He’s had almost one year to prepare his Eurovision 2021 entry. Now Austrian singer Vincent Bueno has released “Amen”, the song he’ll be taking to Rotterdam in May. The song was presented this morning on the Austrian radio station Ö3 — the home of Austria’s Eurovision announcements.
Last year Vincent sang “You make me feel like I’m alive again” in his funky and uplifting track “Alive”. But this year, he’s going in the opposite direction with “Amen”. The song is about the end of a relationship — but a sad, reluctant end.
Vincent Bueno – “Amen”
Vincent says amen, but then asks “Is this what you wanted?” He compares the end of the relationship to a funeral, talking about being dressed in black and feeling like he’d been buried.
While he reluctantly accepts the end of the relationship, he’s letting his ex know that “it all feels like you didn’t even try to save us”.
While some fans wondered if a song titled “Amen” would be in a gospel style, Vincent’s “Amen” is more a midtempo folk-pop ballad. However, near the end of the song, Vincent is joined by a gospel-style choir — but it’s definitely not a gospel song in the way that Ana Soklič’s namesake “Amen” is.
And in a Eurovision year full of upbeat pop songs, Vincent Bueno is going in a different direction with “Amen”. This may very well work to his advantage, giving audiences a different experience, a breather from all the bops.
Vincent talked about the process of creating the song. He said, “We have used the past year professionally to find the perfect song at national and international level and among my own songs — and in the end we were sure that “Amen” is exactly that song. The song found me.”
He also talked about the meaning of the lyrics and the symbolism: “At first glance it’s about a dramatic relationship story, but for me it’s primarily about this inner struggle with your own strengths and weaknesses, that everyone knows, which leads to a bright future.”
Vincent Bueno – “Amen” lyrics
Amen, I guess
You said that it’s time for us to put
Our love to rest
Dressed in black, you left my neighbourhood
No, I never thought you’d bury me and you
No, I never thought we’d die
Amen, amen
Tell me, is this what you wanted?
Is this what you wanted?
Amen, amen
Tell me, is this what you wanted?
Is this what you wanted?
Amen
I bet
It’s just another funeral to you
But for me, it’s the end
The marching band are playing “Gone Too Soon”
No, I never thought you’d bury me in you
No, I never thought we’d die
Amen, amen
Tell me, is this what you wanted?
Is this what you wanted?
Amen, amen
Tell me, is this what you wanted?
Is this what you wanted?
Amen
‘Cause it all feels like you didn’t even try
Oh try, oh try, oh try, try to save us
All this time wasted on a lie
But amen
Amen
Tell me is this what you wanted?
Tell me is this what you wanted?
Amen, amen
Yeah, are you getting what you wanted?
Are you getting what you wanted?
Amen
What do you think? Do you like the musical direction Vincent Bueno has taken with “Amen”? What kind of staging should he bring to Rotterdam? Tell us your thoughts below!
Did you like “Alive” last year?
interesting and unexpected beat drop right before the first chorus, but the chorus itself is a bit disappointing and simply lacks that special something. with a powerful and heartfelt performance by vincent, i could still see this finish 10th to 12th in the grand final – yet if he can’t manage to bring it, this might as well crash and burn in sf2.
With all due respect, I personally find the chorus very repetitive and the melody is unpleasant to my ears, one might say it is the opposite of bueno for me. However I wish him good luck as he seems like a nice guy.
I LOVE IT. So good and my fave right now
Reading the exchanges in this comments section was more entertaining than listening to this song.
no bueno
Meh
Very nice song. Is this the dark horse in Semi 2? Will easily qualify.
I didn’t expect much, I was right. Austria, please choose your artist carefully next year.
The song is fine, kinda boring actually, and the funeral imagery and “metaphor” is SO on the nose that it gets a little uncomfortable. My main thought after listening is “Does he even know what Amen means?”, because it doesn’t seem like he does. In the battle of the Amens I don’t think he emerges as the winner.
It means “So be it”.
His daughter and aunt died recently so that’s probably why it’s so on the nose.
To be honest, the song doesn’t really do it for me. I actually liked His entry alive last year, Which I thought would’ve been at best a borderline qualifier and this might struggle more. Between the battle of the almonds, I have to put Slovenia’s amen ahead, but not by much. I’m not really fond of either of them. I still wish Vincent Bueno good luck though. You never know what will happen in May.
yawn
If bland boring middle of road songs is what you think we wanted then yes…
Wait, is it even possible to have two songs with the same title?!
This is so messed up..
2015 Warrior – Malta and Georgia, its normal lmao
One time doesn’t make it normal. Normal would be if it happened almost every year. Duh
Very nice. I think it will have a much better effect live on stage. It probably won’t win but it can surprise and do well
It got a little better once I saw the video but it’s still not very good.
Man, the level of ESC 2021 is very low…
I agree, it’s looking better than ever to the big fish cats (or whatever)
It’s not that bad. One would just think is sheet by looking at the comments. Eurofans tend to dislike male ballads and hype female uptempo. We all know it.
I’m not saying it is a qualifier but it is a very decent effort. For me the problem is that when they are waiting until March to release their entries, I expect them to be brilliant. Release an average song in March is a fail.
Fans have no connection with reality. In the end they will find out they were wrong, and then will say: staging changed everything …. I was right, but I could not predict that staging will be so good to save the song. The first rehearsal changed everything. When will we learn that fans are delusional and in the end they will explaine that staging changed everything. It happens every year.
You’re right, but Coco and Hector have got a point here. Fans will always love Female uptempo songs, no matter what and when some of them don’t qualify they say it was because of the staging.
Staging is important, I know, but sometimes not only “Fuegos” are liked by the general public
It is one of those entries that it could probably work better live than in a studio version. I like it more than his last year’s entry and I also like it more than Slovenia’s Amen. The 1st half of the 2nd semi is full with of uptempo entries, so it could stand out in a way. I think that it’s gonna do well with the juries. As a song per se it’s not my cup of tea but it’s not something that I dislike.
Good luck to Austria!
No this is not what I wanted, Vincent!
Everything is GREAT if We compare To Belarus song who sings about OBEY the regime .
Yes
Oh I thought last year’s song was quite good and I was even ok with him changing from a bit of radio dance pop to something else, but I always thought this was going to go into more of a soul gospel place in the spirit of The Mamas. This is just too repetitive for me to fully embrace. I really was waiting for that wall of gospel singers to come in and lift the song but it never came. I’m sure he’ll pull off the live vocal, but I actually don’t even think the song has a moment for… Read more »
I really like this.
What an disappointment after “Alive”, which I have always thought was underrated
I like this better than Slovenia’s Amen. Very decent ballad and if he’s up to par vocally this is not without a chance of qualifying.
It’s obviously not a safe qualifier but I don’t think it’s one we should rule out. At first I wasn’t quite sure if it was about love or death, but now that I read the whole lyrics, it’s clear that the first is the only topic of the song and the latter is just a metaphor. Even though, I have read that it’s written about the loss of her daughter. And by the way, “folk-pop ballad”? Where is the “folk” here? I am not getting any traditional sound, definitely not from Austria or the Philippines.
Folk doesn’t necessarily have to contain strongly ethnic/traditional sound, that’s just one subtype of folk music. Leonard Cohen, for example was a folk singer. The guitar and tambourine here definitely gives a contemporary folk feel to this.
A lot of modern pop songs in the Philippines don’t have any “folk-ness” per se in them, nor do they need to if it’s not authentic, unless you want those songs to go nationalistic. We do have what we considered unique identity when it comes with our brand of OPM ballads and RnB, but it’s not as audibly obvious as, let’s say, a song you’d hear from a Bollywood movie soundtrack.
Let’s pray that Austria will not be one if the opening acts whereas it will be easily forgotten
The music is going for the live upscale effect, which Vincent can deliver vocally. The song hasn’t fully flourished in the video, perhaps deliberately so. My only real whine is that the lyrics aren’t very empowering and just come across as the every day “victim card” song. But watch this one for the live – it should be better.
When you say Victim Card do you mean Arcade? Is your country (as far as I know) why can’t see the positive?
This song is good, but people will not respect you, if you don’t see it. Sorry if I seem to not respect your taste, but “the victim card” … this is what most love songs are about, even winners. Arcade, Amar Pelos Dois.
I thought Slovenia’s was dramatic. This is so cheesy and just petty drama. Austria my favourite European country I’m sure they’ll come back with a banger like chonchita or the handsome guys from 2018 next year! 😉
I won’t rule Austria out since this year is full of upbeat songs. Maybe people will find it nice after many fireworks.
Having only one voting ally (Switzerland) and perfoming in the first half with an unremarkable song is a death sentence in terms of the televoting. The juries can rescue him tho
Guess Switzerland giving Germany 2019 11th place in the televoting and almost saving them from “i’m sorry zero points” could be described as voting allies. And I’m not even mentioning 12 points to Luca Hanni from Austria and Germany respectively.
Thank God it’s not like Cyprus-Greece and Romania-Moldova, but still.
You only have to look at how many times all three of those countries got zero televote points or finished last in a semi to know that’s not true. I mean, Austria last competed in a semi that Germany and Switzerland both voted in and we know how many televote points they got.
Hell, I went and checked how Germany voted back in 2016 and the televote put Rykka dead-last. They all voted for Luca and Conchita bc they were good!
She would’ve gotten 500 points lol
Even 2018, the year that Austria and Germany really showed up and even the juries were nice to each other (Austria and Germany gave each other ten points and Switzerland gave Germany 12), the televotes were a tad more even-handed (in terms of Austria, the German televote gave it five and Switzerland’s jury and televote only gave it four; Germany got six from both Austria and Switzerland’s televotes – not nothing, but not enough to call it bloc voting).
I think this will be better live, but for now the studio version is ok. Not my favourite, not the worst. I feel like the instrumention should have been more present and give it a bit more lift. That said, it’s not bad at all, just not wow. Also, the music video reminds me of the 2019 Belgian entry Wake Up with the box reveal haha
I like this song.
I prefer Alive. I’ve always thought that Alive was pretty underrated last year and it had the potential to shine on the stage.
Amen, though, doesn’t really excite me at all. I find this rather monotonous.
Overall, I prefer Slovenia’s Amen, for example, and can say that I had much higher expectations.
I wish the best of luck to him, but it won’t be easy for him to qualify.
In the battle of “amen songs” i have to admit i prefer this as a song over Slovenia, but I prefer Ana’s voice
Better than last year, but very repetitive and verses are boring, slow and quiet.
This sounds like a US Christian contemporary from the 90s. Michael W. Smith would perform that 100X better.
Sounds like a jury winner, and I live for that song as well!
Clearly better than Denmark, Belarus, Germany, the Netherlands and Portugal but that’s it.
It’s a bit dull and dreary for me
Well… uhmmm I don’t know, i have to admit that i loved the video, but the song didn’t catch me. I like it but at the same time i don’t… i have to decide it after two or twenty glasses of vodka
Don’t destroy your liver like I did.
No it’s not quite what i wanted but it’s okay
It gets abit repetetive and tedious after a while but it¨s a nice song. The juries will love this if he has the vocals!
It seems there won’t be many classic ballads this year …… therefore, smart decision, Austria!
If his live vocals are great, this can be a jury favourite.
It feels a little boring. I would have preferred if it was called “Hey Man” instead of Amen.
I really like this.
He has a sweet voice and I would imagine this will be elevated live
Another qualifier for Austria
Upsides – Heartfelt lyrics in the verses, feels more personal, the chorus has a memorable hook
Downsides – Chorus gets too repetitive and the word ”amen” feels shoehorned in there. Usually, the word is used only at the very ending of a prayer, so it being repeated this much (and in a song about a personal relationship, at that) feels unnecessary.
Additional remark – The video has a great concept. Him being trapped and then, stage by stage, getting to more and more open spaces.
It’s the better one of two Amens.
Amen in Vincent’s song seems to be the “let it be so” meaning of the word, or just “okay then.” So the lyrics seem to be conceding: “Alright, fine, is this what you wanted? I’m trapped, okay, yeah?”
If we ignore the religious connotations then it works better, arguably.
It’s completely different from his entry for 2020, but sadly I’m equally uninterested on it. I like the beggining, but he loses me in the chorus and never get me back. The intense use of funeral symbols to talk about the end of a relationship also sounds odd to me. One positive thing is that this one allows Vincent to show off his vocals. But the 2nd half of his semi is packed with strong and more distinctive voices, I don’t know if it’s enough.
This will do well, Victoria was literally dead in a coffin, and people say masterpiece. Austria will be fine, but the double standard……
I can only speak for myself and it happens I don’t like “The Funeral Song” either. It doesn’t matter because it won’t probably be Victoria’s song anyway. Though there’s a difference: her song is literally about a funeral. This is comparing a failed relationship with death. And what I called odd was the use of those symbols. I even liked the humorous tone in the lyrics of our third (and hopefully last) funeral song this season, Danny’s in UMK.
I understand, but what can be new in a song about love? He did very well with this theme. Others are looking for social problems, while he sings about “the same old story ” love. I almost thought “did his wife left him?”. I know he is a family guy with 2 daughters.
It’s indeed complicated to include something new in love songs, unless the writer has a very particular story to tell. In the end, the important thing is to make people relate to the feelings behind it. Though I can’t relate to this one, it’s nice that he’s trying something different and not just repeating clichés like most love songs these days do.
I find this 10 times better than “Alive”. While it will not gather much televote support, juries may eat this up. The Austrians really know how to produce a jury bait…
I was one of the few who seemed to like Austria’s and Vincent Bueno’s entry last year. I like this year’s entry, too – much better than most so far. I have a feeling it is going to be elevated live. France still my favourite, though!
It gets really bland when you hear him sing ‘Is this what you wanted?’ for the twentieth time…