Belarus’ national selection for Eurovision 2017 takes place on January 20. So in recent weeks the Wiwi Jury — our in-house panel of musical unprofessionals — has been listening to and reviewing all of the songs. It’s a tough gig, but somebody’s got to do it! Next up is Kattie with “Wild Wind”. Are we feeling her peaceful ballad? Read on to find out…
Kattie – “Wild Wind”
“Wild Wind” reviews
Kristin: KATTIE is on to something here. There is a dramatic flair to the song, which just needs a little bit of boost, and she performs it beautifully. She caught my attention at the first note. The song just flows effortlessly. Maybe it doesn’t leave much behind, but I still got goosebumps while listening. Just a little nudge to increase the drama, and we have a full-on power ballad. Oh, but that dress…NO! This is a dramatic ballad, not a Disney Sunday special!
Score: 7.5/10
Sami: Was this really written by the same team who wrote pop gems including Agnes’ “Release Me“? The authors — Sharon Vaughn and Anders Hansson — have had their songs on the Eurovision stage too: Vaughn with “Waterline” and Hansson with “Children of the Universe”. Both of those songs are miles away from “Wild Wind”. The lyrics are okay, but the production and melody are utterly tiring. The song isn’t going anywhere and just leaves you cold, just like a breeze of wind.
Score: 3/10
Robyn: Before this song was revamped, I noted that it needed to punch up the drama — and that’s exactly what they’ve done. It has a dramatic 1980s rock ballad feeling, and the choir sound on the chorus gives Kattie the boost she can’t manage on her own. Bold and dramatic!
Score: 7.5/10
Mikhail: It is nice, really nice. The melody starts off a bit boring, but I love the ending — it’s fierce, it’s magical and it’s exactly what this song needed. The problem is that it still has to bring listeners to the dramatic point of the song and not to lose them on the way. The new addition to the song needs a bit of a crescendo, because it sort of gets mixed with the preceding part. But there is a potential.
Score: 6/10
William: Call it war, call it faith…I’ll call it borrrrring. I respect Kattie as a vocalist and I like the ethereal, angelic vibe she’s got going on. But this angel has wings made of paper and she doesn’t bring enough power to “Wild Wind”, which just swirls in place and makes me sleepy.
Score: 4.5/10
Chris: Okay, so the “wild” in the song title is slightly misleading for what we get, but I can see potential with Kattie. She has good vocals and the song itself, though it takes too long to kick in to gear, is pleasant. There’d need to be a huge overhaul of staging, but with the ESC stage offerings, that could work. I wouldn’t be displeased to see it go further.
Score: 5.5/10
Luis: I’d give this the title of the best ballad of this bunch. Unfortunately, that’s not saying much. “Wild Wind” made me think of an uninspired version of “Start a Fire”. I somehow find the concept of the lyrics similar, and Kattie’s voice fails to deliver the song as well as Dilara’s did. Her voice is sweet, but that’s all. There’s no hook, there’s nothing memorable about this. In the end, it’s just drama for the sake of it.
Score: 4/10
Antranig: Kattie’s “Wild Wind” might all be smoke and mirrors — this is a pretty tame ballad. The last 30 seconds kick things up a notch but it’s too little too late. Kattie’s vocals weren’t too convincing at the auditions but I believe she will sound stronger with better audio equipment. While this isn’t my favourite, I think this has the most potential of all the entries and I’m hoping for a strong revamp. Kattie has all the ingredients to succeed — hopefully she has the right recipe.
Score: 6/10
In the Belarus Wiwi Jury, we have 17 jurors but only room for 8 reviews. The rest of our scores can be found below:
Bernardo: 7.5/10
Dayana: 4/10
Edd: 7/10
Jason: 6.5/10
Patrick: 8/10
Rezo: 5/10
Sinan: 6/10
Steinunn: 3.5/10
Zakaria: 4/10
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 3 and a high of 8.
Either KATTIE or NAVI would do wonders for Belarus. Usually the country chooses somewhat cheap pop songs. But both of the aformentioned performers add something new to the table. KATTIE’s song has smart and beautiful lyrics and a light, fluent melody. We have heard anti-war ballads, but never from Belarus and usually in this kind of gentle way. Usually those songs tend to be more explosive (or like Hungary ’15 the complete opposite, focusing on words more than on melody). KATTIE’s song is in between, being a true soft ballad, but with recognizable melody and strong lyrics. NAVI’s song brings… Read more »
The revamp made the song better. This is a classic ballad with strong vocals. I think this kind of songs was common a few years ago. I would like to watch such as beautiful song at ESC. Like it.
This is something beautiful, especially the lyrics. More power is required, though.
The chorus just needed a much more emotional punch both soundwise and vocallywise … it kinda goes flat when you expected something a bit more intense … but as always … the b word always gets targeted as “boring” in a traditional Eurovision fashion … is it the fear that Eurovision becomes way too serious (also know as “the musical credibility that it desperately needs”) or it just a disturbing itching that happens when instead the whole thing should be about novelty acts, joke-performances, uptempo rubbish to get the party started (also known as “the lack of music credibility that… Read more »
I like Vlad Kurasov entry much better
I really like this. I’d even give it finals potential. Good escalation, good melody, she’s got a nice voice.
This is really going to stand out in a field of meh to just downright bad songs.
I really hope Belarus chooses Vladislav! <3
While I did like the revamp, I still feel that it needs more. Revamp the revamp, I say!
A step in the right direction though.
Differeñt opinions, but really Kattie has a very strong song in NS and underrated. I will wait also good performance on stage.
“Call it war, call it faith”…I’ll call it interesting. In fact, I blown away when Kattie hit that high note! 🙂
Im a diehard Eurovision fan and i found it painful to wait 2 minutes for something to happen – so imagine how the casual ESC fan is going to feel!
Also she looks like a Hobbit in the pic for the video – lose the cape and get some traumatised flowy hair gurl, STAT!
My favorite both before and after the revamp. Good luck to her!!! 🙂
This is okay, but it takes a loooong two minutes to really get going.
@(J)ESC Fanatic Kattie said in the interview for mass media that she will sing the ending at the final on high note 😉
Guys, you really underrate this! This song is a masterpiece. It’s so touching and meaningful, to the point I honestly cried when I first heard it. The revamp made it even better. Kattie can certainly sing – and she can sing very well. With a good and memorable performance I can see her taking the trophy easily. She was robbed last year, when she didn’t qualify with the amazing “Rainbows”, which was a much better track than all the finalists’. I hope Belarus doesn’t make the same mistake this year. 9.5/10 It’s my favorite entry from all national selections so… Read more »
So far this is the one, Belarus. The revamp is definitely overproduced, but this is Eurovision, dang it!
Maybe is the way the singer looks, or something about the genre of the song, but it reminds me of Iceland 2009 Yohanna – Is it true? , that was place 2, after Alexander Rybak. I mean it in a good way, not at all a copy, just wanted to say that has chances for high place.
Currently my third favourite of the bunch. The revamp certainly helped its chances. It has more of an emotional feel to it than previously. Maybe on studio version alone, it doesn’t speak out loud enough. The feeling that this song tries to give off will need to be amplified by the performance and staging. The message Kattie is conveying here is strong. Her live performance and staging should emphasise that to further improve her chances of winning.
This is a good song, yeah. Currently my tied second to win for Belarus. For years, Belarus is usually somewhere in my bottom 10 or 15. I WANT that to change.
She have done a revamp which is much better…
As I wrote before Kattie’s “Wild Wind” after revamp is my winner in national selection of Belarus with good potential to be in the final of Eurovision.