Israel has provided the first drag-tastic song of the 2014 Eurovision Song Contest season with "Same Heart" by Mei Finegold. But are fans more interested in how an entry looks, sounds, or what it says?
"70% is how you look, 20% is how you sound, and only 10% is what you say," as the old adage goes. That may be the strategy Israel is employing for this year's Eurovision Song Contest entry "Same Heart" by Mei Finegold. She looks great, she has a rich vocal tone and sells the song, but good Lord those lyrics are terrible. Take a listen:
"Same Heart" was introduced with a stylish music video, which was a smart choice, given the need to distract from the mixed metaphors and inelegant phrasing. I am not just criticizing the English portion of the song; the translated Hebrew lyrics are not much better.
From an audience perspective, I doubt the content of the song will make that much of a difference. The song is an effective and evenly balanced pop-rock-dance track. Those of us who pay too close attention to the song may get annoyed((Hi, Israel!)), but how much of an impact would that group have in televoting? Where the non-sensical lyrics will take a hit is with the juries, who presumably will be looking closely at the content within the overall performance.
Which leads to my next question: just how drag-tastic is this performance going to be? I am a little shocked that we are this late in the game and this song is the only solid drag anthem in contention so far this year. How that will factor into the stage performance remains to be seen, but I am optimistic.
If Mei Finegold maintains the language split rather than going with full Hebrew lyrics, she's going to need an amazing stage performance to dazzle voters and distract them from what she's saying. If she can get a 90% approval rating on looks and sound, the other 10% can be an afterthought.