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 July with “Children of the World”. Are we ready to stand behind her? Read on and find out!

July – “Children of the World”

“Children of the World” reviews

Antranig: “Children of the World” has an amazing hey-ya-hey hook. After listening to all 13 songs, that’s all I remember of this national final. This song doesn’t push any boundaries but it’s the only song in Belarus that is ready to go to Eurovision without a major revamp. Forget May, July is going to take Eurovision by storm. This should be the clear winner.

Score: 10/10

Sami: Even if times are a bit dark and there’s negative news all around the world, I really don’t want another peace song at Eurovision in the next few years. Especially if it’s as boring and predictable as “Children of the World”. The lyrics, especially in the chorus, are just lazy and so is the beat, which goes nowhere and is just extremely bland. This really doesn’t give me any hope of a world peace, but it does make me even more depressed.

Score: 3/10

Robyn: It’s another “Love Love Peace Peace” song (or even a “Children of the Universe” song), but at least “Children of the World” has attitude. It delivers a decent chorus that has the potential to give more impact if it’s staged well. My only issue: the lyric “no matter what skin colour you are born” can’t be taken seriously when all six people on stage are white.

Score: 6/10

Mikhail: Is this even one song? I heard three, but maybe there are more, because I turned it off before the end. The electronic sound at the beginning could be interesting, but then it dramatically switches to a ’90s Soviet anthem, which absolutely doesn’t make sense. I haven’t even mentioned the confusing “heya” part. This is a total mess of a song.

Score: 4.5/10

William: Promising start with sultry vocals and production. But ultimately the R&B opening gives way to a strange mélange of dance house, indigenous and dated electric guitars. While I respect the “Polina Gagarina Dina Garipova We Are The World” message, I’m afraid her enunciation prevents me from embracing the cheese. I keep hearing: “And no matter what skin colour you are blonde.” Not. True.

Score: 4.5/10

Luis: Mweh. This wants to be “If Love was a Crime“, but it’s closer to “Chain of Lights“. July has a cool voice, and she has grit, but her song is so uninteresting. It could be a nice way to begin the show in the national final, but that’s all. It sounds more like an opening act than a proper Eurovision song. Next!

Score: 4/10

Chris: It feels like this song wants to go one of two ways. The opening feels much darker than the happier vibes I get from the “empowering” message of the chorus. Unfortunately, because the chorus is so weak, I’d much rather hear the opening verse on repeat. A remix in the style of Nina Sublatti’s “Warrior” — with appropriate staging — would help this if it somehow got to Eurovision.

Score: 5/10

Kristin: I’m not in awe here. The resemblance to “Children of the Universe” is a little much for my taste. But July has a funky sound in her voice, and an attitude to go with it. Maybe if the song gets a revamp, it will sound more like the edgy tune it was probably supposed to be originally, and less like a coked-up version of every “peace/love/we stand united” song in Eurovision history. Just maybe.

Score: 5/10

In the Belarus Wiwi Jury, we have 18 jurors but only room for 8 reviews. The rest of our scores can be found below:

Bernardo: 3.5/10

Dayana: 5/10

Edd: 2/10

Jason: 4/10

Patrick: 1.5/10

Rezo: 6/10

Sinan: 7/10

Steinunn: 6/10

Zakaria: 3.5/10

 

 

 

 

 

 

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 1.5 and a high of 10.

WIWI JURY VERDICT: 4.6/10

SEE OUR LIST OF BELARUS 2017 RANKINGS HERE

FOLLOW ALL OF OUR BELARUS EUROVISION NEWS HERE

12 Comments
Newest
Oldest Most Voted
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
Charles
Charles
7 years ago

There are three things damaging this song:
a) A bad chorus ruining the verses and the pre-chorus that resembles Bruno Mars’s “Locked out of heaven” to my mind.
b) I can’t stand bad English pronunciation specially coming from someone with a great voice. It just pisses me off.
c) The lyrics … if you’re going to try to do what Russia did in 2015 … I would recommend you packing your bags and go home. You’re Belarus … Russia’s submissive sister …not Russia #2.

cheesecake
cheesecake
7 years ago

It could be an okay song, but then the heya part kicks in and shatters July’s hopes of going to Kyiv (hopefully).

AngieP
AngieP
7 years ago

The start drew my attention, I started to like it, the chorus is interesting, but I think it gets repetitive. It will be forgettable, if that goes to ESC. With a good staging it can be elevated of course.

Hubertznajomski
7 years ago

I don’t know why you thinking, that every Belarusian song sucks?

Vanessa
Vanessa
7 years ago

It’s a pretty nice song but Vlad is still my favorite and I truly hope he wins <3

Briekimchi
Briekimchi
7 years ago

Really forgettable.
Towards the bottom of the Belarus selection and that in itself, is a hard thing to accomplish.

Klara
Klara
7 years ago

It’s a nice song, but Navi is still my favorite!

(J)ESC Fanatic
(J)ESC Fanatic
7 years ago

I think this is pretty enjoyable, even though the chorus is a little weak.

7/10

Vladimir Putin a.k.a. the ULTIMATE thug of the Universe
Vladimir Putin a.k.a. the ULTIMATE thug of the Universe
7 years ago

Not bad. She can easily be in top-3 of the national selection with other choreography and outfits. The song needs revamp though.

Richard
Richard
7 years ago

That’s very dodgy wall she’s leaning against in the picture, and her song is going the same way.

an esc fan
an esc fan
7 years ago

Kattie with ”Wild Wind” is the best.
This ”Children of the world” will go unnoticed, is like the anthem of Football World Cup in the 80’s. Seems created especially for ESC by somebody who haven’t seen ESC since 2002.

Pollaski
Pollaski
7 years ago

God bless Sweden for giving us a term to describe super sappy “Kumbaya” type songs like this. May LLPP live on through the ages as the codifier for such dreck.

Outside the painful lyrics, I agree that the song does have attitude, but its clear they weren’t sure on whether to just go full dance with it, or make it somber. SO they went with this tweener mentality, and it just doesn’t quite work as well. Its better than most of the crap Belarus feeds us, but still not as good as the top level songs.