Zdrowie! The Wiwi Jury — our in-house panel of music unprofessionals — is almost finished reviewing and rating the songs competing in tomorrow night’s Poland’s national final, Krajowe Eliminacje. But before we relax with a wódka, we’re going to take a look at Martin Fitch with “Fight for Us”, Isabell Otrebus-Larsson with “Voiceless”, Olaf Bressa with “You Look Good” and Rafal Brzozowski with “Sky Over Europe”. Do any of these songs colour our life?
Martin Fitch – “Fight For Us”
https://youtu.be/WgVs_LWN58I
“Fight For Us” reviews
Robyn: I really like Martin Fitch (check out his Insta) and he deserves a second chance at Eurovision after his 2010 appearance was more like a promotion for the Polish Apple Marketing Board. But is “Fight For Us” the song to do it? Well, it’s a bit generic. It sounds like any vaguely successful electro-folk-pop track from 2016 and doesn’t really make enough impact. But it’s Marcin Mrozinski and I really want him to go to Eurovision again!
Score: 6/10
William: Martin has a beautiful spirit and a lovely voice — a combination that makes him a personal favourite. His contemporary track has shades of Shawn Mendez, but that doesn’t mean it’s a copy — just that it’s well-produced and on-trend and has just the right amount of sex appeal tucked away. Martin can deliver live. Hopefully he’ll get the staging he deserves.
Score: 7/10
Chris: This feels like the backing music for an inspirational recap video for a sporting event. Notice how none of that relates to Eurovision, because there is no way this should be Poland’s entry. Martin’s voice doesn’t really match the song, not to mention the highly off-putting shriek at the end of the first chorus. I expected better, which maybe makes this more of a disappointment.
Score: 4/10
Jason: “Fight For Us” is a decent (if a bit bland) effort from Martin Fitch. The track itself sounds well-produced and modern. The big issues here are the repetition, which becomes irritating pretty quickly, and the matter of pronunciation (“fight for ass“). With some minor tweaks, this would not be a bad choice.
Score: 6/10
Marek: The song is not really bad — and I love the “Treat You Better” comparisons — but it’s just lacking something. Nothing changes — it feels like there should be more variety, some high notes, maybe a muffled voice. And it gets really boring hearing “I’m gonna fight for us!” over and over and over again.
Score: 6.5/10
Antony: From Slavic noise to this. Martin should be commended for singing a better more contemporary song. However, the guitar style is similar to “Treat You Better” by Shawn Mendes. This dominates the song, resulting in an uninspiring entry.
Score: 4/10
Luis: Mainstream, easy-going and familiar, “Fight for us” is ready to go. Not sure if to the Eurovision or to the pop charts, but what Martin brings is a big step from “Legenda”. It may be a bit bland, but he knows how to uplift a song live. Also, the comparison to “Treat You Better” is there, but actually, those chords aren’t the most original thing ever. They work in both songs, as they have worked in many others earlier.
Score: 6/10
In the Polish Wiwi Jury, we have 13 jurors, but room for only 6 reviews. The remaining scores are below:
Antranig: 7.5/10
Dayana: 7.5/10
Forrest: 4/10
Jordi: 5.5/10
Josh: 6/10
Natalie: 7/10
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 4 and a high of 7.5.
Wiwi Jury verdict: 5.95/10
Isabell Otrebus-Larsson – “Voiceless”
“Voiceless” reviews
Antranig: There’s a lot to like about “Voiceless” — it sounds fresh and current but also quite original. It is rather weak lyrically — it sounds a bit preachy and it doesn’t match the upbeat composition very well. That can be ironed out ahead of Eurovision as it isn’t a major issue here. Isabell is a powerful singer and this should be the song representing Poland in Kyiv.
Score: 8.5/10
Robyn: Poland’s problem at Eurovision is that they enter songs that viewers love but that juries are cold to. I get the feeling that a song like this might solve that problem. It’s in very safe territory — but that’s the problem. It sounds like a song that would be rejected from Melfest for not being interesting enough. Completely adequate, but nothing special.
Score: 5.5/10
William: Isabell has a rich and full voice — it’s like a lovely glass of Merlot that you just want to sip all night. Musically she nails this — the song builds nicely and the mix of electro-sounds and the light beat works so well. My issue comes with the lyrics, which smack of Bryndza, Bundz, Golka, Korycinski and all the other Polish cheeses you can think of. I like her message — and I’m sure “the voiceless” do too. But it’s so hackneyed and trite that it kills the delightful mood of the music.
Score: 5/10
Josh: Miss Isabell is far from voiceless, honey! That voice packs so much power and emotion and it’s so captivating to watch. This song straddles many decades and genres and that is what is needed to appeal to the masses. Lyrically – cheesier than baked camembert. If this represented Poland in Kyiv, I’d be happy to see deserved televoting points going her way.
Score: 8/10
Chris: This feels as generically Swedish as you could get, unsurprisingly given Frederik Kempe’s involvement. In a sense, that’s a good thing, because it means as a baseline it’s going to at least be a good song. Unfortunately, it also means it doesn’t feel like it really fits at Krajowe Eliminacje. Isabell also doesn’t really sell the emotion this song needs in the final chorus, either. Maybe this will work better live.
Score: 5.5/10
Marek: I have a feeling like I’ve heard this song somewhere before but I am not able to recall. It could just be that the song is so well produced that it sounds familiar. The beat takes over a bit but it really works well with this song. I like Isabell’s trembling voice and the way she uses it — hopefully she will sound equally good live. The message of the song makes me wanna find Isabell and hug her. It’s such an adult subject, but as a young person she handles it surprisingly well.
Score: 8.5/10
Jason: “Voiceless” is oddly hollow. Isabell sings about speaking up for those with no voice, yet her own voice conveys zero emotion, and the whole thing is set against a summery dance track. The overall package lacks passion and individuality, and I don’t think it is a winner.
Score: 5.5/10
In the Polish Wiwi Jury, we have 13 jurors, but room for only 6 reviews. The remaining scores are below:
Antony: 8/10
Dayana: 7/10
Forrest: 6/10
Jordi: 8/10
Luis: 4/10
Natalie: 7.5/10
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 4 and a high of 8.5.
Wiwi Jury verdict: 6.77/10
Olaf Bressa – “You Look Good”
“You Look Good” reviews
Robyn: “You Look Good” is funky and has some attitude, but it feels underproduced, like a rough demo. I hope it comes to Krajowe Eliminacje with a more polished sound. This feels like the sort of song that might open the national final but would soon get forgotten about once the big hitters arrive.
Score: 6/10
Jason: “You Look Good” sounds like a karaoke version of an old Bruno Mars album track. Some of the lyrics are questionable (“I’m really falling for your blue dress”) and the overall effect is amateurish. It needs an awful lot of work to be Eurovision ready, and in all honesty, there are plenty of better choices for Poland.
Score: 3.5/10
Antony: “You look Good” represents the elements of a slick, cool and catchy song backed by a youthful and handsome singer. Unfortunately, there are stronger songs in this national selection which may cause this song to be forgotten.
Score: 6/10
William: “I think you’re gonna walk away” — and you’re totally right. This has an interesting Motown feel and his voice works well with this throwback style. But the instrumentation and production fall flat fast, and the overall package seems incomplete. Nice ideas, but the execution is sloppy and undernourished.
Score: 4/10
Chris: I’m pretty certain there’s a beat in here that sounds like my phone ringtone in the early ’00s. Which is where this song really deserves to be, at best. Olaf does his best to sell this, but he doesn’t have a lot to work with from the start. It bothers me that the Polish selection was so good last year when looking at the relative weakness of this year.
Score: 4.5/10
Marek: This song is like a distant relation of Dan Skinner’s “Lockdown”. When I first played it I was hit by the beat, like an intro from an old video game. His voice sounds weird to me, and the song is more tiring than enjoyable. You may look good, but do you sound good? It would probably improve with better production, but for now it sounds cheap. But I like his name!
Score: 3.5/10
Josh: If Bruno Mars and an old-school Guy Sebastian had a C-Grade lovechild, that would be Olaf Bressa. The throwback to Mowtown is cute and endearing, but lyrically and compositionally it fails to deliver. Straight after listening to it, the melody and tune is forgotten and that is dangerous in a competition like this.
Score: 4/10
In the Polish Wiwi Jury, we have 13 jurors, but room for only 6 reviews. The remaining scores are below:
Antranig: 1.5/10
Dayana: 6.5/10
Forrest: 2/10
Jordi: 6/10
Luis: 5/10
Natalie: 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 1.5 and a high of 6.5.
Wiwi Jury verdict: 4.41/10
Rafal Brzozowski – “Sky Over Europe”
“Sky Over Europe” reviews
Robyn: It starts off sounding like some sort of sappy ballad about a relationship ending, but soon enough it turns into a sappy ballad about a dystopian nightmare world. Has he been inspired by “1944” and is perhaps describing feelings and events from World War II? Or is this just a misguided and melodramatic tune? Really dude, things aren’t actually that bad now and you need to cheer up a bit, ok. Have a sausage.
Score: 2/10
William: This sounds like one of those bootleg tapes they play at Chinese and Vietnamese restaurants because the management is too cheap to buy the real version recorded by an actual pop star. (This is not racist: I am of Chinese and Vietnamese descent). From the cheesily produced lyric video to the poor pronunciation to the dated instrumentation to the lyric “Ferryman’s already got his money, got his money,” this seems like a parody of a parody of a Belarusian national final entry.
Score: 1/10
Chris: What even is this? Does Rafal even know? What starts as a love ballad turns in to, what I can only assume, is a love ballad set to bad phone hold music. Isn’t the “land of milk and honey” Israel? This is genuinely baffling. If you’re going to do a song about how f*cked the world is, do it Tako style. I have a morbid curiosity about the staging of this. I’ll half expect Poland to send it, too.
Score: 2.5/10
Jason: Deeply unsettling lyrics, a seriously dated production and more doom and gloom than you could ever need, “Sky Over Europe” has it all. Apart from the potential to win Eurovision. Or even Krajowe Eliminacje. Honestly, make sure to listen to this one, it really is bewildering.
Score: 2/10
Marek: This song is so bad it becomes funny after two minutes. I can only imagine it used to promote a TV soap aimed at elderly women. The lyrics are terrible, and the only positive quality is Rafal’s voice. God bless Poland for adding a jury because if Rafal won because of his popularity, I would have to put my country last in my ranking — and most Eurofans would do the same.
Score: 1.5/10
Luis: So apparently, the sky over Europe is depressing. Well, it’s pretty sunny right now in Barcelona, you know, Rafal? Actually, I get why he talks about the sky. His song is boring, cliché and uninteresting, just like a lift conversation about the weather. Maybe Poland’s romantic comedy film makers will appreciate this for their movies, but this must not go to Eurovision.
Score: 1/10
Josh: This “Sky Over Europe” is full of dark clouds, thunder and torrential rain. Separate from the awfully dated instrumental and catastrophically cliche lyrics, this song only evokes one emotion in me – depression. I would hope this is a sure-fire last place in the Polish national final, but the Poles are hard to predict sometimes!
Score: 1.5/10
In the Polish Wiwi Jury, we have 13 jurors, but room for only 6 reviews. The remaining scores are below:
Antony: 3/10
Antranig: 2/10
Dayana: 4/10
Forrest: 3.5/10
Jordi: 4/10
Natalie: 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 and a high of 4.
I guess most of people understand what Rafal’s song is about, but it’s just so cheap… It seems that people in his team were like “Let’s write a song about current issues, so people will get sad and vote for us to show their support!”. And that’s why it sounds so cheesy and embarrassing. It doesn’t come from his heart. They wrote generic lyrics to evoke people’s sympathy. And they failed miserably.
Running order:
1. Martin Fitch – Fight for us
2. Lanberry – Only human
3. Isabell – Voiceless
4. Paulla – Chce tam z toba byc
5. Olaf Bressa – You look good
6. Kasia Mos – Flashlight
7. Aneta Sablik – Ulalala
8. Rafal Brzozowski – Sky over Europe
9. Carmell – Faces
10. Agata Nizinska – Reason
IMO it’s very interesting. 😀
pierdu pierdu 😛
“Voiceless” may not be serving THAT much quality, but I enjoy it the most, followed by Agata’s (?) “Reason”.
“You Look Good” is so hilarious, it’s actually pretty bad and amateurish, but wow it’s catchy.
I really like Martin’s song. To tell the truth I didn’t notice the similarities with “Treat you better”.
Voiceless is also a really good song.
Like them both.
@tt – Perfectly fine, thank you. 😉 I just wanted to explain the song’s meaning. I would ok if people hated it on what it is, but I was reading all the negative comments hating it as a love ballad. Wtf?
That “Sky Over Europe” usually changes colors and patterns depending on reactions. The title is a good idea, but it’s still one oxymoron of a song.
Score: 0.5/10
@Colin u ok?
Voiceless – I really want to love it, but Chris is onto something. On the video, Isabell sounds way too impersonal and sometimes it’s really obvious how her every more is rehearsed in advance (which, of course, is true for ALL videos, but you need to rehearse it to look natural). She speaks of those without a voice and without an opportunity, while looking like she is just filming a hair shampoo commercial. It may come to life on a big stage in the grand finals, I guess? The song itself is good. Martin’s (Marcin’s) song is okay, but a… Read more »
You guys are too nice when saying that Martin’s song is *similar* to Treat You Better… it’s the same song omg, Martin wasn’t even slick enough to change the chord and chorus structure! That’s just a huge no from me, why send a blatant copy of a huge radio hit from last year? Voiceless – that’s how I’d describe Isabell’s song. I hate it when singers go falsetto because they can’t hit the notes, and that’s what she does after the chorus. People need to understand that falsetto is a technique of its own, not a way to make up… Read more »
I find it seriously worrying that not *one* jury member realized what Rafal’s song is about. You may find it boring (like you do all slow songs) or too depressing (which it indeed may be), but I read this reviews and every single one misses the point. How many times did you hear it? Once? Not even fully once? It’s definitely not a love ballad and the dark sky is a metaphor, not something to take literally. I might be the only one who actually appreciates this song. Can’t believe nonsense like Ulalala and You Look Good got so much… Read more »
Lanberry or Isabell! <3