Wednesday 30 January 2019

CZECHIA

The Czech result was announced on January 28th.  The 6 chosen entries were revealed on the Ceská Televize website. The winner was chosen by an international jury (50%) & via the Eurovision mobile phone app (50%). Going to Eurovision will be the band Lake Malawi with the song “Friend of a friend”

As the competition was via the website and based on video clips of all the entries there is yet a live version of the song, although there are a few live performance videos around on youtube if you search for them. The video for this song is very basic, with most of the shots taken by hand held phone cameras. It chronicles the lead singer, who is singing towards the camera in different places in his apartment. Although it is not a narrative I could see being replicated on the Eurovision stage it does prove that the lead singer, Albert, has pretty good chemistry down the camera lens.

The song is a mid tempo electro pop song with a slight soul feel. The first verse is slightly more low key than the rest of the song which allows the song to build, albeit too slowly for my liking. The second verse has a much clearer beat which fits in better with the mood of the song. The chorus is the star of the show in this song. The tune is repeated over and over again as well as the phrase ‘friend of a friend of a friend of a friend’ at the start of each cycle and sometimes at the end too. The sequence is then repeated but as an instrumental. By the first time you hear it, it is totally stuck in your head although the actual words take longer to become embedded. In my opinion they could do with cutting down one, or both of the verses to possibly have an extra repetition on the sung chorus either after the first or second verses. The ending is a little curt but because of the electro style of the backing it doesn’t come across as too sudden.

Because of the way the Czech selection did, we see that this did equally well with the jury and online vote. With in international jury, mainly made up of past contestants, this came equal first and was second in the public vote. This might be seen as a slight negative but because we know that anybody around the world could vote in the selection this shows that overall this was liked, no matter where the votes came from. Although this was my favourite of the selection I am a little cautious of singing its praises. I think I will and a better gauge of how good they are when performed live and what show they decide to bring
The fact of the matter is Mikolas broke the glass ceiling for Czechia and to follow that is going to be a big job. This has a different vibe but a modern enough one to be a radio hit even if it doesn’t hit the higher placings at Eurovision. I’d love to see this qualify but if Europe is one again looking for something different and quirky, it could miss out.


ARTIST – Lake Malawi
SONG – Friend of a friend
MUSIC - Jan Steinsdoerfer, Maciej Mikolaj Trybulec, Albert Čern
LYRICS - Jan Steinsdoerfer, Maciej Mikolaj Trybulec, Albert Čern

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