Review: Hatari - Hatrid Mun Sigra - Iceland
1 Day YouTube Views: 43,900
1 Day YouTube Likes: 3,037
After clean-cut Ari Olafsson's truly diabolical song last year of peace and hope, Iceland have veered in the complete opposite direction with Hatari, a group that describes themselves as 'industrial BDSM' which certainly sounds eye-catching if not eye-watering. To further the contrast, "Hatrid Mun Sigra" translates as "Hate will prevail".
Just like Hatari's latex trousers, audiences seem to be split. Some say it's just a lot of noise, whereas others can hear the song underneath. What differentiates Hatari from most other Eurovision performances is that whereas most countries focus on the song, this will focus primarily on everything around the song. It clearly has huge potential for explosive staging and if their threats of an on-stage protest are anything to go by, all eyes could be on Iceland when the time comes.
In general though, the Eurovision audience don't tend to favour aggressive songs and while we in the West may not care so much about the sexual connotations of the costumes, those perhaps in more conservative areas such as Eastern Europe may find it distasteful and inappropriate. If Russia had to make up a story about Ireland's entry last year, it'll be interesting to see how they handle two men dressed entirely in BDSM gear (let alone other dancers on stage).
It took a few listens but we did eventually begin to appreciate the song - though of course the majority of Eurovision viewers will hear the song only once. The beat and the growled lyrics vs the chorus at least make for an interesting 3 minutes. Comparisons might be made to Hungary's 2018 entry or Lordi. Hungary was just regular hard rock, the message and visual wasn't nearly as strong as Hatari. Similarly with Lordi, the visual was shocking but the song itself was more public-friendly, plus Lordi were in pre-jury times.
Speaking of the jury, I think the televote will be strong in the semis for Hatari with a mild jury vote, I believe they'll progress. However upon reaching the final they probably won't be troubling the left-hand side of the table. The message of the song is one of hopelessness in the face of overwhelming hatred and the lyrics are perhaps in direct response to Eurovision being hosted in Israel. It's quite likely that the audience may boo this group, spurring those who share Hatari's view to come out in force for them, sympathetic jurors may also get involved and assign them a few points higher than they might otherwise have. This is academic of course, but we'll have to see what happens.
Will hate prevail at Eurovision? Let us know what you think in the comments below.
Review: Leonora - Love Is Forever - Denmark
1 Day YouTube Views: 38,778
1 Day YouTube Likes: 2,487
Denmark were able to return home triumphantly last year after "Higher Ground" defied expectations to come 5th in the televote. This year instead of vikings we have Leonora singing Love Is Forever. Listening to the song, we were struck by how similar it is to "The Show" by Lenka, you could easily switch between tracks and not realise, they're identical!
Nevertheless, Leonora does have a good voice, the "So don't you never ever give up love" line in particular is excellent. However as many have noted, her performance looks strained and nervous. She maintains an intense stare into the camera with a wry smile but despite the apparent ease with which she hits the notes, the expression renders the performance uncomfortable. We can only hope that she gets as much practice in front of large audiences as she possibly can before Eurovision begins.
As for the song itself, it's musically very simplistic, it reminds me of the kind of song from a Disney movie that never gets included on the Sing-a-Long VCR. I have to admit I did lose interest before the song had finished, the most interesting thing that held my gaze (aside from Leonora's stare) was the unusual staging happening around her. It may be an indication of what's to come in the live performances. Though if we're encouraging Leonora to become more dynamic on stage, plopping her onto a giant chair may have the opposite effect.
Denmark's social media stats at the time of writing are around 3rd from the bottom, the YouTube stats are quite abysmal, Armenia for example received more Likes to their video in 20 minutes than Denmark received in an entire 24 hours. Interest in Leonora's social media accounts is also extremely low. I would normally put this down as a very probable no-qualifier, however "Love Is Forever" will be performed in the same semi as Sweden and Norway so it's likely she'll get a boost from them. The second semi is competitive and I'm not sure a nicey-nice song like this will have enough oomph to stand out and grab those last few places.
Do you love this song forever? Let us know what you think in the comments below.
Review: Katerine Duska - Better Love - Greece
1 Day YouTube Views: 96,468
1 Day YouTube Likes: 6,647
After last year's disappointing result for Greece in which they crashed out in the semi-finals, they return this year with Katerine Duska singing Better Love, a fantastically contemporary track that immediately reminded us of a hybrid Jess Glynne/Amy Winehouse record.
Greece (usually) have a strong diaspora vote but it's unlikely they'll need to rely on it this year, "Better Love" is something you could hear on the radio today and it'd fit right in at the top of the charts. Katerine has a richness in her unique deep voice which she has shown to be able to replicate in live performances. The song follows a standard procedure with the "Go deep with me" bridge leading into the crescendo which you know will look and sound great on the Eurovision stage. The general consensus is that this track is high quality and one to watch.
Just by the sound of the song and look of the video, you can tell that Greece are going to do something memorable with the staging on the night. The music video has an eccentricity which could be brought to the stage in terms of costume and dancers. Couple that with the pounding drums and high notes and Greece could be providing us with a visual as well as auditory spectacle. Hopefully the Eurovision stage won't be quite so cold for the performers as it clearly was in the music video...
Regarding the semi-finals, Greece perform in the second half of the first semi which is the weaker of the two, they should sail through. I personally regard this as a Top 10 contender for the final. Better Love is very much a jury-friendly track that should perform well on the televote on the night too. This is despite the music video not getting particularly impressive stats, very much mid-table. iTunes the song has charted in Greece, Cyprus and Finland only. Katerine has done better that most on new social media followers though. Despite the mixed stats early on, I'm calling "Better Love" a dark horse and look forward to seeing what numbers we get following the first and second rehearsals.
Are Greece going to the final this year? Let us know what you think in the comments below.
Review: Bilal Hassani - Roi - France
1 Day YouTube Views: 61,220
1 Day YouTube Likes: 4,879
After last year's disappointing result for "Mercy", France return in 2019 with Bilal Hassani singing Roi. With the lyrics focussed on empowerment and his adrogynous look there is definitely an air of the 'Conchitas' around this years entry.
France is the prime example I think of when I think of the mispriced Eurovision countries in the betting markets last year. "Mercy" was 2nd favourite to win the entire contest when we wrote our review, we weren't convinced at all and it came to pass that France finished in 13th place instead after performing poorly in the public vote. Will this year be any different?
As anyone knows, Eurovision has a large gay fanbase, so you would imagine perhaps that they might flock to Bilal as they have with other 'icons' in Eurovision history. However, this doesn't seem to have materialised for any contestant this year. Last year you had Eleni Foureira for Cyprus whose sass and hairography had Twitter filled with words like "SLAY" and "QUEEN" by the fanbase that Bilal might be expected to profit from, why hasn't it happened this year?
You might argue that since Conchita, the 'this is me' empowerment song by a non-binary individual has kind of been done, not to mention that "Roi" is an inferior song to "Rise Like A Phoenix". I think some of the thunder has been taken too by North Macedonia with "Proud" which strikes me as a superior offering in that vein. France's YouTube stats perhaps reflect this with some very low stats indeed, however Bilal's social media follower stats are actually on the upper-end of the scale.
As a song, I actually quite enjoyed it on the first listen, the composition and structure is solid enough and anyone listening can 'get' it fairly quickly. The verses build up with a piano switching from light to forte, the beat comes in which leads to a very strong chorus which for reasons I can't explain seems to remind me of a Lady Gaga type performance. However if you were to only listen to the music video you could be misled, this song requires a strong and skilled singer to manage the frequent changes in tone - based on Bilal's performance at Destination Eurovision 2019, "Roi" may be a little too big for him.
In terms of appeal, "Roi" didn't even perform exceptionally well at it's own national final. Obviously as one of the Big 5, France doesn't need to worry about progressing past semi-finals but there is definitely work it can do on staging to elevate the live performance in the final. Unfortunately I don't see Bilal exceeding last year's result, likely a medium-low score from the televote with something similar from the juries and perhaps an 18th/19th place finish. So even though I personally like the song, I've given it two stars on the basis of it's likely performance come May.
Will Bilal be the 'Roi' of Eurovision 2019? Let us know what you think in the comments below.
Review: Tulia - Fire of Love - Poland
1 Day YouTube Views: 111,100
1 Day YouTube Likes: 5,755
After failing to progress past their semi in 2018, Poland present Tulia singing Fire Of Love, certainly a unique entry into this year's contest. Every Eurovision pundit we've seen seems to have the same reaction - one of bemusement and curiosity, no one is quite sure what to make of it.
The entire song is sung in white voice style, a style that Wikipedia describes as a 'controlled scream' - pretty spot on! White singing is a well-known technique in Eastern Europe so it's clear that this song is targeting the ethno/diaspora vote. If nothing else, "Fire of Love" is memorable, it comes across like something you might hear as you pass a school playground. Despite the four of them singing, there are no mixed melodies, the entire song is sung in the same tone throughout. While the song is a novelty for the 3-minute run, you'd never want to listen to it twice.
As for its qualification prospects, it's a difficult one to call - the song in it's own right is nothing special, if anything, it sounds a little irritating to my ears. But we have to look at this through the eyes of the Eurovision audience. Visually, the girls stand out and as mentioned above, the song will burn itself into your brain before you're even halfway through. The official video is on the upper end of the table for Views but in the middle of the table for Likes. This isn't necessarily a bad thing - it's all well and good for people engaged with a song to like it, but without engagement, a song is nothing. A Eurovision song needs to attract attention, especially in a semi-final field of 17. As a result, I'm going to tentatively call this a qualifier purely because I think Eastern Europe will appreciate the song and Western Europe will appreciate the novelty.
Have Tulia sparked the Fire of Love in you? Let us know what you think in the comments below.