2. The Makemakes – I Am Yours (Austria 2015)
Redeeming features?
Now we get to the real head-scratcher of the countdown. How could this song have left with absolutely nothing? Not one of my favourites at first, in the run-up to the contest I started thinking I had underestimated its chances, as it did well in pre-contest polls and was singled out by non-fans as one of the better songs. It had a great melody, mixed retro and contemporary well, and it looked great visually, with the flaming piano capturing people’s attention. Come the night of the contest, it was felt that this would give the home country a very respectable result.
What went wrong?
As you’ll gather from the above description, I have no idea, but I can think of two factors that may have played a role. It could well have suffered from coming after an incredibly strong run of songs (three of the four preceding songs ended up in the top five) and just not being able to keep up the pace. It could also have been a victim of the system, getting reasonably good televotes and reasonably good jury scores, but not enough to land in the top ten of any country. That being said, both of those factors were outside of their control and it’s hard to imagine either robbing a country of any points whatsoever – ‘I Am Yours’ really stands out as something you would not expect a nul pointer to be.
