Eurovision 2017 Song Review: GEORGIA

Good afternoon readers.

Finally starting my blog again for the 2017 season. We are something like 25 days away from the first semi-final, so that's like 2 songs a day right?

The reason I haven't been posting is because I've been mega busy with university work (back doing a masters, wahey!) AND because this year it has been so hard to organise a top! Like seriously, we've had revamps and videos and language changes and potential disqualifications year after year, but nothing has been quite like this year! As I tweeted just yesterday, I have never found it so difficult to organise a top because while there are less songs I *LOVE*, there are just so many good songs and not enough places in my top 10.

So I'll be kicking off 42 song reviews with Georgia. The song is "Keep The Faith" and will be performed by Tamara Gachechiladze.

Keep The Faith starts with gentle but dramatic piano chords, and Tamara's voice seems to ooze over the instrumental, with hard-hitting lyrics;

"Who told you... to hide behind the veil?"

Oooft GO Tamara! The chorus comes thick and fast, and though lyrically we've heard it before, there does appear to be something endearing in the vocal. However, there is something not quite happening in the opening minute or so. It feels like the song is missing an element, and despite the early praises, I would actually argue the whole package feels uninspiring during the first 70 seconds.

But then the drums start...

Tamara's vocal get's grittier, stronger, and more empowering. There's a big note about 90 seconds in which I hope she nails in Kyiv because really that could be a game changer in terms of people sitting up and listening. Grabbing the audience's attention at this moment could be the difference in remembering the song when the voting begins! 

The song appears to be go from strength-to-strength, and just gets bigger and bigger and more empowering, and the revamp has certainly made a few people change their minds since writing it off so early on in the season. Songs which are released early in the Eurovision season are at danger of losing traction in the build-up to the contest, and while the revamp has definitely helped refresh everyone's memories, there still does not appear to be universal or overwhelming support for Keep The Faith.

If you couple that with her national final staging, it's hard to see anything about Keep The Faith which is original and "vote-stealing". Ultimately, the song doesn't go anywhere. Competing with a number of big ballads in the first semi-final, as well as performing 2nd directly after Sweden has unfortunately squandered any real chances of success for Georgia this year. I don't think the juries will pick this up, and while the likes of Armenia and Azerbaijan competing in SF1 will ensure televote points for Georgia, I don't think they'll be enough to see them cross the qualification line.

RATING

My initial score: 2 (out of 12)

My current score: 4

My semi-final prediction: 16th (out of 18)

My final prediction: If it does qualify, this will finish 14th-21st