Wiwi Jury: Denmark edition Muri & Mario with “To stjerner”

The Wiwi Jury – our in-house panel of music unprofessionals – is continuing its journey around Denmark. Dansk Melodi Grand Prix 2016 is a little over a week away and we’re here to review the ten finalists. Yesterday the sun set on Sophia Nohr’s “Blue Horizon”. And now we’re left with two stars or “To Sjerner” and Muri & Mario. What do we think? Read on to find out…

Muri & Mario “To Stjerner”

Reviews: Muri & Mario with “TO STJERNER”

Kristin: In Iceland we have a saying — “this is more Danish than the queen” — which can mean both good or bad, depending on the subject. In this case it’s all good! Muri and Mario are indeed super Danish and “To stjerner” is such a delight to listen to. I’m also a creature of nostalgia, and I always feel so warm inside when I hear songs in Danish. The track itself is upbeat, joyful and contains just the right amount of carelessness. Their voices are beautiful and perfectly in sync. I fell in love straight away. A thumbs up from me. Will this win DMGP? I doubt it, but I really, really want it to.

Score: 10/10

Mikhail: What a din! It’s like a child playing on a toy musical instrument. The vocal appear to be occasionally off-tune and adding a boring club mix only serves to make it worse. As for all that “nej-nej-nej-nej-nej”… I could barely listen to the end.

Score: 4/10

Bernardo: Finally some Danish electro lounge realness! Mario and Muri have good voices and the instrumental is modern and memorable. With the perfect staging this could be gold at DMGP. It they work those angles and channel their sexiness towards the cameras, we will have the dark horse of the night.

Score: 7.5/10

DMGP 2016: Our top three

Edd: In the words of Michele Perniola, “No”. It’s just a monotonous drag of boringness. To their merit, they have pleasant voices, and I like the vocal editing in the intro/post-chorus. However, this song was clearly just selected so that they could have a song in Danish. The title, “To Stjerner,” translates to “two stars” – which I personally think is an overly generous rating to give this lost cause.

Score: 2/10

Josh: I actually love this. I’m thrilled we get to hear one song in Danish (yaass national identity), which immediately puts it in a pack of its own. Muri and Mario both have great voices that compliment each other splendidly. And the overall vibe of the song is very chilled, but memorable at the same time. So good!

Score: 8/10

Luis: It’s a good effort, and bonus points for the Danish. But I could live without the edited singing-barking-quacking-whatever that is. It’s a laidback version of Samir & Viktor (ok, maybe I’m just saying this because of their looks), but I need a bit more oomph. It’s a tad plain, and I’m afraid they’ve put all their chances of being catchy in the edited voice. Which is a problem, because it gets annoying by the end. I can’t see them in Stockholm, but they should get a decent placing in Melodi Grand Prix.

Score: 6/10

Padraig: Once you remove the novelties of the Danish language and the “nej, nej, nej” hook, you’re not left with much. “To Stjerner” is just an average R&B easy listening track. The result is super smooth, but I prefer when things are a little rough around the edges.

Score: 5/10

Robyn: This is such a cool song. The Danish language lyrics work well, to the point where I wouldn’t even want to hear an English version. But I don’t think it would necessarily work as a Eurovision entry. It’s a bit subdued, chilled out when it needs to be bolder to work in Stockholm. Regardless, it’s still going on my playlist.

Score: 7.5/10

Sami: I absolutely love the Danish language and we desperately need some at Eurovision. “To stjerner” would be the perfect song to bring it back after almost twenty years. It’s a real feel-good track with a memorable hook. By being the only song sung in Danish in this year’s final it might stand out, but I’m afraid the people of Denmark won’t vote for it.

Score: 10/10

William: I’m turned off from the very first note. It’s just too digital — so much so that it drains the song of any redeeming human qualities it may have. The constant “nie-nie-nie-na-na” is irritating and the electro-lounge sound makes me feel like I’m stuck inside an iPhone with the Danish-language Siri turned on. It also comes off as a little sleazy and I really wouldn’t want to be the one cleaning his keyboard. Someone please pull the plug.

Score: 2/10

Our jury consists of 22 people, but we only have room for 10 written reviews. Here are the remaining 12 scores.

Anthony: 4/10

Antranig: 8/10

Bogdan: 9/10

Cristian: 8/10

Dayana: 6.5/10

Deban: 3/10

Denise: 9/10

Gökhan: 3.5/10

Liam: 1.5/10

Patrick: 8/10

Ramadan: 7/10

Sopon: 2/10

WIWI JURY AVERAGE: 6.05/10

To reduce potential bias, we drop the highest and lowest scores prior to calculating the average. We removed a low of 1.5 and a high of 10.

SEE OUR CURRENT DANSK MELODI GRAND PRIX 2016 REVIEWS AND RANKINGS.

Photos: DR