Slovenia was the last country to confirm its participation in Copenhagen and by looking at their poor results the last decade or so we can understand their hesitation. In Malmö Hannah Mancini finished dead last in her semi-final, with an entry that actually stood out with its dub step influenced sound. Which happen to be big the big new trend this year with frontrunners from Armenia and Hungary to mention a few.
To claim that Slovenia’s entry last year was premature and ahead of its time, is perhaps stretching it a tad too far, as we don’t think it would have made much of an impact had it been chosen a year later. But back then we praised Slovenia for daring to experiment. Sadly this year it’s back to the same old story, with a very safe, but boring pop entry with a whiff of ethnic melody lines hidden in the background.
The use of the transverse flute is not something we see often in Eurovision, so we’ll let Tinkara score a couple of points for originality there. But then again, the flute sound is not uncommon in about a million other Eurovision songs through the years so it really doesn’t make much of a difference what direction the bloody flute is pointing, if you ask us.
Round and Round is a rather cheerless tune, sung by an arty-farty artist. The lyrics are embarrassingly banal and the mix between English and Slovene is annoying. It has a nice and pleasant melody though, with a couple of interesting hooks. The flute riff towards the end actually reminds us of Stakka Bo’s übercool classic Here We Go, and shows an unreleased potential. Instead of going for that polished and overproduced sound, we think it would have made a much more interesting entry if it was drawn in the opposite direction. We could definitely see an artist like Tinkara having the ability to pull off a raw, wild and stripped down performance.
We get the feeling it’s not weighty enough to gain much support from the juries, and too depressing and dull to grab attention from the viewers around Europe gathered in front of the telly. With most of their Balkan voting buddies staying at home it’s one of the most likely candidates to miss the final once again with flying colors.
To be honest, Hannah ended up bottom of her SF last year because she had by far and away the WORST vocal performance of anyone at the ESC, maybe apart from Raquel for Spain in the Final. If she had been in tune, “Straight Into Love” might have made it to the Final…
Yep, Hannah was a disaster live. Perhaps she will be a bit more successful being behind the scenes this year, although we have our doubts.