Contact us

Russia RUSSIA 2018 - Yulia Samoylova - I Won't Break

How do you rate this entry?

  • 12

    12 6.0%

  • 10

    6 3.0%

  • 8

    13 6.5%

  • 7

    14 7.0%

  • 6

    20 10.1%

  • 5

    20 10.1%

  • 4

    20 10.1%

  • 3

    15 7.5%

  • 2

    16 8.0%

  • 1

    15 7.5%

  • 0

    48 24.1%
  • Total voters
    199
uk

NemesisNick

Well-known member
Joined
June 2, 2012
Posts
1,334
Location
Dorchester, Dorset, United Kingdom
I'm currently watching the preview videos of the ESC 2018 Second Semi-Final: first half countries followed by second half countries. Here are my views on RUSSIA 2018 - Yulia Samoylova - I Won't Break.

As a UK citizen, there are two issues it's important for me to try and cast aside:
1) re: the issues with Yulia Samoylova being disallowed entry into Ukraine to perform "Flame Is Burning" at ESC 2017 (Kyiv), and resulting late withdrawal of Russia last year. That happened last year, and this ESC 2018 is in Lisbon, Portugal. To the best of my knowledge, Yulia shouldn't have problems getting into Portugal.

2) The recent incident in Salisbury, Wiltshire - I'd like to point out that Salisbury is only about an hour's train journey away from where I live. For the record, I don't tend to pay as much attention to the news as I perhaps ought to, but anyway, this will be on the minds of UK citizens at present.

Trying to cast both those issues aside, "I Won't Break" isn't too bad a song. So far I've watched 7 of 18 SF2 videos this evening. Based on the song alone, I'm not sure whether or not I'll want "I Won't Break" to be one of the 10 ESC 2018 SF2 qualifiers, but out of the 7 I've watched so far, I think Russia's entry is better than Moldova's entry. I'll be in a better position to list my favoured 10 qualifiers once I've seen all 18 preview videos.
 
A-lister
sweden

A-lister

Veteran
Joined
December 28, 2009
Posts
32,825
John1 said:
I'm so going to laugh hard when Julia will achieve a top 10 placement in the GF. This'll be very similar to a gigantic earthquake and an odd mix between slurs and major disappointment... :lol:

Even if it doesn't qualify, this'll surely remain way better than their 2010 and 2011 :ru: entries. :mrgreen:
Click to expand...

You gonna laugh hard when a complete pointless ballad with an untalented singer gets into the top. 10 due to massive diaspora and political voting? xshrug

Anyways, this is the worst Russian entry that I can remember so even qualifying from the semis would be unfair, but we know things aren't fair so...
 
John1
france

John1

Well-known member
Joined
November 1, 2015
Posts
7,838
Location
Brittany
A-lister said:
You gonna laugh hard when a complete pointless ballad with an untalented singer gets into the top. 10 due to massive diaspora and political voting? xshrug

Anyways, this is the worst Russian entry that I can remember so even qualifying from the semis would be unfair, but we know things aren't fair so...
Click to expand...

If you say so. :rolleyes:
 
germany

Realest

Well-known member
Joined
May 23, 2017
Posts
7,786
Location
Germany
Somehow I feel sorry for all the Russian ESC-Fans who experienced 2 wasted years in a row.
 
John1
france

John1

Well-known member
Joined
November 1, 2015
Posts
7,838
Location
Brittany
A-lister said:
Yes, that's what I hear, but taste differs ...
Click to expand...

My musical tastes are always weird somehow, but this entry is a million miles ahead of FIB.
Besides, Julia's vocals, when she performs live, are usually breathtaking, no matter what the song is.
 
A-lister
sweden

A-lister

Veteran
Joined
December 28, 2009
Posts
32,825
John1 said:
My musical tastes are always weird somehow, but this entry is a million miles ahead of FIB.
Besides, Julia's vocals, when she performs live, are usually breathtaking, no matter what the song is.
Click to expand...

Flame is Burning was also crap, but somehow I found more personality in that bad-produced, badly sung ballad than this.

I didn't find her live performing to be particularly good, maybe her condition is somehow effecting her live vocals, so I'll try not to judge to hard, but looking past that objectively she's not a particularly good live singer.
 
Sean
canada

Sean

Admin
Staff member
Joined
September 28, 2009
Posts
17,237
Location
Calgary
Upgraded from a 3 to a 6. On a few listens this is actually a little bit of a charming bop. Very 90s.
 
John1
france

John1

Well-known member
Joined
November 1, 2015
Posts
7,838
Location
Brittany
A-lister said:
Flame is Burning was also crap, but somehow I found more personality in that bad-produced, badly sung ballad than this.

I didn't find her live performing to be particularly good, maybe her condition is somehow effecting her live vocals, so I'll try not to judge to hard, but looking past that objectively she's not a particularly good live singer.
Click to expand...

Can we tackle this issue with a single relevant enough example? Jessica Mauboy will easily place 10 at the very least, and still, she can't sing live. That's a fact: her performance back in 2014 proved us that she was unable to DELIVER and only to PULL OFF a disastrous performance of an amazing song. That's my point, Julia can sing, despite her illness. Though Jessica Mauboy doesn't seem to be able to do so.

Anyway, have you ever watched her performance(s), when she was competing at the Russian X-Factor? Do not even tell me that her musical skills and her ability to sing live were so dreadful that she still managed to end up as a runner-up in this competition?

Please...
 
A-lister
sweden

A-lister

Veteran
Joined
December 28, 2009
Posts
32,825
John1 said:
Can we tackle this issue with a single relevant enough example? Jessica Mauboy will easily place 10 at the very least, and still, she can't sing live. That's a fact: her performance back in 2014 proved us that she was unable to DELIVER and only to PULL OFF a disastrous performance of an amazing song. That's my point, Julia can sing, despite her illness. Though Jessica Mauboy doesn't seem to be able to do so.

Anyway, have you ever watched her performance(s), when she was competing at the Russian X-Factor? Do not even tell me that her musical skills and her ability to sing live were so dreadful that she still managed to end up as a runner-up in this competition?

Please...
Click to expand...

Yes I saw, and I don't find her a good live singer xshrug

Nor is Jessica, but that's for another thread...

Anyways atleast in the case of Yulia, if her condition effects her singing, then I can atleast understand the reason why...

Anyways, good singing or not, the song is really bad and in the end of the day it's a song contest, I could give her a pass if the song was atleast remotely good, but it's just a bland soulless ballad imo.
 
John1
france

John1

Well-known member
Joined
November 1, 2015
Posts
7,838
Location
Brittany
A-lister said:
Yes I saw, and I don't find her a good live singer xshrug

Nor is Jessica, but that's for another thread...

Anyways atleast in the case of Yulia, if her condition effects her singing, then I can atleast understand the reason why...

Anyways, good singing or not, the song is really bad and in the end of the day it's a song contest, I could give her a pass if the song was atleast remotely good, but it's just a bland soulless ballad imo.
Click to expand...

Well... I ask myself sometimes about the assets of this ballad, and I have to say that apart from the diaspora, Julia will surely manage to make it a bit more alive, when she'll rehearse for the very first time. On the other hand, I can't fully deny that the use of the autotune during the chorus makes me kinda reluctant to be thoroughly fond of this song, but I don't think that they used this because of her weak vocals. I can't believe it for any single second.

This being said... :mrgreen:
 
Juliette
lithuania

Juliette

Well-known member
Joined
March 16, 2011
Posts
369
Location
Loin d'ici
I can understand it's a matter of some principle or whatever to get Yulia to ESC no matter what, but I don't like her accent and I can't stand the song. :(
 
ag89
bosnia_herzegovina

ag89

Well-known member
Joined
May 17, 2015
Posts
1,791
Honestly, I think there is a chance Russia can stay in the semi, but Russia normally delivers well with the staging. Maybe they will create something good and interesting, but the song is just meh. It's not bad, that's not an issue, but there is nothing wow. "The flame is burning" was better. I don't think her conditions will hurt or help her (people are saying she will get votes based on her disabilities, but cmon, we had blind people, people in wheelchair and that was not really important), but without something really significant on the stage, I don't know how Russia will get points from other countries but their voting bloc. And we can see Russian bloc is not very powerful in the semi final where Russia will be performing.
 
belgium

michael66

Member
Joined
January 15, 2015
Posts
47
Location
France
Based on pure music I think it should be hard for Russia to get out of the semis, but because this is Russia, this should work out just fine for them!

I'm starting a video preview series about Eurovision 2018, and my first episode is about Russia, here it is, with English subtitles!

 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top Bottom