Slovenia has been pretty down, down low. Will any other country heal their aching soul with some votes?
Country: Slovenia
Song Title: "Here For You"
Artist: Maraaya
Semi-Final: Second, Position 16
Last year's entry: "Round and Round" - Tinkara Kovač (25th Place)
Slovenia's had a rough time at Eurovision. Since their debut in 1993, they have failed to qualify (or chosen not to participate at all) about as many times as they have made it to the Grand Final. They haven't qualified for the Grand Final two years in a row since 2002-2003. And, unfortunately, the two countries that have been the most generous during voting with Slovenia (neighbor Croatia along with Bosnia and Herzegovina) haven't participated since 2013 and 2012, respectively. Slovenia is pretty down, down low. Will any other country heal their aching soul?
Along with the rest of the Eurovision coverage team here at WEIO (and even the bookies), I am pretty bullish on this song, even if it took a few listens for me to get on board. Part of my hesitance was that I couldn't understand the lyrics. In some cases (cough*Sweden*cough) that's a positive thing, but "Here For You" is actually well written. I appreciate the combination of the retro jazzy feel with a strong, danceable beat. Also, the message of the song is universal without being too vague. But honestly, the part of this song that makes me the happiest is the performance from the national selection process.
Ben did a great job of breaking down what was happening in that performance, so I won't recreate that here -- just go read his previous post. I will, however, add a question: are the headphones on the singer's head functional or simply aesthetic? I don't care, except it totally dampens the effect of the wind machine when it abruptly cuts on in the middle of the song. Instead of a beautiful, flowing effect a la Loreen or Emmelie de Forest, her hair ends up just flapping around the edges of her face. Which isn't entirely unattractive, it's just not as dramatic as it could be.
Unlike Ben, I have no qualms about the fact that I want this staging to go all in. The national selection only used three performers. That is three whole more people that could be doing something ridiculous! I think this song will do very well even without a great performance. But if Slovenia can bring the weird, I can see this entry easily placing top ten.