We are getting close to Belarus’ national selection for Eurovision 2016, which takes place on January 22. In recent weeks the Wiwi Jury — our in-house panel of musical unprofessionals — has been listening to and reviewing all of the songs. Next up we have Radiovolna with their song “Radiowave”. Were they tuning into our wavelength? Read below!
RADIOVOLNA — “RADIOWAVE”
“RADIOWAVE” REVIEWS
Mikhail: It is a nice song to chill to and I find myself moving when I listen to it. But it doesn’t stand out. It’s like background music – something playing in a shop or at the hairdressers. It is just there to break the silence, but that’s it. Simply background.
Score: 6/10
Denise: It sounds well produced but I’m not a fan of it. Why? I don’t know… the voice is good enough, but it’s too middle-of-the-road, I guess.
Score: 5.5/10
William: “I’ll be calling your contact list from A to Z.” Please don’t. This song makes me think of sleazy men who put pills in women’s drinks. The ladies should run. Turning up the volume will likely encourage them to do so.
Score: 3/10
Robyn: The hook contains one of the weirdest ESC lyrics ever: “Every other day don’t you go insane”. So it’s ok to go insane on the alternate days? The funky pop sound of “Radiowave” gives the song loads of spirit, but the nonsense lyrics pull the listener out of the moment.
Score: 5/10
Sami: I prefer the Russian version of the song much more than the English one. I don’t like singer’s English pronunciation much and the song is more pleasant to listen in Belarusian. However, it’s one of the better songs in the selection, but I don’t think it would do well in Eurovision. It’s fine to listen to, but you won’t remember much of it after the first listen.
Score: 7/10
Edd: I can see what they’re going for – a groovy Maroon 5-esque funk hit. Sadly, the melodies just aren’t well written, and even after listening to it five times I still can’t remember how it goes. The simple and monotonous production needs some serious jazzing up.
Score: 5.5/10
Luis: “Every other day don’t you go insane” peaks at No.1 on the “stupid rhymes” chart for 2016. It will be hard to top it. And why are radiowaves cool? Aren’t they carcinogenic? The song itself is very ‘meh’, tbh.
Score: 4/10
Cristian: I really don’t know what to do with this. Neither love, nor hate, only indifference. This song goes nowhere.
Score: 4/10
Antranig: I think they should have sung in Russian because this barely makes any sense. That said, it is somehow really catchy. I like them and they’re a lot better than several acts here but I don’t think they’ll be booking hotel rooms in Stockholm anytime soon.
Score: 6.5/10
Bernardo: You were expecting a rock tune? So was I! This is quite surprising. I get they’re a band, but the staging needs to change in order to work at the national final. It’s a simple song and it is going to be lost among all the other entries – simplicity does not work here. The song itself does not ask for vocal acrobatics, so it’s obvious he’s on point. This is that type of song I would listen in the summer at the beach, drinking ice tea – but not too many times, because it isn’t that good.
Score: 4/10
Anthony: As the new kids on the EuroFest block, this might not be the debut they were hoping for. This feels like a limp reincarnation of fellow countrymen Litesound. Despite their pop catchiness, I can’t see them making radiowaves across Europe and Australia with this entry.
Score: 5/10
William C.: The lead vocalist of this band has a nice, sexy voice (and body!). However, I don’t think the lead vocalist and the backing vocalists’ voices work together at all. If the backing vocalist wasn’t so different from the lead, I would like this a lot more. It’s a band, I know, but it’s difficult to listen to their voices combined together. However, it is quite catchy, so I’m not going to knock it down that much.
Score: 7.5/10
The highest and lowest scores are removed before calculating the final score. We have dropped a low of 3 and a high of 7.5.
