Ireland 2019 • Sarah McTernan - "22"

[Argüello]

It has grown on me and it's a cute song

[fabbi]

I'm also going up to a now.

[inactivo]

20/04/2019:

[basil]

Mar 8, 2019 13:12:22 GMT 1 basil said:

up to oop

[Dylan]

Well

Up to 👁👄👁✌✌

[Gregory (inactive)]

/

Can't help but think of Taylor Swift with that song title, even if it's not about age but a house number. The storytelling in the song is its main feature, just like last year. But it’s a different taste for pop music, especially 2019 pop music, and assuredly for Eurovision. It’s formatted like an upbeat pop tune, but slowed down and driven entirely by a bass guitar riff. Upon this the instrumentation builds, first with McTernan’s raw vocals. Then it’s followed by the dry hits of a drum kit, and then… well...

... the weakest. sounding. jazz guitar I’ve *ever* heard in my life. It sounds like a midi track. Like, the first moment I heard that… I was done. I didn’t need to hear anything else. The song had failed me. You had all sorts of guitars to choose from; why did you choose the one that sounded like a computer wire being plucked??

And then I start feeling like I’m listening to a 1998 pop track. Or maybe 2001? When we get to the bridge, the big ‘explosion’ moment for this song hits, and… she doesn’t even sing that part. There have been a few live performances of ‘22’; Sarah’s vocals are sometimes shaky, and she sometimes looks uncomfortable on stage.

This song has its fans, but I don’t believe it’s high-impact enough to qualify. This is admittedly a weird critique to make since Slovenia isn’t high-impact at all, but where you expect uniformity from “Sebi”, “22” sounds like it’s building but then it flops. It’s not nearly enough to catch my attention if I'm listening to the song for the first time on Thursday night. The producers of the show have given it the ‘death slot’; Ireland claims they do their best when they aren’t “trying” to write the perfect Eurovision entry. And yeah, I guess this song (whether you like it or not) certainly is more radio-friendly than a typical Eurovision song. And it’s certainly not a *bad* song. But that’s not a merit of achievement in a song contest.

[fabbi]

Down to now.