On yesterday’s review, it was all about Belgium. With an absolute landslide, they’ve taken the lead in our ranking. Tonight it’s time to review Hungary and Latvia. Can any of these two catch Belgium or settle in our current top three? Find out below!
HUNGARY
Boggie – Wars For Nothing
Dan: On first listen, I find this song is enough to put me to sleep. However, having forced myself to listen to it a few times it IS slightly starting to grow on me. Will this work on stage though? I’m doubtful. I think Hungary might actually be in trouble with this.
Score: 5.5/10
Peter: OK I know that peace songs will always be at Eurovision, but they do not need to be as rambling and preachy and earnest as this one. It just goes on and on and you get the message by 30 seconds in. Possibly my least favourite of the year.
Score: 1.5/10
Nick: This is genuine, this is true, this feels right. Boggie is an amazing performer, an amazing singer. Beautifully understated. She just needs to work on that accent when singing English. Staging will be crucial for this.
Score: 9/10
Rodrigo: Three minutes of bland nothingness in the middle of a bit more nothingness. Boring, plain, tedious.
Score: 3.5/10
Simon: A pretty little song, but sadly it is also rather dreary. Some staging masterpiece will be needed to help this succeed.
Score: 5/10
Rinor: The only thing that keeps this song from complete boredom is its message, which unfortunately, might struggle to be delivered in Vienna. It’s a heartfelt song because it talks about injustices and inequality on the planet, including political events like the conflicts in Ukraine and Palestine. However, since the EBU tries to avoid politics from the contest, I have no idea what Hungary is going to do on stage. Its result will mainly be dependent on the visual appearance.
Score: 6/10
LATVIA
Aminata – Love Injected
Dan: One of the most interesting songs this year, lyrically and melody wise. Latvia could be on the road to one of their highest placing entries in years with this, but it all comes down to how this is staged.
Score: 7/10
Peter: I just can’t quite believe that this is coming from Latvia! It’s modern, a bit left-field and I kind of get lost in the music for 3 minutes. That being said I think it’s “at-risk” in this semi-final full of equally understated but more accessible songs.
Score: 7/10
Nick: Turn it off. Now. Ear rape of the highest order. That voice is a weapon of torture, I can’t stand to listen to more than a minute of this, sorry, which is sad, because her latest single is quite good and I like the tone of her voice there. Wasted talent on a horrible song.
Score: 1.5/10
Rodrigo: I’m lost as to why there’s so much hype around this song. I mean, it’s not bad at all, but it’s also not the masterpiece that it’s being portrayed to be. Keen to see if she’ll manage to pull off the vocal gymnastics required for this song.
Score: 5/10
Simon: It’s very contemporary by Eurovision standards, and despite being a mid-tempo song it should stand out. My worry is her live vocal can’t handle to vocal gymnastics required and it’ll plummet down my rankings.
Score: 6/10
Rinor: A surprisingly stylish and modern song from Latvia this year. I like the simplicity and the message, but she has to work on those high notes. I really like it.
Score: 8.5/10
The story so far…
It’s fourteen entries we have so far. Belgium took a solid lead yesterday: They’re almost 2,5 points ahead of Austria, who were in second. Let’s see how Hungary and Latvia did today.
- Belgium – 8.50/10
- Austria – 6.08/10
- Germany – 6.00/10
- Latvia – 5.83/10
- Ireland – 5.64/10
- Serbia – 5.43/10
- Czech Republic – 5.14/10
- Hungary – 5.08/10
- Lithuania – 4.79/10
- Israel – 4.64/10
- FYR Macedonia – 4.14/10
- Armenia – 3.71/10
- San Marino – 3.08/10
- Moldova – 2.79/10
Some extreme scoring there which puts both entries midtable, scoring between 5 and 6 each. It seems we couldn’t really agree on either of the songs… Tomorrow will be interesting, as we’ll be discussing the most talked about entry of the year: Finland. Oh, and we’ll also be reviewing Malta.
