Nevena is on her own centre stage wearing black dress cut
shorter at the front and longer at the back. The dress is strapless and her
neck wrists and upper arms all adorn various silver jewellery. Behind her the
backdrop is black/dark blue and white, reminiscent of bokei city lights. Near
the end there are a couple of pyrotechnic displays. Not very much happens on stage and there is very little movement.
The song is a ballad although not necessarily in the pure
Balkan style. Although it starts off quietly it gains momentum in the choruses
and by the time the last chorus comes the song has more of a rock edge. The song
starts off in a quite nondescript way when your ears prick up for the two line bridge
which is the only bits in English. The chorus starts and is much more melodic
and powerful than the rest of the song. Then there is a break when Nevena
starts oh-oh-ohing which actually stops the flow of the song. But here the song
starts to get quite intricate as the next verse cuts over the rhythms of before
and sounds very different. The English bridge comes in
then there is a full length chorus followed by a repetition of the last line
but the finish just stops a little too suddenly. If she omitted the oh-oh-ohing she might be able to elongate this last section to a proper finish.
There is no doubt that Nevena is a great singer and you can
tell that she has written and composed this song to show off her vocal
strengths but I have to say in many respects I am left lacking. The song doesn’t
really have any instant appeal, there is no way I would remember this if it was
near the start of song contest semi or final. At times, her passion and feeling
for the song comes across more as shouty and angry, possibly also because it is
not particularly clear what or who she is singing about. This could be easily
rectified through the staging or possibly by having a dancer or two on stage. This would help with the storytelling and create much needed movement on stage.
Personally I feel like this is a less impressive version of
Mall with many of the lyrical qualities of Croatia’s 1998 entry but with any of
the personality erased from it. I personally don’t rate this and think it is
just a bit to introverted to make an initial wow statement on the stage. That
said, in a sea of quirkier, edgier and more up-tempo songs this might provide a
welcome change of direction. Either way this just does not do it for me at all.
ARTIST – Nevena
Božović
SONG – Kruna (Crown)
MUSIC - Nevena
Božović
LYRICS - Nevena Božović
"because it is not particularly clear what or who she is singing about"
ReplyDeleteShe is singing about her fiance whom she will marry in April. She is very much in love and wanted to tell him and shout it to the world.