The video is very cinematic in its direction and gives us
very few clues as to how they could present it on the Eurovision stage. For
some of the video he is flanked by a couple of dancers who are covered head to
toe in dark glitter which kind of mirrors the starry/universe theme. Some of
the outdoor parts were filmed on the Canary Islands and looks much more rocky
and rugged - almost moon like - than the studio based excerpts. Here he is
joined by a number of extras all dressed in what seems like 99p shop plastic
raincoats and full face muzzles – like
the Handmaid’s Tale remade by Channel 5. Blas Cantó does quite a lot of emoting
and there is a lot of looking at hands, praying motions, looking above at the
skies which, although tying in with the songs title, lacks personality and
makes him look quite generic. The song has a good amount of backing singers on
it too, and these are not featured at all but these will be need accounting for
when staging in May.
The song starts with what turns out to be the chorus but in
a much more subdued voice and tone. There is a mid-tempo latino/dancehall
syncopated rhythm in the background that keeps the song chugging along in the
short verses which even in such a short form comprises of two different tunes!
Only 20 seconds after the introduction, we get our first chorus proper although
it does feel more like an elongated bridge due to the chopping and changing of
the melodies and this then ends with a oh-oh-oh earworm with repetitions of
‘universo’ on top which could also be interpreted as a hours but feel more like
an afterthought.. This process repeats again and this gets up to the 2 minute
mark. There is then a repetition of part the verses before a crescendo to a
final blast of the chorus with an elongated high note. It then ends with a
final ‘oh-oh-oh’ rather than the word in the title.
Being a music video I can get a good idea of his voice but
not how good it is live on this song. His voice sounds quite breathy and gentle
in the verses and his pronunciation is very clear. The choruses however use
much more of his range is used in the chorus including some parts suing
falsetto. Although this part of his voice is also nice to listen to the
juggling to and fro from head voice to chest voice and back again sounds odd to
the ear. I suppose the only plus point about this oddness of melody is that it
makes it stand out and slightly more memorable which is a plus point is you
don’t speak or understand any Spanish. The possible drawback of this will be if
he is able to perform these parts live and to a good enough standard.
My first reaction to this is that it is actually quite hard
to get into and not the easiest to crack into and absorb into your head. After
a few listens it embeds itself quite well – but do you need something more
instantaneous at Eurovision? My main criticism of the song is I find the structure
very stop start and made up of too many short bits. I almost want the song to
flow a bit more and maybe have a longer amount of time in the first verse and
less time setting up the ending, which is much of a muchness. The language
gives away that the song is the Spanish entry but the rhythm of the song tends
to this way which gives it a good grounding and could easily be heard on the
radio. Overall, there are too many question marks over the presentation of the
entry to be overly confident of its chances but I just don’t think this is
instant enough to worry the top of the scoreboard mainly because I don’t think
this compels anybody to vote for it.
Artist - Blas Cantó
Song - Universo (Universe)
Composers - Blas Cantó, Dan Hammond, Ashley Hicklin, Dangelo
Ortega, Maciej Mikolaj Trybulec
Lyricists - Blas Cantó, Dan Hammond, Ashley Hicklin, Dangelo
Ortega, Maciej Mikolaj Trybulec
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