The Wiwi Jury — our in-house panel of music unprofessionals — is in Latvia to review the acts competing in Supernova 2019. Our search for a Eurovision act takes us to Adriana Miglane and Aivo Oskis. Do they have what it takes? Read on to find out!
Adriana Miglane — “Scared of Love”
“Scared of Love” reviews
Antranig: Musically, “Scared of Love” is one of the most enjoyable songs of Supernova 2019. Adriana’s vocals are also great and the song has enough life to stand out in a really weak field. The main weakness of the song are the really unimaginative lyrics. There’s enough here to create a decent Eurovision entry and Latvia could turn this into a passable product.
Score: 7/10
Deban: Adriana Miglane’s sweet fairytale vocals pair beautifully with the guitar-scored instrumentation. There is a delicate quality here, which is particularly exposed in the lower register. That said, there is a wide range of vocal flourishes here that tie in nicely with the memorable chorus.
Score: 7/10
Sebastian: Adriana has the pop star image, with a strong yet vulnerable tone to her voice. While “Scared of Love” shows her vocal range well, “Scared of Love” is scared to venture outwards, turning into a fairly repetitive three minutes. No doubt the talent is there. Here’s hoping Adriana is not scared to come back next year and slay.
Score: 5.5/10
Bernardo: Adriana’s fragility is what sells this to me. A generic pop tune with sweet as honey vocals. Pleasant to listen to but forgettable after it finishes. In a sea of songs I don’t know how it will fare, but as a standalone effort it doesn’t hurt. I don’t think there is enough here to be competitive at Eurovision level.
Score: 5.5/10
Edgars: Oh yes she has the voice for Eurovision and she has the look — just one piece of the puzzle is missing and that’s the song. It’s so generic. No, Adriana, we are not going up — this year you are going down and we wish you all the best to come back another year with some professional songwriters in your team.
Score: 3/10
Robyn: This is one of the better songs in Supernova 2019 — but it’s a surprisingly weak year, so that’s not necessarily saying much. “Scared of Love” is a nice enough love song and Adriana’s vocals are on point. But as a song, its not quite engaging enough. The combination of 2017 twanging guitar and a Disney pop chorus has limited appeal.
Score: 6/10
In our Supernova 2019 Wiwi Jury, we have 14 jurors but only room for 6 reviews. The rest of our scores can be found below:
Natalie: 8.5/10
Luis: 5/10
Kristin: 5/10
Lukas: 8.5/10
Oliver: 7/10
Jordi: 5.5/10
Jack: 7/10
Florian: 5.5/10
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 3 and a high of 8.5.
Wiwi Jury Verdict: 6.21/10
Aivo Oskis — “Somebody’s Got My Lover”
“Somebody’s Got My Lover” reviews
Natalie: This is an interesting attempt at dreamy, modern tropical pop. I feel like his colourful shirt was another shot at giving the song a tropical vibe. But it’s just not happening for me. It almost feels like he made it on a tutorial programme for making music. It’s so basic and unpolished. And even though I can see him trying his hardest, a certain degree of amateurishness shows through. It’s a bit of a shame.
Score: 5/10
Luis: Somebody ain’t got my interest. This is above par in Latvia’s field this year, but is that saying anything at all in such a weak competition? “Somebody’s Got My Lover” is perfect for the background music of a clothes shop, but there’s nothing about this that makes it interesting whatsoever.
Score: 4.5/10
Kristin: This is one of the more modern songs in this year’s Supernova. It has a strong beat and a somewhat catchy chorus. Aivo kind of reminds me of Aron Hannes with his moves and his vocals, and he’s clearly not playing around. “Somebody’s Got My Lover” might, however, get lost if it makes it all the way to Tel Aviv. Albeit being a strong contestant in Latvia, it’s a little bit too middle of the road to achieve much attention when in a group of 43. Still enjoyable listening.
Score: 6.5/10
Lukas: This song can be a great summer hit but it just doesn’t have that wow factor yet. In a bunch of mediocrity that is this year’s Supernova, it does stand out, but it needs some kind of revamp to work at Eurovision because for now it‘s just a decent song and nothing more. The beat is great and the melody is catchy but it feels very monotonic and pretty boring. Aivo needs to have more stage presence as well since he looks quite bored. Overall, I see potential here and it is one of the better songs in this selection.
Score: 7.5/10
Oliver: A modern song with modern instrumentation. However, the song seems to be lacking something to elevate it above mediocrity. While Aivo can deliver the song well, after the first chorus the song begins to repeat upon itself, plodding along with the same lyrics and melody. Perhaps with interesting staging, the song could be elevated, but as a standalone entity it doesn’t feel like anything special unfortunately.
Score: 4.5/10
Jordi: Aivo Oskis’ offering will truly have radios about to pound the alarm. It does have an overall radio-friendly sound, with a beat that keeps you jamming all song long. However, it is still pretty generic. After two minutes with the same construction, you really want some dynamics there. But the bridge, instead of preparing you for the climax, drives you to what you’ve been hearing all song long. The instrumental is, however, an element worth mentioning. A revamp is necessary to make this song more competitive.
Score: 5.5/10
In our Supernova 2019 Wiwi Jury, we have 14 jurors but only room for 6 reviews. The rest of our scores can be found below:
Jack: 4/10
Florian: 4.5/10
Antranig: 3/10
Deban: 5.5/10
Sebastian: 5.5/10
Bernardo: 3/10
Edgars: 3/10
Robyn: 5.5/10
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 3 and a high of 7.5.
I really liked “Scared of love”.
When I first listened to all songs, Scared Of Love was the one, which sounded the most professional and Adriana is selling the song! The lyrics are a bit weak and it feels like there is something missing, but the whole product can be a good entry after all 🙂
Both of these songs are the usual, mediocre (but slightly respectable) semi final fodder that Latvia tends to send. Scared Of Love is actually a potential winner here.
Scared of Love – Quite sappy and generic. It’s pleasant to listen to, but the build-up is really weak and it ends-up being just there. It’s one of the most mainstream choices in Latvia, but in this case, it makes it quite boring. – 4.5/10
Somebody’s Got My Lover – While his stage presence and singing are there, the song becomes stale pretty quickly. It goes nowhere and creates an illusion it’s contained of chorus only. Not a good sign for standing out. – 4.5/10