After using internal selection to choose their act for 2016, Georgia is returning to a national final for 2017. It’s now time for the Wiwi Jury — our in-house panel of music unprofessionals — to rate and review the 25 songs competing this year. We’re kicking off with the trio of Alisa Danelia with “We Are Eternity”, Andria Gvelesiani with “Revolutionise” and Asea Sool with “Nature”. Do any of these three have what it takes?
Alisa Danelia – “We Are Eternity”
https://youtu.be/T8GqPvVFjus
Antranig: A diva belting out a peace anthem — no national final would be complete without one. Fortunately, Alisa actually delivers. The way she pronounces “eternity” is so bizarre it is almost cute. This wouldn’t do too well at Eurovision but it’s one of the better songs in Georgia.
Score: 9/10
Chris: There’s a lot of potential here and Georgia have so often proven that they can work with potential. The “we are eternity” hook does get a little bit repetitive towards the end and I’d love a key change over the guitar solo too. The ending also comes too abruptly. All in all, not the worst effort.
Score: 5.5/10
Luis: I’m sorry, but I lost it when the “we ate torn a tea” came. I just couldn’t stop laughing until the guitar solo. A guitar solo. Outside Albania. Kill it with fire! Y’all, this is hopeless. Those street market-diva pretensions, that “Love Love Peace Peace” song… I’m out.
Score: 0/10
Renske: “We Are Eternity” is a classic Eurovision ballad sung by a wonderful voice. The song itself is OK, but the chorus is a let down. Alisa is a very powerful performer, but the sad part is that this song does not show what she is capable of.
Score: 8/10
Robyn: Well, someone has been paying close attention to “A Million Voices”. But where Polina created a magical, emotional performance with her 2015 entry, “We Are Eternity” (aka “we ate torna tee”) lacks that personal connection. File under “Love Love Peace Peace”.
Score: 4/10
William: “Little kids will play on the sidewalk” — and I hope they are not listening to this because they will get drowsy and get hit by a car. It’s bland and lasts an eternity. Looking for earplugs? Run, don’t walk.
Score: 2.5/10
In the Georgian Wiwi Jury we have 12 Jurors, but only space for 6 reviews. The remaining scores are below:
Bernardo: 6/10
Cinan: 7/10
Dayana: 5/10
Jordi: 7/10
Josh: 5.5/10
Zakaria: 4/10
The highest and lowest scores are removed before calculating the final score. We have dropped a low of 0 and a high of 9.
Wiwi Jury Score: 5.45/10
Andria Gvelesiani – “Revolutionise”
https://youtu.be/pZ_WEZXKCeM
Antranig: I’m unconvinced by Andria’s vocals but the song does have its moments. After a very slow start, the song gains some power in the last 30 seconds or so. That’s not enough to like the song but it’s better than several others which never pick up.
Score: 2/10
Chris: It feels like someone turned the tempo down on Highway’s “The Real Thing”, then suddenly towards the end decided to turn it back up. Andria just drones on and on. The sudden change in pace isn’t matched anywhere else in the song. A struggle to listen all the way through.
Score: 1.5/10
Luis: People need to lower their pretension when naming their songs. If your song is called “Revolutionise”, I want you to start a revolution and make me give you a 10/10. But Andria, this is not the case: your song is dull from beginning to end. I give him some points for his voice, which has some interesting crooner shades.
Score: 2/10
Renske: Though Andria sings with a somewhat crooner voice, the song is not convincing me. At some points, the song sounds like it wants to be an upbeat song, but in the end it’s all the same, slow melody, which makes me forget the song immediatly after it stopped.
Score: 3/10
Robyn: When the Melfest selection panel is assessing songs, they initially only listen to the first minute. If a song can’t make an impact in that time, it’s not going to do any better on stage. “Revolutionise” fails the one-minute rule. It takes so long to get going, and when it does get going, nothing really happens.
Score: 3/10
William: He didn’t just lose me in the first minute — he put me into a coma. His English is appalling, but maybe it’s best we don’t know what he’s saying. At one point he seems to say “from human being to parasite,” which doesn’t bode well! His biggest talent? Making three minutes seem like seven.
Score: 1/10
In the Georgian Wiwi Jury we have 12 Jurors, but only space for 6 reviews. The remaining scores are below:
Bernardo: 3/10
Cinan: 2.5/10
Dayana: 4.5/10
Jordi: 5.5/10
Josh: 2.5/10
Zakaria: 3/10
The highest and lowest scores are removed before calculating the final score. We have dropped a low of 1 and a high of 5.5.
Wiwi Jury Score: 2.7/10
Asea Sool – “Nature”
https://youtu.be/q6TRKEZ55CQ
Antranig: “Nature” starts off very dramatic but that quickly dissipates. Once the chorus comes around, we can really feel the vocalist’s anguish. It’s a powerful performance but I don’t believe it is the right fit for the Eurovision stage.
Score: 3.5/10
Chris: In the general dross that is the Georgian selection this year, something a bit different can really stand out. There’s a lot of elements at play, but Asea Sool seems to just about keep them in check. It does feel more like background music than a Eurovision entry though, especially as it just fades out by the end.
Score: 5/10
Luis: A part of me wants to like this, but I’m not completely feeling it. While I appreciate the duo’s artistry, the song has so many flaws. It’s slow and not very cohesive. That’s why it comes across as three minutes of pointless shouting with a nice cello backing.
Score: 3.5/10
Renske: This song is art. It grabs your attention from the first high note. It’s a very unique, futuristic song and I love this song as much I loved the Hardkiss’ “Helpless” last year too. This has so much potential and I cannot wait to see this live.
Score: 9/10
Robyn: There’s a lot of drama in this song, but it’s let down by the somewhat cheap sounding production. So if there’s any song that would benefit from a revamp, it’s “Nature”. Give it a slicker, more modern sound and it could be a strong contender.
Score: 6.5/10
William: Take me to the forest and let’s find a unicorn! Unlike so many other screaming divas, Asea can control her wailing — and I am totally feeling it. This has an Enya-meets-tribal-fisherman quality to it and, with a proper revamp, Europe could totally feel the hunt!
Score: 7/10
In the Georgian Wiwi Jury we have 12 Jurors, but only space for 6 reviews. The remaining scores are below:
Bernardo: 3/10
Cinan: 5.5/10
Dayana: 8.5/10
Jordi: 8/10
Josh: 3/10
Zakaria: 3/10
The highest and lowest scores are removed before calculating the final score. We have dropped a low of 3 and a high of 9.
@Luis Fuster
It’s okay, I understand. It is exhausting indeed listening to 25 whole new songs in one night. I just found it a bit too harsh that you gave it an absolute 0, because I never do that, not even when I detest a song. But it doesn’t matter, everyone has their own score-giving system. 🙂
If you got nothin’, go with the interesting one. From this set, that;s Asea Sool. Man I hope she can hack it live …
i legitimately thought alisa was singing “we ain’t on the tv”
These reviews are very interesting indeed, and (from a songwriter’s perspective) duly noted. The funny thing is that I enjoyed all three of these songs when I first heard them; but maybe I was just in a happy mood at the time. 🙂 Luis’s “0/10” rating for “We Are Eternity” is obviously non-sensical. In most contests, a song is only ever scored ‘0’ if it is disqualified – there is clearly no reason to do this here. Fortunately, Wiwi Jury rules have saved the day and exempted the erroneous score. 🙂 One thing these songs all have in common is… Read more »
Asea Soul is one of my favorites in the selection. I don’t really want it to win because I don’t know if it’ll be able to connect with the Eurovision audience (obviously here it didn’t), but it’s really an amazing song and I hope she can pull it off live.
Well, I’m aware of Revolutionise bad production and Andria pronounciation, but that was probably my first time when I was stucked with That low ranking 😀 For me it’s still good song, it’s just has come in a bad shape.
@(J)ESC Fanatic
I just couldn’t take seriously this song, I’m sorry. It’s OK that she wants to go for a diva type of song, but being a diva is something you earn, not something you pretend. I know I might have been harsh, but that’s how I felt. It might add to the equation of my meanness that this was the 22nd or 23rd song I heard from Georgia in one night and I was exhasperated. But thanks for the comment, your feedback is always welcomed 🙂
I absolutely love Asea Sool’s song. This is definitely my favourite in Georgia’s national final. However I doubt that they will send “Nature” to Kiev. But I’ll keep my fingers crossed for it during selections
When I read the comments above and saw Luis writing “we ate torn a tea” I was like “What is he talking about?” When I heard “We Are Eternity” I did get it. It truly sounds like this. Apart from that, the song is good, nothing special for me. “Revolutionise” is dull, dull, dull. It has a promising start and I’m waiting for a “boom”, I hoped the song would get stronger but no.The singer has an interesting voice though. “Nature” is my favourite song among the three. It has something different from the other two and I was taken… Read more »
“We are etornity.” xD this makes me crack up. All three haven’t made a great initial impression on me at first, but “We Are Eternity” is growing on me the most.
Revolutionise and Nature were both dull as hell. They just happen. Like audio wallpaper. We are Eternity COULD have been good. It started out pretty decently but never went anywhere.
By the way, may I ask why the two extreme scores are removed from the average?
Yeah, those 3 all failed to impress me. Revolutionise is atrociously messy.
I never understand with Antranig taste of music
None of them should go to Eurovision, but the last one is definitely the best.
Luis, it wouldn’t hurt if you were a bit more generous. Alisa’s entry is one of the best Georgia has to offer this year. She needs to improve on her pronunciation (etornity?), but her song is really good.
“Revolutionise” is actually quite underrated, it has something special that draws me in.
“Nature” is painful to listen to.
The first one is boring, the other to are great
Rock on Georgia in ESC 2017!:)