POLAND

The Polish Final was held on March 3rd at the TVP Headquarters in Warsaw. The winner was chosen by a 50/50 combination of televoting and jury. Winning the national final was Gromee feat. Lukas Meijer with “Light me up”

Lukas is centre stage with an electric guitar however he doesn’t play it all the time. Behind him is Gromee who is wearing a similar outfit to Lukas and is stood behind a kind of turntable/mixing desk/drum kit/keyboard setup. Also on stage is another male guitarist who does backing vocals and then 2 female backing vocalists. Behind them the colour palette is kind of dark blue/black and rotates between sparkly lights, pulsing circles as well as having the title of the song dotted around. There is no real choreography although Lukas does move a lot around the stage.

This is very much in the style of the radio friendly dance music that has been in the charts for the last few years. It has a very repetitive, if not anthemic, chorus and everyone on stage seems to be having a whale of a time. The verses are a little bit nondescript and the chorus is simplistic and very lengthy but the song really comes into its own in the little instrumental just after the chorus. I can imagine the crowd jumping up and down to this bit. Lukas and the backing singers blend quite well live although I find he is a little bit too distracted but I think this can be solved very easily.

This is a fairly standard Eurovision performance but I feel a few things could elevate it. Firstly, Lukas needs to have much more of an identity. He looks like an indie country rock guy but is singing an EDM track. If he styled himself a little but more like Alexander from Norway last year, who had a very similar style of song, it might feel a bit more accessible. He also needs to get rid of the guitar. Half the time he wasn’t really playing it and the other half it looked like it was just getting in the way of any action he wanted to do. I think the 2 backing singers do a grand job but I feel they could also encourage the crowd more with some actions or clapping to create a visual hook to the song. All in all, I think this is quite a good song and a radio-friendly up tempo number. Looking at the other countries voting in that semi I feel this should qualify with little trouble

ARTIST –  Gromee feat. Lukas Meijer

SONG – Light me up

MUSIC - Andrzej Gromala, Lukas Meijer

LYRICS - Mahan Moin, Christian Rabb

SAN MARINO

The San Marinese Final WAS held on March 3rd at the JOJ TV Studios in Bratislava, hosted by Nick Earles and Kristin Stein. Initially, there was An open call for singers who could apply by uploading a clip of them singing to the 1 in 360 website. This was then whittled down to a cast list of 10 who were designated 2 songs each. The singers performed an acoustic version of a song in each semi-final and after the 2nd semi-final the jury selected 1 song for each singer. In the final, the winner was chosen by a 50/50 jury/public vote – this portion was based on the amount of money received via the Global Rockstar crowdfunding platform. Going to Lisbon will be Jessika feat. Jenifer Brening with the song “Who we are”.

The staging of this song was very simple, mainly because the stage for the show was very simple. No real backdrop or lighting apart from a geometric lighting rig behind them and a simple raised box stage. Jessika is wearing a very flattering white low cut trouser suite whist Jenifer is in black jacket and skirt. Not very much happens on stage.

Jessika begins singing doing some quite neat and small bits of choreography through the first verse and chorus which doesn’t sound too far away from “Heroes”. It is at this point Jenifer moves in and does her neat bit of rap. It first it feels a little bit strange but in the whole flow of the song it works quite well. This then goes into another chorus before a short break and then the final chorus which is a little more freeform. By the end of the song you can tell that Jessika’s voice is a little tired and is really having to push to get the high notes.

This wasn’t really seen as a bit favourite beforehand and was a bit of a shock to win but I can see why this did well. The main body of the song is quite strong and Jessika performs it reasonably well. Jenifer’s rap punctuations keep the flow quite well and are just the right amount of length without taking over. The whole thing as a song works really well but the whole setting of the song is so far away from the stage at Eurovision. There is a lot of potential for this entry too and I guess it could be interesting to see what kind of stage show they can some up with or if anything can be done to revamp the song a little. Jessika is from Malta and Jenifer from Germany and the microstate is surrounded by Italy – all three countries are voting in their semi as this so I sure this will guarantee some points but possibly not enough to qualify.

ARTIST –  Jessika feat. Jenifer Brening

SONG –  Who we are

MUSIC - Mathias Strasser, Zoë Straub, Christof Straub, Lorenzo Salvatori

LYRICS - Mathias Strasser, Zoë Straub, Christof Straub, Stefan Moessle, Jenifer Brening

ESTONIA

The Estonian Final was be held on March 3rd at the Saku Suurhall in Tallinn, hosted by Ott Sepp & Meelis Kubo. Before the final there were 2 semi-finals reducing the field of 20 in half. The winner was chosen in two rounds of voting - a top 3 will be announced through by televoting (50%) and an "expert" jury (50%), but in the second round the winner was chosen solely by televoting . The winner was Elina Nechayeva with “La Forza” (The force)

The setup of the song is very simple yet utterly mesmerising. She is stood quite high up centre stage in a very very very long dress which covers the entire stage. This then becomes the canvas for a series of projection images – mostly abstract images, patterns or scenes rather than of actual things or people. Behind her, the screen show different coloured starry skies. Her upper chest, lower arms and hands are covered in glitter which is used to good effect on the close ups.

The song starts off quietly and gradually builds with the backing track. There is some camera trickery near the start to surround her with what looks like shooting stars. Elina’s voice really changes depending which notes she is singing which makes the whole piece very intriguing. In terms of structure you only get a verse-chorus-verse-chorus before the song ends on a very high note. I would not say any of the parts was too long but because of the speed of the song it needs this long to totally fulfil its journey. I would love to hear a longer version of this with possibly another verse-chorus or bridge-chorus to see where it could go next. The entirety of the song is in Italian which makes it difficult to understand but does make it feel more genuine in its field.

Opera, although possibly ore accurately Popera, is style not alien to Eurovision. As recent as 2015 the Italian entry featuring 3 young male operatic men came second. That said it has not been a particularly successful genre either. In its favour, this has a real simplicity in all angles. The visual aspect is very clear, her voice is very distinctive and legible and the build up in the instrumentalis memorable too. It is the only opera song we have this year. I think this will stand out a mile from everything else around mainly because of how well it is sung by Elina.

ARTIST –  Elina Nechayeva

SONG –  La Forza (The force)

MUSIC - Mihkel Mattisen, Timo Vendt, Ksenia Kuchukova, Elina Nechayeva

LYRICS - Mihkel Mattisen, Timo Vendt, Ksenia Kuchukova, Elina Nechayeva

FINLAND

The Finnish Final will be held on March 3rd at the Espoo Metro Areena in Espoo, hosted by Krista Siegfrids & Mikko Silvennoinen. Back in November, YLE announced they had internally selected Saara Aalto as the performer and there would be a national final to select her song. The winner was chosen by international juries & televoting. At Eurovision, Saara will be singing the song “Monsters”

At first Saara is dressed in a black cloak inside a fabric wrapped cage. Later on as the song develops her real stage outfit is revealed which is a multicoloured top with similarly pattered boots -parts of these glow in the dark. The stage is layered and has lot of steps and platforms that the performers go up and down. The lighting is full of beams and flashing neon strips. She is joined on stage by 2 female backing singers dressed in silver and 3 male dancers dressed as dark angels. There is a lot of moving and a lot of choreography

The song starts off quietly and slightly mysterious. When she starts the bridge, the 3 male dancers appear. They are dressed in a greyish colour and are all wearing similarly coloured wings. They rip off the cage's fabric and Saara exits before being joined on stage by her 2 backing singers. There is then a shorter verse and a full chorus before a short downbeat instrumental. Here the lighting dims and the fluorescent and neon strips on the outfits and set can be seen. The dancers also appear with flags but are soon got rid of. They then do another rendition of the chorus but the backing singers' mics are a little bit too loud and you can barely hear Saara doing her own thing and singing slightly differently to the tune. The ending is a little sudden but this could be made more effective with a better worked out show.

Vocally Saara was pretty much on point for this song which is always a good thing but overall I found the stage show a bit muddled and directionless. The video clip of the UMK songs had been available for a while before the live final and I think many were hoping to have a similar vibe on the stage, but it did not. I think the stage outfit could be simpler and still have the impact. I also think the backing track could be punchier and slightly more dramatic. The biggest thing she needs to do is make the stage show simpler- there is a lot of choreography and it is taking too much away from Saara’s natural charm. On the plus side she has the UK and Ireland voting in her semi so she will get some vote but I have a horrible feeling that this is the “Same Heart” of 2018 – a firm fan favourite that flops. 

ARTIST –  Saara Aalto

SONG – Monsters

MUSIC -  Saara Aalto, Joy Deb, Linnea Deb, Ki Fitzgerald

LYRICS - Saara Aalto, Joy Deb, Linnea Deb, Ki Fitzgerald

CYPRUS

The Cypriot entry was revealed on 2nd March via the premiere of the music video during a news broadcast which was then made available on youtube. Back in January, CyBC announced they had internally selected Eleni Foureira to represent them at Eurovision. The song she will perform is called “Fuego” (Fire)

As this is a music video it is limited in the clues it gives us for a possible stage performance. Most of the action happens inside a very grand looking house. There are lost of shots of staircases, corridors, banisters, candelabras and ends with a car going up in flames. There are some choreographed pieces during the song but it might not be possible to replicate them whilst singing. Eleni and her 4 backing dancers are dressed in a kind of 80s power style but most of the outfits are little more than swimsuits.

Despite the Spanish title, the song is wholly in English, apart from this one word. The song has that mid tempo Spanish vibe that seems to be very in at the moment. It starts quietly though the first verse then hits the chorus. This is nowhere near as strong as it should be and is full of oh-oh-ohing. This is also not helped by the fact the instrumental after the first chorus is initially downbeat and you lose the flow of the song almost immediately.  At the start of the song, and during the breaks between chorus and verse, the tune is a little more ethnic. There are also a lot of minimalist instrumentals during the song and it will be interesting to see how hey ‘fill’ these on stage. The tune of the verses is very similar to “If love was a crime”, in fact the structure of the song is quite similar but not quite as good.

Being a video clip, this gives us no insight to the scope or problems this faces when sung live. Personally I find the song very produced and very much for the radio and she will have to work very hard to make this look and sound good during Eurovision. I am not sure that the concept in the video would make for a good stage show. This song would not feel out of place on mainstream radio. Personally I find this quite generic and the fact that it could blend in which so many other songs means it just doesn’t quite catch my ear. And with Eurovision's recent penchant for choosing more ‘alternative’ songs over commercial successes this might not be the best of choices.

ARTIST –  Eleni Foureira

SONG – Fuego (Fire)

MUSIC - Alex Papaconstantinou, Geraldo Sandell, Viktor Svensson, Anderz Wrethov, Didrick

LYRICS - Alex Papaconstantinou, Geraldo Sandell, Viktor Svensson, Anderz Wrethov, Didrick

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NETHERLANDS

The Dutch song was unveiled on March 2nd during a week long appearance on the well known Dutch talk show “De Wereld Draait Door”. Back in November it was revealed that previous Eurovision entrant Waylon (formerly half of the Common Linnets) would be representing the low country. Every weekday from 23^rd February, he unveiled a song from his up coming album – and teased that one of them would be his Eurovision entry. The song he will be singing in Lisbon is “Outlaw in 'em”

During the song previews, Waylon was alone on stage. He is sat on a stool and vigorously playing the guitar. He has a studded black leather jacket with shortened sleeves showing off his extensive tattoos. He is singing into a thick set vertical microphone, not a million miles away from the Eurovision trophy design but on a mic stand, Vaguely behind him are video screens showing rocky, possibly American views. Whether any of this will be the case at Eurovision is hard to say at the point.

Although Eurovision is not averse to country songs, this definitely falls on the rocky side of that genre. There is a very distinctive, if not slightly dirty, guitar riff in the bed of the song with gets under your skin quite quickly. His voice sounds very Americanised and country with the twangs and hiccupping on certain syllables and note changes. The start of the verses has a tinge of “I am a man of constant sorrow” about it with an almost bluegrass hint about it. The chorus starts off with the name of the song, which is always a handy trick, but the rest of it is highly unintelligible because of the speed of delivery twinned with his style of delivery.

When it comes to the visual performance of the song I feel it will change a fair bit in Lisbon. For one he needs backing singers, but it might be decided to keep them off screen. He may also decide to add a whole band on stage to emphasise the country sensibilities of the song. He sings the song well enough but I think he really needs to watch the tone and style of his voice so that it doesn’t just become noise. Also it's quite an introverted performance and he may need to think about what can be done on stage, either by him or through other means, to really reach out to the hall and the viewers at home.

Waylon has history with Eurovision – not all good. Yes, being part of the Common Linnets saw him almost win the thing in 2014 but during that time he seemed to create an atmosphere that was difficult, standoffish and not really very friendly. As it was as soon as Eurovision ended, he left the band. Some of these memories will be very hard to paper over for some of the fans. It will be interesting to see which Waylon turns up in Lisbon and what he has learnt between 2014 and now.

ARTIST –  Waylon

SONG –  Outlaw in ‘em

MUSIC - Jim Beavers, Ilya Toshinskiy, Waylon

LYRICS - Jim Beavers, Ilya Toshinskiy, Waylon

ROMANIA

The Romanian Final was held at Sala Polivalenta in Bucharest on February 25th, hosted by Cezar Ouatu & Diana Dumitrescu. Before the final there were 5 semi-finals, with 3 songs qualifying from each. Heat qualifiers were chosen solely by a jury but during the final the winner was chosen by 100% televoting. The winning song was “Goodbye” performed by The Humans.

The band is spread out along the stage with the main singer, Cristina stood centre in a long black cloak. Behind her the rest of the band are dressed in white. Two of the band members are wearing masks and come towards her from behind. They rip off the cloak revealing a much shorter red beaded dress. The band members do very little apart from this initial movement. Cristina, however, moves around the stage quite freely, whipping her very lengthy hair as well as encouraging the audience to join in with the song. The background screen is fairly generic with different colours and beams of light although you can just make out the outline of a double helix – a tie-in to the band name in a subtle way.

This probably falls under the genre of “rock ballad” and does not feel too removed from Coldplay’s “Yellow” but with a strong female vocalist. The song starts quite gently and shows off Cristina’s very distinctive voice. After the wardrobe change she starts to let her voice soar and show that slightly harder rock edge to her vocal. The song itself is lacking in structure. There is a chorus but is kind of lost in between the disparate verses, differing tunes and lengthy instrumentals. Moreover, the ending of the song is very sudden and nothing in the stagecraft prepares you for the sudden conclusion either.

The performance looks very amateur but sounds really professional, which provides an immediate disconnect. The whole look of the piece needs tightening up, needs a stronger connection to the tv and stage audience and a bigger tie-in to the words of the song. Cristina is an excellent singer, her voice is strong and rich but it is totally wasted on this song. Also, compared to some of the other rock songs on offer this year, this entry feels a bit tame, soulless and almost boring. With so many styles and languages on offer this entry comes across and a bit safe. In terms of Eurovision, they are lucky to be in a semi with some nearby and /or friendly countries but right now I don’t think this is going to be enough and this could be their very first non-qualification since the introduction of the semi-finals.

ARTIST –  The Humans

SONG – Goodbye

MUSIC - Matei Alexandru, Alin Neagoe

LYRICS - Cristina Caramarcu

ARMENIA

The Armenian Final was held on February 25th, hosted by Gohar Gasparyan. Before the final there were 2 semis reducing the field of 20 to 10. The eventual winner was chosen by televoting (50%) and an international jury (50%). The winning act was Sevak Khanagyan singing the song “Qami” (Wind)

Sevak is alone on stage. He is sporting quite an impressive beard and a rather confusing fake chest bodice top. The screen behind him is showing a kind of abstract blue outer space scene until the last rendition of the chorus. There are also backing vocals on the track but no extra people can been seen on the stage. Sevak moves around a bit on stage but nothing at all choreographed and seems very natural and meaningful.

The song starts off quietly with piano backing. The song is quite simple and really shows the Armenian language as something that sounds quite pretty. The song is a very slow builder, after each rendition of the verse or chorus the backing music ramps up ever so slightly almost like each layer of the track is added one by one. It is not until the very end of the second chorus does it really step into fighting territory. Sevak’s full voice is charged at this point and gets to show not only his power but his range. Although the song is in Armenian, I would say the song sounded not atall ethnic, in fact it’s more musical theatre than cultural.

A 100% Armenian language entry is unheard of in Eurovision terms so it will be interesting to see how well this does. The flow of the song is very slow and takes a little bit too long to get to the big crescendo. I almost feel like the song needs to be another minute longer (which is against the rules) or a minute shorter (which could happen but won’t). The backdrop idea with the silhouette of the lady is an interesting one but the fact that such technology won’t be in-built into the Lisbon stage means this might need to be rethought. I also don’t quite understand the whole ‘costume’ of the armoured breastplate either – maybe it is just a visual gimmick? As for the song it is quite memorable and the simplistic title makes it easy enough for non-Armenian speakers to at least feel like they can sing along. This isn’t immediate but is a definite grower and once you’ve heard it and know what’s coming you need to listen to the end again !

ARTIST –  Sevak Khanagyan

SONG –  Qami (Wind)

MUSIC - Kostyantyn Bocharov, Anton Karskyi, Mike Ryals

LYRICS - Sevak Khanagyan, Anna Danielyan, Viktorya Maloyan

LATVIA

The Latvian Final was held on February 24th at the Riga Film Studio, hosted by Justs Sirmais & Dagmara Legante. Before the final there were 3 semi-finals with 8 songs in each. The winner was chosen by a combination of jury (50%) and televoting/online voting/spotify listens (50%). The winner was Laura Rizzotto with “Funny Girl”

Laura is solo on stage in a red dress with black seams. The scene around her is mostly red, either as beams, lights, strobes, shapes or splodges. They all seem to move in time with the minimalistic track. In this way it is slightly reminiscent of Aminata’s performance a few years ago – even the colouring is similar. There are backing vocals on the track but nobody seemed to be visible on the stage with her. It must be said that the production values and camerawork are very good.

This is a jazzy, almost cabaret, song and performance with a minimalist electronic backing track. I would almost expect Jessica Rabbit to come out halfway through. It starts of quite conversational in its style of singing and you find yourself listening very carefully to the words of the song. The structure of the song is pretty much predictable and the sections of the song are well defined. As the song progresses you see that the camera work is very deliberate and focuses a little too much on her gesturing and choreography. Her voice is not bad, and the change between her chest voice and head voice isn’t bad either. She starts to struggle near the end of the song to get the high notes in the chorus and you sense she is tiring by the end – maybe she needs to pace herself better?

This is a very distinctive song and once again we find ourselves hosting a style of song we have not seen yet this year. I have a couple of issues that could be ironed out quite quickly. Firstly, strip back the ‘routine’. By focusing on the movements that are memorable or highlight the narrative it will look slicker and more stylised. OR, in a controversial move, I’d like to see her with a dancer. I could imagine her doing something similar to what she does now but acting out the piece with another dancer (or even 2 other dancers to show the competitive atmosphere). They also need to come up with something more creative in terms of lighting and stage setup. This is not a bad effort but it leaves me cold and slightly disengaged. I can also see this falling flat with the audience in the hall who might feel disengaged from a performance that is very much for the camera.

ARTIST –  Laura Rizzotto

SONG – Funny Girl

MUSIC - Laura Rizzotto

LYRICS - Laura Rizzotto

HUNGARY

The Hungarian Final was held on February 24th at the MTVA Studios in Budapest, hosted by Krisztina Rátonyi & Gábor Alfréd Fehérvári. Before the final there were 3 heats and 2 semi finals. The winner was chosen in two rounds of voting. In the first round the jury chose their top 4 and in the second round the winner was chosen by televoting. The winning act is AWS singing “Viszlát nyár” (Goodbye summer)

The band is spread out across the stage. All of them are static apart from the lead singer who is very active! The main colour of the set is yellow with yellow lights and beams and shapes surrounding them although there are some red and orangey tones too. The whole thing is brought together by the occasional flickers of fire on the video wall behind them. Although there is little moving around the stage there is a lot of action going on the camera angles emphasise this. The guys are all dressed very casually with rather normal haircuts, rather than the stereotypical long haired leather clad images one might have.

This is a very full on rock number with plenty of head banging and screaming/singing. The song is in Hungarian and normally this would make understanding the song quite hard but not in this instance. You get the feeling this is quite an angry, almost redemptive song. The song starts off really in your face with 4 bars of full on guitars, drums and headbanging. The verses are slightly more sedate than the choruses but are still in the rock vein. After 2 renditions of the verse and chorus the singer starts with the rock screamy/shouting whilst the whole band joins in with some group headbanging. This then leads into another chorus with a key change!

Once again we have another style of song through to Eurovision which can be no bad thing. However it must be said that this genre is not to everybody’s ear and has already polarised a lot of the fan community. The fact that this style has never really done well at Eurovision AND that is it in Hungarian is not doing much for their chances of qualifying, however I like the fact they have chosen something really different and showcasing a type of music that is obviously enjoyed there. Good luck to them I say !

ARTIST –  AWS

SONG – Viszlát nyár (Goodbye summer)

MUSIC - Dániel Kökényes, Bence Brucker, Áron Veress, Soma Schiszler

LYRICS - Örs Siklósi