Sebalter's "Hunter of Stars" will represent Switzerland at the Eurovision Song Contest. Can he whistle his way out of the second semi-final?
Country: Switzerland
Song Title: "Hunter of Stars"
Artist: Sebalter
Semi-Final: Second, Position 12
Last year's entry: "You and Me" - Takasa (DNQ - 13th Place, SF2)
Switzerland doesn't have the best record in the recent history of Eurovision Song Contest. The country hasn't won since 1988, when they sent Celine Dion as a ringer to win and blew away the competition. It's been close to 26 years since then, and it feels like while they've kept up with music trends, that doesn't mean they know how to correctly deploy them. Mike referred to Switzerland as the "mom jeans" of the competition in his First Listen, and that still stands - they haven't changed their song for this year's contest one bit:
From the video, it looks like Switzerland put their money in producing a slick video for their song rather than taking the time to make the lyrics a little less dense. This doesn't seem like the smartest choice - I've read the lyrics for this a few times and I still can't figure out what's going on. What I can tell, though, is that whatever's going on in the song has nothing to do with what's currently going on in the video. The use of fiddle in the song vaguely reminds me of Alexander Rybak's "Fairytale"((which I assume is what Switzerland is banking on)), but that's all I can really say in its favor.
While the song hasn't been given a completely forgettable slot by the producers, I think it definitely has an uphill climb to the finals. In the first place, there's a loooooot of folksier entries in the competition this year, and it's not the strongest of those. In addition, it's slotted between North Macedonia and Greece's entries, both of which feature a more uptempo pop sensibility that may completely erase Switzerland from the minds of voters.
I don't think Sebalter will go home with the dreaded nul points, but he may have time to go hunting for stars the day of the Grand Final.