Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Subscribe: RSS
We continue our annual discussion of the songs heading to the Eurovision Song Contest with our next episode of Juke Box Jury, noting that we are at the half-way point!
Eurovision Insight Podcast: Juke Box Jury #4
with Samantha Ross (12 Points From America) and Nova (Novympia).Estonia: Bridges, by Alika.
Israel: Unicorn, by Noa Kirel.
Armenia: Future Lover, by Brunette.
Norway: Queen of Kings, by Alessandra.
Slovenia: Carpe Diem, by Joker Out.
Stay up to date with all the discussions, news, and reviews as we get ready to travel to Liverpool for Eurovision 2023 with ESC Insight. You’ll find the show in iTunes, Google Podcasts, and Spotify. A direct RSS feed is available. We have a regular email newsletter which you can sign up to here., and you can support us on Patreon here.
Would love Joker Out to do as Ewan suggested and work the satellite stage. I think they could possibly win (or do very well) in the jury vote in the Grand Final.
Estonia: hit. Excellent vocalist, in a ballad lite year this stands out. Will get a load of jury love if she can make it through from weaker semi 2.
Israel: miss. Or should I say MESS. A Mish mash of song genres that represents a missed chance for a skilled singer. Possibly a shock NQ in semi 1.
Armenia: maybe. Has a certain je ne sais quoi, but leaves me a tad cold. Staging is key for this one to be elevated.
Norway: miss. No matter how confident and punchy Alessandra is, song gets more annoying on every listen. Juries will cane it’s basic vacuous quality. “Blind spot” indeed!
Slovenia : hit. Good as this is, I think “Maneskin” comparison is a tad OTT. If it can make GF and get near top ten, it will have achieved its promise. Best chance for Slovenia since 2001 and “Energy”.
Estonia: MAYBE. A classic ballad with a theatrical nature at the end. I think the self-playing piano is a good visual reminder of the song as is Alika’s voice. I think she lacks a little bit of stage presence, but then she is a young artist. I think the song should stand out enough as one of quality compared to some others in SF2 to televoters. In the final I could see it getting swallowed up and falling to the bottom of the scoreboard unless the juries give it tonnes of points.
Israel: HIT. I was pretty impressed by this the first time I heard it. I enjoy songs with different tempos and shift changes in them and the mostly work for me in this song apart from the last 30 seconds. To say in Hebrew that she’s not trying to impress and then having a section where she’s in theory going to impress you with her stagecraft and dancing doesn’t make sense. If Noa can do a Chanel quality dance break it will increase people being able to remember it after all the songs have been performed. If not, it may drag it down a bit. I think this should qualify easily and is a contender for the top 10.
Armenia: MAYBE. I was a little disappointed with this when I first heard it. It starts off very quietly and I found it hard to connect to Brunette because she doesn’t really display many emotions as she sings the first part. It really improves when she gets to the rap part because there’s more emotions and the lyrics are passionate. I think this could qualify if staged memorably but could be risky from slot 2.
Norway: HIT. This grabs you immediately and is great throughout the whole song. Alessandra portrays a lot with her face and her voice. It’s a banger but it has a different flavour to recent bangers at the contest. It’ll make a great opener for the contest this year and should be top 5 in the final.
Slovenia: HIT. This is a good, retro-sounding rock song. The band are impressive live and know how to work the camera. When the semi-final allocation was done Slovenia ended up without their more reliable voting allies but I don’t think this should matter as this is one of the most professional songs in the semi.
Estonia
It’s a ballad, which Alika co-wrote with Wouter Hardy, who co-wrote Arcade. And yes, the influence of Aecade are there in a subtle way. The lead piano music is very effective and sounds familiar and this draw you in to the song. I do think she is a bit screechy at the end but overal it is a solid song, which should get Estonia to the final. I don’t think it will trouble the scoreboard in the final that much – MAYBE
Israel
Doron Medalie has the ability of writing songs with mash up genres that somehow are turned out into catchy and instance songs. Golden Boy, Toy and even Feker Libi are the proof for this ability. It’s a sort of “Balagan Me’urgan”, which is the Hebrew meaning of organised chaos. So when it was announced that he is involved in this year’s song, I expected just that: a bit of organised chaos with catchy melody.
So I got the organised chaos but a less catchy tune than what I have expected. It’s a song which surprises you in every turn. The bombastic opening, turn into a down beat pop song. The 2nd verse, sounds musically, slightly different than the first verse. They even dropped the classic structure of verse chorus, verse chorus and came up with a structure which goes against what you would consider a normal song. Even the ending of the song is so sudden and out of the blue, which catch you by surprise. I have to say that the verses and the chorus are catchy but not in the same level, Golden boy or Toy were, There is a lot going on here and the end result give me sense of a bit of a messy affaire.
It can goes either way. Either it will qualify or will be a surprised NQ – a HIT of a MABYE or a MAYBE in a HIT
Armenia
This is such a missed opportunity. It starts really promising. The first 1.30 minutes are quite enchanting and creating a unique atmosphere just by the music alone. At the 1.30 minute mark, the song chance gear, becomes very bombastic affair and all the magic which has been created at the beginning is gone. Adding Armenian lyrics would have worked much better if they have kept the song in the same atmosphere for the whole 3 minutes – MISS
Norway
It’s a children song which found itself heading to Eurovision stage. Not the first time that this happens. No matter which staging they will choose it remains a children song. It’s quite effective on its own merit but it also quite bombastic in the production. It’s a song that will do well in the Euro club or in any Eurovision party, for that matter. It will probably do well in Eurovision but it’s not a song I wish to hear again after the contest ends. If I am honest, it is a song which irritate me and getting on my nerves, when hearing this too many times -HIT(for the contest) but a personal MISS
Slovenia
Sending a band(I think this year marks a record of participating bands) and singing in Slovenian. This should be receipt for a disaster and the official video really do not them justice because this is a song which will benefit from a live performance and a live audience. I saw them performing during Eurovision in Concert, in Amsterdam, and even in this setting they managed to elevate the song and makes the song much more accessible than the official video suggest – HIT