Review: D Mol - Heaven - Montenegro

Event: Eurovision 2019  Category: Eurovision  Published: Fri 15th Mar 2019 20:31
TellyStats Rating:

1 Day YouTube Views: 73,251
1 Day YouTube Likes: 3,163

Not qualifying past the semi-finals since 2015, Montenegro return in 2019 with D Mol singing Heaven, a horrendously dated and highly repetitive song suggesting a renewed determination to maintain the tradition of not qualifying.

Montenegro's approximation of Rebecca Black opens the song and sets the tone for what's to come. Very generic lyrics, overtly emotional gesticulation to the camera and a low-quality, straight-to-DVD Disney movie vibe. The references to heaven and the white outfits later in the video make it come across as bad Christian pop which is really saying something. As a song, it's safe to say that Heaven does not require 6 singers to perform it and could probably just as easily have two or three instead.

Let's try to make this a little more positive - to it's credit, the song has shown the viewers Montenegro's ethnic background by introducing an old folklore instrument that nobody has heard of before - and for me, display of ethnic heritage is always something to be celebrated at Eurovision. While the song is horrendously repetitive, it's that very quality that gets it stuck in your head - being memorable in a field of 17 is always better than being forgettable. Most Eurovision viewers are not native English speakers either so the simplistic structure of the song may work in their favour there too. Can anyone say the chorus isn't permanently burned into your brain after the first listen? Yes, we are clutching at straws here.

In reality though, while the above points may give this song a tiny step-up, it's clear that Heaven is a no-qualifier. It's simply too low quality, there are too many people on stage and the song doesn't give you anything you hadn't already received in the first 30 seconds. The YouTube stats for the official video compare unfavourably to the stats for other Eurovision songs and the betting markets currently have Montenegro with a 0.1% chance of winning Eurovision as well as a highly unlikely chance of qualifying from their semi. Despite this group theoretically appealing more to the younger crowd, Montenegro's social media pages aren't gathering new followers at anywhere near the rate of other countries either. Maybe next year, Montenegro.

What do you think? Have we been too harsh? Do D Mol deserve a shot at qualification? Let us know in the comments below.

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