The second heat of the Hungarian national selection A Dal is behind us, which means that we have another six semi-finalists. So now it’s time for the Wiwi Jury — our in-house panel of music unprofessionals — to review them and see who should follow in Freddie’s footsteps at Eurovision. Next up are Peet Project with “Kill Your Monster” and Chase with “Dust In the Wind”.

Peet Project – “Kill Your Monster”

“Kill Your Monster” reviews

Robyn: That mix of ’80s jazz-pop and ’90s funk-pop shouldn’t work and yet I quite like this song. Perhaps it’s just the energy and attitude that the Peet Project bring to what is a potentially dark subject. But it’s not a winner. “Kill Your Monster” did especially well with the jury, so if Hungarian televoters are indifferent, it will struggle to get out of the A Dal semi-final.

Score: 6.5/10

Zakaria: The funky groove of the song is very engaging and fun to listen to. I can already see the crowd dancing to it. The singer has a really beautiful voice, but his enunciation sounds very awkward and disengaging. All in all, I quite enjoyed this one but I just can’t see it going to Kyiv.

Score: 6/10

William: Rhyming “guy” with “fly” usually suggests an imminent train wreck. And so does a stage that features a keyboard, a saxophone and a fiddle. And while this lacks a memorable chorus and features a painfully awkward bridge, the lead singer has so much charisma I want to look past all of that and “kill my monster” (especially if he’s going to help me). I’m giving this a 6 — one for the song, the rest for the fun.

Score: 6/10

Chris: The funk revival is being taken wayyy too literally here. It’s very busy and I just don’t like the lead singer. There’s just something slightly off-putting that makes me uneasy watching him perform. They’re really trying to drive the “kill your monster” lyrics as an earworm too, to the point that it becomes annoying. There’s moments where this works, but they’re far too fleeting.

Score: 4.5/10

Natalie: This is not generally my sort of music, and “Kill Your Monster” is no exception. It’s just a bit drab and shallow for me. I can feel the energy and happiness in this song, but Peet Project sort of run out of steam and the whole thing just sort of drags. It has its groove and thrill – but there is a lot better out there.

Score: 6/10

Josh: One of my least favourite qualifiers from this semi final. Peet Project could take that jazzy funk pop trend that’s popular at the moment and modernise it, rather than making it sound like a dated karaoke performance. The lead singer has a decent voice, but it really does belong in a cheap pub in outback Australia.

Score: 3/10

In the Hungary Wiwi Jury, we have 17 jurors but only room for six reviews. The rest of our scores can be found below:

Antranig: 2/10

Bernardo: 5.5/10

Dayana: 4.5/10

Erdi: 7/10

Forrest: 5.5/10

Jason: 3/10

Jordi: 6.5/10

Jovana: 8.5/10

Luis: 6.5/10

Mikhail: 8/10

Sami: 9/10

Sinan: 7/10

 

 

 

 

 

 

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 2 and a high of 9.

Wiwi Jury verdict: 5.88/10

Chase — “Dust In the Wind”

“Dust In the Wind” reviews

William: With his razor-sharp cheekbones, clear sense of style and even skin tone, the lead singer has a bright future as a male model. I’m less convinced about his career as a singer. This performance feels wooden and the vocals don’t stir much in me. The song itself is disposable and generic — a bland background against which the dancer shines. Unfortunately this isn’t a dance contest. PS Does anyone else think the singer looks like Kristina Pelakova (Slovakia 2010)?

Score: 2.5/10

Jason: Everything about this is wrong. First of all, and most importantly, this poor guy really struggles to hit the majority of notes. It gets super screechy and by the end, it is hard to bear. The song itself is boring and uninspired. I also don’t understand the point of the child dancer, unless it is to distract from the singing. Bad.

Score: 1.5/10

Mikhail: This is captivating. I really like the melody and the instrumental part. At the beginning it instantly grabbed my attention and right then I liked it. The production value is also really good. Unfortunately, it does come off a bit flat towards the end, but it is still enjoyable.

Score: 7/10

Robyn: This feels very heavily inspired by the book of Sia. There’s the big emotional song and staging involving a (too-young-for-Eurovision) child dancer. The weak point is Chase. His voice isn’t quite strong enough. Just imagine how “Dust in the Wind” would sound sung by Loïc Nottet and the gap will be obvious.

Score: 6/10

Chris: Oh. Oh no. Look, we all have ears, we all know the vocals are wrong here. It’s the fact that it actively gets worse as the song goes along that shocks me. How did nobody stop to think that maybe, just maybe, they shouldn’t give Chase a vocal that’s clearly out of his range? Unlistenable.

Score: 1/10

Erdi: Well, the song is pretty good but I don’t think he can handle the powerful chorus. The beats are awesome, Chase’s voice is awesome, but the chorus really isn’t strong enough.

Score: 7.5/10

In the Hungary Wiwi Jury, we have 17 jurors but only room for six reviews. The rest of our scores can be found below:

Antranig: 7.5/10

Bernardo: 6/10

Dayana: 7/10

Forrest: 4.5/10

Jordi: 7/10

Josh: 6/10

Jovana: 7/10

Luis: 2/10

Natalie: 6.5/10

Sami: 9/10

Sinan: 6.5/10

Zakaria: 3/10

 

 

 

 

 

 

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 1 and a high of 9.

Wiwi Jury verdict: 5.47/10

See our list of A Dal rankings here

Read more Hungary Eurovision news here

3 Comments
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AngieP
AngieP
7 years ago

These two songs are actually really good! “Kill your monster” makes me want to dance. It’s happy, up-lifting.
The second one has a slower tempo and I like the chorus.

Zolipop
Zolipop
7 years ago

Well, I think both song deserved more, meh :/

Briekimchi
Briekimchi
7 years ago

Wow. Two of the surprisingly good songs from A Dal and they are rated worse than that Dr. Columbo mess? Neither of these songs are going to win but they deserve better.