The San Marinese act and song
were revealed on March 12th via a via the official video release. Very little
news about the song or act appeared all season until a couple days before the
deadline when it was revealed that it would be a duet. Singing in Kyiv will be
Valentina Monetta and Jimmie Wilson with the song “Spirit of the night”
Although the video itself it
nearly 4 minutes long, if you eliminate the intro (up to the first ‘hey’) and
outro, the song comes just in under the 3 minute limit. The setting is of a
crowded club when Jimmie and Valentina are the stereotypical with the
they/won’t they scenario. They have a good chemistry and make a bit of an odd
couple which I guess should make them quite memorable to ther viewers. Of course
this will be Valentina 4th time at Eurovision for San Marino so
whatever she does this will go HUGE in the hall.
The song is an up-tempo
number whose genre is possibly closest to disco. The verses are quite corny
with a kind of call and response structure. From this part the structure is
quite repetitive but tells the story well. When the chorus starts the background
music becomes slightly minimal and then beefs back up again for the second part
of the chorus. The come down to the second chorus is a bit odd but I could
imagine with clever camera angles and staging this could be minimised. I can’t
but help myself wanting to go into “One Night Only” from Dreamgirls when the
chorus starts up. The second half of the song is mainly variations on the chorus
in which there seem to be multiple key changes. The ending, although sudden, is
at least a proper ending that finishes on a high note.
Cheese. And what much needed
cheese it is! Ralph Siegel has not quite lost it yet! Although a late-comer to
the Eurovision party, they have certainly come up with something that is stereotypical
Eurovision but it just so happens there is very little of that this year! The
chorus in incredibly catchy and the repetition of the title certainly gets in
your head even if you don’t want it to. The speed of the song is not too fast
and not too slow and I can see the hall going big for this one. It is just the
right speed for hand clapping and flag waving.
Of course, this is San Marino
and the principality has only qualified once in its time (with Valentina) and I
must be realistic about their chances. This a can really only qualify through
quality of the song as they have no diaspora and no ‘neighbourly voting’ to
rely on. The chances of this qualifying are almost zero but this is not through
lack of trying. I really love this song and think it is just what Eurovision
needs. The question is – has Eurovision ‘grown up’ and ‘moved on’ or will
Eurovision always need, or possibly fall back on, some good old-fashioned pop?
ARTIST - Valentina Monetta
and Jimmie Wilson
SONG -Spirit of the night
MUSIC - Ralph Siegel
LYRICS - Steven Barnacle,
Jutta Staudenmayer
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