Tag: United Kindom

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United Kingdom, Georgia and Moldova

United Kingdom – Sam Ryder: SPACE MAN

Entirely pleasant to listen to, with a wonderful voice. The lyrics didn’t shout out to me, and I couldn’t detect much depth to them. He looks like a lovely chap, and I wish him all the best. This song however doesn’t have the necessary flamboyance and pizazz to rock Eurovision.

Review by Louis O’Neill

Georgia – Circus Mircus: Lock Me In

DJ Casper meets Run DMC, with cameos from other genres. A very welcome guest appearance from a sesame street puppet added to the experience. It’s a pity that this group didn’t make it in the circus realm, because unfortunately the music realm doesn’t seem to be a good match either. The costumes made up for the weak lyrics. Hoping for some extravagance in their performance on the night, with a nod to their circus past.

Review by Kiara L’Herpiniere

Moldova – Zdob şi Zdub & Advahov Brothers: Trenulețul

Hey Ho! Folklore and Rock’n’Roll!!! This performance is high energy, led by a masterful combination of accordion and violin. When the music is this good, and your feet are tapping this much, you don’t need to worry about the lyrics having a deeper meaning. This certainly makes me want to use the Maldovan train network, for an experience like this, I would pay top dollar. The song was great, the rhythm was catchy, the energy was contagious, and I love the sudden halt when the ticket inspector entered. Very much looking forward to seeing their stage presence, and hoping the carpet makes an appearance. Go Moldova!

Review by Kiara L’Herpiniere & Louis O’Neill

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United Kingdom, Denmark, The Netherlands

United Kingdom – Embers by James Newman

Oh dear, the UK is heading for the bottom of the pile again. The whole thing just does not make any sense…clearly, this is meant to be a slow love ballad that some music exec turned into a thumping dance mix. Poor James can’t conjure up a decent dance step and is out of breath just keeping up the tempo. Let’s hope the brass section can carry this through…

Review by Mariella Herberstein

Denmark – Øve Os På Hinanden by Fyr Og Flamme

Oh, hello…the 80s are back!!! Fyr & Flamme  are Denmark’s answer to Wham, just not as good. The two lads have found the left-over wardrobe from Miami Vice and deliver a bit of 3-minute fun with an astonishing lack of irony. I like it!

Review by Mariella Herberstein

The Netherlands – Birth Of A New Age by Jeangu Macrooy

Elegant, powerful, joyful and relevant – Jeangu sings in English and Sranan Tongo about the colonial history of the Netherlands with resilience and could easily carry away a back-to-back win for the Netherlands. Not really a fate I wish upon the country – Ireland won back to back in the 90s after which it fell into a deep misery from which it is only now slowly emerging.

Review by Mariella Herberstein

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Greece, Hungary and United Kingdom

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Utopian Land by Agros

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Greece has had a tough couple of years: ongoing financial instability, continuous arrival of refugees and now this! Agros dishes up an annoying ethno-urban melange that goes nowhere. It starts off with pesky fiddles that always sound a half-tone off and some Balkan wailing. It’s downhill from there: a simplistic chorus interspersed with rapping (admittedly in Greek). Even the robots back in 2002 (S.A.G.A.P.O.) were more inspiring.

The video alludes to Pheidippides’ heroic run by from Marathon to Athens reporting the defeat of Darius’ Persian forced by Miltiades. And indeed Argos’ 3 minute song does feel like a 42 km run!

Review by Mariella Herberstein

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Hungary
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Pioneer by Freddie

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Hello Hungary!!! Look, I like this a lot (to be honest, I like everything Hungarian), despite the ridiculous hair, the rustic shirt, the superfluous whistling, possibly illegal use of a buddhist monk look-alike drumming and backing singers wielding light sabers. Go Freddie!!!

Review by Mariella Herberstein

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United Kingdom
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You are not alone by Joe and Jack

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With a free-pass into the finals one would hope the UK would take some risks, but in instead they inflict upon us the visually and aurally indistinguishable Joe & Jake. In a clear attempt to tap into the fanbase/profits of the now-defunct One Direction and the now-adult Bieber, we’re dragged through three minutes of being ‘in this together’, ‘ready forever’, and ‘your parachute when you fall’. If you listen carefully, you can hear the gears of the autotuner groaning under the weight of melodic mediocrity.

Review by Tom White