Earlier today, the Wiwi Jury – our in-house panel of music unprofessionals – gathered in Brussels to discuss the contestants participating in Eurosong 2016, the national selection for Belgium. Today we look at Laura Tesoro with her entry “What’s the Pressure”. Did Laura manage to keep the pressure down, or were we looking for the release valve? Read on to find out…

Laura Tesoro – “What’s the Pressure”

“What’s the Pressure” reviews

Antranig: Laura doesn’t have the best vocals I’ve ever heard but “What’s the Pressure” is definitely the catchiest song in this competition. This is a song that would get Stockholm on its feet and dancing along, all the way to a mid-table finish in the grand final. It’s definitely not a Eurovision winner but it should get Belgium safely through the semis with ease.

Score: 6/10

Deban: Laura Tesoro is a natural! I love her sass, and her loosely choreographed moves. While others have dipped in rankings from their 30-second snippet previews, she is the only act to have improved considerably. Yes, the song is average, but this isn’t the only consideration. Good energy is infectious, and seemingly, Laura has lots of it. Bravo!

Score: 8/10

Edd: So another funk song. But not 2016 funk – this sounds like it’s been pulled straight from a 1974 Bee Gees album. And that is not a good thing. I would rate the melody 1/10 for catchiness and the production 9/10 for monotony: it just plods along. This girl clearly has big potential – just not with this songwriter.

Score: 4.5/10

Josh: Sassy. Edgy. Fun. Laura Tesoro is bringing all three of these things in spades, darling! I’m loving the throwback to the disco era in “What’s the Pressure”. It’s got a danceable beat, a memorable chorus and it’s nice to see the saxophone getting a workout since it went on long-service leave in 1996. Contagiously fun. Love it!

Score: 8.5/10

Renske: Gotta love Laura Tesoro, that girl has energy! Her character and stage presence fit really well with this song too. At the same time, I think the song is a bit childish and Laura is maybe a bit too unexperienced for Eurovision, perhaps she needs some years to become an established artist. Otherwise there’s a chance, that she will end like Axel Hirsoux or Iris. We can’t deny that this girl has a big potential, but she needs a lot of work!

Score: 7.5/10

Robyn: It’s so refreshing to have a performer with energy and sass, who can get up and rock the stage. “What’s the Pressure” is following the “Tonight Again”/”Uptown Funk” path, but infused with some girl energy (lyrics by Selah Sue!) and plenty of personality from Laura herself. I’d be very happy for this to go to Stockholm.

Score: 7.5/10

William: Laura is a gorgeous performer with lots of attitude and plenty of spunk. I just wish she had a better song. This feels very 1977, replete with the disco habit of looping lackluster melodies and overemphasizing the tambourine. There is no pressure, Laura: This ain’t gonna win.

Score: 4/10

In the Belgian Wiwi Jury we have 18 jurors but only have room for seven reviews. The remaining 11 scores are below.

Bernardo: 7/10

Cristian: 8/10

Denise: 4/10

Francheska: 4.5/10

Luis: 8/10

Maria: 3/10

Mario: 6/10

Mikhail: 5.5/10

Ramadan: 4/10

Sinan: 6/10

William C: 7.5/10

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 3 and a high of 8.5.

WIWI JURY SCORE: 6.13/10

FOR OUR LIST OF EUROSONG 2016 RANKINGS, CLICK HERE

FOLLOW ALL THE LATEST BELGIUM EUROSONG 2016 NEWS HERE

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ESC 4ever
ESC 4ever
8 years ago

Ugh… I’m from Belgium and i hate her so much… 🙁 Laura is my 3rd (Bc the weak songs) But i will go for Astrid or Tom !! The people in Flanders just can’t vote on good songs….

Racal
Racal
8 years ago

@Lore: She didn’t win the televote on the first show (Amaryllis did), so there’s still a chance. Belgians, open your ears and send someone who can sing live (e.i.: not Laura)! 🙂

nick
nick
8 years ago

I really think both the song and the singer has something special. I really do not see what is special about Tom’s song. Especially his vocals are so weak.

cheesecake
cheesecake
8 years ago

I just don’t see this qualify. Especially not this year with so many (eastern) countries. Furthermore her vocals in the chorus are horrible.

esc
esc
8 years ago

has many influences it reminds me of- another one bites the dust, fleur east… pretty funky and probably the catchiest in the final

Chris
Chris
8 years ago

it sounds like a rip off of Fleur East’s sax, the opening is almost an exact copy

DiamonDollar97xx
DiamonDollar97xx
8 years ago

This song is simply cheap copy of Bee Gees, she cant sing, song is also such a huge clichee …. I hope it’s not gonna win.

Lore
Lore
8 years ago

This tweet says it all: https://twitter.com/allocestqui/status/686546669748523008 Laura will win simply because she has the most fans (+60000 likes on Facebook versus, for example, Tom with 1090 likes). There is no point in chosing relatively unknown artists if they don’t stand a chance in the televote, Belgium… (And it’s not like we should hope that the judges’ votes will have a lot of influence, Tom Helsen already said that “Flanders would be dumb to not send Laura.”) SIGH

Katheryna
Katheryna
8 years ago

She seems a cheap-bad copy of Lena.Cute,innocent looking,shy dance-moves.
Maybe She is the best in the stage,rocking the stage and flirting with the camera,but she cant sing so good in live and the song is nothing special.Tom,Astrid or Adil are better,just need to improve them acting in the stage.

Ben Rafter
Ben Rafter
8 years ago

Easily the best, but yous are obviously going to put the other sing (I forget it, it’s so boring imo) in first.

Angel
Angel
8 years ago

Bogtrotter: I agree with you. My heart sank too last week with when Tom Helsen said that we would be dumb if we don’t send her. I was so annoyed. We will not reach the final with this.

Paul
Paul
8 years ago

THE BESTT

Steven
Steven
8 years ago

Easily the winner! I’m addicted

jr esc nl
jr esc nl
8 years ago

Bogtrotter
I agree, same situation with axel 2 years ago…

dutchie
dutchie
8 years ago

@bogtrotter
My guess is that the international jury will quite overwhelmingly choose Tom to perform in Stockholm, so maybe that will sway the Flemish voting public. Although I think you shouldn’t underestimate the power of teenage girls in televoting numbers, and they will all go for their idol Laura.

Racal
Racal
8 years ago

@Timselvision: I would say that Belgium gets a “soft” neighboring vote from France, the Netherlands and Germany. I mean that the neighbors do help, but only when the song is good. For example, no neighbor voted for Axel Hirsoux and his Mother (and thank god!). It’s not the same as, for example, Romania/Moldova, who would vote for each other even if their act was a dog with a ukulele. Same for the Scandinavians, the Balkans or Russia: all these countries have a strong appeal, they could get away with a poor entry and still qualify. Belgium can’t. So Belgium still… Read more »

DenizNL
DenizNL
8 years ago

I like this and she is cute 🙂

bogtrotter
bogtrotter
8 years ago

Unfortunately, the Belgian voting public (and Flanders in particular) is easily swayed by what any kind of jury says on television. It’s a bit scary how, whenever there’s tele-voting involved in a competition, it’ll basically just mimic the jury opinion exactly. So, when Tom Helsen in the jury last week said we have to send Laura, my heart sank. Luckily they did do a good job of showing different national celebs who all supported one of the acts – but if a jury’s going to make those kinds of statements, it really gets my goat and the competition is basically… Read more »

Timselvision
Timselvision
8 years ago

@Racal: my country, the Netherlands will probably vote for Belgium anyhow, and France probably too :p

I would say, Laura is a poor choice. Defenietly won´t qualify in Eurovision. I actually doubt any of the songs could. Their best hope on qualifying would be Tom in my opinion, so choose wisely neighbours.

Racal
Racal
8 years ago

The song is just meh, but what worries me is that this girl can’t sing live. Apparently she was sick during last Sunday’s show, but I already thought her vocals were bad on Dum Tek Tek two weeks ago.

This song has a chance of winning Eurosong (given the poor competition, except Tom), but no chance at all of winning Eurovision. Just qualifying to the final with this would be a miracle. Belgium doesn’t get any neighboring vote in Eurovision, the only way they can score something is with a very good act. And this is far from very good.