Greece’s mighty qualification record suffered only its second ever blow last year as Yianna Terzi’s unmistakably Hellenic Oniro Mou languished in 14th place. The Greek theme extended from her music to her dress, in white, and with a painted blue hand, prompting some of us in the Lisbon press centre to quip whether she’d been wanking off a Smurf.
The Greek flavour is gone this year, replaced by something, well, more British. No, I’m not being unkind about the generic Anglophone chart pop sound of this, though someone did compare it to a Jess Glynne album track, and such things can never be unheard. I’m referring to one of the songwriters, a certain David Sneddon, winner of the first series of Fame Academy, the BBC’s version of the Spanish Operacion Triunfo format. Sneddon quickly snubbed the limelight as a performer but has been beavering away out of it, as the composing force behind many big hits.
I’m perhaps a little harsh to judge it so generically, as I actually quite like it. Duska’s vocals pack a punch with her aspirational call for a greater appreciation of love. The all-female video rides the feminist and empowerment wave that helped Netta to victory last year, though you do feel that if it were truly championing the sisterhood one of them might have had a word about her frock, last seen skirting a roll of toilet paper in a bathroom in Thessaloniki.
Monty’s score: 8 points