Review: Gromee ft. Lukas Meijer - Light Me Up - Poland
7 Day YouTube Views: 529,569
7 Day YouTube Likes: 11,980
Looking like a young 'Heisenberg', Gromee cooks up Light Me Up a dance track with hints of Norway's electronic 2017 entry - Gromee even styles himself like the JOWST singer.
Light Me Up is definitely a good song, the chorus is uplifting and fun but there are questions over it's suitability for Eurovision, in particular the long instrumental sequences. Lyrically the song lacks depth, though you wouldn't expect much from a dance track anyway but even then, a lot of the song is simply either "Oooooh" or "Tell me where to go".
Outside of Eurovision this could be considered a pretty good dance track, while I think it will reach the left-hand side of the leaderboard on the big night, it isn't a threat for the win - or even Top 5, possibly even Top 10. I suspect Poland won't do particularly well with the juries this year because of the points listed above but the song is feel-good and will likely go down better with the voting public, not least because the song is very accessible.
The betting markets consider Poland to be 38th most likely to win, this is below even Iceland. While they won't win, they're way too far down the betting markets considering the song they present. Poland perform in the second-half of the second semi-final surrounded by some pretty bland songs, for me Poland is highly likely to qualify.
Review: Yianna Terzi - Oneiro Mou - Greece
7 Day YouTube Views: 355,889
7 Day YouTube Likes: 13,348
Greece return with what is quite possibly their best track in a long time, the atmospheric Oniro Mou. A powerful anthemic track which as another pundit put it - is a loveletter to Greece.
Another of the native-language tracks, avoiding the plastic pop of previous years, the song sets the tone within the first few moments, flute, rising vocals and a pounding drum. The verses are the build to an excellent, strong chorus that is easily accessible to even non-Greek speakers. We've repeatedly said that songs sung in the native language must convey the message clearly to everybody and Greece achieves this in spades.
There are a few niggling concerns, this song needs to be sung perfectly to achieve the same effect as the music video, there is also a large instrumental segment in the middle of the song which raises a few questions as to how they'll work with that on the Eurovision stage. This song will surely do well with the juries and I feel that if Greece avoid the stationary-woman-in-dress-singing-into-mic routine and instead convey emotion and tell a story then Greece could do very well with the televote too. These crucial elements will determine how high up the leaderboard it goes.
Greece are performing in the second-half of the first semi, most of the big-hitters of that semi-final are singing in the first half. However, Greece is sandwiched between Austria, Finland and Armenia - all of which stand a good chance of qualifying. Greece is considered by the market to be 11th most likely to win the competition and their YouTube stats are on par with that determination. A lot of people have doubts about the current market leaders for Eurovision, that some of the acts are overhyped and won't live up to expectations (see Italy 2017). My personal feeling is that - should Greece qualify from their semi and other acts do end up faltering - with the right slot in the running order in the final, this could be a Top 5 contender.
Review: Christabelle - Taboo - Malta
7 Day YouTube Views: 259,251
7 Day YouTube Likes: 11,744
With a music video set in some futuristic, Mad Max dystopia, Malta present Taboo, a generic pop song that certainly doesn't break any taboos whatsoever and appears to have had more money thrown at the video than the song itself. The song is supposedly about breaking the taboo of mental health, we didn't pick up on it ourselves but we commend Christabelle and her efforts in that regard.
Another difficult song to review as the song follows an irregular structure, doesn't push any kind of boundaries and doesn't build as the song progresses at all. The chorus does at have a regular "before we all become animals, animals" hook which at least makes the song accessible to listeners at the most basic level but really that's where the positives end. The song's message may be a little too opaque to connect to and continues at a regular pace throughout without switching it up at all. It's very difficult to listen to this song and not get distracted by something else more interesting. The juries will surely tear this song to pieces, there's no way this can progress past it's semi-final.
Malta perform in the second-half of the second semi final, unfortunately for them, they're squashed between Poland and Hungary, Poland has a great little dance track and Hungary are the punk band, which like them or not - will at least be memorable compared the Malta's contribution. Malta's showing on the betting markets it also poor, considered 3rd least likely to qualify from their semi. Not much more to say about this one, there to make up the numbers.
Review: Aisel - X My Heart - Azerbaijan
7 Day YouTube Views: 242,405
7 Day YouTube Likes: 11,359
Image-conscious Azerbaijan present X My Heart, a departure from 2017's dark 'Skeletons', X My Heart is an upbeat middle-of-the-road pop song which can easily be classed alongside other upbeat solo-female tricks like the United Kingdom's 'Storm' and Australia's 'We Got Love'.
As a track it's an unusual one in that I've listened to it multiple times but if you asked me fifteen minutes later to hum the tune...I'd probably not be able to remember it. I think it's because as a sound it is a little generic, the lyrics are utterly meaningless and have no depth so they're automatically mentally discarded too. However the song is still quite good and quite listenable! Aisel is a good looking girl and you can envisiage this song as having memorable and exciting staging too.
Azerbaijan are what I would class as a 'second-tier' competitior in semi 1, we all know who the big hitters are, the second-tier are the likes of Armenia, Austria and Finland. The set of songs that will populate everything from 6th - 12th place. So the question is, does X My Heart have what it takes to qualify?
Azerbaijan have the distinct disadvantage of singing first in semi 1 which means 18 other country's songs will be ahead of it before people can vote - people are likely to forget the song by that point. The only saving grace in this situation is that Azerbaijan a fast, upbeat track which is immediately followed by Iceland and Albania which are both pretty bad and bland, after that is Belgium which is slow-tempo. This may give Azerbaijan a USP long enough to keep it in the minds of the viewers for them to remember it by the end of the semi.
Speaking of the second-tier competitors in Semi 1, Azerbaijan's YouTube Views fall behind those of Armenia and Austria by a decent margin, but still beat them both on Likes which may give comfort to Azerbaijan-To-Qualify backers. The odds have Azerbaijan as 10th most likely to qualify from it's semi, that's how close it is - I feel it's probably the correct estimation. A lot will depend on the vocals and the memorability of the staging. We've no idea which way it'll fall.
Review: Franka - Crazy - Croatia
7 Day YouTube Views: 155,711
7 Day YouTube Likes: 3,808
With a tempo and sound reminiscent of Alicia Keys, Croatia presents Crazy for Eurovision 2018.
As a track, it seems to split opinion, some people seem to like it and consider it a qualifier, others dislike it, I consider myself one of the latter. Crazy feels very generic indeed, the message isn't new or unique with some overused lines "make it forever", "crazy for your love", "when I saw your eyes", lyrics that appear in every other song. The song plods along at a regular pace throughout without switching it up much at all so it gets a bit boring too early too
Like San Marino, the most egregious part of Crazy is the awful and unnecessary spoken section in the middle. First, it lasts exactly 8 seconds, it's almost like an interruption in the 3 minute song. Secondly the lyrics themselves are not only pretty rubbish, they don't actually fit in the rhythm, she has to rush the nonsense about Bonnie and Clyde to finish in time.
Croatia compete in the second half of the first semi. They're immediately followed by Austria which is to Croatia's disadvantage as Austria is an almost certain qualifier and risks pushing Franka down the memory-hole. The YouTube stats for Crazy are disappointing and the betting market reflects the lack of enthusiasm with punters placing the song as 35th most likely to win. Croatia for me a non-qualifier.