We are getting close to Belarus’ national selection for Eurovision 2017, which takes place on January 20. In recent weeks the Wiwi Jury — our in-house panel of musical unprofessionals — has been listening to and reviewing all of the songs. Next up is NUTEKI with “Take My Heart”. Did we listen to their command? Read on and find out!
NUTEKI – “Take My Heart”
“Take My Heart” reviews
Sami: For better or worse, Belarus usually brings something unique to the contest. But I think now is their time to send something that European radio stations would actually play. “Take My Heart” might not have the best production and it lacks a hook, but at least it’s something I can see people from Australia to Portugal enjoying. If they nail the stage performance, NUTEKI will be my choice.
Score: 9/10
William: The singer from Nuteki takes my heart and he can take my hand while he’s at it. One of the most modern tracks ever to come out of Belarus — and certainly its national final — this wouldn’t be out of place on a London dance floor or a chic Stockholm bar. Nuteki perform it convincingly and with swagger. It may be slightly predictable, but it rides the electro-dance trend better than any other song in the contest. NAVI has authenticity and friendliness on its side, but this has the gloss. Belarus will have to decide what matters more.
Score: 8/10
Luis: The question here is, after Ivan’s crash, does Belarus really want to go for another bland pop-rock song? The lead singer has a great voice and he would kill it with a proper rock banger. NUTEKI have had several decent attempts in the recent Belarusian national finals, and this one is not bad at all. However, with “Take my Heart”, I can’t see a sky full of stars awaiting them.
Score: 6/10
Robyn: Ivan’s “Help You Fly” might not have made the final in Stockholm, but at least his song had some personality and attitude. NUTEKI’s overall performance is good and lead singer Mikhail has a versatile rock voice, but “Take My Heart” is just so bland. There’s very little that makes me want to listen again.
Score: 5.5/10
Mikhail: This is an energetic song with an explosive chorus and a rocky vibe — I approve. Nuteki have big support from their fans as well. I really enjoy this and I think it is a serious contender. It does become a bit repetitive, I must admit, but it’s still good enough.
Score: 7/10
Chris: Nuteki have tried so many times now, but at least this is one of their better entries to the Belarus NF. All that said, “Take My Heart” is fairly bland and feels like a weaker version of a Litesound entry. The pre-chorus instrumental lacks any real drive behind it and, despite the good vocals, there’s no magic that makes me want to get behind it.
Score: 5.5/10
Kristin: Well, the boys of NUTEKI are not messing around this time and they have something good to offer. It’s refreshing to hear something other than bland attempts at soft nu metal (no offence, Ivan) and “Take my Heart” is nearly a perfect pop song with a strong beat and a modern twist. I’m going to disagree with my fellow bloggers and say that this song is one of the better offerings of Belarus in several years. There, I said it.
Score: 9/10
Antranig: “Take My Heart” doesn’t start off very promising. The verses don’t pack a punch but things change come the chorus. The rock vibe does wonders for this song and takes it to another level. Lyrically, this is also very strong — something few of his competitors can match. NUTEKI is surely the best chance Belarus has to make the final this year.
Score: 8.5/10
Bernardo: 7.5/10
Dayana: 5/10
Edd: 5/10
Jason: 6.5/10
Patrick: 7/10
Rezo: 8/10
Sinan: 7.5/10
Steinunn: 5/10
Zakaria: 6/10
Before calculating the average score, the highest and lowest scores are dropped. This is to remove outliers and reduce potential bias. We have removed a low of 5 and a high of 9.
Nuteki translated part of their song to Belarusian and claimed they will sing it at NF. Navi said that’s not fair beause they initially declared English song (Navi is the only band to sing in Belarusian in NF at the moment, if Nuteki will do the same it will be interesting). one of Nuteki lives and works in Ukraine now, as well as Kurasov (who have Ukrainian team behind to make his way to ESC final) so it can happen that Belarusian NF winner will compete “at home”, 20 minutes walk from his appartment which is good to deal with… Read more »
@(J)ESC Fanatic Fully agree. I’m waiting for a review of Kattie. Her reworked song is absolute winner in NS of Belarus. Anders Hansson after the song for UK at Eurovision 2014 (Molly “Children of the Universe”) wrote again great and very strong song for Kattie using her powerful vocals.
Calm down, everyone, Kattie is the clear winner of this.
@Polegend Godgarina To qualify with a weak song of Navi? I’m not sure.
Kinda funny they’re shooting a Eurovision entrant video in Los Angeles.
Anyways, like this way better than pretty much everything else I’ve seen in Belarus, although it is kinda generic dance-pop, and the voice is kinda whiny. Won’t be pulling any lever for this in Kyiv, but all things considered, hope they make it and have fun, because they seem to deserve to over the rest of thier countrymen.
Why do y’all think Vladislav Kuraflop will win lmao it’s clear that NAVI will represent Belarus if they want to qualify
If I was Belarrussian, I would go for NUTEKI. Knowing how Belarus votes I can see this winning, after IVAN, Litesound, Uzari, … They like this type of songs!
OMG. The fans of Kurasov! Please write about your winner in the comments below the review of the Kurasov’s song! Also you can talk there about low rating of the song.
What is common between Kedvesem (2013), Cheesecake (2014), Hunter of Stars (2014), This Time (2015),What’s the pressure (2016)? They are brilliant songs who just do not fall into dance track streotype of esc fans, and yet managed to qualify with decent rankings.
Vlad Kurasov is leading the odds with 1.31. It is another “Cheesecake” situation, they have a sure qualifier with Vlad, and fans (and unfortunately my favorite site wiwibloggs) underrate it- but nevertheless, Vlad will win.
Nuteki is second in the odds, though, thanks to all fanwank. Navi is third.
Vladislav Kurasov for the win <3
Nuteki has a very good song. This band is second in my top 3. First place is Navi.
@escAU:
Though the same thing. Especially the intro is very similar to “sky full of stars” by Coldplay. Then the song progresses and it becomes an original song. I didn’t like the live version much, I think it’s weak, but I liked the audio better. The sound is great, contemporary, This can stand at ESC.
However, there’s only live performance at the contest. We’ll see.
This or NAVI has to win, but the lead singer of Nuteki needs some improvement in singing live, so if Nuteki gets chosen, hopefully he’ll work on this numerous times.
Belarus has to choose NUTEKI, if they want to be in the Final.
Robyn, her flawlessly polished ears heard it right. A bland song that would barely get televotes from Russia, let alone the rest of Europe.
Chris and Robyn are right – this is soooooooooooooo bland. I would never to listen to this 50 times before I could remember the tune.
This is the best song but the live vocals are shameful.
First of all, I can’t believe some of you are (still) complaining about IVAN not making the final.
“Take My Heart” had me at first listen and would be my second favorite after NAVI.
It’s at least the second article in a week where Robyn uses the word ‘bland’ to describe a performer. Does anything excite you, girl, this season?
Honey and raw eggs for the vocalist and everything can be fine with the right staging.
This entry has both a positive and a negative aspect. On the one hand, it’s a catchy, modern and overall, enjoyable pop song. Having said that, if they go to Kyiv and want to succeed, they need to change the intro, because it makes the song even more unoriginal than it already is. Also, the lead singer has to improve on live vocals, he really struggles live. I don’t think they have victory chances, the juries won’t be impressed.
7/10
I can see Belarus actually picking this. That is not a good thing.
The song has semi-final fodder written all over it. The lead singer cannot do it live and after Ivan’s struggles with his live vocal last year, they need to avoid this.
There are definitely more interesting songs in the selection than this bland offering.
For this song, the V/C structure makes up a very good song for the first two minutes. The problem is: what to do for the third minute. The sound is there and the lyrics are there, but the song itself runs out of ideas and becomes stagnant. Is it really that much of a challenge to write an extra verse or bridge for the third minute of the song?
Having said that, this could be a dark horse to win the Belarus section. 🙂
My winner for Belarus <3<3
Are you going to do wiwi jury for the UMK too?
I love Nuteki, but the lead singer of the band does not sing well live, but maybe better. Vlad Kurasov is also lousy live like Napoli too. Kattie is the best choice for Belarus.
In jury’s craving for a ‘modern’ song, they totally disregarded the fact that the guy cannot sing live. When he gets to the high notes, it sounds like he’s choking.
I’m still sorry for Ivan, Belarus put so much effort for staging, and Ivan was criticised for having an wild animal as a pet. The friendship between a person and an animal is unique, we don’t know how he found he’s wolf Shakira, it’s not like buying from petshop.
lol Luis briefly mentioned the blatant rip off of coldplay’s ‘sky full of stars’, I was waiting for someone to do that 😛