I’m watching a recording as I’d missed this during the first Super Saturday (I was watching Latvia’s Supernova instead), but let’s check this out. Sadly, I already know the outcome, so I won’t be wondering about who’s going to win.
It all started with a skit about Gustaph just living his life (while wearing that hat - I wonder if he really does), which (obviously) transitioned into him opening the contest by singing Because of You. I love having a reminder of how awesome it was and how awesome he is as a performer. The performers walk out on stage like in a fashion show as their names are announced - I like this format: it’s a tried and true classic way of welcoming the participants.
There’s a little bit more talking, with the host introducing the juries. Among them, there’s Emmelie de Forest, who’s been quite busy this season. When the host asked what her secret to Eurovision success was, she said that not wearing shoes seemed to work, which made me snort a little. There was more talking with the juries, which the audience seemed to like, so I’m also fine with it. And just 15 minutes after the show started, we had already gone to the songs. I love Northern European efficiency.
I’m really enjoying the performance. It’s eye-catching and dynamic, but it doesn’t make her compromise her strong vocals, which means I actually enjoy this a lot. And sure, it’s a little generic as far as songs go, but I don’t always need songs to be artsy-fartsy to love them. Sometimes, I just crave a strong, radio-friendly pop song like this. And it’s a rare song where I prefer the chorus over the verses, not that the verses are weak.
While this feels like a song I should enjoy, it just comes off as annoying. It’s very repetitive and she has these high-pitched vocals that make it impossible to listen to this more than once. She was also quite breathy for most of the song, which made me enjoy it a little less. And for a song that’s supposed to cleverly make fun of nepotism, it just has no edge to it or any clever lyrics. At least the staging was nice, I’ll give it that.
Her performance is definitely strong, but I’m just not a fan of the song. It sounds like a mix of several different Swedish Eurovision entries from before. Even the staging feels like something that we’ve all seen before. This doesn’t make it outright horrible, but it does make it very blah.
I had very high expectations for this song (me and all Belgian eurofans), and while the song itself is good, Mentissa doesn’t fully deliver on the live performance. It’s a dancey sort of song (I wouldn’t call it a girlbop though), so she was moving around a lot. No doubt, this hindered her a lot, which took me out of the performance. Still, I know she can deliver more, so I think it’s a bit of a shame that this didn’t win, as she would’ve easily been able to improve for Basel.
Sometimes, a song isn’t too competitive, but I click with it anyway because the performer really seems to feel it. This is one of those times. He really enjoyed performing it, and I enjoyed watching him perform it. He’s one of those artists who try to sing in a lower register than normal speaking voice, which doesn’t exactly work out, but gives this a very distinct feel. But I think I’d enjoy this more if he performed in a key he’s more comfortable with.
What a weird song. At times, it almost work and then it doesn’t work at all. The performance is both overdone and underdone, while the melody cuts out entirely at times, which also gives this a weird and uncanny feel. This was a couple more revisions away from being good, but I can’t say I like it as presented.
This was the right choice for Eurovision, even if I don’t particularly enjoy it. This will certainly qualify and get at least a midtable result because it stands out in a positive way. VRT did well with staging their entries in 2021 and 2023 (especially 2023), so I have no doubt that the team there will deliver a striking live performance in Basel too. My only problem is that he struggles with the lower parts while singing, but there’s still a lot of time for vocal coaching (and he doesn’t need much anyway). For now, I’m putting Belgium down as a qualifier.
This is what I was alluding to when I said that Belgium had a SloMo copycat. And I usually scoff at people who sling plagiarism accusations because, 99% of the time, they’re totally bogus. No, a Eurovision entry didn’t plagiarise a song from your home country that had zero international relevance. In this case, I feel safe saying this because you can sing all of SloMo over this song without any difficulty. The “chorus” (the words “now watch me pull up, pull up, pull up” repeated over and over again) is especially egregious. And it’s a shame too, because she’s a pretty good performer, and I might’ve liked what she had to offer more if this wasn’t a bad copy of a song I already don’t like.
Not bad, Belgium. There were some enjoyable songs here, as well as songs with good Eurovision potential. And it’s easy to see why Red Sebastian won by a margin of 279 points, whew. He definitely had the most appealing overall package.
In true Western/Northern European fashion, the interval didn’t take a lot of time at all. There was Tom Dice singing Me and My Guitar, which is still as lovely as it was in 2010. As the man who broke Belgium’s long non-qualification streak, he definitely deserved to be here. There was some talking with the contestants, and then Emmelie performed Only Teardrops for the second time this season. And then there was more talking. Still, the talking was quick and didn’t drag on, so it was hard to get annoyed by it. The vote presentation was also quick. Instead of getting votes from each juror one by one, they aggregated them ahead of time and revealed them in running order. And then, the televote was revealed in the same way, but in reverse jury result. Obviously, Red Sebastian won as people had predicted, so that wasn’t surprising. I’m interested to see the staging on the big stage in Basel. And my personal winner ended up 2nd, which is also good.