Earlier today, the Wiwi Jury — our in-house panel of music unprofessionals — gathered in Riga to discuss the contestants participating in Supernova 2016, Latvia’s national final for Eurovision 2016 . Today we look at Madara Gregere, Crow Mother and Samanta Tina. Want to see the jury’s verdict? Read on!
Madara Gregere – “You And I”
“You And I” Reviews:
Zakaria: There are so many elements in this song that it’s hard for me to concentrate. Madara has a nice voice but it gets lost in this tornado of beats and rhythms, and a nice voice is never enough to make a good song.
Score: 4/10
William: The über-modern electro production includes plenty of syncopation, changing instrumentation, off-beat beats, and digital flourishes. That’s a lot to take in and I get a bit dizzy trying. It all distracts from the rather simple and monotonous melody, but I can’t make out whether this is a good thing. In the end more is less and this song leaves me with little to remember besides Madara’s unique and lovely timbre.
Score: 4/10
Josh: “You and I” seems like it’s trying too hard to cram many elements into one song, instead of focussing on just a couple and perfecting them. The start of the song sounds like an exact copy of “Rhythm Inside”, and then transforms into an oversaturated drum and bass song from the 1980’s. Also, if you name a song the same titles as one of Lady Gaga’s best tracks, you’re sort of setting yourself up for failure.
Score: 3/10
Anthony: “You and I” feels like several ingredients chucked in to make a pie that’s ended up with a soggy bottom. Dissecting from this whole mishmash, Madara’s lovely vocals shines along the verses before the drum and bass chorus kicks in and drowns it out alongside a trumpet solo. Apart from all this, there’s not an awful lot from this song to stand out from the rest of this year’s competition.
Score: 5.5/10
Robyn: This song starts off sounding like it’s trying to be Lorde, but by the time the chorus hits, the echoing brass line makes “You and I” sound like an English ska band from the 1980s is trying to burst into the song. Like a lot of songs bouncing around this year’s national finals, there’s too much repetition and not enough variety. It ends up feeling like a salesperson hammering home a pitch, rather than a sweet love song.
Score: 5/10
Antranig: Three minutes passes and I’m still waiting for the song to start. It sounds so flat and generic and it has no personality of its own. It’s annoyingly repetitive and I don’t really want to hear it ever again. Madara has a nice voice but she should grab her life vest because this song has a one-way ticket going nowhere.
Score: 5/10
In the Latvian Wiwi Jury we have 17 jurors but only have room for six reviews. The remaining 11 scores are below.
Sinan: 4/10
Bogdan: 3.5/10
Sami: 4/10
Luis: 6/10
Patrick: 5/10
Renske: 5/10
Bernardo: 5/10
George: 6/10
Sam: 0.5/10
Edd: 9/10
Dayana: 6/10
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 0.5 and a high of 9.
Wiwi Jury Score: 4.73/10
Crow Mother – “Demons”
“Demons” Reviews:
Sami: I grew up listening to My Chemical Romance, Simple Plan and Fall Out Boy and this kind of brings me back to my teenage years. However, when the song comes into its chorus, all that power and angst is immediately gone. The elements for a perfect rock song are there, but this just doesn’t make it. Loving the drums, though.
Score: 4/10
William: Turn down the volume and please escort the emo out of the selection. This does nothing for me. It’s dated, it’s boring, it’s repetitive, it’s trying to be subversive yet ends up sounding like the rest of the grungy music I threw out in the early 00s. Just eww.
Score: 1.5/10
Josh: The 2007 emo version of me would’ve loved this song. Fortunately, I’ve moved on from the leather and a jet-black side fringe and have developed a relatively decent music taste, and “Demons” does not sit well on my palette. With a severe lack of originality and a sound more dated than Taylor Swift, this song is absolutely doomed at Supernova 2016.
Score: 2/10
Patrick: Oh that sounds so familiar.. I hate that rock metal something that Latvia has in its NF this year. Its so avante garde in a bad way. The lead singer has kinda a good song but this just ends nowhere. Disaster of music.
Score: 2/10
Robyn: This song has the evil superpower of being able to remind people of the embarrassing rock they listened to in their youth. For me, it’s the time in the ’90s when this style of music was fresh and cool (so cool) and it felt like grunge rock was going to save everything. But it didn’t. Years later, it’s still not saving anyone or anything, including Crow Mother from Supernova doom.
Score: 3/10
George: I can’t even call this thing a “song”. It’s just terrible – the vocals are just a mediocre, the melody is really forgettable and the parts of the song just don’t fit together. It will most probably not reach the final and I can tell my ears feel really good about it…
Score: 1/10
In the Latvian Wiwi Jury we have 17 jurors but only have room for six reviews. The remaining 11 scores are below.
Sinan: 4.5/10
Bogdan: 2/10
Zakaria: 7/10
Luis: 3/10
Anthony: 4/10
Renske: 7/10
Bernardo: 2/10
Antranig: 7/10
Sam: 9.5/10
Edd: 5.5/10
Dayana: 6.5/10
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 1 and a high of 9.5.
Wiwi Jury Score: 4.07/10
Samanta Tina – “The Love Is Forever”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q4rdSuXF0eM
“The Love Is Forever” Reviews:
Zakaria: I wonder how she will shout sing the chorus during the live shows with so many successive high notes with no pauses in between. “The Love is Forever” comes out rather annoying with both the vocals and the rhythm going in different directions. Not a big fan…
Score: 3/10
William: I really love the pre-chorus — it’s so upbeat and happy. The chorus itself is a little too popera for me and I swear there is a digi-woman dying in the background. I preferred Samanta’s other entry, so if she advanced past her heat I hope the jury lets her revert back to that one.
Score: 4/10
Josh: Much like a lot of other songs in Supernova 2016, “The Love Is Forever” relies on far too many elements thrown together to create a winning pop song. There’s a lack of cohesiveness in this track. I know Samanta Tina can do better than this. Lift your game, gurl!
Score: 4/10
Anthony: I still haven’t forgiven Latvia for sending “Cake To Bake” at the expense of her breathtaking entry “Stay” on Dziesma 2014. So while I’m waiting for the year Samanta finally represents her country, it’s looking unlikely with this entry as it’s one of her weakest attempts so far. Having the high notes required to belt out the chorus of “Love is forever” several times eventually starts to grate.
Score: 5/10
Robyn: Behind the slick modern production lurks a really sappy ballad. The production helps a lot and the song is much more palatable than it would be with a traditional ballad arrangement. But ultimately it can’t hide the fact that there isn’t much going on with the song.
Score: 4/10
George: This song may be good, but I’m just not feeling it. I don’t think it stands out in any way, and I really preferred “We Live For Love”. But as “We Live For Love” failed to qualify for the semi-final, I doubt “The Love Is Forever” will – I’m sorry, Samanta.
Score: 4/10
In the Latvian Wiwi Jury we have 17 jurors but only have room for six reviews. The remaining 11 scores are below.
Sinan: 3.5/10
Bogdan: 4/10
Sami: 3/10
Luis: 3/10
Patrick: 6.5/10
Renske: 7/10
Bernardo: 5/10
Sam: 9/10
Dayana: 4/10
Edd: 7.5/10
Antranig: 6/10
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 9.
Xoxoxo totally agree with you!
You and I is an actually pretty decent dnb song.
i actually agree with Edd for once (on Madara Gregere)
DVINES is clearly the best in the heat though
Crow Mother will qualify as Catalepsia last Sunday. You must know, that ESC and NF are watching by straight people too. And they have more interesting taste than your average-diva-pop.
It seems that all three songs has similar theme, accorsing to wiwijury: more is less
What’s wrong with a emo in a song selection?
Fair enough reviews.
This semi however has some cool vibes. I do like Dvines and Miks Dukurs.