ESC 2019 Reviews - Montenegro
Semifinal 1, #2: D-mol - “Heaven”
Yo! We have a running order! Because of that, we’re going to start following order with these posts - and because I have already covered Cyprus’ entry earlier this week, we begin with the second song of the semifinal. (I have also reviewed Belarus’ entry, which you can read on my blog page. We will skip over that position later.)
Montenegro has yet to escape my bottom 15 or so songs since 2016. It’s hard to believe that my highest ranked Montenegrin was Slavko, but … that’s where we’re at. To the little country’s credit, they held a national selection again this year, and I admire any country that takes this step. Out of that, though, they chose… well, the second coming of Armenia 2015?
D-mol (what does that name even mean) look like a bunch of college kid wannabes at first glance, a hodgepodge of musical talent combined into one soup for the Eurovision soul. They are Tamara, Mirela, Zeljko, Ivana, Emel, and Rizo. Together they sing “Heaven,” a happy-go-lucky ballad about love. Yeah, it’s your obligatory Eurovision cheese. It’s got a Disney vibe to it, but that’s absolutely not a problem for me. I won’t even say it sounds dated.
TL;DR: I don’t like it much anyway. It’s not the worst song I’ve ever heard, but that’s the minced meat of compliments in a contest to find the ‘best song’. There certainly is a difference between the studio version and the live version, which featured a Moldova-esque staging where the six of them stand in front of a key signature. It looked cheap.
Watching the national performance video more closely, it’s clear this is an assembled act for contest purposes. Only half of them can sing well, yet they all get solos. Bad news, ‘cuz all you need is one of them to be off-key and you’ll be relegated to semifinal permanency. The second chorus is more rough--someone get some sound-absorbent walls into that stage. And don’t get me started on whether they have ‘chemistry’, because half of them are giving sexy-face to the camera while the other half smile, dance, and look happy to be there. They are at great risk of trying to up-stage one another, and that will always bring down the quality of a song.
Like I said earlier, the studio version is an improvement. There have been some added cultural influences and they’ve relegated a couple of the guys to backup singing duty. Oh yeah, and obligatory key change. But the instrumentation is still laughable. It’s got better lyrics than Slavko’s song, at least, but again: minced meat.
I think they won solely on their collective voices together, as has been the trend for the Balkan states this year. At the end of the day, at least Montenegro can finally break into that teenage pop music industry and take down the likes of young Miley, Victoria Justice, and … I dunno, insert annoying American girl here?
It’s upbeat, but it’s under-produced, and ESC gave it the slot o’ death in the running order.
My Rating: 5/10
Rank: 32nd of 41