Our trip across Latvia for the Wiwi Jury continues, as we check in for another review from the Supernova 2018 acts. This time, it’s part Latvian, part-Brazilian singer Laura Rizzotto, with “Funny Girl”.
Laura has a wealth of international flavour to bring to Supernova. She’s studied both in Brazil and the US, where she studied at the Berklee College of Music in Boston. Its alumni includes Luisa Sobral — could Laura follow in her and Salvador’s footsteps?
Laura Rizzotto — “Funny Girl”
“Funny Girl” Reviews
Edgars: Now this is a dark horse! Before Supernova, nobody had heard about a Latvian born, Brazilian girl who sings better than most of the local stars. Unfortunately, whilst the song is good enough to reach the finals, it means her fanbase in Latvia is close to nothing. It isn’t also the most engaging song throughout.
Score: 5/10
Chris: Laura kills it in her Supernova debut. This is how you do a revenge song: drama, emotion and brass! There’s a slight sense that you’ve heard songs like “Funny Girl” before. But Laura brings it in her starring role and casts those doubts aside. Seductive and powerful, this could be on any movie soundtrack and be a hit. Impressive!
Score: 7.5/10
Bernardo: Miss Rizzoto will see you now! “Funny Girl” is channelling some Fifty Shades of Grey realness. While there’s a certain amount of similarities to Annie Lennox’s take on “I Put a Spell On You”, Laura brings a sweet distinct voice. Hopefully, she delivers strong live vocals with this. Eurovision? Let’s see.
Score: 7.5/10
Robyn: There’s so much drama happening in this song — deep, rich layers of emotion, expertly delivered by Ms Rizzotto. “Funny Girl” has the feeling of a torch song, something to be delivered by a lone singer in a jazz bar. This song seems like it has all the potential to offer one of the strongest live performances of Supernova 2018. Let’s see.
Score: 8.5/10
Natalie: Ah, Ms. Rizzotto is here to bring the poise and sophistication at Supernova. She definitely has that killer sassiness and passion in her voice to deliver an awesome jazzy song like this. It’s also great to see someone with the attitude to do a real feisty number like this. Although, Laura flip-flops between being funny to angry to saucy all too much and it’s hard to keep up. Still — you go girl!
Score: 8/10
Antranig: I really enjoy the dark picture that Laura is painting. It’s edgy and Laura exudes the sass that the lyrics convey. Lyrically, the song could use with some minor tweaks to make it a bit more coherent. In its current state though, it’s still a very respectable entry. There is a lot of potential for Latvia here — with a bit of a revamp, this could do very well at Eurovision.
Score: 9/10
Lukas: Laura has a really great voice but this song sounds quite familiar, particularly in the chorus. It’s a nice ballad with a more up-beat tempo, but there’s nothing really new. Still, it does stand our amongst this year’s weak songs in Supernova, but it’s still not the best.
Score: 7/10
In our Latvia Wiwi Jury, we have 14 jurors but only room for 7 reviews. The rest of our scores can be found below:
Luis: 7.5/10
William: 7/10
Jordi: 7/10
Kristin: 7.5/10
Jonathan: 7/10
Jovana: 7/10
Steinunn: 8/10
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 5 and a high of 9.
WIWI JURY VERDICT: 7.46/10
Laura takes the lead with our Jury! Have you fallen for this “Funny Girl” too? Let us know your thoughts below.
Beautiful, atmospheric, with potential. I really like this one. It needs a powerfull performance and a good staging.
7/10
‘Funny Girl’ & or ‘Esamiba’ for the win!
Oh wow! This is great.
It may need an extra punch for the big Eurovision stage, but she has a good dose of energy
If the Madara won’t win the Supernove, this is the clear alternative to send.
#FunnyGirlSquad
All my hopes are for either her or Madara (“Esamiba”) to win Supernova this year. Two strong contenders with strong vocals who can deliver great performances. Please please please Latvia, don’t mess it up.??????
Laura said in an interview that the song is about a girl who fell in love with her best friend and before she had the chance to reveal her true feelings, her friend fell in love with another girl, thus to him Laura is simply ‘the funny girl’.
She has to win. The best of the best. ????
It’s true that Laura is on a higher level than our local singers. She has to get in the first place or in the top 3 at least! 10/10
Glad to see all the love for FUNNY GIRL. One of my top four from Latvia. Good luck from Texas.
I don’t like these speaking songs with no sing-along quality. Not for me. But isn’t bad .
A 5/10
I think I like her but I don’t like the song. Honestly, it is just not what I am looking for in a Eurovision entry. The chorus is too similar to the verses and there is just not enough happening for me. Maybe a bathroom break?
Definitely among the better Supernova entries. Ironically, it oozes elegance and sensuality, while saying that she is not anything, but a funny girl.
7.5/10
This is great, from ”Goodbye to yesterday”(Estonia 2015) league.
Ooo – This is a nice surprise. Recitative jazz! Latvian/Brazilian Laura has an excellent voice to fit the song, and the story is well told. It’s a little pedestrian in places, but overall I like it. Am I allowed to say I like this better than Markus Riva’s song? 8/10