Vienna 2015

Armenia and Ireland reviewed

It’s time for the next in our series of reviews as our team listens to each of this year’s competing songs (as if we hadn’t listened to them dozens of times already) and gives our thoughts. Today it’s the turn of one of the easternmost countries in Eurovision and one of the westernmost: Armenia and Ireland.
ARMENIA
Genealogy – Face The Shadow
Ryan: This whole concept is pretty tacky, and not nearly as interesting as they would like us to believe. The song itself is also quite average, when, if done right, these kind of songs can be at least a little uplifting. This leaves me feeling nothing, despite the sense that I’m supposed to be feeling otherwise.
Score: 2/10
Peter: This song fools you into thinking that it’s boring for the first two minutes before exploding into an unruly cacophony of noise towards the end as all the diverse singers compete for your attention. Bizarre but addictive.
Score: 6/10
Rinor: I like the idea behind the act, which is to unite Armenians around the world. The ballad itself is too boring, mainly because there are six singers. I haven’t really listened to the song as much, so it might grow on me soon, but right now, the final chorus is the only thing standing out from this song.
Score: 5/10
Simon: Trying far too hard, and ending up with an overblown, aimless mess.
Score: 2/10
armenia
Rodrigo: The first out of the three songs that this nonsense “effort” puts together is one I can get on board with. Unfortunately, the song goes on for two minutes too long.
Score: 1.5/10
Dan: After dragging out their super group reveal, I expected a potential winning entry here – but that certainly isn’t happening. It feels more like a charity single than a Eurovision entry, with each singer allocated different chunks of the song. Definitely not Armenia’s time yet.
Score: 2/10
Nick: Six distinct voices of which three are interesting (Tamar, Inga and Mary-Jean). Interesting melody, interesting mix of genres. For me, best Armenian entry to date, despite the mess it is.
Score: 7.5/10

IRELAND
Molly Sterling – Playing With Numbers
Ryan: Sorry, there’s just something I find quite grating about Molly’s voice. The song itself isn’t horrible, but is nevertheless quite weak. This won’t be going anywhere.
Score: 2/10
Peter: One of the more palatable ballads in a semi-final that is full of them, although that’s not going to stop it getting completely lost. Doomed to sink without a trace, but at least Ireland will go down with dignity.
Score: 6/10
Rinor: Molly is a very talented songwriter. I like this song because it truly shows her vocal abilities and I think the young audience will enjoy it as much.
Score: 7.5/10
Simon: Not overly original, but extremely listenable to my ears; Molly’s voice suits it well.
Score: 6/10
ireland
Rodrigo: Nothing wrong with it other than they had a much better ballad in their NF. It’s pleasant to listen, without a doubt, but it’s lacking that Xtra (see what I did there?) something to stand out in a year (and a semi) full of ballads.
Score: 5/10
Dan: I’ll just go ahead and say it, this is my favourite entry of the year. Despite some of the critique this faced, I think Ireland made the perfect choice. It’s organic, elegant and flows really nicely. Will it qualify? I wouldn’t say its a cert but with the right staging I think this could do a lot better than expected by many.
Score: 8/10
Nick: Somehow reminds me of a teenager listening to Billy Joel thinking ‘Let’s make a boring old love song out of that’. Her voice is nothing special, but credit where credit is due, she’s only 16…
Score: 5/10

The story so far…
So after judgement being passed on another two of this year’s contenders, has that changed anything on the escXtra scoreboard? Let’s see – remember, the maximum possible score is 60…

  1. Ireland – 39.5
  2. Czech Republic – 36
  3. Lithuania – 33.5
  4. FYR Macedonia – 29
  5. Armenia – 26
  6. Moldova – 19.5

Join us tomorrow when we’ll be giving our thoughts and all important scores for the songs from Serbia and Israel!

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