I had to think long and hard before I put together this Important Song Review setting up the Thrilling Season Finale, because my Todoist task list was telling me that UK comes alphabetically before Ukraine and my Actual Common Sense was telling me that Ukraine comes alphabetically before United Kingdom (Of Stuff).
In a rare turn of events my Actual Common Sense won the day, so Ukraine it is.
UKRAINE – Go_A – Shum
And what we have here, my European children, is this year’s real dark horse title contender. I mean, by now it shouldn’t come as a huge surprise when Ukraine provide a real dark horse title contender, because more than half of Ukraine’s entries over the years have been real dark horse title contenders. And yet here we are, about to be surprised yet again.
So what tricks does Shum have up its sleeve? Well, first of all we’re blending folk traditions with a modern beat in a way that always gets the juices flowing. Well, nearly always – and I’m pretty sure we’re in the Bulgaria 2007 quadrant of the graph here rather than the TOTALLY ROBBED Slovenia 2010 one.
A 2013 survey [1] showed that 97% of respondents somewhat enjoy or very much enjoy songs with gradually increasing tempo, MORE PLEASE. Those who already like the songs appreciate the thrilling climax, those who don’t like them enjoy the fact that it gets the song finished a bit quicker. Either way, we’re in the green here again.
What about staging? Well, we still have a long while to wait for Ukraine’s first rehearsal session *checks calendar* …on Sunday???? WHAT? How has this happened? But Ukraine almost never let us down with their stagings and I’m absolutely confident that if they can force something visually compelling out of Mika Newton then they’ll have no problems making this one work for them.
Will the professional juries fall for it? Seriously? Have you HEARD that final high note? (This is a genuine question, because I haven’t personally heard it myself but the neighbourhood canine population seem to go wild for it). They are going to ADORE it.
The Olafssen extended family across Europe? Well… there are good chunks of it that generally enjoy a Ukrainian entry. Especially in the bits of Europe that are near Ukraine.
Me personally? Well… I wouldn’t mind it being maybe a minute, maybe a minute and twenty or so longer. And lo and behold, I am catered for.
Go_A are a real dark horse title contender.
Nick’s Score: 9/10
And so we’re nearly there and yet so many questions remain unanswered. Can the United Kingdom (Of Stuff) upset the odds? Have we accidentally completely forgotten one of the entries altogether? Will Name Your Songs The NickD Way ever get published? What will become of the Olafssens after all this?
All of these questions [2], and more [3] will be answered in tomorrow’s later today’s Thrilling Season Finale of Nick’s Eurovision Countdown 2021.
[1] Surveys that Nick has completely made up, 37 February 2013
[2] Conceivably not all of them
[3] I mean, does any of this look remotely like it’s following a plan to you?