Today the Wiwi Jury – our in-house panel of music unprofessionals — travelled to Skopje to collectively cry over the country’s withdrawal from the Eurovision Song Contest in 2018. Upon realising that they’re still taking part at Junior Eurovision in Tbilisi, we decided to dry our tears and review the entry for FYR Macedonia at Junior Eurovision 2017, “Dancing Through Life” by Mina Blažev. Does this song make us dance through life, or just plod along as per usual? Read on to find out…

FYR Macedonia’s Junior Eurovision 2017 song

“Dancing Through Life” reviews – Mina Blažev

Bernardo: The FYR of Macedonia keeps their Junior Eurovision trend by sending yet another contemporary track sang by a teenager. While “Dancing Through Life” is more suited to the Eurovision Song Contest, Mina keeps it young and fresh. The song may be lacking a strong chorus, but Mina’s presence is magnetic in the video and I’m sure she will bring it in Georgia.

Score: 6/10

Deban: Mina is a beautiful flower dancing through life. Her voice cuts through the busy “ooh oohs” of her entry. It may be in JESC, but this offering could have done well in Eurovision too. The universality of love is presented here in a very tasteful manner. Unfortunately, the song’s arrangement is a little jarring and somewhat unmemorable.

Score: 6.5/10

Jovana: For the second year in a row, FYR Macedonia emerges as one of the favourites. “Dancing Through Life” is an electropop banger that could stand on par with many of the current worldwide hits. However, for me, it lacks personality. I simply cannot see Mina shine through the song’s glitzy production. As for the transition between Macedonian and English, I cannot get my head around it. At times it sounds great, but at other times it sounds clumsy.

Score: 8/10

Robyn: There’s no doubt that “Dancing Through Life” is a modern pop banger, and Mina gives a compelling vocal performance in the studio version. It will, however, be interesting to see how it comes across live on the Tbilisi stage. But it’s one track that will easily make the transition from the club to JESC.

Score: 6.5/10

Sebastian: “Dancing Through Life” is the spiritual love child of “Dance Alone” and Who See’s “Igranka”. Macedonia’s entry is an up-tempo electronic RnB track which would not sound out of place on the Eurovision stage. The paint motif of the music video brings the juvenility and freedom of finger painting to a too-cool-for-school level. Mina should totally incorporate this into her on-stage performance, just to remind viewers at home that this is a Junior Eurovision entry — rather than a club banger you hear on a Saturday night.

Score: 8/10

William: Teen on the dance floor! Young Mina has mature musical tastes, moving us from cartoon corner to the club. Her song has a strong Eurodance vibe and wouldn’t be out of place in a national final for the Eurovision Song Contest. And while many dance songs obscure the voice, this lets her show off what she’s got — a gritty, full, promising vocal.

Score: 6.5/10

Our jury for 2017 consists of 20 jurors, but we only have room for 6 reviews. The remaining 14 scores are listed below.

Angus: 8/10

Antony: 8/10

Antranig: 9.5/10

Chris: 7/10

Cinan: 7/10

Jonathan: 8/10

Jordi: 7/10

Josh: 6.5/10

Luis: 6.5/10

Marek: 9.5/10

Mario: 9/10

Natalie: 9.5/10

Renske: 7.5/10

Rezo: 6/10

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The highest and lowest scores are dropped prior to calculating the average score. This is to remove outliers and reduce potential bias. We have removed a low of 6 and a high of 9.5.

WIWI JURY SCORE: 7.5/10

READ ALL OUR JESC WIWI JURY RANKINGS AND REVIEWS

FOLLOW OUR JUNIOR EUROVISION COVERAGE

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DenizNL
DenizNL
6 years ago

My first. I hope she’ll be good vocally.

Erik
Erik
6 years ago

I completely share your opinion. The song is just nothing. There is such a hype every year around a song. But I don’t care. I am sure the national juries will pick a deserved winner.

Polegend Godgarina
Polegend Godgarina
6 years ago

This is going nowhere, sorry. The vocal performance is awfully bad.

Erasmus
Erasmus
6 years ago

I mean how can anyone rate this below Portugal, Serbia or Albania, it’s just crazy. This is modern, fresh and current + any child or teen that I know would rather listen to this than Portugal’s, Serbia’s or Albania’s entry, I mean it can be modern and child-friendly and this is what this song does. A 9,5/10 for me.:)

Claud
Claud
6 years ago

I don’t understand the hype around this song. Both at the adult and junior contests this year there has been such a hype around FYROM and I don’t understand it. Dance Alone to be wasn’t nearly as good as people were making it out to be and now people are hyping this. This songs Has an annoying melody and her voice to me sounds monotone, like she doesn’t care, but in almost every top 15/16 I’ve seen it’s in the top 3 or the very least top 5 and I don’t understand why. In all honesty to me there is… Read more »

Laika
Laika
6 years ago

This is a nice song, but shouldn’t be a line separating junior Eurovision and Eurovision?
I believe that some of the songs this year are too adult

Héctor
Héctor
6 years ago

I feel this song is underrated. But…Not as much as FYROM is in both Eurovision and Junior ESC. They should at least qualified in 2017 with ‘Dance Alone’ and also placed higher in Jesc 2016 with ‘Love will lead our way’. I’m afraid this year is going to be the same and FYROM will place below Top 10.

Radiologistology
Radiologistology
6 years ago

I’m 13 and definitely voting for this. I’m quite surprised the number is 7.5, I expected it to be AT LEAST 8.

Roelof Meesters
Roelof Meesters
6 years ago

I will vote for this, I want Macedonia to keep sending these amazing kind of songs. I don’t care how adult it is, I love it anyway and I’m 13.