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
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