Wiwi Jury: Montenegro’s Jana Mirkovic with ‘Oluja’

This afternoon the Wiwi Jury — our in-house panel of music unprofessionals — took a trip to Podgorica to dance in the warm Balkan sunshine whilst sipping on sok od sipka with kisjela voda. After some shopping at Delta City we were exhausted so we decided to review Jana Mirkovic‘s Junior Eurovision 2015 track ‘Oluja’ (Storm). Did Jana’s song electrify us? Or was it more like a torturous electrocution? Read on to find out…

MONTENEGRO’S JUNIOR EUROVISION 2015 SONG

‘OLUJA’ REVIEWS – JANA MIRKOVIC

Robyn: While JESC 2015 is going to take place in wintery Sofia, there’ll be no shortage of summer warmth. Along with Mishela Rapo’s “Dumbaje”, Jana Mirkovic is taking us to warmer climes with her calypso-inspired song. “Oluja” has a chilled-out tropical groove, and is reminiscent of late ’80s Brit pop. Jana has a sweet voice and seems like she’ll deliver a good performance.

Score: 7/10

Mario: “Oluja” flashes back to Yugoslav pop music of 80s and 90s — and that ain’t a bad thing! Although the lyrics are a tad creepy for my taste, the musical background and overall arrangement take me to that happy place. Bring the guy in her video with her, fill the long instrumental break with some funky moves and you’re ready to go!

Score: 7.5/10

Angus: “Oluja” is bouncy, sunny and sweet — everything a song from southern Europe should be. Ballads have become a fixture of JESC, so tonnes of praise to Jana for breaking that mould and bringing something other than a Balkan ballad.

Score: 6.5/10

Deban: Jana takes the bouncy melody of “Oluja” and runs with it. The instrumentation is vintage, but her delivery is fresh. Remember Cooley High Harmony? This is the Montenegrin version.

Score: 5.5/10

Liam: Montenegro’s song will be a refreshing change from all the power ballads and emotional songs in this year’s contest. However, it falls flat because it is just too junior for a talent like Jana. I fear that other upbeat entries from Malta and Albania may overshadow it. But great work nonetheless!

Score: 6/10

Rezo: In a field of relatively strong entries, standing out is very important. This fails to do that and will likely be forgotten during voting. I think Jana is a great artist, but the song just doesn’t catch my attention.

Score: 5/10

William: Give me three minutes of happy over a barrell of sad any day. Jana — a teen pop star in the making — breathes life into a contest full of emotional ballads. It’s a welcome change of pace. And now the bad news: despite a promising opening, the song loses steam about 90 seconds in. Not even Jana’s star quality can redress that.

Score: 6.5/10

Our jury consists of 21 people, but we only have room for 7 written reviews. Here are the remaining 14 scores.

Antranig: 7.5/10

Bernardo: 6/10

Diego: 7.5/10

Edd: 5/10

George: 7.5/10

Jason: 6/10

Josh: 5.5/10

Luis: 7.5/10

Marek: 7/10

Renske: 6/10

Sinan: 8/10

Sopon: 5/10

William C: 6/10

Zakaria: 8/10

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 8.

WIWI JURY SCORE: 6.5/10

REVIEW THE LATEST WIWI JURY RANKINGS AND REVIEWS

SEE OUR LATEST JUNIOR EUROVISION 2015 COVERAGE