This week the Wiwi Jury — our in-house panel of music unprofessionals — headed north for Melodi Grand Prix 2016, Norway’s selection for Eurovision. Somehow we found ourselves from the streets of Moscow, listening to The Hungry Hearts feat. Lisa Dillan singing “Laika”. But do we love the disco? Read on to find out…
The Hungry Hearts feat. Lisa Dillan – “Laika”
“Laika” reviews
William: This isn’t just a tribute to the Soviet space dog — it’s a touching and poetic look at isolation, lost love and our never-ending journey to nothingness. The Hungry Hearts use accents and intonation to great effect, taking us to the Cold War and back, all the while making us want to dance. And when we do it’s with love and nostalgia and an acute awareness of our missed opportunities and disappointments. I just love this.
Score: 10/10
Chris: I can only shudder and wonder to think what is going to happen when this is performed live on the night of MGP. I’m expecting a trainwreck, because really the song is a trainwreck. It’s a glorious one at that, though, and I have to say I bloody love it…for the first two minutes, anyway. I wish that they had thrown something else in at the end, bar the slight German chanting, because it just sort of runs out of a little bit of steam. I’d love it if “Laika” won, but let’s get real; it won’t be in Stockholm. We’ll just always have it in our hearts.
Score: 7.5/10
Robyn: I’m a sucker for the romance of the Cold War-era space race, so using the sad fate of Laika the space dog as a metaphor for a doomed relationship is amazing. The combination of dance beats with German art school trash pop is even better. Yeah, it’s pretty much a checklist of loads of my favourite things all thrown together and somehow it all works. With every listen, “Laika” reveals more.
Score: 9/10
Edd: I can safely say that I have never heard anything like this before! It would be easy to mistake this for a cheap mess, when it is actually a masterpiece. The lyrics are surprisingly dark, which bizarrely works with the disco beat. And that chanting just sounds so amazing. I worry as to whether it will work live with the amount of voice editing in the production, but who cares. What a gem.
Score: 9.5/10
Antranig: “The streets of Moscow with my girlfriend” — I think these women are trying to be Serebro’s grandmothers and I’m all over it. “Laika” is insanely catchy and would stand out at Eurovision as a unique entry. Lyrically it sounded cheap on first listen but when you dig deeper, it is full of surprises. This could go a long way.
Score: 9/10
Mikhail: Firstly, I thought it was some trash, but I was enjoying it. But then the chorus came. That disco sound is very irritating. I personally hate such music and these old-fashioned electronic sounds make me sick. Sometimes it can be very catchy and it may eat your brain (in a good way), but this is definitely not the case.
Score: 2/10
Renske: This song is a solid 10 when it comes to originality, but it’s a bit too disco for me. Such a song will only end as a joke entry, because you simply can’t take it seriously. You either hate it or you love it and it’s a big tug-of-war between both sides.
Score: 7.5/10
Liam: What a guilty pleasure! It’s cheap, but boy do I LOVE IT! It’s infectious! One listen and I know half the song off by heart already. I’ve caught myself humming it down the street. I’ll be interested to see this song’s staging!
Score: 8/10
Bernardo: I don’t get the hype this song has. The lyrics are cheap, the production is messy and I bet live they’re going to flop, big time. My ears are bleeding and I don’t think the public will respond to this. Thank God I only need to listen to this one more time at the national final.
Score: 1/10
Deban: This is an ambitious concept that will die a painful death on stage when attempting a live delivery. However, in it’s studio format, it kisses the future. Merging electronica, disco and speech rap, “Laika” deserves a special mention, and possibly a bravery award for quirky queer realness.
Score: 7/10
In the Norwegian Wiwi Jury we have 25 jurors but only have room for 10 reviews. The remaining 15 scores are below!
Bogdan: 10/10
Josh: 9/10
Denise: 2/10
Luis: 9.5/10
Steinunn: 8.5/10
Zakaria: 0/10
Sami: 8/10
Mario: 4/10
Cristian: 10/10
Maria: 10/10
George: 2/10
Dayana: 10/10
Ramadan: 2/10
Patrick: 9.5/10
William C: 10/10
The highest and lowest scores are dropped prior to calculating the average score. This is to remove outliers and reduce potential bias. We have removed a low of 0 and a high of 10.
Totally love this and it may well be the only song in this years contest that at 3 minutes is far too short. Please choose!
This could seriously be the next “What Does the Fox Say”
Send it, please
The chorus of this song is very reminiscent of ABBA’s “Voulez-vous,” which I also associate with being played in gay clubs a lot. The spoken words in rhythm give the song a disturbing, dark edge. Whilst it’s easy to not take this track seriously and hear it as “trash” because of the sound (and I admit it’s easy to laugh at), there is a method and a meaning to the music that is very sinister. The sad truth is, even if this song wins in Norway, it may break ESC rules as it is almost certainly using the dog’s story… Read more »
11/10. My favorite song so far this year. Period. No contest.
A love or hate entry. I find it brilliant and will certainly vote for it on Saturday.
@ Eugene
Norway 2014 televoting result: 17th
Norway 2015 televoting result: 17th
This year, it will not be so easy to get to the top-10 solely by picking something safe and jury-friendly.
I thought this song was weird for about the first minute, by then end I was trying to figure out how to download it. It’s memorable. It’s fun. If it doesn’t win, it’ll because of the juries, which will be plainly evident this year.
@ Eugene Well, you are perfectly entitled not to like it of course. What I am saying is that in a contest like this it’s good to have a standout song, even if it divides opinion. Risk does pay off sometimes. “Golden boy” was nothing similar of course, but most people also predicted it would crash and burn, oblivious to how popular it really was. And most people thought that Norway’s “knowledgeable” choices like Morland and Deborah last year, or Carl Espen in 2014 would do really well, but in fact they proved to be pure jury fodder, ignored by… Read more »
Yaaaaaas Laika for eurovision!
This is everything is giving LIFE and DEATH and RESURRACTION at the same time!
10/10
@ Eugene
If the norwegians have any sense left, they will choose this over the beige MOR blandness of the rest of their field. The televoting public will go wild about (Golden boy anyone?) and the juries will appreciate its kookiness, otherness and theatricality. Plus the contest definitely needs a lesbian anthem to fill the Bojana LGBT empowerment spot 🙂
Norway do the right thing and choose Laika!
Staysman and Lazz’ “En Godt Stekt Pizza” last year was way better than this. They’d better have as funny a stage performance as S&L, or they’ll never make the final 4 showdown.
This is a masterpiece. A worthy entry from the land that gave us “I feed you my love”.
One of best song in MGP 2016, my second favorite to win, first is Afterglow.
One of the worst entries in the whole season of 2016. Even as a joke act I can’t understand the attraction
I Love this song! It would be amazing if norway selects it
#TeamLaika
the song is obviously like this only bc most of them can´t sing. so everything about it is half accidental. thats why I can´t like it. the amateur quality is not intentional. it could improve with good stagind, but… um….aren´t there more than 6 people there?
Der Untergang ist jetzt; der Untergang ist hier; my life is sadness; my life is madness!
Love it. One of my favorite songs of the year. 10/10.
Was not a fan of the song but after 3 listens, it becomes a guilty pleasure.
Is it a joke entry? Yes. Is it the best joke entry since at least Silvia Night? Yes. 9.5/10 with the other .5 waiting on the live performance.
I knew I wasn’t crazy when I kept putting this song on repeat. So catchy and hilarious yet it still conveys some sort of message.
I would not be mad if this got to go to Stockholm.
I hope the staging is not a hot mess because everything about this song is epically hilarious!
And now I can’t get the streets of Moscow with my girlfriend line out of my head.
This post has made my day. Iv been secretly listening and loving this, but keeping quiet. I can now come out of the closet and finally say I FREEEK’N LOVEIT!
I shall now go have another quick listen under the duvet covers.
We removed a low of 0 and a high of 10… haha I love this.
(#TeamLaika all the way!!!)
10/10