Today the Wiwi Jury – our in-house panel of music unprofessionals — continued our trip through Switzerland and stopped over at the gorgeous Lucerne. After a tour of the stunning lake they are famous for, we decided to take a break and review “A Thousand Times”, which will be performed by Angie Ott at Die Entscheidungsshow 2018, the national selection for Switzerland at Eurovision 2018. Is “A Thousand Times” 999 too many for Angie? Read on to find out…
Angie Ott – “A Thousand Times”
“A Thousand Times” reviews
Bernardo: This song goes halfway for me. As a Eurovision fan, one can clearly see this followed the specific formula – strong chorus, song in crescendo, explosive key change. It’s predictable but it’s not cheap. The cliché is definitely there but the live performance can give it life. Let’s wait and see.
Score: 6.5/10
Chris: Within the first 10 seconds of “A Thousand Times”, it’s clear that this is the same stock Eurovision dramatic ballad that you’ve heard, indeed, a thousand times before. Neither the song nor Angie does anything to change up the formula and therefore, there’s nothing bar a nice performance to happen here. Switzerland would need a lot better to qualify.
Score: 5.5/10
Jonathan: “A Thousand Times” is certainly dramatic, and could lend itself well to some very interesting staging. Angie could do with working on her English-annunciation at points (apparently, she’s ‘breeding out the truth’), but they’re only minor and will easily come with practice. In the studio version, the final chorus and key-change does feel rather clinical and slightly too much. But if Angie can deliver the vocals and emotion live then it could take the song that extra mile and provide the icing on the cake that it needs.
Score: 7.5/10
Luis: I feel like we’ve heard this song “A Thousand Times” before. This song is generic, formulaic and quite uninteresting. Even the key change sounds undone. There’s no drama to the performance – only Angie screaming. I don’t think this will fare higher than fifth place in Die Entscheidungsshow.
Score: 3/10
Robyn: Switzerland goes to all this effort to put together a selection of good quality, modern pop songs for its national final, but they evidently couldn’t stop being Switzerland and had to include “A Thousand Times”. It’s not a bad song, but it’s treading exactly the same ground as “Apollo” did last year, with a few “it’s a Eurovision song” cliches thrown in. It’s too dated to work against modern pop and not charming enough to have retro appeal.
Score: 4/10
William: It’s incredibly generic and conjures up the endless power ballads we hear every year in Moldova, Malta, Romania and beyond. But Angie saves it. Her voice fits the production beautifully and this lady is feeling it so much it makes me want to feel it too. While it’s all a tad dated, that key change is just so Eurovision. It’s a real grower.
Score: 6/10
Our jury for 2018 consists of 16 jurors, but we only have room for 6 reviews. The remaining 10 scores are listed below.
Antranig: 8/10
Barnabas: 6.5/10
Bogdan: 3/10
Deban: 6.5/10
Jordi: 6.5/10
Josh: 5/10
Jovana: 7/10
Lukas: 8.5/10
Rick: 5/10
Sebastian: 6/10
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 3 and a high of 8.5.
It’s textbook music drama. Tayanna (in Ukraine) arguably does it better. 6/10
I feel like I’ve heard this kind of song before but it’s not a bad song. I like the melody and the voice.
6/10
It’s a really nice ballad. It might not be the most original one, but it’s really enjoyable and well sung. I enjoyed the epic ending as well.
7/10
Very formulatic and unimpressive. I agrih with those who pointed out it’s something we’ve already heard.
This either belongs to Malta, don’t you think? 😛 I don’t know… It’s just boring. I know many People say that about ”experimental” or ”magical” Songs, but THIS is definitly not one of these. I don’t dislike it, but I don’t want it on my Playlist either. 5/10
Just… no :/
Not the correct one if you really want to cause an impression. It’s cloying, dense, and really boring. No amount of performance may save this one.
2/10
It’s a good ballad!! Has a pleasant melody and a good instruments and not shouty. However it is on the slower side with no wow moments. Also as Chev said this was a replacement song and not in the original top 6 of the submissions the Swiss jury chose. Still my number Two of the selection.
A 7/10.