Eesti Laul 2016, Estonia’s national selection for Eurovision, kicks off on February 13. In recent weeks the Wiwi Jury — our in-house panel of music unprofessionals — has been listening to and reviewing all of the songs. Next up is Windy Beach with her song “Salty Wounds”. She is mixing up the tropics, the club and a whole lot of energy. But did her sound pour salt on our wounds? Find out below!
WINDY BEACH — “SALTY WOUNDS”
“SALTY WOUNDS” REVIEWS
Robyn: So there’s a bit of tropical house, some ’90s house, lush electronic textures and polite alt R&B vocals. I’m not even sure what that all means, but I like it. But is this a Eurovision song? It doesn’t quite seem engaging enough to work as an ESC number, but let’s see what it’s like at Eesti Laul.
Score: 8/10
Angus: This is an uplifting slice of calypso but it lacks a memorable hook that would elevate it to winning material. Like a lot of the leading songs the production is a knockout and the vocal intriguing, but the lyrics fail to deliver.
Score: 7/10
Deban: Cool house beats usher in a semi-annoying vocal. The chorus loses steam and by the second minute mark, she is definitely adding salt to my wounds! There is a pause in the song at some stage, followed by a soprano bridge, which begs the question: how did this even get shortlisted?
Score: 2/10
Bogdan: It’s more at home on the beach or in an elevator than on the Eurovision stage. While I applaud the lush production and decent vocals, I don’t see “Salty Wounds” representing Estonia in Sweden. Oh, and the bridge ruins it for me entirely, just when I started to dance. It will be interesting to see what they do with it live though.
Score: 5/10
Bernardo: Now this a mixture of styles, a breath of fresh air in Eesti Laul! Windy Beach owns a compelling voice. I can only draw one conclusion from this entry: this is going to win or it’s going to be a major flop. It’s up to the Estonians to decide. At ESC, this probably won’t work.
Score: 5.5/10
Luis: Windy Beach give me a Clean Bandit feeling which I’m absolutely loving. At the beginning, I was worried that the song would fall into an ordinary clothing-store tune, but luckily it didn’t and it went on to be quite a good jam. But, as some of my colleagues say, more for a night out than for Eurovision. Still, “Salty Wounds” has been a very nice surprise.
Score: 7.5/10
George: “Salty Wounds” is a nice song, but I believe an actual windy beach would be a much better place for it to be performed. It could easily be played in a beach bar somewhere on a Greek island, but I don’t really believe it can do well at Eesti Laul.
Score: 6.5/10
William: Pass the salt and let me pour some more into her wounds. This tropical house vibe does not work for me. The melody isn’t pleasant or memorable and the chatty verses border on annoying. Even worse, all of this repeats on loop for three full minutes — bar a slow-motion bridge that gives me a headache. Please turn it off.
Score: 3/10
Anthony: I loved the intro, which is very “Allez Ola Olé“. It then morphs into a funky-fresh, catchy ’90s-style house track. This is definitely an entry that gets me into the house party mood. “Salty Wounds” may be beach ready for the summer ahead, but it’s not quite the same with several nights on a stage in Sweden during May.
Score: 8/10
Zakaria: It’s an okay, nearly annoying, song and that’s about everything I can say about it. The song has nothing special and is instantly forgettable and that’s a huge disadvantage in a competition. I can’t see this in the final.
Score: 3/10
There is not enough room for all of our jurors to write a review, so the remaining scores are listed below.
“SALTY WOUNDS” SCORES
Mikhail: 5/10
Josh: 6/10
Patrick: 7/10
Kristin: 7.5/10
Cristian: 7/10
Sinan: 8.5/10
Antranig: 5/10
Renske: 6.5/10
Denise: 6/10
Dayana: 7.5/10
The highest and lowest scores are removed before calculating the final score. We have dropped a low of 2 and a high of 8.5.
This is such a quality song! It has a great hook and some captivating parts of the song, this is a top 3 in my opinion, I don’t however think it’ll get there sadly
Salty Wounds is sooo catchy !!! I love it and it makes me happy time i am listen to it ! ^3^
It starts out dynamite, but it quickly wears out. This would be great as an instrumental track, but the voice feels like it’s smacked on top of it and it just doesn’t blend into a coherent song. The “doodle-doot”-sounds in the background remind me of recent Justin Bieber stuff – and while that’s good, this just feel a lot less polished and simultaneously it sounds like it’s trying just a little bit too hard. Unfortunately, this song just isn’t what I’d want it to be.
This is my favourite song now I love everything about it. Love the tropical vibe, I can immediately get up and dance to it, her voice is so sassy and suits the song really well. The chorus is really catchy and the repetition of words in the verses is used well. The bridge and her high notes build take the song to another level before it drops right back onto dance. I honestly can’t fault the song, they’ve somehow managed to create the exact sound I love. A shame that it will probably be forgotten on the night, just like… Read more »