Ahead of the third and final heat of Uuden Musiikin Kilpailu 2016, Finland’s Eurovision 2016 selection, the Wiwi Jury — our in-house panel of music unprofessionals — listened to and reviewed all six of the competing songs. Next up is Barbe-Q-Barbies with “Let Me Out”. Did we scream “let me out” when the song was on? Read on to find out…

Barbe-Q-Barbies – “Let Me Out”

“Let Me Out” reviews:

Antranig: From monsters in masks to middle-aged men to teenage boys, Finland have given us all things rock except a girl group. I am in love with everything from the band name to this incredible song. It’s almost a shame that Saara Aalto is competing because this is the second best song in both Finland and all national finals. I want to unleash my inner rebel and shout “let me out” with them!

Score: 10/10

Edd: What a great name for a rock band! Sadly, I couldn’t actually listen to the song after the first chorus. The only instruments I can hear are guitars and drums — and for someone who isn’t a fan of rock, this is very dull. It’s a perfectly professional production, but I’d prefer something a bit grittier (or at least something more exciting).

Score: 2/10

Sam: “Let Me Out” tears me in two directions. I want to love it. After all, it channels heavy metal realness and the girls convey so much emotion when singing it. The instrumental hits all the points in rock that I love and stand for. The lyrics, especially in the chorus, however, are a huge letdown. The “Let me out, let me out…” gets way too repetitive. It’s better than most of the entries in UMK this year, but could still use some improvement.

Score: 7.5/10

Luis: Barbe-Q-Barbies tie with Ukraine’s Brunettes Shoot Blondes on the best band name this year. At first, they reminded me a bit of MIAU, who took part in UMK 2014, but only at first, until it suddenly became a boring 80s rock shouty song. I’m afraid we don’t need this in the final. There are plenty of better rock songs, and there’s already Mikael Saari if you need shouts. I kinda enjoy their energy, though.

Score: 4/10

William: It leans more towards rock than pop — and ends up sounding like all the other slightly angry tracks from female rock bands. I don’t find the chorus particularly memorable or inspiring. To make matters worse, the video features several rather vulgar scenes involving a woman’s reproductive area. I find the whole thing crass and unsavoury and would not invite these chicks to my BBQ.

Score: 2.5/10

Barbe-Q-Barbies Eurovision 2016 Finland UMK CoverRobyn: This is like rock created by someone whose only experience of rock music is the soundtrack of a cheesy ’80s movie. Or it’s rock for people who normally hate rock. When other national finals this year are giving us interesting, modern rock songs, it’s disappointing that Finland has gone with this tired throwback.

Score: 3.5/10

Kristin: I’m torn again. “Let Me Out” is a decent rocksong that oozes girlpower, but I bet my bottom dollar that Eurovision fans will compare it to Ireland’s “Et Cetera” from 2009. However, this is better by miles! I’m not completely convinced though. I feel like I should be like “hell yeah!” but I find myself drifting away after about one minute. But I’m going to give Barbe-Q-Barbies a chance until the live show — if they provide some kick ass staging that fits the song’s power and message.

Score: 6 /10

Max: I love the fierce energy that Barbe-Q-Barbies bring to “Let Me Out”, but not much else. This quickly becomes repetitive and lacks variation as the song progresses. As has already been mentioned, the song feels like a slightly calculated and unoriginal use of the rock genre to stand out from the rest of the UMK line-up, and I don’t think the audience are going to buy into it. Also, could the band reconsider their name?

Score: 3/10

In the Finnish Wiwi Jury we have 16 jurors but only have room for 8 reviews. The remaining eight scores are below!

Maria: 6/10

Josh: 4/10

Ramadan: 4/10

Denise: 6/10

Bernardo: 6/10

Dayana: 2/10

Cristian: 6/10

Mario: 2.5/10

The highest and lowest scores are dropped prior to calculating the average. This is to remove outliers and reduce potential bias. We have removed a low of 2 and a high of 10.

WIWI JURY SCORE: 4.5/10

FOR OUR LIST OF FINLAND 2016 RANKINGS, CLICK HERE

FOR MORE FINLAND EUROVISION NEWS, CLICK HERE

Photo: YLE

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Netherlandish
Netherlandish
8 years ago

Whut? 4,5?

The first comment from Antranig was a great review!
Finland will love this tonight, if Saara won’t win UMK it will be this.

Ian
Ian
8 years ago

This is like a really bad version of Vanilla Ninja from 2005.

Briekimchi
Briekimchi
8 years ago

Not particularly memorable.
Three minutes is not long enough for this style of music to really get going.

Alex
Alex
8 years ago

Whaaaaaat? This is miles better than anything Georgia’s act put forward. Come on, folks.

TeeJiiHoo
TeeJiiHoo
8 years ago

@MGR – Have you noticed that the topic here is UMK and the song by Barbe-Q-Barbies, not Melodifestivalen?

Steven
Steven
8 years ago

4.5? Tragically low score for a song that sounds very expensive. Finland loves rock and if Saara can’t win I hope it’s this. The music is so damn good.

MGR
MGR
8 years ago

At this moment top 5 looks so as follows:
1. Samir & Viktor, 2. Robin Bengtsson, 3. Molly Sanden, 4. Ace Wilder, 5. Wiktoria.

MGR
MGR
8 years ago

Probably jury will also give many points to Ace Wilder, but viewers will not vote for her. Isa, Wiktoria and Oscar Zia absolutely have no chance in final.

MGR
MGR
8 years ago

Melodifestivalen is more important. I think Samir & Viktor will score about 180 points (120 in televoting + 60 from jury), which means only Molly Sanden and Robin Bengtsson have chance to beat them. They need very strong support from jury, because they absolutely have no chance in televoting against “Bada Nakna” (still strong number 1 in swedish itunes and Andra Chansen will also help them to get about 400.000 votes in final). It’s so clear and obvious.