SPAIN

The Spanish Final was held on January 29th at Parc Audiovisual de Catalunya in Terrassa, hosted by Roberto Leal. The winner was chosen by televoting in two rounds of voting - the first to select the top 3 and the second to select the winner. The show was eventually won by the song "Tu canción" sung by Alfred & Amaia.

The setting of the song is ultra simple. There are each sat on a piano – one black, one white mimicking the yin yang symbol. This isn’t really made much of after this point so feels like a useless message. After the first verse they move towards the middle of the stage for the chorus. They then spend the rest of the song singing very close to each other incusing a very awkward swaying thing where they change sides of the stage. They are VERY close to each other and almost unaware of the audience and cameras and end with a small kiss.

The song has a slight jazz edge to it and the backing track is very quiet with piano being the most prominent instrument. It is not until the “oh oh oh” part around the 2 minute mark dose the orchestration ramp up, only to ebb way again for the final reprise of the chorus. Their voices aren’t too bad his, in particular, really suits this style of song. Amaia’s voice is very clear although during the last chorus you start to wonder how confident she is – I felt that she could hit a bum note any moment.

It has been quite a while since Spain used the Operación Triunfo show to select their entrant and singer and I think at least this mechanism has gone down well with the Spanish public and has garnered ore interests and support for the contest. On first watch and listen, I found this quite uncomfortable and a bit cringy to watch. The visuals need a lot of work, and in fairness they have not had a lot of time to really work on it. Their singing is not bad, considering my concerns, and it’s not really a bad song. It’s quite a sweet song, almost like a lullaby, however some people have already commented it is too close to “Amar Pelos Dois” to feel really authentic. Also how lasting is the real-life duet – what if they break up between now and May?!?!!? Awks. In my opinion, the other two songs in the final 3 were much better than this and even though we are only 4 songs down this is by far the weakest song yet.

ARTIST – Alfred & Amaia

SONG – Tu canción (Your song)

MUSIC - Raúl Gómez, Sylvia Santoro

LYRICS - Raúl Gómez, Sylvia Santoro

CZECH REPUBLIC

The Czech entry was announced on January 29th during a national news broadcast. The songs in the running were announced on 8^th January and televoting was open until  22^nd January. An international jury was also announced made up of past Eurovision artists which would count for the other 50% of the vote. Going to Lisbon is Mikolas Josef with the song "Lie to Me"

The songs were all selected using video clips rather than live presentations although such performances were available if you looked for them. The video comprises mostly of shots of Mikolas singing and dancing (although mostly from the waist up) and a plethora of dancers. He also, quite oddly, appears halfway though singing on a camel! The video is quite brightly shot with vivid backgrounds and “Single Ladies”-esque moving shadows. I think with the right amount of practice and choreography this could be a very fun presentation.

The song starts off with a trumpet earworm. This is repeated several times during the song and you get to know this part of the song probably better than anything Mikolas actually sings. The song starts off in a pretty modern way with a kind of half singing/rapping fast paced way. Unusually instead of getting louder and higher he actually goes down in his register until he is almost at a croak. The ‘lie to me’ chorus is much of a muchness although the rhythm of it saves it more than the lyrics. The ending has an extended trumpet solo which could get the crowd clapping and waving away at.

Like a few of countries this year, the Czech Republic have gone back to a national final (of sorts!) and it is nice to see that delegations are wanting the input of their fellow countrymen as well as the opinion of the wider fanbase. I think that out of the 6 songs on offer this was by far the most ear-catching and visually slick and on that basis I am happy with this result. There are, however, some big questions that need answering. By the sound of it he will need a good set of backing singers as there is a lot of overlapping and a lot of parts that need emphasis. This then impinges on the visual side of it as I feel the show would benefit from some dancers – can they get people who can do both?

The other big stumbling point or the lyrics. There is quite the bit of swearing during the second verse and some of the lyrics seem to objectify women in a stereotypical way andI think with a bit of help these could be re-written in a stronger and less offensive way. On the whole I like this choice and think it is an interesting addition to what is looking to be a very diverse line-up. Not my favourite but not far off.

ARTIST – Mikolas Josef

SONG – Lie to me

MUSIC - Mikolas Josef

LYRICS - Mikolas Josef

FRANCE

The French Final was held on January 27th at the Studios de France in Saint-Denis, Paris, hosted by Garou. Before the final there were 2 semi-finals of 9 entries with the top 4 from each continuing on. The finalists were chosen solely by jury, but in the final this was changed to an international jury (50%) & televoting (50%). The winning act was Madame Monsieur with their song “Mercy”.

The song starts off with Émilie and Jean-Karl stood opposite each other with the camera spinning round until both of them come into view. You notice quite quickly that both of them are dressed the same in a black polo neck top, black trousers and red shoes. He is playing the guitar but also provides backing vocals during the second half of the song. He stays mainly in the background whilst she does more of the emoting to camera. Behind them are small videos of the sea bobbing up and down in a sepia tone, later on this becomes a multicoloured sea of faces. During the chanting part at the end, the audience join in with some hand choreography.

The song is quite understated and stats with Émilie singing very low. I like the fact that the first line ends with the phrase “Je m’apelle Mercy” – a  phrase most of us would have learnt or heard at school! The song moves into a better range before going into the chorus. The chorus has a very memorable pattern and tune which will help those viewers who don’t speak French. There is not a lot of repetition but the song is simple enough to get into your head very quickly. Plus it is full of simple words one would have learnt at school e.g. enfant, mer,  je suis, vie. Around the 2:30 mark she starts the “Mercy, Mercy” chant which adds an extra ending earworm to the end of the song

This is the first real national final France have had for a long time (they did have a small final in 2014 but that was just from of 3 entries) Although the quality has been mixed, the diversity of acts and song genres has been wide and made all the songs very interesting to watch. Mercy” has a great message and follows on from the sensibility that Salvador had during 2017 (we all remember the SOS Refugees jumper he got told off for wearing during rehearsals) The song sounds and looks very French and has that very slick and understated feel to it. Although the song won the French televote quite convincingly (27% of the total votes cast) the jury vote was very mixed and unless they sort out a more visually stunning look and/or get a good starting position in the final, this could flop. However,on a wider note I feel that Eurovision is reaching a turning point. Maybe Eurovision *is* political after all and if this is the kind of thing we should see more of then I really won’t complain. I would much rather have seen something more complex to have won (Igit or Malo') but out of the big favourites I think this was the best option.

ARTIST – Madame Monsieur

SONG – Mercy

MUSIC - Émilie Satt, Jean-Karl Lucas

LYRICS - Émilie Satt, Jean-Karl Lucas