Today the Wiwi Jury – our in-house panel of music unprofessionals — took a day trip to Lillehammer to visit the site of the 1994 Winter Olympics. After staring at dilapidated sports equipment all day, we settled down to review the ten acts competing in Norway’s national final, Melodi Grand Prix 2018. Next up, we look at Charla K and her song “Stop the Music”. Do we want to stop this music? Read on to find out…

Charla K – “Stop the Music”

“Stop the Music” reviews

Bernardo: “Stop the Music” has an anthemic quality to it and Charla’s vocals fit the mood of the song 100%. The studio cut does what it means to, but the live version will need something memorable to make the track stand out. Hopefully Charla will bring the power and epicness it needs.

Score: 6/10

Chris: “Stop the Music” isn’t about to win Eurovision, but it’s a perfectly serviceable song. There’s no massive journey or tricks up its sleeve. Instead, it serves to be a good — not great — song. It showcases Charla’s vocal well, certainly. If she can deliver all the way through the performance, there’s an outside chance this could win MGP.

Score: 6/10

Deban: The chorus in “Stop the Music” takes an interesting left turn. However, it fails to break the ice. Charla K’s voice was made for the studio, but she’ll need a bucketload of charisma and emotion in order to make an impact at Melodi Grand Prix.

Score: 6/10

Lukas: “Stop the Music” starts out very promising and has a great build-up. But when the chorus hits, it goes downhill for me. The verses are much better than the main chorus and that is never a good thing. The song is a little bland and while Charla has a great deep voice, the song doesn‘t do much. With a more powerful chorus this could be much better, but for now it is just an okay entry.

Score: 6.5/10

Robyn: I love the cosy feeling of this song, like a warm autumn evening. In recent years, a song like this would have been a surefire winner, but MGP 2018 is crowded with quality and “Stop the Music” may struggle to get noticed amongst the heavy hitters. But there’s a lot of potential and I hope it does well in the grand final.

Score: 7/10

Our jury for 2018 consists of 15 jurors, but we only have room for 5 reviews. The remaining 10 scores are listed below.

Antony: 5/10

Antranig: 5.5/10

Bogdan: 6/10

Cinan: 7.5/10

Jonathan: 6.5/10

Josh: 6/10

Kristin: 7/10

Rezo: 7/10

Sebastian: 7/10

Steinunn: 6.5/10

 

 

 

 

 

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 7.5.

WIWI JURY SCORE: 6.38/10

READ THE FULL MELODI GRAND PRIX 2018 RANKINGS

READ MORE NORWAY EUROVISION NEWS

17 Comments
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Paul
Paul
6 years ago

By far one of the best songs in MGP this year. It’s my favorite along with ‘Who we are’. Charla K has great vocals and the melody is very well composed. There is a soothing vibe to it that suits the lyrics perfectly. With a great performance I can actually see this being a surprise-winner in Oslo Spektrum. Best of luck, Charla!

jawnbc
jawnbc
6 years ago

Co-written by Per from Roxette!

Maya G
Maya G
6 years ago

The best song in this year’s Norwegian final IMO, absolutely beautiful. Hope it has a good performance as well.

Marios
Marios
6 years ago

For me the best song as a composition and lyrics in their national final.

esc freak
esc freak
6 years ago

I love this! So calming and inspiring. This is my winner, “Who We Are” is a close 2nd though.

DragKvinna
DragKvinna
6 years ago

Uninspirative and easily forgettable elevator music

AngieP
AngieP
6 years ago

Pretty good song. I like the beat and her voice. Maybe I needed a stronger chorus, but I like this chorus feeling. 6.5/10

Colin
Colin
6 years ago

It’s a perfectly nice song. Her voice is beautiful and the melody is beautiful too. The lyrics are on the safe side, but still clean and fine. It can make me feel safe, and that’s good. 7/10

Pablo
Pablo
6 years ago

This song is a 3 minute pop drop. The scores say it all, neither bad or good and overall way too show for what it should be. It’s just… the weirdest tempo of a song I’ve heard for a while.
4/10

Kris
Kris
6 years ago

We should always listen to the singer and their wishes so I stopped the music after 2 mins.
It starts well but the chorus makes me wanna stop music.
A 6.5/10

Ari
Ari
6 years ago
Reply to  Kris

hahaha indeed, “Stop The Music” struck me as a counterproductive title, especially for a song competing in a song contest.

Oisín T
6 years ago

The ratings on this song tell you all about it. No lower than 5, but no higher than 7.5.

Ari
Ari
6 years ago

Out of a bunch where no song made a big impact on me, this is probably the best one, together with “Who We Are”.

Erasmus
Erasmus
6 years ago
Reply to  Ari

I agree, these 2 are the best ones

Sss
Sss
6 years ago

When will you review Poland?

Colin
Colin
6 years ago
Reply to  Sss

Considering there are four national finals on Saturday, my guess it that Poland will get a Germany/Serbia/Denmark treatment of only one article in which Wiwi Jury says their top 5.

ssss
ssss
6 years ago
Reply to  Colin

it’s sad