Every year we see a red hot pre-contest favorite crash and burn in the semi-final. The proverbial fanwank who pulls a Kate Ryan. The one everybody said deserved to pass through. The dead-cert qualifier, the top 10 tipped, the bookie favorite, the OGAE fan poll big scorer. This year we fear it’s Slovenia.
This fate is never bestowed upon the worst song in the contest; usually it’s rather a good one. Most people quite like it, but no one seem to love it enough to actually vote for it. Perhaps everybody thinks that everyone else is voting for it so why bother? Maybe its failure is just caused by an unlucky break. A string of unfortunate coincidences.
The key however seems to be how the entry is being staged and how well it’s being performed. When it’s time to score at crunch time and sparsely merited artists suddenly realize they’re being broadcast live to an audience so plentiful it’s impossible to even imagine how many. Some try too hard and others again can’t manage to bring their song to life. Like a deer caught in the headlights they look scared and sing off key. Or they mess it up with artsy-fartsy choreography and stage props and godawful frocks and hairdos and what not. There are artists with the best of intentions and a burning wish to deliver, only they forget to look into the camera and it all falls flat on the floor.
If Maraaya will fail, and how they will fail we don’t know yet. It’s a feeling we’ve got. We hope we’re wrong, because we actually like Here For You. It’s a modern and fresh track. And it’s accomplished enough to deserve one of the 27 slots in the Grand Final. But we sense a lack of energy and drive. And those headphones, really, it looks so incredibly daft. The dancer on stage playing the invisible violin is a nice touch in a WTF sort of way. We try so hard to connect to this song, but there’s no spark to ignite a relationship. Perhaps it’s just us. We’ll find out soon enough next Thursday when the ten envelopes are about to be opened.
I thought I was the only one saying it’s overrated and it will fail big time.
Yep. Overrated was the word we were looking for.
I’m clinging to dear hope you’re wrong, but it’s building up nicely to prove you right. God, we need You.
We’ve been wrong a million times on this blog before. Don’t believe a word of what we say if you don’t want to!
Not you darlings. First rehearsals were not looking so good.Tthey seem to have sorted out their problems by now so everything is looking so much brighter 🙂
Yes, it looked better. We’re still not convinced, though.
As a Slovenian, Here for you is a first of our entries in years I really like. The song is catchy, modern & fresh. But from what I saw on the first rehearsals, I’m afraid their performance do not match the song. It’s just too boring and non-memorable. Sadly, I feel they didn’t make any progress since their win at EMA. Though, I hope for the best, but honestly, I’ll be happy if they qualify for the final.
We’re actually starting to warm up to the headphones and the airviolinist. We hope it qualifies!