Review: Mikolas Josef - Lie To Me - Czech Republic

TellyStats Rating:

7 Day YouTube Views: 521,028
7 Day YouTube Likes: 13,249

The Czech Republic bring us Lie To Me performed by Mikolas Josef, a tongue-in-cheek and modern pop song with a great trumpet hook - comparable to 2017's Moldova's saxophone hook which worked well for them.

The song is split in 3 parts which repeat throughout the song, Mikolas rapping the verses, the 'Lie To Me' refrain and the trumpet hook. All of them work well in their own way and the trumpet makes the song instantly accessible and recognisable - even for viewers that don't speak English, it's a satisfying part of the song to bop along and listen to. The rapped segments are a little hard to follow because it flows rather quickly and is full of yoof lingo but the subject matter of the song is that Mikolas is telling his girl he knows she sleeps with other guys but it turns him on to have her lie to him about it. A cuckold's anthem really.

Lie To Me was originally was much more explicit but has been toned down for Eurovision, in fact not just the lyrics but even the staging has been toned down after a few somersaults too many sent Mikolas to hospital. This does lower the energy ever so slightly because Mikolas is forced to be a little more stationary than her was during his previous performances - he now delegates somersaults to his dance crew. Saying this, it's still high-energy and should be a good watch. Mikolas is a handsome young man and has the standard teenage girl fanbase which he mostly shares with Alekseev of Belarus.

In terms of negatives, the style of song doesn't fit the mould of a usual winner and hype for the song has died down in the last week or so. The rap sections work great for us English-speakers but to the rest of Europe it might be fairly meaningless, especially as there's no backing tune during those segments. The official music video is slickly produced and has a high number of hits - the transition from rapped music video with editing and music balancing may not translate quite so well live.

Saying that though, we expect the Czech Republic to do well - but not win. It was 2nd favourite in the betting markets for a long time but has yielded ground to Norway and Cyprus since. It's YouTube stats are in the higher ranges but beaten by enough other songs to suggest it doesn't pose a threat to take the contest this year. Mikolas performs in the first half of the competitive first semi final but shouldn't have any problems, despite being on early and just before Israel in the running order. We predict a 3rd - 6th place for the Czech Republic in the final.