Eurovision Insight Podcast: Juke Box Jury 2022 #6 Written by
Ewan Spence on
April 21, 2022 | 6 Comments
We continue to review the songs heading to Turin for the Eurovision Song Contest 2022 in the sixth episode of Juke Box Jury. You can listen to all the episodes, and all of the ESC Insight podcasts covering Turin, by adding the RSS Feed to your favourite podcast application, or clicking here to follow us in iTunes and never miss an episode.
Pala Alpitour, Turin 2022 venue (photo: cc Wikimedia)
The hits, misses, and maybes are ready for another five songs heading to Turin 2022 for this year’s Eurovision Song Contest.
Eurovision Insight Podcast: Juke Box Jury #6 with John Lucas and Natalia Anderson.
Slovenia: Disko, by LPS. Serbia: In corpore sano, by Konstrakta. Bulgaria: Intention, by Intelligent Music Project. Latvia: Eat Your Salad, by Citi Zēni. Norway: Give That Wolf a Banana, by Subwoolfer.
British Academy (BAFTA) nominated broadcaster and writer Ewan Spence is the voice behind The Unofficial Eurovision Song Contest Podcast and one of the driving forces behind ESC Insight. Having had an online presence since 1994, he is a noted commentator around the intersection of the media, internet, technology, mobility and how it affects us all. Based in Edinburgh, Scotland, his work has appeared on the BBC, The Stage, STV, and The Times.
You can follow Ewan on Twitter (@ewan) and Facebook (facebook.com/ewanspence).
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I think Norway will fall flat, and deservedly so. I predict that both juries and televoters will prefer to give votes to the many more acts who are singing their hearts out and connecting with the camera.
And I hope I’m right, because an entry of this nature wouldn’t have been possible without the permission to use pre-recorded backing vocals.
SLOVENIA – It’s 1977. For the school end of term disco, teachers have promised a live band. The playground is abuzz with rumours of Chic, Boney M or even The Bee Gees. Then you turn up on the night only to discover that the said ‘band’ are a bunch of teachers’ pets from the lower sixth who have been instructed to dress up in smart suits, not play anything too ‘near the knuckle,’ and keep the volume down (on account of the sheltered housing complex just beyond the school gates).
SERBIA – I don’t see this as a jury song at all. Granted it will have support on both sides of the equation in the Balkans. Beyond this it will be relying on the sort of WTF televote fascination that Bosnia provided in 2008 with their clothes line.
BULGARIA – Having overspent their budget on Victoria last year, for Eurovision 2022, Bulgarian Television have ingeniously hit upon a way of cutting back on production, staging and accommodation costs (no expensive Friday or Saturday night hotel rooms needed) without actually withdrawing from the Contest.
LATVIA – I’m prone to making the odd smutty joke myself, but I generally have the good sense to limit my audience to my long suffering wife rather than subject 180m television viewers to my ‘sense of humour’. I increasingly fear this may sneak a qualification despite the EBU’s best efforts to bury it in the semi-final death slot.
NORWAY – Note to Latvia. This is how you do a Eurovision novelty song. Like the panel, I expect a Keino style Saturday night televote. Unlike Ewan, I also expect a Keiino style jury vote. For that reason it has no chance of winning. 5th – 10th is most likely.
Slovenia-
It’s a disco song in Slovenian. Disco when it’s done good, should make you smile and make you want to dance and move. This has too low energy to make you want to move or dance. It lacks that specific energy, which a disco number has, to make it even a good disco song.
John was talking about how the song grew on him, well that’s not really a good sign when it comes to Eurovision. Grower songs never do well in the contest. If you can’t grab ones attention in your 3 minutes on stage, you are doomed – MISS
Serbia-
If I am honest it’s a song I have no idea what I think about it. When you read the English translation it makes some kind of sense. If you only hear the song, without reading the text you remain clueless. My guess is that this will be a WTF moment of the her semi-final, whether this is enough for her to qualify is yet to be seen. I also don’t think the composition is strong enough or that the song is even memorable. Her performance is memorabel, that’s for sure. Is this enough to get her further, I just don’t know – MISS
Bulgaria-
This one is testing my patient to its limits. I don’t like rock, I admit that, but this is so lazy in its composition and has not one thing going for it- MISS
Latvia-
In 2014 Latvia were singing about Cake to Bake. This year they are singing about Eat your Salad. What will be their next food song?I wonder.
This style of song is something I should like. The sound of the Brass Instruments is something I can relate to and usually I like to hear. And yet I am unable to warm myself to this song. Maybe I can’t take the band seriously enough. Maybe the whole setup is just wrong. Maybe the sexual innuendo at the start of the song, just put me off. It also seems that they are mocking the whole vegetarian /vegan thing. Is it a jock entry? – not so sure, but there is a chance that a lot of people will perceive it as such – somewhere between MISS and MAYBE
Norway-
It’s too calculated for its own good. It misses some spontaneous, which will make the whole song much more enjoyable. It also misses a crescendo at the end of the song to really capture the attention of the viewer. What we have here is a gimmick based song, and song which very simple and unsophisticated song writing. It sounds flat an uninspiring song. The hype around their performance and who are the guys behind the masks is masking a very weak entry. Not sure the televote will goes for this. Quite sure that the Jurries will mark this down – MISS
Serbia- HIT- My personal favorite! I listen to it every day and never get tired of it. What can I say that you probably haven’t already heard from other fans of this song. I suspect there are a great deal more potential points in the final than in the semi-final so I am on pins and needles about qualification. Fingers crossed, heart racing.
Bulgaria- MISS- I actually like the lyrics, but the music isn’t doing its part to tell the story.
Latvia- MISS- The band is likable, energetic, and 100% committed, so I will enjoy the performance. But the song is a miss for me.
Norway- MISS- I dislike it more every time I hear it.
Serbia- HIT – My personal favorite. I listen to it every day and never get tired of it. What can I say that you probably haven’t heard already from other fans of the song. I am on pins and needles about qualification.
Bulgaria- MISS- I think there is some meaning and purpose in the lyrics, but overall the music lets this song down.
Latvia- MISS- The band is likable, energetic, and committed, so I will enjoy the performance. But I don’t listen to the song.
Norway- MISS- I like this song less every time I hear it.
Slovenia: MISS. A perfectly pleasant song with a groove to it that feels a little more lounge music that disco because of the slower beat. This is a great opportunity for this young band with their self-penned song but it’s another case of not being competitive enough to qualify in my opinion. This is a song that’s hard to understand what it’s about if you don’t speak Slovene; there’s not enough emotion in the lead singer’s voice to tell the story. I wonder if they will put the animated music video behind the band on the LED screens to clarify the song’s story.
Serbia: MAYBE. This is a tough one to judge in terms of competitiveness. After the Serbian NF I listened to it, not knowing what it was about, and it left me completely cold as a song, despite the unusual staging. I think part of that is her dispassionate way of singing and looking at the camera. Then, after hearing it for a few times and seeing a translation of the lyrics it grew on me a lot. Now I can’t listen to the chorus without clapping with her and doing the other hand gesture. The lyrics to the song are very clever and have something insightful to say. I wonder how many people will get it enough on the first listen during the contest. I think it is unique enough to stand out in SF2 enough to qualify. It’ll either get lost in the final or stand out so well it could sneak into the top 10.
Bulgaria: MISS. This is competent, yet unexciting and therefore uncompetitive. It sounds like a pastiche of a lot of rock songs you’ve heard in the past and stays in the same gear for the whole song, with the only variation being the slightly slower section of singing and the guitar solo. This is way off the Bulgarian standard of 2016-2021. The music video has been on the official YouTube channel for 4 months and the views are much lower than for entries that have been there for less time.
Latvia: MAYBE. I’d seen all the commotion about the opening line before Supernova and heard just the opening lyric and rolled my eyes. I then decided to watch Supernova as I’d never seen it before and was very surprised that I enjoyed the rest of the song and was quite pleased when it won. It reminds we of the zany Latvia of the 00s. It’s quite repetitive but a lot of fun and it’s hard not to get caught up in the enthusiasm and energy of the band on stage. It succeeds well as a novelty song. This has a shot at qualifying if the juries don’t completely loathe it but it would be a 9th or 10th place qualifier. Then it would be near the bottom in the final I think.
Norway: HIT. I had a similar journey with this song as with Latvia’s. I’d seen a few of MGPs heats and heard The Death of Us and thought that would be a quality and successful entry for Norway. I knew there was this novelty band and everyone started thinking that they could win. Novelty songs can be hit or miss with me at Eurovision. After MGP ended I listened to it expecting to hate it and enjoyed it a lot. Now we have all the songs, we know that The Death of Us would have been competing with lots of other similar songs and this was a better choice in order to stand out in Turin. It’s a very successful novelty song. It makes you smile and it’s easy to understand the first time you hear it. There’s a dance to learn and this could help it go viral on TikTok etc. The visual aspect is very strong too and the wolves sing well. I think this will qualify with no trouble but I don’t think it’ll be in the mix for winning, rather it will probably be top 10.
I think Norway will fall flat, and deservedly so. I predict that both juries and televoters will prefer to give votes to the many more acts who are singing their hearts out and connecting with the camera.
And I hope I’m right, because an entry of this nature wouldn’t have been possible without the permission to use pre-recorded backing vocals.
SLOVENIA – It’s 1977. For the school end of term disco, teachers have promised a live band. The playground is abuzz with rumours of Chic, Boney M or even The Bee Gees. Then you turn up on the night only to discover that the said ‘band’ are a bunch of teachers’ pets from the lower sixth who have been instructed to dress up in smart suits, not play anything too ‘near the knuckle,’ and keep the volume down (on account of the sheltered housing complex just beyond the school gates).
SERBIA – I don’t see this as a jury song at all. Granted it will have support on both sides of the equation in the Balkans. Beyond this it will be relying on the sort of WTF televote fascination that Bosnia provided in 2008 with their clothes line.
BULGARIA – Having overspent their budget on Victoria last year, for Eurovision 2022, Bulgarian Television have ingeniously hit upon a way of cutting back on production, staging and accommodation costs (no expensive Friday or Saturday night hotel rooms needed) without actually withdrawing from the Contest.
LATVIA – I’m prone to making the odd smutty joke myself, but I generally have the good sense to limit my audience to my long suffering wife rather than subject 180m television viewers to my ‘sense of humour’. I increasingly fear this may sneak a qualification despite the EBU’s best efforts to bury it in the semi-final death slot.
NORWAY – Note to Latvia. This is how you do a Eurovision novelty song. Like the panel, I expect a Keino style Saturday night televote. Unlike Ewan, I also expect a Keiino style jury vote. For that reason it has no chance of winning. 5th – 10th is most likely.
Slovenia-
It’s a disco song in Slovenian. Disco when it’s done good, should make you smile and make you want to dance and move. This has too low energy to make you want to move or dance. It lacks that specific energy, which a disco number has, to make it even a good disco song.
John was talking about how the song grew on him, well that’s not really a good sign when it comes to Eurovision. Grower songs never do well in the contest. If you can’t grab ones attention in your 3 minutes on stage, you are doomed – MISS
Serbia-
If I am honest it’s a song I have no idea what I think about it. When you read the English translation it makes some kind of sense. If you only hear the song, without reading the text you remain clueless. My guess is that this will be a WTF moment of the her semi-final, whether this is enough for her to qualify is yet to be seen. I also don’t think the composition is strong enough or that the song is even memorable. Her performance is memorabel, that’s for sure. Is this enough to get her further, I just don’t know – MISS
Bulgaria-
This one is testing my patient to its limits. I don’t like rock, I admit that, but this is so lazy in its composition and has not one thing going for it- MISS
Latvia-
In 2014 Latvia were singing about Cake to Bake. This year they are singing about Eat your Salad. What will be their next food song?I wonder.
This style of song is something I should like. The sound of the Brass Instruments is something I can relate to and usually I like to hear. And yet I am unable to warm myself to this song. Maybe I can’t take the band seriously enough. Maybe the whole setup is just wrong. Maybe the sexual innuendo at the start of the song, just put me off. It also seems that they are mocking the whole vegetarian /vegan thing. Is it a jock entry? – not so sure, but there is a chance that a lot of people will perceive it as such – somewhere between MISS and MAYBE
Norway-
It’s too calculated for its own good. It misses some spontaneous, which will make the whole song much more enjoyable. It also misses a crescendo at the end of the song to really capture the attention of the viewer. What we have here is a gimmick based song, and song which very simple and unsophisticated song writing. It sounds flat an uninspiring song. The hype around their performance and who are the guys behind the masks is masking a very weak entry. Not sure the televote will goes for this. Quite sure that the Jurries will mark this down – MISS
Slovenia- MISS- Nice to hear in the background.
Serbia- HIT- My personal favorite! I listen to it every day and never get tired of it. What can I say that you probably haven’t already heard from other fans of this song. I suspect there are a great deal more potential points in the final than in the semi-final so I am on pins and needles about qualification. Fingers crossed, heart racing.
Bulgaria- MISS- I actually like the lyrics, but the music isn’t doing its part to tell the story.
Latvia- MISS- The band is likable, energetic, and 100% committed, so I will enjoy the performance. But the song is a miss for me.
Norway- MISS- I dislike it more every time I hear it.
Slovenia- MISS- nice background music.
Serbia- HIT – My personal favorite. I listen to it every day and never get tired of it. What can I say that you probably haven’t heard already from other fans of the song. I am on pins and needles about qualification.
Bulgaria- MISS- I think there is some meaning and purpose in the lyrics, but overall the music lets this song down.
Latvia- MISS- The band is likable, energetic, and committed, so I will enjoy the performance. But I don’t listen to the song.
Norway- MISS- I like this song less every time I hear it.
Slovenia: MISS. A perfectly pleasant song with a groove to it that feels a little more lounge music that disco because of the slower beat. This is a great opportunity for this young band with their self-penned song but it’s another case of not being competitive enough to qualify in my opinion. This is a song that’s hard to understand what it’s about if you don’t speak Slovene; there’s not enough emotion in the lead singer’s voice to tell the story. I wonder if they will put the animated music video behind the band on the LED screens to clarify the song’s story.
Serbia: MAYBE. This is a tough one to judge in terms of competitiveness. After the Serbian NF I listened to it, not knowing what it was about, and it left me completely cold as a song, despite the unusual staging. I think part of that is her dispassionate way of singing and looking at the camera. Then, after hearing it for a few times and seeing a translation of the lyrics it grew on me a lot. Now I can’t listen to the chorus without clapping with her and doing the other hand gesture. The lyrics to the song are very clever and have something insightful to say. I wonder how many people will get it enough on the first listen during the contest. I think it is unique enough to stand out in SF2 enough to qualify. It’ll either get lost in the final or stand out so well it could sneak into the top 10.
Bulgaria: MISS. This is competent, yet unexciting and therefore uncompetitive. It sounds like a pastiche of a lot of rock songs you’ve heard in the past and stays in the same gear for the whole song, with the only variation being the slightly slower section of singing and the guitar solo. This is way off the Bulgarian standard of 2016-2021. The music video has been on the official YouTube channel for 4 months and the views are much lower than for entries that have been there for less time.
Latvia: MAYBE. I’d seen all the commotion about the opening line before Supernova and heard just the opening lyric and rolled my eyes. I then decided to watch Supernova as I’d never seen it before and was very surprised that I enjoyed the rest of the song and was quite pleased when it won. It reminds we of the zany Latvia of the 00s. It’s quite repetitive but a lot of fun and it’s hard not to get caught up in the enthusiasm and energy of the band on stage. It succeeds well as a novelty song. This has a shot at qualifying if the juries don’t completely loathe it but it would be a 9th or 10th place qualifier. Then it would be near the bottom in the final I think.
Norway: HIT. I had a similar journey with this song as with Latvia’s. I’d seen a few of MGPs heats and heard The Death of Us and thought that would be a quality and successful entry for Norway. I knew there was this novelty band and everyone started thinking that they could win. Novelty songs can be hit or miss with me at Eurovision. After MGP ended I listened to it expecting to hate it and enjoyed it a lot. Now we have all the songs, we know that The Death of Us would have been competing with lots of other similar songs and this was a better choice in order to stand out in Turin. It’s a very successful novelty song. It makes you smile and it’s easy to understand the first time you hear it. There’s a dance to learn and this could help it go viral on TikTok etc. The visual aspect is very strong too and the wolves sing well. I think this will qualify with no trouble but I don’t think it’ll be in the mix for winning, rather it will probably be top 10.