AZERBAIJAN

The Azeri song was unveiled on March 4^th via a lyric video on youtube and song release on Spotify. Back in November the broadcaster announced that they had internally selected Aisel and the song would be made public in March. The song she will be singing is called “X my heart” (Cross my heart)

As there was no performance to the song, and only a lyric video (not even a full music video) we have very little to go on. All we can guess is that the lyrics allude to skies, stars and moons so maybe we can expect something dark and sparkly or maybe and emphasis on the letter X. I am guessing she will need quite a few backing singers to beef up the track and possibly some dancers who also do some singing. Azerbaijan are quite well known for their visual motifs so it will be interesting to see how they give this more traditional radio friendly pop song some clout.

Aisel has a jazzy, talky singing voice and is very easy to listen to and understand but I wonder how much of this is down to talent or production. The song follows a well trodden path and is also one of those songs that has an extensive bridge/pre-chorus that I find quite time consuming in Eurovision terms. In the lead up to the chorus the tune gets higher and if there is a point she will struggle it will be here. Her voice is also very level, which hints at the production values. If any of this I louder or quieter than other parts it might not work or sound great live.

I think it I fair to say that this is a bit of a mess. Don’t get me wrong I think that some of the parts of this entry work and make perfect sense but in this case the sum of those parts don’t gel together at all. Aisel’s voice seems a bit over-produced and if she can perform this assured on the night good for her but if not it is going to sound very messy. The lyrics in particular are very poor, some of the metaphors and descriptions don’t work and in some cases don’t even makes sense. I think that the backing track of the song is quite radio friendly but doesn’t particularly suit the words of the song (or vice versa). I personally find it quite baffling that this is entry the work of the ‘dream team’ of producer Philip Kirkorov, choreographer Ilias Kokotos, and composer Dimitris Kontopoulos. The question is how much can you polish a turd – I guess we will find out. Unfortunately this is probably going to qualify although it really, really shouldn’t.

ARTIST –  Aisel

SONG –  X my heart

MUSIC - Tim Bran

LYRICS - Dimitris Kontopoulos, Sandra Bjurman