Wiwi Jury: Austria’s Dawa with “Feel Alive”

The Wiwi Jury — our in-house team of music unprofessionals — continues its journey through Austria ahead of the Wer Singt Für Österreich 2015 final this Friday. As tonight is the big show, the Wiwi Jury headed to the arena of tonight’s show. Watching rehearsals is always good to get your opinion about the songs, and perfect to review Dawa with their song “Feel Alive“. How did our jury react? Would this be the perfect representative for the host country? Read on to find out.

DAWA – “FEEL ALIVE”

Deban: The voices here are individually strong, but when they combine, there’s disharmony. Furthermore, it’s a boring song. The acoustic elements feature a xylophone. It’s exciting for half a minute…. and so is the pierced eyebrow. Sadly, I can’t raise their score for that.

Score: 4/10

Max: I’m fed up of these wannabe bands pretending to be Mumford and Sons just because they are in possession of a guitar, a violin and a microphone. There is something quite special about this song, maybe it’s the lyrics, or maybe it’s the tambourine (I love a good shake of a tambourine when I can get my hands on one). This sort of song would get slaughtered in May if it won, however.

Score: 4.5/10

Chris: There’s something incredibly charming about Dawa and “Feel Alive”. It feels very rough around the edges but that helps the song’s message connect, with the band really in sync and delivering a great live performance. I can’t help but feel happy after this. I don’t think it would give Austria a great result, but maybe it’s worth sacrificing that this year.

Score: 7.5/10

Anthony: “Feel Alive” sounds as if Dawa tried to be Austria’s answer to the group Mumford and Sons, but the result turned out to be rather underwhelming. Even with the catchy melody from the percussion instruments, the cello and guitar, this feels like a limp effort if Austria chose them as the hosts.

Score: 4/10

Robyn: “I’m young and I feel alive,” sing Dawa, sounding anything but. For a song that is trying to celebrate the joys of youth, it sounds utterly miserable. But is this deliberate? It reminds me of “1979” by the Smashing Pumpkins. That worked as a bittersweet, sentimental celebration of youth, but I don’t think Dawa have the tone of this song working right.

Score: 5/10

Denise: Let’s start with the positive; I like his voice. Now the negative; The song is dull, the xylophone sounds really misplaced and makes me want to yawn. The song would sound better if only the guy would sing and the girl would dissapear together with her xylophone.

Score: 4.5/10

Mikhail: They created a really nice melody and a good composition. However, what they are missing is originality. I can definitely say that I’ve heard it already. Xylophone gives me a hint that it is some Christmas song. It is in my mind now, but I cannot remember the name. Anyways, the song is quite boring.

Score: 6/10

Judit: Boooring. I have a feeling they wanted to make a really special song, but somehow it turned something terrible. They sing about youth but I feel old while I’m listening them. I’m soo disappointed about the Austrian national final. C’mon you send Conchita last year, you have nothing more?

Score: 3/10

Parick: I really adore this lovely, cozy, sweet and beautiful song! Dawa itself is a really good band, specially the vocalists are amazing and so strong! I love that they are different, and to be different is amazing, I mean, why should they do mainstream trash if they can produce something amazing like this? The song is trustful in the music and shows how original music can be. My favourite! Go for gold!

Score: 10/10

WIWI JURY AVERAGE: 5.4/10

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