The UK makes its choice for Eurovision 2018 next week, with Eurovison: You Decide 2018 in Brighton. The Wiwi Jury is getting ready for the event by reviewing all six acts participating. What do our in-house team of music un-professionals think of the UK’s offering?
An alumni of the first season of The Voice UK, Jaz Ellington has worked with numerous stars such as Lauryn Hill. He’s even teamed up with his former Voice coach, will.i.am, to work with NASA! His entry for You Decide is “You”.
Jaz Ellington — “You”
“You” Reviews
Chris: As everyone can attest to, Jaz’s vocal is truly something to behold. He won’t need fancy staging or any trickery to earn votes with “You”, and the overall package would be another safe entry for the UK. Perhaps it’s for that same reason though, he wouldn’t be right for Eurovision, if the UK wants to keep on progressing. But it’s a track I could happily listen to again and he could still shock many of the night.
Score: 6.5/10
Kristin: There´s some serious Sam Smith vibes going on here. Jaz is smooth, yet a strong vocalist and the song just floats without effort and leaves a warm feeling. True, the lyrics are bittersweet, and perhaps a little bit mean. “I´m going to tell her how perfect she is. I´ll just do it in the morning, and add the fact that she´s not you, which will suck..for her.” Such a dreamboat. But nonetheless, this song is definitely worth noticing.
Score: 9/10
Bernardo: What an incredible voice, paired with a distinctively average song. I think I’m actually a bit angry that Jaz and his multi layered voice is going to miss Eurovision because of it. The lyrics are nothing special and it’s unlikely that the staging will do much difference in this case.
Score: 5.5/10
Robyn: This is such an unusual song, especially as a Eurovision entry. Jaz Ellington is an incredible vocalist and delivers strength and warmth to the song. “You” does interesting jazzy things, which is one of the reasons why it’s so unusual. I’m not quite feeling it, but I’m still really keen to see what it’s going to be like at the grand final. There’s potential for some vocal fireworks, that could elevate it beyond the bittersweet lyrics.
Score: 7/10
Jonathan: Jaz has a fantastic voice, and will no doubt be a standout of the live show. But, based on the studio version there’s not much that particularly grabs my attention, apart from the Michele Perniola style “No”. Respect the entry though, and have no problem with it being in the national final. But you just keep waiting for that spark to connect with the song, as at the moment it just sits in the ‘pleasant’ category.
Score: 6/10
Sebastian: Vocally, Jaz is almost flawless. But “You” is one of those songs that is incredibly divisive. On this end, it sounds like generic and ‘soulless’ gospel soul. Lyrically, it’s so full of cliches, made all the more cheesy when delivered by Jaz’s strong vocals – the only redeeming feature. Without sounding too shady, it’s a B-side to a modern day Mariah track. Not good.
Score: 4/10
In our UK Wiwi Jury, we have 16 jurors but only room for 7 reviews. The rest of our scores can be found below:
William: 6/10
Deban: 7/10
Anthony: 6/10
Antranig: 4.5/10
Cinan: 6.5/10
Edd: 4/10
Josh: 7/10
Luis: 7/10
Bogdan: 7.5/10
Rezo: 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 4 and a high of 9.
Love this song! Beautiful voice, nice melody, smooth and sweet. I don’t know if this can stand out on the Eurovision stage, but I believe the live performance will make it much better.
8/10
The real lyrics are:
‘I don’t even like coffee
Have I said I want coffee?
And by the way…I’m thinking about somebody elseI
It’s not about coffee
It’s not you, it’s me’
Seriously I like the song.
It has quality and is believable. Definitely would not be embarrassing if the UK picked this and it would be stronger than quite a few of the songs picked by other countries already. Interesting how this would be staged and Jazz would need a flawless vocal but, I think he can deliver.
Great voice, average song. If he had a song that matches his voice, we would be talking about a pretty strong entry. But this is just average.
6.25/10
Authenticity is the new ESC buzzword……that means Jaz more than Asanda….it;s down to vocals on Weds night and the staging……the others ought to be no-hopers..
This is not a perfect song and maybe the lyrics are quite cheesy sometimes, but from all “You Decide” songs this was the only one that caught my attention because it tells a story. It’s something more than “love love peace peace”. And his voice is great.
1/10
For some reason, this song makes me really annoyed… seriously he is willing to sit in bed while he lets the woman make him coffee, then lets her sing his songs while he leads this woman to his bed whilst thinking of someone else. YES MATE it is ******* time to tell her the truth and also stop playing around with peoples lives. It’s just arrogant. I absolutely hate it.
Nice voice or not, its just dated and can’t see it going anywhere if it makes the contest.
Just be glad you don’t have to live a lie. In a way, it’s good that some people don’t understand.
The only mildly interesting song the UK has to offer this year. I’d go with this to get a place in the top 20.
Blues-based soft jazz might be a predictable genre, but two excellent things stand out in this entry:
1. Jaz Ellington’s great voice.
2. The ambiguity and poignancy of the lyrics.
For all we know, the song could be about his mother, or about another man… who knows who “You” could really be? Anyhow, the melody while being predictable is excellently sung, and gives me a lump in my throat every time I hear it. 9/10
In my mind in a league of its own, and Gardarfve is from my home town so I’m really rooting for this. My mom would be very happy if it won. ^^
The most regressive song of the bunch for me. Will keep the perception of ESC as a joke in the minds of the UK public . Definitely not the way to go. The guy has amazing vocals though.
A 5/10
Sam Smith gets #1s with even more retrograde and boring tunes.
The winners of the last 2 contest were not hits or chart songs, yet they still win. The BBC made the wrong approach going for generic chart music. They need more original, sincere and ethnic styles. That is the direction Eurovision is heading.
I think she meant that 1944 and Amar Pelos dois were regressive songs if chart-friendly is the way ESC should go. AND I DO AGREE ESC NEEDS TO GO FOR MORE CURRENT SOUNDS SO THAT ITS NOT PERCEIVED AS A JOKE.
which current sounds?
The most current style now is trap,but does Eurovision need a Lil Pump with ”Gucci Gang Gucci Gang Gucci Gang Gucci Gang Gucci Gang Gucci Gang Gucci Gang Gucci Gang Gucci Gang Gucci Gang Gucci Gang Gucci Gang”
Another current style of music is latin pop, but will ESC survive the invasion of ”Despacitos”?
Oh….why not? If people like that genre why not!
I personally am not a fan of trap!
Latin pop? I’d be perfectly fine if all 43 entries would be succinctly different sounding Latin pop entries
Wasn’t Amar pelos dois a huge hit? Especially on iTunes?
I can see You getting a decent placing from the jury, which at least will give the illusion of doing well, even if the public vote drags them down to the lower placings. A high jury score would be some consolation, I guess.
”Euphoria” was essentially a dance track though
And dance tracks don’t have artistic integrity? I beg to differ!!
It’s the artists choice to use his skills to motivate the audience to have fun right? Not everyone has to be let’s make music the saddest thing in life
Hit on iTunes? By definition not a hit
Also coming on charts for one day and staying in it are two different things
All these qualities of being rare and unique are all right! But that’s not what my criteria is for judging!
Just because 5 other countries sent songs in a similar style as mine doesn’t make the quality of one entry any lesser
Quality should matter and for me the index of quality is the ability of the song to make people want to listen to the song , not to want to rewatch the performance
I would agree with your points. I rated You a 9/10, Legends a 7.5/10, while the other four are 5s and 6s, which isn’t enough to stand out. You is a risk, though. Even if it’s a wonderful song it could end-up low in the finals. However, if there is a song here to equal or surpass Lucie Jones’ score from last year, it’s You.
It’s a song people either connect with and really enjoy or it just comes across as boring to others so I disagree with some of the reviews, it needs memorable staging otherwise it could easily get forgotten about
He won’t be moving, so there is a potential for exceptional vocals, while the public favourite with ”Legends” will flop with her attempts to dance.
Unfortunately vocals don’t always sell the song, a lot of countries with powerhouse vocals last year UK, Netherlands, Georgia, etc. completely flopped and I can’t see a repeat of Salvador happening with this song. While the song and vocals are better, I can see this getting overlooked or seen as a bit of a snoozefest like Engelbert was.
When I meant memorable staging I meant something closer to what Lucie had last year rather than him moving around, because it really needs to keep an impression on the people who connect to it, rather than being one-upped by another ballad
This is head and shoulders the best entry in this selection
The lyrics are honest if not a little too honest
The vocals are out of this world!!
This will be a real show-stopper live and real jury-bait in the Eurovision final…….I hope the UK has the guts to select this wonderful song
This is by far my favorite UK finalist. It’s very well written, soulful and heartfelt. It has everything to impress. I’d definitely go for this if I was a Brit.
9/10
I like it a lot, but it wouldn’t be the right choice if the UK wants more attention in the contest.