Our Wiwi Jury is nearly halfway through their trip around Malta, as they take on the eighth of the 16 entries in Malta Eurovision Song Contest. Our team of music un-professionals are reviewing each entry, ahead of the final on February 3.
Danica Muscat is already guaranteed a better result than her last three MESC attempts. She’s exited at the semi-final stage in 2013, 2015 and 2016 — but now, she’s straight in the final! Will “One Step at a Time” see her go even further, to Lisbon?
Danica Muscat — “One Step at a Time”
“One Step at a Time” Reviews:
Antranig: Who doesn’t love a dated dance number? The phrase “one step at a time” is used too frequently throughout the song and it could certainly use some greater variety in its lyrics. The song itself is unlikely to make a big splash in the competition. But when this comes up in the running order, it will be a fun three minutes of dancing and drinking game cliches. Danica Muscat serves up plenty of fun, but that’s about it.
Score: 6/10
Robyn: If “One Step at a Time” had been entered in Eurovision 2012, it would have been right on trend. But six years later, it feels so dated. It might be possible to excuse a dated arrangement if the song itself was solid. But the lyrics of “One Step at a Time” are hollow cliches and soon become repetitive. Leave this in the bottom drawer.
Score: 4/10
Jonathan: I can see what they were trying to do here, but I’m not sure it was pulled off to its best ability. The hook is catchy and gets you moving, but it quickly becomes repetitive and starts heading to ‘irritating’ territory. The ending is also a bit of a disappointment and seems to fizzle out instead of providing the song with a climax.
Score: 6.5/10
Chris: It’s probably a good thing that there isn’t a drinking game based on how much Danica says “time” in this song. Livers across Malta would be permanently damaged. Lyrically uncreative and with a dated beat, it’s simply not aiming to achieve anything. Another case of a good singer paired with a song beneath them.
Score: 4.5/10
Angus: “One Step At A Time” might easily be mistaken for a Junior Eurovision Song. It’s twee, optimistic, fun and unashamed of being so. The hyper dramatic strings in the production might become overpowering, but Danica’s spirited vocal balances things out and ensures you can take the song seriously. The message is right, and the vocal is on point, but it sadly feels like case of wrong song, wrong time.
Score: 4/10
Barnabas: There’s only one word to describe this song well: average. Although it’s a well produced track, it still feels a bit bland and empty, showing nothing really new musically or lyrically. It needs something very creative onstage to actually impress voters.
Score: 5/10
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: 4.5/10
Deban: 5.5/10
Luis: 3.5/10
Natalie: 5.5/10
Sebastian: 9/10
Bernardo: 4.5/10
Rezo: 3/10
Josh: 4/10
Jordi: 5.5/10
Lukas: 7/10
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 3 and a high of 9.
WIWI JURY VERDICT: 5.0/10
Are you giving Danica more time? Do you think she can make it to Lisbon? Let us know all your thoughts about the song in the comments below!
Michael Ball’s “One Step at a time” (UK, 1992) was better than this song! No development whatsoever in the Choruses. More like one step to the side. Sorry Danica, but you deserve a better song. 2/10
Why does every Maltese singer look the same?
This one comment is the same as the one I got for Miriana’s and Jasmine’s. Too generic and bland pop, from the same cookie cutter deal. Just there, not bad but not good. Meh
4/10
Because they are all equally beautiful people.
Maybe, just like their songs, their make-up seems to be done by the same person? 🙂
Just kidding!
Because this is what happens to people that live on an island. They have the same DNA, and are relatives. They are one big family. Ask UK.
Nice melody, but the song sounds dated at least for me. It something we would see at Eurovision like 2010 or something.
5.5/10
The instrumental is fresh, to be fair.
This is a lazily written cliche on autopilot. There is really nothing to compliment here out of the ordinary. The production is solid and Danica’s voice isn’t below average for this type of the song. That’s it. This is underwhelming even by MESC ’18 standards.
2.5/10
It starts so well and then she never takes the step that would make the song stand out. Lyrics make sense
A 6.5/10