This morning the Wiwi Jury—our in-house panel of music un-professionals—packed our condoms and club gear and headed to Ljubljana to review Hannah Mancini’s Eurovision song “Straight Into Love”. Did Hannah find her rhythm? Or did her dance song empty out the club? Read on to find out…
Deban: Great raw materials here. Lyrically appropriate composition over a thumping dance beat. The vocals are stellar! Although this formula is somewhat dated, it is making a resurgence in the charts. Hannah will need lots of help to shoot this much further up the league table. The right staging, projection and lots of oiled-up muscle boys writhing around her svelte body. I like this track. I’m gonna love the remixes even more. Slovenia, you had to go through The USA to make it to Europe, but who cares? Welcome back.
Score: 7.5/10
HK Dick: In a year destined to be filled with electro-pop following last year’s winning song, Slovenia tries their hand with “Straight Into Love”. Over-heavy on the synth, this doesn’t quite capture the instant dance vibe but will still provide 3 minutes of joy for the dance floor. May qualify for the final but that is as far as it goes.
Score: 7/10
Vebooboo: I’m sure everyone will send me hate mail for saying this, but I think this song is 10x better than Cascada’s. What Hannah lacks in fame she makes up for with a better song, better dress, and most importantly much better vocals. This song is easier to grasp. Unfortunately it is accompanied with Bulgaria 2012-esque staging. Yes, people, we will likely be treated to another one-woman disco act this year. But I trust Hannah can work it out.
Score: 7.5/10
Bogdan: Prior to the video version, I thought the song was middle of the road – think roadkill. But now it’s going somewhere. I still think it could better without the dubstep, but I don’t mind it as much. Whereas before it seemed like an artificial, gratuitous addition, now the dubstep make the song edgier. “Straight Into Love” is yet to reach my top 5, but Hanna brought it straight into my Final 26. With a good live performance in her semi-final, she might take it even further.
Score: 8/10
Alexander: I have mixed feelings about Slovenia’s entry this year. While I appreciate the modernization effort by having an electronic arrangement full of dubstep, the song itself is kinda weak. The lyrics are generic, and the chorus is annoying to me. After hearing the song multiple times, I got tired of hearing “Straight into Love” over and over again. Hannah is an attractive singer, but I think that she’s screeching a bit too much in the chorus. The song and her performance are by no means terrible, but they could also be a lot better.
Score: 4.5/10
Mr Häggkvist: This is fine. Hannah is a great singer, but this song isn’t that strong … too lame Slovenia. She needs to stand out with a breathtaking performance to make the final. I just don’t think this is enough.
Score: 6/10
Wiwi: Hannah’s song starts out so strongly that I didn’t realize she came from Slovenia. (I’m still trying to wake up after listening to last year’s “Verjamem”. Borrrring). Anyway, I would totally dance to Hannah’s song—for one verse. After that it just starts to loop, and not even her half-hearted attempt at a bridge can keep me moving. Straight into love but not straight into the final. This is a borderline qualifier, people.
Score: 5.5/10
The Wiwi Jury Verdict: 6.57/10
You can see the latest reviews and standings on the Wiwi Jury page. You can also listen to all 39 entries on our contestants page.
Like wood-preserver, it does what it says on the tin. Beat, dance, laser treatment and a pumping vocal all staged on the set of the Matrix. I’d dance to it, but remain a floating voter when it comes to scores.
Energetic, modern, super cool and original song. You can hear that the mix is made with real quality and is not just another dance song like Ireland, Germany or even last years Sweden.
This is kicking – straight in to the top 3! It has everything going for it.
One of the worst songs this year get’s THAT Score. I never understand some people’s need for ESC to be about cheesy pop and dubstep. Give me a good ballad over this noise any day.
I pretty much agree with Wiwi on Hannah being a borderline qualifier, but strange things have happened at the Eurovision Song Contest before…
So I certainly hope my Slovenia has better luck than last year and qualify this time, even if it means sneaking into the final!
NO
Welcome.
As for the song itself, it’s pretty decent. Points to her for producing all of it. I thought this was the one to open this year’s edition. (I think it’s better to open and close with upbeats); it’s no bueno she’s on death spot #3.
I hope she goes through. In upbeats, I prefer Montenegro, but she’s way better than Ireland and Serbia.
What happened to Meows Kitty?
The original music video was the Carry Me Into Your Dreams of ESC 2013. The song was clearly rushed out without proper mastering/other tinkering, the presentation was minimal with only some work with lights, and at one point Hannah forgot to lip-sync, but they didn’t catch it before they uploaded it (or they just uploaded it anyway). The current version is a massive improvement. Rather than the synths sounding cheap, they sound appropriately light, and everything comes together rather nicely. It would be nice to see some more votes for Slovenia than the country got in the unexpected (and rather… Read more »
Well, apparently she won’t be alone on stage.
“Hannah won’t be alone on stage as she will be accompanied by three dancers (Matic Zadravec, Anže Škrube, Primož Pavli?) from Maestro dance group as well as two backing singers (Julie and Susanne) who are both from Copenhagen, Denmark.”
First few bars and I was screaming “Straight into Malmo!”. Dunno what went wrong though but this song lost me somewhere after the first verse and chorus. It gets surprisingly dull.