It’s another review and it’s time to look at another three Eurovision entries. I am once again joined by William from Canada. As per usual we will be scoring the songs from 1-8 points and then 10 and 12. So let’s start with Azerbaijan:
- Country: Azerbaijan
- Song: Hold Me
- Artist: Farid Mammadov
- Composer: Dimitris Kontopoulos
- Lyricist(s): John Ballard, Ralph Charlie
- Performing: 4th in the 2nd semi final
Anthony: I must say that the Azerbaijani selection was incredibly poor this year, although it bring up some wonderful performances. “Hold Me” is the first Azerbaijani entry that I have actually really liked, it actually feels like there is emotion behind this ballad which you don’t normally get from Azerbaijan. The fact that Azerbaijan have gone for a ballad would have made me say it wont do so well, but having a male lead makes it stand out from the rest. Azerbaijan once again will fly out of the semi finals and go straight to the final. I would not be surprised at all too see this in the top.10 or even top.5 however it is too soon to be going back to Azerbaijan. It’s going to be 10 points from me.
William: Since 2010 Azerbaijan has sent well performed and relatively safe ballads, a trend which continues this year. These ballads have been getting Azerbaijan in the top 5 every year. Farid’s “Hold Me” is a lovely male soloist ballad straight out of the classic Eurovision ballad factory. The song itself is a sweet ballad with an effective build up, a style very common in Eurovision lately.The song has the advantage of the huge ex-Soviet voting bloc and being one of the few ballads this year with a male lead singer, this will secure Azerbaijan a place in the final. Despite being a classic Eurovision style ballad, the same style that has secured Azerbaijan a series of top 5 placings, I quite like it. Based on this, I’ll give it 10 points.
- Country: Belgium
- Song: Love Kills
- Artist: Roberto Bellarosa
- Composer(s): Jukka Immonen, Iain Farquharson
- Lyricist(s): Jukka Immonen, Iain Farquharson
- Performing: 15th in the 1st semi final
Anthony: I actually have high hopes for Belgium this year, I honestly feel that they will make it to the final for the first time since 2010. “Love Kills” isn’t a half bad pop number, it’s got a good beat, it actually feels like it has memorability. I do still have doubts about Roberto’s vocals after the Sunday morning Belgian national final, however to be fair singing in the morning on a Sunday isn’t exactly great for a person. Regardless of that I am over the moon that they spent time reworking this song, it’s gone from a definite non-qualifier to one that can get into the finals. It’s gonna be a 6 from me.
William: “Love Kills” is a pop song sung by Roberto Bellarosa. The song itself is quite middle of the road. The revamp was revealed in March and has improved on the song quite a bit. However, I still have doubts about the vocal performance in Eurovision this year when comparing the studio version to the live performance back in December. I’m not personally quite a huge fan of songs like these, I find them a bit outdated and this song is no exception. I can definitely find some appeal in songs like these, but without huge voting allies or being a different or interesting song, in the eyes of Europe this song might lose out. I’ll give “Love Kills” 4 points.
- Country: Belarus
- Song: Solayoh
- Artist: Alyona Lanskaya
- Composer: Marc Paelinck
- Lyricist(s): Martin King
- Performing: 11th in the 1st semi final
Anthony: First off I do feel like I am listening to an entry from Turkey, it just has that good mix of ethnic beats and pop that works quite well at Eurovision. Alyona won the Belarussian selection back in December with a completly different song, personally I’m glad that they did do the song change, this has a far higher chance of getting to the final than “Rhythm of Love”. Do I like this song? Well yeah, it’s nice, it feels right and has a few things going for it. Will it make it to the final? Again yes, Belarus will be back into the final for the first time since 2010. Can it win? No because it’s Belarus, if it was Turkey we would all be saying Turkey could win, but because it’s Belarus there is always going to be a large amount of doubt around it. In the end this get’s 6 points from me.
William: “Solayoh” is one of my personal favourites for this year. There is no real ethnopop tune in Eurovision beside this, “Bombo” came second in MGP. This song was switched out with “Rhythm of Love” in early March, although somewhat debated, the switch was brilliant. However, Belarus does not have a great history for doing well and having excellent staging in Eurovision. The vocals are still a bit uncertain, though her performances in the Moldovan and Romanian NF’s were pretty good. The song is a brilliant song that has the vibes of all great ethnopop songs in the last 10 years of Eurovision. The song is full of hooks, the most prominent one being the classic Eurovision hook. Although, the lyrics are a bit different compared to previous well placed ethnopop songs and the accent might be a killer. Whether or not Europe will appreciate what is known as a slightly dated genre is unknown. I have high hopes and I have to give this my 12 points!
So here are the scores:
- Azerbaijan – 20 points
- Belarus -18 points
- Belgium – 10 points
