Wiwi Jury: Malta’s Jessika with “The Flame”

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). Today we look at Jessika with her entry “The Flame”. Does Jessika ignite our inner flame, or did she pour water all over it? Read on to find out…

JESSIKA – “THE FLAME”

“THE FLAME” REVIEWS

Anthony: The Sanna Nielsen of Malta returns with a laid-back pop ballad to show she’s no one-trick pony. As a fan of Jessika, I appreciate her sheer determination having covered a various range of genres. “The Flame” packs a powerful chorus that’ll stretch those vocals on the higher notes alongside the sweet, whispery verses in between. Another entry burning brightly from the flame-haired singer.

Score: 8.5/10

Deban: “The Flame” begs for radio spots. It sits across pop, rock and adult-contemporary genres. I like it, but I don’t love it. Perhaps a bit worrying because Eurovision calls for countless rehearsals and promotional gigs, and  I couldn’t imagine having this on a loop. That said, it isn’t a bad effort.

Score: 6.5/10

Josh: LOVE ME LIKE YOU DO. LOVE ME, LOVE ME LIKE YOU DO. Another blatant rip-off of a successful pop song in the past 12 months. I have enjoyed Jessika’s past entries into MESC, particularly “Fandango” and “Hypnotica”. “The Flame” fails to meet the same standard those songs did and have left me feeling a little underwhelmed. It’s not the worst song, but absolutely not the best.

Score: 5/10

Mario: Of all entries Jessika has submitted to the Maltese selection (and there are many), I find this effort just plain average. The song drags and drags, and the chorus is not strong enough to make the song a banger like previous years. It’s good, but the flame obviously needs some fuel to grow.

Score: 5.5/10

Robyn: Jessika has a versatile voice, ranging from a breathy Ellie Goulding style to a big shouty diva. But she should have been paired with a better song. “The Flame” feels like it runs out of ideas and has to resort to repeating the insubstantial chorus over and over. There are some interesting things happening with the verses, but the song as a whole gets tired fast.

Score: 5/10

William: Jessika’s voice has an other-worldly timbre: it’s part Ellie Goulding and part Carla Bruni-Sarkozy with shades of The Bangles. The opening of her song is dreamy, almost psychedelic and the verses are consistently strong and atmospheric. Sadly the chorus doesn’t keep that good thing going. “The Flame” burns bright, but ultimately burns out.

Score: 6.5/10

In the Maltese Wiwi Jury we have 18 jurors but only have room for six reviews. The remaining 12 scores are below.

Antranig: 7/10

Bernardo: 7/10

Cristian: 5/10

Denise: 7.5/10

George: 7/10

Luis: 3.5/10

Maria: 5/10

Patrick: 7/10

Ramadan: 5.5/10

Renske: 6.5/10

Rezo: 6/10

Zakaria: 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 3.5 and a high of 8.5.

WIWI JURY SCORE: 6.23/10

FOR OUR LIST OF MESC 2016 RANKINGS, CLICK HERE

FOR MORE MALTA EUROVISION NEWS, CLICK HERE