The Wiwi Jury – our international in-house panel of music un-professionals – is over halfway through our grand tour of Europe. We’ve heard the fab, the drab and the ruul, ruul ugly (Georgia that shade was for you). The jury has gotten bigger, the opinions have gotten fiercer and the scores have gotten harsher. You have to work if you want to impress this panel. Jurors from across the world – including Finland, Australia, the United Kingdom, the United States, Ireland, Croatia and Hungary to name just a few of the countries represented – have cast their opinions and made their voices heard. With 21 of the 37 entries reviewed and ranked, it’s time for a halfway round-up.
Leading the jury with an impressive average of 8.06 is Ireland’s Can-Linn and Kasey with their song ‘Hearbeat’. It well and truly lit the jury’s fire. Their lowest score was a 7. That’s higher than some country’s highest scores! The Irish entry came within .30 of last year’s Wiwi Jury winner Anouk and her song ‘Birds’.
Close but robbed of victorious champagne is Israel’s fierce diva Mei Feingold and her song ‘Same Heart’. We loved her music video, her stage presence and her threat to ‘skin’ someone out, but that didn’t stop her from receiving a 0 from one of our jurors. Of course, that 0 didn’t stop her from averaging an impressive 7.66.
Rounding out the all-female Top 3 is Italy’s Emma Marrone and her dark rock track ‘La Mia Citta’. We loved how Emma slayed in her video but a few of our jurors were left wanting a little più.
At the opposite end of the spectrum we have a song crying for attention, one crying for tolerance and one…well one that just left us crying (hysterically or otherwise). Lithuania only scored a 2.91 for ‘Attention’. Vilija was slammed for ‘squawking’, attacked because she ‘shrieks’ and reprimanded for the fashion faux pas of that tutu. MEOW.
Iceland’s Pollapönk didn’t get off much easier either with an average score of 2.85. Some found it intolerable, some found the fashion questionable and some…found them voiceless.
In last place is Georgia and its song ‘Three Minutes To Earth’. The fact they merit their own paragraph speaks volumes about all the Jury’s feelings about the Shin and Mariko. One of us cited Nicki and pleaded please ‘don’t play that song again.’ That set the tone for what we thought about the Georgian entry – there was a suggestion to pull the staircase from under them to keep them in orbit, derided as bizarre and most damningly labelled, “a hotchpotch of musical calamities.” Yikes.
The Wiwi Jury Rankings as of 22nd April 2014:
Eurovision 2014 reviews and rankings
1. Ireland: Can-linn feat Kasey Smith with “Heartbeat” (8.06)
2. Israel: Mei Finegold with “Same Heart” (7.66)
3. Italy: Emma Marrone with “La Mia Citta” (7.51)
4. Azerbaijan: Dilara with “Start a Fire” (6.76)
5. Greece: Freaky Fortune feat. Riskykidd with “Rise Up” (6.62)
6. FYR Macedonia: Tijana Dapcevic with “To the Sky” (6.5)
7. Estonia: Tanja with “Amazing” (6.45)
8. Montenegro: Sergej Cetkovic with “Moj svijet” (My World) (6.25)
9. Slovenia: Tinkara Kovach with “Spet/Round and Round” (6.21)
10. Finland: Softengine with “Something Better” (6.19)
11. Belgium: Axel Hirsoux with “Mother” (5.15)
12. Switzerland: Sebalter with “Hunter of Stars” (5.12)
13. Portugal: Suzy with “Quero Ser Tua” (4.8)
14. Netherlands: The Common Linnets with “Calm After the Storm” (4.44)
15. Russia: The Tolmachevy Twins with “Shine” (4.43)
16. Malta: Firelight with “Coming Home” (4.02)
17. Belarus: Teo with “Cheesecake” (3.6)
18. Latvia: Aarzemnieki with ‘Cake To Bake‘ (3.03)
19. Lithuania: Vilija Mataciunaite with “Attention” (2.91)
20. Iceland: Pollapönk with “No prejudice” (2.85)
21. Georgia: The Shin with “Three Minutes to Earth” (1.79)
Eurovision 2014 contestants left to review
Albania: Hersiana Matmuja with “One Night’s Anger”
Armenia: Aram Mp3 with “Not Alone”
Austria: Conchita Wurst with “Rise like a Phoenix”
Denmark: Basim with “Cliché Love Song”
France: Twin Twin with “Moustache”
Germany: Elaiza with “Is it Right”
Hungary: András Kállay-Saunders with “Running”
Moldova: Cristina Scarlat with “Wild Soul”
Norway: Carl Espen with “Silent Storm”
Poland: Donatan and Cleo with “Slavic Girls”
Romania: Paula Seling & Ovi with “Miracle”
San Marino: Valentina Monetta with “Maybe”
Spain: Ruth Lorenzo with “Dancing in the Rain”
Sweden: Sanna Nielsen with “Undo”
Ukraine: Maria Yaremchuk with “Tick-Tock”
United Kingdom: Molly Smitten-Downes with “Children of the Universe”
Related Links
- Wiwi Jury: Read all of our 2013 reviews and rankings
- Wiwi Jury: Read all of our 2012 reviews and rankings
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.
I am not a fan of the song but the Italian entry is killer live. I think that like Mei Finegold, Emma Marrone can come across as rough and I really like that. 🙂 I don’t really like songs that are too soft on the ears, such as Carl Espen’s Silent Storm and Sergej Cetkovic’s Moj Svijet. Still not amazed but yeah, good job Italy. 🙂
So guys, what do you think of my national final, The EIREvision Song Contest.
If you don’t know what I am talking about, please read my last comment and tell me what you think.
Do you think that the Eirevision can bring Ireland back to Eurovision success?
Please tell me what you think. 😀 😀
my idea, would be we have a competition like the voice to pick a good singer, and then internally select a song, kinda like the Azerbaijan NF is.
@dave, that would suit me down to the ground, i just want a proper NF Process, RTE better change be4 they fail to qualify, they have gotten lucky 4 years in a row that we got at least 1 song that has potential, hopefully next year will be the end to this nightmare NF.
Hi Mickateriyan I think we should still try to win this year. But I agree with you on the National Final. We need to go back to the old national final format. In fact, I am working on a new national final format for RTE in my free time. Let me tell you about it. Name of the Show: The Eirevision Song Contest Where could it be held: The RDS Simmonscourt in front of 5,500 people. The O2 in front of 10,000 people. The Odyssey in front of 11,000 people. Who could host it: Kathryn Thomas Eoghan McDermott Aidan Power… Read more »
i hope we (ireland) don’t come on the left hand side, as if we do than RTE will keep that stupid sh*tty NF process which is just a complete joke!, can’t RTE see that WE DONT WANT THE LATE LATE SHOW EUROSONG!!!, DESPITE DUSTIN WINNING, OUT NF IN 2008 HAS BEEN OUR ONLY PROPER NF PROCESS FOR 15 ODD YEARS!!!
‘(…) embarassing AND Mihai’s make-up (…)’, not ‘THE’, sorry 🙂
@Marcelo N: it’s true, the dancers were quite embarassing the Mihai’s make-up was quite wrong, but that year we didn’t care! It was the second year in a row Romania finished in the top 4 (after the bronze in 2005, with Sistem &Luminita). Everything went kind of downwards after that (with the exception of Paula &Ovi a few years back, when they finished 3rd – a feat they certainly won’t pull again this year, unfortunately…)
@Nitzan
I actually like the IBA’s rule, especially this year where only 7 of 37 acts are at least partially in a native language. It ensures that we won’t always have a completely English-language contest.
I’ve follow ESC for long time as a big fan of most countries songs, but in Eurovision Song Contest 2014 there is some very bad songs I don’t understand how some ONE could poll for Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Switzerland, Georgia, Russia, Slovenia and Iceland
Being Irish myself, I am quite happy to see Ireland on top, but I know this will decline once Sweden, United Kingdom, Norway and Armenia are reviewed, but I am quite liking the sudden hype for the Irish entry this year, its awesome. I would love Ireland to just win one more time, even if we never win again after that…because I was too young to remember that last time. Dublin 2015 would be awesome, especially with the 60th anniversary of the eurovision, being held in the country with the most wins so far.
Undo by Sanna Nielsen will lead the reviews at the end.
That was the easy part, no reviews of the top 10 favourites yet. And Mei is better than Can-Linn just as Bruce Lee is better than Jackie Chan.
Mikaterian, most Israeli entries have been bilingual thanks to the stupid IBA law requiring at least 50% of the song to be in Hebrew. We mostly failed but we managed to get it right twice – with Shiri in 2005 (4th) and Boaz in 2008 (9th)
Oh, Mihai Traistariu, what a wonderful live singer!! I don’t particularly love that genre, but boy did he do well! I wish they had staged it more tastefully -the “acting dancer” and the uncalled-for handstand dancer ruined it 😉
@mikateriyan: Well, Romania’s entry from 2006 (Tornero, Mihai Traistariu) was in English and Italian and finished 4th (which I guess qualifies as a ‘good result’).
I don’t think this invalidates your theory but, as a Romanian, I couldn’t help bringing that up ;))
@ mikateriyan – On an aside, your writing could do with some editing, or your English with some writing skills for that matter. As a native speaker, I mean… just sayin’.
And there they go hating on us foreign users of the language 😉
when is the last time a bilingual song (song in two languages) do well, i can only recall 2, wild dance in 2004, and the babushkis, (which dosent count as that was a novelty entry) if israel do intact qualify it won’t do anything there, even as an irish fan i do think we to won’t really do anything, but i think we should be on the top half of the right hand side ( 16th-14th) and a similar result i’d expect for israel (if they do make it) because if they make it through a semi with no neighbours… Read more »
@mikateriyan: I’m 100% sure that both Israel and Ireland will be in the final (would that be so horrible?). What will happen in the final, I have no idea – other than the fact that neither will win (or be in the top 5, most likely). But it remains to be seen. Peace!
oh and p.s you judged ireland from a late late show performance which is plain stupid as the acoustics are awful there, i don’t ever remember one uptempo pop song that was song well, just compare jedwards nf performance in 2011 and there grand final performance, thats sums it up.
Dan Ro, well at the end of the day israel won’t make the final and that t the end of the day is all that matters.
@mikateriyan: when I mentioned “moronic lyrics”, I was actually referring to Israel’s – precisely your examples :). Even so, I still like Mei’s song better than Ireland’s…
@ mikateriyan – Please don’t be so angry about things and at people! 🙂 Just chill; this is an awesome (good and bad) music contest, not your sister’s breast scan. And we (I mean, most of us, minus the usual spammers and haters) try to express and share our opinions, and even be helpful, as in the case of Sopon. S/He made a great explanation of his/her views and mostly facts.
Let’s just enjoy these few days left up to the contest, listen to the songs and await the big nights.
Cheers!!
The bookies aren’t looking at each individual place, they are looking for the winner of the whole shebang. We know Mei will not win the whole thing, but we know that she will place well. Her song isn’t the “type” to win Eurovision, but nonetheless it is a great song in quality. Maybe if the bookies were looking at “Who will place 8th at Eurovision 2014?”, then she would be at the top.
dan Ro, your saying ireland have bad lyrics, even when israel have lyrics like ( I’m skinning you out) and repeatedly saying “Same Heart”, bias at its best
Eugene UK, you forget that jedward were like 15th be4 they went to dusseldorf in 2011, and then be4 the final they became 2nd favs? and besides the NF performance none has seen can-kin perform the song so there isn’t any real evidence that its going to be good live, if ireland have a good semi final performance then you will see its odds go up.
sopon, one question, if israel is as good as people say it is why is it only 17th in the bookies? can you explain this to me.
Eugene UK, why are you hating on your neighbours? first off, israel won’t even qualify, azerbaijan buy votes so of course there going to finish higher, and italy well, that can go either way. god you brits are awful neighbours.
@Theifo Georgia is my 18th. 🙂 @sam If you look in the comments of Wiwi Jury’s review of “Same Heart,” you can see Ramadan defending himself. Ramadan just isn’t a fan of the song, and his (assumed) religion and name has nothing to do with it. @mikateriyan It is not being overhyped. If you look on YouTube, many of the “Top 37” videos feature Mei in their top 10, so I see why you think it is a (in nicer terms) fan favorite. But especially in a year of ballads, it should stand out and gain a good score from… Read more »
@ Thiefo – You’re not the only one. I love “Three Minutes to Earth” and I will die with my boots on!
Y que digan lo que quieran 😉
Donatan & Cleo released a new song and a new video today
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RIHJyO0hmNU
To find Ireland first is quite a surprise for me! It’s not a bad song, but come on! Better than Italy or Israel (even with the moronic lyrics!)?! It’s only so-so, heard it all before, no spectacular vocals, I honestly didn’t feel the need to listen to it the second time, once was enough.
I can’t wait for Spain’s review!!!!
ISRAEL & mei Finegold – Winner !!! <3
Lithuania should be higher.
I know we all have different opinions and I respect that, but it hurts me everytime you put down Georgia’ song so much, because I’m one of those (very few, I reckon) who love it. But oh well, one song has to inevitably be in last place… As for the top three so far, I only truly like Italy, both Ireland and Israel are just so-so for me, but I agree with others, Mei is a lot better than Can-linn, at least that song has attitude and I love Mei’s personality, Heartbeat sounds so bland to me, one of those… Read more »
Glad to see Ireland at number one, we will qualify but I can’t see us winning 🙁 possibly top 15 on a good night. But major heavy weights still to review including Sweden, Armenia, Norway, Spain and uk. These 5 I think will be fighting it out for the trophy with Sweden going to be the winner for a sixth time, it has the whole package. 🙂
Israel should qualify just fine. Fortunately, Israel’s not as badly looked-upon throughout all of Europe. And we all know why one juror rated Mei 0… Pathetic.
Can’t wait to see the rankin’ of Armenia, Austria, Hungary, Romania, Spain, Sweden and the UK.
Mei is my #3 after Spain & Armenia
the wiwi jury is ridiculous
@ Easpag I second you!
Very glad for Ireland, I truly love that song. I feel that unlike Israel, Ireland has the song that everyone generally likes, a few LOVE but nobody dislikes to the point of giving it a really low score. Israel, on the other hand, is a more radical entry that has many enthusiasts but also a few haters. With Ramadan’s 0, a 3 and two 5s, I find it impressive that Mei still made such a long way. Being Israeli will probably not help her a lot in the ESC itself, but I hope that the love of the devoted ESC… Read more »
Easpag, israel is just like crislade from san marino last year, being hyped way out of proportion but in the end won’t do anything at eurovision. thats why israel isn’t doing well in the betting, because very little eurovision fans have confidence in it qualifying which is why is why they haven’t risked thee money on it.
Azerbaijan 4th? Oh God,the most boring and the weakest Azerbaijani song since 2011 :/
Glad that Israel,Italy and Ireland are on the top,they really deserve it,and also I still didn’t forgive you for not putting Montenegro in top 5 😉
It would be awesome if Mei was in first.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m happy Ireland have such a high score, but Israel should be in first. Mei’s song is fantastic.
And no matter what you think, no song should be given a zero. You have to recognise the efforts of the artists and the songwriters and producers, and a zero is a total lack of respect to everybody involved in the song, even a song like Georgia’s.
And I know you’re not the only one that’s given a 0, but I’m looking at you, Ramadan.
It would be great if it was Dublin 2015. I would love Ireland to win it again this year, even if it’s the last time we ever win it.