“How can I mix red and blue together?” muses ManuElla. Well, they come up quite nicely together in a bruise, I’d say. Thankfully ManuElla’s not physically scarred, but she is a little emotionally bruised from trying to force a relationship with someone she just wasn’t cut out for.
Her lover tried to mould her into something she wasn’t, giving rise to the somewhat clunking mixed palette metaphor of her colourful lyrics, although I can almost forgive her for a line like “you are not a composer and I’m not your song” which conveys her message far more succinctly.
Musically it zips along with a toe-tapping and not un-pleasing country tempo, with the instrumentation predominantly picked out by a banjo which, curiously, none of her assembled backing even attempt to mime in the national final performance. It’s got an added crowd-pleasing costume change, although one which is performed with some marvellously expressive indifference by the backing singers.
It’s not the strongest entry this year, but its catchiness combined with some terrible competition in semi-final 2 might see this as a surprise qualifier come the night. ManuElla owes more than a little something to Taylor Swift which could resonate with the casual viewer if she manages to find a little more charisma. If she doesn’t, this will probably suffer the fate it deserves.
My marks: 5 points
Monty x