Albania: Duje by Albina & Familja Kelmendi
With the best running mascara of the competition, Albina dishes out big emotions of loss and family. The video is in a dramatic black and white with colourful flashbacks to better times of happy family life. All this delivered in her native language inclusive of the typical wailing and bagpipe sounds we all so detest. The whole family (mum, dad, brother, sisters) will be on stage in Liverpool….possibly a first for Eurovision. Still no further than the semis for me!
Reviewed by
Mariella Herberstein
Armenia: Future Lover by Brunette
Sporting impressive cornrows and plaits the length of the country, Brunette delivers a song in two parts. The fragile Brunette with her delicate and ethereal sounds wanting to be good, do good, look good, gives way to badass Brunette street rapping with her cold heart, cold hands and fire in her veins. Both Brunettes are an uneasy union, but it could work on stage. It is a shame the song limps to the finish, rather than set off the much-promised volcano.
Reviewed by
Mariella Herberstein
Cyprus: Break A Broken Heart by Andrew Lambrou
Andrew, who could be a werewolf, howls his way through breaking a broken heart, with an impressive vocal range and a decent helping of autotuning. Most of us are probably struggling with the grammatical proposition – is the heart already broken and is it being broken into even smaller smithereens, or is it so broken that it can’t be broken again, or do two acts of breaking the heart actually heal it??? And at that point, we have reached the three minutes and the song is over and already forgotten.
Reviewed by
Mariella Herberstein