Grab your pastizzi, darlings! The Malta Eurovision Song Contest 2017, the island’s national selection show, will take place on 18 February. But before then, the Wiwi Jury — our in-house panel of music unprofessionals — is reviewing and rating all 16 competing entries. Today we move on to Miriana Conte with her song “Don’t Look Down”. Do we think the only way is up for Miriana? Read on to find out…
Miriana Conte – “Don’t Look Down”
“Don’t Look Down” – reviews
Robyn: This song has a cool, breezy reggae feeling mixed with electronic beats, a milder version of the sort of thing we’ve been hearing from artists like Major Lazer and Rihanna. Most importantly, it really delivers on the chorus, serving cool and catchy. I’m not sure if the overall effect is good enough for a Eurovision entry, but it’s still really enjoyable to listen to.
Score: 7/10
Josh: Miriana has come to MESC as a watered down version of every R&B singer ever, which tells us one thing – unoriginal! Girl, I could hear this song absolutely anywhere. Stop trying to be Ariana. Stop trying to be Zara. Stop trying to be Destiny Chukunyere and find the time to create your own sound! Predictable and safe. Meh.
Score: 4/10
Chris: In the year before we can get Destiny Chukunyere to MESC, Miriana comes in as Destiny-lite. With more than a nod towards the likes of Amerie, too, it’s actually not a bad effort. “Don’t Look Down” isn’t a MESC winner, let alone a Eurovision contender. That being said, it’s one of the few songs that’s actually grown on me in the selection. It’s perhaps just a little too light on worthwhile content to be at the top.
Score: 6/10
William: Don’t look down — look all around and feel the sass, the energy, the attitude! Miriana has those qualities in spades and I’d love to twerk with her at the club. Sadly I wouldn’t want to twerk to this. The song, while well produced, has a hard edge that I find really charmless and uninviting. I love empowered women, but this song makes Miriana a scary one. Regardless, I hope to hear more from her in the future. Get it, gurl.
Score: 4/10
Deban: Much of this reminds me SZA — an emerging American artist with critical acclaim. However, the pop elements embedded in “Don’t Look Down” stray from the seriousness of the song, which may be its downfall. Some good production ideas here, but overall, a rather lacklustre effort.
Score: 4/10
Antranig: The opening of “Don’t Look Down” is very weak but then comes the pre-chorus, which is full of sass and attitude. The chorus does a passable job of building on the pre-chorus. This is not three minutes of gold — the magic comes in patches. However, I’ll take that over any mundane song that never gets anywhere. This takes me on a journey, without offering the greatest views.
Score: 7/10
Bernardo: “Don’t Look Down” reminds me of Destiny’s new single “Fast Life” in some ways. The pre-chorus is good but that’s about it. Good ideas flow but they aren’t perfected, resulting in a so-so chorus. I’m not impressed by this. However, it will be pleasant to listen to during the final.
Score: 5.5/10
Our jury for the 2017 Malta Eurovision Song Contest contains 14 jurors, but we only have room for seven reviews. The remaining seven scores are listed below.
Dayana: 8/10
Forrest: 1.5/10
George: 6/10
Jordi: 6.5/10
Luis: 6.5/10
Ramadan: 8/10
Zakaria: 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 1.5 and a high of 8.
I’m not a fan of those particular “dow-ow-ow” and “bong bong bong” lyrics. It’s extremely annoying, and I hope this doesn’t get chosen, though the chances are unlikely, for Malta to send this. I don’t like a lot of the other entries in Malta’s national selection this year too. 🙁
The lyrics are good in the verses and bridges, but the music isn’t great, and the Choruses are utterly unforgivable. Ignoring the fact that any pop song with a reggae beat gets a technical mark taken off for laziness (yes, some music jurists really do that) this Chorus hook is simply DREADFUL! No-one would want to sing along to that awful earworm – I even prefer Leklein’s “Ouch” hook to this “do-ow-ow-ow-ow-ow-ow-own!” But as if that’s not enough, it gets even worse further into the song with a convoluted dose of “dinedela dinedela bum bum,” which might be just a… Read more »
@Polegend Godgarina I was about to say that. From the beginning and all the way, I thought I was listening to an Ariana Grande song.
The song is catchy, the voice is really good, but I have to see it live to see if it has the enery I hear in the studio version.
It’s another catchy song from MESC this year. I love it as well. Nah this year’s MESC seems a strong one…can’t understand all this negative vibe
Too bad there’s still criticism getting in the way.
Score: 6.5/10
I don’t like it, it’s quite annoying and sounds like a bad version of “Cool Me Down”.
The verses are great, but the chorus is forgettable. Everything about it is so Ariana Grande bonus track from 2014.