AUSTRALIA 2021

The Australian song premiered on March 4th, with its first play on Australian radio station Triple J. The next day it was available to find on all online platforms and on the 6th it had its first live performance at Syndey Mardi Gras. The singer Montaigne, who won Australia Decides in 2020, was reselected again for the 2021 edition however this song was internally selected. She will sing the song "Technicolour"

During her performance at the Mardi Gras Montaigne was joined on stage by 2 female dancers. All three of them are dressed in different white outfits although the dancers start with black coats and shed them at the command 'take off your cloaks'. Montaigne was singing live, which in itself was pretty impressive, does some dancing although most of it is on the spot with some armography, foot swivelling and kneeling. It felt rather simplistic and could easily be beefed up with more dancers as well as benefiting from a proper backdrop and props.

The song structure is rather straightforward compared to many of the songs we've reviewed up to now. The verses show off Montaigne's lower register as well as her yodelling technique. Here her voice sounds Celtic, almost Sinead O'Connor like. The yodelling continues in the pre-chorus but her voice seems a little more agitated as the lyrics become more emotional but suddenly breaks off into a more shouty call to arms part and goes straight into the repetitive chorus. We then repeat the verse/pre-chorus/chorus medley before a brief respite with some more vocal runs and some rather high notes before the final chorus which also initiates a rather unexpected key change. 

Montaigne's breakthrough came in 2014 when her song "I am not an end" got good radio play in Australia and was followed up by the release of her EP called "Life of Montaigne". In 2016 she released her album "Glorious Heights" which helped Montaigne win the ARIA for "Breakthrough Artist" which is no mean feat. Her second album came out in 2019 and the next year won "Australian Decides" with Don't Break Me. Her music is very singer-songwriter led however her music is also seen as 'art pop' because of her production style and visual presentations.

Compared to her 2020 entry this is more pop influenced. There are many changes in the song which show off the different facets of her voice but the transitions of the song need a lot of work. The song is much more level in terms of production in the studio version and I feel the backing track needs more rise and fall to make the parts stand out more. In particular, the change from pre-chorus to the technicolour chant needs more of a pow moment between them. I also hope that this staging is not what we are getting at Eurovision. Obviously she'll have more of a backdrop but I also wonder if she'll have more dancers to make the stage come alive more. I also think Montaigne's choreo doesn't fit with the song. perhaps if she has more dancers she might be able to get away with doing less. This all said, her live vocal performance is really outstanding and if she can pull something like this in May she will do herself justice. 

ARTIST - Montaigne
SONG - Technicolour
WRITING CREDITS - Jessica Cerro, Dave Hammer