Halfway through the voting in Lisbon it looked like we might be heading back to Vienna, as Cesar Sampson unexpectedly won the jury vote. We didn’t have to wait too long into the televotes to find out we weren’t, but 3rd place was an impressive finish for the future Mr Sampson-Moncrieff nonetheless.
Looking to back it up is Pænda, a singer, songwriter, and producer who’s singing her own track, ‘Limits’. The song, so the official website informs me, “tells the story of how she pushed herself beyond all limits in her zeal and passion for music to the point of full exhaustion”.
It’s not just Pænda who’s tested to her limits; the entry is quite an ask of her audience too. It’s the kind of thing I would have lapped up 30 years ago, as I threw myself headlong into any female artist who appeared a bit leftfield, but these days, now I’ve long realised nobody’s ever going to do that better than Kate Bush, I prefer my Eurovision songs on the bangy side.
What it is, is a fragile, heartfelt electro-infused ballad that steers dangerously close to being called ‘ethereal’. What it’s not, though, is a finalist, though extra marks for foxing the typesetters with a nominal ligature.
My marks: 4 points