Bikinis out, SPF 50 on! The Malta Eurovision Song Contest 2017, the national selection for Malta, will take place on 18 February. But before then, the Wiwi Jury — our in-house panel of music unprofessionals — is reviewing and rating all 16 competing entries. Today we move on to Jade Vella with her song “Seconds Away”. Are we counting down the seconds until the song ends? Read on to find out…
Jade Vella – “Seconds Away”
“SECONDS AWAY” REVIEWS
William: She promises to be our salvation, our destination — and, baby, I’m ready! Jade brings an upbeat, feel-good song backed up with rich vocals that fill the three minutes with character, power and drive. I see her in a music video strutting down a dark alley with like 15 backing dancers behind her while she vogues and slut-drops — queen of the pack! The song is somewhat disposable, but I don’t watch Eurovision for art. A fun debut from a real firecracker of a singer!
Score: 7/10
Chris: My first reaction to “Seconds Away” was to recoil from my speaker. It’s not a great sign, is it? It’s just so tame for the genre it’s going for and dripping with faux-attitude. Sorry, Jade, but I stopped believing in this pretty quickly.
Score: 4/10
Deban: I love the power and urgency embedded in this entry. When it plays, I feel the rush, the passion and the fire in equal measure. “Seconds Away” is fresh, modern and insanely danceable. Jade Vella may not be a veteran on the Malta music scene, but she’s not being derivative or playing copycat. She’s setting her tone, and raising the bar.
Score: 9/10
Robyn: “Seconds Away” starts off sounding like a cool Ariana Grande song, but it is really let down by the chorus. Rather than expanding on the building drama, the chorus is unfocused and loses so much energy. It’s like a muddy bog in the middle of a running track.
Score: 4/10
Josh: “Seconds Away” demands attention from the outset. Jade is serving up some severe sass and attitude and I am buying it. Taking inspiration from the likes of Jessie J and perhaps her more local counterpart Christabelle, Jade is saying to Eurovision fans that she is here, she is ready to slay, and even though she’s new to the game she is one to be taken seriously.
Score: 8/10
Luis: What’s happening with the choruses this year? “Seconds Away” suffers the 2016 ‘pop drop’ syndrome: great verses, poor chorus. The first 15 seconds of this are fantastic, they get you into the song, and then the chorus is a hot mess. The song itself is a potpourri of pop elements from 2014 to 2016. That’s not necessarily bad, but that chorus kills all of her chances. Why would anybody think that a 45-second chorus could work?
Score: 3.5/10
George: Serving Ivi Adamou vibes, “Seconds Away” is a really enjoyable song that makes you move to its rhythm. It’s pretty dynamic from the first to the last second and it really stands out in a national final where more than half the songs are just average. It’s fresh and contemporary, and even though it’s not my favourite, I’d be more than happy to see it winning MESC.
Score: 8.5/10
Our jury for the 2017 Malta Eurovision Song Contest includes 14 jurors, but we only have room for seven reviews. The remaining seven scores are listed below.
Antranig: 9.5/10
Bernardo: 7.5/10
Dayana: 5/10
Forrest: 3.5/10
Jordi: 7/10
Ramadan: 7/10
Zakaria: 2/10
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 2 and a high of 9.5.
This is a good song! But I’m not excited! I don’t like the verses that much, the chorus is better! Not a fan!
It sounds like a JESC song that everyone would dance to and no one would realize is a JESC song if you played it at the Euro Club. It’s enjoyable. 7.5 It’s my #3 in this selection.
Jade has a fabulous song. I do not think that she will win but she might leave a lasting impression on the Maltese public 🙂
Jade is the daughter of a popular Maltese singer who tried to represent Malta on multiple occasions, Janvil. In 2005 (the year Chiara won with Angel) he came third with the song You.
This is one of my favourite songs in the Maltese selection this year. Structurally flawless, rhythmically catchy, melodically fulfilling and harmonically in the happy key of E-flat Major, this has all the hallmarks of a perfect pop song. (I heard that it was written by Kevin Borg, in which case it’s probably his best song to date.) The edgy electro-production sound will put some listeners off (as it did to Chris in the reviews above), but ignoring that; this has the potential to SLAY in the live final. If Jade can hit those high notes in the reprise, this might… Read more »
Her pronunciation is so on point! The verses of the song are great, the chorus is good as well, but could be stronger.
7/10