Lithuania: Wiwi Jury reviews Aiste Pilvelyte, Alanas Chosnau and Evaldas Vaikasas

The Wiwi Jury — our in-house panel of music unprofessionals — continues to review the qualifying song completing in Lithuania’s marathon national selection Eurovizijos atranka. Next we turn to Aiste Pilvelyte with her Aminata-written song “I’m Like a Wolf”, Alanas Chosnau with “7 Days” and Evaldas Vaikasas with “Fire Kisses”. Can any of these songs give the Baltic nation its long-awaited Eurovision victory? Read on to see what we thought!

Aiste Pilvelyte  – “I’m Like a Wolf”

“I’m Like a Wolf” reviews

Antranig: Last year, I said that Aiste Pilvelyte has the voice to win Eurovision. This year, she’s actually got a great song to work with. While I don’t think this would win Eurovision, it should have little difficulty keeping Lithuania in the Top 10. The Aminata influence is obvious but Aiste is allowed to show off her powerful vocals and she’s a cut above the competition. This wolf has got teeth and she’s coming for blood.

Score: 10/10

Renske:  I had to rewatch this three times before I understood what I had seen. It is so impressive, but I don’t know if it’s good or bad. To be honest, I was not a big fan of either of Aminata’s songs at first, but slowly but surely I liked them both. Still, I think “I’m Like a Wolf” might not be cross generational enough, though she received the best televoting score of all participants in the heats.

Score: 8.5/10

Anthony: Aminata’s becoming an influential songwriter and she’s already made an impact on a national selection veteran in Lithuania. Shades of “Love Injected” mixed with the uptempo beats of “Heartbeat”, I would’ve preferred ditching the second wailing high note towards the end, which felt unnecessary. One worth keeping an eye out for as the competition begins to heat up.

Score: 8/10

Robyn: Despite the odd song title (they’re going to fix it, surely?), this is one of the strongest entries in Eurovizijos atranka 2017. Like a lot of Lithuanian entries this year, it’s a modern electro-pop song. But it’s not a slave to trends and never forgets the importance of having a good tune at its heart.

Score: 7.5/10

Luis: I’m a devoted fan of Aminata Savadogo, so it was a fantastic surprise to find her in Lithuania. On the other hand, I was worried when I knew Aiste was singing, knowing her past entries by the likes of Rafael Artesero. However, she delivers “I’m Like a Wolf” quite well. It doesn’t reach the heights of “Love Injected” or “Heartbeat”, but it’s probably Lithuania’s best singer and song choice.

Score: 7.5/10

In the Lithuanian Wiwi Jury, we have 12 jurors but only room for 5 reviews. The rest of our scores can be found below:

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 4 and a high of 10.

WIWI JURY VERDICT: 6.95/10

Alanas Chosnau – “7 Days”

https://youtu.be/f1mHHSGFv9U

“7 Days” reviews

Renske:  Different countries have different tastes and so be it. We saw it with Edgaras Lubys before and now it’s the same with Alanas. Let’s be real: The broader European audience will not go for this. Overall the song is cheap, dated and not that well produced.

Score: 3/10

Robyn: I’m trying to figure out — has it been long enough that this late ’90s style of disco pop is retro? Or is it still dated? Either way, I’m strangely enjoying it. A fresh burst of dance pop when so much of Eurovizijos atranka 2017 is so-modern-it-hurts, full of squeaky duck noises. I don’t expect this will make it much further, but it’ll be a fun entry to see again in the next round.

Score: 5/10

Antranig: Miley Cyrus once sang about the “7 Things” she likes about you. Every time I see a song called 7 something, that comes to mind and unfortunately, I can’t find seven things I like about “7 Days”. I can’t even find one. This is dated, cheesy, repetitive and boring. “7 Days” was clearly written in no more than 7 minutes.

Score: 1.5/10

Luis: There was a time in the early 2000s when it was normal in Spain to buy compilation CDs of summer hits. At the end of each disc, the singers usually had a cheap song that was intended to be fun, but it just made you cringe. Well, that’s exactly my feeling with Alanas’ song. “7 days” is a cheap attempt at a 90s revival, but hey, the 90s are not so distant.

Score: 2/10

Anthony: When it comes to 90s dance music, the likes of “Insomnia” and “Born Slippy” are timeless classics. Sadly for Alanas, comparing his self-written entry with Faithless and Underworld is a complete insult. I’m baffled on how this managed to do well with both juries and the televoters. If this is Lithuania’s idea of a 90s night out, I’ll be more than happy to be the party pooper.

Score: 3/10

In the Lithuanian Wiwi Jury, we have 12 jurors but only room for 5 reviews. The rest of our scores can be found below:

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 7.

WIWI JURY VERDICT: 3.35/10

Evaldas Vaikasas – “Fire Kisses”

“Fire Kisses” reviews

Antranig: “Fire Kisses” has some wonderful staging but the song itself is devoid of emotion. Evaldas has a beautiful voice but this is not his genre. I feel as though his vocal talents could be better served on a rock song or even a more upbeat pop tune. “Fire Kisses” is not a bad song but I feel the match between singer and song is not a very good one and both suffer as a result.

Score: 5/10

Robyn: For a song of desire, “Fire Kisses” doesn’t have much passion. The music sounds like a royalty-free track that’s had some random lyrics thrown over the top. Evaldas has good stage presence but he doesn’t quite have the vocal ability to bring life to the song. And it’s a song that needs a lot of life brought to it.

Score: 3.5/10

Anthony: Kick things off with a piano, borrow a few drummers from Emmelie de Forest and add several electronic beats. While it sounds like it will all add up to a pop explosion, this isn’t a burning sensation — it’s a burning pain! And the juries felt the same way. Evaldas can thank the televoters his hopes haven’t gone up in smoke by now.

Score: 4/10

Luis: Evaldas may sing “Fire Kisses”, but this song is more “shy peck on the cheek”. It’s a plain pop song sung by a decent singer. Throw in some military drums and beats, and you get this. It’s not exactly unpleasant, but any of Belarus’ rejects would make a bigger impression at Eurovision.

Score: 3/10

Renske: Evaldas is a respectable stage artist — he can really perform and he knows how to move on television. But I feel that there is not much happening in the song — it’s more “Ice Kisses” than “Fire Kisses”.

Score: 5/10

In the Lithuanian Wiwi Jury, we have 12 jurors but only room for 5 reviews. The rest of our scores can be found below:

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 and a high of 6.5.

WIWI JURY VERDICT: 4.2/10

See our list of Eurovizijos atranka rankings here

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