Israel, Nadav Guedj, 3

Earlier today the Wiwi Jury — our in-house panel of musical unprofessionals — journeyed to Evita, the famed Tel Aviv bar that hosts one of the fiercest Eurovision nights in the world. Then we kicked a drag queen out of her dressing room so we could discuss — in private — Nadav Guedj and his Eurovision 2015 song “Golden Boy”. Did he live up to his song title? Or come out a bit tarnished? Read on to find out…

Israel’s Eurovision 2015 song

Review: Nadav Guedj with “Golden Boy”

Robyn: I’m kind of embarrassed about how much I love this song. It has the best energy and it’s fun and cool and yaaaas. If the live performance lives up to the potential of the music video, “Golden Boy” will set the second semi-final on fire. I just don’t want to see the staging take too much of a cue from the music video and come across like a tourism promo for hip, sexy Tel Aviv.

Score: 9/10

Israel, Nadav Guedj, 1

William: It’s a song in at least three parts — and I love all of them. The dramatic opening establishes Nadav as the heartbroken lover who can drop balladry and pain. The second shows him in a mid-tempo revival. And the third gets jiggy to mark his evolution to emancipated male. It’s cheeky without being a joke, and, owing to clever production and changing instrumentation, the gag doesn’t get old. Ultimately this song is about freedom and the right to live and to love. J’adore!

Score: 9/10

Padraig: Three songs in one, spanning three genres, in just three minutes, delivered by one man – this shouldn’t work. Maybe the lack of upbeat pop and dance tracks is causing me to go a bit crazy, but “Golden Boy” is magnificent! Fun, energetic and clever, it injects some much needed life into this year’s contest. The whole package is irresistible. To quote Nadav – “now dance, dance, dance, dance”. Euro-club won’t know what hit it!

Score: 8.5/10

Deban: “Golden Boy” starts off beautifully, but then suddenly slaps me at the bridge, before beating me into an eastern-flavoured mashup. This song is a mess, and somewhat confirms that Israel is at a loss for what to do to feature in the finals of the world’s biggest song contest. I may not have the answer, but I am dead certain that “there must be another way”!

Score: 3/10

Nadav Guedj Golden Boy videoDenise: I’m so in love with this song. I really wanted a good dance song, like Greece was for me last year, and Israel gave it to us. The beginning of the song reminds me of Sirusho who also started off really slowly but BOOM there is the beat, the voice and the dancers. Okay, the lyrics are a little dull and Nadav looks like a 30 year old, but come on…Who can’t sing and dance along when this song is on? Nadav, please bring Israel back to the finals…You absolutely deserve it this year!

Score: 9.5/10

Judit: OMG: I’m in love with this song! We need more songs like this in the competition. First I thought it was just another ballad, but after the first few seconds it morphs into a party song with some major Arabian Night feels. We really need this song in the final. It’s typical ESC — but in the way we love. I just want to dance and forget all of my problems. “Golden Boy” is perfect for this!

Score: 9/10

Our first reaction (March 12)

Luis: I’m sorry but I can’t understand the hype with this. It starts nice, but then kaboom! It all explodes and the song transforms into a 2002 summer hit which totally destroys Israel’s chances of making the final. Only the Eurovision fandom can like this and, outside our borders, it sounds cheap, dated and cheesy. And that’s no good when your chances of winning rely on a huge non-Eurovision fan audience.

Score: 1/10

Angus: ‘Golden Boy’ wrong-foots you with the opening vocal tricking you into thinking this is ‘The Fire In Your Eyes’ 2.0. Unfortunately Boaz isn’t back, and what we’re left with instead is Nadav Guedj’s sterling effort at ‘Dum Tek Tek’ karaoke. He would have pulled it off too, if it wasn’t for that meddling ending.

Score: 5/10

NadavBogdan: Israel dropped its native tongue in an apparent effort to appeal to the Eurovision audiences, but it missed the memo: juries have more say since 2013, and juries are going to kill Nadav’s “Golden Boy”. However, although I recognize that the song is audience bait with little melodic value and a chaotic structure (it’s basically three songs jammed in three minutes), I can’t help enjoying it and dancing to its infectious beats. I guess you could call “Golden Boy” my guilty pleasure, except I don’t feel guilty when I abandon myself to its chorus. I feel pure joy.

Score: 7/10

Chris: Ugh. No, no, no. I really cannot stand this song – it’s like all the worst male songs from noughties Eurovision crushed into one. It’s a self-serving mess of genres and doesn’t succeed at any of them, with the chorus being the worst culprit. It bothers me immensely that this could qualify for Israel, when they have failed with much more deserving songs every year since 2011. This year might need more upbeat songs, but it does not mean we should settle for “Golden Boy”.

Score: 2/10

Twenty-nine jurors review each song, but we only have space for ten written reviews. The remaining 19 scores are listed below.

Anthony: 7.5/10

Francheska: 8/10

Josh: 8/10

Kristín: 7/10

Liam: 3/10

Marek: 6/10

Mario: 6.5/10

Max: 7/10

Mike: 8/10

Mikhail: 3.5/10

Patrick: 5.5/10

Ramadan: 1/10

Renske: 8.5/10

Rezo: 8.5/10

Sami: 9/10

Sinan: 10/10

Sopon: 5.5/10

William C: 9/10

Zach: 3/10

To reduce potential bias, the highest and lowest scores are dropped prior to calculating the average. We have removed a high of 10 and a low of 1.

Wiwi Jury Average: 6.53/10

SEE OUR CURRENT EUROVISION 2015 REVIEWS AND RANKINGS

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MoMo
MoMo
9 years ago

What Deban said.

Leon
Leon
9 years ago

Well they do say that wiwi are a panel of non experts, so I suggest people should leave Ramadan and his opinions alone.
The song has lots of energy, designed to appeal to a wide variety of national tastes and fronted by an attractive guy. In the end it does not have a wow factor that makes it exceptional. 5/10

Chris
9 years ago

Usually I do not mind Golden and I even want to go to your country but that is not on the strength of this track. Please be able to sing live. Let us enjoy you live. You do as being told and I can live with it but THAT ending is a no-go. Edit!!!

LeBron
LeBron
9 years ago

Some of you are so full of s**t it gets funny. This is one of the most ridiculous and may I say pathetic songs this year. Israel sending something that sounds more Persian than Jewish. Surely some sort of joke, but I guess many of the jury here are fans of the good ethno element, no matter how out of place it is!

Yudhistira Mahasena
9 years ago

Looks like Chris Brown! But he would have done better if his song is in Hebrew…

Ahmad
Ahmad
9 years ago

– no 72 virgin boys for you!!

Iberian
Iberian
9 years ago

Thanks for the link, Nadav is so cute in this interview. You can tell he’s still a teenager, he seems a bit shy and not too comfortable with his English. I love him.

Laocoon
Laocoon
9 years ago

I wonder why the wiwibloggs guys and gals let someone like Ramadan join their team. I mean, if you can’t play fair then you shouldn’t be in the game. It’s a pity.
But anyway: Nadav is amazing, totally in love with that guy.

DEBBIE
9 years ago

An interview with Nadav Guedj, Israel’s representative in the upcoming Eurovision song contest. He is so adorable :):):)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?t=534&v=kFiLr9PR-gY

Leon
Leon
9 years ago

@Vladimir – I’m pretty sure Ramadan didn’t even bother to hear the song. His name says it all. This song actually deserves a 9/10. It’s one of the best songs this year.

Iberian
Iberian
9 years ago

Yes, Ramadan seems to be the real reason why they always have to drop the lowest (and the highest) score in any jury review. That’s because people like Ramadan won’t play fair. It’s a shame.

Vladimir
Vladimir
9 years ago

Ramadan never disappoints when it comes to Israeli entries. They get the lowest mark from him, regardless of who the singer is or what song they sing.

Iberian
Iberian
9 years ago

Corrigenda: *a way… / *can’t stop looking…

Iberian
Iberian
9 years ago

Hm, I was just thinking… is there away to get rid of all those haters? And maybe one should at least point out something like “in my opinion”. So, in my opinion, this is just the best entry this year. I hope Israel wins. (Can’t stop listening to Nadav’s song and can’t looking at his pics on Instagram. Sexiest man alive, I guess…)

Darren
Darren
9 years ago

This song is ridiculously overhyped, I really don’t get it, it’s by far the worst song of the year well maybe second worst if you include Finland. But yeah it’s so dated and cheesy I really don’t know why this is loved so much when Israel’s previous attempt was miles better and it failed, sure, it might be uptempo in year full of ballads but that doesn’t mean it’s good, it’s clear that the Wiwi “jury” don’t have a clue when they mark Ireland so low but award top marks to this hot mess. I hope sore a stay in… Read more »

Otna
Otna
9 years ago

Very catchy song – deserves much more than that score…

natural looking
9 years ago

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AM.Casablancas
AM.Casablancas
9 years ago

let me quote Taylor on this one:
“Haters gonna hate hate hate hate hate…”

Dedicated to all of you whom don’t like the song.
My best regards to see Israel qualifying this year 🙂 let’s hope you can all suck it up when that happens!

Zolan
Zolan
9 years ago

This mostly works. The chorus switches with varied parts enough to get the party vibe without the tedium. The peak moment comes when the intro is recalled into the body of the song, and the blocked-out pain is re-opened for resolution. Such a shame then that it lapses directly (after a distracting howl) into a tired rehash of the chorus for the last 30 seconds.

It feels as though a more powerfully integrated climax was within reach, but ultimately, I expect its sense of polished playfulness will carry it.

CindyChiang
CindyChiang
9 years ago

Someone said outside he eurovision borders its boring and tacky? Um, good thing it’s in the Eurovision Song Contest with an iconic eurovision beat? Loling

brunowskii
brunowskii
9 years ago

I definetely hope to see Israel at least near from top 10 this year… And yes, it’s a gift to have a strong ESC® happy song like this in a ‘so calm or weird’ year like this

Ania
Ania
9 years ago

The first time I heard it, I hated it completely. Then I actually enjoyed it for a bit. Now I’m like… “meh” I do think he will make it to the final actually, the fact that it’s an upbeat song in The Year of the Ballad will help him. If there were better dance-songs this year it would definitely flop though, the lyrics are really bland and cheesy, and his voice is just okay, but I’ll admit it, he’s got some pretty nice dance moves in the video, I hope he will use them on stage. Let’s face it, we’re… Read more »

Iberian
Iberian
9 years ago

Haters are gonna hate… if you don’t like Nadav nor his song, why bother and comment? Come on people, get a life. This song deserves to win, this is a 10 out of 10 and Nadav is perfect in any aspect. Dixi.

Pedro Chadid
Pedro Chadid
9 years ago

I cant’t believe that some people only gave 3 points to this AMAZING SONG? Yeas is DANCE is FUN is HAPPY but is AWESOME some… it is not a normal some is a really SPECIAL THING… but my credibility in Mikhail Zach and Liam is 0

Alice
Alice
9 years ago

Let’s be honest, Mei didn’t qualify ‘cos her staging was crap and her vocals, while not bad, were definitely shaky. Moran didn’t qualify because compared to some of the other songs in her semi, it didn’t stand out. As much as I love Dana International, and I really enjoyed the studio version of ‘Time’…let’s not even get into the live versions of their performances. No, Israel’s got a fairly decent place in the semi this year (between a load of ballads), Nadav’s vocals are consistent, and so long as they don’t muck up the staging, they’ll be okay.

Han
Han
9 years ago

This song is awesome, it has nice arabic-ethnic rythms in it, the man is clearly a good performer as we saw in his last show at a club, and of course this will stand out from all the ballads, so people will vote for this because this will make them dance and party, as all Europe loves. Israel should not be worried this year, this song will get them direct to the final. This is in my personal top 10. Well done Israel!

Leon
Leon
9 years ago

This song definitely reminded me when Sirusho released Qele-Qele. It has that instant hook. I remember listening to this and after the first chorus I started singing along to the second chorus cuz it was so easy to know. This is definitely in my top 5.

Huh
Huh
9 years ago

Possible dark horse. Moreover, I still can’t get over the fact that its dance move in the chorus part makes a person look like he’s having a seizure and a shoulder and neck dislocation.

Erin
Erin
9 years ago

OT…oh my, RITA is proud as a peacock!
Rita (Israel 1990) is the new face of Royalty Jewellery:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QLJVSAU2d4M

Ian
Ian
9 years ago

This seems to be the one people are mostly split on this year. Personally I love it, it’s definitely in my top 5.

Britney
Britney
9 years ago

The verses are okay, but the chourus…. I can’t listen to it. Can he cut the chourus out of the song?

Between, you can check TOP 40 which is based on many personal charts and vote for your favorites here: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Fo_SzBKbpqw&gl=LV&hl=en&client=mv-google

Easpag
Easpag
9 years ago

Watcha sayin Mario, Mei was a lovely person.

Deniz
Deniz
9 years ago

10/10, an average of 6.53 is way to low. 🙁 🙁 🙁

Amerivision
Amerivision
9 years ago

@CookyMontza

I was referring to songs that are too catchy to ignore, regardless of the result. Last year song was “Rise Up”. No matter how indifferent I feel about that song, it’s too catchy! That’s how I feel about “Golden Boy”. ????

Daniel
Daniel
9 years ago

Bit harsh Mario.

EF0912
EF0912
9 years ago

Please let him qualify – he really deserves it and so does Israel (another great entry). We need justice for Mei and Moran

Erin
Erin
9 years ago

@Mario – how cruel…but there’s an element of truth to what you say about Mei’s horrible stage interpretation of what her song should have sounded and looked like.

Random.sage2.0
9 years ago

Hell yeah!

2012: La La Love

2013: Alcohol Is Free

2014: Rise Up

2015: Golden Boy

2016: Desire

2017: Song About You (Gaileic Version)

2075: Like The Stars (Kpop Version)

3075: Love Lost Me (Irish Version)

Erin
Erin
9 years ago

This can only qualify if it somehow manages to translate the cheekiness, frivolity and vitality of the Israeli ‘Chutzpa’ into a whole new level of choreographed partying on stage with Nadav proving he truly is an uncut diamond of a singer/performer. How can Israel break its string of unsuccessful bids without blaming the floor for being uneven? it must have a hunger and a clearly professional game plan for Eurovision, but so far it looks like it’s mostly leaving everything to chance and unsubstantiated assertions.

Mario ~ Mei You Should 'Ve Known Better B**ch ~ Never Ever Mess With Me! X
Mario ~ Mei You Should 'Ve Known Better B**ch ~ Never Ever Mess With Me! X
9 years ago

Mei Feigold did not qualify to the final because she was an ugly b*tch and the viewers/juries saw that…Her performance was really dreadful…
I was not sad at all that this witch got eliminated on the semifinal… 😀 ahahaha!
Her song was very good though to be honest…I still hear it…I have listened it too many times…But i hate her.. X

Lijana
Lijana
9 years ago

i LOVE THIS! MY SUMMER JAM! 10/10!

CookyMonzta
CookyMonzta
9 years ago

@Amerivision: This year’s “Rise Up”? That song ended up 20th. Nevertheless, just a touch of genius in the lyrics here; but I’m almost afraid this song will end up getting lost in the storm, like the last 5 Israeli entries, last year’s having been a sure bet to qualify, only to fail.

Racal
Racal
9 years ago

I have absolutely nothing good to say on Israel’s song: I think it’s dreadful and one of the most horrible songs this year. It should stick to the bottom of the scoreboard of SF2. I don’t understand why a country that hasn’t qualified for 4 consecutive years would send such a bad entry.

max
max
9 years ago

Like it very much! My number #3 of this eurovision. Very underrated!

Final! Must be!

Daniel_2015
Daniel_2015
9 years ago

Oh, please! Mei didn’t qualify last year with a brilliant song, and I’m supposed to think that this BS will? I hope not!

Allen
Allen
9 years ago

It’s a catchy song, but I just have a feeling it might end its Eurovision journey already in the semi-final.

davved
davved
9 years ago

I think this will place in the top5 in the final. People are so boring, you looooove the extremely dull and generic ballads from countries like France… but talks bad about this happy and modern song.

This is one of the best israeli entries for many years.

Nitzan
Nitzan
9 years ago

For me bottom lines are:

Talented young artist
Unconventional song
Funny & fun

I like the fact that Israel loosened up a bit when it comes to ESC representation, and I am glad Israel sent this happy song this year, with the current lineup.

That’s about it for me.

Daniel
Daniel
9 years ago

Still can’t believe he’s 16. 7/10.

Easpag
Easpag
9 years ago

It’s a thoroughly enjoyable song, and would probably be in my top 10 if it wasn’t for that awful, unnecessary key change. Just… Why? 7/10