Estonia: Wiwi Jury reviews Stefan and Synne Valtri

The Wiwi Jury — our in-house panel of music unprofessionals — continues to rate and review the competing songs in Estonia‘s national final Eesti Laul 2019. Next we take listen to Stefan who has “Without You” and Synne Valtri with “I’ll Do It My Way”. Did we want it that way? Read on to find out!

Stefan – “Without You”

“Without You” reviews

Barnabas: “Without You” is a touching soulful ballad about feeling lonely after a breakup. The only minus here is the minimalistic approach. I’m not asking for a huge orchestral takeover, only for a small boost. That would immediately elevate the songs amongst the favourites.

Score: 6.5/10

Florian: Stefan’s voice has a beautiful tone and the song nicely builds up, starting off with a slower verse. However, there is something missing after the second chorus to change things up just a little. Given the current version of the song, it doesn’t live up to its potential.

Score: 5.5/10

Lucy: This is my absolute favourite in Eesti Laul this year. I know it’s slow, but that chorus absolutely smashes that and brings the simple ballad into right now. Stefan’s voice is smooth and incredible live (known thanks to his live acoustic performance on breakfast TV the other week). I feel the smack of the chorus could be staged beautifully at Eurovision. This is beautiful and soaring, and I can’t wait to see this when semi one is on. Also, notice the Estonia flag in the shot of the video where he’s walking on the beach made form the sea and land…

Score: 10/10

Natalie: Piano chords can go a really long way, can’t they? There are some very nice elements here, and it’s an interesting mix of genres. But gosh… this is so slow and underwhelming. It’s aching just hearing Stefan singing slowly and emotionally about his thoughts and feelings. “Without you I feel like I’m drowning” is hardly original too. And he’s going to competing against far more energetic and passionate songs. I don’t think I’ll have much patience for this, and I doubt Estonia will too.

Score: 3.5/10

Robyn: This song takes far too long to get going. The chorus is strong and good, but it takes a full minute of acoustic murmurings before the interesting part starts. And then what happens? “Without you I feeeel like I’m drowning”, repeated ad nauseam. This song needs more work.

Score: 4.5/10

William: Stefan has an intoxicating voice. It peppers the deep and melodic with a gravely quality that’s hard to resist. And I just can’t! The song, however, is another matter. The Rag’n’Bone man vibe is pleasant, but it’s not enough to hold my interest. The song lacks major swells and by the end of the first chorus I’m rather bored. Still a great artist to watch for the future.

Score: 4/10

In our Eesti Laul Wiwi Jury, we have 18 jurors but only room for 6 reviews. The rest of our scores can be found below:

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 10.

Wiwi Jury Verdict: 5.56/10

Synne Valtri – “I’ll Do It My Way”

“I’ll Do It My Way” reviews

Barnabas: The beginning of this funky track is promising, but then it falls flat in the sea of clichés, and the tension isn’t kept up either. I believe she did this her way, but that probably isn’t everyone else’s way.

Score: 5/10

Florian: This is a more dated schlager cut and while not being offensive, it is neither as entertaining as Anna Book nor is up to the high standards of Helene Fischer. The lyrics are pretty generic and there’s nothing that stands out in this song.

Score: 2.5/10

Lucy: This feels very 1999 Melfest as opposed to 2019 Eesti Laul, and not in a good way. The track bumbles on with a dated singing style, combined with a dull backing track. There’s nothing special here, and I don’t see it advancing to the final of Eesti Laul.

Score: 1/10

Natalie: This really is a northern popfest. The glitter and bright lights are real with this one. I’m sure this would be very nice on a playlist of happy Europop, but it seriously isn’t anything we haven’t heard a million times on the Eurovision stage before. I do kinda like the fact that she has a very clear “idgaf” attitude though, and she is just shamelessly throwing as much happiness into her song as possible. She really does mean it when she says “I’ll Do It My Way”, and I hope the rest of Estonia gets up and dances with her.

Score: 6.5/10

Robyn: “I’ll Do It My Way” has a dated schlager sound, complete with key changes. That’s not inherently a bad thing — the genre has its fans and it’s good to have different genres in a national final. But as a serious Eurovision entry for 2019, Estonia needs to do much better.

Score: 4.5/10

William: This has potential to be a global hit if we close our eyes and pretend it’s 1982. While I love the positive message of a woman doing it for herself and finding love, I can’t cope with the throwback feel or the monotony of it all. Less of a sparkle here, more of a light fading fast.

Score: 3.5/10

In our Eesti Laul Wiwi Jury, we have 18 jurors but only room for 6 reviews. The rest of our scores can be found below:

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 1 and a high of 7.

Wiwi Jury Verdict: 3.63/10

See our list of Eesti Laul 2019 rankings

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