In a year overshadowed by the tragedy of war and the grimness of pandemic, on 14th May we joined hands across the continent and Australia to worship together at the altar of Europop.
Whilst the staging β with giant black balloons β is good gothy fun, the lyrics are uninspiring and well-worn, with outdated temptress imagery that all just feels a bit like the band has spent the past ten years on 4chan. Suggest going back in the shadows for some workshopping. This is a perfectly fine slow number, articulating what I think is supposed to be an important message of men embracing emotional fragility. Equating men with planes, mountains and wolves plays into quite tired notions of big, strong masculinity, but the writer does twist them, apparently intending the audience to sense a duality β that men can be strong and vulnerable.
Something to consider. Various parts of instrumentation and vocal sound, to my ear, slightly more rooted in Near- and Middle-Eastern musical styles. If so, that critique could be clearer. Photo:Terje Bendiksby. This is what Eurovision is all about: people wearing yellow cardboard wolf masks, imploring you to give them a banana. Super clear narrative β great work. No notes. The best bit, though, is the moment of the singer breaking through the wall of the set to face the audience for end of the song.
This duet functions brilliantly as a dialogue, with text alternately sung individually and together, sometimes taking the melody together and sometimes harmonising. It smartly represents a couple going through a tough time β on a similar path, but not experiencing it the same way. They could do much more staging-wise, though: the entire turmoil of the text is represented by one pushing the other backwards half-heartedly and a little moment of facing off.
And the staging isβ¦ basically just that! The singer is in an outrageously high-cut leotard situation wiggling around with some other extremely hot people. Mother Stefania presumably watches over during the chorus: lightly-wrinkled eyes peer out of the darkness, projected at the back of the stage in black and white, gazing directly at the audience with a blend of care and defiance. A fairly saccharine bit of crooning about wanting to be a rock-star is cleverly paired with the singer stalking around a load of abandoned instruments β a full rock-band set-up β to highlight his yearning.
