There is a time for everything in life, but now is the time for me to review this year's Danish entry
Lighthouse X - Soldiers Of Love
Status: No, no, no! When will you stop sending pieces of nothingness? :?
Song: Denmark is probably my least favourite country ever in Eurovision, not because they've sent monstrosities, but because they have an annoying tendency of picking safe middle-of-the-road pop songs that both don't move me at all and aren't interesting musically, which is the height of absurdity since Eurovision is supposed to reward good compositions. Oddly enough, they've always been quite successful with their beigeness until last year. I was delighted they eventually failed 1) because "The Way You Are" was irritating as hell and 2) I hoped it would be a very needed electroshock for their delegation. Guess what? Danes ended up sending the exact same thing as last year... "Soldiers Of Love" is - like I said - a safe boy band type of pop song about love and hope, the title itself clearly announces the cheesiness of the lyrics, which may sound touching for female teenagers I guess, I'm too old for that tbh. Anyway, it starts with some piano chords for a few seconds until Lighthouse X start singing the first verse. A rather heavy beat accompanied by piano chords with reverb here and there is what can be heard during that part as the main melody is sung by one of the singers. During the pre-chorus, the drums change slightly and some discreet electric guitar sounds struggle to give me a clear feeling about what the composers tried to do there, it's either not loud enough or useless. The chorus starts off quite abruptly with drums meant to emphasize the first line "Take my hand", apart from that, the beat is the same as during the pre-chorus, I can't determine if a synthesizer or electric guitar acts as a "bass" to support that part. While the verses are melodically unremarkable, the chorus is so cheesy and borderline annoying to me (especially the "Soldiers of love" lines). And unfortunately, that's all I have to say about it. Actually, I hadn't realized how poor the instrumentation, arrangements and composition were overall before writing the review: there is basically nothing to talk about apart from a beat, random sounds remaining in the background and the guys' voices. There's no twist or slight changes as the song progresses, not even during the bridge, a copy and paste of the first minute helped it reach three minutes. I'm disappointed Denmark didn't learn from last year because this is really bland, it's almost offending to send this in 2016. What were Danes thinking?
Voice: Boy bands are never really known for amazing vocals: the guys' voices fit the song and they can perform it without struggling, but seriously, they're not very good singers and their voices have no character whatsoever. They were obviously chosen for their looks (even though I'm not impressed in that department either) and not for their talent, because I see none of that.
Staging: Anonymous stage for bland song... that makes sense! The boys - equipped with lit microphone stands - stood in the dark while white lights were pointed at them (we already saw that with Moldova and Slovenia) and white lines started appearing on the central backdrop. Then all the backdrops were covered in blue moving lines (Slovenia did that too). During the chorus, the stage became sporadically white and displayed while lines on a black background. Towards the end, fireworks appeared while the band eventually left their positions to go to the b-stage... Basically nothing happened, it was boring, colourless, not creative and, with such a song, distracting visuals would have been welcome. As I re-watch the performance, I'm amazed about how rubbish this is, it is even worse than what I remembered. The boys were dressed in black outfits, nothing really fancy, it's like my everyday clothes: shirt, jacket and trousers (one of which has holes).
Outcome: Denmark failed to qualify as they placed second-to-last with juries and 15th with televoters, so they finished 17th overall, that is four places lower than last year. As you may imagine, I'm satisfied with these results because once again, Danes have sent mediocrity at its best, I fail to find any redeeming quality to their effort. As Rainywoods said: "Even Danemark doesn't work for Denmark anymore", that's true, the joke should be over for a long time now. In my personal ranking, Denmark is ranked 38th out of 42, I'm genuinely fed up with blandness. Even if "Heart Shaped Hole" wasn't the song of the century, there was definitely a good basis to work on (both musically and visually): well they didn't like it, it's their loss. So, what now Denmark? Are you aiming for last place next year or will you consider reinventing your approach? Please ban boy bands and select songs with actual musical merit, enough of your cheese even people have started rejecting in 2015. Special advice to Danes: please don't vote for looks, physical attractiveness should be considered a bonus, not a requirement. I want raw talent, boldness, emotion. Anyone?