"Slovenia seems on their "Way" down the wrong path for Eurovision glory.
Country: Slovenia
Song Title: "On My Way"
Artist: Omar Naber
First Semi-Final: Position 17
Last year's entry: "Blue and Red" - Manuella (DNQ - 14th Place, SF2)
Slovenia doesn't have a great record in the last decade or so of the Eurovision Song Contest. Of those entries, the one that did the best, 2011's "No One" (which placed 3rd in the final!) I literally could not recall or bring to mind. This is because my brain already reserved that space for Christina Aguilera's "Fighter"((I promise this is a sick burn. Okay, maybe not a sick burn, but it's definitely a diss.)). I loved 2015's "Here For You", which finished 5th, but that one got lost in the shuffle when the final show rolled around. I'm saying their entries tend to be a little off from whatever the rest of Europe tends to think is going on, including last year's "Blue and Red", which went hard on the whole country-twang thing when the frontrunners were all more modern ballads. Does Omar Naber's "On My Way" right the ship at all?
Oh, man, you guys, I do not have a lot of positive things to say about this one. Mike had the same unimpressed reaction, but this entire song reminded me of a middle-of-the-road karaoke performance. I'm going to be generous here and assume Omar is singing his heart out here, but this sort of feels like someone is singing a song at karaoke that's clearly their favorite but they just don't have the vocal range to do justice to. This song is calling for bombast and a deep, powerful voice, and homeboy just doesn't have that.
The video for the song adds another element to the mix with whatever breakdancing toreador thing it's decided to do, but it feels about as incongruous as Omar's voice to this song and doesn't really help it out. Looking at their positioning in the finals, Slovenia's currently placed near the end of semifinal 1 between Armenia and Latvia, both of which feel like they're designed for much more dynamic live performances that could completely drown this one out if it's not careful. In a particularly stacked semifinal, I think Slovenia's an easy out.