Last night, during the final of Romania’s Selectia Nationala, Belarusian beauty Alyona Lanskaya delivered her highly anticipated premiere of “Solayoh. She didn’t disappoint. Although the backing vocals were pre-recorded, she gave us a surprisingly good live performance of her (slightly controversial and second) song for Belarus.
What do you think? Are warming up to “Solayoh”? Is it a smashing performance or were we blinded by the semi-naked dancers?
“Solayoh” Lyrics
Friday night was just going nowhere
Sitting in a small cafe
Feeling lonely, a little tired
I’d been working hard all day
Then a noise caught all my attention
And I heard a wonderful sound
Coming at me like a tsunami
Nearly took my feet off the ground
A rush of excitement flowed into my ears
Of beautiful people, aha-ia-ia-ia-ia
Solayoh, solayoh, where the sun is always shining on ya
We play-o, we play-o to the rhythm of a cha cha
Solayoh, solayoh, turn the music up, it’s gonna getcha
We play-o, we play-o, we can make it on a hot night
Situation started improving
Maybe this was kismet now
And my body just started moving
I was really shaking down
Something happened when I was dancing
I could feel that powerful beat
Taking me to new dimensions
Waking up the devil in me
A heavenly chorus and love all around
Of beautiful people, aha-ia-ia-ia-ia
Solayoh, solayoh, where the sun is always shining on ya
We play-o, we play-o to the rhythm of a cha cha
Solayoh, solayoh, turn the music up, it’s gonna getcha
We play-o, we play-o, we can make it on a hot night
(Cha cha)
(A hot night)
It feels like I’m dreaming, this word makes no sense
Lets sing it again now, aha
Solayoh, solayoh, where the sun is always shining on ya
We play-o, we play-o to the rhythm of a cha cha
Solayoh, solayoh, turn the music up, it’s gonna getcha
We play-o, we play-o, we can make it on a hot night
Solayoh, solayoh, where the sun is always shining on ya
We play-o, we play-o to the rhythm of a cha cha
Solayoh, solayoh, turn the music up, it’s gonna getcha
We play-o, we play-o, we can make it on a hot night
We can make it into a cha cha
Still like Rhythm of Love better.
Catchy song, but she may as well be singing in Swahili considering how bad her English is.
It’s March, and “Solayoh” is not trying to be a ballad; it’s a dance song. Alyona might not have a powerful voice, but this demonstrates that she can find the notes and is working hard to deliver them as clearly as possible. Her singing is better than some past entries that people accepted anyway for the sake of enjoying the song. I’m not into this style of song, but a sharper final arrangement will make it more appealing. And once Alyona has the confidence in her singing to move around a bit more, the final staging will be a lot… Read more »
Oh, and of course this years contest is bland – every second song this year is a desperate, cloying ballad.
Ugly, fake “latin” pop by the dictator’s darling. I hope she fails big-time.
I love it, my second favourite 😀
I’m not sure if “bland” is the proper word, but this year for sure has too many songs that are similar in genre and rely on the same strengths to deliver, so it comes as less diverse than…. say, any of the last four years. Of course, we’re still so see the final arrangements of most songs, and staging in Malmö can set them apart from each other, yeah.
As for “Solayoh”, mid 2000’s Turkey called and they want their song back. Still, it’s an improvement from “Rhythm of love”.
After listening to this entry several times, “Solayoh” is starting to grow on me.
If there’s an entry that can cause a massive upset this year (see Russia 2010, Moldova 2011 and Lithuania/Malta 2012), Alyona could certainly be one them!
Totally agree with Sokratis on the ‘bland’ comment, I think people are confusing things. his year there are a lot of songs that are musically and technically accomplished but becuase it isn’t all out and in your face performance wise it might come across as boring and bland to some people. This song has a performance to it that’s really obvious rather than just on a emotional level which can be more subtle. And I think this performance is awesome (granted I think how it came about is a bit silly but we’ve got to accept it and move on)… Read more »
Oh for god sake. How many constant comments of absolute garbage do we have to read? this years ESC is not bland at all, theres some great songs in there. Including Solayoh. the only bad part of this song is the word ‘solayoh’ apart from that its a good crafter song.
It sounds like she’s singing: Frightened us you know where, Sit me this mall cafe, I am lonely, a little tighter, I’ll be all high all day. Then a nose caught my tension, wiofsdjfsmfdn wonderful sound….LOOL
I don’t wanna go any further. This song sucks from it’s very first beginning.
LOL what?!?
“Solayoh” is awful – it sounds like a discarded J-Lo album track from 2002 and Alyona still can’t sing for her life. Boy, Belarus (I mean, the officials in charge of the televoting results ;)) made a big mistake in not sending Nuteki – they could have won in this very bland ESC year.