The Wiwi Jury — our in-house panel of music unprofessionals — continues to rate and review the songs competing in the grand final of Sweden’s Melodifestivalen 2020. Next up, we listen to three-time Melfest finalist Mariette and her song “Shout It Out”. Did she make us want to shout? Read on to find out!
Mariette – “Shout It Out”
“Shout It Out” reviews
Åri: Mariette finished in the top five every single time she participated in Melfest so far. Honestly, this is the kind of entry that convinces me that she’s keeping this streak alive. It isn’t quite my cup of tea, but it’s certainly what Sweden usually loves. “Shout It Out” has a nice vibe and does get stuck in my head, but it’s not brilliant. Hopefully not the winner, but won’t be a terrible one either.
Score: 6/10
Lucy: It’s Mariette’s fourth time in Mello, and somewhat predictably, she’s gone direkt till final for the fourth time in a row — an extraordinary achievement. Whilst many aren’t so pleased with this effort from the dreadlocked Mello icon, I’m rather fond of the upbeat sound and full-on performance. I certainly much prefer this to her last outing “For You”. It’s fun, interesting, and out of a fairly poor heat, deserved that spot in Stockholm. It’s no “Don’t Stop Believing” but I’ll certainly take it.
Score: 8/10
Pablo: Mariette’s strongest presentation of her weakest song. The stage show of “Shout It Out” was the highlight of the semifinal no doubt, but as a track by itself, it falls short. It is clearly meant to be stadium rock, and as solid of a track it is beginning to end, it lacks something. We’ve grown so used to Mariette’s voice in ethereal pop, that putting her in this style comes across as unusual. At two-thirds of the show, the magic flickers out. She may able to elevate this performance if the staging frames her like a true rock frontwoman. Hook her up with a backing band and truly sell the Superbowl Halftime Show fantasy.
Score: 5.5/10
Tobias: I cross my fingers every time that Mariette will return with a great song, but this was not the case this year. I find the song very weak compared to “A million years” and “Don’t Stop Believing”. The part when she plays the guitar just doesn’t fit the whole visual choreography on the stage as we know she ain’t really playing it. It just looks weird that a guitar pops up out of nowhere. The song doesn’t do much to me, sadly.
Score: 5.5/10
In our Melodifestivalen Wiwi Jury, we have 14 jurors but only room for four reviews. The rest of our scores can be found below:
| Angus: 6.5/10
Antranig: 8.5/10 Barnabas: 6/10 Florian: 7/10 Jonathan: 9/10 |
Luis: 6/10
Natalie: 9.5/10 Robyn: 7.5/10 Ron: 7.5/10 Tom: 7.5/10 |
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 5.5 and a high of 9.5.
It’s alright. Anyone else find the white girl dreads disconcerting? She’s gonna get called out for them if she goes to Eurovision, just saying.
She’s not going to win so it’s a moot point.
There is nothing wrong with white people wearing dreadlocks
Oh please…get a life
She got called out on it apparently here, but said that everyone should wear whatever they wanted smh
But like…it’s actual for-real cultural appropriation. Like wearing an Indian headdress. There’ve been tons of scholarly articles about how bad it is when white people try wearing dreads or cornrows.
Cultural appropriation is not a real thing
By far her worst entry ever, so this time she won’t be my favorite (she was with “A million tears” in 2016). There are better things this year, for example the gorgeous Mamas 🙂 <3
It was in 2017 and the song was called “A Million Years”. 😉
Her voice works best with the ethereal pop of her previous entries. She’s a talented guitarist so I don’t mind her miming it on principle but she looks a bit ridiculous doing it.
Mariette was very natural on stage. The song is pretty solid too. I feel it needs something more to truly stand out, but this would be a decent choice for Sweden.
Much better than her last effort, the chorus is so uplifting and energetic and Mariette undoubtedly performs with charisma and star quality which is little wonder she’s become the first artist in Melfest history to qualify DTF 4 successive times. Sure, “Don’t Stop Believing” & “A Million Years” are hard to top but Mariette is still a crowd pleaser whenever she appears, really baffling how there is no hype or barely attention for her this year… I feel last place on televoting is sealed for her.
forgettable and devoid of any personality, just like any other mariette song really. it also earns the distinction as the only melfest final song to not have charted in sweden this year!
It’s quite euphoric in studio version though. Especially using headphone
why this special treatment for melfest songs? Why not review all national final songs of all countries this way? The melfest songs are not better or more special in any way.
The most listenable entry for me because its so uplifting. I can play this on repeat on Spotify all day. Wish that she got more creative on the staging though. Still doesn’t come close to A Million Years but I commend her for getting personal with that guitar and showing the world the kind of artist she really is and that the Mariette from Sweden Idol is still here. 7.5/10
It’s not “A Million Years” but I think it’s of a similar standard to the songs remaining. There’s nothing much better than it in the final. It probably won’t win but it wouldn’t be as ridiculous as some would make out.
This song is forgettable, but so are the remaining songs competing in this year’s MF.
I personally LOVE this entry, yeah, it’s not the most groundbreaking song in the world but somehow it feels like the real Mariette… in a million years and for you she seemed trapped and corseted, but in this one she thrives and fills the stage with her charisma, and that smile! She really is happy!
“I believe in you” is still her best entry , but shout it out it’s a close second, at least for me.
everybody forgot she was even there
I always forget she is in Mello this year to be honest