The Wiwi Jury — our in-house panel of music unprofessionals — continues to review the six acts competing in Czechia’s national final Eurovision Song CZ. Next up is former model Mikolas Josef with “Lie to Me”. Did it make us want to hit him with the truth? Read on to find out!
Mikolas Josef – “Lie to Me”
“Lie to Me” reviews
William: She’s got him “making a puddle” — and surely he’ll have Europe perspiring with this one! Melding funk, pop and trap, “Lie to Me” is at once brash and likeable, loud yet inviting. It’s not the type of song I would naturally download. But Mikolas sells it very well with his charisma and pizzaz. It also lends itself well to all manner of visuals, giving it major stage show potential — and the Czech Republic’s best shot at making an impact in Lisbon.
Score: 8.5/10
Deban: Despite the arguable merits of this entry, the trumpet just grates on me! This mid-noughties inspired urban number lacks the vintage cool effect, and Mikolas Josef isn’t doing a great to elevate it.
Score: 2.5/10
Mikhail: Once you hear the trumpet you immediately start moving. This song has an instant impact. It is fresh, it is current, it is different from everything we usually hear at the contest. Is it overly sexual? Maybe. Is it a bad thing? I don’t think so. It follows its own flow, it is daring and I’m digging it. Eurovision needs songs like this and I’m pretty sure that it will be a success in Lisbon.
Score: 10/10
Robyn: There’s a line in this song that describes someone whose “skirt goes up like Marilyn Monroe’s”. Is Mikolas talking about a woman who innocently stands on a breezy subway grate? Or does he mean…? That is the problem with “Lie to Me”. Musically it’s a great song, full of attitude and swagger, but lyrically a bit like “I know what sex is!!!” Yeah, he bleeps out the two mentions of the F-word, but it would be more impressive if the lyrics had been rewritten so they didn’t seem like he’s trying so had to be a sexual cool dude.
Score: 6.5/10
Chris: Against all better judgement, “Lie to Me” might be the Czech Republic’s best option for Lisbon. After some safe, inoffensive entries have led to fairly paltry returns, it might be worth them taking a risk on Mikolas. “Lie to Me” would be crucified by the juries, of course. But there’d certainly be some voters who’ll love this — and (frustratingly) it’s an unshakeable earworm.
Score: 7.5/10
Luis: Mikolas managed to create something fresh and fun out of musical elements we’ve heard millions of times before. Props for that! “Lie to Me” is a very nice change of pace for the Czech Republic, and it should easily bring them their best result at Eurovision. That said, the last uptempo song the Czechs sent was “Have Some Fun” and that was a hot mess on stage. Hopefully they will get the scenography right with Mikolas.
Score: 8/10
In our Eurovision Song CZ Wiwi Jury, we have 16 jurors but only room for 6 reviews. The rest of our scores can be found below:
Antranig: 9/10
Barnabas: 7/10
Bogdan: 8.5/10
Jonathan: 9/10
Josh: 8/10
Kristin: 7.5/10
Lukas: 8/10
Natalie: 7/10
Sebastian: 9.5/10
Steinunn: 7.5/10
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 2.5 and a high of 10.
I’m losing my virginity watching Mikolas’ MV 😀
I guess we all suddenly hate ballads now. :/
That’s a really good song. Fresh, up-beat, with great potential. It can definitely stand out!
8.5/10
This song is actually really good and catchy with excellent production. Not sure why it doesn’t get more love. It’d do well in the US tbh.
Really overrated, I think. I’m with Deban, plus this song is very annoying. Just noise.
Instruments are noise now. TIL. If he only used computer beats yall would still complain.
I hate when people say : “It’s really good song, but not for Eurovision”. This is why my friends don’t watch Eurovision, same kind of ballads and old-fashioned tunes year after year. More modern, fresgh, mainstream music to Eurovision, like this one! 12 points to Czech Rep.
So I showed the “Lie to me” music video to my cousin, and he loved it. Said Mikloas is too hot and he went all teenage over him!
So it’s no question what the song’s appeal is. But, I really don’t like this song. It’s all the worst things about male needs wrapped up into one song, and it’s tired arrogance. I don’t believe him being nice in interviews makes up for it, and my media instinct would be to interrogate him over those lyrics. It will probably win Czech Republic’s selection though. 7/10
He you remove his pimples he looks like a young leonardo dicaprio…my heart cant handle it.
The first time I listened to this I called it annoyingly catchy but after listening to it again just a second time, I like it. It is definitely mainstream, radio-friendly and current. This would not only get Czech Republic back to the final but it could do very well.
Some thoughts:
1) Yes, it’s Cz’s best chance at getting above, say, 20th. For that reason alone, they should send it.
2) Deban, it’s not 90s vintage, at least no more than Macklemore is. (In fact, it gives me a very real Macklemore vibe.)
3) I bet the juries rate this a lot higher than Chris thinks they will. It’s rhythmically interesting and it’s already making waves, which will make it hard to deny.
This is my guilty pleasure of this year. Omg… i LOVE IT! I know i shouldn’t, but i find myself enjoying it far too much. I will give it an impressive 8/10 at this stage of the season.
chris why do you think the juries will crucify this??? just because a song is not a ballad and is fun doesn’t mean the juries will hate it!! for example, the juries liked romania and moldova last year
Maybe because juries usually hate rap 🙂
And really liked Norway, too.
(Which was not that far away from rap at times, incidentally).
Overall 7/10 to me. Fun but not really special.
Actually, the last up-tempo Czech song was “Aven Romale,” which…yeah, we all know how that turned out. But this is much more current and catchy. Given how big and cultured the Czech Republic is, I’ve always been surprised that they haven’t done better with their entries, but this could turn it around for them in a big way. One of the strongest national final songs so far. While I’m sad Fly, my personal favorite, probably won’t go through, this is the safest bet for Eurovision.
I don’t even know why I’m loving this so much. Actually, I should hate itt! But I can’t. It’s unbelievably catchy and I’d be glad to vote for Czech Republic this year!!! 9/10
It is catchy, fresh and unapologetically tongue and cheek. I love his attitude and the instrumental is phenomenal. Sure, many will hate this song. It is controversial. Very much so. But after several safe choices, maybe this is exactly what Czechia needs: A very controversial and talked about song which will certainly be noted. The lyrics are… well, out there, but it’s not the first, nor the last ESC song to try to pull off forward sexuality in the foreground.
9/10 for me and, unofficially, welcome to the contest!
I agree. The most exciting thing about this song is that it is actually from the Czech Republic. This is not just about how well they do this year (though I would be surprised if this did not make the grand final) but rather, is a suggestion that the Czechs are becoming comfortable and might be, dare I say, a permanent Eurovision fixture moving forward?
Mikloas is hot, but I don’t like this song. Sorry. We disagree. 🙁
Hmm… you did give it a 7/10. How much do you dislike it then? I am just interested in what does that rating mean to you? Each of us are very individual in what each rating stands for and that can be a challenge when it comes to professional juries. It’s cool! We agree on so much, there’s obviously going to be exceptions. We disagreed on Hey Mamma too, and this is roughly within the same genre, so it wasn’t entirely unexpected. Love to read your reviews, wether we agree or not on the song, cause you always have a… Read more »
Wow his score is very high!
You’re all way too optimistic. Don’t get too excited yet. The obvious nf favourites almost never win; Tayanna, Margaret, to name a few. How can you be sure he won the public vote? We don’t know the rest of the jury votes. You shouldn’t underestimate Eva, I read her name a lot and her video has by far the most views. If she finished second with the juries and wins the public vote, that’s it. She didn’t get the top score of six jurors and didn’t finish in the top 2 of at least two of these six jurors but… Read more »
It’s true that it’s not 100% certain that Mikolas won the public vote, but considering he won every poll so far, it’s very likely. Also official video to Lie To Me has more than 900k views. It was released few months ago, but still it’s quite a lot. And when it comes to jury votes – from what they said it’s more likely that they more favoured Mikolas, Debbi and Pavel Callta than Eva. Iveta even said that she didn’t like the lyrics to Fly. But I guess we’ll just have to wait and see.
Great track and Czech Republic could go straight to the top 10 with this one. That’s not something I thought I would say.
I’ve already said too much about this terrorist attack to my ears, so just pretend this post has a gif of Rihanna eating salad attached to it.
There’s no accounting for taste.
Ok….so not my favorite genre this funk sound. But he can perform and has got skills. Has a hooky chorus and is the obvious choice for Czech Republic to send to Eurovision.None of the other acts will get a better result than Gabriella did.
A 7/10.
I don’t think William known what trap is 😛
He actually said in the video…..he doesn’t know what trap is!!
Why people never say the minute? Do you really think that somebody will watch the whole video?
Well….if you’re a fan then you aught to! I don’t remember myself cause I watched it the day it was released.