This afternoon the Wiwi Jury — our in-house panel of music unprofessionals — travelled to Moscow to down some shots of vodka and eat our body weight in blini. After we put away our babushka dolls, we visited the Kremlin to review Mikhail Smirnov‘s Junior Eurovision 2015 track ‘Mechta’ (Dream). Was this a sweet dream from Russia — or a beautiful nightmare? Read on to find out…
Russia’s Junior Eurovision 2015 song
‘MECHTA’ REVIEWS – Mikhail Smirnov
Angus: The Russian song is all kinds of beautiful this year and if Mikhail has five harmonising backing singers behind him on stage “Mechta” will be a complete smash. It could be a little too mature for kids at home but the juries will love this.
Score: 8/10
Deban: “Mechta” drums up a quiet storm and it captivates you from the very beginning. Mikhail’s performance exudes the right balance of confidence, vulnerability and maturity and lifts this dreamy pop number to the heavens. I’m fairly certain that in years to come Master Smirnov will cross over to the mother contest.
Score: 9.5/10
Robyn: Mikhail is a little star. He has great stage presence and I’m already imagining him representing Russia at ESC in 10 years. As a song “Mechta” isn’t especially captivating, but Mikhail works with it and delivers a good performance.
Score: 5/10
William: Misha does a great job with this anthem of love and hope. It creates a sleepy, wistful feeling and brims with youthful optimism. It’s perhaps a bit too relaxed and laid-back to compete against the vocal gymnastics that will be on show in Sofia, but it’s still a pleasant listen Russia can be proud of.
Score: 6/10
Renske: I feel like this entry is a bit underrated at the moment. After years of Russian girl power, the Slavic nation has finally chosen a boy. Misha has the perfect voice for a lullaby like “Mechta” — the most dreamy song of the contest. He doesn’t pretend to be charming, but is a charming performer.
Score: 9/10
Sinan: I don’t think this kind of music suits him or his voice. But the song is good and Russia knows how to put on a stage show. It may not reach the heights of the Tolmachevy Sisters, but I’m curious to see how close he can come.
Score: 7/10
George: This is not going to do very well: some parts are just so forgettable. And maybe it’s about time Russia stops putting the world “dream” in every Junior Eurovision song title.
Score: 7/10
Our jury consists of 21 people, but we only have room for 7 written reviews. Here are the remaining 14 scores.
Antranig: 8/10
Bernardo: 5.5/10
Diego: 7/10
Edd: 6.5/10
Jason: 7/10
Josh: 6/10
Liam: 5/10
Luis: 6/10
Marek: 8/10
Mario: 6.5/10
Rezo: 5/10
Sopon: 5/10
William C: 8.5/10
Zakaria: 6.5/10
The highest and lowest scores are dropped prior to calculating the average score. This is to remove outliers and reduce potential bias. We have removed a low of 5 and a high of 9.5.
@oooops Unfortunately, we are unable to review the revamp, although I am certain from now on when our great team talks about the song, it will be the revamp 🙂
Will you review the revamp or not?
The music in the video here is about 3 1/2 minutes, which is a half minute longer than junior eurovision maximum time, so they will have to cut out some of it.
I think the best is at then end when the chorus comes in and where the sound/insturmentation is fuller, so I don’t think they should cut off that part.
I didn’t like this at first but has grown on me and is in my top 5 now
I really like Misha. He has charisma, confidence and stage presence. I think many young girls, especially from Russian speaking countries, would vote for him. I do not thing this will be enough for top 5, mostly because the competition this year is fierce. I expect him to finish somewhere between 6 and 9. It is interesting how the addition of new countries would affect the selection process. How will voters in Australia or Ireland respond to a Russian ballad of this sort? It will be interesting to see.
It doesn’t stand out, butt it’s good enough i think. It is #8 in my top so far. I like his voices and the chorus, the rest is meh. 7.7/10
This is probably worst entry they ever send to ESC and JESC. Nothing here is catchy. It is very weak and even more dull. 0/10 can be the only right rate for this total crap.
I like this song but one its sleepy and two it slightly reminds me of ESC San Marino 2015. He’s got good vocals and I’m sure the staging will be good.
5/10 (for now, could go higher)
Cute song. The girls will love him