DENMARK

The Danish Final was held on February 23rd at Jyske Bank Boxen in Herning, hosted by Johannes Nymark & Kristian Gintberg. The winner was chosen by SMS and mobile app voting (50%) & a jury (50%) in two rounds of voting - the first to select the top 3 and the second to select the winner. Going to Israel is Leonora with the song “Love is forever”

At the start Leonora a stood behind what seems to be a video screen which is blue with clouds, a dove and a giant chair on it. It soon comes to pass that this is on-screen trickery as we discover she’s actually standing with the audience behind her. She then magically levitates onto an actual big chair like the one in the projection which she sits for the rest of the song. Half way though she is joined a male and female who use ladders to reach her then sit either side swaying to the song.

The song is surprisingly straight forward going verse, chorus, verse, chorus, verse, chorus although there are very simplistic but effective variations when she sings. Her vocal style is quite talkative but this almost takes away from the fact that the range of the song is quite wide. The verses are quite low whist the chorus goes right up and the end. The chorus has 2 parts and I personally feel the second part is much stronger and that the song title ‘a taste of love’ is more memorable. The final verse/chorus is a little bit different to the rest. This is when the dancers come on which adds extra movement to the whole thing but also there is a language change. From English, she starts singing in French but also adds in a smattering of German and Danish. She also starts the final chorus in French too. I feel that having more of the song in French would not only be more charming but make it more memorable.

The fact is this song is very, very Danish. I find the whole thing just a little bit too twee for my liking although not all of this is to do with the song. The song itself has a great structure and part of me very much appreciates the lack of pre-choruses, instrumental breaks and other faff. I think Leonora has a nice listenable voice and I think her styling makes her look like a 1940/50s Emmelie de Forrest. My main problem here is with the staging. I hate the faux background at the start, the chair motif is very odd and the pointless ladders and people at the end is totally unnecessary. I could go more into detail about this but part of me wonders how much of the chair levitating bit will actually be possible on the Eurovision stage, not just from a technical POV but also from a logistical stance (Copenhagen to Tel Aviv is a long way to transport a huge chair and lift). I personally think it’s an interesting gimmick but doesn’t go with the thread of the song. Being sat on that big chair actually makes her look quite lonely and isolated, not like she’s surrounded by love.

This has its place at Eurovision and I think it is nice to have something a little more lighthearted at the contest, but if this keeps to the same setup as DMGP then this will be a song I’ll keep my eyes closed for. Right now it’s a big no but there is a lot of room for improvement. Please go back to the drawing board and add more French!

ARTIST – Leonora

SONG – Love is forever

MUSIC -  Lise Cabble, Melanie Wehbe, Emil Rosendal Lei

LYRICS - Lise Cabble, Melanie Wehbe, Emil Rosendal Lei