Sometimes admitting things aren’t as good as they could be is key to setting yourself free. And so it goes for Eden Alene’s Eurovision 2021 song “Set Me Free”, which is set to undergo a revamp for Eurovision 2021.
Israeli Eurovision site EuroMix has confirmed with sources close to Eden and her songwriters that the song will be reworked once more before it hits the Eurovision stage in Rotterdam. EuroMix writes:
“The decision was made at the request of the composers in light of the heavy criticism that was heard about the song, and with the approval of Aroma Music, the record company where the singer is signed, and with the support of the Israeli Broadcasting Corporation.”
It’s thought Eden’s team plan to submit the new version by mid-March when the Head of Delegations meeting takes place. However, the same sources tell EuroMix that KAN believes the EBU will still grant them approval to update their song after this point, just as they did with Kobi Marimi’s Eurovision 2019 entry “Home”. That means we may not hear the final version until the end of March.
KAN previously confirmed on Twitter that the song has an alternate version entirely in Hebrew called “Khofshiya”, which means “free”. It’s not clear how heavily they will borrow from this other version.
In January, Israel’s national final determined which of three songs Eden would perform in Rotterdam. It was based solely on pre-recorded music videos rather than live performances. “Set Me Free” beat out “La La Love” and “Ue La La” with over 70% of the televote.
Eden Alene won Israel’s Eurovision 2020 selection “The Next Star”, and a song selection later paired her with “Feker Libi”. She was invited back to Eurovision 2021 following the cancellation of last year’s show.
Are you excited to hear the revamp? What would you like to change about “Set Me Free”? Let us know in the comments section below!
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I can’t help feeling that the four co-writers of the song need as many training wheels as they can afford. It’s like they’re taking a remedial course they hope to complete before mid-March. It’s inconceivable that a demo version is written in 3 to 4 days and submitted at the very last minute when any serious writer would spend at least a few weeks if not months on penning their thoughts properly. The first revamp and the video clip obviously convinced people that there is something promising about the song, but the reality is that it sounds like a bad… Read more »
good news
i mean this is good because they know they won’t qualify without a possible revamp so…
Deadline for submission of final version of song is the HoD meeting in April. They can choose an entirely different song if they want. And even after the deadline they can tweak the song with approval of the Reference Group.
As much as I am not a big fan of late stage revamps, Set Me Free definitely needs one ASAP. As it is now, it is a bland pop tune that could get lost in the semi-final and break Israel’s qualification streak. I hope it turns out well and is enough to get Eden to the final, even if it’s borderline.
Revamps are tricky, they can sometime redeem a song (e.g. Made of stars, which would never had reached the final in its original form) but many times they ruin good songs (e.g. Përrallë which lost all of its magic and uniqueness in the revamp) and most of the times they’re too mild to make a difference. In Israel’s case this time it seems like they’re not aiming for a top position but rather just trying to cut their losses. The song isn’t terrible but it’s just not making any impact – and that’s the worst thing for a Eurovision song.… Read more »
The drama continues, they should pray to get a good placement in the semi’s, the finals are kinda to hard for Israel this year!
It’s kind of shady to quickly revamp the song at this stage after you’ve heard most of the competition.
Only a third of the songs are out and Albania does it every year…
Why is improving and polishing a song considered shady? Everyone should do the best they can. If other contestants have better songs there is no need to worry
It annoys me when Albania do it too. But at this late stage we should be getting finished versions. It does feel in the slightest bit organic putting songs out there, getting the reaction and pulling it back in for a revamp. It’s tacky and shows unprofessionalism in terms of production and overall faith in the delegations ability. And yes only a third of songs are out, but still, the competition is becoming clearer and stronger songs are coming to the fore. Trends are emerging in what eurofans are into this year and it’s just cheap and shady to revamp… Read more »
Or, you can be Azerbaijan and wait for everyone else to release and we don’t get to hear the song until a week after the deadline.
So the song is released and then judged on the negative feedback they decide to revamp.
Basically, audience feedback is used to craft the song. It’s like a form of crowdsourcing.
I just read that Belgium already recorded the back-up performance last week before they publically released the song.
Guess Belgium has a lot of confidence in their entry! Deservedly so.
EBU should insist on an even playing field.
I’m sure the Belgian delegation will be in Rotterdam this year, it’s like a 2 hour drive from Rotterdam to Belgium.
Well seeing as Australia are ‘99% sure’ they’re going to be there you’re probably right!
Frankly, they have right to do so. The deadline is set and you can do whatever you want as long as you obey the rules. If all countries did the same thing and listened to the international fans we would have much better entries.
nothing will top feker libi… that was the whole package
Feker Libi was in the 20s in the odds. Let’s not pretend that it was a winner.
WE WANT MORE ISRAELI AND AMHARIC ELEMENTS!
Here we go again…. Who’s next in the line?
This desperation lmao.
The only change I care about is getting rid of the final key change.
They revamped Made of Stars well in 2016, but does Set Me Free need one? It’s fine enough as it is.
It needs lyrical revamp rather than the instrumental one TBH. They might take it the wrong way and revamp the instrumental instead, but it’s certainly not needed.
I’m just a revamp of a revamp of a revamp of a revamp. 😉
I mean, if someone knows how to properly revamp songs, it’s Israel (case in point – 2016), so this might even work. But the very fact that the winning song gets another revamp is a testament of how messy this whole selection was.
Hope it works it desperately needs it.
Finally Israel
For all that Wiwibloggs readers aren’t generally fans of this song, on Youtube it has 20k likes to 1.4k dislikes, which is a pretty steep ratio. If they are indeed going to revamp, it might be best to tread lightly. But it depends on what kinds of ideas they come up with of course. For me personally the song is generally fine; it has a good groove and Eden owns the track. I would only recommend changing the ending to eliminate the pause and the key change, and replace them with something creative that keeps the groove going. Here, they… Read more »
Oops, at the end of this comment I meant that the note with which Eden ended the phrase before the key change (F sharp), is not in the new key (F major)
After last year it has to hurt that the song by now is not good enough the way it is. Still I understand their decision and keep my fingers crossed that it turns out to be the right way. As for now I do believe it’s the only option for them to still be in the game and not to stay in the semis. I can’t imagine what the revamp could sound like but I’m really hoping for a Made-of-Stars-revamp…
I really love the current version, but if a revamp is inevitable, then focus on the percussion in the second verse. A bit of hebrew could help, but i feel it could make it more ‘all over the place’ and it seems people feel that the song is all over the place already.
I honestly believe that at this point set me free is the most underestimated song of this year. Anyway, let’s hope that the revamp wins people over, and doesn’t lose me
The problem with this song for me (and I had the same problem with Eden’s song last year) is that it feels like they wanted to put many different modern and ethinc sounds in one song and it feels forced. It kind of feels that some parts of the song don’t really go together very well, it’s like 4 different songs combined in one. Also the lyrics are super cheesy and sometimes don’t make sense. Overall, I think it’s an okay song, it’s catchy and I quite like it, but these problems that I mentioned before prevent me from really… Read more »
she should do what jennifer lopez did in the early 2000s: record a completely different song with the same title and call it a “remix”. eden deserves better !
Ain’t it funny (pun intended), I thought of the same thing. 🙂 I’m (for) real. 😛
your comment gave me peace of mind <3
Happy to offer that. 🙂
That’s a good news, but I’m not sure it will save the song. “Feker libi” was amazing (by far my favorite song last year). I liked the way it celebrated Eden and Israel’s multicultural identities. But “Set me free” is just bland and generic. I hope the revamp will work though, cause Eden is a great singer and deserves better.
About that, it’s funny how everyone said Feker Libi was “ethnic” or whatever but the fact is it was written and produced by three white men. I did like the combination of languages though.
now I understand the fandom obsession with “ethnic sounds”, for many far-left leaning fans, it simply means “not white” , hence, automatically “amazing”.
Not only this is not what ethnic means (and the east European white voice IS ethnic, for example) , It is also very sad to see those people trying to erase racism from sociaty by being racists themselves. Being racist yo the other side is still being racist.
And I am middle eastern, not white.
Mahi Mahi, you are right. Nobody really cares about culture because they would have been wiser themselves. Culture is changing every single day.
I think when esc fans talk of ethnic sounds (or at least my interpretation of it) is instrumentation that is native to the country the artist is representing or their own ethnicity.
Yes, this is what ethnic should mean.
unfortunately people today think it’s ok to twist the reality to match their twisted narrative..
Let me clarify. I like Feker Libi, I love Eden and I’m Israeli and I know what Israeli and Ethiopian-Israeli music sounds like. One of the languages in the song for example, was described as a “made up African language.” The entire song was specifically *manufactured* to *seem ethnic*. So I think some parts of it just seemed a bit forced and kind of fake to me. But still very enjoyable. Peace.
Benny Cristo might know a guy. Let him hook them up.
just send the be be be one instead thnx
We’ll see. I must say I like it as it is, but I seem to be one of the few who does.
I am seriously the only 1 who really likes Set me free the way it freaking is.. Good pop record, blast the hell out of it in the car
yeah you think it’s gonna be a blast and then the chorus happens and she’s just there saying oh oh oh over and over as if someone’s just broken up with her, definitely not rememberable so it needs a revamp . I’m not saying your opinion is wrong, but it definitely needs a revamp
I think they need to take the prominent bass out of the chorus. It makes it sound like the type of music they’d have in the background of a Boots advert here in the UK and that just doesn’t fit in with the intensity that Eden can perform.
Revamp it to Rakata. Or Roots. Or Feker Libi. These were the hits.
No revamp can save this song.
Unless they completely change the entire song
That’s a good decision because with the current form of the song, imo, they wouldn’t qualify.
Something about the result seems kinda fishy. There’s no way that Set Me Free got over 70% of the vote while being the song least hyped-up.
It seems unnatural that it got so many votes while being the least popular out of the three. I’m not saying it was for sure rigged, but something seems off…
How did you measure that popularity?
I mean the fact that set me free was a wildcard? It didn’t even come top 2 in the original vote which was pretty much done by the same people. So how does it now magically get to 70%? I’m not saying KAN rigged it but maybe the songwriters behind set me free mangers to do so.. I’m not sure, but set me free definitely did not win 70% of the vote, whether it would have won or not
SMF was also not my first choice but just because fans inside the bubble didn’t go for it doesn’t mean for the rest…
You sound unpleasant.
Yes the result is weird..
Kan didn’t succeed in advertising the national selection to the mass,and because of that the amount of voters was quite low, and the result might not really reflect the opinion of the general people. Plus, maybe other fishy things happened but it’s not important now haha.
Anyway,kan already gave up on finding the artist for 2022! It’s going back to a talent show.
Set me Free was my 1st actually and I as well find it odd that it won. If you look at the reaction on KAN’s facebook it had the least interactions.. so yeah people did not dislike it, but weren’t also crazy about it to vote for it. And also it came 4th in the round before that.. so yeah it’s a bit weird.
Nooooooooooooooooo 🙁