There’s not Auto-Tune at Eurovision 2016, but there is plenty of backing — both electronic, instrumental and vocal. But what would the stars sound like without any of that window dressing? Well now you can find out. The ESCtop YouTube channel has managed to strip the acts of backing, letting us dissect the vocals of your favourites including Jamala, Dami Im, Sergey Lazarev, Poli Genova and Iveta Mukuchyan.
Among the top finishers, stellar vocals rule. As you can hear below the Top 4 all killed it vocally. Jamala’s backing-free performance captures all the energy and emotion she’s pouring into this. From her gasps of air to her vocal cracks, it’s clear she is LIVING this performance. Dami Im channels power and peace. And Sergey manages to sound cool, calm and collected — despite all the physical endurance required to climb that rubber LED wall.
Despite a rocky start with their live performances a few months ago, Ireland’s Nicky Byrne, Azerbaijan’s Samra and Switzerland’s Rykka all improved dramatically. Are you feeling them now?
Who kills it for you? Do you prefer any of these a cappella?
Ukraine’s Jamala
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cSNpfcNHTds
Australia’s Dami Im
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UT50Qx1zhG4
Russia’s Sergey Lazarev
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xv7ffiIsWh0
Bulgaria’s Poli Genova
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kex29svFTpg
Armenia’s Iveta Mukuchyan
https://youtu.be/U0VJH3JzKwE
Poland’s Michal Szpak
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W6_-zCOWZvA
Ireland’s Nicky Byrne
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LQKa0rKSeP0
Switzerland’s Rykka
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CmRhhI815mE
Azerbaijan’s Samra
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pPBiw7WOoRY
Austria’s Zoë
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z1Rr9yUXx08
Croatia’s Nina
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WWi9qL-qrwE
Why those links are empty?
Charles, Oxana, EVIL SPIRITS!!! You MUST get married!
Charles + Oxana = THE ADDAMS FAMILY!!! LOL
Charles, Sergey was likely THE MOST dressed participant at this competition! Where you saw him naked??? WHY you so hate him? Leave him alone already!
Just SHUT UP, loser!
Removed from YouTube due to infringement of copyright.
Charles,
yep, but what if they can send a lesbian with ballad? what do you think? 🙂
EBU is taking down all videos this year on youtube… all videos of voices only are gone…. and no chance to see the voting with Graham Norton and others 🙁
Fvck you, EBU!!!
@Vlad: I thought you LOVED Sergey … and licking Sergey’s ass does not even comes close enough to what some guys here would want to do with him … if Putin never managed to find out of course … Unless someone is still naive enough to believe Sergey’s popularity is in anyway related to his song LOL
@Oxana: Remember that in Eurovision a Russian female singer daring to sing a) a a ballad b) a ballad about love and peace c) in front a huge gay crowd … only brings booing .., unless they send another Russian hunk whose naked body is publicly known and then it will all be okey … no more booing …
UKRAINE – Clearly the best vocal performance of ESC 2016. Singing is not only proper breathing, resonating in the right cavities in the head and filling up the hall with voice. it also needs emotion, and great vocal execution to transmit that emotion to the hearers. Jamala filled the Globen with emotion to the very top in the best way possible. The high note is also very well controlled. AUSTRALIA – Dami literally slays vocally. There are minor moments when she struggles to breath in, but it is hardly noticeable. Her voice resonates quite well behind the mask. RUSSIA –… Read more »
Good for you, Wiwibloggs!! You put everything on its place 🙂 I love you guys!! Dami and Iveta are the best, each of them in their own way. Dami winner, Iveta deserved a way higher place. After listening Samra here, I went to some of The Voice pages. How could she win?????
@Rashad precisely, it’s that double voice effect that makes the chorus sound tolerable for Samra’s Miracle. If you remove the background voices completely, Samra’s voice is downright atrocious: it’s so thin & lacls any real depth
I think Sergey is pretty amazing singing live (one of not many Russian artists) with his heart out and his voice is beautiful. Check these:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8NkU91azsQA
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qU1nfNp0XjQ
Unfortunately, this particularly eurovision song (performance) hides his talents both as a singer and as a dancer. I wish they would chose something different for him. Still he sounds decent in the acapella considering what he has to do on stage.
The last part, the culmination, where Sergey sings «Thunde-e-e-er! It’s getting excit-e-e-eng! To show where you are!» was just incredible! So powerful and clean voice! He is the real winner, and vocally too!
acapella of Russian 2013 Dina Garipova.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GVjCSlfR_vM
what Lazarev? omg. Russia should be more serious next time. they had much better entries and haven’t made a fuss over it, why they expect to win with worse song and vocals now? send Dina again 🙂
I can not say that Polly has perfect vocals, but is doing quite well considering it is quite exhausting sing and dance so dynamic !!!
Listen to this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PnVAk9OlnVI
Donna,
they had strong singer before, and actually it’s my fav – Dina Garipova. you hsould check this girl if haven’t heard her before, she’s the best Russia ever sent IMO
@Wawwu
Such a difficult song…
@Donna – Great and anti-hare review. Thanks.
@The rest of the people – In order to hear someone’s real voice you have to remove not only the back vocals but all the noise (that include the whole song)+to remove the in-ear headsets from the ear of the artist. So, this whole article is a joke together with the “professional” comments under it.
Wake-up people. The competition for this year ended 6 days ago!
If anything this just further highlights Dami’s World Class Vocals, she channels emotions with her voice, not gasping for air or technically having cracks. Dami singing anything is amazing but just acoustics is sublime, take a listen- http://www.damiarmyworld.com
Dami… that’s why she won the jury vote I guess. Incredible.
Jamala great as ever, but Dami… farrrrk.
Nicky. lol
Talking about flawless, no difference with the studio version:
https://youtu.be/fn8Myvqs5jg
1. Jamala (Ukraine) -hers was the best one on this list. sure, you can hear gasping but it’s all part of the theatrical effect as the song is a really serious and emotional one. We should also remember that the song is close to the heart of Jamala so an emotional rendition is very expected and that’s what we’re seeing here – raw emotion in the performance. It’s what moved the people to vote for Jamala – because she delivered a genuine performance. You gotta give her credit for her good execution of the whistle register too. 2. Dami Im… Read more »
Poli – too much adrenalin 🙂
Sergey’s voice isn’t bad but wow this song sounds so blocky. It really needs the music just to make the song come alive. I seriously doubt that anyone would have voted for him if they presented this instead.
A cappella Sergey, Michal Szpak and Dami Im are amazing.I can listen their vocals all day. Jamala and Iveta Mukuchyan are horrible – I can`t listen their. My ears hurt when I heard Jamala and Iveta a cappella.
Samra is nice surprise. A cappella she is better than in grand final. She has good voice but not so strong.
The beginning of Jamala’s song sounds even more haunting without the backing track!
Still so much trolling about Samra. She sings pretty well. Some of you guys have bleeding ears, may be because somebody took out your brains.
The reason why Samra sounds doubled in the chorus is that they were not able to clear out all the backing sounds. It’s most probably a technical issue, the same happens with Sergey too.
How different can the opinions of everybody can be? haha
I think all of them sound better than I was expecting, yes, including Samra, in fact I think it sounds better here that with all the music.
Nicky Burne doesn’t sound bad actually
Check this out:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CTP17rWuUMo
I`m sorry to say this but Samra still sounds really bad. I just don`t understand how she didn`t finish last.
Jamala is the best among these acts.
Dami’s and Iveta’s vocals are out of this world amazing. Sergey was also surprisingly good, conisdering all the physical strain he was under, and his female back vocal was there to add depth to the chorus, not to make up for him. Jamala is a great singer too, of course, but the song really benefitted from backing vocals. Rykka sounded better without the backing.
Poli and Nicky were really bad, and I will never understand how Ira won the jury in semi two singing the way she did.
Israel…WOW thats sooo strong….how weird does Bulgaria sound though without music XD
I’m sorry but anyone who can’t hear that there are two voices in Samra’s song when the chorus kicks in is probably half deaf.
Poli sounded awful, can’t believe juries put her in the top 5. And how did that song finish ahead of Armenia and France is beyond me.
@Lady Gagarina. These are two different voices. One is Samra’s and the other one belongs to one of the backing vocalists. Just listen closely. They are not perfectly synchronized. IMO.
this is not acapella, it’s their vocal part (or even their part + some backs). what’s the point to determine who sing better if they sing not complete song but only their part in it? in different keys, making room for back vocal, etc? I don’t get it. as them to sing alone acapella for you and then discuss who was better. now it’s just pointless speculation. Only Michal had no backs I guess, and maybe Dami took her part straightforward. others heavily relied on their back vocals. pointless, unless you keep in mind removed back vocalists part and can… Read more »
It’s funny how it’s supposed to be without backing-vocals but there are clearly 2 voices in Samra’s song in the chorus and in Sergey’s. Maybe it’s not that noticeable at Samra, but it’s a female voice in Sergey’s song.
They married
what about Spain? France?
Worst in my opinion Samra, Nicky and Sergey.
Best Mikal, Jamala, Iveta and Dami.
Rikka did very well too.
pierdze
The sorcery that is Samra’s 2 voices in the chorus, lolz. If you’re not hearing it, you are deaf, listening via cheap headphones or basically just mentally unstable
Why does Samra’s voice in acapella still sounds like there are 2 people singing in the chorus? I think they purposely mixed the vocals into one output channel so it sounds like it was Samra singing. Audio-engineering – look it up. *sips tea* I need to sue this hoe for damaging my ears yet again
Samra got 10 points from Sweden thanks to her amazing live vocal
Israel also is really good
Where is Latvia ? I am tired of Russia 😀
What’s happened to Mariovision?
oh my god wiwibloggs i feel you purposely put some artists with shady live vocals like nicky, samra, rykka on purpose lololololololololololol
(even though i thought Rykka was amazing on the night and thought her improved vocals would help her qualify)
The voice of Ira losco…sorry?