Today the Wiwi Jury – our in-house panel of music unprofessionals – travelled to Yerevan to sip on some tuti oghi and learn some sensual dance moves from our friend Iveta Mukuchyan. After the drink went straight to our heads, we decided to wind down by reviewing the Junior Eurovision 2017 entry for Armenia, “Boomerang” by Misha. Does this boomerang have what it takes to be thrown to the top of the scoreboard? Read on to find out…
Armenia’s Junior Eurovision 2017 song
“Boomerang” reviews
Chris: It’s understandable, but a shame nonetheless, to see Armenia move away from their recent JESC formula. Whilst they didn’t win with “Tarber”, “Love” or “People of the Sun” (and all came close), each song remains as memorable entries in the JESC pantheon. As good a singer as Misha is, “Boomerang” doesn’t have that spark. It’s a ballad with a tortured metaphor. There’s not much more Misha can do with the song.
Score: 6/10
Jonathan: This was certainly unexpected from the country that can normally be relied on to bring a great upbeat bop to Junior Eurovision. It’s certainly one of the better ballads in this year’s edition. Starting off with simple instrumentation, the song builds brilliantly throughout, so that by the end it’s impossible to not want to join Misha in his quest to spread love across the world. If Misha can effectively deliver the song’s emotion live in Tbilisi then there’s no reason why this shouldn’t keep Armenia in its traditional place of towards the top of the leaderboard.
Score: 8/10
Jovana: Misha is so sweet, charming and talented – he is just adorable. As a performer, he has definitely got what it takes to be a winner. As for the song, “Boomerang” is not quite a winner. There is simply something missing, but it’s hard to say what that is. Probably a change in the rhythm or any sort of variation. Still, with the right staging and good vocal performance, it can do really well in Tbilisi.
Score: 7.5/10
Renske: Misha has a very pure voice which suits the ballad he is singing. The metaphor of the Boomerang is well chosen, but it is the only stand-out from the song as it’s a very traditional Junior Eurovision ballad. It needs some fireworks and knowing Armenia, they will give us the fireworks.
Score: 6.5/10
Robyn: Armenia does well at JESC and isn’t afraid to mix things up year to year. “Boomerang” could be seen as playing it safe with a simple but dramatic ballad — but Misha is a talented singer and brings his junior star power to the performance. (And bonus points for his amazing hair!)
Score: 7.5/10
William: Young Misha oozes sweetness and light, but he also knows when to deploy the power. And with “Boomerang” he has plenty of opportunity to do just that, serving a tender ballad that builds slowly and deliberately, eventually arriving at that “wow” moment that’s so important in a song contest. The drums give this drive and Misha’s occasional swerve into a minor key keeps it interesting. My only criticism is that his “throw” frequently sounds like “fro”. But that’s easily fixed. Yay, Armenia!
Score: 9/10
Our jury for 2017 consists of 20 jurors, but we only have room for 6 reviews. The remaining 14 scores are listed below.
Angus: 5/10
Antony: 6/10
Antranig: 8/10
Bernardo: 5/10
Cinan: 7.5/10
Deban: 5/10
Jordi: 7.5/10
Josh: 6/10
Luis: 5/10
Marek: 8/10
Mario: 7/10
Natalie: 6.5/10
Rezo: 8/10
Sebastian: 6.5/10
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 5 and a high of 9.
It’s forgettable to me, but he does very good at his rehearsal…
(thinking of Kostov’s case)
10/10
I think it is a testament to how good past Armenian entries that this is a disappointment. It is certainly not bad but usually, the Armenian entry is the one that is most memorable, not one of the most forgettable.
I’m sure he will bring something special to the stage. I think it’ll be one of the best performances and he’ll surely be in top 5.
GOOD LUCK TO EVERYONE.
This song has so much kindness in it. I don’t know how someone can not like it. I really hope we get a revamped, more dramatic version for the show. That will certainly put this in the top 3
Oh boy.. It will most likely end up high just because of the fact that it represents the country with big diaspora in Europe. Sorry to say but jesc is such a joke seriously..
People need to stop saying nasty things about some of this year’s JESC entries. First of all, let’s not forget that Armenia is one of the contest’s powerhouse nations; they never landed on the right side of the scoreboard, and that trend is likely to continue. When Armenia debuted in 2007, they never withdrew in later years, and they’ll likely stay in Junior Eurovision forever. Meanwhile, “Boomerang” is one hell of an uplifting entry, and Misha could be referred to as a miniature Steve Perry. 9.5/10 My runner-up. (I wonder who you represent Armenia next year in Minsk.) 🙂
People have opinions that others will never always agree with because they believe otherwise.
You can’t force some to love these entries as much as you do.
Just try to respect what they had to say even if it goes against yours.
Ok. Meanwhile, poor Misha is stuck having to read the offensive comments. 🙁
None of the comments here are bordering on “nasty” nor “offensive” as you claim. People here either love it, dislike it or are being speculative of the song’s chances in the competition and nothing more than that.
You should be a little thick-skinned to tolerate opinions that don’t align with yours.
I don’t usually like kids ballads, ‘Besoj’ was an exception last year, so ‘Boomerang’ is this year. He’s cute and the song has a deep meaning, he’s also charming and the viewers will love him. The song isn’t great, but it’s better than most of this year’s songs that has a higher rating. For me should be a 7,5/10. My 6th.
There are many coincidences with 2010 when Armenia won.
In 2010 we also won both New Wave and Junior New Wave song contests. That year our representative in Jesc was from Artsakh. And now in 2017 some events have been occured, after 7 years we have already won New Wave and Junior New Wave, Misha is from Artsakh, sooo fingers crossed for your victory honey. <3
It’d be cool if Armenia won Junior Eurovision next year because of the fact that it’ll be in Minsk, so history may repeat itself! 😀
It could be this year too, Georgia won 2nd time in Armenia, and now Armenia can win 2nd time in Georgia 😉
This one is really boring and there’s nothing special about it. The video they shot for the song is also cringy I gotta say. It will do well just bcuz armenians will vote for it, we all know how nationalists they are, don’t we? Pfff, this new voting method just suxx, dude. ._.
The votes sent by Armenians to their own country will get canceled out if everyone else’s does the same for their own countries. PLus we also have to take account that the rest of the world will vote as well.
I don’t like it and Will be devastated if we have a 4th successive pathetic winner!! It’s a 5/10 for me.
With all the hype surrounding Misha leading to his song reveal, can’t help but feel disappointed with the eventual song he was paired with. I felt like he deserve a much better song than this one.
Often, inanimate objects as metaphors for songs work (like say “Chandelier”), but this one’s a stretch.
Boomerang = what goes around, comes around
Chandelier is not a better metaphor for anything, just pretentious word.
I agree with some of you guys saying this song never really takes off. It’s not bad, but it’s… just there.
I’m very surprised by the low score! Personally, this is my favourite song in the contest – Misha’s voice fits perfectly with this type of song, and the way the song builds up to the last minute or so is brilliant! I give it a 10/10 and hope it wins! GO ARMENIA!
He’s such a good singer. Admittedly, it doesn’t fall in my top five favourite, but I wish him all the luck in the world. (Bonus points also for his “Uptown Funk” performance)
What do you think that Germanic nations thought about Romanian Yodel in 2017? Were they offended by the appropriation? I don’t know, they should say what they think about that. IMO appropriation is a natural thing, cultures borrow all the time.
This is answer for EscAU.
It’s a good song, but i think that the climax comes too late. i’m afraid, that the song loses the audience before that..But Misha can bring the song alive on stage. I hope he will.
Don’t appreciate an indigenous symbol of our culture being appropriated and not a fan of the song (+ his looks to the camera in the music video moving his hair around is more dodgy than Koit Toome). At least Malta is basically sending their entry from 2014 🙂 Sure he’ll do well though because of the online voting thing and people can vote for their own country, we all know how much love this entry has been getting (albeit mostly from armenians)