The Wiwi Jury — our in-house panel of music unprofessionals — continues to rate and review the 41 songs that had been selected for Eurovision 2020. Next up, we take a look at Belarus‘ Natsionalniy Otbor winners VAL and their song “Da vidna”. Did we agree with them? Read on to find out!
VAL – “Da vidna”
“Da vidna” reviews
Jonathan: It’s nice to see Belarus slowly selecting more Eurovision entries in their native language. “Da Vidna” is a fun electro track and the synth-filled chorus is catchy even upon first listen. The song perhaps lacks a bit in production, making it feel sparse and repetitive at points. But VAL delivered a captivating national final performance that helped add extra life to the track.
Score: 6.5
Luis: “Da vidna” ticks a lot of boxes, and yet it feels slightly sterile. Belarus’ entry is quirky and catchy, and VAL adds an extra touch of charisma. However, the song lacks gravitas and while it’s perfectly enjoyable while it’s playing, it’s as easily forgettable afterwards. This finely crafted piece of pop is a delight on the ears. Alas, it doesn’t really stick in the memory.
Score: 7
Deban: As a result of my travels far and wide, I have come to realise that “artistic” — especially in countries that don’t have legal protections for LGBT communities — means gay. VAL projects the artistic leanings of a ’90s low-budget cabaret troupe from Eastern suburbia. This feminist message, which seemingly applies to the two men in the group, may have attempted to coin a wider reach but it is missing several beats, and lacking an overall vision. Memorable for all the bad reasons.
Score: 3.5
Renske: From the first note, you hear that VAL is being serious. “Da vidna” is quirky, yet serious and has a danceable and fresh melody. It might seem like a simple song for many, but with Belarus, this is a step into a completely new and undiscovered direction. VAL dare to go on unknown terrain and that is what makes them special as a duo, even in the scope of Europe.
Score: 8.5
Robyn: I love the chilled-out groove of “Da vidna”. It’s very much a Spotify tune, the sort of thing to listen to on a quiet afternoon. A song like this might not seem like it would have enough impact to work at Eurovision, but some thought the same thing about “Sebi”. With “Da vidna” VAL are bringing a cool interlude to a hectic Eurovision lineup.
Score: 7.5
VAL – “Da vidna” rankings
In the Wiwi Jury we have 22 jurors but only have room for five reviews. The remaining scores are below:
| Angus: 4
Antranig: 3 Åri: 6 Barnabas: 3.5 Bernardo: 3 Calvin: 5.5 Esma: 5.5 Florian: 6.5 Lucy: 7 |
Natalie: 6.5
Oliver: 7 Pablo: 8 Ron: 5 Sebastian: 5 Tobias: 5 Tom: 6.5 William: 6 |
We have removed the highest and lowest scores prior to calculating the average. This is to remove outliers and potential bias. We have removed a low of 3 and a high of 8.5.
Wiwi Jury verdict: 5.73/10
What do you think of this song? Share your own score and review below!
Belarus – 5/10 (33rd/41)
Belarus 3/10
The better song in belarussian language in the history of the ESC.
Best of luck next year. 🙂
Wait are they confirmed???
I don’t know. It’s one of my polite ways of saying: “The song is not to my taste.”
Damn i really missed that shade didn’t I
This is just great. The performance is fun and memorable, the song is very catchy and the woman can sing. This is very VERY underrated, this probably wouldn’t qualified in Semi- Final 1, but it would have definitely been a moment. Idk why but Belarus always sends songs that I liked since 2013 (bar 2018), they’re maybe on their way to a top 5 if they clean up their NF. 8,5/10
I don’t know what to say about this song. It’s just there, a SF filler. I don’t like it but don’t hate it either. I suppose there was a revamp going on cause the originial version sounds too demo. It would have been a non-qualifier though. At least, it is in Belarussian. 11. Italy – Diodato – Fai rumore (6.75) 13. Cyprus – Sandro – Running (6.75) 14. Belgium – Hooverphonic – Release Me (6.75) 16. Ireland – Lesley Roy – Story of my Life (6.75) 24. Portugal – Elisa – Medo de sentir (6.5) 32. Belarus – VAL –… Read more »
Gotta be honest, this is just a filler…
I was thinking. While watching the grand final of the Belarussian NF before, they had an advert that already played this song. Then this song won. There is something fishy about that imo because I don’t hear other songs from that NF being played in other adverts and anywhere else before the contest ended.
OMG, Belarusian entry is hated once again… And you know for the same reasons why ZENA, Liza Misnikova and Daniel Yastremski were hated. Cheap song, boring, bad pronunciation, unfair selection, bad perfomance in national final… I just get tired of this. It’s so annoying to hear the same critic 4th time in a row. It seems like people can’t give a chance for Belarus. Do you really think that this entry is cheap? If the song has positive and happy vibe that doesn’t mean that song is cheap. It’s not only about VAL but about this year’s Austrian entry, last… Read more »
Too easily forgettable to me. Super to hear some Belarusian, but this song clearly lacks in production to make it more memorable and less repetitive. Some good ideas anyway, the final part is interesting (but could have been more), and yep, the synths are cool.
01. ITA 9,5
10. BELG 7
11. MOL 7
13. POR 6,5
17. IRE 6
19. CYP 6
25. RUS 5
30. BELA 5
34. MAC 4,5
I never adore the Belarusian entries and this is another example of it: I can’t stand this song. I find this ultimately annoying – it’s one of these that I can’t listen more than 30 seconds, that I want to skip it. It’s in my 40th place of my top. Her voice is not pleasent (especially within the bridge, when the lead vocalist starts screaming ‘Da Vidna’ 10times), the song doesn’t take me anywhere and the instrumental has those irritating beats that I just hate. For me, it doesn’t have any flow. The instrumental is not terrible, but it’s flat,… Read more »
i genuinely like this song, it feels honest and not pretentious, may not be most people’s favorite, but it’s in my top 10
Deban -the Craig Revel Horwood of wiwibloggs. Love this song
I absolutely love this song. The way it builds up is amazing (it’s slow and calm at the beginning and then with each line it goes up and up the tension ladder until the big finale – the drop), the lyrics are mysterious, yet fascinating, Valeria’s voice is lovely and it matches “Da vidna”‘s vibe perfectly and the chorus is one of the catchiest I heard in a while. Add some pyros and a vogue dancer and I’m sold. Some may find it cheap or generic, but this is the song I’ll be chilling out to in the summer. 7.5/10
My 41st place this year. Zero originality. Generic, flat, uninteresting, unmemorable. Cringeworthy dancing. 1/10
Belarus 2/10
My lowest score
This is probably the second most underrated song this year. I mean.. why some people hate it?? Her vocals have improved a lot the song is nice there’s a great beat as well and I’ll tell you that: LET THE QUEEN VIBE IN PEACE!!
Overall: 7/10 (18th)
To be fair, Belarus had an excellent final in 2018. Gunesh, Kirill, Alen Hit, Lexy and Shuma all had great songs. I also loved Alekseev’s song so it’s not like I’m complaining about the result.
Interesting… didn’t guess this would be up to your liking. Nevertheless, good that someone likes it. For me (just like Briekimchi mentioned below) this is a bottom 3 song, but hurrah for different tastes and perspectives!
I know the feeling! For me, the most surprising addition to my playlist was Azerbaijan. At first I was “Some of these lyrics are so bad… yikes”! But then I was “Some of these lyrics are SO bad that I really enjoy them”. Plus, it’s musically very interesting. I listen to it a lot. However, my initial reaction was not benevolent. 😉 Sometimes there are serious growers and decliners on my list.
I don’t blame you at all, Tibor! It is indeed in a way an “overproduced mess”, but a glorious one and I’m all for that. It’s a big guilty pleasure for me. 🙂
This is just so insignificant and not very well-crafted. The lyrics are just bizarre and the production is probably the cheapest that we had to endure in 2020’s entries. The drop is particularly horrible, as is the “big” note that is just thrown in for no reason. The performance with the “dance” also has something creepy about it. It’s easy to give this a pass and say that Belarus didn’t have better options but there were. It’s a bottom three song.
It’s not started off well, has it?
I only hate four songs this year and there’s three more I dislike. That leaves 34 that I think are at least ok or better so that to me, says there’s hope!
Yeah, for me there’s also only seven songs I rated as below average, but it’s not as easy to sort them out as some of them have clear effort behind them, but they just irk me. Others are more lazy and forgettable, but in a way more benign. I wouldn’t call my feelings towards any of them *hate*, though (nothing selected is IMHO as bad as, say, Svadba velika or 10 minuni in Moldova), but a dislike – yes.
Two of these seven are obviously Cyprus and Belarus.
this is tantamount to a hate crime
34. Belarus – 4.5/10 – this has a calming effect with its chilled mid-tempo sensibilities. It builds nicely in places and at first there is a pleasing electronic accompaniment at the end of the chorus. However, it quickly begins to get repetitive and hence more irritating as it goes on, and it doesn’t really go anywhere after the first minute. I also find the lyrics about enforced marriage incredibly bizarre in the context of the rest of the presentation. My favourite bits remain the blonde-haired dancer and the keyboard on wheels, these are two of the main reasons why I… Read more »
I have rly no strong opinion on this song. It’s very good, but very forgettable. Nothing is bad about it, but nothing is great about it. I did think they had many better songs in their selections ( including my winner and runner-up, Burning Again and Hello, which sadly ended up second last and last); VAL was my seventh place. But it’s not that bad of a choice. It’s just not that great. Also, Belarus, please keep sending songs in Belarusian. I am a language fiend, and it makes me so so happy when countries embrace their cultural identity and… Read more »
“Da Vidna” is pretty much underrated. I just love her voice and charisma, their easy going, but at the same time good performance which makes me smile, overall cool and don’t give a f** attitude. In addition, enjoyable unpretentious song makes VAL my qualifier.
7,5/10
BELARUS – The good news is that the lovely Belorussian language is back in the contest. The bad news is that the song itself sounds dated and boring. Despite being one of the least bad songs in it’s national final, Da vidna feels tired rather than fresh and dragging rather than uplifting. The lyrics aren’t bad, but they don’t fit with the style of the song nor the performance. If you just read them, you’d picture something more elegiac, not this 2000s sub-par club song. I would really want to see Belarus avoiding my bottom 5, but they aren’t making… Read more »
Worst song of the year – sorry Belarus