Review: Sevak Khanagyan - Qami - Armenia
7 Day YouTube Views: 398,048
7 Day YouTube Likes: 9,465
Armenia entertain us this year with Qami, one of many non-English tracks in the running in 2018.
Despite being sung in Armenian, Qami is surprisingly accessible to non-Armenian speakers. The progression of the track is predictable enough to be enjoyable and the repeated refrain of 'Qami' keeps the audience from getting lost in the language barrier. The track starts at a regular pace before ending with the repeated cries of Qami alongside backing vocals - and this is where the song can really come into it's own on the Eurovision stage. If they ramp up Sevak's vocals (more than they do in the official video) in the second half of the song, those repeated cries become quite powerful.
As a track, I was quite comfortable listening to Qami repeatedly without feeling bored, actually increasing how much I liked it each time. While the Eurovision audience will only get one listen, I feel this could be like a Hungary 2017 entry, despite being sung in the native language it still feels powerful enough to get votes. Armenia are another country bundled into the ultra-competitive first semi-final where at least 5 songs are almost guaranteed qualifiers leaving little wriggle room for everyone else.
On the basis that this track is unique, will go down well with the juries, and I think, the audience - I'm hoping it will qualify, it's late slot in the semi may help it to secure that. The betting markets currently have it 24th favourite, a touch stingy but with the uncertainty around the semi, it's to be expected. YouTube stats are almost exactly the same as Lithuania (in 26th place) though this is a far better song than When We're Old which stands little chance of qualifying. The market considers Armenia's chances of qualifying to be on a knife-edge, this track will almost certainly be in the 8th - 12th place rankings.
Review: Ieva Zasimauskaite - When We're Old - Lithuania
7 Day YouTube Views: 338,758
7 Day YouTube Likes: 9,787
Joining this year's first semi-final lineup are Lithuania with a gentle ballad to which Ellie Goulding herself would find herself swaying to sleep.
With a simple, minimalistic piano chord progression and light strings throughout, Ieva whispers her wish for her love to last forever. The song stays at a singular pace throughout with no change in the presentation. It's a pleasant enough song, like a track played during the wedding montage of a cheesy chick-flick. This track is likely to be one of the more minimalist songs this year but it feels like too much has been stripped away and there isn't really much for the audience to latch onto - especially when you consider 42 other songs and the craziness and variety that brings - could Lithuania stand out with it's stripped-back song?
Unfortunately, the song is simply too boring, there really is no build at all - she has a lovely voice and I'm sure on vocals the song will go down well with the juries, however it's a big fail in probably every other category that judges mark on. I began losing interest halfway through the first play and the second and third plays really didn't help to change my mind.
Lithuania is currently 26th in the betting markets and my personal belief is that even that is too high a position. The song feels like a bit of a cop out that certainly shouldn't be above Ireland, Switzerland or the UK in the betting markets. The YouTube stats are surprisingly good though, with Views and Likes above those of France and Norway. Lithuania are unfortunate enough to be in the first semi-final alongside some of this year's big hitters, further, they're in the worst possible running order slot, sandwiched between the Czech Republic and Israel - my feeling is that this shouldn't and won't qualify, despite the support of Lithuania's diaspora.
Review: EQUINOX - Bones - Bulgaria
7 Day YouTube Views: 1,218,654
7 Day YouTube Likes: 22,577
Bulgaria teased us with anticipation for a long time before finally revealing Bones. A dark, modern track mixing the lyricism of a Kygo track, the vocals of Rag'n'Bone Man and dark tones of The Weeknd.
You already knew that Bulgaria were throwing their weight behind Eurovision this year but Bones is a confirmation of this, the song is high quality and well produced, even the video has clearly had a tidy sum thrown at it - especially when compared with the simplicity of Ireland's video, for example.
As a listener, I 'got it' almost immediately, I'm a huge Kygo fan and this reminded me of something he'd make (although this song uses a vocal hook as opposed to a melodic one). Bones easily passes the 1 minute test, multi-layered, starting with simple lyrics, slowly building up in the "What is life..." section before reaching the climax with heavy beats of "I love beyond the bones" before repeating again with more power the second time around.
Now for a few negatives, whilst Bones is certainly highly contemporary, the tone is so dark that I'm not sure how widespread the appeal will be by the Eurovision audience on the night of the final. Furthermore their look is perhaps so futuristic as to create an emotional disconnect with the audience.
There is also the question of why there are five band members, for most - if not all of the song, a maximum of three voices can be heard at any one time - what will the others do? The more people there are on stage, the bigger the challenge it is to connect with the audience. Finally songwise, I felt they could have done more with the "I love beyond the bones" chorus segment, the build-up was excellent but you can't help feel that a stronger musical hook to go with that beat would have gone down great - as it is right now I feel that the vocals in the chorus are a little too repetitive and don't really elevate the song as much as they could have.
Bulgaria's YouTube Views and Likes are very impressive indeed. 1.2m YouTube Views in 7 days is the 3rd highest of all videos, behind Israel and just a smidgen behind Spain. With 22,000 Likes it's a clear 2nd place behind Israel. However a word of caution before you go placing your bets - we at TellyStats also monitor the 12 hours, 1 day, 2 day and 3 day YouTube stats (and other timeframes), the sharp increase in numbers for Bulgaria suggest manipulation, that the metrics have been artificially inflated - particularly within the first 24 hours. This isn't something we can prove conclusively but we've done this long enough to know the progression of stats over time and to spot when something isn't right. We know Bulgaria have thrown money at every other aspect of this track, it would be no surprise to learn they've also heavily invested in their social media presence including a few dirty tricks to get them to the top. They are not the only country we suspect has done this and we'll reveal which we think they are in due course.
Bulgaria is an absolute certainty to progress through it's semi-final, but while I like the song, I'm not sure any sum of money could make this the winner. In the past few days, the betting markets have push Bulgaria up into 4th most likely to win and I think that's a fair assessment, this is easily one of the top 5 tracks this year, top 3 for me personally. The running order on the night will be a key decider for Bulgaria as well as the direction they take with the staging and costume. In all though, Bulgaria are a strong contender to place come the night of the final.
Review: AWS - Viszlat Nyar - Hungary
7 Day YouTube Views: 92,063
7 Day YouTube Likes: 3,299
Following an ultra-cultural 2017 entry, Hungary return this year with Viszlat Nyar (Goodbye Summer) a punk-rock track with hint of Linkin Park in the vocals.
The music video for non-Hungarian speakers is a little jarring, pictures of a perfectly happy looking childhood mixed with angry screams of a tortured soul. It's quite difficult to take what they're saying seriously when the video is punctuated with clips of the band members horseriding, sailing and being bathed by their mother as a baby. What's their problem anyway? The song as far as metal goes is typical of what most teenagers aged 14 - 16 listen to in that awkard school phase, you don't have to understand the lyrics to get the gist of whatever they're singing about, let's face it, all metal basically serves the 'you-don't-understand-the-pain-deep-inside-my-soul' market.
Despite this, the Viszlat Nyar is still quite listenable, isn't just a giant mishmash of noise and has a consistent chorus section. One unsual part of the song (which may not be a part of the live version) is the long section two-thirds of the way through that is an almost minute-long musical interlude, a guitar solo entering the mix halfway through - how does this translate on stage? It's not as if much is even happening in the first 20 seconds to rock out to and keep the audience's eyes occupied.
Eurovision has a reputation for camp, cheesy Europop but this track shows us why this reputation is largely without merit these days - most countries at least try something a little different or something cultural, a pleasant-but-catchy song doesn't cut the mustard like it used to. But the question is: Can a metal track this heavy really make an impact at Eurovision? The answer in this case is almost certainly no. Ask anyone where rock was successful and the only real answer is Lordi but let's not pretend they didn't have a whole other thing going on, plus Viszlat Nyar is much heavier and less accessible than Hard Rock Hallelujah. For the Eurovision audience this will more-or-less just be a man screaming and lots of noise. The YouTube stats back this up with some of the lowest figures of any entry this year. Hungary in our book are down as a no-qualifier.
Review: Cesar Sampson - Nobody But You - Austria
7 Day YouTube Views: 429,848
7 Day YouTube Likes: 9,646
Austria return this year with a soulful track entitled Nobody But You. A decidedly formulaic pop song sung by a fairly formulaic looking and sounding singer, Cesar Sampson.
This is by far the hardest review to write simply because while the song isn't bad, you almost have to wonder why they bothered, did Austria really feel that against 42 other entries this would stand above the rest? Surely not. It's sounds like a track released by a "The Voice" contestant that'd reach Number 15 in the charts for a week and then disappear the next. It doesn't push anything forward and switch things up, it's not unique, it doesn't have a message, it doesn't excite - it falls right into anybody's expectations of a wholly generic pop song.
Cesar is a competent singer, the song comes together as you would expect but it feels like a plain cheese sandwich, nothing wrong with that - but where's the flavour? Where's the meat? Where's the sauce? I find myself wanting much more from this track but once the tone is set it plods along at such a pace to make it impossible to switch it up a gear. There are plenty of songs this year that for better or worse will grab the viewer's attention and this is not one of them.
For reasons I struggle to comprehend, this track is considered by the betting markets to have the 15th best chance of winning this year's Eurovision Song Contest - perhaps an indication of the quality of the songs this time around. I personally wouldn't even feel confident in this track progressing past it's semi, though aside from the big-hitters in Semi 1, there are some real duffers too so it may slip through on the basis that the competition is so bad, rather than it's own merits. It seems though that I'm in the minority with this opinion, Cesar's YouTube stats are strong, beating out Italy, Greece and even France which is 8th in the running. Damned if I understand it, if this was the UK's entry it would surely be considered an uninspiring and weak entry...