The songs for the French selection process, Eurovision France, C'est Vous Qui Décidez, quite unexpectedly snuck out this morning, and for the most part they were a somewhat disappointing lot. There's a whole lot of twee, quite a lot of ordinary, and very little in the way of choruses. But then we heard this one and instantly forgot all the others - which to be fair wasn't terribly difficult.
Where most of the rest were trying to cram too much in to a limited space, Barbara here has left things sparse, drawing you in to every breathy syllable that she utters. Our French language skills aren't as good as they could be, but I still believed every single word as it swept through waves of gentleness to the occasional carny carousel crescendo. This song could only ever be a French song, and is delivered with such graceful Gallic skill that it's surely the only sensible option for Rotterdam out of this poor selection of mediocre tunes.
And if you thought that Ms Pravi's name was familiar, the girl has form. She's still riding on the crest of a wave as the co-creator of this year's most excellent Junior Eurovision winner, J'Imagine, along with Igit, who also has a hand in this beautiful song. So not only has she delivered probably the most complete compositions of the season so far, she's got a bit of an idea of how this whole Eurovision machine works too. France, I implore you, pick this. It'll be the only song you're offering up that has the ability to drag you out of your usual bottom quarter ignominy.
Wow... Okay... Now that I'm a bit more composed (Am I, though?) I wasn't really sold on it from the get-go as I hoped I would be, but she sneakily lured me and pulled me and caught me by the end of the song. This will be a polarizing one. If selected, it will either do really well or completely bomb, and I will say to the same extent that Salvador Sobral could have easily failed. Both entries actually have many similarities. Both songs are inherently of their own country and culture, both are incredibly personal, yet undeniably universal, both need no explanation as to what is going on because as you said, it's clear. Both have a sense of old-school nostalgia and familiarity without being cliched, contrived or gimmicky. Both performers are completely connected to the lyrics of the songs... My one problem with this song (and it CAN be fixed if selected with a revamp and slight reworking) is that as opposed to Amar Pelos Dois, it's not as well structured within the three-minute constraint. It feels as if it needed another 30-ish seconds. But as I said, easily fixed. I actually did find a few songs within the selection that I either liked, respected or appreciated but this one would be a bold choice that just might pay great dividends...
ReplyDeleteAlso... the clear musical reference to Piaf's Padam Padam is so smart.
ReplyDeleteFor me, everything else was lacking a little something. A chorus, mainly. But this one just grabbed me in a way no other French song has in years.
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