My adoration for Bonnie Tyler at Eurovision this year is no big secret. I thought she gave it considerable gusto and turned a fairly limp song into a stirring, nation-rallying song…even if in the end she ended in a less than illustrious, though no less respectable 19th Place, considering the UK’s recent run of terrible finishes. That being said, and having seen WiwiBloggs.Com’s review of her album, I didn’t hold out high hopes for her new single ‘This Is Gonna Hurt’.
If you can get past the first rather off-putting listen that places you in mind of a Shania Twain B-Side from 1998, ‘This Is Gonna Hurt’ is actually quite pleasing. It gives Bonnie more attitude to work with than she had with ‘Believe In Me’ and she has an excuse to bring her raspy vocal to the fore in earnest. “This is gonna hurt, this is gonna ache, this is gonna sting like the bite from a rattlesnake,” Bonnie warns venomously through the bridge, injecting the lyrics with real bile. If I didn’t know better I’d say it was a warning shot across the bows of prospective artists across Europe considering entering Eurovision 2014. Of course there’s absolutely no chance of the BBC sending her for a second year…though I suppose stranger things have happened with the UK selection process since 2011.
It’s the kind of song in retrospect she should have sung in Sweden. It has old school Tyler rocky panache, there’s heaps of attitude and her vocal actually gets a chance to shine instead of straining in a low, slow register. ‘This Is Gonna Hurt’ bounces along and on repeated listen is actually a real gem. I loved ‘Believe In Me’, but I feel the BBC chose that song on the basis of marketing rather than actual potential. Had Tyler entered ‘This Is Gonna Hurt’, while I can’t say she’d have done astronomically better, I think she’d have placed rather nearer to the 15th Place she was awarded by the juries, than the 19th she ended up in afterwards. I love ‘Believe in Me’, but ‘This Is Gonna Hurt’ is a real breath of fresh air and feels like Bonnie’s at last taken a step toward the 21st Century, with due respect to her rock heritage.
Rating: 3.5/5
Angus Quinn contributed this report from the U.K. You can follow him on Twitter at @Angus_Quinn17. Then like our Facebook page to keep up-to-date with all the latest news and gossip.
This song is more Bonnie than Believe in me. Glad she’s back like the rockstar she is.