Today the Wiwi Jury – our in-house panel of music unprofessionals — concluded our tour of Switzerland in the beautiful city of Lausanne. After getting our dose of everything sport at the Olympic Museum, we decided to unwind by reviewing the last of the six songs competing at Die Entscheidungsshow 2018 – the national selection for Switzerland at Eurovision 2018 – “Stones” by Zibbz. Sticks and stones may break our bones, but does Zibbs excite us? Read on to find out…
Zibbz – “Stones”
“Stones” reviews
Deban: A middle of the road pop-rock effort that borders on annoying with repeat listens. Switzerland needs a revival, but this brother-sister duo are still playing it safe. A warm-up act at best.
Score: 5/10
Jonathan: When this was the first song to come up on the national final playlist I was taken by surprise – and what a wonderful surprise it was. “Stones” has a great beat that gets you invested in the song right from the start, but more importantly keeps the listener interested throughout all three minutes of this pop-rock offering. There isn’t a single moment when I get bored while listening, and if they can pull off the same thing live then Zibbz could be onto a winner (of the national final at least).
Score: 8.5/10
Josh: “Stones” is absolutely a step in the right direction for Switzerland. The song oozes grit, rasp and texture with every second but still manages to keep it sounding very 2018 – thanks to high-quality production. It’s easy to picture this in a self-discovery movie. Picture a distressed Sandra Bullock getting away from a crazy ex-lover on his motorbike and stopping off at a diner in the middle of outback Tennessee. Compared to Switzerland’s recent efforts, “Stones” is of a very high standard.
Score: 8/10
Robyn: Zibbz iz cool — they’ve been knocking around the dirty LA rock scene and bring an edge to their Swiss entry. “Stones” is a solid song, and lead singer Co brings loads of attitude and confidence to her performance. Zibbz seems like an experienced group who wouldn’t feel intimidated by the Altice Arena. Go on, Switzerland. Give them the ticket to Lisbon.
Score: 9/10
Sebastian: Zibbz looks the part – they’ve got style and an artistic quality which gives them authenticity. “Stones” is a good effort – it sounds super contemporary and radio friendly. But it’s one of those radio-friendly songs you’d fail to remember 10 minutes after its airplay. “Stones” sinks, but Zibbz has an innate quality that, with the right song, would make them shine bright.
Score: 6.5/10
William: Dirty, raw and delivered with plenty of attitude, this wouldn’t be out of place on the soundtrack to “Coyote Ugly” — or on the playlist of one of those bars with peanuts on the floor and men in leather at the bar. Zibbz have written a memorable track that, while nodding to heard-it-all-before-rock, manages to have its own identity. I wouldn’t download this, but I know plenty of folks who would…particularly if she can nail the gritty-pretty vocals live.
Score: 7.5/10
Our jury for 2018 consists of 16 jurors, but we only have room for 6 reviews. The remaining 10 scores are listed below.
Antranig: 10/10
Barnabas: 8.5/10
Bernardo: 6/10
Bogdan: 6.5/10
Chris: 8/10
Jordi: 7.5/10
Jovana: 9.5/10
Luis: 7/10
Lukas: 7.5/10
Rick: 9/10
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 5 and a high of 10.
It immediately draws you in. Strong with a potential in the live performance. The best song of the 6 for me.
7/10
I’ve gone 3/3 with songs in the national finals I wanted to win winning (didn’t follow Albania) – hope this continues! Solid 8.5/10 for me. Really hope this gets Switzerland to the final again. The Eurovision OG’s deserve another chance at gold.
“Stones” or “Secrets and Lies”. Switzerland choose right. I’m not sure about Switzerland qualifying with “Stones” though. But would be something original.
Yes!! We’d be lying in the face of facts if we’d say any song has a better chance than this of making Switzerland qualify. The vocals have attitude and the song is kinda refreshing. Hope Switzerland chooses wisely.
A 8/10.
It sounds really political, anti-Trump
Wild joker on a good throne
It’s a social movement song.
Second best song in the NF season so far!
This reminds me of the songs that the UK was dealing with a couple of years ago when they brought back You Decide. It does some nice things but is still, in no way, a good and complete song. But to be fair, when the bar is set so low (the Swiss Bar if you will) then you need to take those first steps. This is not great but it is a step up from last year and hopefully a stepping *stone* (Oh no) to what could come in years to come.
No, I still don’t get the Hype. For me it’s okay and nothing that special. 6.75/10 in my opinion.
I’m kinda treating Stones as if it’s already won ?
Not better than Secrets and Lies
A very strong song with a lot of energy and really smart lyrics.
9/10
Not groundbreaking, but then, why do we always expect Eurovision songs to be? This could work.
Secrets & Lies stands out, this doesn’t really.
Secrets & Lies stands out as a Salvador copycat, nothing more. Given that Spain & at least one other country will be sending songs of that type, it’s probably best to avoid it – Sergey aside, copycats usually flop.
Your definition of copycat seems to be “a song I don’t like as much as I didn’t like some other song from the past”. Not a good basis for a discussion. “Secrets & Lies” and “Amar pelos dois” are both ballads – what else do you think is similar between them?
I’m with Robyn on this one – give them the ticket…!
This is really good. It sounds like a protest anthem, but has lyrics that (perhaps deliberately) are about the opposite. In that way, it reminds me of Scissor Sisters’ “I don’t feel like dancing”, which was a dance track about NOT feeling like dancing. So here we have a throwing-stones track about not throwing stones. Does it work? Yes, I think so. It’s a very memorable song, and that has to be a good thing for Eurovision. 9/10
Switzerland have to send this or Secrets & Lies
This is my favourite entry from Switzerland. I’ve only listened to it a couple times, but I’ve still got the melody in my head! The choruses hit hard and, if they can pull this off with the right staging, this could be one to look for in Lisbon! 8/10