Italy - Ermal Meta & Fabrizio Moro -
Non mi avete fatto niente
Italy sends again the Sanremo winner and their platinum selling #1 manifest against terrorism Non mi avete fatto niente. Albanian born Ermal Meta (37) and Fabrizio Moro (43) both have very succesful and flourishing career already and both have been busy touring and promoting their respective albums after Sanremo skipping all Eurovision related pre-parties - so did Loreen, too, didn't she? I prefer the studio version to the live performance to be honest, when especially Moro goes a bit too shouty for my liking. Despite this one of the strongest songs by far this year with an interesting half spoken verses that turn into light folk rock a la Hop hop somerello, another song with apparent lightness with heavy lyrics. Italy will score another top-10 easily this year. If not, it'd be as unfair as Russia making the final again. Italy could also be fighting for victory in case the jury and televotes spread and differ to other entries, who knows? 10/10
Switzerland - ZiBBZ - Stones
If Italy sings against terrorism, the Swiss siblings Corinne (32) and Stee (31) Gfeller sing against bullying. The pulsing beat keeps the track together and it's energetic and strong, but we have the problem of an angry female singer. They never seem to work in Eurovision. Ask Hanna Pakarinen for example. Nothing wrong with her, it's just... well, we will see. Borderline qualifier for me, but I think Swiss might miss the final once again being in the 1st one.... 6/10
France - Madame Monsieur - Mercy
After terrorism and bullying here's another hot topic: emigration. Madame Emilie Satt (33) and Monsieur Jean-Karl Lucas met in 2008 and have been writing music ever since, from 2013 under the current name. Mercy has a backstory (and all the specualtions of the song being political are long forgotten), the arrangement is airy and modern, Emilie's vocals perfect and the song has maybe the catchiest refrain of all entries this year - at least it plays in my head day and night since weeks. I had a bit of a roller coaster start with this song; liking it, then a bit dismissing it and then slowly it climbed back to the top favorites while other songs were selected. The English and Spanish versions or the various remixes add nothing to the original French one that is perfect just the way it is. Their look in black is cool and it's all very French somehow. In a good way. Perfection. This should better Amir's 6th place and cement France's position as a Big one for real. 10/10
Spain - Amaia y Alfred - Tú cancion
Spain leaves the heavy themes to others and goes for the eternal one: Love. And in this case for a real life sweethearts and talent reality show finalists with a touch of Disney and La la landish atmosphere. And it works. Amaia Romero (19) won the show while Alfred Garcia (21) came 4th, but together they won the national selection. Both have previous less fortunate reality talent show experience. The song itself with me has the same story as France's. First I liked it, then I kinda forgot about it but sneakily it returned to my mind, played in my head and is now among my favorites. There's a danger it all gets too sugary and gets ruined on stage live, but if they keep it sweet and innocent celebrating the young love and they hold it together vocally and transmit real emotions this could go very far... sealed with a kiss.. 9/10
Comments