At 16, ZENA is the youngest competitor this year. Given she’s tried twice previously to enter Junior Eurovision for her country, we can probably assume being a Eurovision entrant is one of her dreams, so it’s all the more impressive that’s she’s achieved the adult version in her first year of eligibility. She was the hands down favourite in her national final, where she received 69 out of a possible 70 points from the jury.
With such a clear favourite the national final can be an anti-climax and was even more so this year where performers were ranked, out of 10 by each juror, immediately after performing. As ZENA had notched up such an impressive score singing second, it sucked any remaining slither of anticipation out of the show as performer after performer were knocked out song by song.
What was left at the end is this piece of cheap RnB infused Slavic pop. But don’t think I’m knocking it for being cheap; in musical terms cheap Slavic pop is one of life’s greatest riches. My own bias suggests I’d prefer this more were it to be in Russian, or at least a Slavic language; English lessens its appeal to me, and in competitive terms this really has its work cut out if it’s to capitalise on the small chance it has to make the final.
Unless she pulls a killer performance out of the bag it won’t make the list of Eurovision evergreens, but in the soundtrack to the 2019 season it’s a passable early doors filler for the preamble as you’re sipping on your beer and waiting for the EuroClub to really go off.
Monty’s score: 5 points