SWITZERLAND 2021

The Swiss song was released on March 10th with its video being premiered on the official Eurovision youtube account. Last year's representative Gjon's Tears had been reselected internally, and like last year, he co-composed the song. The song he is singing is called "Tout l'univers" (The whole universe)

At the start of he music video, Gjon is lying in a road at the site of a road accident. The camera blurs into another shot of Gjon on the road but in a different position. We then see Gjon behind the wheel of the car driving through space but then the camera starts to shoot through a sunny mountainous twisty roadway. The views get more daring: darting speedily in lots of different directions until the camera is inside the car having the accident from the start of the song. Gjon gets up, runs towards the car and gets someone out - however he is getting himself out of the car - plot twist!

The song starts with sparse piano packing while Gjon sings the verse softly and seems quite melancholy. The chorus starts in a similar vein with the chorus in his trademark falsetto but the piano is accompanied by an ethereal echo/hum in the background which gives it a haunting yet slightly optimistic feel. However the chorus seems to slowly unwinds and falls back into a  amore minor key  but this time with the slight haunt of a beat in the background The second verse again ends with one of his signature high notes but the chorus this time has a tribal syncopated drum beat AND choir.

Although Gjon does not have an extensive chart career he has participated in many singing shows. Aged just 12, Gjon appeared on "Albanian's Got Talent" placing third in the final. It was here his habit of crying after his performances which got him his stage name. In 2012 he then reached the semi-final stage of  "Die grössten Schweizer Talente". Then in 2019 he took part in "The Voice: la plus belle voix" in France where he was mentored by Mika and again got to the semi finals.

This is an immense piece of music. In some ways you can see some of the song writing links to his 2020 entry but you can also see how he has added some extra facets to make the the production really captivating. The joining up of the different parts of the song shouldn't work but they do. The chorus in particular is very catchy and even in French you start learning the words very quickly. Its sparse lyrics and anthemic chanting makes it really stand out. I hope that some of the visual aspects of the video such as the drone shots make it onto the backdrop. I was kind of scared that Gjon would not be able to top last year's masterpiece... how wrong was I...

ARTIST - Gjon's Tears
SONG - Tout l'univers (The whole universe)
WRITING CREDITS - Wouter Hardy, Xavier Michel, Gjon Muharremaj, Nina Sampermans