North Macedonia – Andrea – Circles
This year, Eurovision is blessed/cursed with more than its fair share of songs that run out of ideas way before the three-minute mark. Andrea has tipped up with just such a ditty. Like ‘Proud’ before it, much is going to come down to the performance on the night. On paper, it’s weak.
She spends much of her promotional video stomping around what I assume to be her home town of Skopje looking cross. In the last half minute, she’s given plaits and an alternative backdrop – though throughout you can’t help but think she could do with someone to take her quietly to one side and have a word about eyeliner.
In the studio version, there’s a slightly disturbing sense that she’s delivering her vocals over a backing track that’s running just a beat or two behind her, making the lyric sound unwieldy. Hook-wise, there’s less than I might like here. It’s a song that lacks structure and despite a really decent performance by a woman with a big voice, the whole result is something of a damp squib.
Mo’s Score – 5 Points