The Wiwi Jury — our in-house panel of music unprofessionals — is halfway through the songs competing in Georgia’s national selection for Eurovision 2017. Next we’re listening to Misha Sulukhia with “Magic”, Nanuka Giogobiani with “Let the Sunshine In” and Nino Basharuli with “The Song of Love”. Are any of these oximated enough for Kyiv? Read on to find out!
Misha Sulukhia – “Magic”
https://youtu.be/j71Wk0UyH-4
Antranig: I must admit, I am completely speechless after listening to this. It has elements of pop, rock, electro and even popera. He channels Cezar and he nails it. Misha, I don’t know where this song came from but it is pure magic. Give me more!
Score: 8.5/10
Chris: “Magic” harks back to the greatest album of all time, Britney Spears’ Blackout. Then it goes popera and then Michael Jackson comes in and then I don’t even know what to think. This is an experience, not a song.
Score: 6/10
Luis: This can either win or finish last. It has personality, and Misha is so daring to use his countertenor voice, but I’m not completely sold on the song. It’s like Muse meets Ralph Siegel featuring Cezar Ouatu. There’s potential, but it needs two things: 1) a hook, 2) to stop sounding like the music of a PlayStation 2 video game.
Score: 6/10
Renske: This song is magic. I don’t know if that is positive or negative. People will either love it or hate it a lot. It has something special and original in it and it would be a good follow-up to the Young Georgian Lolitaz. But it has some kind of dated Anri Jokhadze vibes as well. And we all know how that went.
Score: 5.5/10
Robyn: I appreciate “Magic” for its variety and for just being really entertaining. Misha throws a lot into the one song, but he owns it all and it works. The song is laden with attitude and could deliver some really extravagant, memorable staging.
Score: 7/10
William: This belongs in a Halloween movie from the year 2046: It’s at once terrifying and somehow futuristic. Misha, who seems to be supported by men blowing squeaky balloons, works falsetto well. And while the lyrics, the production and the instrumentation all scream train wreck, somehow he keeps it on the tracks. I don’t know where it’s going, but I can’t stop watching.
Score: 6.5/10
In the Georgian Wiwi Jury we have 12 Jurors, but only space for 6 reviews. The remaining scores are below:
Bernardo: 4/10
Cinan: 7/10
Dayana: 5.5/10
Jordi: 3.5/10
Josh: 4/10
Zakaria: 0/10
The highest and lowest scores are removed before calculating the final score. We have dropped a low of 0 and a high of 8.5.
Wiwi Jury Score: 5.5/10
Nanuka Giorgobiani – “Let the Sunshine In”
https://youtu.be/t4RGojAluB0
Antranig: The positives are that Nanuka is clearly trying, unlike several of the songs. However, this feels about 50 years dated. She is yet another great singer held back by a song that is completely forgettable. The various parts of this song don’t connect well with one another either.
Score: 1/10
Chris: The first 12 seconds of this song had me excited that this could be something quite cool and quirky. Very rarely would a song benefit from completely removing the backing track, but here we are. Nanuka’s clearly talented as a singer, but how anyone could think this was a fully formed song is beyond me.
Score: 1/10
Luis: Let’s press the keys of the synthesizer randomly! This can barely be called a song, honestly. It’s just noises with a woman singing nonsense, and an exhibition of Georgian traditional chants.
Score: 0/10
Renske: “Let The Sunshine In” is the most incoherent song in the selection. It has the melody of a low-budget digital game and sounds like it was composed by someone who was just jamming on the keys instead of writing a song. Pure confusion. She has a good voice though.
Score: 1.5/10
Robyn: Nanuka can sing, but what is she singing? It sounds like she’s just ad-libbing over the demonstration track of an electronic keyboard from 1986. Also, if you’re going to name your song “Let the Sunshine In”, it’s going to invite comparisons with the vastly superior original.
Score: 1.5/10
William: Having listened to this four times now, I still have no clue what is going on. Nanuka journeys from other-worldly lullaby to soul-funk mash-up of Gameboy backing track, ad-hoc poetry slam and self-indulgent balladry. In conclusion, “Bring peace to human race” — great message, bad conjugation.
Score: 3.5/10
In the Georgian Wiwi Jury we have 12 Jurors, but only space for 6 reviews. The remaining scores are below:
Bernardo: 0.5/10
Cinan: 4/10
Dayana: 2.5/10
Jordi: 6/10
Josh: 0.5/10
Zakaria: 1/10
The highest and lowest scores are removed before calculating the final score. We have dropped a low of 0 and a high of 6.
Wiwi Jury Score: 1.7/10
Nino Basharuli – “The Song of Love”
https://youtu.be/gsWfdAOd_rY
Antranig: “The Song of Love” sounds off with strong instrumentals that remind me of Albania’s “Fairytale” before it was revamped. Nino delivers fierce vocals and the song has its moments but for the most part, the song is quite mediocre. It would need a lot more power to succeed.
Score: 3.5/10
Chris: I’m a sucker for folk-dance-pop when it’s done right and this one just starts to scratch that surface. Clearly taking its inspiration from “1944” and even a bit of “Suus”, “The Song of Love” obviously doesn’t reach those heights, but Nino enchants. Georgia could do worse than send this.
Score: 6.5/10
Luis: Nino, try sending this to Mumbai. It makes a good theme for a persecution scene in a Bollywood song, but not for the Eurovision. I appreciate that she uses the Georgian language, and her voice is deep, strong and powerful. However, this is not her song.
Score: 2.5/10
Renske: This song really reminds me of the earlier Georgian entries like “Visionary Dream” and “One More Day”. It is mysterious, daring and it keeps me listening from start to finish. I love how the song gets its strong, melancholic vibe from the use of the Georgian language.
Score: 8.5/10
Robyn: This sounds inspired by “1944”. It doesn’t have the historical and emotional heft of Jamala’s winner, but there’s the mix of an electronic beat and ethnic sounds, along with plenty of wailing. It’s alright, and one of better entries in among the mixed quality of the 2017 national final.
Score: 6/10
William: Unlike may of her competitors, Nino seems to have thought before putting pen to paper. Her song has a strong ethnic identity that takes me somewhere ancient and spiritual where people are sacrificing all manner of animals. Her chanting is haunting and her voice really soars in Georgian. My advice is to cut the English — it comes off as gibberish and really kills the mood of what is definitely one of the stronger entries in Georgia.
Score: 6/10
In the Georgian Wiwi Jury we have 12 Jurors, but only space for 6 reviews. The remaining scores are below:
Bernardo: 3.5/10
Cinan: 5.5/10
Dayana: 6/10
Jordi: 8.5/10
Josh: 3/10
Zakaria: 6/10
The highest and lowest scores are removed before calculating the final score. We have dropped a low of 2.5 and a high of 8.5.
@AngieP I fully agree about “Magic”. It’s so unconventional and yet it somehow works!
“Magic” : what is going on in this song? Is it rock, pop, or opera? I totally agree with @Antranig here. But still, there’s something I like in this song. Don’t know what. It would be an interesting performance at ESC.
“Let the Sunshine In”: not a fan, seems boring to me
“The Song of Love”: not like it.
I would pick “Magic” here.
Holy cow, the average score for Nanuka is 1.7. Almost as worse as “Lie” from Moldova’s selection last year. Though I will say that her song is disastrous and can’t ever be considered as a song that will qualify in Eurovision. Nino’s my favorite out of this bunch and I think I’m going to get used to liking Misha’s song for quite a while.
I’m looking forward to the Misha live performance trainwreck. To those who can’t figure out if the song is great or terrible, it’s definitely the latter. It also requires him to sing falsetto followed by raspy, which as every performer knows, you can do exactly once. The second time you won’t be able to hit any of the falsetto notes. So, not really appropriate for a contest where you’ll have to sing it repeatedly. Nanuka is awesome and y’all are peasants. (Note: I’ve never heard of her before.) I’m sorry you don’t get songs more advanced than basic formula pop.… Read more »
What is going on with Nanuka? This has to be the weakest NF entry around Europe this year, it’s not even a proper song.
Meanwhile, Nino’s song is actually listenable, although a bit old-fashioned, but just a bit.
Nino has SUCH a good song and voice <3 It's really enchanting and with the right staging this will win the selection AND qualify. I agree with William: CUT THE ENGLISH! It's the only bad thing here.
Nino goth a 9/10
Nino is the first song that I actually enjoy this year from georgias preselection. It’s the second song I’ve made it to the end of and I actually listened to it more than once!
I’m getting windswept shepherd maiden wandering the bleak valleys of the Caucasus steppes pining for her lost love in the dark ages. There’s a silk roads twang to it that I love too. Also, It’s beautiful that it’s mostly in Georgian. This is my hands down winner so far.
You’ll know what’ll happen when Nanuka’s find out that Wiwibloggs were saying mean things about her entry: those fans will not only be angry, but also confused about all that criticism.
5.5/10