The Wiwi Jury—our international panel of music unprofessionals—is busy compiling Eurovision 2013 ratings and rankings. So last night we flew to Valletta to chow down on some Mediterranean cuisine and to listen to Gianluca Bezzina’s Eurovision song “Tomorrow”. Did his ditty put a spring in our step? Or did we end up throwing olive stones at him? Read on to find out…
Alexander: Malta, the kingdom of cheesy Eurovision music, is once again sending a cheesy entry! Although “Tomorrow” is a decent song, I believe that Malta should have gone with Chris Grech’s “Never Walk Away” or Davinia’s “Betrayed” instead. “Tomorrow” is weaker and more generic than either of those would have been. Nonetheless, it’s still a cheerful, pleasant and catchy song. I also disagree that it is a rip-off of Train’s “Soul Sister”–besides the ukulele and some vocal gimmicks, the two don’t have much in common. Considering he’s a doctor and not a professional singer, Gianluca has good stage presence as well.
Score: 6.5/10
Mr Häggkvist: What a sweet song… I think we all know that there is a lot of Train in this entry, the whole vibe and the way he sings. It’s a little bit too Jason Mraz, Alex Goot, Train, but I like it. It sounds good and who knows if he can convince Europe to love “Tomorrow”.
Score: 6/10
Deban: I like this song, but I’m not sure how marketable it is. Sinplus scored high marks with the Wiwi Jury last year, but failed to advance to the final. Izabo’s Time was one of those entries I had high hopes for, but sadly it failed to make the cut. This is a brave step for Malta, and in the vein of the aforementioned entries, this song may go unrewarded. Tomorrow is a mature slice of left-field pop with a generous drizzle of funk. Gianluca is a likeable character, and comes across as someone passionate about his art. With repeat listens, Tomorrow grows on you. Hopefully this will translate into votes, and free Malta from the curse of being on the cusp of qualifying.
Score: 6.5/10
HK Dick “His name is Jeremy, working in IT”…I couldn’t take it seriously after those opening lines. Although to be fair, the lyrics are actually quite sweet and contain lots of rhythmic patterns and throw in a few wo-ho-wo-ho to include a bit of audience participation. The whole thing is nicely packaged and just what you’d expect from Malta and therein lies the problem.
Score: 6/10
Bogdan: “Tomorrow” is too simple. It’s cute, but it doesn’t speak to me the way I expect a good Eurovision entry to. I am not sure it even sounds like an ESC entry – and I’m one of those people who loathes the “This is not good for Eurovision!!!!” comments on YouTube, because I like diversity. And it will certainly sound different on the stage in Malmö – which could also be in Gianluca Bezzina’s favour…But if it were up to me, I wouldn’t send it to the Grand Final.
Score: 5/10
Vebooboo: With the Lord of Rings trilogy a super hit, it wouldn’t surprise me to see hobbit Gianluca advance to the Final on pure sex appeal. But even if Gianluca looked like Lordi, he would still need to make it to Saturday’s show. This song reminds me a bit of Paradise Oskar’s entry two years ago, not at all in genre but in the overall feeling you get from the lyrics. And while our favourite Finnish twink flopped out in the Final as he hit puberty, he at least made it there. Frodo will do the same, unless some crazy Gollum (aka Dana International) bites off his vocal chords.
Score: 6/10
Wiwi: This song has the feel-good factor and it could totally be on the soundtrack of the next Shrek movie. Gianluca brings us a bit of Maltese sunshine with a mainstream sound. We’ve made comparisons to Train and Jason Mraz, but that isn’t a bad thing. This is like an exciting version of Anna Rossinelli’s song for Switzerland back in 2011. That song squeaked through to the final and finished somewhere near the bottom. I expect Malta to do a lot better than that, especially given how weak the second semi-final is and how likeable Ginalucca comes off. In these tough times Europe needs a song like this! (Though I really wish he didn’t reference an IT employee in the opening line).
Score: 6.5/10
The Wiwi Jury Verdict: 6.07/10
You can see the latest reviews and standings on the Wiwi Jury page. You can also listen to all 39 entries on our contestants page.
Amen to that Martin!
What’s not to like in this song?
Mur oqod hallas l-ostja taxxa biex imbghad joqodu jonfquhom f’dawn l-inbarazz. Biex iz zobb tridna nibhu jekk lanqas hadd ma jikkulka la lil Malta.
Nispera li ma nergawx namlu dik il kummiedja li kulhadd jivvota l-Italja bhas sena l-ohra biex umbat lnqas hadna punt minn ghandom. Qumu minn em boloh!
@Jamaraqueer pretty insulting comments suggest malta outsource writers for the contest..cant write good songs? u obviously havnt had much contact with maltese music…search on youtube for maltese singer songwriters , theres alot of talent in malta…just because not everyone chooses to go down the eurovision road doesnt mean they cant write songs …and as for Gianlucas song, i think its a happy easy listening song and he is an immediately likeable guy…1st impressions count…
thank you daniel for your 12 points hope that malta win sometimes we deseve it for once 🙂 go europe vote for malta this year thanks
very beutiful song i loved it the first time i heard it 12 points going to malta
nice song 😀 it will be in top 5 🙂
@jamaraqueer i think u need to shut up and stop insulting the maltese if you dont like the song just say so but your coments are redeculars for me and for allot of people around europe malta have a good song this year and i hope it will do well so my 12 points are going to malta 🙂
Wow, jam’queer – that’s pretty racist.
cute eurovision song thanks evrybody who is supporting this song hope to c u all in sunny and freindly malta next year oh oh oh oh hes name is jeremy working in I. T 🙂 go malta
Never sure about using proper names in a song. Especially Jeremy. When he looks like Clark Kent in Superman. Trevor is another name NEVER to use in a song. Also, I never expected the hear the words ‘Risk Assessment’ in a Eurovision song. Happy, cheery, and sing-along-able and oddly catchy.
I can’t think of any Eurovision songs that are exclusively constructed and performed by nationals of the country competing. Why criticize an entry because “foreigners” have had a hand in it. I rather like this song – I am wondering about putting a bet on it.
<3 MALTA <3
WE LOVE YOU
FROM AZERBAIJAN
He is lovely man and sweet song <3 Best luck Malta <3 With love from Azerbaijan 🙂
Could I see Kurt again soon? 🙂 He is gorgeous 😛
ATTENTION, PLEASE !
———————–
Serbian guy BORIS CEZEK is composer of the Maltese song “Tomorrow” ! How about that ?
That’s why our Maltese friends will not be alone “w/o neighbours” as someone mentioned here. Hold on, Serbia is coming with a lot of votes for Malta, because “Tommorow” is the most original, charming, cheerful and very catchy song that already after first few tacts called the booty shake 🙂
All the best. See you in Grand Final. Good Luck !
It’s a nice feel good song; sorta like a Bruno Mars tribute. Unfortunately the video sold it for me so I’m not sure it’ll be engaging when performed live.
Simply love it. Gianluca is grand. Wish him well and hpe to see Eurovision in Malta next year.
<3 MALTA – AZERBAIJAN <3
A basic ditty that encourages spontaneity via the lyrics and video. Doesn’t work for me and doesn’t deserve the high scores that wiwi jury gave it.
Seriously? I love this song, it’s fun, fresh and has an appeal that might allow it to do well. For some reason countries seem to want to enter heavy ballads, when has such a song won? All winning entries from UK have been fun and simple songs. If there was ever a chance of a holding Eurovision in Malta this is the song to do it.
Martin… who works in IT!
redarrow, it’d be a lot easier to read your postings or take them seriously if you didn’t shout at everyone. Un-caps-lock, please … 😉 I quite like this song. Sure, it’s not a potential winner and only a borderline-qualifier, but it’s a song I can listen to many times without starting to hate it. And I applaud Malta for not buying in Swedish songwrites like everyone else seems to do these days, I respect doing your own stuff even if it doesn’t get you the big trophy. Can anyone explain to me what’s so horribe about “His name is Jeremy,… Read more »
YEAH IAM SHURE YOU WOULD BUT FINDING ANOTHER THING TO CRITISICES OUR SONG . AS WIWI JURY ALWAYS DO .
I have to agree with Alexander. I am Maltese myself but it is evident that ‘Tomorrow is not a quality song. Charming, yes but Amazing, no. Even I would not give it more than a 7/10. I mean you can’t compare it to Chris Grech “never Walk Away’ or Davinia’s ‘Betrayed’. And though there is a LOT of neighbouring voting in Eurovision, quality songs are given points (maybe not as much as they deserve, but still, e.g. Quedate Conmigo, L’amore e femmina etc.
Redarrow, I don’t think any of us are against Malta. I was even in Malta last year and loved it! 🙂
You can make a case that the Eurovision televoting is political and neighbor-biased, but I don’t think that’s true for the Wiwi Jury. If Malta had sent Chris Grech’s “Never Walk Away”, I would give Malta a very high score like 9/10 🙂
EVRY YEAR AND EVRY SONG THAT MALTA SENDS TO THE EUROVISION WIWI JURY ALWAYS HAVE TO FIND SOMETHING WRONG ABOUT THE SONG OR IF NOT ABOUT THE SINGER . THATS BECAUSE WE ARE A SMALL ISLAND ? THE ONLY THINK THAT WE DONT DO VERY WELL IN EUROVISION IS BECAUSE MOST OF THE COUNTRYS VOTE FOR THE NIEGHBOURS AND U KNOW IT WE HAVE NO NIEGHBOURS WE ARE JUST A SMALL ISLAND IN THE MIDDLE OF THE MEDITARANIAN . WHATEVER HOPE MALTA WILL DO WELL THIS YEAR MAYBE SOMEDAY EUROPE WILL START VOTEING FOR THE SONG NOT FOR THE NIEGHBOURS… Read more »
I like this song even if it is basically Train meets Jazon Mraz. They were god artists!
If Malta wants to get higher ratings they need to (1) stop having a national selection — the maltese simply don’t know how to choose and (2) outsource their songwriting to the Swedes — the maltese simply don’t know how to write a good song.
Hmm, pretty interesting that all the reviewers gave Malta a similar score 🙂 We were the most consistent on this one!