Montenegro MONTENEGRO 2016 - Highway - The Real Thing
- Thread starter escYOUnited
- Start date
- Watchers 19
JimmyJump
Member
Well... for me this was the best entry of this year ! The performance was so good man ! I love it 
As I predicted they were close to make it. Not so close in the number of points but still...........it ended quite well when we see what the odds were in the beginning and how much the song was hated altogether. They would've made it in the second semi.
Let's review this year's Montenegrin entry today 
Highway - The Real Thing
Status: ok Montenegro, I see you interesting effort!
Song: Montenegro is one of those countries that have absolutely no standards or habits when it comes to Eurovision: from Siegel's dated pop to inharmonious European satire, from pumped up dubstep to mellow traditional Balkan ballads, the multifaceted country added a new style to its already very heterogeneous series of entries this year. If you ask me, I genuinely appreciate the fact Montenegro try different things and aren't afraid of entirely going for what they have in mind: sometimes it's successful, sometimes it's not, but it's good to have diversity and not only over-calculated songs meant to fit into the "politically correct" pop category, hence why I'm glad they stopped sending Balkan ballads, it was time for something unexpected. This year, I really didn't know what to expect from them indeed, and looking at the negative comments and very few pages of the thread, I prepared myself for a divisive effort. "The Real Thing" is a rock-ish/dubstep-ish song taking the listener through different moods, almost like a musical rollercoaster that takes you to unforeseen places. It begins with an intriguing drum-led intro, followed by a strong rock-ish melodic loop performed by an electric guitar. At that point, I was expecting really aggressive arrangements, on the contrary, as Highway's lead vocalists start singing the first verse, the level of "tension" drops with surprisingly soft vocals accompanied by a progressively loud electro-ish beat. Then comes the chorus, which brings back the electric guitar loop along with slightly more rock-ish vocal tones. That part is probably what made lots of people say this song is noise. Well, I agree this is not an easy-listening melodious sequence, I guess that outside rock fans, one has to "work harder" to fully appreciate it, one needs to be in the right mood to feel it. I myself I'm not rock fan, I mean it's not a genre I usually listen to, but I quite liked that one at first listening and it even grew on me as I played it again. My favourite part of the song (because it is overall quite repetitive) is the dubstep bridge, which I consider the second twist that elevates the whole composition - very good build-up transition to the last verse and chorus - like a nod to the "Igranka" masterpiece. Overall, I admit this is not a song for everyone, but I wouldn't call it noise as it has peculiar yet mastered crossover arrangements. And I hadn't noticed that before, but someone pointed out how sexual the lyrics could be with a twisted mind... If the "real thing" is what some people think of, then it's even more risqué
Song: Highway's lead vocalist has a truly nice low voice with character, and he can sing. All things considered, their vocals were steady and even more expressive than in the studio version to me. They did give a solid performance during the semi-final. I LOVE the live ad-libs, canons and harmonies that they added.
Staging: Like Cyprus, Montenegro went for a cinematic-looking staging. Blue and white moving lights filled the stage while the backdrops were either fully red or covered in blue-ish/white-ish flickering lines. As the group did what all rock (and pop) groups do - that is, standing there doing their thing - they included a female dancer who happened to be also a back vocalist, which is very clever because with only a fan and her dance routine, she became the main visual attraction of the performance (I mean her closeups were effective). Later on, strobe lights and smoke columns were also used (OMG that dubstep part was thrilling!). The camera work was great imo, it had a sufficient amount of movement while not being epilepsy-material, if that makes sense. They were all dressed in black, from what I've seen they had simple but edgy outfits, and the girl was wearing high boots, shorts, a partly-see-through top and a close-fitting jacket: damn gurl, you were sexy I haven't anything bad to say, it was really well done in my opinion and it enhanced the song without overshadowing it.
Outcome: Well, Montenegro's non-qualification was no surprise to me, however I'm shocked juries actually wanted this through I guess we had a "rock-friendly" jury this year! 
Personally, I believe they deserved to qualify, "The Real Thing" is 13th in my ranking, which is quite a nice position considering it's not my usual jam. Out of the three "rock-ish" entries this year, this is the one I like the most I think. I'm glad Montenegro went for another uncompromising entry and I hope they'll keep sending what they want and not what they think people want, "Igranka" remains my favourite entry from you guys, but your effort was nice and refreshing in the homogeneous 2016 lineup (even though it's far from being among my favourite songs, I enjoyed it). Please stay true to yourselves and don't sell out, we have enough boring countries sending meh songs already.
Highway - The Real Thing
Status: ok Montenegro, I see you
interesting effort!Song: Montenegro is one of those countries that have absolutely no standards or habits when it comes to Eurovision: from Siegel's dated pop to inharmonious European satire, from pumped up dubstep to mellow traditional Balkan ballads, the multifaceted country added a new style to its already very heterogeneous series of entries this year. If you ask me, I genuinely appreciate the fact Montenegro try different things and aren't afraid of entirely going for what they have in mind: sometimes it's successful, sometimes it's not, but it's good to have diversity and not only over-calculated songs meant to fit into the "politically correct" pop category, hence why I'm glad they stopped sending Balkan ballads, it was time for something unexpected. This year, I really didn't know what to expect from them indeed, and looking at the negative comments and very few pages of the thread, I prepared myself for a divisive effort. "The Real Thing" is a rock-ish/dubstep-ish song taking the listener through different moods, almost like a musical rollercoaster that takes you to unforeseen places. It begins with an intriguing drum-led intro, followed by a strong rock-ish melodic loop performed by an electric guitar. At that point, I was expecting really aggressive arrangements, on the contrary, as Highway's lead vocalists start singing the first verse, the level of "tension" drops with surprisingly soft vocals accompanied by a progressively loud electro-ish beat. Then comes the chorus, which brings back the electric guitar loop along with slightly more rock-ish vocal tones. That part is probably what made lots of people say this song is noise. Well, I agree this is not an easy-listening melodious sequence, I guess that outside rock fans, one has to "work harder" to fully appreciate it, one needs to be in the right mood to feel it. I myself I'm not rock fan, I mean it's not a genre I usually listen to, but I quite liked that one at first listening and it even grew on me as I played it again. My favourite part of the song (because it is overall quite repetitive) is the dubstep bridge, which I consider the second twist that elevates the whole composition - very good build-up transition to the last verse and chorus - like a nod to the "Igranka" masterpiece.
Overall, I admit this is not a song for everyone, but I wouldn't call it noise as it has peculiar yet mastered crossover arrangements. And I hadn't noticed that before, but someone pointed out how sexual the lyrics could be with a twisted mind... If the "real thing" is what some people think of, then it's even more risqué Song: Highway's lead vocalist has a truly nice low voice with character, and he can sing. All things considered, their vocals were steady and even more expressive than in the studio version to me. They did give a solid performance during the semi-final. I LOVE the live ad-libs, canons and harmonies that they added.
Staging: Like Cyprus, Montenegro went for a cinematic-looking staging. Blue and white moving lights filled the stage while the backdrops were either fully red or covered in blue-ish/white-ish flickering lines. As the group did what all rock (and pop) groups do - that is, standing there doing their thing - they included a female dancer who happened to be also a back vocalist, which is very clever because with only a fan and her dance routine, she became the main visual attraction of the performance (I mean her closeups were effective). Later on, strobe lights and smoke columns were also used (OMG that dubstep part was thrilling!). The camera work was great imo, it had a sufficient amount of movement while not being epilepsy-material, if that makes sense.
They were all dressed in black, from what I've seen they had simple but edgy outfits, and the girl was wearing high boots, shorts, a partly-see-through top and a close-fitting jacket: damn gurl, you were sexy I haven't anything bad to say, it was really well done in my opinion and it enhanced the song without overshadowing it.Outcome: Well, Montenegro's non-qualification was no surprise to me, however I'm shocked juries actually wanted this through
I guess we had a "rock-friendly" jury this year! Personally, I believe they deserved to qualify, "The Real Thing" is 13th in my ranking, which is quite a nice position considering it's not my usual jam. Out of the three "rock-ish" entries this year, this is the one I like the most I think. I'm glad Montenegro went for another uncompromising entry and I hope they'll keep sending what they want and not what they think people want, "Igranka" remains my favourite entry from you guys, but your effort was nice and refreshing in the homogeneous 2016 lineup (even though it's far from being among my favourite songs, I enjoyed it). Please stay true to yourselves and don't sell out, we have enough boring countries sending meh songs already.
