Nick’s Countdown 2021 – Czech Republic and Denmark

CZECH REPUBLIC – Benny Cristo – omaga

I’m trying to avoid making too many comparisons between the 2020 entries and the 2021 entries. I’ve always been of the view that when Mr McOlaf in Stenhousemuir tunes in his tellybox on a weekday (and possibly weekend) night in May, he neither knows nor cares how on earth this stuff came to be there, he only cares about what on earth it is.

I think he’s going to like Benny though and I’m going to use up one of my comparisons on it. Kemama was a laid back, boinky-bouncy thing that I thought was likeable but relied a bit too much on one hook and ran out of steam well before the three minutes were up.

omaga however, is a lot punchier and uses its time a great deal more profitably. It also joins the rarely deployed change one letter of the title and get a Greek letter genre that Italy used to great effect in the mid-1970s. All it needs is for someone to roll up next year with a grass-skirted Hawaiian epic called Aloha and I’ll be on the line to the Only Connect question setters before you can even blink.

I digress. Frequently. I like Benny and I like the song, and honestly if he turns his cheeky charm on the camera to the max come May, I think he’s got every prospect of going top 10.

Nick’s Score: 8/10

DENMARK – Fyr & Flamme – Øve Os På Hinanden

– Nick, why are you writing your Russia review when you haven’t done Denmark yet?
– Because doing Denmark would require watching Denmark.

Ugh. I’ve let a little bit of groupthink creep in here. Very few people in my circle don’t actively dislike both the song and the performers (there are exceptions, I have seen it right at the top of a couple of Top 10s, those people are clearly insane and I love them dearly all the same).

But really everything about this just seems forced. In my head these are two people who don’t really want to be there, don’t love the song, aren’t invested in what dance steps are required of them, and when they finally crack a smile when it’s all over it’s easy to believe that it’s simply because it’s all over. It has the derivative feel of something that would crumble under analysis and reveal nothing but bits of old song haphazardly sewn together by some kind of modern Prometheus.

Park it in DMGP 1982 as a Tommy Seebach vehicle and it might fit, but in this lineup it’s a sore thumb. Sorry, chaps, not loving it at all.

Nick’s Score: 3/10