The Wiwi Jury — our in-house team of music unprofessionals — is reviewing and rating the 37 competing songs in Eurovision 2023. Next we review Cyprus, who have chosen Andrew Lambrou with “Break a Broken Heart”.
Are our hearts still in one piece after listening to the song? Read on to find out!
Andrew Lambrou – “Break a Broken Heart” (Cyprus Eurovision 2023)
Review: Andrew Lambrou – “Break a Broken Heart”
Tom: Duncan Laurence’s “Arcade” comes to mind with “Break a Broken Heart”, but slightly sexier and with less heart and soul. If Andrew can sing live just as well as the vocals in the studio cut, then this should walk into the final – particularly as it’s in the second semi. Yes, it’s not a song we haven’t heard before, but it’s powerful and anthemic. Plus, that high note in the chorus is very satisfying indeed, especially when I poorly attempt to belt it out in the car. Looking forward to hearing it live.
Score: 8
Rick: Andrew’s got the voice, the attitude and the experience to really make an impression. But in fact, his entry doesn’t contain much to really impress me. Yes, it’s well produced and you can hear the Swedish influence of it. But this is nothing that makes me root for it. It even feels like we’ve heard it all before and to be honest, there’s no exciting element in this song – BUT I can’t deny the fact that it gets stuck in your head.
Score: 4.5
Kristín: When I first heard “Break a Broken Heart”, I was meh. The second time, I was hmmm…? The third time I found myself tapping my feet and secretly singing along. The fourth time: “Ugh! Fine! This is actually a bop!”. And now I fully admit that Andrew and his broken heart are comfortably settled on my personal playlist. The song is indeed quite repetitive, but maybe that will be its strength in the contest. It glues itself to your brain and you just have to belt out a strong “Oooooooh” whenever it comes on. Will it make it to the finals? Hard to say, but for me it’s a strong personal favourite.
Score: 6
Luis: Everything around Cyprus’ entry is perfectly fine. Great production, nice song and a mainstream quality that makes it perfect for any playlist or radio airplay. But then, that would be it. “Break a Broken Heart” is fine, but there’s nothing particularly exciting about it. Same for Andrew himself, as Brunette says: he is good, does good, look good. His participation in Australia Decides 2022 does put a question mark on his vocal abilities though, but I’m sure he has had time to improve. And he can have backing vocalists as well, as I’m figuring this entry won’t need many other people on stage. Or will it?
Score: 5.5
Samuel: At first listen, “Break a Broken Heart” might not make the biggest impact. This song, however, is certainly a grower and has somehow gone from complete disregard to being a favourite of mine. I hope the staging and production manage to elevate Cyprus and make the impact needed at Eurovision, and I have faith Andrew will deliver a stellar performance to make that happen. Overall, a very underrated, well-written and produced song worthy of a decent result in Liverpool.
Score: 7
Cyprus Eurovision 2023 ranking
In the Eurovision 2023 Wiwi Jury, we have 20 jurors but only have room for five reviews. The remaining scores are below:
|
Antranig: 8.5 Cinan: 8 Dayana: 5.5 Deban: 5.5 Diego: 5.5 Forrest: 4.5 Jonathan: 6.5 Lucy: 5 |
Oliver: 3.5 Pablo: 7 Renske: 5 Ron: 6 Ruxandra: 6 Simon: 7 William: 7 |
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 3.5 and a high of 8.5.
Wiwi Jury verdict: 6.08/10
What do you think of Cyprus’ Eurovision 2023 entry? Share your own score and review for Andrew Lambrou’s “Break a Broken Heart” below!
Can anyone explain what happens in the video? They were having a lovely meal, then he gives her a beautiful pendant and they seem to break up because of that. Why?
CYPRUS – This modern Scandi-pop song has something really punchy and slick in this production which makes it feel like a complete product. The rhythm is dynamic, and it’s well-supported by some cool drums. There are some really nice moments in the composition. The lyrics balance out feeling broken and defiant after a bad relationship. He wants to present himself as triumphant, but he is obviously still processing things he says he’s not bothered by. We could point out that the song is safe and doesn’t re-invent the wheel, but I feel like that’s neither good or bad on its… Read more »
Actually, I’m not even sure I’m over what happened to Cyprus last year. Am still convinced that it was my favourite entry from them ever. Even allowing for some of the criticism that came for the live delivery of “Ela”, it was still everything I wanted from Cypriot music in Eurovision and its lack of success had me wondering what direction Cyprus would go for this year. Something mainstream but with a strong local identity or something fresh off the Swedish flatpack music conveyor belt. Well, this year, we’re not getting the former. The overall flavour and direction of the… Read more »
My dear Cyprus, I like this one, although I’m not very confident about its chances until I watch a live performance. I like the dramatic feel -that is not overdramatic for me- and the dark undertones in the melody and the lyrics – of course it’s a bit cliché but many songs dealing with issues such as lost love and emotional trauma are. My only concern is that the vocals sound overproduced and this might sound very different live, which remains to be seen. 7.5/10 and 17th place in my ranking. I’m not gonna try to make predictions for this… Read more »
“Break A Broken Heart” is a heart-breaking tale of a swimming pool date gone wrong. And not to contradict the lyrics, but it doesn’t sound like the protagonist survived that breakup. All this talk about rising from the ashes and finding the highest highs doesn’t convince me – show, don’t tell, Andrew. Maybe there is a darker core to Cyprus’s song, some depth to Andrew’s conflicted, broken persona, but the song is too aimless and apathetic to take a deep dive. Moving on.
4/10
My n°1 in love with him,his vocals.Its all an amazing package which is very underrated and could suprise us all?
There’s nothing wrong with this track (if I’m being picky, I think it’s a little overproduced), but I also can’t find anything special about it. In many ways, this is that kind of Eurovision entry I never liked: radiofriendly to the point it lacks authenticity, aiming for jurors that are allergic to risks and televoters that fall in love with beautiful people. The good news is that while in the previous decade it was normal to have years when one third of the entries w could be like this one, this time we just have this one in the lineup.… Read more »
It does feel that we’ve moved away from the vast majority of countries playing safe to the point where they’re just trying to a) scrape through to the final and avoid the bottom five and b) not embarrass themselves with what they send. But yeah, we’re still getting songs like this where you can’t describe as anything else rather than a filler or a participation song. Like, what are you trying to achieve by this?
But you are also right in that this is easier to take when there’s not 5-6 similarly-conceived songs in the lineup.
21. Andrew Lambrou – Break a Broken Heart (Cyprus) – 6/10 – incredibly middle-of-the-road and predictable in its styling and themes. But for what it is, it is done well. The production is solid and Andrew delivers a strong, heartfelt vocal.
Another rating/ranking match!
Much better than that cabaret fartsy act
Once again Cyprus brings a great song that I can listen to pleasantly this year, next year and many years ahead. Because it has quality. For me this is the number one criterion. Its vocal difficulty level is to the sky and live performance will be a big challenge.
But it’s a pitty that many people appreciate trash songs just because they either have an extreme presentation, funny clothes or superb visuals because their delegation has a high budget. The next month, you probably have forgotten the actual song.
Appreciate songs that can last in time people!!
Some people must respect artists, delegations, how toxic is someone to give 3.5 to one’s country song at wiwi jury?
Wiwi Jury is just a bit of fun; it’s not to be taken seriously. They’ve scored as low as 0.5 for a song before. Three comments about the same whine is taking this too seriously, in my opinion.
This! ANY score should be welcomed, as long as it doesn’t contain any personal attacks on anyone involved, and as long as we are aware that this is our very personal (and potentially changeable in the future) opinion. I gaven given one or two zeroes to some past entries. It’s okay. It’s all for fun anyway.
*I have given*
Not toxic at all. I gave 3.5 to San Marino, Iceland, and Belgium. I have given much lower in some other years. Deal with it. Personal attacks can be *toxic*, that I agree about. But scoring-wise, you have to be able to give *any* score 0-10, however you feel about a certain song. Doesn’t mean that you hate the artist, the writers, or the country in any way. You are always free to critique the critique itself, and bounce back with counterarguments, but the day when we pad deafault points at our bottom ranking is the day that free speech… Read more »
There’s nothing toxic about giving out scores and people need to accept that. I think that we’ve been so brainwashed about ‘cancel culture’ and ‘political correctness’ that we shut off completely when we’re faced with an opinion different to ours and easily reserve to calling out ‘toxicity’ and ‘hate’ when what is really toxic and hateful is our own reaction to that. That doesn’t mean that all critique is well intended and it all depends on our ability to discuss things in a calm and constructive manner, but our increasing tendency to put an end to a conversation when we… Read more »
Before someone is allowed to use the word “toxic” online, there should be some sort of test to show that you have at least some level of understanding as to the word’s meaning.
Can the same rules also be applied to “brutal” and “iconic”?
How toxic is Oliver to give 3.5? OMG
So this really nice and decent song gets 6,08 while the overrated Norway gets over 8. Thanks, Wiwi. As expected, that was no surprise. It happends every year. I could bet if this song was from Sweden or Australia the rank was over 8? It’s hillarious…
I don’t know whether there’s much of a problem with this getting a 6.08. I think the issue is more likely with Norway’s 8+ rating tbf.
I’ll be honest, I totally forgot that this entry even existed. It is not bad at all but its just so…plain and forgettable
If this came from Sweden or Italy it would top the scores. Just saying…
Only Slovenia is behind this one in terms of how much of the song I remember after hearing it a few times. I literally only remember the “you can’t break a broken heart” bit.
Never mind, I thought harder and remembered what Slovenia sounds like, it’s actually a great song. So Cyprus is dead last.
If I were you, I’d be more worried about my memory loss than the zombie apocalypse for example. At least with zombies, you can run away, but if you have memory loss, it can be even harder. You might forget your own phone number, your address, or even your own name…
I like this a lot, although it’s not getting that much praise from anywhere. Most likely getting into the final, there isn’t too tight competition on SF2.
Who is Oliver and why 3.5???
He finds joy in giving (at worst) inoffensive songs low scores.
This is middle ground for me. I don’t dislike its just nothing special. Much preferred his Aussie entry from last year
It’s a really good pop song that you’d definitely hear in the radio but the live performance will make or break this. Let’s see if he can hit those high notes. If he does, it will qualify but probably right hand side of scoreboard in the final
Vocally this is Andrew Lambrou at his best- song wise- his stage presence was really good when he was competing at Australia Decides a couple of years back.- but the latter was a completely different song style and his vocals were not up to par. So what does all this mean? Well despite being a power ballad of sorts – if Andrew can bring that stage presence we know he has (even though it is a very different song style) then he may well impress in his representation for Cyprus….there is no doubt he can sing, there is no doubt… Read more »
Not authentic at all, repetitive chorus and predictable lyrics, the high note at the chorus also makes this production barely acceptable thanks to how obvious it is that Cyprus once again used Swedish composers to write some of the the blandest lyrics we have this year for a power ballad. Heck, I prefer my country’s entry than that of Cyprus’s once again, at least Victor’s song has the charisma of a brand new, fresh and hard-working artist that composes his own songs without the need of huge labels providing every single thing to him and for the artist to only… Read more »
I prefer Greece over Cyprus tbh. Víctor is so young and yet he wrote the song himself and has gone through a lot of criticism just because of the broadcaster’s selection system. Irrespective of all that, I like “What They Say”, and hope to see Greece in the final
My exact sentiments. I hope Greece makes it to the Grand Final instead of Cyprus.
The two Jimmys on songwriting duty here also are part of the “Tattoo” team. I feel they made more effort there.
Interesting you say that, I’ll talk more about it when theyre reviewing Sweden, but idk if Tattoo is great lyrically.
That might be true. I’m not sure who is in charge of what department, though. Lyrics, music, production, all that. Also, how do we judge lyrics? As a piece of poetry, written down on paper? Or how they fit the mood, the music, complimenting the rhythm etc.?
I mean, I think one way to judge lyrics can be through the meaning behind them, whether they’re filler or there’s weight behind them and therefore, audiences perception of those lyrics too, I think that’s important to many people. (Whether it has substance). Another which can relate to that is whether someone is using clichéd rhyming pairs (which I think Tattoo does but again, I’ll talk about that in that review). If you’re rhyming completely for the sake of it by using those pairs or whether an artist can cleverly weave their message (perhaps in unconventional ways) and use rhymes… Read more »
This song is fascinating to me, because the music of the song does not match the message of the lyrics on paper, unless the lyrics are an expression of denial. Once I realised the denial aspect of the song, this changed my meaning of the “Woo-hoo” melody into an actual cry, and made me realise the song could be about a trauma cycle. So, how does the music reflect this? Firstly, the key is E-flat minor, and whether intentional or not, this key is significant to some musicologists as being the darkest one of them all – some refer to… Read more »
I think the key was intentional, after all the lyrics mention that “you filled my life with minor songs”, “Break A Broken Heart” presumably being one of them.
Ahaha! Beautiful. 🙂
I’ve been kind of dreading this one because it just goes in one ear and out the other for me. When I haven’t listened to it for a while, I can only hum the chorus hook, and even then I wonder if that’s really how it goes. Boring overproduced pop song, but I guess at least it doesn’t leave the negative impression something like “Queen of Kings” does? If it makes the final, it would just be a waste of space. 4.5/10
Cyprus was too broke to afford Andrew Tate so they got Andrew Lambrou instead xD
Overproduced, extremely generic mainstream radio filler straight from the Swedish songwriting factory, 99% of the positive reactions to this song must be just because people find him attractive, okay but at least be honest about it?
Probably my actual last place of the entire lineup honestly, no desire to ever be subjected to something like this at all so I can’t offer Cyprus anything more than a 0.5 out of 5 rating, sorry.
He is hot
unauthentic, too americanized for my liking
i prefer Greece over this
for sure this has chances to qualify in the weak semi 2 but i really hope it doesn’t qualify
i do like this sort of music, outside esc i mean but for esc i want something more special and i like ethno pop songs more from Cyprus (same goes for Greece and greek music in general) although with Victor i can more like the fact he is 16 and he composed his all by himself
while this is made by swedes and Stengaard
2.0
10th place: CYPRUS: Cyprus offers a rather safe song but it is still a good one for me. Andrew has a good voice and we can expect a big performance if he is able to hit those notes live correctly. The song offers a nice, easy on the ears chorus, coupled with a rhythmical, Imagine Dragons-like instrumental and general feel. The verses build up nicely to the chorus and the bridge is also powerful. It is not by any means anything new, but I certainly like it way more than most recent ethno-pop/generic dance-pop Cypriot entries as it is closer… Read more »
It’ll qualify with its incredibly weak semi final, but will it really be an accomplishment if it comes 23rd?
Cyprus 7,5/12
Probably the least memorable song of the year.
The high note is absolutely unnecessary in my opinion… but oh well..
Very mid. Very dull. I’m so bored of these type of bland songs written in songwriting camps. So unauthentic and not interesting
This sounds like a Swedish off the rack product that has gathered dust on some forgotten shelf for some time, and that’s probably what it is. So, when Cyprus came along in search for a song for their latest Eurovision hopeful, they spruced it up a little bit, added some high notes and off it went. It is one of the most flavorless and predictable songs of the entire season for me. Other than Kristin, I listened to this a couple of times when it came out and got less and less interested. Everything about this feels like bait, but… Read more »
We agree completeley on this one. To the point I must ask if it also screams 2016 to you. Not for being dated, but for representing that time Eurovision was about to get too formulaic, until some unexpected winners changed everything.
Absolutely, it harkens back to a time when Eurovision was teetering on the edge of solid mediocrity. I’m glad we left this behind, when Jamala beat Sergej Lazarev in 2016.
Even though I agree with your assessment of the track itself, I think with a good-to-great live vocal, this is more than safe in terms of qualification and I’m probably in agreement with its placement in the odds at the moment.
I saw a clip of him performing the song (part of it,the chorus) in Australia and he could sing the chorus well. I’m hoping because of that, that vocally, it shouldn’t be an issue but we’ll see in due course.
Really fed up with Cyprus sending unauthentic entries. Bring back Evridiki!
I really like the song from last year… but the staging and vocal hmm…. awful! what a shame!
staging last year was a no no for me either, way too static in one place, whoever thought that was a right idea with that sort of song, lol
the song last year was nice
Cyprus was great last year, pity it didnt come together live because I still listen to that studio version.
Teriazoume ’92 is still the peak of Cyprus in ESC, Eleni Foureira could never.
We brought her back and didn’t qualify.
This song is certainly more on the generic side (even if I’m not a fan of the term), its nothing new in the context of the competition, we’ve had several entries like this in the past (I think even their 2017 entry had some similarities to this) but with all of that said, do I like this song, yes and do I listen to it, yes. For me, generally speaking, I like songs that sound like this (like with Réne in the German selection) and whilst I certainly wouldn’t encourage many countries to send songs in this style (as I… Read more »
As myself and Noam pointed out, a young lad, singing a ballad (albeit in different genres), good production. I think Cyprus (and another entry this year) might have that effect on the same collective of televoters who voted for Estonia last year. Depends on how effective the staging is.
I mean I think that argument can definitely be made. The only thing is though, we haven’t heard this live (with staging) and I do wonder if that’ll make it more appealing.
Stefan’s song was one of the most unoriginal songs I’ve ever heard, it sounds like some Guetta songs and it’s a classic “cowboy” song.
Yeah that I can agree with, I could say that for quite a few entries, even other ones I like or ones that are expected to do well. I do think the whole “survivor” thing in relationships is a bit overdone in these types of ballads. In terms of Stefan’s song, I didnt mind the song, thought it was decent. it I thought the whole cowboy theme (even in the production leaned into that country western sound, similar to what you’d fine in some Avicii songs, I thought the cowboy iconography was a bit too on the nose but people… Read more »
Definitely wouldn’t have compared this to Estonia’s entry. Not really seeing that.
On the other hand, this song gives me a vibe of Estonia 2021.. A handsome man sings a sad ballad.. I hope the result will not be similar. Because he is really cute and a good person.
I mean, I mentioned that in my comment too. I do wonder if they will get similar results.
And I still listening to Rene’s song… I just love it! but the staging was boring, he was perfect tho… great vocal!
agree 100% 🙂
17) Cyprus – All I can say is at least it’s not as forgettable as Greece’s entry this year. A decent ballad and Andrew’s got a nice voice. Not sure how the staging will be, but hopefully it’ll be enough for Cyprus to pull through. There aren’t that many slow ballads this year so in SF2 it could stand out. 6.5/10
not sure why I said slow ballads… ignore that sentence *head desks*
There are many types of ballads, slow ballads, pop ballads, rock ballads and in Israel’s case this years it’s a “pop ballad” with a “dance break” at the end, I didn’t expect it at all from a song titled “Unicorn”, what a positive surprise.
What I mean is that it’s okay that you mentioned “slow ballad”.
What is the 17)? Your ranking of all 37?
YEP he is the hottest guy this year and the song is nice, his vocal moments kinda make me cringe at some points but overall it is really nice song, should Q.
I COMPLETELY forgot this entry is there. Not a very good sign in and of itself, but… it’s just one of those entries that doesn’t take the foreground as much as it wants to. It’s this ‘powerful ballad’, but at the same time it’s just another song about heartbreak which is probably the most common musical cliché of all. Next to all of this, Andrew’s voice sounds super processed, so I feel like he’s not going to hit those high notes live, or will have it be done by pre-recorded backings. I don’t really see this do well, and qualification… Read more »
Honestly, when the snippet came out I thought we could actually have a Top10 song again from Cyprus. I was wrong. Something heard and performed a thousand times before, total lack of heart and soul (as you’d expect from swedish writers) and a undoubtedly hot guy being broken by his love interest.
Still, rather enjoyable and not always a skip on the ESC playlist. I really hope he can pull it off live. There’s nothing more to add.
Rating: 7/10 (20th)