ESC Etc.

I figured a combined post might be warranted here because we got no fewer than 4 national finals this past Saturday, with some heavy hitters finally selecting their 2024 representatives. Since I already reviewed two of the winning songs from this weekend, why not take a more holistic look?

Country: Spain
Artist: Nebulossa
Title: Zorra
Songwriter(s): María Bas, Mark Dasousa
Tempo: 130 Mode: Minor Key: A Duration: 3:04

Country: Ukraine
Artist: Alyona Alyona and Jerry Heil
Title: Teresa & Maria
Songwriter(s): Alyona Alyona, Anton Chilibi, Ivan Klymenko, Jerry Heil
Tempo: 114 Mode: Minor Key: G Duration: 2:59

Both these tracks were previously reviewed as presumptive faves in their respective national finals, and they did in fact deliver. I think the Vidbir result is somewhat less surprising – Alyona and Jerry were always the overwhelming frontrunners, and with Jerry there was a sense of unfinished business because of her previous Vidbir participations (and eventually losses), riding into this contest on a bit of an overdue narrative. This track is solid, atmospheric, well performed, and it feels important in spite of the clunkiness of the English lyrics (“all the divas were born as a human beings [sic]” just really brings the whole chorus down for me). It does get a bit repetitive towards the end, and I would have perhaps liked an instrumental break just to shake up the monotony of the last minute, but this will do well in the final – Ukraine always does.

Nebulossa winning Benidorm became a much more realistic prospect after they ran away with the first semifinal, winning juries by quite a comfortable margin, but knowing now that this song has gone viral in Spain and in Latin America would have made this a much more straighforward call, even when st. Pedro, with his beautiful eyes, sleepy song, and inexplicably energetic dancers took over the #1 spot in the odds. I specifically linked to the grand final performance above because I have never in my life seen the audience in a national final sing along to the whole song with the same enthusiasm and abandon as the Benidorm crowd did the very second Maria opened her mouth. This is so far my fave ESC song of the year, and it’s pretty much ready to go in terms of staging, as well – they won’t and shouldn’t change anything about it and they should (and will) just ignore the ageist comments + ridiculous concers re: the vocal (Maria is half the reason why the song is the masterpiece that it is) and bare-assed dancers (if you let you kids look at Chanel’s booty hypnotic two years ago, what are you even talking about?). In short, if you’re out there nitpicking at something that is truly already perfect unto itself, I’ve got some news for you: Nebulossa has written a song about it, it’s called Zorra, and it goes like this: “this is my nature/I can’t be bothered to change for you.”

Jury Potential: Very strong for both. I don’t think either one will top juries, but I could easily see both landing in the Top 5 out of sheer momentum and overall quality both in terms of production and staging.
Televote Potential: Teresa & Maria will do very well here, too. Zorra could reasonably win the televote. I can already hear the whole arena chanting “zorra, zorra zorra!” and I can’t wait to see it.

Country: Norway
Artist: Gåte
Title: Ulveham
Songwriter(s): Gunnhild Sundli, Jon Even Schärer, Magnus Børmark, Marit Jensen Lillebuen, Ronny Graff Janssen, Sveinung Eklo Sundli
Tempo: 130 Mode: Minor Key: B Duration: 3:02

Norway just did something that hadn’t happened in 18 years: they chose a song in Norwegian to send to ESC. That in and of itself is incredibly exciting. Beyond that, they have also steered MGP in a completely different direction by selecting a folk metal track in a sea of pop/dance/EDM ESC-friendly tracks, and they did so by going directly against the juries (who instead selected KEiiNO who would have actually won with a 50/50 split). This whole package is a triumph – the track hits you like a semi-truck, the staging for it is beyond outstanding, Gunnhild’s vocal fusing traditional Norwegian chanting with a rock sonority pierces right through the TV screen, the drama and the energy are dialed to 100, and it’s unlike anything you’ve ever seen. I just don’t like the song itself. It is not for me. And it doesn’t need to be! This will find plenty of supporters both in the semifinal and in the final, and I have to commend everyone involved here for crafting something so compelling and unusual. I can’t wait to see what this looks like on stage at ESC.

Jury Potential: I would be lying if I said that this losing juries at MGP isn’t somewhat concerning. Juries tend to like their songs to be a bit more on the commercial side and they have a well documented bias against foreign languages. The execution here is unclokable, however.
Televote Potential: Top 5. Easy. This will wow a lot of people even if the song doesn’t translate for everyone the same way.