ISRAEL 2021

The Israeli song was revealed on January 25th, via a special show (HaShir Shelanu L'Eurovizion) hosted by Lucy Ayoub. Before the final there was a semi-final where the long list of 9 was whittled down to a final of 3. The winner was chosen by online & app voting which started on January 19th. Eden Alene, who was to be the Israeli representative in 2020, will sing the song "Set me free".

The show, unfortunately was not a 'live' show and the winning song was only seen as a video clip so this is what I will be using to review. Eden Alene is dressed in white and has some very distinctive make up and hair styling. She certainly looks very dynamic and this is made more interesting by the dancers around her dressed mostly in back with picture frames of lights surrounding their head and shoulders. This framing is every eye catching and keeps Eden Alene firmly in the centre of attention

The song starts with a brief intro then straight into a shortened version of the chorus, albeit a rather low key version. This is always a clever tactic as it gets this key part of the song firmly locked in your hear within seconds. The backing track has a very strong beat and has a great use of sythy-strings to create moments between the singing. The verses are much more spiky and show Eden's personality much more than the chorus. Here, the pace slows ever so slightly although this change of style and tempo shows the diverse range she has to her voice. There is then a rather prolonged post-chorus which also contains lines in Hebrew. During the second verse the backing track changes slightly to a slightly more dancehall rhythm which really perks your ears up. After a third verse the very last chorus starts with a key change - jut in case you forgot it's a Eurovision song - then finishes with a final "Just set me free".

The song itself has a great contemporary feel and would not feel out of place on many radio stations around the world. In addition, most Eurovision fans are pretty confident that Eden Alene will perform the hell out of this physically and vocally although there are obviously numerous questions about potential staging ideas. After numerous listens, the song starts to feel more like a collection of bits that don't quite flow together. In particular I am puzzled at the prevalence of the 'Imma make it on my own" part which almost seems to overpower and overshadow the chorus, as well as take up a rather large part of the song's time limit. The ending also feels rather sudden.

On the face of it, this is a solid effort and something that very much fits into the modern scope of Eurovision. Instinctively one wants to compare this to "Feker Libi" and this new song really isn't at that level. Personally, I don't like the way it slows down for the chorus or how long the post-chorus goes on for. I feel like something with a a more constant pace would suit Eden's personality more as well as create more flow for the listener. There is time, however, to finalise the backing track as well as making the best possible stage show, although having seen how much effort has gone into the development fo the tracks and video, I don't think this will be the case.

ARTIST - Eden Alene
SONG - Set Me Free
WRITING CREDITS - Ron Carmi, Amit Mordechai,  Ido Netzer, Noam Zaltin

ALBANIA 2021

The Albanian Final (Festivali i Këngës) was held on December 23rd at Sheshi Italia in Tirana, hosted by Blendi Salaj & Jonida Vokshi. Before the final there was a semi-final where the long list of 25 was reduced to 18. The winner was chosen solely by a jury. The winning song was "Karma" sung by Anxhela Peristeri.

Anxhela is centre stage for most of the performance wearing a sparkly beige/coral number consisting of long sleeves, pronounced shoulders and a shredded skirt. The top half looks good in close up but the bottom could be a little more imaginative. Her dancers are wearing gold and black catsuits with matching bandana and capes which seems rather incongruous with Anxhela's outfit AND the theme of the song. The stage colouring seems to mix red and blue with a number of different motifs but none are prominent.

The song starts with a rock-guitar led call to action with Anxela blasting loud and clear like a fog horn followed by a guitar riff but soon settles down into something much more mellow. The first verse is very sparse and punctuates the syllables and expression in Anxela's voice. It seamlessly goes into the chorus which has the warbly earworm from the introduction but uses a softer tone to her voice. This leads to a brief instrumental mirroring the tune of the chorus and four dancers crawl onto the stage next to her. From here the song gets a little less static and more powerful.

During the second verse/chorus combination the background music is more pronounced and more instruments join in. Anxhela is also engaging more with the camera; swaying and bending to the music. As the song enters its final minute there is another instrumental this one much more drum based and has the backing singers chanting away on top. During this part Anxhela is tossed and turned between the backing singers before being lifted above their heads. This gives Anxhela enough time to do one more rendition of the chorus before the song finishes rather abruptly.

Positively, there are very few occasions that a song with wins the Albanian national final is exactly the right length to go to Eurovision, so this means we don't have to worry about parts being cut out or awkwardly phrased. We also know that the song is being kept in Albanian, which I think is a good move. The ethnic instrumentation may have felt jarring with English lyrics on top so keeping it as it is will keep it feeling natural. Some tweaks will need to be made to the stage show depending on the different options of how Eurovision will be presented this year. I think work needs to be done on all of the outfits - especially the backing dancers!

This is quite expected Festivali i Këngës fayre and is not a bad bar to judge the rest of the Eurovision entries to come. Personally, although the tune (particularly the chorus) is memorable there is a lack of flow. The tempo is a little safe and predictable and I would almost be tempted to experiment with trying the song out a tad quicker or slower to see if it changes the emphasis of the song and maybe give more direction for the staging and dancers. That all said and done, knowing that they don't really need to do much to the song in essence, just wait for the devamp....

ARTIST - Anxhela Peristeri
SONG - Karma
WRITING CREDITS - Kledi Bahiti, Olti Curri