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Shh by Theo
Shh may not take the record for the shortest Eurovision song title, but it ties with only one other – except for those ones only made up of numbers – to not feature a vowel. A prize (not a real one, just a flash of momentarily satisfying glory) if you can name the other, or the only one to not feature a consonant.
Opening a song with a line about being famous for your own beauty and overconfidence is a bold move. As the song progresses it becomes more of a fable about the risks of vanity, but even by the time I got to the (admittedly banging) chorus I was still thinking about it and stifling a guffaw.
Veteran Eurovision songwriter Dimitris Kontopoulos has been drafted in for the second year running in Cyprus. He’s twice taken the silver and twice the bronze, but it feels unlikely this will finally deliver him the elusive win. There’s plenty to like here, and you can easily see why this has been picked to close the first semi-final. Personally, I think running last is too late to be a ‘good’ place – a song has to work extra hard to both grab and keep your attention as viewers turn to analysing their own scores, and Shh has additional challenges here.
If viewers do stick with it, they’ll get a dark dance odyssey that in the music video adds a layer of menace with masked dancers in pursuit of Theo who is scarpering for his life all the way through a portal to a desolate land. It will be interesting to see how they stage it, with dance songs presenting yet another need to engage fleeting attention.
My marks: 7 points
Photo: Nicholas Mastoras/EBU