Aka “The Tommy Cash and 15 other people” competition. Still, I’m hoping to be pleasantly surprised. Let’s see if I will or if a song I really dislike will win due to the singer’s popularity.
The opening was efficient and quick. Due to some obligations, I missed it, so I won’t comment on it at all. I don’t care enough to go back and rewatch it.
This is fine, but nothing more. He has a pleasant voice (even if he didn’t hit all the notes perfectly) and the staging was cute. Unfortunately, the song is a bit of a nothingburger, so it all banaces out to be quite average.
I really liked the song in the studio, but the live performance didn’t live up to my expectations. It was surprisingly boring for a high-energy song like this. The camera cuts were frantic, the vocals were too shaky, and it was just a mess overall. Not that they wouldn’t be able to tweak it later on, but this package just didn’t do it for me.
This one left me a bit cold. Sorry, sorry. But really, it was fine. It didn’t evoke any strong feelings in me, but at least he sings well. There are way worse choices, for sure. Also, I can’t say I’m a massive fan of the Eric Saade-style box, either.
I think it fell apart live. The singers’ voices didn’t fit together very well, and the whole performance was messy. It’s a shame because I really like the song itself - it has lovely mellow vibes. Again, it could be improved for ESC, but it’s a mess right now.
This is also just alright. I liked her performance of the song, but I didn’t like the song itself. It had no structure and felt very incohesive. But the good parts were actually good, so I think this could’ve been good if it were good.
This is just generic. Not bad, but just generic. Pop punk like this should theoretically appeal to me a lot, but I just think it’s too reserved and overpolished. It basically sounds like a Melfest reject. But the actual live performance fit this song very well.
While the song is generic, at least Elysa put some actual emotion into it. Apparently, it’s based on her personal experience, so it explains why she feels it so well while performing. The lyrics could’ve been much better, though. Rhyming “dead” and “cigarettes” is certainly a choice - a bad one at that. Still, actually putting some emotion into
The song definitely fits the title. It’s very wacky in a lovable way. It’s clear that this is just a grown man trying to share the fun with the audience. I think it’s very likeable thanks to the performer, though it definitely isn’t a song I’d return to.
This is both emotional and danceable. I don’t always enjoy EDM, but I think this was delivered perfectly. I’ve also connected with it over the past couple of weeks, so I’m especially rooting for this. I just wish the staging was a little less empty.
This was a generic song with a relatively weak vocal. The piano line was way too loud as well, which actively made me dislike this. I guess at least the red/black staging was cool.
I don’t actually mind dated songs, but this is dated in every bad way possible. First of all, it’s boring. Secondly, the performance is so amateur, you’d never guess that this is someone with 25 years of performing under her belt. I didn’t enjoy it at all.
The song was quite nice. While I wish the vocal performance was a little stronger, this is a song I could actually consider listening to on my own. It has a nice buildup in the verses and resolves it well in the chorus. This is a very strong effort.
Also, I’m milidly biased for it because she loves Estonia’s 1996 entry as she said in her interview.
This is the kind of performance that gets worse as it goes on. She gets more and more breathy, starts drifting out of key and generally loses me by the end. It’s very sad because the song is great. It’s very mellow and cute, but the vocal performance just shatters any illusion of intimacy it tries to create.
The parts of this that I like, I like a lot. But the parts I dislike, I really hate. Sadly, the choruses are really hard to listen to. They’re very loud and hurt my ears, though that’s clearly the intention. At least the verses really save it in my eye. The staging is great, too: it feels like a music video but in a good way.
Ugh. Just ugh. That’s all. This isn’t fun and isn’t even funny. In fact, I’ll go as far as to say that this wouldn’t have qualified from either of the 2008 semifinals. And look, I don’t mind joke entries when they’re good musically, but this isn’t good at all. It feels like he composed a 5-second sample and looped it for 3 minutes. I’m praying to whatever deity exists that this won’t win.
This isn’t outstanding at all, but it’s fun, even though I can’t say I care about it all that much. But she’s a good performer for sure and my opinion of this grew a lot after the live performance. I wish more entries from the wildcard round were in the final instead of a good chunk of these songs.
This was incredibly weak, especially for Eesti Laul, which is a selection I’m usually very fond of. And it’s not that the songs were actively bad, no, they were just painfully average and dull. As I’m so disappointed, I’ll switch to a different NF - specifically, Norway. Eesti Laul is on hold for news anyway, so it’s not like there’s anything to talk about here. Tommy Cash will win anyway.
UPD after the NF wrapped up: of course, he won. This was expected. Everyone should’ve seen this. Fuck Azerbaijan, Georgia, Montenegro, Poland, Romania and San Marino for trying to rig the semifinal in 2022 and fuck the EBU for thinking that the best way to solve that is removing the juries. Now we have to suffer from idiotic shit like this.