chorus then starts warbling notes until the end.

Out of the 10 songs on offer this was not the best (although not bad) however she was the best singer and the two combined make it quite a radio-friendly contemporary entry. I have many issues though with the construction of the song. The first chorus doesn’t sit right when sung low, it would work better if sung twice - once low, then high. Also the ending is very weak especially when it has been preceded by 20 seconds of mindless wailing. In fact if the wailing was left out and the intro shortened, there would be enough room in the 3 mins to do this. Kasia also needs better direction and more awarness of the camera. Also, if the background was more literal to the story of the song, she wouldn’t have to work so hard at telling it through her hands and arms. Finally, the title of the song is so obscured in the first line of the chorus I’d rather they called it “In disguise” or “Hypnotised”.
This is not bad song but for a one time listen it comes across as disjointed and hard to follow. This is very much a song that becomes clearer after 4-5 listens. I am not sure how or if this can stand out in a semi final or final. In their semi, they only have one close neighbour and very few of their diaspora countries to vote for them. However the second half of semi 1 is not known so there is little to compare against but my gut feeling is that this is going to miss out.


ARTIST - Kasia Moś
SONG - Flashlight
MUSIC - Kasia Moś, Pete Baringger, Rickard Bonde Truumeel
LYRICS - Kasia Moś, Pete Baringger, Rickard Bonde Truumeel


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