The Wiwi Jury — our in-house team of music unprofessionals — is reviewing and rating the 37 competing songs in Eurovision 2025. Next we review Cyprus, who have chosen Theo Evan with “Shh”.
Did the song leave us silent or get us shouting? Read on to find out!
Theo Evan – “Shh” (Cyprus Eurovision 2025)
Review: Theo Evan – “Shh”
Ruxandra: Theo has a lot of charisma, and he is a great performer who can definitely elevate the song and the performance in May. Personally, the song feels a bit repetitive to me. Another issue is with the lyrics—after a (very) deep dive, I was able to understand the story behind them, but at first, they didn’t say much to me. And it’s not even a linguistic barrier here. The song has the sound of past Eurovision entries, which is nostalgic but also gives the feeling of having heard it before.
Score: 5.5
Simon: One of the most anticipated entries – because of the pre-hype – doesn’t really live up to expectations. While the chorus works, it seems like the track is too loud for the talk-singing part of the verses and I tend to zone out when listening. Since this is last in the semi-final running order there must be something spectacular waiting for us staging wise — but although I appreciate Theo’s vocals, this is not a qualifier for me at the moment.
Score: 3.5
Deban: Running helter skelter on adrenaline, Cyprus’ male-led euro-dance entry is a bop! “Shh” is the track to sing and to dance to. Although its lyrics add more confusion to what could’ve been a problem-solving musical riddle, Theo’s falsetto is transcendent. Dynamic, memorable and ambitious with its vocal delivery, this is one of 2025’s strongest Eurovision entries…and with every spin, I love it more.
Score: 7
Tom: I am sure many people will like “Shh,” but it is just not for me. Positives first, I quite enjoy the chorus. “Shh” has an excellent beat and it will surely go down brilliantly at Euroclub. I just think the verses sound like the character “Him” from the Powerpuff Girls is singing. It is a bit uncomfortable and a tad creepy. Maybe that was a choice to have more spoken word style verses – I just don’t like it in this song. I don’t think this will see Saturday.
Score: 5
Cyprus Eurovision 2025 ranking
In the Eurovision 2025 Wiwi Jury, we have 17 jurors but only have room for four reviews. The remaining scores are below:
|
Andreas: 2 Antranig: 7 Bernardo: 6 Burak: 6.5 Cinan: 8.5 Jonathan: 7 Jordi: 4.5 |
Lucy: 4 Pablo: 6 Scarlett: 3 Suzanne: 4.5 Tomas: 5 William: 7.5 |
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 high of 8.5 and a low of 2.
Wiwi Jury verdict: 5.47/10
What do you think of Cyprus’ Eurovision 2025 entry? Share your own score and review for Theo Evan’s “Shh” below!
I’ll be honest – yes, there’s strong competition in the boy-bop genre, but I still like the song.
I’m mostly happy that Cyprus isn’t still trying to do girl-bops – the genre is fine, but it’s kind of worn-out after seven years of them.
Two things, Cyprus has a good song, it’s one of those with a mystery behind it. My prediction is that he’s singing about Aphrodite, after all she was Cypriot. Will it be revealed? Who knows? Secondly so many comments now using Chat GPT, all be it negative. this is so funny where second language speakers of English attempting to write in big academic words. Nothing wrong with it, but its funny.
Theo barely even sings in this, as backtrack holds most of the vocal stuff.
3.5/10
He’s the new Svetlana Loboda.
Cyprus 4/12
CYPRUS – Magic mirror on the wall, who’s the fairest one of all? I didn’t think much of this song at first, but it grew on me. It is still within the realm of mainstream, but the electronic touches and rhythmic shifts give it way more personality than their last offerings. The verses are quite engaging with their back-and-forth rhythm, and the chorus is quite catchy and energetic. The hook ”hush” is probably the weakest part, but it does blend well with the rest of the chorus, so I don’t mind it much. The song changes its pace a couple… Read more »
Cyprus is selling us a product that both the seller and customer know isn’t good enough. This song is a filler, adding nothing new, and feels like Cyprus only wishes to participate this year, no matter the result.
Get ready for a harsh review. “Shh” is a D minor horror dance track that relies on hooks to reveal a gimmick for a secret wrapped in a religious cloak. While the songwriters are all well-respected and have brought us many wonderful songs in the past, “Shh” is just not one of those songs. I can’t stand pretentiousness in music, and this is exactly what we get throughout this song. The Verses abandon would could have been a wonderful chromatic scale-based melody and instead just sing a devil’s tune that is rather annoying to me. There is a piano interpretation… Read more »
I have a nagging feeling this one could girlboss a bit too close to the sun. It’s not bad, but Red Sebastian and Kyle Alessandro are strong competition with proven live capacities, while we have to trust the process here…
Bland, bland, bland!
It’s probably one of those entries with potential of a great performance but somehow the audience don’t connect with it. I like it very much, but I won’t be surprised if it doesn’t qualify.
1. Cyprus (7.5)
2. Switzerland (6.75)
3. Norway (6.5)
4. San Marino (6.5)
5. Poland (6.5)
6. Ukraine (6.25)
7. Denmark (6)
8. Israel (4)
My guesses as to who Theo is.
2 and 5.
Lol!
Dolly cosplaying as P.K.?
I don’t know, Theo… I give up.
Who the fcuk are you?
might be that character HIM from the powerpuff girls, whose name cannot be said by anybody
Shhhhhh…
It feels like it’s trying too hard. It hasn’t grown on me and I don’t think any staging will make me change my mind. Their worst entry for past 10 years
2/10
I actually like this song. Reminds me of Faithless Insomnia in parts.
Interesting.
The spoken word parts are really annoying. The instrumental track is solid. The song is bad.
The spoken word parts are really annoying. The instrumental track is solid. The song is bad.
Idk why bit this went from 30th to 3d place for me. I get why people dont like it
I actually like it, but i’m worried about the vocals
I actually like it, but i’m worried about the singing ability
You’ ll be amazed when you realise what the song is all about. Its has nothing to do with mythology (forget Narcissus theory) and when you see the revelation on stage you ll realise that all this time it was in front of your eyes. Hint: follow the bloodstream.
Oh we can’t wait
#not
The bloodstream goes everywhere though. That’s not a hint, it’s an obscurity.
(Just open the box already, haha.)
If you read literally the rest of lyrics a few times, it becomes pretty obvious who is he. At the end when it will be revealed on stage, everyone will see that the solution of the riddle was all the time in front of their eyes from the very first moment.
I think what’s pretty obvious is that no one really gives a s***.
Now we go from the sweet, poetic song that doesn’t shout for attention to perhaps the shoutiest song of the season. It’s not the worst song here by a long shot– on a base level, I find it effective as an uptempo dance track– but it might be the most pointless. The riddle is a high-concept setup that falls completely flat. I don’t think there’s much to be done with the answer when you get it. Why would you make a song like this? Is it just an expression of Greek cultural primacy or is there something I’m missing?
It’s a tribute to a legend. Too dumb to solve the riddle? No worries. You ‘ll get to know soon.
Me dumb too 🙁
Shhhh sawry Theo, but all I’m getting from this are anxiety and panic attacks.
I still don’t understand what you mean
It’s obnoxiously too fast and making me uncomfortable. And not in a good way.
You can tell they’ve banked on the staging carrying them.
Cyprus is one of my favourites this year, sad to see the lukewarm reviews. 🙁 PS. There’s one thing about Theo that I cannot unsee. He kinda reminds me of John Cena. I’d love him to go into the giant cube from the music video, rip it apart from the inside and go “are you sure about that” in May. Whatever happens on stage in a month, this will be my headcanon. 😀
Cyprus – This one just isn’t my sort of thing. I don’t really like the verses as his voice just weirds me out, and I only ever remember the chorus… which isn’t really saying much. I guess it has its audience, and that audience isn’t me, sadly. 4/10
I was surprised to see this assigned as the closer of semifinal one, but I bet there’s gonna be a big Pandorica-like box on the stage like in the music video, maybe reveal something or someone. Closing out semifinal might seem to be a surefire way to get into the final, but it’s not always the case. While uncommon, there have been a few non-qualifiers that closed out the semifinal. Cyprus’s chances are really going to depend on Theo Evan’s’ vocals as a make or break bid for the final. If he succeeds, they are through, but if he performs… Read more »
ethnic masterpiece, easily cyprus’s best entry since 2018
Not when Ela exists. WTf?
I do like the instrumental but the song is meh as a whole. The staging must be immense in order for this to be within even a whisper of qualification.
10th place : Cyprus : For those who know my taste in music, this might seem surprising, but I quite like Cyprus this year (and I think the last time I liked their entry was back in 2016). This song is epic enough, well-produced and even if it’s ultimately pop, it is more well-thought and interesting than classic Cypriot pop entries. I am also a tremendous fan of their modern music video. The chess confrontation, possibly a reference to Bergman’s Seventh Seal in a contemporary way, the masked dancers, really reminiscent of Squid Game and the ending that symbolizes an… Read more »
Jury rankings
Sea Salt in the lead
Cyprus must be one of the countries I get least excited for in recent years. They always seem to send generic, inoffensive pop and their entry this year is no exception
Sweden, Austria, Malta, Czechia make same thing but sure you don’t have problem with them .
I only listened twice and I don’t recall a single thing other than I thought parts of the lyrics were nice but my listening experience was unpleasant so I don’t wanna hear the song again. Even the lyrics are only partly good and don’t give an actual story, quite fitting for this scattered and disjointed song. I definitely don’t need Cyprus in this year’s final.
10. Cyprus – Theo Evan – Shh – 8.5/10 – brass and showy, this track is not scared to hide its confidence. In places, the verses are a little too thematically gimmicky, but there is a satisfying build and the chorus is perhaps one of the best in the contest with an excellent electronic production underneath. The lyrical content presents a perfect opportunity for a stand-out dramatic performance and I really hope they go with full-on extravagance because the song demands it.
I love how you see the song’s extravagance as its strength, whereas I see it as pretentiousness instead. It’s a fascinating difference of opinion we have on this song. Fun.