Artist: Circus Mircus.
Song: Lock Me In.
Music and lyrics: Circus Mircus.
Earlier today, two more countries revealed their entries for the upcoming sixty-sixth edition of the Eurovision Song Contest to be staged in Turin, Italy a few months from now. The first nation I’ll be discussing in this blog post in Georgia. The Cacusus nation debuted in the 2007 competition in Helsinki, managaing to qualify from the huge semi-final staged that year and securing a satisfying result in the final too. Back-to-back ninth place finishes occurred in 2010 and 2011, the former entry being ‘Shine’ and the latter being ‘One More Day’ by the band Eldrine. We’ve had some other decent efforts too, including Nina Sublatti and ‘Warrior’ in 2015, and the sleeper-surprise ‘Midnight Gold’ in 2016. This latter song is the last time Georgia appeared in a final, however.
Recent form has been much poorer, with ballads failing to impress as well as rockier efforts by Oto Nemsadze and Tornike Kipiani. Kipiani’s 2021 entry was a lot more stripped back, but also failed to garner many points. For 2022, many months ago, the Georgian broadcaster opted to internally select the band Circus Mircus. The rather secretive ensemble formed in 2020 and are described online as a progressive rock and experimental band. Previous tracks include ‘Semi-Pro’ and ‘Weather Support’. Their 2022 song for Eurovision is called ‘Lock Me In’, with a highly simple video released online today stating the music video was unavailable and not appropriate given the ongoing conflict in eastern Europe.
The song is an interesting blend of rock, indie and new-wave, and is very much unlike anything else this year. While repetitive (‘take me to the space craft, take me to dance club’), ‘Lock Me In’ has a groove and hook that can easily get lodged in the mind, and coupled with a quirky stage performance, I’m sure many will enjoy the show in Turin. It begins with a ticking sound before guitar enters the fray, drums too, and low, relaxed vocals. It all feels very old-school, perhaps even dated, but what a welcome sound for this year’s contest. There’s a touch of Jamiroquai meets Red Hot Chili Peppers too and it makes for an interesting track. The chorus feels almost dreamlike, with ethereal-esque vocals and shouts of ‘Circus Mircus!’ The second half of the song maybe runs out of steam a touch; nothing new really comes along and matters meander along to a conclusion that perhaps isn’t as delightful as hoped, but you can still have a bop along to ‘Lock Me In’ and appreciate it. Other lyrics include ‘show me what you got on the counter from the ground up now’ and ‘shoot it to the stars to the top now’.
All in all, Georgia are bringing a playful, quirky effort to Eurovision this year, which I think in the eyes and ears of many will be enjoyed. It’s hard to say if it’s a qualifier, especially as Georgia are in the tougher-looking second semi-final, but ‘Lock Me In’ could be a real standout on the night and perhaps both the voting juries and public at home will take to the originality on display. But yes, there’s also the possibility people just won’t get it. We’ll find out soon enough.
Early rating: C.
Image source: https://escxtra.com/2022/03/08/georgias-eurovision-entry-by-circus-mircus-out-on-march-10th/
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Artist: Andromache.
Song: Ela.
Music and lyrics: Arash Labaf, Yll Limani, Fatjon Miftaraj, Eyelar Mirzazadeh, Alex Papaconstantinou, Giorgos Papadopoulos, Filloreta Raçi, Geraldo Sandell, Viktor Svensson and Robert Uhlmann.
The second nation revealing its act and song today for the upcoming Eurovision Song Contest was Cyprus. The Mediterranean island has had reasonable success over the past couple of years, becoming a regular qualifier since returning after a year out in 2015, bagging a silver medal with the sexy, striking ‘Fuego’ by Eleni Foureira in 2018, and sticking with that slick pop method twice more since. Tamta only just qualified in Tel Aviv, but ‘Replay’, a more watered-down version of ‘Fuego’ finished in a respectable position. Sandro’s song for 2020 was more of a house-style song and received mostly mixed reviews, so it was perhaps no surprise when the Cypriot broadcaster decided to go down the pop route again and pick Elena Tsagrinou for Rotterdam. ‘El Diablo’ opened the final which maybe scuppered her chances of a fine result, but mid-table is no disappointment and it was a strong performance on the whole.
Aiming to make the final again in Turin is another female solo act (Sweden could take a few notes). Andromache Dimitropoulou is the beautiful twenty-seven year old who’ll be flying the flag this May. Born in Mannheim, Germany, she’s released no album yet but many singles in the Greek language, and ‘Ela’, her 2022 Eurovision entry combines both Greek and English, which is welcome. Having studied philology in Athens, she went on to appear on Greece’s edition of The Voice, but was eliminated early on.
‘Ela’ (which means ‘Come’) is not in the same vein as previous upbeat bangers from Cyprus. Instead we are presented with something more mellow and relaxing, with a light, breezy feel to it. The song starts atmospherically and we see a group of women relaxing in a blue-walled room (one’s in a bathtub, the other has her hair combed). Andromache is then in a corridor in a white dress and sings how ‘melodies ringing through my head when you lay eyes on me’. There’s a moody, plodding beat underneath the more ethnic sounds we can hair. At the end of the verse, it sounds as though the chorus is really going to ramp the track up a notch, but this doesn’t really happen. Instead, we get more of a summery ambiance on the whole as we see a game of chess and some book reading. Despite the more placid nature of ‘Ela’, I do feel the song, especially the chorus (‘In my arms, let’s go further together’), is quite powerful and I’m impressed with the video too; all quite professionally executed again. In the second verse she sings how ‘I’ll show you what it’s like beyond your fantasy’ as we get a sprinkling of woodwind sounds as we see her and her girl group in a red-bathed room and sitting on a wooden platform in a beautiful, serene landscape. The amalgamation of the instruments and the decent beat make this is a very strong effort from Cyprus again. How nice it isn’t just a copy-paste of what’s gone before. This is folkier and I anything, has more of an identity to it.
A very solid job all round from Cyprus this year, with a fine singer and a lovely little song entering the mix for Turin. A good result surely beckons once more, and if the staging is delivered well, the top-ten is certainly a likely outcome I’d say. Why there’s so many songwriters though is an utter mystery.
Early rating: B.
Image source: http://www.escunited.com/cyprus-andromache-will-fly-the-cypriot-flag-in-turin-with-her-song-ela/
Reece A.J. Chambers 