The Belarus national final is just around the corner, with 10 acts battling it out on February 16 for the golden ticket to Lisbon.
Drama aside (and there’s been plenty of that), the Wiwi Jury — our in-house panel of music unprofessionals — has journeyed to Minsk to both feed on some wholesome machanka and draniki, and check out the acts competing in Eurofest 2018. First up is Adagio with “Ty i ya” (You and me). It’s only one of two songs performed in Belorussian, but did we feel the connection? Read on to find out!
Adagio – “Ty i ya”
“Ty i ya” reviews
Luis: Oh what a trainwreck. There’s room for a dramatic lyric song performed by a group of men at Eurovision, as Il Volo proved, but Il Volo and other acts like Klapa z Mora had something: harmonies. In here, we find three guys singing quite harmonically and then a fourth, the one with the high-pitched notes, that takes it too far. His vocal ability becomes irritating and it totally ruins the song. The last thing anybody wants in a group is a person trying to overshadow his mates.
Score: 3/10
Natalie: This is some fierce Belorussian opera goodness. There haven’t been passion and strength in harmonies like this for a while, possibly even since Il Volo. And let’s be honest, the Belorussian language received a great reception last year, so this has serious potential on the big stage. It’s obviously not a world-breaking operatic track, but it’s got heaps going for it and I’d love to see it do well.
Score: 7.5/10
Robyn: Adagio remind me of Croatia’s 2013 act, the male sextet Klapa s Mora with “Mižerja”. They didn’t do so well in Malmö and I’m not convinced that Adagio would do any better with their more upbeat song. But even still, I really like “Ty i ya”. There’s something about the way their voices build and deliver the powerful vocals. At the very least, it will be a treat to see this in the national final.
Score: 7.5/10
Antranig: I am going to echo Robyn’s thoughts — the first thing that came to my mind was also “Mižerja”. The only compliment I can give Adagio is that their entry is not quite as miserable. You can’t argue with the fact that they have great vocals but beyond that, there’s very little to like about this entry. It adds variety to the national final but it doesn’t add quality.
Score: 3/10
Sebastian: While the vocal abilities differ between members of this quartet, there’s no doubt of that one stand out voice in “Ty i ya”, with a long-held note to rival Romania’s Paula Seling. The best thing about this quartet is that they know this, and they let him shine. Because of this, harmonies are perfectly in sync and symbiotic. Not of mainstream appeal, but a very deserving candidate of EuroFest 2018.
Score: 8.5/10
In our Eurofest Wiwi Jury, we have 11 jurors who made it to Minsk, but only room for 5 reviews. The rest of our scores can be found below:
Anthony: 3/10
Lukas: 2/10
Chris: 3.5/10
Barnabas: 6/10
Deban: 6/10
Jonathan: 3/10
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 2 and a high of 8.5.
The video isn’t sth to judge, because it sounds like a demo version. It feels like a mess now. However, it’s not bad and it builds up.
5.5/10
I just really, truly, passionately don’t want Alekseev to win. I don’t care what they send, don’t send him. This? This is fine.
If Adagio and Elina both win their national finals, Belarus will likely implode.
Ah no!! I feel they are shouting rather than singing opera.
A 3/10.
No, no, no. This is not good. They are definitely shouting in places and there is a huge difference between the vocal talents of the members (as there was with Il Volo but not this much!). If La Forza won Estonia and Belarus sent this….that would be a serious embarrassment.
I mean…. Everything in Belarus is a pile of crap this year, so this song is kinda okay I guess. Why do they hold a national final again? everybody know, that they want Alekseev… So silly.
This selection is such a waste of time,Alekseev will win anyway:/
Forever is like the 7th best song in it.
Zasvegda is a pretty nice song. It’s English translation, however, is plagued with dodgy accent. Aleexev himself comes off with really smug attitude, a’la Manel Navarro, which puts me off. I don’t know the guy, so he might be really nice IRL, but this whole Eurofest drama makes them all look bad.
Meh, just a BTEC Klapa s Mora.
So, this has started! The most amateurish national finals of the year! There isn’t one song I can see as an obvious qualifier. That said, Ty i Ya would probably be the best among the bad bunch. The song is authentic, I like that style and language. If only guys were more in tune with each other, because cats, tails and all that. 🙂 IF they syncronize better, this could be a grower. Plus bonus is not throwing a diva tantrum. It shouldn’t be anything outside of usual, but this NF contains so much ego that common decency is refreshing.… Read more »
This is great actually. Opera done well. Lots of drama. Would do well at the Eurovision.