We’re well in to the swing to Eurovision season so it’s time to look around and have a couple of hot takes on every countries songs.

We’re well in to the swing to Eurovision season so it’s time to look around and have a couple of hot takes on every countries songs.

We’re well in to the swing to Eurovision season so it’s time to look around and have a couple of hot takes on every countries songs.

We’re well in to the swing to Eurovision season so it’s time to look around and have a couple of hot takes on every countries songs.

We’re well in to the swing to Eurovision season so it’s time to look around and have a couple of hot takes on every countries songs.

Hello welcome to my series of quick takes designed to get you ready for Eurovision 2019. Just some quick thoughts / my take on each of the 41 songs this year. The countries are in alphabetical order so without further ado: United Kingdom.

Country: United Kingdom
Singer: Michael Rice
Song: Bigger Than Us
Personal Score: 34 out of 41
My Prediction: Auto Qualifier

I have to say that Michael is a wonderful singer and I hope he continues to nurture his talents for years to come. That being said, this song is bland. The fun fact about this song is that its written by the performer from Sweden which is neat and everything but this is kind of the problem with all of the UKs songs in the past few years – all of which have been sourced from other countries. The good people of the UK actually speak English and have many talented composers among their ranks but all we get are these absolutely disconnected songfest songs from people outside the UK. They remain, as Bigger Than Us does, completely void of emotion or meaning. Michael tries to pour his absolute most into this song and his vocal performance but with lyrics like “Hear these words that I sing to you” and ” I will make it clear, it’s me and you” there’s nowhere to go. About 50% of the lyrics in this song are just the word “bigger”. There are all sorts of conspiracy theories about what this song might be about (Brexit! May! How the UK doesn’t want to be in Eurovision!) because this song is, at the end of the day, meaningless.

It’s not even bigger than that so I don’t see how it’ll do anything but scrape the bottom of the barrel.

Hello welcome to my series of quick takes designed to get you ready for Eurovision 2019. Just some quick thoughts / my take on each of the 41 songs this year. The countries are in alphabetical order so without further ado: The Netherlands.

Country: The Netherlands
Singer: Duncan Laurence
Song: Arcade
Personal Score: 3 out of 41
My Prediction: Q

Gun to my head: This is the Eurovision 2019 winner. I’m sure I’ll eat those words in no time but as of this moment, having heard all the songs and having heard most of them live, this is it.

There are a lot of ways to pick a winner at Eurovision but the pattern has been clear: if a girl wins then a boy wins the next year, if a happy song wins, a sad song wins the next year, absolutely memorable personality on and off stage, and personal connection, personal connection, personal connection!

We’ve had a really strong streak of winners with this criteria and this song and Italy’s song are the only two that really seem to fit the patterns and if I had to bet money: the jury is going to eat this song up with a spoon because Duncan Laurence’s vocals are spot on.

It’s hard to describe how his live performance of this song completely turned me around from “oh this is a song” to “HELL YES GO NETHERLANDS! MAKE THAT SAD BOY CRY!”

There is something powerful and beautiful about how his soft, lilting falsetto transitions into this extremely powerful orchestral moment and it makes me live orchestras at Eurovsion just a little. I think this song has the potential to really worm its way into peoples hearts and so I expect it to easily hit the top 5 at the very worst with a tentative “see you in Amsterdam next year” tacked on for good measure.

Hello welcome to my series of quick takes designed to get you ready for Eurovision 2019. Just some quick thoughts / my take on each of the 41 songs this year. The countries are in alphabetical order so without further ado: Switzerland.

Country: Switzerland
Singer: Luca Hänni
Song: She Got Me
Personal Score: 27 out of 41
My Prediction: Q

This is probably the most in risk of shocking people by not qualifying because it’s so likely that this is going to TANK with jury and the viewer vote will have to save him and he’s in the much more difficult semifinal. It’s such a shame but this is a fun bop and Luca will likely lean into a big dance number with probably some fire / confetti / stage effects that should make a fun song into a total number. Luca isn’t a bad singer but I get the feeling he’s trying to channel his best Justin Timberlake and he’s falling far short of that and hitting more of a Justin Beiber vibe.

The song is kind of half-way between Fuego and Despicito so it’s not in a bad position to be widely enjoyed and liked. I think the problems kick in when the chorus hits because it’s hard to remember the words and at the end of the song I forget its name and most of the song. The other problem is that the song is kind of sleezy in a strange way and it might not read well for older audiences / jury. I think “She Got Me” isn’t an effective title either, it makes it disconnected from the strongest riff of the song and they would have done a lot better to call the song Dirty Dancing. Regardless, I’m optimistic that his dancing will pass him narrowly into the final because this is the most interested I’ve been in a Swiss song in years.

Hello welcome to my series of quick takes designed to get you ready for Eurovision 2019. Just some quick thoughts / my take on each of the 41 songs this year. The countries are in alphabetical order so without further ado: Sweden.

Country: Sweden
Singer: John Lundvik
Song: Too Late for Love
Personal Score: 16 out of 41
My Prediction: Q

Sweden looked at Austria 2018 and said “I’ll have what he’s having.” For the most part this song does work but it’s a little too off-kilter for me to really enjoy it. I think John might want to work on his delivery more than his vocals (vocals are spot on, he’s got a really nice voice though its not unique enough for me to really point out anything specific just a solid singer). The actual choir appearing on stage is a mixed bag for me and it feels somehow not enough but also kind of pandering at the same time. I don’t think this song is as musically interesting as it could be and the choir seems almost written around instead of part of the song but its pleasant enough and memorable enough that I had no trouble humming it just a day or two after I first heard it which is always a good sign. Sweden will no doubt get a top 10 placement but I found the national final staging to be…too understated for such a bombastic song. I want them to pull out even more stops and it tighten the song up but I suspect that Sweden is too WYSIWYG for that and destined to land at 9th or 10th in the final because of it.

Hello welcome to my series of quick takes designed to get you ready for Eurovision 2019. Just some quick thoughts / my take on each of the 41 songs this year. The countries are in alphabetical order so without further ado: Spain.

Country: Spain
Singer: Miki
Song: La Venda
Personal Score: 20 out of 41
My Prediction: Auto Qualifier

Secretly hate how much I don’t entirely hate this song. This song is basically like if you sat someone down and asked them to write the most hyperbolic song about the sterotypes of Spain. The weird part is that it kind of works. At first you just laugh at it but Miki has a real effortless kind of charm and the chorus is just so catchy and easy to sing. There’s a danger in singing in not-English which is that your audience won’t understand your message if you speak your own language very complexly and since you can’t vote for your own country this can be a real harm if the language politics of your country also mean that your language is seen as “bad” or “other”. Spanish doesn’t quite have those markers on it but keeping this song to very simple, easy to understand and easy to replicate phrases means that they’ve bypassed those barriers all together and made a song everyone can yell.

This is going to sound mean but stick with me. This song is “Do It For Your Lover” but in Spanish. The thing is if you listen to “Do It For Your Lover” you’ll come out the other side being able to sing that one phrase. It’s a good trick. Everyone can sing that part. In the same way many Eurovision songs include whistles, clapping, odd noises, etc. to universally draw people in, its just that Do It For Your Lover did it clumsily and alienated its audience in both tone and attitude of the performers where La Venda does it by telling everyone to dance and celebrate. Honestly, not a bad showing for Spain and probably would qualify even if they weren’t in the Big 5. (Reminds me a bit of What’s the Pressure from Belgium, might end up opening the final if the cards fall right).