With Switzerland’s Die Entscheidungsshow coming up on February 5, the Wiwi Jury — our in-house panel of music unprofessionals — continues its reviews of the six finalists. Up next is former Voice of Switzerland star Freschta. She’s singing “Gold“, but is she on our medal table? Find out below!

Freschta — “Gold”

About Freschta

Afghan-born Freschta first hit Swiss TV screens in 2014, when she took part in the second edition of The Voice of Switzerland. Coached by Swiss rapper Stress, she made it all the way to the semi-finals. Freschta previously attempted to represent Switzerland in 2015, submitting a song as part of a duet to the web-vote — but failing to make it further. Now she’s back and going solo!

“Gold” Reviews

Jason: “Gold” is a rousing and current ballad, and probably the best entry in the Swiss final. Freschta undeniably sounds like Adele, and that is not a bad thing! Her strong, pure voice stays flawless throughout and is complimented beautifully by the gentle orchestration. However, I fear that “Gold” could be lost at Eurovision. To revamp its current form would be a sin, though. Clever staging would work wonders for this entry.

Score: 8.5/10

Robyn: Freschta has an amazing, strong and clear Adele-like voice and she brings warmth amid the aching heartbreak of “Gold”. The song works best with its sparse arrangement — the strings and horns brought in near the end sound a bit cheesy, but that could be improved. This is easily the strongest song in the Swiss final and could provide a moment of stillness and emotion at Eurovision.

Score: 9/10

Chris: Freschta tells us “you’ll never know, you’ll never know.” That’s likely because we’ll all have died from boredom before the answer arrives. From her performances on The Voice of Switzerland, it’s clear that her deep vocal does work on soul songs. Unfortunately, “Gold” has no life. The whole thing feels far too dreary and will not motivate people to vote.

Score: 4/10

William: Her name is Freschta but there is very little about this that is actually fresh. The melody — while very pleasant — does all it can do in the first 40 seconds before repeating on loop. Her voice is lovely — I’m getting major Tracy Chapman feels — but not even that can turn this plodding, mediocre number into gold.

Score: 4/10

Edd: Freschta possesses a beautiful, soulful voice, but “Gold” really is the definition of underwhelming. It’s in serious need of a catchy hook and far more elements in the production — give me some violins, some trombones… even a kazoo will do! Just something to keep me from losing attention and day dreaming about Verka Seduchka dancing around in a tin foil dress.

Score: 4/10

Jovana: On paper, “Gold” has everything necessary to make a good ballad: a singer with powerful vocals, emotional lyrics, the piano. However, “Gold” still isn’t memorable. The rhythm is steady throughout most of the song. Freschta hits all the notes, but sounds like she’s trying too hard not to change a single one. The performance kind of feels emotionless. It’s just too bijou for a Eurovision audience.

Score: 6/10

Bernardo: Bring on the tissues. Freschta, honey, your voice is golden! Deep, moving, stirring — it’s just perfect for a power ballad. Although this is strong lyrically, I can imagine Freschta opening a semi-final and being forgotten after 18 performances. It’s just not high-impact enough for Eurovision.

Score: 6.5/10

Florian: Freschta has a soulful voice that really helps the song build to something of a memorable chorus. But towards the end of the song, when she starts to stretch her vocals, it loses its way. Perhaps a bit more dynamism would have kept this interesting. Staging wise, a piano could work wonders and help “Gold” find a decent result in Die Entscheidungsshow.

Score: 6/10

In our Swiss Wiwi Jury, we have 19 jurors but only room for 8 reviews. The rest of our scores can be found below:

Anthony: 6/10

Antranig: 3.5/10

Dayana: 6.5/10

Forrest: 4/10

Jordi: 6.5/10

Josh: 6/10

Luis: 6/10

Matt: 9/10

Patrick: 4/10

Ramadan: 4/10

Sinan: 5.5/10

 

 

 

 

 

 

Before calculating the average score, the highest and lowest scores are dropped. This is to remove outliers and reduce potential bias. We have removed a low of 3.5 and a high of 9.

WIWI JURY VERDICT: 5.68/10

SEE OUR LIST OF SWITZERLAND 2017 RANKINGS HERE

FOLLOW ALL OF OUR SWITZERLAND EUROVISION NEWS HERE

15 Comments
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AngieP
AngieP
7 years ago

The girl has a beautiful voice. The song is a bit boring. I agree with the revamp someone suggested. It will make the song better.

(J)ESC Fanatic
(J)ESC Fanatic
7 years ago

@Kris

My YouTube channel is not called “(J)ESC Fanatic”.

@Stephanie

Hmm, okay, I asked because Polegend Godgarina said that Albanian immigrants in Switzerland will probably vote for her and I guessed he implied she is from Albania.

Stephanie
7 years ago

@(J)ESC Fanatic: She is not Albanian, she is from Afghanistan

Kris
Kris
7 years ago

I came across a channel on YouTube called jESC Fanatic……but they said they are not a visitor of wiwibloggs.

Unofficial Månsters Association
Unofficial Månsters Association
7 years ago

While this song has a very boring atmosphere to it, I love the way she puts in all that emotion into her performance and how soulful (like William mentioned in the reaction video) her voice is. I particularly don’t mind how dated the song is, though the song sounds too melancholy, which of course is going to be hard to do, if she wants to mesmerize the audience and catch their attention. This is actually my favorite from Switzerland’s national selection (I can’t spell it :P) this year and although I love this entry the most, there are barely any… Read more »

Stephanie
7 years ago

Along with “Two Faces”, “Gold” is at the bottom of my Swiss final pile. I really can’t connect with the song at all and I’m not sure the Swiss televoters will connect with it either, it’s the kind of song that will put you to sleep and Freschta’s vocals don’t help it along whatsoever.

Polegend Godgarina
7 years ago

@ (J)ESC Fanatic – nope but don’t tell me anything, I’ll try by myself!

@ Purple Mask – thanks! I use Polegend Godgarina because I’m the #1 Polina Gagarina stan in the world, tbh! :p

(J)ESC Fanatic
(J)ESC Fanatic
7 years ago

@Polegend Godgarina

Do you recognize me from YouTube? 😀

(J)ESC Fanatic
(J)ESC Fanatic
7 years ago

Very good, special voice. The song is not bad, but dull and forgettable.

6/10

By the way, can somebody please tell me if she is Albanian?

Purple Mask
Purple Mask
7 years ago

@Polegend Godgarina: Haha! As it happens, I use a different name here now because some past commenters on Wiwibloggs were personally unkind to me (a long time ago). I didn’t know if it was the same reason for you, so that’s why you didn’t have to answer the question.
You’re wonderful by the way. Thank you for your work. 🙂

Jerome
Jerome
7 years ago

Vocals – excellent (I do sense Adele vibes from her)
Song – not so much (nothing happens in the first two minutes and by then we’re bored)
Diagnosis – revamp the song to death! Freschta deserves better than this.

Polegend Godgarina
7 years ago

@ Purple Mask – you deserve a cookie for recognizing me! <3

Colin
Colin
7 years ago

Song has a lovely voice, good lyrics and a pleasant music. Still, it is kind of monotone and one note. I think this is a 6/10.

Polegend Godgarina
7 years ago

I’ll never stop repeating it – great vocals don’t make a song good. This song is absolutely, dreadfully boring. Three uneventful minutes. Nothing ever happens, it bores me to death and it pains me how this will likely win because of the amount of biased Albanian immigrants in Switzerland that are going to vote for her.

Purple Mask
Purple Mask
7 years ago

This is an incredible vocal, but the song needs a complete revamp for Eurovision. It will simply be forgotten at the ESC (sorry). As for the Swiss National final, she has an outside chance to win, but she needs to grab people’s attention somehow (otherwise they will start to yawn).