Earlier today, the Wiwi Jury — our in-house panel of music unprofessionals — gathered in Valletta to discuss the contestants participating in Malta Eurovision Song Contest 2016 (MESC). After purchasing some matches and gasoline, we turned to Dominic with his entry “Fire Burn”. Do we feel the heat from Dominic — or is it more like an unpleasant bout of heartburn? Read on to find out…
DOMINIC – “FIRE BURN”
“FIRE BURN” REVIEWS
Antranig: The chorus brings forward shades of Emmelie de Forest’s “Rainmaker” with the oh-way-ohs but the positives end right there. He seems like that creepy uncle who gets too drunk at your wedding and gets up and starts singing cheesy pop songs. It’s safe to say we won’t be seeing this in Stockholm.
Score: 4.5/10
Deban: Just like the fire that has ravaged your finest possessions, “Fire Burn” ain’t stopping! Memorable for all the wrong reasons, it combines many formulas of successful dance hits, but, fails to modernise them. That said, it’s my guilty pleasure.
Score: 5/10
Josh: Can we please get past this dated dance music stuff? This sounds too similar to Kurt Calleja from 2012 for my liking. Funnily enough, this style of music was very popular in 2012 and now it just makes me cringe. The lyrics are cheesy. The song is overproduced. I wish the fire would burn all traces of this song.
Score: 3/10
Mario: This song comes off as moulded and cheesy to me. It’s like something that couldn’t make the final cut for some popular Swedish guy’s future EDM single way back in 2014. However, it could do very well in the preselection if Dominic’s vocal are on point on the night, and from the studio version I believe are they are.
Score: 3.5/10
Robyn: What a racket. There’s so much going on here. It’s like the producer has thrown in every musical trend that was popular eight years ago. “Euphoria” showed how a big dance track could work at Eurovision. “Fire Burn” is a just a mess.
Score: 3/10
William: Generic, disposable and cheesy — it’s just perfect. In a field of sugary sweet and sleep-inducing ballads, this stands out for bringing the fun and dropping a major beat. There’s shape, there’s direction and there’s a sincere desire to make us move. Dominic, don’t put out the fire — throw on some more gasoline!
Score: 9/10
In the Maltese Wiwi Jury we have 18 jurors but only have room for six reviews. The remaining twelve scores are below.
Anthony: 7/10
Bernardo: 3.5/10
Cristian: 4/10
Denise: 6/10
George: 6/10
Luis: 2/10
Maria: 4/10
Patrick: 7.5/10
Ramadan: 5/10
Renske: 6.5/10
Rezo: 4/10
Zakaria: 4/10
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 2 and a high of 9.
Dominic FOR THE WIN!!!
”Fire burn” is actually one of the few songs that I actually love (together with Falling Glass, and Chameleon), so this feels awkward.
I’m disappointed your jury didn’t put this first. It’s by far the best so far!!!!!!!
I have to admit that I ? that song!!
However, I don’t think it would do so well at Eurovision..
If this makes it to Stockholm (not that it will), Malta could have serious trouble getting past the semi final again.
A bit rude @person below me?
I agree that this song is just not the way forward and sinks behind all the powerful songs in this field
not a winner, but out of all the songs you criticized so far – it’s the best. it looks like your panel is made out of bitter ugly outcasts.