The Wiwi Jury — our in-house panel of music unprofessionals — has travelled to Denmark to review the songs competing in Dansk Melodi Grand Prix 2019. Today we look at Jasmin Gabay and her Latin-inspired song “Kiss Like This”. Can this bring the house down in Tel Aviv? Read on to find out.
Jasmin Gabay — “Kiss Like This”
“Kiss Like This” reviews
Natalie: Gosh, there are so many cringey elements to this song. From the ooh la la la la la Latino (I don’t even know what that means) to the spoken word at the end. This song has every right to be relegated to the “lol no” pile. But somehow, there’s a charm here. Jasmin has a very innocent and peppy aura for someone singing about kisses and it is a really infectious banger. It will no doubt inspire some shameless dancing. Denmark can do better but this is a happy guilty pleasure and I hope people get into it.
Score: 6.5/10
Julian: This is a cool one. When I first heard “Kiss Like This”, I immediately imagined me laying on the beach, listening to the song and just chilling in the sun. It really gives me summer vibes as it is an awesome party song. I think with the right staging it could do well. It won’t reach the top 5, it probably won’t reach the top 10 either, but I think there will be a few people voting for this to reach the left side of the scoreboard.
Score: 6.5/10
Robyn: In 2017, Latin pop blew up and went global. Last year, other artists scrambled to get on the “Despacito” bandwagon before the trend ran out of steam. And this year… we have “Kiss Like This”. It’s hard to find a reason why Denmark should send Spanish-infused pop to Eurovision and the song is at risk of sounding stale as the trend fades. It’s an adequate song, but Denmark can do better.
Score: 6/10
Florian: Off to an interesting start, “Kiss Like This” combines the current rise of Latin vibes with an EDM beat. Her voice does also work well on the song. If the staging does live up to the standard of the song, this could be a contender for the upper part of the scoreboard.
Score: 7/10
Deban: On the first listen, “Kiss Like This” grabs your attention and draws positive comments. Unfortunately, with repeat spins, much of this excitement vaporises. While I appreciate the refreshingly different Latin flavour emerging from this Danish selection, the spoken word towards the bridge of this track is borderline bananas! Still, with a careful rearrangement, this pop number could be a summer hit on the radio.
Score: 6/10
In our Dansk Melodi Grand Prix 2019 Wiwi Jury, we have 11 jurors but only room for 5 reviews. The rest of our scores can be found below:
| Antranig: 7.5/10
Jordi: 6/10 Oliver: 9/10 |
Luis: 2/10
Patrick: 7/10 Cinan: 8.5/10 |
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 2 and a high of 9.
This song drives me mad. It’s like a hipster girl decided to become a Spanish-language popstar. She just doesn’t have the Latino swagger required. Not only that, but she hasn’t even bothered to learn how to pronounce the Spanish words in her song. “Guapo” with a hard G? Wrong. “Cariño” with an ‘I’ as in “in”? Wrong. This is Spanish-infused pop for people who know nothing about Spanish language or culture.
Sorry off topic but are there gonna be Ukrainian National Final reviews or vote? There weren’t for the semis but it would be cool for the Vidbir Final ^^
All the best to Denmark 🙂
The latin diaspora is quaking
So cringe
Kiss Like This – I’ll be honest, I don’t think it’s good. Sure, the EDM-Latino combo is okay and the melody is easy to stuck in one’s ear. However, it’s lyrically quite poor and the Spanish words are more of a gimmick than anything else. I mean ”infinito” means ”infinite”. Is she *really* saying that her boyfriend is ”infinite darling”? It’s like one of the songs Mamma Mia girls would sing if the plot was set in Mexico and if the new band they have to cover is more modern. – 4/10
I don’t love this but again, it’s in my top five of this selection simply due to the fact that most of the songs in DMGP are absolutely horrible this year.
Here’s the thing: My cousin LOVES this song, and I really don’t understand why. To me it sounds like someone went to Spain on a holiday, got intoxicated and wrote this. When Deban writes “bananas” here, he is spot on. And yet, through all of its silliness, people are actually loving this. I must congratulate the songwriter/songwriters for writing one of this season’s greatest “guilty pleasure” mysteries.
Glad there is someone else (besides Luis, that is), who finds this weak. I can see people going for this, but I definitely don’t think it’s my cup of tea.
I’m with you. Perhaps Luis hates it because he realizes how phony it is. It’s almost offensively so. People would put Jasmin through the ringer if her song tried to seem African, but for some reason pretending your song is Latino is ok…? I don’t get it.
Hello! I don’t particularly hate this song, but it just made me cringe soooo much. As a native Spanish speaker, lyrics like “my carinio infinito” are painful
This song is meh!. Yes it is uptempo and you can dance to it but it is replaceable and interchangeable with other similar party tracks. I can’t Imagine anyone requesting this at a club when there are so many other better party tracks. There will be surely better party songs at ESC( he hopes?) so this song will not measure up. This song is harmless but ultimately is a filler!