Last night, the Wiwi Jury — our in-house panel of music unprofessionals — gathered in Oviedo, in Asturias, Spain. While enjoying a good round of sidra, we reviewed Paula Rojo‘s song for Objetivo Eurovisión 2017, “Lo que nunca fue” (What never was). Did she manage to make something of this ditty? Read on to find out…
Paula Rojo – “Lo que nunca fue”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aNt8hEs6vUs
About Paula Rojo
Paula took part in the first season of The Voice Spain in 2012, ultimately reaching the live shows. She (and her ukulele) gained huge popularity and a star was born! Paula smashed the charts with her first single “Sólo Tú” (Only You). She reached #1 on iTunes Spain and spent 20 weeks on the Most Downloaded Songs chart. Can she leverage that momentum again in 2017?
Wiwi Jury reviews “Lo que nunca fue”
Bernardo: This is probably the second or third entry in this national final season channeling that barnyard realness that breaks into chart tops in North America but struggles on this side of the ocean. My score for this song is based on the existing fit between Paula Rojo’s compelling vocals and the instrumental arrangement. It’s going to be a nice moment to watch live, but that’s all it will be.
Score: 6/10
William: Paula Rojo has opted to submit background music to Spain’s Eurovision selection and it fades from memory very quickly. It’s sweet and atmospheric, but ultimately far too sleepy to make an impact. A great voice wasted on an abysmal song.
Score: 2/10
Edd: I love everything about Paula Rojo and her “Si me voy” was the song of my summer. So it deeply pains me to see her not fulfil her potential in this song. The production is dreamy, but the melody is just so so weak — it’s like a three-minute verse. Nostalgia is a difficult emotion to make a strong impression with, and, whilst the song may make people feel warm and fuzzy, it won’t make them scream vote!
Score: 7.5/10
Jason: I am always a big supporter of atypical Eurovision songs. Just because it is not a big ballad or dance-pop doesn’t mean that it won’t impress — just look at the Netherlands’ recent success with country music. However, “Lo que nunca fue” is totally wrong for Eurovision. Paula Rojo has a sweet voice and her song is pleasant enough, but it is super bland and forgettable. Gurl would need several naked cowboys on stage to make anyone wake up and notice this.
Score: 2.5/10
Luis: Country is a tricky one at Eurovision. If done well, it can be superb *cough* Common Linnets *cough*, but if the song is middle of the road, nobody will notice. And sadly Paula fits into the second category. She oozes charisma, and the whole act comes across as lovely. All in all, it’s insufficient for Eurovision. Everything is correct, but this song is safer than the floor of a padded children’s playground.
Score: 5/10
Robyn: Country music is a tricky genre to take to Eurovision. It’s said that some Europeans can be suspicious of this very American folk genre. It worked for the Common Linnets, but they brought strong drama and emotion to their performance. Paula seems a sweet and talented singer, but “Lo que nunca fue” is such an ordinary song. There’s nothing about it that draws me in and makes me want more.
Score: 5.5/10
Patrick: Now, isn’t this cute! EDSM from 2013 are back in the form of Paula. It’s very familiar: Cue “Contigo hasta el final”, which I didn’t like either. I could definitely understand why people might vote for this act, as it’s a typical cute folk song with a beautiful and charming singer. But for me that’s not enough.
Score: 4.5/10
Zakaria: Country music is not the first thing that comes to mind when I think of Spain, but the combination of Spanish and country in this case is very sweet and enjoyable. However, this is everything but a competition song, as it lacks that instant impact that would make viewers vote for it.
Score: 5/10
Our Spanish Wiwi Jury consists of 19 jurors from across the globe. However, we only have room for eight reviews. Here are the scores from the rest of the jurors:
Antranig: 2.5/10
Chris: 5.5/10
Dayana: 7.5/10
Deban: 5/10
Forrest: 4/10
Jordi: 4/10
Josh: 3/10
Jovana: 6/10
Kristin: 7/10
Ramadan: 6/10
Sinan: 6.5/10
The highest and lowest scores are dropped prior to calculating the average score. This is to remove outliers and reduce potential bias. We have removed a low of 2 and a high of 7,5.
Forgettable but nothing particularly wrong with it.
I am surprised that it is a potential Eurovision song.
What Colin said (again)! 😀
I really like Paula and this style of song, but I struggle to remember any melody from it. She has a beautiful voice, but that’s about all I remember.
Her voice is so beautiful! I love it!
The song is sweet, it has this country music vibes but for Eurovision I’m not sure. It has the potential of a really good live performance. I would love to see sth like this in ESC.
I’m not a fan of the song, I just love her voice.
And this kind of songs don’t do well at ESC. I believe it’s forgettable, people won’t remember that after a while.
It’s cute and inoffensive, but doesn’t do much for me.
I really hope we send Paula Rojo. We probably won’t do well with her, but I find this song SO cute that I don’t even care about a bottom, I just want to listen her in Kyiv <3
It’s a nice song, it reminds me of Que me quiten lo bailao which was one of my favorites in 2011, and her voice is lovely. It wouldn’t go far, but with the Objetivo entries it’s like choosing 23rd place instead of 22nd.
This song is cute and charming as well as well written. However, it suffers from a major memorability issue. How many times does one have to hear it to remember a melody? Considering how weak this final is, I’d still say Paula is in the better half. But as for taking Spain out of bottom 5… npt sure. It’s either Paula or Maika for me, but with MAJOR focus on staging and design.
This song make me think about Ricardo Arjona’s voice.
After LeKlein , Paula is second best choice for Spain. LeKlein can put Spain in TOP 15. Paula can also be in TOP 15 or flop from 21 to 26 (it depends how voters bot juries and televote like this kind of song, they like country style song in 2014, but not in 2016, maybe they love in 2017 again). With other especially Mirela , I predict flop for Spain from 21 to 26 place in final. Mirela will be like Soraya Arnelas 2009, Edurne 2015, Barei 2016, hot favorite by eurovision fans who are flopped in final , and… Read more »