Back in January, three-piece band Lake Malawi won the Czech Republic’s national final. Now the indie pop group has released the full music video for their Eurovision song “Friend of a Friend”. And it has taken a lot of inspiration from Instagram.
Before the Czech national final, all the eight competing acts had a low-budget video shot. The videos were all set in an apartment building, each doing different things with the space. But now that Lake Malawi is heading to Tel Aviv, a proper music video has been shot for the song.
The video begins with frontman Albert Černý scrolling through his Instagram feed. The video soon fragments into panels marked with the video symbol, giving the overall look of an Instagram feed packed with video clips.
The panels shows videos from a variety of locations. The band performs the song in a plain white studio space, but Albert also gets out and about. He explores the Prague metro and takes a ride in one of Czechia iconic pasternoster elevators.
Lake Malawi have also found a way to include their fans in the video. Viewer-submitted clips appear in the timeline, with fans dancing and lip-syncing along with the song, adding to the positive feeling of both the song and video clip.
The song has also had a slight revamp. Viewers of Lake Malawi’s performance at the second semi-final of Vidbir will be familiar with the new style.
Most notably, the second spoken part (“She was my neighbour….”) has is now sung, bringing a sense of wistful longing. The overall production has been tightened up, giving the performance as stronger sound.
Lake Malawi will compete with “Friend of a Friend” in the first half of the first semi-final at Eurovision 2019 on Tuesday 14 May.
What do you think of the new “Friend of a Friend” music video? Do you like the song’s new sound? Tell us your thoughts in the comments section below!
Wayyyhayyy transported back to the 80’s weeeeeee!! Like this and hope it drags itself over the line to qualify. He’s gotta stop improvising live, try deliver the studio version, but I have my doubts.
The more I hear this, the more I like it! It makes my day every time. Czech Republic is definitely a grower this year. Watch out yall!
Grower,..at the begin, it nerved me, felt unconfortable…. but after having seen Albert´s way to deliver life,… would deserve to qualify in hard semi 1. As Austrian, I only can vote for him in Finale.
Albert is not as good-looking as he thinks he is, and all these videos of the song doing close-ups to his face try to convince us otherwise but fail.
Also, that accent is cringeworthy.
… He can do something with hair if anything. Rest is cool.
I think he is very good looking.
The whole team making this video did wonders for the Czech Republic.
It’s adorable, likeable, innovative, and tells a story.
I agree, I also now think they will qualify. Semi Final 1 is a tough draw though; there will be disappointments. I hope Lake Malawi’s efforts pay off.
Am I the only one who is surprised that the video isn’t… more naughty? The lyrics at the start of the song are rather wasted. 😛
Albert is obviously selling this very well, but compared to Mikolas last year the level of naughtyness is tame. Still, I can’t take my eyes off Albert. But the song probably has nothing to do with that.
I’m glad it’s not so naughty. I think this cute, playful approach is much more charming and endearing. I really liked the local shots of Prague in the video: it makes the song feel like a lived story, sincere and affectionate.
I’d call it ‘mischievous’. The song and the video are very vague on whether he is sincere or the girl is more than a ‘friend of a friend’. It’s a bit naughty, while remaining ‘cute’. It could appeal to both younger and older audiences, Albert certainly has the ‘it’ factor, yeah…
I love this song!
It still sounds as though it came in a time machine from 2007 but it has this grower quality I appreciate. I mean if it qualifies we won’t get too bored.
Still annoying as hell…
hate that fake Estuary accent
Maybe he learned to speak english with that accent.
I had a friend born in hong kong who studies and lives in the UK. However, she speaks english with an american accent because she was taught at an american english school back in hong kong
Definition of repetitive, annoying rhythm, I got headache from this song.
This has been my favorite from the start – fun and breezy, with a little drama hiding underneath. It’s a very non-ESC song, and I didn’t expect it to score well. Now it sounds even better, and they’ve upped the fun factor. No matter what happens in May, I adore this song.
It will be Whats the pressure ( Belgium 2016) 2.0
I want to see Czech Republic in Final for the third time. They are on the right way. Amazing video and carchy song. And we will deliver live.
I think Czech Republic could get another top 10. Really nice sound!
Cute video. I started to think this one can do very well in Tel Aviv. Albert is adorable and the guys next door vibe may become an advantage when so many entries in the contest are serious and a little dark (which is something that I love, but I know many people won’t feel the same way about it). Spain and Denmark are other countries that can take benefit from it.
I like it very much. Just check the live version of Ukraine TV – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TIIWBpz6fr8
Many thanks to Robyn and greetings to New Zealand 🙂 Many thanks to wiwibloggs for this article.
Sad excuse for indie music, one of the worst in semifinal 1
This is the second year in a row where my favorite song from the Czech selection didn’t get picked (High on Love last year, True Colors this year) and it turns out the song they picked was totally the right choice.
They should added to the videoclip also Jamala and her uncomfortable questions
CriMEa iS uKrAINe¿
hahaha or something about Czecho-Slovakia
You mean clip of Jamala being attention *hore with her cringe dancing? 😛
I really am starting to see this as a comfortable qualifier. Albert is a really charming frontman.
This is the most improved song from any national final so far
It has improved for. Am I the only one that thinks it would fit in a FIFA soundtrack? Czechia is at the doors of my top 10, but there a big gap. My top 10 is really strong now. I don’t if they will qualify, though. Is hard to predict how the audience will perceive it.
Well, it was on Wiwi’s wishlist for this year to get Emma Smetana (and her husband Jordan Haj) to sing for CZ at ESC. I guess that wish was kind of granted since Jordan directed the video!!!
And I love the song more and more!
Absolutely a grower. The song is fun and retro. It somewhat dances on the edge between being cute and annoying, but Albert’s likability in live makes it totally bounce on the cute side. I hope this qualifies.
Improvement! Hope to see it in the Final. For me SF1 has more songs I want to see in the Final – I will be missing some as it stands so far… (SF2 has 5 songs not released yet) – Have you noticed that SF1 has 6 songs not in English – SF2 only one so far.
wait for Poland haha i think they will be singing in polish
A fact that I love! I guess it will stand out and make my list for SF1 longer. – Again this year SF1 the bloodbath… although, there are 5 to come for SF2, so we don’t know yet…
(honorable mention: Siren Song – Beng)
I hated it when it won its NF (probably because I loved Lana Del Rey’s cover True Colors) but after the Vidbir performance I fell in love, they are really good live, he has tons of charisma and the song is really catchy. Great video too. They will qualify for sure.
Czech to go up . Pleasant song
Very good revamp ! I hope a new top 10 for Czech Republic this year 🙂
Love the revamp and the music video is creative! 🙂
dgjdkhgkdjhgk my comment didn’t show up…
Anyway, I basically said that this song has been underrated imo and that i like the instrumental. This revamp improves it too.
Amazing! This will do much better than the fandom thinks. Mark my words. I’d like to remind you that this time last year, Bulgaria was leading the odds and Cyprus was 25th. Everything can still change.
cause everyone was thinking that Eleni cant sing …and then they were surprised
Are you really comparing Fuego to this trash?
i think there’s possible to compare even incomparable things
Trash is Montenegro, Austria, Moldova and Croatia ( i mean songs) …
I actually liked the song, and it’s gotten better now too.
I feel like people sort of underrate this tbh. It’s not a winner…but it’s not a bad song.
This won’t be a popular opinion but I prefer it over lie to me. I just really like this instrumental.
It’s really much much better than Lie to me, especially while they have many similarities.