In 2013 Georgia’s Nodi Tatishvili and Sophie Gelovani tanked in the grand final with their generic ballad “Waterfall”. So, in 2014, Georgia have taken an “out-of-the-box” approach and chosen the fusion jazz band The Shin & Mariko with “Three Minutes to Earth”. The song left our jury completely baffled and with our mouths on the floor. Today we are looking at the lyrics of this unusual song and trying to make sense of it all.
The lyrics of “Three Minutes to Earth” were written by Eugen Eliu, a Romanian folk musician who emigrated to West Germany in the seventies. While he was there he met and befriended the members of The Shin, a Georgian band that formed in Germany as well. Together with singer Mariko Ebralidze, the band was chosen to represent Georgia at Eurovision this year, and they called their Romanian friend to pen the lyrics.
The folk, jazz, and rock sound of the band transpired into the song “Three Minutes to Earth”, which is reminiscent of the olden days when, as our parents say, “music was made with real instruments and great voices”. The lyrics, too, seem to hail from that time. The “stairway to Earth” is clearly a nod to Led Zeppelin’s “Stairway To Heaven”, except now it’s pointed downwards. The “peace and light everywhere” line reminds us of the peaceful flower power movement. “Pick up all the rainbow buds from the sky” is another little poetic gem that seems the result of a magic mushroom-infused brainstorm. And, if you are wondering what the last line of the song (“We are going shin”) means, wonder no more: “Shin” is the Georgian word for “home” (in this case, the Earth) – and, of course, the name of the band. You’re welcome.
The song’s message, then, seems rather simple: No matter how distant or how removed we are, we ultimately all just want to go home.
Are the lyrics, once you understand them, making you like this off-the-wall song a bit more?
The Shin & Mariko – “Three Minutes To Earth” lyrics
Shin… Shin…
Home, home, through the star trail of a lonely star,
home to the Earth where we belong, belong to…
Dazzling light of mankind’s emotion:
Show us the stairway to come back to Earth – sky diver’s space jump!
Lead those three minutes longin’ for love,
Peace and light everywhere…
Pick up all the rainbow buds from the sky,
All the tries, all the whys,
Three minutes to Earth for you and for me.
Show us the stairway to come back to Earth – sky diver’s space jump!
Lead those three minutes longin’ for love,
Peace and light everywhere…
Show us the stairway to come back to Earth – sky diver’s space jump!
Dress up the stairway to Earth with no sigh – rock the boat of ragged despair!
Pick up all the rainbow buds from the sky,
hear the chime – now’s the time:
Three minutes time to Earth for you and me
take our breath away as we fly…
Anytime, anywhere, we are going SHIN.
Bogdan Honciuc is a Romania-based correspondent for WiwiBloggs.com. You can follow him on Twitter @stingovision. You can also keep up-to-date with the latest Eurovision news and gossip by following the team on Twitter @wiwibloggs and by liking our Facebook page.
Photo: Thomas Hanses (EBU)
Best thing I have heard in a long long time. How refreshing. Brings back memories of the hotel band out in Kenya (1995). Great to hear some complexity in the beat. Thoroughly bewitching and deserves a contest after-life.
BRILLIANT!
So original, daring…very skilled. It takes a lot of quality to make this. Maybe too good for it’s own good in ESC. But it’s indeed one of the most geunine and musically interesting songs this year
@ Frank Les Pays Bas – Very funny comment indeed! I just can’t agree (on the “crime against humanity” bit, not the fact that it won’t win). Maybe it will get through to the final, and if it comes after “Calm After the Storm” the juries will be able to rig the votes while Europe is asleep? You see, it is not nice to make nasty fun of the contestants 😛
@Dhani, are you kidding me? This song is a crime against humanity, no matter what the message is.
@ Julian – you may not know that much English (I insist you understand a great deal, though), but your interpretation is as valid as anybody’s. And a beautiful one, if you ask me! I also “see things” in this song. From Wiwibloggs initial destruction of the song to this article something must have clicked in their minds, for they are now finally respectful. You know, you may not like the song, but there is no denying it is a gem for ESC. @ Dhani – Oh, if only!! I guess the only recent example of a complex and rich… Read more »
georgia will win ESC 2014, mark my words!
I may be talking nonsense and don’t know English 100% so please forgive my errors. My understanding of the song is that earth/home is a metaphore of death, death being understood as a return to mother nature. And the 3 minutes is a metaphore of our life between people that is understood as passing really quick – “sky diver’s space jump”. Life comes with emotions, with happy moments that we must be able to enjoy – “pick up the rainbow buds from the sky”, life is a continuous search for love – “Lead those three minutes longin’ for love”, life… Read more »
http://i61.tinypic.com/2enmc6p.png <—-
Maybe?
http://evolutionfacts.com/Evolution-handbook/E-H-3a.htm
” . . . Those major rock formations came into existence within a space of less than three minutes time! Incredible? Yes! But scientific evidence confirms it.”