Grab your tissues and get ready to let those emotions flow. Switzerland has confirmed that Marius Bear will sing “Boys Do Cry” at the Eurovision Song Contest 2022.
The heartfelt song encourages people to recognise that we all feel pain, men included. We shouldn’t ignore difficult feelings — and we shouldn’t discourage others from doing the same. It’s a message that seems particularly apt given events of recent years and indeed recent weeks.
“I learnt very early on that I don’t need to be ashamed of my feelings,” Marius told Swiss broadcaster SRF. “As a man, I’m not afraid to cry and to lay bare my weaknesses to my audience. I don’t want to wear emotional armour, I want to be who I am. And I want to encourage my audience to do the same.”
Marius Bear — “Boys Do Cry” (Switzerland Eurovision 2022)
The sweet music video makes that abundantly clear. We see an adult Marius singing while young Marius endures a series of setbacks — from a girl rejecting his offer of cotton candy to boys teasing him. A particularly memorable scene comes at the family dinner table, where his parents — unable to communicate properly — exchange harsh words while he watches on…with only his cardboard armour to protect him.
The lyrics remind us that such difficulties are par for the course, and that our reaction to them are as expected as other inevitable tragedies.
As he sings: “Hearts they get broken, God only knows why, and sometimes aeroplanes falls down form the sky, and mountains they crumble and rivers they run dry, and oh, whoa-oh, oh, boys do cry.”
Marius’s voice fits the song perfectly. It has a smooth, jazzy quality that seems to confide as much as it emotes, and it smacks of classic voices like Frank Sinatra and Ray Charles.
A subtle entry that avoids massive swells and dips, it gains its strength and momentum from its purity and emotional drive. With proper staging that enhances the intimacy of the song, this could prove to be a quiet number that delivers a very big moment in Turin.
As a side note, residents of the U.K. may find it suited perfectly for the John Lewis Christmas advert. It’s giving us those warm and cozy feels even if Santa is nowhere to be seen.
Marius Bear “Boys Do Cry” reaction video
About Marius Bear
Marius was selected for Eurovision through an intense internal selection process. A panel of 100 television viewers and an international jury of 20 music professionals evaluated the artists and entries.
Marius co-wrote the song alongside Martin Gallop. Martin, a Canadian musician and songwriter in Germany, also produced the track.
SRF shared the following statement announcing Marius as their act. We are re-printing it in full.
“‘Boys Do Cry’ – I don’t regard being able to show your feelings as a weakness but as a great strength,” says Marius Bear, who is representing Switzerland in the Eurovision Song Contest 2022.
The 28-year-old musician from Appenzell in Switzerland combines characteristics which at first sight appear to be incompatible: self-confidence and strength, vulnerability and the courage to lay bare his weaknesses.
Marius Bear’s artistic path has been as unusual as his remarkable voice, with which he has been delighting an ever-growing number of fans for six years now. He became aware of his talent during his compulsory military service with the Swiss army.
“One of my mates was impressed by the timbre of my voice,» says Marius, looking back on his musical beginnings. “We jammed together for the first time that very evening. I noticed immediately how liberating it is to be able to express my feelings through singing and music. That was the first step along my new pathway.”
In 2016, from one day to the next, the then 21-year-old abandoned his secure life plan of becoming a construction machinery mechanic in order to tour Germany and Switzerland as a street musician. At one festival he got to know a famous producer who invited him to New York. Marius quickly became part of the Swiss artistic and creative arts scene there. He moved on again in 2017, when he headed for the UK, where he studied Music Production at the prestigious BIMM Institute in London, and at the same time took part in a number of sessions with well-known songwriters.
It was a journey of self-discovery that in 2019 ultimately led to the release of his first album «Not Loud Enough», which soared straight into the Top 20 in the Swiss album charts. That same year, he also won the Swiss Music Award in the “Best Talent” category. After returning home to Switzerland in 2020, Bear attracted a great deal of attention when he appeared on the TV show I Can See Your Voice. His powerful cover version of Whitney Houston’s “I Wanna Dance With Somebody (Who Loves Me)” got an audience of millions up on their feet and subsequently made it into the Top 10 in the Swiss airplay charts.
So what do you think? Are you getting all the feels? Do you think that Switzerland can continue its streak of good fortune at Eurovision? Let us know in the comments box below.
I don’t get why people overhate this so much. This song is like a warm hug, but I kind of understand that the fans prefer to be smacked in the face by some diva singing in another language ¯\_(?)_/¯
After reading a lot of comments, I just want to point out that even though it’s an internal selection, it’s not a hand picked song/artist. This song along with the artist was liked most by the 20 international jury and the panel of 100 public viewers from a pool of songs. Which means that the broadcast didn’t decide to send an English song by another solo male artist, because they thought it to be the best choice. This song won the vote. And because of this, I think that the live performance must be really impactful. Otherwise I can’t imagine… Read more »
If Xanax were a song..
I LOVE how everyone’s sleeping on this, just like they did with ‘Amar Pelos Dois’ in 2017 & just like they did with ‘Love Is On My Side’ last year…..both who came through hugely and unexpectedly to do really well.
This song massively exudes a similar feel of gentle, heartfelt, old skool, jazzy/blues type of music. One that is perfectly crafted for the stage where they can convey the emotion and the story beautifully.
If the Swiss get their staging right, this will be a real dark horse. It would be a huge mistake to count it out yet!
This sounds like a song that was written by VICTORIA
extremely mid
Switzerland have really sent their A game for a number of years. This is a slight step backwards for my tastes.
I’m hearing hints of Chris Rea. (ask your grand parents)
It’s a nice enough song, just not enough to make me want to vote for it. Depends on how they stage it I suppose. Could be a wow moment or could be a 3 min yawn fest.
i think it is sad that, 10 years after Baku (an excellent Eurovision year, as many people would agree), this year is so underwhelming. there are some good songs and maybe two or three gems, but the rest is utter crap.
and yes, i know that people say “it’s the worst eurovision year” every year (not me), but 2022 is slowly but surely beginning to look like the worst year since 2011. something, anything must be done to prevent this in the future. maybe a consistent cash prize for the winner?
2012 an excellent year? 2012 was carried by Euphoria. Stop capping.
2022 already sounds better than the really overrated 2018 to me, but then again, two of my huge favorites are entries like Lithuania and Serbia… 5-10 songs that I really care about is always my expectation for each year, more than that would be unrealistic.
Out of all 66 years, 2012 was the worst. Not because of the songs, though.
Yes this is by far the worst year since a long time and my opinion is that the pre-recorded vocals thing is not stranger to it. Delegations are becoming lazy and many songs are too much studio effects oriented not made for live. All NF have also now pre-recorded vocals.
ESC is turning the wrong way as I feared.
This is the year of the boring ballads. 🙁
The more songs we know so far the more I think Spain or Italy will win ESC 2022
Italy maybe.. Spain.. No…..
Boys do cry and boys do FALL SLEEP
That comment woke me up.
Uff what a dirge, just dreadful, I nearly dropped off to sleep. no climax, nothing . I don’t this will reach the final.
Switzerland: Boys do cry
Australia: Hold my tear!
This is what I was envisioning countries would send to Italy. It’s clean, simple and sophisticated. Absolutely stunning entry, and I hope they pair this with some really elegant staging.
Gorgeous voice – song is a 2 or 3 listens one though.
No Zurich 2023 then.
The more songs we know so far the more I think Serbia will win ESC 2022 😀
Honestly, I could see this happening. This is easily one of the worst years we’ve had in a decade.
I like that Switzerland is serving quality again, but this is not my kind of song. Maybe he’ll have a very impactful live staging that will make me like it more. For now, I’m not really feeling this.
It’s fine, as are most songs this year.
Nothing exceptional, it’s just a nice ballad. Switzerland’s result will totally depend on staging.
This is the perfect song to put over a Christmas advert. But, that’s also what I wrote about Portugal’s song in 2017, which, you know, won the ESC. (Sigh.)
The problem I’m having with “Boys Don’t Cry” is I don’t remember the music. The message is there, the emotion is there, but the song is soo sleepy. This will need a good performance and staging to elevate it, otherwise I believe it’s staying in its Semi Final. (Sorry Marius, I’m just not feeling this song.)
I have to be honest. I’m not into this kind of soft pop ballads. He’s very Victoria style, a genre trending since Billie Eilish step on the music market. And you know what? I didn’t like Victoria at all either. I mean, these kind of songs are pleasing but somehow I find them boring and over dramatic, too much frailty. It’s not about the tempo or the voices because I’m used to listen to even slower songs and getting into them, feeling them, etc. In short, I just don’t connect with it. I like Marius’ voice, I like the story… Read more »
“I don’t get the negativity” – the comments in literally every bad esc song that’s released
I’m pretty surprised by the Swiss entry I have to admit. I didnt expect a ballad of sorts, but im.genuinely pleasantly surprised because this is quality. The richness in Bear’s voice and the clarity of his words is seriously wonderful to hear. His voice is like silk, and the song itsself has such a charismatic, old cinematic quality about it. Atmospheric, charming and incredibly emotive……the music video really does a fantastic job at portraying the story being told by the lyrics, and it almost had me in tears at one point. For some reason the song really does remind me… Read more »
I think Switzerland will not qualify this year
I wouldn’t be surprised if it didn’t qualify, but I’m not making predictions until semi final 1 is complete.
SF 1 will be very open until the live show on May. And in this case (like any studio version or music video) is even harder to call at this point. Performance and presentation will tell.
I was hoping that Switzerland would send something in Italian as an homage to the host country Italy, but I’m not going to hold that against this song. However, I admit I am a little disappointed with this entry. It’s not bad, but it’s not something that could cinch Switzerland’s long overdue third victory or even a top 5 position. I appreciate its message that “boys have emotions” but it lacks something to make it truly memorable and that could be a problem because I’ve listened to it twice and it’s not sticking in my brain. It might be one… Read more »
Another speedbump for the Netherlands would be getting zero televote points last year, and they seem to be already over that this year.
The Dutch result last year was probably the host nation curse more than anything else.
Let’s hope Italy can buck that unfortunate trend, which I think they will. Maybe even be the first back-to-back winner since Ireland in the 90s, but I’d rather a different country win 2022, whether it’s a first timer or a country adding another trophy to their rack.
Feels underwhelming after having Luca and Gjon, but it’s a nice song and I think it’ll do at least ok at the contest 🙂
That’s the best it probably can do at the contest, OK. Yeah, it does feel underwhelming compared to the previous Swiss entries, but that doesn’t mean we should be holding it against it because it doesn’t feel like a winning song. Not every country can send a masterpiece year after year. It should be judged on its own merits as a song, whether good or bad. I think we really need to learn how to moderate our expectations So we don’t experience Massive disappointment.
The song wasn’t a winner that I expected but its nice
Great voice the song is just a bit boring imo don’t see this qualifying
zzz
This is so pretty and soothing, I love it! Maybe not a winner but this goes straight to my personal top 5.
After several listens, the song rises in me.
I love his grain of voice and if the staging is as good, Switzerland will be in the final for sure.
I find this song quite good.
you complain saying it’s boring, forgettable and generic, but Salvador Sobral in 2017 it was a metal or pop style song??!! It was also quite flat and linear but with his captivating voice he was able to unite Europe. Marius from Switzerland can do the same too.
feels like a 10 min song. I like the voice and I don’t mind slow-paced songs, but here it is too slow and nothing really keeps me interested in listening till the end.
Actually a decent jazzy respectable entry.. I really hope this will get televote backing but I see it getting more love from the juries.. It needs to stand out visually too, I like it..
If Australia picked “I won’t need to dream” it would’ve stolen points but it might qualify, certainly hope so
I thought exactly the same when hearing “Boys don’t cry”, it does have a magical thing in it like “Tears getting sober”. Though I agree it’s not as strong, it’s still missing something. It has lots of potential with the juries, doubtful with the voters.
I don’t get all the negativity. This is classy and nostalgic. It has the transport/escape factor that many people love nowadays. We saw it last year at Esc and in many NF. People want to escape for 3 minutes. People resonate with nostalgia
That’s why many old school or dated or whatever songs are doing well nowadays. Talking people to times that were better.
With other songs in semi final 1 this will probably not qualify. Shame, Switzerland really did good for the last few years.
The Netherlands had Trijntje Oosterhuis in 2015, Switzerland has Marius Bear this year.
Hey, “Walk Along” wasn’t that bad
Agreed.. Walk along was a good song.. Staging killed it
True.. it was a great song, but horrible staging.
A good song, but it only lasted about forty seconds and then repeated five times.
I liked Walk Along as well, but there were more people who didn’t like it than people who did like it.
The same will happen to Boys Do Cry.
Boys Do Cry is a waaaaaay better song than Walk Along, which was absolutely awful. And I say this as a Dutchman.
There’s enough songs in its semi final that this is probably better than to help it qualify. But I don’t see it on the left side of the scoreboard.
Oops! The last three years it seemed Switzerland had set their sight on a potential win. This year it seems they were aiming for mid-table of the scoreboard and missed the mark.
I was a big fan of “Tears getting sober”,
and i do agree these songs have similarities. But Victorias song felt much more modern and fresh and really touched me deeply.
“Boys Do Cry” is more old fashioned, giving louie armstrong vibes mixed with some “tears getting sober”, but end result is a little boring for my taste.
I understand why you made the connection, both songs are very delicate. But what enchanted me about “TGS” is that it has a fairytale touch and the background track dances with Victoria’s voice like birds around a Disney princess (too poetic? I guess if I hadn’t skipped WiwiJury 2020, I would write something like this). Here I just sense a guy and his piano on a lounge bar. Victoria’s lyrics were darker too and by now you know I like this things. Anyway, we’re on the same page this time, I also don’t hate it, it just passes me by… Read more »
Unfortunately they won’t end up number 2 on the scoreboard.
This won’t even be close to Top 25
For not knowing what to expect it is not bad. It does come off as a Christmas ad song however, same feeling. Doubt it will do as well as last year but it is a sweet warm song that could get votes if it is executed properly.
Not as good as Fuego or Gjon’s two entries, but it’s pretty. 7 points for now, though I’m slightly underwhelmed
The great run of 2019/2020/2021 from Switzerland is officially over…
Back to first base…
Or it’s a one year slip and they are back in form. You can’t have a masterpiece every year. Even the Netherlands failed to qualify after placing 2nd the year before and they would win the contest years later.
In 2015, lots of people thought 2013 and 2014 were a fluke for TheNetherlands. Only time will tell whether Switzerland will do well in future editions of Eurovision.
it’s giving nq
Disappointed to be honest. The song in my opinion is too flat and monotonous. It could qualify but it won’t win Eurovision and it won’t do as well as Switzerland’s last two entries. It’s quite telling as well that Switzerland has plummeted in the betting odds ever since the song came out.
Pretty voice, cozy tune, valid message (the lyrics on the chorus are a little exaggerated though) and there’s some cool jazzy things happening in the background. The thing is subtle entries like this need you to be in the mood. If Marius and the staging fail to get people there, the risk of going unnoticed is huge. Ask Paenda. Or Carousel. Or Tornike. We have a few other slow songs confirmed in semi 1 and for now all of them impact me much more than this one.
the song is really pretty and heartwarming but i dont know, lacks THAT impact to me
I think Felix Sandman did the same idea better, but I do like it.