The Wiwi Jury – our in-house panel of music unprofessionals – is continuing its journey around Lithuania ahead of the first Eurovizija quarterfinal tomorrow. Yesterday, we paid a visit to Eurovision 2001 star Erica Jennings. And from one past representative to another, today we’re with Donny Montell. What do we think of his latest entry “I’ve Been Waiting For This Night”? Read on to find out…
Donny Montell “I’ve Been Waiting For This Night” Live
Reviews: Donny Montell with “I’ve Been Waiting For This Night”
Robyn: “Love is Blind” is one of my least favourite Eurovision songs ever, but I’m properly fangirling for “I’ve Been Waiting For This Night”. It’s a mighty pop song, full of emotional intensity and the sense of storytelling that good Eurovision entries have. My only criticism — Donny is a very intense performer and he doesn’t look like he’s quite feeling the loved-up joy of the lyrics. But I’d be very happy to see this in Stockholm.
Score: 9/10
Anthony: “Love is Blind” eventually became one of my guilty pleasure entries of Eurovision 2012, but there is nothing to be guilty about here. With the songwriting duo of Jonas Thander and Beatrice Robertsson, “I’ve Been Waiting for This Night” brilliantly sums up why the Swedes are so good at producing quality pop songs. I’ll be extremely surprised if Donny fails to make his much anticipated Eurovision comeback this year.
Score: 9.5/10
Donny Montell “I’ve Been Waiting For This Night” Official Music Video
Steinunn: I can’t help but compare this to Donny’s 2012 entry. For starters “I’ve Been Waiting For This Night” is a much better song than “Love Is Blind”. It sounds more current and Donny’s look has improved since Baku. That being said, it reminds me of something made popular by the likes of One Direction. As an almost 30-year old (and slightly bitter) woman I’m probably not the target audience for this kind of music, but I believe that it has the potential to become a good pop song. All in all I quite like it.
Score: 7.5/10
Luis: And here’s the mandatory Swedish-crafted act, which is like ten times better than all the others. And I’m afraid that’s not because it’s suuuuper good — it’s because the others are so lame. Not to say this is all bad, but the fanwanking over Donny needs to stop. As of now, he’s the obvious choice to represent Lithuania, and he should easily make the final. But that’s it. I can’t see this going any further than tenth place. The song is well constructed, well sung and it fits Donny really well, but it fails to make a big impression. So as much as I like it, I’m not particularly in love with it. To begin with, I’d lower the drama in his performance. He’s giving me Stevan Faddy memories — and we know how that ended.
Score: 7/10
Antranig: “Love is Blind” was more than decent but “I’ve Been Waiting for This Night” is simply incredible. Lithuania would be making a major mistake if Donny doesn’t get the ticket to Stockholm. It’s the type of song you’d expect Eric Saade to sing and it suits Donny perfectly. I just hope he’s leaving his blindfold collection in the bedroom.
Score: 10/10
Reaction to Donny Montell “I’ve Been Waiting For This Night”
Bernardo: Love was blind until Donny released “I’ve Been Waiting for this Night”. This is gold! Why? He has the looks, he has the song, he has the voice, he has the moves. This just screams Eurovision — powerful and memorable. BAM!! I predict a top-ten finish in Stockholm. Donny has this national final in da bag!
Score: 9.5/10
Mikhail: So much hype! It’s just an average pop song, which is quite repetitive and doesn’t stand out much. I actually like the verses, but the chorus annoys me. As a result, I can’t enjoy the song to the max. Still, it’s the best Lithuania has to offer.
Score: 7/10
Liam: Lithuania’s talent pool in for 2016 is shallow. That’s why Donny Montell stands out! I might be one of the few who can honestly say I enjoyed “Love Is Blind” in Baku, but “I’ve Been Waiting for This Night” is just on a whole other level! Though slightly generic, it’s eventful and keeps me interested! Eurovision Final? YES! Top ten? YES!
Score: 9/10
Donny Montell Interview @ Eurovision in Concert 2012
Angus: Damn, Donny good! “I’ve Been Waiting for This Night” is a song of three parts, the first two of which are killer moody husky verses and a chorus that, although textbook towering, isn’t in itself anything groundbreaking. The bridge is super pretty though, and although I’m not 100% sold on the high note, this is easily the best thing in Lithuania’s selection. No doubt.
Score: 9.5/10
Padraig: Someone pass Donny a tissue, he’s going to need a wipe down after all the hype. “I’ve Been Waiting For This Night” is certainly one of the better songs in the Lithuanian competition, but it’s no masterpiece. It’s generic stadium pop, that’s about nothing in particular. Currently it’s buoyed by a mixture of Donny’s personality, its superiority to “Love Is Blind”, and the weakness of the Eurovizija field. Come Stockholm the last two factors will be completely irrelevant. And given this year’s crowded field, he’ll be doing well to match his 2012 result — I’ll still dance to it though.
Score: 7/10
Our jury consists of 16 people, but we only have room for 10 written reviews. Here are the remaining 6 scores.
Josh: 9.5/10
Patrick: 9/10
Sinan: 10/10
Denise: 9.5/10
Judit: 9/10
Edd: 8/10
WIWI JURY AVERAGE: 8.79/10
To reduce potential bias, we drop the highest and lowest scores prior to calculating the average. We removed a low of 7 and a high of 10.
SEE OUR CURRENT LITHUANIA 2016 REVIEWS AND RANKINGS.
Photos: Vytenio Radžiuno (LRT.lt)
@venICE: You didn’t upset me, no worries at all. 🙂 And now I understand your comment, thanks for specifying. I do wish that Sweden would send more of these “very Swedish” songs you talk about. For example, there’s a song from Robyn called “Jag vet en dejlig Rosa” that I absolutely love (although it’s very slow compared to what she usually does). 🙂 @Piotr: I never said that “everybody” thinks that Sweden sends cr*p to Eurovision, I said that I think that. Actually I even said “Music is a very subjective matter: different people have different opinions”. I totally respect… Read more »
Did i say “thing”? I meant “sentence”. The first and last sentence in my comment was directed to you 🙂
Man… it would be so much easier if i could delete or edit my comments
Racal@ The first thing and last thing i wrote in my first comment was directed to you btw. The rest of it was pretty general. 🙂
Racal@ And yes, maybe i should have been more specific why it was directed to you. 🙂
Because i very rarely leave comments and when i see one that just grinds on my nerves even if it’s an opinion based one i just try to not care. I didn’t care much of your “Heroes – Måns Zelmerlöw” comment at first but when seing your new comment here and then being reminded of your previous comment i just couldn’t embrace it enough to not care 🙂
Racal@ Not saying that “you” specifically have a problem 🙂 but in the review of Heroes – Måns Zelmerlöw you did say that you’re tired of sweden sending pop tunes to eurovision and other countries using the same tactic. 🙂 And i’m not ranting bro, it just kind of gets on my nerves when people keep talking about it because to me It’s not relevant for the song or the artist itself. And it was adressed to you mainly because i wanted a response since of course some of it atleast was pointing to you because some of your comments… Read more »
@Racal
Not everyone thinks that Sweden sends crap on Eurovision. If they did so, they wouldnt be winning in 2012 and 2015, and wouldnt have high places in 2013 (high notes from juries) and 2014. Many people love pop songs and electronic sound, Swedish songs (or Sweden’s producers’ songs) are fresh and modern, that’s what counts nowadays. For example I love Justs Heartbeat, Donny, even Barei in this year, because they sound modern, and I can’t listen to Robyn, because it doens get to me. But I wont say that Robyn’s music is crap 😛
this is the lithuania donny haters leave the coments here so poor kid xd donny will win the selecion easy but they cant understand that
@venICE: I’m not sure I understand why your comment is addressed to me? It’s got nothing to do with my original words, you just sound like you’re ranting all by yourself. 🙂 Who said I had a problem with countries using foreign songwriters? Who said I had a problem with pop songs? I do think that most of the songs Sweden sends to Eurovision are quite bad: they’re just nothing songs only good for serving as background music for a LED screen show, and soulless copycats of actual successful songs. Carola? Eric Saade? Sanna Nielsen? Sorry, to me it just… Read more »
This will be Lithuania’s representative in Eurovision.
BUT it is not better than Love is Blind. Shame on all of you! The jury rating is a little too high for my liking.
Please don’t compare everything that is a bit generic to “Heroes”. If you want to go generic you must also be memorable.. rule no 1. If you compare those two songs the latter will only be in a much wither shade of pale. And don’t compare this guy’s singing or looks to Måns either. That’s just to mean. By the way way – how many Sweden ‘15.2 do we have now?
@dutchie, whats the matter with Alizée? Last years winner reminds me of David Guetta, the winner before of Shirley Bassey….. and the “dated” tune brings back memories of 90s dreamdance. Lately I have been listening to Robert Miles “One and one” and I was thinking that something like this would do well in ESC…..
Why is everything compared to being “Swedish”
@Österrike
I agree that Loin d’ici is a good song, but there’s two things: 1. it strongly reminds me of something, probably by Alizee, and 2. the beat they added to it is really dated. BTW don’t you think that Wiwibloggs wil get to that song when they start reviewing the Austrian entries?
“This just screams Eurovision” is a phrase used a few times on wiwibloggs this year. Are we saying that their should be a standard competition entry? Do you have tick boxes?
Racal@ “Another swedish plastic song” really?… I mean: I can understand that people are tired of other selections involving swedish songwriters, but i reeeeally don’t understand what problem people have with that. Because alot of ESC entries last year also involved british, australian and american songwriters. Tbh though, i think that to some extent it’s just a matter of jealousy because it doesn’t make any sense to me whatsoever. So what if it’s pop? I don’t see how the music genre matters because last year nearly every single of one of the best entries were pop: Sweden, Azerbaijan, Russia (to… Read more »
I like it, but your rating seems a bit out and confuses me. It is surprising that their is such a consensus amongst the wish team with no reality check. With a score of 8.79 id expect a tune that rivals the greatest ever Eurovision songs. I can’t see it being on my most played list or sticking in my head for the next 10 years. Dont get me wrong I like it. But 8.79??? Really? Wow.
“As an almost 30-year old (and slightly bitter) woman I’m probably not the target audience for this kind of music”
Why…because 30 is so over the hill?
I don’t think so. You’re still young!
Let’s just get this over with and let Donny win lol. At least plenty of people are giving more attention of him now unlike in the 2012 contest. And yes, I am wary of his placing in the semi finals.
Don’t really like it that much… Sorry not sorry.
“Best of a bad bunch” has been thrown around, but I’m more inclined to use “worst of a great bunch.” There’re a lot of songs I really enjoy in the Lithuanian NF, but this is not among them at all.
ESCTOPs UK, if Eurovision history tells us one thing then this that every winner is very different from the previous and attempts to copy a winning formular went down in flames. Look at all the Conchita and Common Linnets copies (dramatic solo female acts, male-female duets) last year or Glorious (Germany 2013) and Amazing (Estonia 2014). The only winners that got away with a generic formular song in the last 10 years were Denmark and Russia.
I love this song, not because it’s Donny, or because he was in Eurovision 2012. I love it because it catchy, that is well suited for Eurovision. Mans Zelmerlow was an “overrated, Swedish plastic song” and it won. So I guess it’s s 2017! Whoop!! 😀
9.5/10
this would seriously struggle to qualify in Stockholm.
don’t get the hype either.
According to the wiwi rating, this song would be a possible winner in Stockholm. Seriously?!?
The only song that I have heard so far to win Eurovision is “Loin d’ici” by Zoe. Extremely catchy, dreamy, soothing and daring. Everyone who I made aware of this song caught fire and is totally in love with it. But this song will never be reviewed 🙁 It is not written by Swedish composers.
Haha gotta agree with everyone here, there’s a hype about this song I just don’t get. It seems the winning formula for wiwi to like a song is a) be in english and b) sound like a Melfest reject. I love Melfest, I love the swedish sound, but I don’t want all songs from all countries to sound exactly like that.
Apply this opinion to Say Yay as well btw.
look at all the hype just because
1) he’s hot
2) the song sounds similar to what you would see in Melfest
3) he was in the Eurovision previously
the favoritism is so real
honestly just like Ira Losco, Kaliopi, and Deen he’s going to be a washed out returning artist that’ll maybe place at the bottom of the left side of the scoreboard
nothing special about his *song* at all
The only hype around this is that he has a “name” in Eurovision history. However, I’m always very skeptical of these singers who achieved nothing in Eurovision, and then come back like they have any chance. This is just hopeless, just as Kaliopi for Macedonia.
About the song itself: another Swedish plastic song, and not even a good one.
8.79 for this? No comment…
There’s a LOT of Swedish songwriters on the other group EugeneESCUK, not just Donny’s entry. And from what we’ve seen so far, it’s looking like the three front runners of Donny, Ruta and Aiste.
Best of a terrible bunch. 6.5/10
This is one that seems pretty and exciting but I have listened to it umpteen times and cannot remember it. Nor do I ever feel like wanting to listen to it over and over like I am with Berta/Egle/Catrinah
Talking about overhyped songs, I guess we just found one. An extremely generic and yet forgettable song.
1/10
I thought you guys were gonna like this, but it’s the sort of song that the average Swedish songwriter turns out in his sleep. It’s not bad, it’s even top-10 material, but it’s so cliched that it makes me root against it.
I guess you guys expectations from Lithuania are so low that even a very average pop song deserves a 8.8. Definently the best pick for Lithuania but kind of overrated.
Being one of the best songs (if not the best) of the national final doesn’t make it a very good song … just saying
8.8!! really ? is it a joke? I saw this preformance at the semifinal, and the song was Flat and Boring. I guess you all know Donny in person and thats why, so 5 for the song + 3.34 Donny’s pretty face (not voice)
God this is sooo overrated lol
8.8 is too much but it is definitely the best alongside underrated Egle.