ESC Etc.

Country: Czechia
Artist: Aiko
Title: Pedestal
Songwriter(s): Alena Shirmanova-Kostebelova, Steven Ansell
Tempo: 150 BPM Mode: Minor Key: F♯/G♭ Duration: 2:28

After a week-long online vote open to the Czech public as well as international fans across the world, Aiko has emerged as the winner of ESCZ 2024, narrowly edging out Elly, and will now represent Czechia in Malmö. Aiko swept the international vote but only came in 5th place in the Czech one, compared to Elly who came in second place in the international vote and absolutely dominated the national one, but the 70%-30% split between international and national voting ultimately favored the eventual winner. Pedestal is a fairly straighforward pop/rock track about self-empowerment, and if you read my review of this national final, you already know it was one of my absolute least favorite entries of the bunch. The studio cut has the feel of an album track rather than a lead single, and while the production feels polished enough, there are no real variations or significant junctures there for the song to feel particularly meaningful or impactful – in fact, things get so repetitive so fast that, as Aiko keeps reiterating “I will be loving me more, put myself on a pedestal,” ultimately the message of the lyrics loses any real purpose or drive. Even at 2:28, the track sorta wears out its welcome after the first chorus and becomes kind of a chore to sit through.

I would say that a strong staging concept/performance might be able to offset things a bit…if we hadn’t seen that national final live performance on stage. Even considering the subpar production values of the national final, there is no conceivable world where that performance would ever be competitive enough to qualify, let alone pass any basic quality check, and right now that’s all we have to go by. Aiko and her dancers seem to be having fun and really trying to move the track, but the absolute vocal collapse combined with the utter lack of any one unifying staging concept (or even any choreo) leaves this act in some sort of limbo where they basically need to start again from scratch and actually decide what they want this to look like or say or convey, and I don’t know that the Czech delegation is there to offer the amount of support this would need to get to a place where it becomes competitive. Granted, Vesna last year had the same issue with their live performance, but the song was always there and always strong, and there was a clear esthetic to the video and their styling that made them stand out. There are five months between today and the ESC finals…and Aiko and her team need to start working now and need to start working hard. We want the best show possible in Sweden, so best of luck to them.

Jury Potential: Untested, but they will only have to worry about that if/when they qualify. That said, this national final/result is a prime example that juries are a crucial, fundamental component of any ESC scoring process, and are often there to save countries from themselves or from fans abroad going rogue. Had juries been involved here in any capacity, we would probably be looking at Elly as the Czech Eurovision representative. That said, the vocal and the performance we heard and saw on stage at the Roxy will get absolutely crucified by the juries.
Televote Potential: Televote leans heavily in favor of native language, ethnic/local vibes, and dance/EDM/party soundscapes. This is not a surefire qualifier.