Echo by Iru.
“Words are useless, especially sentences” sang Madonna on Bedtime Stories. It’s a mantra Georgia’s Iru has adopted, even singing about two thirds of the way through her track “Words getting worthless”. She’s two minutes too late; it’s apparent from the start of the song the lyrics are not just word soup, but word soup that feels like it’s made from completely unrelated leftovers from somewhere else entirely. It’s like chucking some Twiglets and a bag of Haribo in vegetable stock and hoping the result is palatable.
I’m not going to knock non-native speakers, particularly as this seems to be less Belarus’s impenetrable My Gallileo and more an artistic choice. It’s a shame as the lack of coherence pulls attention away from the song which musically is otherwise quite engaging.
Much has been made of the fact that Sweden is returning 2012 winner Loreen to the Eurovision stage but she’s not the only winner to come back for more. Iru was a member of the Georgian group Candy who won Junior Eurovision in 2011, so she’s even more a veteran of the Eurovision family than the great Swede.
The video suggests that this could come to the stage with a visually stunning presentation. Perhaps it’s styled to pull attention back from the lyrics? It certainly has a feel of style over substance, making it difficult to pin down to a prediction. But still, I quite like it.
My marks: 7 points