Georgia: Wiwi Jury reviews Maliibu, Mariam Chachkhiani, Mariko Lezhava

The Wiwi Jury — our in-house panel of music unprofessionals — continues reviewing the songs competing in Georgia’s national selection. Next we’re listening to Maliibu with “We Live Once”, Mariam Chachkhiani with “Fly” and Mariko Lezhava with “Light It Up”. Can any of these three follow in Nina Sublatti’s fierce footsteps? Read on to find out!

Maliibu – “We Live Once”

https://youtu.be/vudxY3MpR_c

Antranig: After the spoken-word opening, I was expecting this to be extremely trashy — something I could get behind. Then she decided to sing a serious song which is actually really powerful, but I can’t take her seriously after that opening. She has great vocals, an amazing look and the song has some potential, I’ll give her that much.

Score: 3.5/10

Chris: There’s something interesting here, but I can’t quite put my finger on it yet. This feels like the song that G:Son would be able to do something with. Maliibu could totally be the next Nina Sublatti and I’d be happy with it. It’s a strong choice.

Score: 6/10

Luis: Maliibu brings a standard transcendental ballad which sounds dated. There’s potential, but it needs major work, beginning with a much slicker production and some more ‘out of the box’ beats. Right now, it sounds like a demo, but with better production, this could become edgy and avant-garde. And Georgia knows how to do avant-garde, y’all.

Score: 4/10

Renske: Maliibu has such a powerful vocal and has a lot of attitude to bring. Still, “We Live Once” misses something that would make it a good Eurovision song. It will be really difficult to translate such a song into a stage performance without making it trashy or dated.

Score: 7.5/10

Robyn: There’s a lot of potential here, but as it is, it’s not good enough. Maliibu’s pronunciation doesn’t make the message of the lyrics clear, and the instrumentation gets quite repetitive. But there’s room at Eurovision for an edgy electronic diva performance — just ask Aminata. It will be interesting to see how this comes across live.

Score: 6/10

William: Did Mary J Blige drink a bit too much and wake up in Tbilisi? Maliibu has a deep and melodic R&B voice, and she puts it to good use here. I think with a revamp this could be very powerful. But as it stands now I’m a little bored.

Score: 5/10

In the Georgian Wiwi Jury we have 12 Jurors, but only space for 6 reviews. The remaining scores are below:

Bernardo: 6/10

Cinan: 4.5/10

Dayana: 7.5/10

Jordi: 7/10

Josh: 7/10

Zakaria: 5/10

The highest and lowest scores are removed before calculating the final score. We have dropped a low of 3.5 and a high of 7.5.

Wiwi Jury Score: 5.8/10

Mariam Chachkhiani – “Fly”

https://youtu.be/g2F1RscJDzY

Antranig: This is a song that is well above average in this national final. Unfortunately, it would be quite average among the field at Eurovision. The song feels very powerful and warm but after listening to all 25, this is not one that I remember.

Score: 5.5/10

Chris: There’s a sense that there’s so much more that they could do with the chorus. Like, there’s so much build for it, then the chorus hits, it’s good and… that’s it. It all seems to end too quickly. Nobody likes a premature ending and this is no different.

Score: 5/10

Luis: This song is dull. Mariam has a powerful voice, but a voice doesn’t go anywhere without a good vehicle to carry it. And right now it feels as if Mariam is hitchhiking. Seriously, this song is not memorable at all, and its cadence is slow and boring. There’s little to say about it, basically because I totally forgot it while writing the previous two lines.

Score: 3/10

Renske: The song starts off so futuristic and promising, but it just loses your attention after the first chorus. This is The Voice of Georgia winner, which means that she surely has to have a powerful voice, but this song doesn’t let it show.

Score: 6/10

Robyn: There’s no question that Mariam has a great voice and has put everything into her performance of “Fly”. But the song itself just isn’t good enough. A Eurovision entry needs to be more than an excuse to show off the performer’s vocal range.

Score: 5/10

William: She’s beautiful and she can sing. But unfortunately this song is just a tad dated and dull and feels very “Wednesday evening church choir”. I’d love to see her do something a bit “dirtier” à la Sia. These lyrics and this melody could work — but it needs to be ramped up and given an edgier, more original finish.

Score: 5.5/10

In the Georgian Wiwi Jury we have 12 Jurors, but only space for 6 reviews. The remaining scores are below:

Bernardo: 5.5/10

Cinan: 6.5/10

Dayana: 7/10

Jordi: 8/10

Josh: 4/10

Zakaria: 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 8.

Wiwi Jury Score: 5.5/10

Mariko Lezhava – “Light It Up”

https://youtu.be/dZjND6uGd1w

Antranig: Here she is — easily the best song in Georgia. The chorus is very catchy and it is followed up with an instrumental break that is out of this world. It’s definitely not the most Eurovision-friendly song in the competition but it is definitely the best.

Score: 10/10

Chris: I feel like I can only call this song by its original title. Anyway, “Bithard and Avol Waves” is clearly the best song in the selection, even if that’s not saying too much. It’ll need some work, but I could see the live crowd in Kyiv loving that pre-chorus and the drop. Bojana had a similar effect in Vienna and that certainly helped her — I could see it working for Mariko too.

Score: 7/10

Luis: Well, this is one of the few songs I wanted to listen to again. It is a hot mess, but there’s many things that could be worked in here in order to produce a Eurovision hit. It’s very Donny Montell, then very David Guetta circa 2011, and then there’s a bit of pop diva as well. If she manages to conceal the many faces of her song and create something a bit more coherent, she’s got it.

Score: 7/10

Renske: This song had, hands down, the best production. But in the end, nothing really happens. It is like you are listening to three or four songs at the same time and that is pretty confusing. People will have issues remembering it because of that.

Score: 6/10

Robyn: Almost half this song is instrumental. What would Mariko do with herself during the numerous drops, especially the totally instrumental final 30 seconds of the song? And is an events centre full of sweaty middle-aged Eurovision fans an adequate substitute for the cool ambiance of a youthful rave? As a song to party to, this is perfect. As a Eurovision entry, it’s a disaster.

Score: 5/10

William: Talk about cut and paste! This mixes anthemic chanting, electro rave and bass so heavy you think you’re going to explode. Amid all that, and some extended instrumental sections, I sometimes forget Mariko is in the picture at all.

Score: 4.5/10

In the Georgian Wiwi Jury we have 12 Jurors, but only space for 6 reviews. The remaining scores are below:

Bernardo: 7/10

Cinan: 7.5/10

Dayana: 8/10

Jordi: 5.5/10

Josh: 6/10

Zakaria: 7/10

The highest and lowest scores are removed before calculating the final score. We have dropped a low of 4.5 and a high of 10.

Wiwi Jury Score: 6.6/10

SEE OUR LIST OF GEORGIA 2017 RANKINGS HERE

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