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UKRAINE – Ziferblat – Bird of Pray
Until Luxembourg’s return last year, Ukraine held the proud record as the only country to have taken part in semifinals and never failed to qualify from one. I suspect that that record needs an asterisk though – a couple of entries that went straight to the final might well have found themselves up against it in a qualifying round.
Bird of Pray (and after weeks of consideration, I remain uncertain whether that’s a piece of highly skilled wordplay or a misspelling of ‘prey’) tentatively has the feel of an entry that MIGHT find itself up against it. Drawing on multiple musical styles can work beautifully, but it can lead to some jarring transitions – and here I’m not convinced that the puzzle pieces fit together as well as they need to.
Now saying that, I suspect that I said similar things about Teresa and Maria a year ago. I certainly could have done, and would have got a very sharp wake-up call if I did. I can’t quite see what can happen on the stage here to give it the same kind of glow-up that that one got though.
To be honest, in a year when few things are superb and almost none are rubbish, some acceptable efforts are going to qualify and others are not. For me, it’s just possible that this might be in the unlucky group.
Nick’s score: 5