United Kingdom UNITED KINGDOM 2020 - James Newman - My Last Breath

[escYOUnited]

 

[ESC94]

I have to downgrade the song to , after a few more listenings it sounds increasingly generic.

 

[aef]

This is giving me strong Michael Rice 2.0 vibes. Quite strong vocals again, okay fair enough, but the song is very meh. Not so cheesy this time but I still don't see UK succeeding with that...

5 points from me. The song is very boring actually

 

[Citelis]

Upgraded to points!

 

[Charly]

I keep hearing "if we were Dixie divers"

I just died.

 

[Uto]

People are too harsh on it. Yes it's nothing innovative for ESC fans but general public does not care about what UK sent before. The song is catchy, beautiful and stands out. Probably the strongest entry after 2011 and will likely score high with the juries and do decently with televoters as well. Good job!

I'm sorry man, but this is just daft. This song is not catchy at all. I've heard it like 5 times and I have no idea at all what the melody is. I can't load this song out of thin air like I can with anything that is catchy. Is it beautiful? Really? You think that? And then you say it stands out. Stands out of what? This is like the most middling song there has been so far. It's dead on arrival.

 

[ESC94]

@Uto

Maybe I wouldn´t call it dead on arrival, but I agree with you that this song is everything but memorable.

 

[Uto]

@Uto

Maybe I wouldn´t call it dead on arrival, but I agree with you that this song is everything but memorable.

Yeah ok, it's maybe too harsh, but I mean who will vote for this? The route to success can take many shapes, being just average isn't one of them.

 

[RainyWoods]

Calm After The Storm wasn't exactly the most memorable song for fans until they had seen the performance. The quality and authenticity needed to leave a mark and do well though was always there to spot. We just didn't care at first to pick it up as it was far away from what we usually liked or were used to.

 

[Uto]

Calm After The Storm wasn't exactly the most memorable song for fans until they had seen the performance. The quality and authenticity needed to leave a mark and do well though was always there to spot. We just didn't care at first to pick it up as it was far away from what we usually liked or were used to.

That is true, but you imply that there's some quality and authenticity to spot in this British entry. If you can point it out to me I'm happy to listen to what you have to say. On my own I'm unable to find it.

 

[abenteuer]

This song is the definition of middle of the road but it is well done for what it is. The "breath" part in the chorus is still pretty cringey, though. All in all, big improvement from last year's entry but not as good as 2017.

 

[RainyWoods]

That is true, but you imply that there's some quality and authenticity to spot in this British entry. If you can point it out to me I'm happy to listen to what you have to say. On my own I'm unable to find it.

The quality is in the warm production. The organic mix of artist and song which happens to be his own. I and others have pointed out that this for once sounds like music we'd very much produce here. It's got something unmistakably British about it.

The song itself isn't pushing any new daring buttons. None whatsoever. It is ordinary but then so was a song like Calm After The Storm. But what set that apart is that it wasn't a Eurovision song. There was nothing flashy about it. They just came out and performed a country light ballad that could have just as easily existed away from the contest. It was sweet and refreshing in the context of Eurovision. Sometimes that's more than enough. I don't think it's impossible for a song like My Last Breath to create a moment like this of its own. Without even having seen a live performance of the song yet, I'd say the reaction has been positive, especially on youtube. It's an obvious step forward for us, and my gut tells me a bigger one than a lot of people think we've taken.

 

[Uto]

The quality is in the warm production. The organic mix of artist and song which happens to be his own. I and others have pointed out that this for once sounds like music we'd very much produce here. It's got something unmistakably British about it.

The song itself isn't pushing any new daring buttons. None whatsoever. It is ordinary but then so was a song like Calm After The Storm. But what set that apart is that it wasn't a Eurovision song. There was nothing flashy about it. They just came out and performed a country light ballad that could have just as easily existed away from the contest. It was sweet and refreshing in the context of Eurovision. Sometimes that's more than enough. I don't think it's impossible for a song like My Last Breath to create a moment like this of its own. Without even having seen a live performance of the song yet, I'd say the reaction has been positive, especially on youtube. It's an obvious step forward for us, and my gut tells me a bigger one than a lot of people think we've taken.

I obviously disagree, but thank you for elaborating nonetheless.

 

[Chrisiam]

Its kind of hard to defend the UK entry personally. I don't mean that in that its a "Defending the indefensible" kind of deal because of, well, two main reasons.

The first is that, as someone who is a from the UK and has been supporting the UK at Eurovision for almost 13 years now its hard to totally decouple myself from from a song like this to look at it totally neutrally; Literally, the first thing I saw of Eurovision was Scooch's performance at the finals. And whilst I know that song has its fans I frankly hated it. And since then the UK has put forwards some acts that, surprisingly were worse! So from that point of view, for me, any improvement is always welcome and this song to me, compared to others we've had over the years is a major improvement and I want to give all the praise I can so that the BBC gets the message that working with BMG is a good thing and that I want more like this. Maybe not this type of song, maybe not another ballad, lets have a "bop" next year, but this is something that at least sounds current and credible. Like it or not, feel it is winning material or not. This actually feels like a modern pop song and not something cooked up on the X Factor, or some underground lab in Sweden or feels like it has been written especially for the BBC's Eurovision adverts.

The second reason is, and I'd hate to say it again but, this is Eurovision, anything really can happen and you don't know how certain songs will go down on the night or evolve between now and the finals. No one could have expected Serhat to get to the finals, let alone come 10th in the televote. The French entry was written off by a lot of people last year, then everyone saw the staging in the rehearsals and it leapt up to 3rd in the the betting odds before settling at 10th and finishing 16th, and if the UK can put together staging that will grab the imagination and attention and get people talking we stand a decent chance to make up for whatever failings the song itself might have.

Now, like I say, anything can happen. As such I can't in good faith sit here and say "Well, that 'Nobody but you' song went under the radar then got 3rd in the finals so we can do that too!" Because there is no guarantee that will happen again. Maybe it will happen again and we do gang busters, maybe we really are looking at 'Bigger Than Us 2.0', maybe we'll get a middle of the table result for a middle of the road song.

I understand people not liking it, thinking its bland or boring or generic I really do, and I have no issue in people saying it is, its rather good to have people saying that and grounding my opinion of it to stop me booking my Preston 2020 tickets ahead of time!

But, and I'd hate to say it but, all we can do is see how things go!

 

[Uto]

It's hard for me to relate. Being Dutch the whole idea of taking 'a step in the right direction' is conceptually weak. It's an anchor to a past you wish to leave. There's nothing stopping you from having a good song, so why settle for mediocrity just because the past was bad? If you want something you build it to your liking. With infrastructure or education this takes time. For Eurovision this doesn't apply, it's a single great song you have to produce over the course of a year. Sometimes you get it done, sometimes you don't.

 

[RainyWoods]

No one could have expected Serhat to get to the finals, let alone come 10th in the televote.

Got the receipt proudly framed on my wall.

 

[Chrisiam]

It's hard for me to relate. Being Dutch the whole idea of taking 'a step in the right direction' is conceptually weak. It's an anchor in a past you wish to leave. There's nothing stopping you from having a good song, so why settle for mediocrity just because the past was bad? If you want something you build it to your liking. With infrastructure or education this takes time. For Eurovision this doesn't apply, it's a single great song you have to produce over the course of a year. Sometimes you get it done, sometimes you don't.

Yeah but this is the BBC we are talking about here, not only are they several steps behind in most areas of popular entertainment they still think they know best when it comes to Eurovision. So there isn't really a fast and loose "Get Good" kind of solution to putting forwards a "Good" song.

They need to be shown first hand how to do it otherwise they just default to whatever is good for television in the UK rather than what is good for an entry at an international singing contest.

I mean sure, I'd love them to take a risk and put forwards something that makes a statement and is bold but that isn't going to happen with them or another broadcaster in the UK. And if it was bold and "good", going off past years they'll knacker it up the year after; After the Andrew Lloyd Weber track they followed it up with one written by a writing partnership that hadn't been relevant since the 80's. After sending Blue, a well known pop group they followed it up with two acts which whilst well known they hadn't been relevant since before the fall of the Berlin Wall. And the year after they worked with Radio 1 Introducing to give us Molly they followed it up with Electro Velvet with a song written by someone who wrote TV theme tunes.

With all that in mind this needs to be the first step in something else. Otherwise next year its back to what they were doing last year. I am not worried so much about the result this year as much as I am the selection process for next year.

 

[Phoenix]

I did expect and want this to sound better than it does tbh. It's not that it's bad, but it didn't do much for me on 1st listen. If I take into account the fact that there is an actual effort put into this, the best way to describe it would be "close, but no cigar" for now.

 

[Leydan]

It's hard for me to relate. Being Dutch the whole idea of taking 'a step in the right direction' is conceptually weak. It's an anchor to a past you wish to leave. There's nothing stopping you from having a good song, so why settle for mediocrity just because the past was bad? If you want something you build it to your liking. With infrastructure or education this takes time. For Eurovision this doesn't apply, it's a single great song you have to produce over the course of a year. Sometimes you get it done, sometimes you don't.

Being that in 2013 The Netherlands totally went into Eurovision that year after 10 straight failures with the aim of winning, and not just qualifying, ofc... It's exactly what your broadcaster has done. Your argument would be if they landed straight on Duncan and won. You didn't, yeah you picked a big name in the Dutch industry but you used it has a stepping stone to rebuilding the Eurovision brand in The Netherlands over the course of the next few years. I doubt if Anouk had flopped you'd have had such a successful follow up, especially in 2014. I've even seen numerous comparisons to the Dutch approach in 2013 to the BBC/BMG approach this year.

 

[Uto]

Being that in 2013 The Netherlands totally went into Eurovision that year after 10 straight failures with the aim of winning, and just qualifying, ofc... It's exactly what your broadcaster has done. Your argument would be if they landed straight on Duncan and won. You didn't, yeah you picked a big name in the Dutch industry but you used it has a stepping stone to rebuilding the Eurovision brand in The Netherlands over the course of the next few years. I doubt if Anouk had flopped you'd have had such a successful follow up, especially in 2014. I've even seen numerous comparisons to the Dutch approach in 2013 to the BBC/BMG approach this year.

This is a teleological argument, it doesn't work. Only a single thing changed. What happened in 2013 is that the Dutch broadcaster really didn't want to do another NF again. NF's don't work in the Netherlands and the Dutch people were convinced that what was needed was for a good professional act to just show the courage and show how it's done. Anouk stepped in, said she had a good song she wanted to do and the broadcaster gave in to her demands, she asked of them basically everything and they gave her the keys to the kingdom. After that it has been like this every year. There is no stepping stone, there is just a full 180 at one point with near total commitment. Had Anouk failed of course history may have been written differently, but the intention was always in accordance with what actually happened.

This is not what I see in the UK. The BBC seems very scared to lose control.

 

[ESCConor]

This BMG Partnership feels like the last roll of the dice for the BBC.