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The deadline has passed, the National Final season is over, and that means it’s time to start judging the songs! Yes, Juke Box Jury is back for the 2014 season. The ESC Insight team are going to sit and listen to every song that will be going to Copenhagen, discuss them on the podcast, and call each song as Hit, Miss, or Maybe.
To start the season, ESC Insight’s Newsletter Editor Ben Robertson and Wiwibloggs‘ Will Adam joined host Ewan Spence in a roadside cafe on the road between Riga and Ventspils in Latvia with the first five songs ready to hear their fate…
Eurovision Insight Podcast: Juke Box Jury #1
with Ben Robertson and Will AdamsFinland: Something Better, by Softengine.
Belarus: Cheesecake, by Teo.
Iceland: No Prejudice, by Pollapönk.
Ukraine: Tick-tock, by Maria Yaremchuk
Malta: Coming Home, by Firelight.
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Thanks Ewan, for me it’s a hit for Finland, Ukraine and Malta, a maybe for Iceland and a miss for Belarus. Looking forward to the next one!
The newsletter setup doesn’t really invite reader comments as articles do, so I hope Ben is happy to see good numbers even without much feedback. I enjoy the Reflections, and the concise news updates provide a welcome overview of the weekly scrap-salad web-splatter.
Finland : Miss. Very poor soft rock.
Belarus : Miss. One of the worst songs of the year.
Iceland : Miss. Cheesy garbage.
Ukraine : Maybe. Solid pop song, which this year puts it above most entries.
Malta : Hit. New version is a slight downgrade, but this is still a very good song. Don’t see it as a top 10 though.
Can Malta win : Hell no.
Great to see JBJ is back!
I can never remember if we’re voting for songs we like or songs we think will do well? For me, all 5 feel like they sit on opposite ends of each scale:
Finland: Like but will most likely fail
Belarus: Hate but will end up top 10
Iceland: Love but won’t leave the SF
Ukraine: Meh
Malta: Love, doesn’t deserve to do as badly as it will.
Zolan, that’s a very fair point on comments to the newsletter, but it does serve a slightly different purpose. I’m excited to see how Ben’s plans for the newsletter during the two weeks backstage will be received!
Peter, it’s always left a little bit undefined to promote debate, but generally it’s a ‘is the song any good’ indication and then the discussion helps clarify if it’s a good song, a winner, or somewhere in between.
Ewan, it wasn’t meant as a criticism, it was to make the point that lack of feedback does not indicate lack of interest.
It’s also true that issues needing a specific discussion thread would be an exception, and the linking page can be used in that case.
It’s always great to see JBJ back – it remains one of the best pieces of analysis about ESC online in the run up to the contest – also loved all the cake discussion before Latvia picked their ESC entry.
My thoughts on the songs are:
Finland – Good song, but lacks the depth of Denmark 2011 – 5.7/10
Belarus – Meaningless entry, not going anywhere no matter who picked it – 3.4/10
Iceland – Really fun song but preferred the Icelandic version, not sure it works live – 6.9/10
Ukraine – Not crazy about this but usually don’t really like the Ukrainian entry until I see it live – 4.5/10
Malta – Really think this will be lost at the contest but like it to a point – 5.5/10
Zolan, neither Ben nor I took it as a criticism – just pointing out our thinking behind the newsletter. And yes, there is always the comments on the linking page. we actually get a lot of stats on the newsletter, we can see how many people open it, who clicks on what, which stories get the most clicks. So we have a different type of feedback!
It’s also so interesting how views differ…
Finland – if they could get 1D fans to watch Eurovision, they might end up winning! Their reprise at UMK was their best performance so far – if they could repeat that, they might get top half in the Final
Belarus – I think that TEO will be this year’s Krista. If he could meet every female viewer and juror, he would have them charmed to vote for Belarus, judging from how women were fawning over him at the NF and since. I think this will get to the Final but will disappear there
Iceland – this has been ruined by changing to English! It sounds totally forced and garbled, very difficult to sing and doesn’t flow. It sounded so much better in their native tongue and it seemed to match their whole look better. I think this will bomb out at the SF stage now
Ukraine – I didn’t think this was the best song in her NF and I don’t think that it hasn’t improved as the months have gone by. The Maltese NF version seemed to work but for me going back to the original version doesn’t work. It will get to the Final – it’s Ukraine. It won’t do much in the Final though – Zlata must be wishing she had Gravity this year…
Malta – it’s okay, sung well but there are too many ‘Mumford and Sons’ clones this year and it will be one of many. The female vocalist is superb – pity she didn’t sing everything! It will qualify for the Final but won’t do well on Saturday, it will blend in with everything else. Remember guys – Bonnie and ‘Believe In Me’ went down well in the US as it sounded country, how did that do last year?
No real hits – if there is a surprise out of these, for me it would be Finland.
Hi all,
Yes as Ewan said, the Newsletter is a quiet, ticking over thing. I appreciate the feedback as newsletter’s are quite impersonal, but need to feel personal, so glad it works.
It was nice in Stockholm for the Melodifestivalen final, I was approached by a few people who read it there and enjoy it. It’s not for everybody, but I’m glad there is an audience and that they have been receptive!
Finland: Something Better, by Softengine – Hit – good song, classy live performance (the vocals are not top notch tough).
Belarus: Cheesecake, by Teo – Miss- I do not like it at all. It’s kinda messy and a bit all over the place. Teo could have come up with something better LOL.
Iceland: No Prejudice, by Pollapönk – Hit – as Martin said, the English version is much worse, but they’re a genuine act and their live vocals can be quite good if they do not lose focus.
Ukraine: Tick-tock, by Maria Yaremchuk – Maybe – it’s a decent song, that ends up coming across as somewhat artificial and fake. There were much better choices in the Ukrainian NF.
Malta: Coming Home, by Firelight – Hit – the live vocals are not fine tuned yet, but this an above average song that seems to be catering to a current trend in ESC.
Finland : Maybe : we could be like denmark 2011, but we always expect finland to do well (well some years) but they end up bombing and i expect the same from this.
Belarus : Miss : no chance of getting to the final and will probably finish bottom of the semi.
Iceland : Maybe : I have a sneaky feeling this could be greece 2013 all over again, but i still don’t expect this to qualify especially when its in the first half
Ukraine : Maybe : it will qualify and will probably get a top 15 in the final so you have to give it a hit in that sense.
Malta : Miss : it will get nothing in the tele vote especially when it opens the semi and with the likes of norway and austria it won’t pick up enough jury votes to make up for it
Winner on count back : Finland
Can it win : Nope, prediction : 10-20 in the final.
i ment to say maybe instead of hit when i said *you got to give ukraine a hit*
Finland – HIT: I love this song. If the performance is full of passion as it should be and Finland are given a decent place in the running order, then I can imagine this entry being very successful.
Belarus – MAYBE: This is highly derivative of Robin Thicke and the lyrics are stupid, but it is admittedly catchy. I predict it will qualify but I don’t know how well it will do in the final.
Iceland – MAYBE: This song is pretty fun, but it doesn’t stand out to me in any way among all the entries this year. I don’t think Iceland will qualify this year.
Ukraine – HIT: The new version of this song is a huge improvement over the original as seen in the Ukrainian national final. However, I do miss the catchy way she rhymed “tick tock” with “talk talk talk” in the NF version. This reminds me of Serebro (Russia 2007), which came 3rd in the final that year. I can imagine Ukraine doing very well this year too.
It sounds like the guests of this show were discussing a different version to the clip that was played.
Malta – MAYBE: There are a lot of songs in this style this year and for me this is one of the weaker ones. Nothing about this stands out to me. Average.
Tom, indeed we were making ;guest guess’ as JBJK1 had to be recorded mid-Feb…. ahhh the secrets of audio production.