The ESC United “Expert” Panel is back once again reviewing all Eurovision songs and rank them accordingly.
You are probably asking yourself on how we pick our panel and the criteria. We looked at people from all walks of life to bring together a unique group of panelists with a wide range in taste. They all bring different skills and tastes to the table so who are they?
Anselm – The Alternative Guy
Arie – The Professional Musician
Daniel – The Noob
Katja – The Schlager Queen
Mike – The Smart One
Olivia – The Journalist
You can read more about them HERE
Disclaimer: While we picked, what we perceived individuals with a wide range in taste, it is subjective to a certain degree so just enjoy their thoughts and if you don’t agree, feel free to post your comments below.
It’s the Hour of the Wolf and Elnur is returning to the contest. He represented Azerbaijan in 2008 and can he enter the Top 10 again or possibly win this thing? Here are the thoughts and scores of our Panel.
Mike – The Smart One
Azerbaijan takes ESC very seriously. It always has very good songs that the government spends a lot of money on. Its winning song in a very weak 2011 deserved to win. It has also been accused of improprieties, especially two years ago when its song wound up much higher than expected. This year’s song is good, but mixed. It doesn’t quite work for me. With its title I wanted to see more wolf. The very attractive male singer has a bit of a wolf about him but not very much. The modulation unnecessary and a bad sign.
Points: 7/10
Katja – The Schlager Queen
ah, another big one now. And what a song it is! This is something that Swedis multi talent Peter Jöback would love to sing. It’s massive, very musical-ish, very anthemic (again!) and actually quite epic. I think with a downscaled, stylish performance this can achieve at least top 3 and even a win wouldn’t surprise me. Welcome back Azerbaijan, after last year’s mishap, you’re back in form this year!
Points: 8/10
Olivia – The Journalist
Well done Sweden for writing, producing this song and even filming the music video in your capital, Stockholm! Once again Azerbaijan have thrown money at their entry: they’ve out-sourced some top Swedish writers to craft the song and locally sourced the vocalist to sing it. And you know what – it’s worked. This is unquestionably one of the strongest ballads in the competition. It moves, it shakes you. It’s big, and will fill millions of rooms round Europe, along with the arena in Vienna. The song actually has a very interesting progression – and is resonant of Lloyd Weber’s style of writing, except crucially this is a lot more contemporary. You can tell, by looking at the writers Nicolas Rebscher, Nicklas Lif, Lina Hansson, some of whom have a background in writing dance tracks, they know how to create anthemic, ear-worm songs. Importantly, Elnur is an experienced singer, being of course, Azerbiajan’s first ever entrant of course in 2008. His range is impressive and his tone is extremely emotive. And gosh that ending is just…wow. I really wasn’t sure what to think about this when I first heard it. But now, I really rate it. Easy qualifier, and surely top 5!
Points: 9/10
Anselm – The Alternative Guy
Time for the 7th Swedish entry in a row from Azerbaijan. Oh well. Just like their previous entries, this is once again a slick and professionally made song that will give Azerbaijan a good result. Personally it doesn’t do much to me though. It’s supposed to sound very uplifting and pompous but the melody itself is way too weak to live up to that, which leads to a somewhat forced sounding song in the end.
Points: 3/10
Arie – The Professional Musician
Interesting ballad with unexpected percussion additions. Seriously, the middle busts out some weird march tempo. It’s melody is simple but pretty. Elnur’s vocals are appropriate for the genre of music. It gets a little wordy, but in this style I can forgive some aspects of this. My issue is that while there is definitely a build, a simplistic song like this needs to explore it’s variations and bust out at some point. For me, this song gets stuck at the gate
Points: 7/10
Daniel – The Noob
First of all when I was reading the name of this song I was really excited about this song. I mean “Hour Of The Wolf” how cool is this name. According to this, my expectations were really high. From my own experience I know that every single song, which I thought would be great, let me down. So thank you for meeting my expectations for the first time. Did I say ”Meeting”? I meant: “Thank you for exceeding my expectations”!! This is a high-class song, a high-class entry, possibly even a high-class winner?! I shouldn’t be at all surprised if Azerbaijan would win in Vienna! When I heard the chorus for the first time, I thought this song would have been a great song for the movie Titanic as well. By telling you that, I wanted to make clear how high-class that song is. A new favorite on my list.
Points: 10/10
Overall: 44 Points
That’s how you do it. Azerbaijan managed to please the jury (except the Alt guy) and ends up with 44 points. That means Top 3….at least for now. Let’s have a look at the ranking:
| “Expert” Panel Ranking |
||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| No | Country | Act | Song | Points |
| 1. | Norway |
Mørland & Debrah Scarlett | A Monster Like Me | 49 |
| 2. | Australia |
Guy Sebastian |
Tonight Again | 47 |
| 3. | Azerbaijan |
Elnur Huseynov | Hour Of The Wolf | 44 (10) |
| 4. | Estonia |
Elina Born & Stig Rästa | Goodbye To Yesterday | 44 (9) |
| 5. | Sweden |
Måns Zelmerlöw | Heroes | 43 (9,9) |
| 6. | Hungary |
Boggie | Wars For Nothing | 43 (9,8,8,8) |
| 7. | Austria |
The Makemakes | I Am Yours | 43 (9,8,8) |
| 8. | Germany |
Ann Sophie | Black Smoke | 43 (9,8) |
| 9. | Lithuania |
Monika Linkytė and Vaidas Baumila | This Time | 43 (8,8) |
| 10. | Italy |
Il Volo | Grande Amore | 41 (10) |
| 11. | Israel |
Nadav Gudej | Golden Boy | 41 (8) |
| 12. | Albania |
Elhaida Dani | I’m Alive | 40 (10,8) |
| 13. | Denmark |
Anti-Social Media | The Way You Are | 40 (10,7) |
| 14. | Serbia |
Bojana Stamenov | Beauty Never Lies | 40 (8,8) |
| 15. | Belgium |
Loïc Nottet |
Rhythm Inside | 38 (10) |
| 16. | Romania |
Voltaj | All Over Again | 38 (8) |
| 17. | Montenegro |
Knez | Adio | 37 |
| 18. | Iceland |
Maria Olafs | Unbroken | 36 (10) |
| 19. | Belarus |
Uzari & Maimuna | Time | 36 (8) |
| 20. | Russia |
Polina Gagarina | A Million Voices | 36 (7) |
| 21. | France | Lisa Angell | N’oubliez pas | 35 (9) |
| 22. | Portugal |
Leonor Andrade | Há um Mar que nos Separa | 35 (7,7) |
| 23. | The Netherlands | Trijntje Oosterhuis | Walk Along | 34 |
| 24. | Ireland |
Anti-Social Media | The Way You Are | 33 (9) |
| 25. | Czech Republic |
Marta Jandová & Václav Noid Bárta |
Hope Never Dies | 33 (7) |
| 26. | Armenia |
Genealogy | Face The Shadows | 32 |
| 27. | Poland |
Monika Kuszyńska | In The Name Of Love | 29 |
| 28. | Greece |
Maria-Elena Kyriakou | One Last Breath | 27 |
| 29. | Moldova |
Eduard Romanyuta | I Want Your Love | 26 |
| 30. | San Marino |
Anita Simoncini & Michele Perniola |
Chain of Lights | 23 |
| 31. | Finland |
PKN | Aina mun pitää | 21 |
Do you think that the panel got this right?!? Share your thoughts below and join the convo on our Forum. See yah soon!