We are soaking up the sun in Malta, as our Wiwi Jury reviews the songs of Malta Eurovision Song Contest 2018. Our team of music un-professionals started their reviews yesterday, ahead of the final on February 3.
The second act to face our jury is Dwett, with their entry “Breaking Point”. Dwett is made up of vocalists Cherilys and Mikhail, who formed their partnership in the middle of 2015. Will they break our jury, for better or worse?
Dwett — “Breaking Point”
“Breaking Point” Reviews:
Natalie: A passionate ballad really didn’t work for Malta last year, and this year will likely be no change. Really depressing songs didn’t live up to expectations either, come to think of it. As ballads go, onedoesn’t really have anything to grab or inspire you . It’s just more gluttonous emotive music that just makes you sad. So please, Malta, pick something upbeat and not this.
Score: 4/10
Barnabas: It might just seem an ordinary ballad, but this duet of two lovers who are willing to repair their relationship could actually be a dark horse. The emotions of such an entry are conveyed well in the studio version. Let’s hope the live won’t let anyone down.
Score: 7/10
Luis: Yawn. Beautiful harmonies are a plus at Eurovision. But you can’t base your whole song on them, unless you have an emotive punch (like O’G3NE). Otherwise, it comes across as the snooze-fest this entry is. Plus, after “Breathlessly” crashed in the semifinals, maybe – or hopefully – the Maltese won’t be in the mood for another dated ballad.
Score: 2/10
Deban: A saccharine snooze-fest! This ballad plods into dreary territory, and takes you beyond the breaking point of endurance even before you’ve hit the bridge. With two beautiful voices singing in and out of harmony, I couldn’t help but wish that they had better material to grapple with.
Score: 3/10
Chris: A slightly dull romantic duet from an off-Broadway musical. Dwett’s harmonies are beautiful, but there’s simply not enough otherwise to save this song. They may be singing “I love you / I hate you”, but there’s no real passion or drama behind it. If they’d aimed this more like Nodi & Sophie’s “Waterfall”, this might have had potential to contend.
Score: 4/10
Sebastian: Dwett harmonise beautifully in “Breaking Point”. The song is classically raw and serves up a much needed duet in this year’s pop and indie heavy MESC national final. Clearly, the song has been lovingly crafted with a stage performance in mind. “Breaking Point”, however, seems a little more Disney On Ice than Eurovision by the Tagus. It’s still a very respectable effort.
Score: 7/10
In our Malta Wiwi Jury, we have 17 jurors but only room for 6 reviews. The rest of our scores can be found below:
William: 2.5/10
Robyn: 7.5/10
Angus: 4.5/10
Antranig: 6.5/10
Jonathan: 6/10
Bernardo: 4.5/10
Rezo: 7/10
Josh: 5/10
Jordi: 4/10
Lukas: 5.5/10
Patrick: 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 2 and a high of 7.5.
WIWI JURY VERDICT: 5.03/10
Do Dwett push you past your breaking point? Do you think the jury have ranked them too low? Let us know all your thoughts on the entry in the comments section!
It’s a nice ballad, great harmonies and beautiful voices. I also like the chorus. However, it doens’t have a peak, it goes the same way all along. Not my favourite in MESC.
6/10
Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeh… it’s too cringe. Lyrics are weird. Just no… very strange and offputting.
1/10
Musical theatre is my favourite genre, and I love duets like this. “Breaking Point” takes elements from Christina Perri’s “A Thousand Years” and the Finale from the Buffy The Vampire Slayer Musical “Where Do We Go From Here?” and cross-stitches them together into an elegant and complex tapestry. The accompanying music in this song is just so good. The biggest surprise is that the man’s singing part is sung one octave higher than usual, and this turns out to be a genius move. As a result, the melody is interwoven between the parts, and the “feeling” behind the duet is… Read more »
This is my favorite song in MESC. It’s one of the rare one to be well written. I also really like their harmony and voices. It’s my pick for the win, even though I sincerely doubt it will.
8/10
This like the opposite of Jacques Houdek! Two people singing in the same voice tone!!
It’s too slow…
4/10.
Whew, Purple Mask will drag y’all for this score, it’s his fave.
I don’t think it’s a bad song, it’s one of the few with decent lyrics and the voices are nice. The only thing is that it takes too long to build up and it’s hard to keep yourself interested by the second minute.
You know me too well. 🙂