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The Xtra Files 2018: We review Russia’s ‘I Won’t Break’ by Julia Samoylova!

Welcome to The Xtra Files, our 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 Russia.

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 on 30 April! We will also each give a score out of 10 for every entry, and create an ESCXTRA leaderboard of the entries!
Today we have reviews of Russian entry, ‘I Won’t Break’ by Julia Samoylova, from Luke, Miki, Nick, Ryan, Simon and Vincent. Let’s get started!
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The Reviews

Luke

So, Yulia will sing Haha You Can’t Boo Me Bitches I Won’t Break in Lisbon. This is incredibly bland and uncreative. For a song called I Won’t Break, I was expecting something much more empowering, but this does absolutely nothing. I’m hoping somebody will storm the stage and wheel her back off to Russia before she gets to perform.
Image result for horrible noise

Miki

“I Won’t Break” certainly doesn’t make my flame burn, but I was pleasantly surprised with this one. Partially due to the fact that I did not expect much to begin with, but Yulia delivers a somewhat modern pop ballad sung somewhat in English. The only question that crosses my mind is “Will Russia manage to keep their 100% qualification record after this entry?”. They probably will, but you never know.

Nick

I am glad Russia stuck to their word and sent Julia. “I Won’t Break” is the beige kind of inoffensive that bugs me in the contest whenever it appears. They have also made progress by entering the 21st century with this song. However, it’s just sad that they managed to get stuck in 2001.

Ryan

An improvement on “Flame Is Burning” for sure, it is more modern and much more memorable. However, it does cross the line between positively memorable and just too repetitive. Nevertheless, I do like the way Julia re-sings an earlier part of the song over the repetitive “I Won’t Break” melody towards the end, mixing things up for the better.

Simon

A song devoid of any character or emotion, with the production to match. The lyrics should give the song something powerful to work from, but I get nothing.
Image result for boring

Vincent

So, on the one hand, I’m neither a fan nor a hater of the song, I actually kinda like the chorus. On the other hand: 1) “Now that I’m in it, I won’t break.” How subtle… ; 2) The live is… not alive and well, even kinda awful. She might know how to sing, but she doesn’t yet know how to sing this song.

 

Scores

Dominik  8 Nick  1 Tim  8
Hlynur  1 Riccardo  1 Tom  5
Lisa  3 Rigmo  3 Vincent  5
Luke  3.5 Rodrigo  4 Wiv  1
Matt  5 Ryan  4.5 Yassia  5
Miki  5 Sami  7
Nathan  4 Simon  3

 
Therefore, the average score for Russia is 4.05.

Leaderboard

Russia reaches 33rd place in our leaderboard. Only ahead of San Marino…

  1. Israel – 8.52
  2. Finland – 7.66
  3. Bulgaria – 7.63
  4. France – 7.50
  5. Sweden – 7.21
  6. Switzerland – 7.08
  7. Poland – 7.08
  8. Germany – 6.95
  9. Ukraine – 6.92
  10. Austria – 6.79
  11. Australia – 6.76
  12. Denmark – 6.55
  13. Lithuania – 6.50
  14. Italy – 6.39
  15. The Netherlands – 6.26
  16. Azerbaijan – 6.05
  17. Portugal – 6.05
  18. Slovenia – 6.00
  19. Estonia – 5.86
  20. Latvia – 5.61
  21. Norway – 5.55
  22. Albania – 5.50
  23. Serbia – 5.05
  24. United Kingdom – 5.03
  25. Belarus – 4.97
  26. Moldova – 4.92
  27. Romania – 4.73
  28. Montenegro – 4.71
  29. Hungary – 4.65
  30. Armenia – 4.29
  31. Georgia – 4.18
  32. Iceland – 4.18
  33. Russia – 4.05
  34. San Marino – 4.03

Tomorrow, it will be the turn of Malta to be reviewed.
Do you agree with our reviews of the Russia? What are your thoughts on I Won’t Break?

Let us know in the comments below and on social media @ESCXTRA!

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