Nick’s Eurovision Countdown 2021 – North Macedonia

NORTH MACEDONIA – Vasil – Here I Stand

There’s nothing in all blogdom that gladdens my heart more than just talking about a song without having to worry about any tricky side issues. So let’s see what we have from… oh.

Well, I’m not going there. Or there. And I’m definitely not going THERE.

Hmm, this doesn’t seem to leave too much material to work with, so… activate the Spamalot cannons!

Once in every show contest, there comes a song an entry like this
It starts off soft and low, and ends up with a kiss
Oh, where is the song entry that goes like this
Where is it? Where? WHERE?

We’re in musical theatreland, folks, and pretty deep in musical theatreland territory! It’s not remotely where I expected Vasil to take us – when he gave me a nice-but-beige bit of shuffle pop called You to add to the pile of songs called You last year, I assumed that was just his schtik.

It seems he has more range than that.

There’s a lot to like about Here I Stand – he makes it clear that it’s meaningful for him, he’s got one heck of a vocal range and it showcases everything he can do. It’s textbook green book material. That’s its advantage, but that’s also its Achilles’ heel.

Ultimately, it’s an audition piece. It’s the sort of thing where the head judge stands and applauds and says “Vasil… I didn’t love that. I LIKED it. After that performance I really think you can go on and be in the proper show with the Actual Songs in it!”
“This… is my Actual Song???”
“Oh.”

TL;DR – Many, many jury points, disappointingly few Olafssen points, final result somewhere in the middle.

Nick’s Score: 6/10