Apollo by Timebelle
Timebelle is, in all probability, the first ever Eurovision band to be named after an astronomical clock. I’m not even making this guff up, it’s on their biography on the official Eurovision website. Give me strength. They’re a cross cultural melange of Swiss, German and Romanian artists, with Swiss and Swedish songwriters. The Swiss selection has been a bit of a sideshow in the national finals season for some time, with the quality poor, and the winners uninspiring, and this year was no exception. This song was a clear winner, though it didn’t require much to stand out from the field. It was something of a surprise, then, when the promotional video felt like it gave this a considerable lift, and shows it to be a perfectly pleasant entry. It suggests that at the Contest it may benefit from a less static performance than it had in Switzerland.
But it’s never more than just pleasant: it’s one of those many, many songs at Eurovision that are simply there, inoffensive, but never garnering enough interest to make it a competitive success. Whilst this may get a boost from Romanian voters, competing in the same semi-final, it’s not going to find any other natural allies, so save of a stunning performance, its fate is probably sealed by midnight on the Thursday when Apollo, the archer’s, arrows land way off target.
My marks – 5 points