The Wiwi Jury — our in-house panel of music unprofessionals — travelled to Belgium and tucked into a hearty serving of moules frites in an Antwerp cafe. Afterwards we set about discussing Laura Tesoro‘s song “What’s the Pressure”. Did it leave us feeling relaxed? Or did we get stressed out? Read on to find out!
Laura Tesoro – “What’s the Pressure”
“What’s the Pressure” reviews
Angus: Hit play and don’t stop, mister DJ! “What’s the Pressure” is the funk jam this year’s contest needs. Laura werked the microphone for all it was worth on stage in the Belgian national final and I for one am hoping she gets to work a stand out on stage in Stockholm. The sequins and metallic vibes look amazing, the vocal is on point and home girl has girl next door popstar aura for days.
Score: 8.5/10
Bernardo: A strong and confident young woman who decently performs “What’s the Pressure”. The problem is not Laura, it’s the song itself — which wants to be a pop-funk classic but is a bit more pop-funk mess. For sure Laura is a fun and energetic performer, but will that be enough to get people to vote for her? Doubt it. It will be lost in a sea of strong pop entries, more engaging and with a stronger production. I don’t predict a bright future for Belgium, but I can’t help feeling a little bit sad that this is the follow-up for Loic.
Score: 3.5/10
Bogdan: I like Laura’s charisma and confident performance, but I can’t shake the feeling that I’ve listened to her song before. Regardless of whether the songwriters of “What’s the Pressure” were inspired by “Sax” or not, the fact is that the track is reductive and doesn’t bring much to the contest, other than the usual amount of controversy.
Score: 4/10
David: So bland you’ll find it in the grocery store in the generic section. Really Belgium, what were you thinking? This song has no personality and Laura is equally unimpressive on the screen. It’s not bad, but there’s noting interesting or outstanding about it.
Score: 5/10
William: Laura is a gorgeous performer with lots of attitude and plenty of spunk. I just wish she had a better song. This feels very 1977, replete with the disco habit of looping lackluster melodies and overemphasizing the tambourine. There is no pressure, Laura: this ain’t gonna win. For me this funk song smells tragically funky.
Score: 3.5 /10
Josh: So many people have hated on “What’s the Pressure” since it won Eurosong in Belgium a while ago, and at the time I had no idea why. I still have no idea. It’s a current, radio-friendly pop track that takes inspiration from the disco era and moulds it into 2016. Do I think this will be a top ten song? No. But with the right staging and costuming, Belgium has every chance of making it to the final.
Score: 7/10
Deban: Laura Tesoro scored victory in Belgium because of her sassy improvised choreography and engaging personality. However, she’ll need much more than that in Stockholm, and therein lies the problem. “What’s the Pressure” is a decidedly average pop song with funky undertones. I can’t imagine it leaping out as anyone’s favourite entry.
Score: 5/10
Padraig: Belgium’s entry for Stockholm represents a missed opportunity on so many levels. And that’s without raking up the mistakes of their national final. Separately there’s nothing wrong with either “What’s the Pressure” or Laura. It’s a chart-ready, retro flavoured, dollop of funky pop. She’s a confident and charismatic performer. But the two do not go together. “What’s the Pressure” should be the property of a sassy queen. Laura is a pop princess. Her bubbly persona is out of kilter with the edgier nature of the song. If she were singing a poppier number her chirpiness would be endearing, here it just grates.
Score: 4/10
Forrest: Throughout my early years of schooling I was regularly subjected to videos which thought that the best way of conveying educational messages to kids was through the medium of song. I always find that the result is cringeworthy and any seriousness of message is immediately negated. “What’s the Pressure” slots nicely into this genre. The song has a decent message of empowerment, but why on earth it is set to such a dated funk beat is beyond me. Laura asks “What’s the pressure?” The pressure, Laura, is if you want to have a song with a message, at least attempt to have an inkling of gravitas.
Score: 2/10
Robyn: Sometimes when I listen to “What’s the Pressure” it absolutely works as modern funk pop. But other times it comes across as a lightweight cover version in a Glee style. It’s all going to come down to Laura — if she can convincingly bring the energy and attitude, she will sell it and it will work.
Score: 5/10
Jason: After last year’s superb “Rhythm Inside” I had great expectations for Belgium. “Sax” “What’s the Pressure” is a major disappointment. Lacking the originality of its predecessor, in my opinion it sounds dated, like a cheap pastiche of a number of popular songs from the past few years. However Laura is cute and with the right staging she will probably make it to the final.
Score: 3.5/10
In the Wiwi Jury we have 40 jurors but only have room for 11 reviews. The remaining 29 scores are below.
Anthony: 8/10
Antranig: 0.5/10
Chris: 6.5/10
Cristian: 7.5/10
Dayana: 6/10
Denise: 4.5/10
Diego: 6/10
Edd: 6/10
George: 7.5/10
Gökhan: 3/10
Judit: 4/10
Kristin: 5/10
Liam: 4/10
Luis: 9/10
Marek: 3/10
Maria: 2/10
Mario: 3/10
Max: 7.5/10
Mike: 6.5/10
Mikhail: 7.5/10
Patrick: 2/10
Renske: 6/10
Rezo: 3/10
Sami: 1/10
Sinan: 9/10
Steinunn: 5/10
Tobias: 4/10
William C: 8/10
Zakaria: 7/10
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.
Oh, how I wish Selah Sue had sung this herself! 🙁
Be that as it may, this ended up #21 in my first evaluation.
Fresh, with lots of hooks and great choreography. 9/10
This song is fun. 6/10
I’m loving What’s the Pressure. It’s funky & fun. It’s catchy from the first listen. With good staging & camera work, Belgium could do well. I hope so.
Sad. On the wrong side of the retro/aged line.
i like the song a little bit now but it will not make the final in may.
p.s. tom was better then laura.
She’s putting the “Sax” in “Sounds Exactly The Same As Sax” – this song sounds cheap as all hell. From the backing instruments, to the claps, to the “UH” that occasionall happens. Granted, the funk she’s bringing is fun and I feel as though people hear the sax similarities and put her lower than what the song provides. I still prefer Tom’s song, but this song has pizazz – even if it’s not it’s own.
Score: 6.5/10
7/10.
Laura is hot and she has the best personality in the competition this year, but I’ve lost interest in the song. I used to love it but now it’s kind of meh.
So what’s the hate? I don’t know why everyone hates it. Again, this is another different song that does not sound like another Swedish pop balad. It is a nice retro funk song that sounds very much like Sister Sledge. Close to the chorus I like to sing “We are family” since the songs really have some similarity 🙂 But that is not too bas since I really like these kind of funky songs with a positive message. Again I can completely not understand someone who give that song 0,5/10. Sorry but this is just a complete mess of a… Read more »
It begins well but I get bored of it really fast. She is a nice performer and deserved to have a better song. 5/10
VRT lets us down every time!
Much like Spain’s odd year curse, Belgium (and Georgia) seem to suffer from an even year curse, starting from 2012. They need to just make RTBF the broadcaster for both odd and even years, and forget about VRT
it sounds like the kind of song they usually send.
Whoever wrote this song will probably represent San Marino in the future!
It’s very current, feels like a budget Paloma Faith… Not my cup of tea but good luck Belgium!
I have been feeling a lot more comfortable with this song since the music video came out. Laura needs to be dancing and there needs to be a big production to make this work. If she performs it as she did at Eurosong, where she looked immensely uncomfortable, she is not getting out of the semi. As for the song itself, there are good parts but the chorus does not deliver. It needed to be bigger and as a result, the song is a little forgettable. I like the style of it and it is much better than a lot… Read more »
I think we can use a Sax, it’s invented by a Belgian. So much hate on a poppy song from a small country… Yes, Wallonia has a better historical record, but still miserable compared to the other french speaking countries when they dominated the whole thing. And since the introduction of the semi’s, there’s not that much difference between the two with the VRT qualifying once and finishing 6th and RTBF qualifying twice and finishing 4th and 12th. The deepest point in recent history was for RTBF as well with copycat scoring one point In a semi… Even Ishtar had… Read more »
Usually claims of plagiarism before the contest are laughable and should be brushed off, but the similarities between “What’s the Pressure” and “Sax” are just uncanny. This is not just inspired, this is copied (and badly so).
When I listened the song I thought it was so similar to other,here is the proof
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sc0oSViYPRs
Also She seems to try to be a copy and paste of Lena,trying to be innocent,cute and smiling all the time…It seems so fake.
Falls short to its sister song Finland, none of them will qualify.
Nuff said.
SO UNDERRATED! So catchy, happy, bubbly and brimming with joy. Uncomplicated and easy to listen to. I was scared she wouldn’t qualify but now I’m sure she’s almost a lock to qualify. I expect her to do well and she certainly stands out. Best Belgian song since Tom Dice!
@Racal oh thank you for clearing that up 🙂 the difference between the two broadcasters is so much more obvious, I guess we will have an awesome song from Belgium next year then.
Id like to see Belgium win in the future, it’s been so long since their last one and Brussels or Antwerp would be great host cities.
I think this is the second most underrated song in the contest after Denmark. It’s really catchy and danceable, and Laura seems like a really likeable and nice person, not to mention she’s got an amazing voice. It DOES sound like Sax, but that doesn’t make it any more or less an awesome song.
@Darren: That’s because Belgium has two broadcasters: the French-speaking RTBF on odd years (Loïc Nottet, Roberto Bellarosa, etc.) and the Flemish VRT on even years (Laura, Axel “tear my ears off” Hirsoux, Iris, etc.).
RTBF usually sends better songs: they’re the ones who won it for Belgium in 1985 and who scored all of Belgium’s top 5 results (8 of them). RTBF’s last two acts qualified, whereas VRT hasn’t qualified since 2010 (only one qualification, Tom Dice).
I see a battle between Belgium, Finland, and San Marino on the funkiest song. Belgium could win that battle. Laura is a qualifier with the right staging and performance.
7/10 pressure drops
That’s quiet hard. I understand this is not a winner or even top 10. But I can see this going to the final. I do think it will be difficult because VRT is not very well in staging and ’cause Laura won ’cause she was the most famous in the national final. Anyway I hope my country Belgium does not terrible
WILLIAM!!! You gotta be kidding me!!! 3.5 for Belgium and 2.5 for Germany (my country)?! This is an insult, you are DEAD to me 😀
I always thought, and will forever think that this will make it to the final. It’s too catchy and charismatic not to. Everybody will be surprised, bar me…
It won’t qualify, but I like it.
(Belgium finished 4th place last year)
2013 The Netherlands qualified, Belgium did
2014 The Netherlands qualified, Belgium didn’t
2015 The Netherlands failed, Belgium qualified
So this year i’m expecting Belgium to flop and the Dutch artist Douwe, slowly taking a top 10 spot and qualifies!
After Rhythm Inside a deep let down for my country. Next year the RTBF will choose again so we’re already looking forward to 2017.
I’m really disapointed that Belgium doesn’t care about eurovision.
Flanders couldn’t win Eurovision even if the only other contestant was San Marino. This is perfectly in line with what they’ve done in the contest so far… It’s funny how people usually consider Portugal the worst performing country, but if you break down the results to broadcasters’ level, the VRT is clearly the worst: 60 years of participation, bad songs, Barbara Dex, no victory and not one single top 5 result. This year won’t improve their record… I hated this at the time of Eurosong (Tom was so much better!), now it at least feels a bit different from most… Read more »
I know it’s a dated sound but since the national selection this always stood out to me for some reason. All the other entries were disappointingly boring, this song brought some fun. It’s definitely helped by Laura’s enthusiasm and charisma on stage, so despite knowing it shouldn’t be so high I have it 15th currently, but that’s still only the bottom end of songs that I actually enjoy, so I could say she’s 15/18 of the good songs.
Of course funk is making something of a comeback with the likes of Bruno Mars, Mark Ronson, Pharrell and Fleur East all having number ones with funk tracks, however, Belgiums offering is too weak to be able to follow up on its predecessor’s success. Laura’s voice is just not strong enough to carry off a performance on this scale. I’m afraid Belgium will very much struggle to get out of this semi, especially with neighbours France and Netherlands voting in the other semi. Also, why is Belgium entry’s always better every second year, (2013, 2015 where miles better than their… Read more »
I like it. Not high-quality, but it is happy and I like that. And the videoclip is awesome.
It seems like Belgium is one of those countries that needs to jump a bit higher than the others… This is way better than the German or Norwegian entry but criticized much harder. One of the things those other 2 are, and this is not: boring
maybe it can surprise us, or maybe she’ll end last place from the semi finals at 0 points, even below San Marino lol
3,5/10 She is the 39th in my top.
3/10
I can appreciate a song that makes people wanna dance and have fun. But the song needs to be good in order to be appreciated, which this has not been able to do. It’s not horrible but it’s just not worth listening to over and over again. I would say that this isn’t qualifying, but Belgium is not competing in the first semi-final. So who knows? Maybe the pressure for her won’t be too bad.
I think the song is all right, but considering it is written by Selah Sue, arguably one of Belgium’s best artists, it feels a bit lacklustre. If Belgium were in the first semi-final, they would have stood no chance at all, but it can qualify considering they are performing in the second semi-final.
@Oops, thanks! I think majority of ESC fans nowadays were born after the fall of iron curtain and expect all songs to have electronic sounds to be “modern”. Yes, this has 70s vibe- so what? Not every ESC fan was born yesterday. I think this is just like Switzerland 2014 . It was a catchy, upbeat song with a charismatic performer, and it was top 10 in televoting and then ended up 12th if I am not mistaken. I think Laura will do really well….
I don’t understand how on earth Selah Sue,one of the songwriters was able to create this awful,but catchy song 😐 Selah is amazing and her songs are completely differnt from “What’s the pressure”,hope one day Belgium will send her in ESC.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=urEK23LO1D8
The problem with the Belgian selection was What’s the Pressure sounded much better than I’m Not Lost despite the former not having much potential and the latter having tons of it. This meant Laura won and were stuck with the poor song compared to what I’m Not Lost could’ve been.
Contender for last in the semi and has no chance of qualifying unless there’s a change of song.
I was one of those people who went berserk, threw so much hate on Twitter, when Laura Tesoro’s “What’s The Pressure” won over Tom Frantzis with “I’m Not Lost.” I even tweeted “Belgium: 44th of 43” or something like that. Today, well, guess what? Belgium is in my top ten, is my #8. I realized that both of them are nice, great songs. Actually, I found all of the five competing artists and songs in Belgium’s Eurosong to be really good. Of course, “I’m Not Lost” continues to be one of my what-ifs for this year’s Eurovision Song Contest, but… Read more »
NickC, I think many people agree with you, 90% of the viewers hear the songs first time, so many surprises will happen, and I think Belgium is one of them.
I totally LOVE this. And I will vote for it. You will all eat your words, guys- this is Top 10 material
@Rhythm inside
?h, «Rhythm inside» was great, I agree! And this song is just ridiculous.
That’s what really cheesy.
1,5/10 – Very cringy and JESC-ish! I don’t like sax and the whole fake funky feel to it. I nearly despise this song.
Belgium was my favourite last year, and I still think “Rhythm inside” should have won the contest. This year I doubt we will see Belgium in the finals. And rightly so. I like Laura, but the song just is not good enough.