The Xtra Files: We Review Cyprus’ ‘Gravity’ by Hovig!

Welcome to The Xtra Files, our new series which will give you an insight into what the team at escXtra think of your favourite entries into this year’s contest! Today, we review Cyprus.

Now that all the songs have been released, we are able to review each and every one of them. Our honest and brutal reviews will keep you entertained until the rehearsals start in May! We will also each give a score out of 10 for every entry, and create an escXtra leaderboard of the entries! You can see our preview reviews here.
Today, it is the turn of the Cypriot entry, ‘Gravity’ by Hovig, to be reviewed by Hlynur, Nathan, Nick, Rodrigo, Sagheer, and Sophie. Let’s get started!

The Reviews

Hlynur

This song is something I should like, I normally would but I just don’t think his lovely voice matches the good song he is singing. But I do think it’s above average and I can listen the whole song through more than once.

Nathan

Someone clearly loved “Human” by Rag’n’Bone Man… because the bass beat in the introduction is almost identical. Nothing really to remember here.

Nick

It’s very Rag’N’Bone Man, but as I quite like his songs, this is a very decent entry. It’s a decent pop track without a lot of stand out features. And that might be its problem at the same time. It’s just a good pop track. It’s in my top 10 and I really like listening to it, but what is going to make Europe pick up the phone for this? I just don’t know.

Rodrigo

An entry that caught my attention from the first second. It almost pisses me off that this will be staged by Cyprus and not the likes of Ukraine, Azerbaijan or Sweden, as they would do magic on stage, I imagine. Still, Hovig gives a very good rendition of a song that is extremely radio friendly and memorable enough to give Cyprus the chance to qualify and then get a decent result in the final.

Sagheer

‘Gravity’ is a nice enough song but after hearing the chorus and listening to the song for a minute or so, I lose interest. The staging will have to be quite spectacular for it to have any chance of getting out of the first semi final.

Sophie

He wants to be my gravity, and then again he wants to be my wings when I’m flying high – isn’t that a bit self-defeating? Not only do I fail to make sense of the lyrics, but also the rest of the song doesn’t exactly blow me away.

Scores

When we remove the top score of 9.5 and the lowest score of 3.5, the average score for Cyprus is 6.71.
(Removing the top score and the lowest score helps to make the average score more reliable and less affected by outliers.)

Leaderboard

Cyprus reaches 16th place in our leaderboard with a score of 6.71.

1. France – 9.04
2. Italy – 9.03
3. Azerbaijan – 8.00
4. Sweden – 7.77
5. Belarus – 7.75
6. Iceland – 7.46
7. Australia – 7.25
8. Israel – 7.21
9. Serbia – 7.08
10. Estonia – 7.07
11. Switzerland – 6.96
12. Denmark – 6.83
13. Armenia – 6.80
14. Portugal – 6.79
15. Hungary – 6.79
16. Cyprus – 6.71
17. Germany – 6.59
18. Austria – 6.58
19. Moldova – 6.58
20. Greece – 6.54
21. Norway – 6.33
22. Latvia – 6.25
23. Czech Republic – 6.25
24. United Kingdom – 6.00
25. Finland – 5.71
26. Ireland – 5.54
27. The Netherlands – 5.33
28. Albania – 5.21
29. Poland – 5.13
30. Ukraine – 5.13
31. Romania – 5.12
32. Malta – 4.25
33. San Marino – 3.92
34. Georgia – 3.91
35. Montenegro – 3.33
36. Croatia – 2.71
37. Slovenia – 2.13

Tomorrow, we will review Belgium.
Do you agree with our reviews of the Cyprus? What are your thoughts on Hovig’s ‘Gravity’? Let us know in the comments!