The Wiwi Jury — our in-house panel of music unprofessionals — has journeyed to the beautiful city of Minsk to check out the 10 acts competing in Eurofest 2018. With the national final on February 16, each act is getting their game face on.
The next entrant up for review is Gunesh with “I Won’t Cry”. Will it leave us in happy tears or sad tears? Read on to find out!
Gunesh – “I Won’t Cry”
“I Won’t Cry” reviews
Antranig: Belarus is good at delivering cheap pop that appears to have been released a decade too late. That is an accurate description of “I Won’t Cry”, plus plenty of shouty big notes. This song is Eurovision on steroids. And that’s not entirely a bad thing because despite being far from original, it is very fun. We must also acknowledge that Gunesh is a good singer who makes the best of this song.
Score: 5.5/10
Luis: This could have done it for Belarus… ten years ago. “I Won’t Cry” is not particularly bad, but it’s outdated and it doesn’t have a single intention of coming into this decade. Gunesh’s voice fits this fabulously, and her big notes give it a certain anthemic feeling. Sadly, it’s too much Belgrade 2008 and not so Lisbon 2018.
Score: 6/10
Natalie: Wow, this one surprised me. Those fierce dance beats are really exciting next to Gunesh’s vibrant voice. With minimalism on trend, I’ve really been missing a bit of shameless bouncy music. And Gunesh is just such a happy presence on stage. I seriously didn’t want this one to end. I doubt this will go to Lisbon, but if it does I’ll love Belarus forever.
Score: 8.5/10
Robyn: Melodifestivalen might be having trouble getting schlager entries, but Belarus evidently doesn’t have this issue. But that’s the problem — “I Won’t Cry” sounds like a Melfest reject from five years ago. It might be a hit with fans of Eurovision of the 2000s, but the relentless full-on vocals of Gunesh sound like an aural assault compared to the cool whisperpop of moden artists like Blanche. This genre needs a break and a reinvention. Not now, Gunesh.
Score: 3.5/10
Sebastian: From the get-go, “I Won’t Cry” delivers an atmospheric rock performance which seems unexpected, but not unwanted. It does sound a little dated — think one part t.A.T.u., two parts The Veronicas. But despite being caught in a time warp, it’s definitely a pleasant place to be in. Staging could take this to 11.
Score: 7/10
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: 5/10
Chris: 5.5/10
Lukas: 6/10
Barnabas: 7.5/10
Deban: 5/10
Jonathan: 6/10
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 3.5 and a high of 8.5.
I don’t like this “road trip” music in the chorus. Good verses. Nothing special here.
5/10
Vocals are good. Song is not.
A 5.5/10
This is really dated but she sings great at least. And in this weak bunch she is one of the best.
Gunesh has a good voice. I like her.
I have no problem with the song being ‘dated’, but it’s quite middle of the road. The vocals are a mixed bag too. Gunesh undoubtely has a great voice, but I’m afraid she needs to keep it under control much better. Once the chorus comes, it’s quite a loose cannon – woosh, it goes all over the place! The shouting gets exhausting. The accent isn’t perfect either. 4.5/10
I want to appologize to Gunesh. The live audio is that is very bad, her voice is point on. The bad audio makes it shouty. The song is still so-so, but her voice is great and the rating is a 5.5/10.
Gunesh is originally from Azerbaijan. And it has been 7-8 years she competes for national final in Belarus. The same kind of generic songs and team she will not go any further. This song is dreadful. Even the quality of the composition would not let her finish as a winner because of many obvious reasons…
I think this one is great. The vocals are there, it’s catchy, and Gunesh can perform. Sure, it absolutely needs to be revamped… but being dated isn’t really a problem at the Eurovision as we see dated songs doing well every year!
Maybe you are right, maybe not. This song from legendary Secret Service band and with some retro ideas.