Early this morning the Wiwi Jury—our in-house panel of musical unprofessionals—woke up in Dublin after a long night of clubbing and headed to a café for an Irish breakfast consisting of bacon rashers, sausages, fried eggs, white pudding, black pudding, toast and fried tomato. Then we ordered a side of Can-linn featuring Kasey Smith, and sat down to review their Eurovision 2014 song “Heartbeat”. Did it get our hearts racing with the thought of a Eurovision win for Eire? Or did “Heartbeat” simply lead to “Heartache”? Read on to find out…
Padraig: Given the circumstances of the Irish final, “Heartbeat” is a rather apt title. Between the on-air spat and the prospect of that Quigg shaped gremlin winning, my ticker was pounding at a rate of 90. Mind you, the song still makes my blood rush, but from adrenalin rather than stress. With its anthemic quality and dramatic instrumentals, it is hard not to get swept up in the whole thing. The traditional Irish music and modern pop blend perfectly, avoiding both Ryan Dolan’s gimmickry and the diddly-eye (read: hot-mess) sound of Dervish. I could nit-pick and criticise the lack of lyrical depth, but to be honest why bother? I’ll be too busy holding onto my heartbeat.
Score: 8.5/10
Wiwi: Miss Kasey Kay Smith is hotter than fire, her voice is smoother than silk, and I know a lot of you guys want to hold on to much more than her heartbeat. From the moment this song starts it gets under your skin and the Celtic vibe keeps it there. When she growls 20 seconds in she channels the strength of Aphrodite, Joan of Arc and Wonder Woman. All hail! All hail! I just hope Kasey has asked her dancers to lay off the caffeine. They were all over the place at the national final and distracted me from Kasey’s sultry voice and hip-hugging dress. Less is more, especially when you have such a fabulous singer to anchor the performance.
Score: 8.5/10
Angus: So I massively misjudged this song the first time around and am so glad to get a second shot at reviewing ‘Heartbeat’. Cometh the Celtic charm, cometh the woman! “Keep your head high above the water,” speaks to Ireland’s record at Eurovision since 2010. Niamk Kavanagh barely managed to tread water in 2010, Jedward sprang out of the water like a flying fish in 2011, came crashing down in 2012 and Ryan Dolan hit a rock and sank to the bottom in 2013. Kasey seems to be a stronger swimmer than any of the others. Thanks to the upbeat nature of the song she’ll also easily ride atop the tidal wave of ballads bearing down upon Copenhagen to a comfy finish at the Grand Final.
Score: 8/10
Bogdan: “Heartbeat” is another one of my early favourites, although after repeated listens the songs loses some of its appeal. Nonetheless, it will be a first listen for most Eurovision viewers and I think they’ll love the sound and the beauty that is Kasey Smith. Ireland deserves to be in the Grand Final again and to place a lot higher than last year. I like the rhythm and the Celtic fiddle and honestly I wouldn’t mind to see the Irish stepdancers onstage, like in Dublin. I just hope Kasey polishes her rendition, because vocally she was a bit disappointing live.
Score: 7/10
Deban: Kasey Smith has tasted success as part of a girl group, Wonderland in 2008, and as a solo star in last year’s Irish pre-selection. This year she joins Irish musical collective Can-Linn to have another stab at success. “Heartbeat” pushes her in a new direction. It’s punchy, dance-driven and current. The folky instrumental key change gives the track its Irish flavour. ‘Heartbeat’ is memorable without being invasive, and it should help maintain Ireland’s renewed appearance in the finals.
Score: 7/10
Vebooboo: So I love that this is a real song, one that you could see succeeding outside the competition. Good voice, pretty girl, decent staging. What I don’t like is the fact that it feels like so much is copied from the nation’s 2013 entry. I mean, the back-up dancers, the whole heartbeat theme. Next thing you know Can-linn will be making heart signs with her hands and winking to the audience. But seriously, on the whole this one offers something for us to react to, and for that I am so grateful.
Score: 7/10
Katie: I didn’t like this song very much at first, but my opinions have changed over time. Is it Kasey or Can-Linn that’s singing? I’m not sure, but whoever it is, I love their voice! It’s great to see some girl power from Ireland this year as it’s been only male singers for the last few years. I love the chorus, it’s such a singalong chorus and the waves of traditional Irish music are really nice too. The violin solo is a nice touch, and I really hope the song gets a good placing in Copenhagen.
Score: 8/10
Billy: Ireland selected a very nice song this year. This sex-bomb has a very nice voice, and her entry has great lyrics…“Keep your head above water”. I love this rhythm, although the country-like violins should go. Much better than last year!
Score: 8/10
Sami: Back in February I loved it, and I still do. The national final performance was a little messy, but the song is still amazing and I love Kasey’s voice. When Ryan Dolan finished in last place in the final last year, I was really sad and surprised and now I’m scared this won’t do much better. It has all the Eurovision clichés and even the same feeling as Only Teardrops, but I don’t know if European people will vote for a song with such strong ethnic elements. Anyway, it’s in my top 5 and I hope it gets a top 10 placement in Copenhagen.
Score: 10/10
Ramadan: This was my favourite in the Irish final and I’m very happy it won! A very well produced song with unique instrumentation and sounds. Kasey’s voice is so beautiful, as is the Celtic feeling of the song which makes me love it even more. It’s one of my favourite songs of the year and I hope Ireland qualifies! She reminds me of Elena from The Vampire Diaries—what a hottie! I just hope they improve the staging before Copenhagen. Well done, Ireland!
Score: 10/10
All 19 members of our jury rate each song. However, we only have room to share 10 written reviews. Here are the remaining nine scores.
Anthony: 7.5/10
Mario: 7/10
Maxim Montana: 7/10
Mike: 8/10
Francheska: 9/10
James L: 9/10
Patrick: 9.5/10
Zach: 7/10
William C: 8.1/10
The highest and lowest scores are removed before calculating the final score. We have dropped a low of 7 and a high of 10.
The Wiwi Jury Verdict: 8.06/10
You can check out our latest Eurovision 2014 reviews and rankings on the Wiwi Jury page. You can keep up-to-date on the latest Eurovision news and gossip by following the team on Twitter @wiwibloggs and by liking our Facebook page.
Meh. Boring. Formulaic. Next!
Wow. Lots of hooks in this attractive and enjoyable song to snare the voters. It cuts across the demographics and will easily make top 5. 9/10
I’d like to see Nathan write, compose and produce a eurovision song and perform it in front of 100 million people and see how well he’d do 🙂
Nathan, If it was boring and rubbish why was its lowest score only 7?, its easy to hate an entry when you won’t let is grow.
I once told another emerging music journalist that Paula Abdul never gives an entry lower than a 6. Even Paula will have to eat her own words once in a while. This song is pure rubbish – this was a painful 3 minutes and I was holding on to my heartbeat because this song is ….. sooooooooooooooooooo boring. Where is Meows Kitty when we need her back on this panel: Ewwwwwww!
ranting, stop hating on the entry, its easy to not be able to sing it after when your trying to hate on it, if it was forgettable it wouldnt have gotten top score.
Wha? Seriously? Top score so far??? To paraphrase one of Ireland’s greatest writers, this is a cliche wrapped in a Jedward! There’s no tune, nothing original, senseless lyrics; just a hot chick in too much pink lippy and some heaving bodhrans. Ask yourself this: what is this song about? Do you care? Can you dance to it? Can you sing it 10 minutes after you’ve heard it? (Neither can I. That’s what we love about ESC …)
Trolls are everywhere on this article, i hope Wiwiblogg moderators delete these comments about Azerbaijan and Armenia conflicts they add nothing and have nothing to do with Ireland or the Irish entry!
Also Ulster is in Ireland and as an Irish citizen who lives in the Irish province of Ulster, I shall support my countries entry!
Vote Ireland people!
10/10
10/10 from me! Great vocals, traditional but modern feel and fantastic song for performing on stage! It is currently favourite to win in: Norway Estonia FYR Macedonia Predicted to come 2nd in: Russia Turkey Predicted to come 3rd in: Armenia Ireland is also favourite to win the 2nd Semi-Final according to Wiwi poll and currently in 2nd place to win the ESC according to another Wiwi poll! Dublin is a world class city that would host an amazing ESC, Ireland is also a great country with good relations with all Eurovision countries. Ireland/Kasey/Can-linn deserve to win!! EUROPE, VOTE IRELAND THIS… Read more »
I have not watched her national finals performance, and I have a feeling this might end up a shock non-qualifier. Do the juries watch the music videos as well? While the vocal performance is certainly good enough to qualify, the official video they sent to ESC hardly tells us anything. In the official video, was that the actual recording session (like Anouk’s last year), or a RE-ENACTMENT of her recording session? If it’s the latter (which I suspect), that is what dragged her down on my scorecard. I hope they have a kick-ass stage performance ready for the show, because… Read more »
@mikateriyan
Well, I think that people are sick and tired of traditional Irish sound. This could have been a more modern pop song and a stronger contender without it, in my opinion. And “hold onto my heartbeat” sounds a little pretentious, doesn’t it?
@srebrenko, judging ireland from the NF performance isn’t that clever, you can see from the last few years the difference between the way ireland perform there song on the NF and at the esc, secondly you are the first person I’ve seen that dosent like the irish instruments and people know its irish so they won’t care about that, and i very much know they won’t care about the line *hold onto my heartbeat* and won’t zoom in on one line in the song
I didn’t like her staging, to be more precise – her dancers performing that odd dance, and I didn’t like the sound of the traditional Irish instruments in this song, because we heard it so many times in Eurovision that it sounds a little annoying now. I also don’t like the line – “Hold on to my heartbeat…” But I think it’s good enough to qualify for the grand final. By the way, she is a beautiful woman.
There is alot of talk of an Irish win this year in the poll ‘Who will win Eurovision 2014?’. 😀 . After Ireland overtook Israel in the Reviews and Rankings,
Do you think that Ireland has a good chance this year?
Please tell me what you think. 🙂
Such stage presence! Such voice! this is my favorite this year!
@Marcello N.
Keep in mind that most of these bloggers are teenagers. Please do not generalize and try to stay open minded. Most of these comments are rubbish and we all know that most educated and evolved:) Armenians and Azeris would feel ashamed of these clowns.
Piece.
Glad to see Angus has had a change of heart since his last review. Keeping fingers crossed for a good result for Ireland this year. Not convinced it’s a contender for the win but hopefully top 15 at least. I think Ireland would have to have an absolutely outstanding song to get attention from the newer countries in the contest to win the Eurovision again anytime in the near future. It feels like Ireland gets the same treatment as the big 5 with regard to voting but doesn’t get any of the benefits!
@Javid
On a platform like this, for an international competition like the eurovision; you are here representing your country. Right now I can’t imagine they’d be very happy with your comments.
This is a song competition. Forget about politics and focus on the beautiful music being brought to the stage by ALL 37 countries.
Love it- just wish it was like the olden days where UK and Ireland battle it out for the top spot- but that will never happen again!!!! lol
Ideally would like:
1st- UK
2nd- Ireland
3rd- Spain
i hope this reach the top5… but sweden will win
Please let us focus our comments on the Irish entry. This editorial space is divorced from what goes on in the political sphere, and has no ties with any nation or geopolitical zone. Let’s respect and embrace the spirit of inclusion. Thank you.
Javid is excited because of that moment in the year where the rest of the world acknowledges the existence of his country
http://www.tonymacx86.com/attachments/user-builds/27083d1344398619-great-success-yo-mangs-hack-pro-3930k-gtx670-sabertooth-x79-56k-warn-great-success.jpg
@Javid wow seriously no comment .I have nothing to talk to you .I do not want to be as low as you are .Sorry : /
@Honkeyponkey Marj thanks for your hatred towards us : / wow
I can not get how can you use that serious topic and even call it fake,seriously .
I wish you good luck guys .I hope your country will win so all these efforts won’t be lost : /
@Hokeypokey Marj Exactly ; ))
@Armenian guy you stupid ,which Azeri can be a friend with you ??? He must be betrayer then .You killed us stupid b/tch .We can not be friends with you .You destroyed us fcking gypsy!!
@All Losers I see you talk shit about me huh. Me spent billion because we have billion. Deal with it .
And @Kenan you are also a betrayer .Shame on you .Go kiss gypsy Europeans and Armenians as$. See how they talk about us .I even doubt that you are Azeri. -.-
Lovely girl, lovely song …. But maybe a tad to generic and predictable.
Anyway, I would actually like her to qualify
@Kenan bro calm down .Every nation has fanatics. Please if you see a fanatic Azeri do not blame him being a Armenian, that dude clearly warships your country . Here I see trolls making Armenian’s names black as well. Should I suspect them to be an Azeri ? : ) Who knows ? Maybe they come from other nations?? But this guy seems really Nationalist so leave him .I personaly have Azeri friend and I know that there are good Azeris too . However I see Azeri guys like Javid alot ,who only wear shirts with Azerbaijan flag .So please… Read more »
@Javid azerbaijan isn’t even in europe, or a transparent democracy you never submit any of your own songs and they are always composed by a swedish team, and don’t forget this is primarily a “SONG” contest, therefore you have never won it through your own merits also, when you hosted the contest in 2012, it was one of the worst because it felt like it was only a tourism campaign, from the interval act to postcards, everything was just purely to advertise those two flamey towers ! I believe the 2010 contest was so much better and it only cost… Read more »
@woz, sorry, when i read your comment i thought you came across as a hater, last years song was a song that was never going to do well in the juries, so i knew it would do badly unless it got a ridiculously high tele vote, this song has a lot more tele vote appeal than only love survives, it won’t win the jury of course but the jurys will respect it if the staging is right and her vocals are in check, the other thing important for ireland is not to use celtic graphics and just stick to the… Read more »
One of my favorite songs of 2014, Ireland is in my top 5 along with Sweden, Armenia, Hungary and Israel. I don’t get tired of the Irish entry – It’s really lovable and unpretentious. Sweet melody and singer.
@ello you missunderstood me. I meant no hate at all. I’m not a fan of this song, but I loved Ryan Dolan’s last year. Being from a country that haven’t being well treated since televoting was stablished myself, I wish the best to Ireland. But I think it’s not going to happen this time either, specially after last year injustice. Again: good luck from Spain.
Woz : there being cruel to the british entry actually, its nice there are haters like you here, must mean that this entry has a chance, if it was really that bad you wouldn’t be here hating on it.
why is an azeri talking shit about a nation that has never done anything wrong to them, they should save it for the armenian review, the azeris are just sad because they know they will get kicked out once armenia win this year.
@luke, the reason it isn’t high in the bookies is because its only been performed live once and that live performance wasn’t great. when you see the rehearsals it will then go up.
I love this song. But I hope that staging of the song will be better than in Irish final. I didnt like her dress there. Good luck to Ireland. 🙂 PS. I dont even think that Javid is an azeri. I can’t even find anything patriotic in his comments. He is just trolling. I love armenians as well as other nations. But they got some people who are pretending to seem azeri to make such things in eurovision related pages. Not that we dont have people like Javid, all the nations got its bad and good people. But its obvious… Read more »
I really don’t like this song, banal and unoriginal. Luckily the odds don’t match with WiwiJury’s score.
Javid,
You have no class at all. Is that even the mindset of a typical Azeri? I don’t think so. You are not speaking for anyone because you are all talksh*t. You have a mind of an immature person who thinks that when your country wins, you are automatically superior among others. I bet many Azeris even look down on you and I just feel so sorry for you.
The second is the official one? ^_^
I’ve already read a review about Ireland entry some months ago:
http://wiwibloggs.com/2014/02/26/wiwi-jury-reviews-can-linn-feat-kasey-smith-heartbeat/39142/
I mean Javid, autocorrect changed it to Jarvis! Damn it
Jarvis is literally the whole reason every country in the world takes the piss out of places like Azerbaijan. Most people have barely heard of it, mate. If Azerbaijan are so amazing, why didn’t they get anywhere near qualifying for the World Cup? They are good at one thing, and that sure isn’t human rights. Get a grip, you fool.
While I respect each and every one’s opinion, I really can’t see what is all the fuss about the Irish entry. The song is not moving, no matter how many dramatic moves the singer/dancers/violinist are willing to do in a 3 minutes performance, and it lacks a must needed crescendo for that type of song. It is nice but most certainly forgettable… It will make it to the final but will not end in top 5. As last note, I wonder – is 2014’s javid actually 2013’s Nikki??? Their rants and patriotic statements, as well as their google translate’s broken… Read more »
I’m surprised at the blazing hot reception this song has received. Personally, I find it a weakly composed and averagely sung, albeit hooky, derivative entry, with especially annoying word salad lyrics. It’s quite low in my ranks, atm. Nevertheless, good luck Ireland! Especially at finding a better song next year.
in polls online and a scoreboard of the highest points in top 37 videos between belarus,finland and ireland theres only one winner and thats ireland, ireland are ranked 10-9th on it, finaldn are 20th and belarus are in the 30s, so based on that ireland should be remembered better, plus there staging with irish dancers will make it more memorable.
@Fikri, being a similar genre and sound a little bit similar dosent count as plagiarism, stop trying to delude yourself please.
i’m seriously doubting wiwiblogg’s juries capability i reviewing song. this song is giving me only teardrops vibe… you gotta deduct some marks for plagiarism, seriously!
Dublin 2015?
Dear Europeans if you see a troll writing about 45 million dead Armenians then be sure he/she is not Armenian 🙂 We exactly know how many were dead(which is not this scary 45 million .Thanks God) . it is serious topic for us , we would not use it to spam other’s articles.
I want to apologies instead of these hearless people ,who use our name to spam articles. I do not know which country they come from …Shame on them : (
Anyways Good luck guys!! 🙂 Good luck to beautiful Kesay! 🙂
I’m surprised this is the highest scoring song here so far. I mean It’s a nice song and should probably qualify, but still quite bland and forgettable IMHO.
Javid is just a troll. We all should ignore him. He sounds like an arrogant peasant from a country where winning a song contest is a state affair, where you get interrogated by the police for voting for the wrong country (Armenia) and it’s president is so desperate to win that he is able to send a delegation to buy some votes and his own son in law to compete. I don’t know about you but all this sounds third-worldish to me. A bunch of Borats with some oil and a questionable taste in ballads and plastic surgery divas.
z4t : your saying moldova is stronger than ireland, your having a laugh pal.
@Javid Azeris are pathetic if they really think to win eurovision 2014 with “start a fire” no chance pal >:)