We are getting close to Estonia’s national selection for Eurovision Eesti Laul 2016, which kicks off on February 13. In recent weeks the Wiwi Jury — our in-house panel of music unprofessionals — has been listening to and reviewing all of the songs. Next up is Würffel with their song “I’m Facing North”. They are bringing modern electropop sounds. Did we catch the rythm? Find out below!

WÜRFELL — “I’M FACING NORTH”

“I’M FACING NORTH” REVIEWS

Josh: “I’m Facing North” is yet another entry into Eesti Laul that is so edgy and modern and radio friendly. Würffel utilise so many 1980s music elements and convert it into something that could easily be quite successful out in today’s music industry.

Score: 8/10

Deban: Packed with unidiomatic clauses, “I’m Facing North” is largely meaningless. However, the ’80s kick infused into this makes it uber-brilliant. It references the past without being dated, pulling in a cross generation of music lovers. With repeat listens, I respond better to this track.

Score: 7.5/10

Bogdan: Rosanna’s voice reminds me of Frida Sundemo, one of my favourite electro-pop alternative Swedish singers. Würffel’s sound is very Scandinavian, reminiscent of the synth days of yore, and therefore hipster club-friendly. However, “I’m Facing North” lacks a certain catch for the Eurovision audience and, as much as I like the band itself, it will go anywhere but Stockholm.

Score: 7/10

Patrick: Okay I get the idea — many people are ’80s fans, even me! The electro sound is fine, nothing that I would say “OMG AMAZING” like a certain Lynda Woodruff, but it’s nice. It’s at least one decent song out of the bunch of bad songs in the selection. Her voice is good, not really memorable but I give her that point. In any event, I like it. Nothing more, though!

Score: 5.5/10

Angus: At some points it feels like in production someone tripped and dumped every ’80s element they could find into “I’m Facing North”, which ends up spoiling the overall promise of the song. The vocal is strong but a few misplaced techno beats make this a little too jagged to really threaten the top of the scoreboard.

Score: 7/10

Luis: If somebody ever asks you to list all the ’80s musical elements, get them to listen to “I’m Facing North”. I’m impressed that this track, completely made with sounds from 30 years ago works so well. It’s loud and radio friendly but I hardly see it at Eurovision, unless they assemble a decent performance, which feels way more difficult than assembling the elements of this song.

Score: 7.5/10

Bernardo: This is old turned into modern gold, but it’s not for Eurovision, I’m afraid. But there’s no doubt it is a breath of fresh air. With the perfect staging, I can see this working quite well at Eesti Laul. Strong vocals, unique instrumental work. The potential is there. I predict a mid-table finish for “I’m Facing North”.

Score: 7/10

Renske: Melody-wise it’s a good song, instrumental-wise it’s not. This song is so messy most of the time. It really distracts from everything they are doing. This song is not ready for the big stage.

Score: 6.5/10

Sinan: Oh, yes! I like this song. I can dance to it. But there is a BIG but — I’m not sure if it is ready for Eurovision. Something is missing in the song, or there’s too much of something in there. I cannot exactly figure out which of the two it is. Never mind — I wish them good luck.

Score: 7.5/10

Anthony: Unlike Pete Waterman’s clueless attempt for the UK in 2010, Würffel has made the ’80s as fashionable as Doctor Who’s TARDIS with their entry by today’s standards. Modernized instrumental electro-beats and Rosanna Lints’ vocals blends in smoothly. It’s a decent entry, but on paper, it’s not quite an Eesti Laul title contender.

Score: 7/10

“I’M FACING NORTH” SCORES

Mikhail: 4.5/10

Robyn: 8/10

George: 6/10

Cristian: 8/10

Antranig: 10/10

Kristin: 8/10

Denise: 5/10

William: 4.5/10

Zakaria: 7/10

Dayana: 3.5/10

The highest and lowest scores are removed before calculating the final score. We have dropped a low of 3.5 and a high of 10.

WIWI JURY VERDICT: 6.75/10

FOR OUR LIST OF EESTI LAUL 2016 RANKINGS, CLICK HERE

FOLLOW ALL OF OUR ESTONIA EUROVISION NEWS HERE

12 Comments
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Marshpan
Marshpan
8 years ago

As a song by itself, it’s very catchy and gets better with the more times you listen. The synths in the song just make it addictive enough to garner an extra listen, too… Glad someone in the comments mentioned Triple J (it’s a radio station for those who aren’t Australian -they mostly focus on indie/alternative songs). Hit right on the nail there. Shame that Australians can’t vote for Estonia in the Semis this year, but I can say for certain that in the unlikely event that they do send this song in, they would’ve developed a small, but dedicated fanbase… Read more »

aari
aari
8 years ago

It might sound great to you guys but for all I know Estonians barely listen to this kind of music, I doubt its success.

Euro-Sigrun
Euro-Sigrun
8 years ago

I agree with everything you said bogtrotter!

Transmermaid
Transmermaid
8 years ago

She is giving me Robyn vibes and The guys(HOT AS F specially the bearded one) are giving me Roykssop vibes aswell ,I love this song,if “seis” does not go to eurovision ,hope this will
9.5/10

Ewan
Ewan
8 years ago

It still is one of my favourites, I love how dark and moody it is while still being a perfect party song. However it is missing something to make it bigger. At the moment it kind of goes along and only really kicks into 6th gear near the end.

As others have said, it’s really promising that Estonia seems to be getting on the indie synthpop bandwagon. All those entries wouldn’t feel out of place on Australian radio stations like Triple J.

Hex
Hex
8 years ago

@bogtrotter English is proficency is pretty good in Estonia. Almost everybody under the age of 35 should be able to speak English to a certain degree. In fact, we are apparently rated 8th in the world by some studies. And most of us would be happy even if you tried to say a few things in Estonian as we know the language is very hard 🙂

Hugh
Hugh
8 years ago

All I can hear when I listen to this is Kate Boy. It’s a good song, but I just get distracted by the similarity too much to fully embrace it.

Steven
Steven
8 years ago

I will be beyond devastated if this doesn’t go to Eurovision tbh. It’s incredible

Diane
Diane
8 years ago

Sounds like Estonian version of CHVRCHES

bogtrotter
bogtrotter
8 years ago

Synthpop electro is the way to go in Estonia, and if the language didn’t scare me so much, I’d want to move there as soon as possible. This is what’s going on right now in the hip music scenes, and this is a great way to get people who just like music involved and get rid of that “Eurovision Music” stigma even more than the previous years have already been doing. The more variety, the better. I like it a lot.

Briekimchi
Briekimchi
8 years ago

I like it but it is not a potential winner. There are a lot of good things about it but nothing really goes together. A little treat for those of us who are a bit older.

Euro-Sigrun
Euro-Sigrun
8 years ago

I lovelovelove the songs in Eesti Laul this year!

This one is in my top 5 – 9/10