AUSTRALIA

The Australian entry was released on March 7th via a press conference held in Melbourne. Like the past 2 entries, SBS internally selected their singer and song. At the press conference, the song was performed live and later on the official video clip was released. Going to Kyiv is Isaiah Firebrace singing the song “Don’t come easy”

The during the conference, the song was sung in the venue’s small stage so there was not a lot of scope for applying Eurovision tricks. He wore a very simple black suit which suits his quite small frame and of course there is his lovely foppish hair! The official video clip, which was released a little later, was also very simple, focussing mostly on head shots, emphasising his angular features and the emotion of the song. It seems he’s not one for moving, but this song doesn’t really call for that.

The song starts off as a piano ballad but grows as the song progresses. The verses are relatively short meaning you get a cycle of verse and chorus done in about 50 seconds.  After the second cycle there is a very early bridge part with a slightly less memorable tune. This then goes into the end repetitions of the chorus where he starts free styling it a little and moving away from the tune, although this is maintained by the backing singers. The ending of the song is a little abrupt going back to a piano instrumental.

He sang the song live really well, although I personally think he can push his voice too far when going for the higher notes. The song has a lot of similarities to last year’s Australian entry and that is mainly because both had the same writing team behind them. From the clips I have seen of him, Isiah is a more measured performer and has a very straightforward style of singing. His voice however is very soulful and he should be able to sing this really well on the night. My main criticism is that his face looked pained and might need to do more emoting through the camera. On the other side the first half contains two stumbling blocks. Firstly, semi 1 is very Eastern European and wonder if support will be spread too thin between friendly countries that places like Australia might not get a look in. Also the top half of semi one is VERY ballad heavy and one has to start wondering if anything from this half is going to qualify with easy. Personally, I hope this does but I really would not be shocked if it did not - this would more be down to the style of the song than anything to do with Isaiah’s skills.

ARTIST - Isaiah Firebrace

SONG – Don’t come easy

MUSIC - Anthony Egizii, David Musumeci, Michael Angelo

LYRICS - Anthony Egizii, David Musumeci, Michael Angelo