Just to remind everyone, this is a very "in the moment" response to the songs and performances. My ranking may change given a bit more time listening to the songs, though, I'm pretty sure my first place is going to stay my first place!
So nice to see another national final ranking from you! One of the highlights of every season for me. Your top is very reasonable as always and your comments are agreeable, even though our rankings differ (as you will notice later today).
Thanks so much! I will look forward to seeing what you think of the songs later. Overall, this is just my preference. I actually think it's a good selection!
Yay, a smaller selection with overall consistent quality (even if not the best production live) ! :D I quite like your top and most of your comments, we don't have that much different tops on this one tbh. So, here's my personal top 7 and thoughts : 1) Tomas Robin - Out of My Mind : Love his vocals and definitely agree I think he's the best vocalist here. I also love the song, it builds pretty wonderfully, love the electronic/synth touches as well personally :D His voice is instantly memorable to me. I also feel like it's always interesting to have a grittier voice with an instrumental like this, so don't feel like it's an issue, I actually like the contrast it provides with his voice. I can see the point why a grittier instrumental could work with his voice though. The melody is catchy as well. I just do have to say I'm not sure it would be the best choice for ESC since I feel like it leans more towards a great radio track than a complete Eurovision package, would need a really slick staging to have the greatest possible impact, but it's definitely one of the best songs here to me and probably the best for my taste in this selection (although pretty much all 7 songs are good in their own right in this selection). He got my vote online anyway :3 2) Elly - The Angel's Share : Great song and good vocals. Love that it's a ballad with really good percussion and a pretty good build as well. Also has some catchiness to it because of this but also the lyrics. Otherwise pretty much agree with what you said and it actually probably is the best choice for Eurovision in this selection, because I can picture a more effective staging in my mind than for Tomas' song where I'd just expect a slick staging, this offers more options in my opinion. The only reason why I have it as second place is just that it's a bit less to my own taste and that I feel like her vocals were less impactful than Tomas' although I love the dreamy, mystical and pure qualities it has. It's really good nonetheless :D. 3) Tom Sean - Dopamine Overdose : Great song, pretty good performance but unconvinced by the vocals. They're kind of drowned by the song and production of it here, they're kind of too whisper-y/breathy for most of the song for my taste. Might be production issue. Can't deny the song is a banger though and it doesn't deserves to be lower, just feel like the two above songs are better or as good as this in their own right but with better vocals and still decent performances enough to be higher than this. If it were to go to Eurovision, vocals need to be polished in my opinion and similarly to Tomas' entry, I feel like the staging possibilities might be a bit more restrained and that it definitely needs a slick staging on the Eurovision stage to work. 4) Lenny - Good Enough : Good song but does take a while to get to the point where it really starts to shine. Could struggle at Eurovision because of this. I think overall it has meaning and that's good, but the song itself doesn't give out much to latch onto before the last third. Overall, pretty much agree with everything you said, Lenny is very good. I like it but I don't love it, could be improved. Unfortunately don't think it's a choice to consider for Eurovision as it is right now though, would quite certainly need a revamp and to get more quickly to the point. 5) Mydy - Red Flag Parade : Well, most people seem to like it a lot but I'm more on the same mindset as you on this one :D. I think it's pretty good for what it is but it just isn't for me. The plus side is definitely the performance of it and the aesthetics. It was very good. I don't have much else to add on this one apart that I can see the aesthetics they could be going for at Eurovision more clearly as well because of the performance and know they work so that's also a plus side. Overall, for me, it's actually okay but it's not my thing, I just find the song not as interesting as some other songs apart from the opening and some little parts which are similar to it during the song. I can also see why people would think it's a good choice for Eurovision, especially because of the performance and aesthetics but for me it isn't the best option regarding that ; talking about clear fan favourites, Elly - The Angel's Share seems like the better option. 6) Gianna - Starlet : Not convinced by the song although it's decent and quite cute, it just doesn't feel competitive, it lacks power somewhere and is too same-y throughout. Definitely felt alone on stage as you mentioned as well, it wasn't the way to go. I do like her vibe though. Overall, can't see this working at Eurovision though unfortunately, even with a revamp I'm unsure. Don't think it's a choice. 7) Aiko - Pedestal : Still an alright song for what it is but it's not for me and that I do feel like wasn't performed that well. Quite like Tom Sean to me, her vocals were often drowned out by the song and production of it but even felt like more of an afterthought than anything here as I felt like she was mostly talking and then she proceeded to just scream quite a lot. Does have more power than the song above but is just completely uninteresting to me. The percussion is alright but that's all I can see as a real positive here. Overall, probably the song with the least qualities out of them all although it's still alright compared to songs we can see in other selections. What hurts this as well is that, while it's not my direction, I think Mydy - Red Flag Parade is far better than this if they want to go for an edgier song direction with a bit of a rocky edge, less poppy than most other options. This song is not an option because of this imo. As a summary, I think Elly - The Angel's Share is probably Czechia's best choice for Eurovision but people seem to really like Mydy - Red Flag Parade and it's pretty good so it might get the ticket and overall I think it would probably work but I don't see it as the best option since I think you can do more with the former. Then, Tomas Robin - Out of My Mind, Tom Sean - Dopamine Overdose and finally Lenny - Good Enough are good options that could work but have some question marks and especially for the latter two, progress can be made in my opinion with vocals or a revamp so it gets to the point more quickly and thus becomes more impactful for Eurovision :)
It's a good ranking! We only have a few minor differences but the main split between the songs looks correct to me. We also have a lot of similar thoughts about the songs so I'll just pick up on a few differences of opinion. - I think Lenny's song could work at Eurovision, just because of how well done that final minute of the song is. I actually don't have a problem with the first minute really, but it just needs to get out of that first gear a lot faster. A revamp of the middle third, with a bit more of the drive and impact that the last third has, would make the progression so much smooth and the song feel like less of a drag. - I wouldn't worry about Tom Sean's vocals for the Eurovision stage anyway. The issues he has in this performance could easily be covered up by the (permitted!) pre-recorded backing vocals. If anything, his song is the one that could use these the best. It was clear on the Czech stage, that the acts were receiving very little vocal help lol. - Mydy being the favourite, based mostly on the live performance, does bring up the question of whether having these live performances is of benefit to Czechia at this point. Mydy has, alongside Gianna, probably the easiest song to sing live, and when the sound production is not of a great standard, it was obvious that more vocally-demanding songs were going to look worse in comparison. Is it better to have the better live performance at this stage being selected or the best song that you can make better live later? If we solely based it on the live performance, I don't think we would've have Vesna selected last year and that ended up working out alright for the Czechs. There's also issues about the over-importance of an "international" vote accounting for so much at this point...because in December, it's not a genuine international vote that is indicative of Eurovision televote, but rather a collection of international Eurovision fans who follow the Czech NF in December. It's almost like an Ogae vote and we know how they go sometimes. ;)
@@kaleproject3495 Yes we have very similar opinions overall on this one :D About the differences : - I think Lenny's song could work at Eurovision but not as it is now and that's my question mark. They need to revamp it correctly and bring more urgency to the whole thing. I do completely agree with what you say, just don't think it's an option at this stage and at the same time, it'd be a risk to choose it in that sense. I don't actually have an issue with the 1 or even whole 2 first minutes of the song either, just that it is too slow-building for Eurovision in my opinion. I don't really mind it myself although I'd like it more if it had more of a build during the first 2 minutes quite probably. So tbh we pretty much agree on this as well, just needs more drive and impact in the middle third and to me it seems doable but if it were to be picked, they really need to not mess it up ^^ - I don't know, I'm not a fan of vocally-weak pop entries, if you remember Poland last year I had the same criticism. I value vocals quite a lot I have to admit xD And they're just not really there. I agree they can be covered-up but you'll still feel the vocals of the main singer are weaker than others, the question being, does it matter for a lot of people really and well, doesn't seem like so, I may be in the minority :D Otherwise, I do agree with what you say, it's true. Very very little vocal help and I can clearly see the use of pre-recorded backing vocals on this, although I don't like choices like this haha. I really prefered when you needed to have live backing vocals and singers to at least have decent vocals. My issue here was I barely could hear him, especially when the song was getting bigger. Could be production issues, but compared to most others which had the same conditions sounded better. That's the only aspect I don't like about it though, the song is great and the performance was convincing enough for such a small stage and with the issues that come with it. - Hmmm, that's an interesting question yeah. Personally, I think the performance shouldn't be the only focus as you can always improve before Eurovision happen, although obviously it's better to still have a decent performance at this point but most songs in the selection do check that box to me. I also definitely agree with the issues on stage and despite that, I thought Elly, Tomas Robin and Lenny sounded quite good as well so... I'd actually say it's better to pick the best song or at least one of the best songs you can make better live later on. Can also pretty much agree about Vesna last year if we go on about this point. Anyway, as I said, I'd rather see Elly - The Angel's Share going to Eurovision between her and Mydy who seem to be the fan favourites. Yeah, that's also a very valid point :D Fortunately you can't really make a terrible choice in this NF apart from Aiko and Gianna (for Eurovision) imo, although the first could maybe work, at least qualify, since it should still be 100% televote semis but is just weaker than all the other options in every way so that would be an odd choice.
My favorite was Out of my mind. I hope it at least gets a top 3, but the results feel up in the air. I do worry that Red Flag Parade has the highest chance though.
Out Of My Mind would probably do better with a jury, or in this case, the domestic vote. It's probably in the bottom two of the international vote unfortunately. Be interesting to see what the results actually are. Usually, in Czechia, we have a pretty good idea what's likely to win, but this year, honestly, you could make an argument for most of these to do well in the international vote.
@@kaleproject3495 haha lol.. it's just difference in opinion, I guess 😅 I think with that song you feel it or you don't. You do and I don't. NO problem 😅
I just think it's such a well-produced and well-executed song. But with songs like that, I know that, to some people, they come across as a bit cold and disconnected ("Die Together" had the same problem with some listeners).
Our Czech list are almost uncanny. I am still alternating between Gianna (as a song) and Mydy (as a performance) for my 5th, and between Tom and Tomas as my 2nd, but other than that, we might be having the same order of preference here. You comments are also quite close to mine.
Those are the exact two debates I was having when compiling my list, actually. Oh along with the," just how high can I place Lenny?" issue. Czechia is not adverse to a revamp, so I wonder if they chopped her song up and put it back together (with a bit more urgency), how good it could be?
@@kaleproject3495 Definitely the song, it's just not my style at all & the lyrics cringe me the fuck out. His performance was fine, not great, but far from the worst.
Yeah, I can see that. I'm pretty good with this style of music and I actually respond to it better when it doesn't take itself too seriously, which is why the cringe lyrics are a bit of a godsend tbh. I mean, to me, it's clear that Elly has far and away the best song here...but it's an international vote amongst Eurovision fans that pretty much decides the winner here and that rarely matters to them.
@@kaleproject3495 I guess we'll find out on Friday, but I've seen a lot of people having Elly's song near the top of their list, so there's definitely a chance.
07. Starlet 06. The Angel's Share 05. Out Of Mind 04. Good Enough 03. Red Flag Parade 02. Pedestal 01. Dopamine Oversode My winner is the only one that I'm excited for
It's a good winner! How did you feel about the performance? I have to admit, I wasn't expecting it to be able to be good, but I thought it was! With a Eurovision staging budget, I see potential, especially with pre-recorded backing vocals.
Hi ^^ 7. This is a huge mess tbh. (7) 6. I really like this one (4) 5. Not really exciting for me, but its alright (6) 4. Yep, its good enough. But not more (5) 3. This one is pretty great I think (2) 2. Love it ! (1) 1. Also very good and powerful (3)
Tom Sean's song would only work if Czechia was very confident about how to present it. I think it needs something very slick and polished on the ESC stage to work.
Hi! Unpopular opinion, apparently, but I think Aiko is the clear standout here. The song is energetic and the overall package is at least solid, though a bit unpolished, specifically the vocals. To be honest, I wouldn't have guessed Elly and Tom would be so liked by the fandom. I feel like 'The Angel's Share' is a bit overdone, and the lyrics are quite nonsense. 'Dopamine Overdose' was performed enjoyably, but like MYDY's song, it's also kinda static and feels too repetitive. It also lacked a bit vocally. My top: 1. Pedestal 7/10 2. Red Flag Parade 6/10 3. Starlet 4,5/10 4. The Angel's Share 4/10 5. Good Enough 4/10 6. Out of My Mind 3,5/10 7. Dopamine Overdose 2,5/10 I honestly have no idea who will win this year, but I feel like the majority of fans won't be that satisfied with the outcome 😅 Great video!
It does seem as if Red Flag Parade should walk the international vote and, if memory serves, the balance of voting is very heavy in that area...so I think it's a pretty likely outcome. We also have a reverse ranking situation going on here!
I don't see this as a strong NS, I generally think the production is amateurish compared to other years and some performances weren't that much well executed. Also I'm not connecting with The Angels Share : although it's not bad I just don't think it goes anywhere, it also suffers from a lack of vocal range. Idk maybe it'll grow on me. I do agree with your share about your 2nd and 3rd, but I definitely think Red Flag parade has the most interesting choice, with the right atonement and the same energy this could bring them at least out of the bottom 20
Production when it comes to the show itself, absolutely. Issues with production on the studio versions of the songs themselves? Surely not! After trawling through Malta's songs, the difference here it a Godsend! I think with The Angel's Share, it's the switch-up in the tempo of the percussion in the chorus that really gets it somewhere. It would be very easy just to do three choruses the same here but they make it feels like it's building. I think it works! Tbh, I didn't really focus much on the vocal aside from noting that it was competent. Maybe some bigger notes would make the song a bit more obvious in its quality, possibly? I'm not seeing Red Flag Parade at all, yet it seems to be a favourite. Putting the "similarities" I pointed out in the video aside, the instrumental is just so dull. I feel like the stage performance and the frontwoman are trying to cover up a lack of actual song there.
Hi! I don't know if it's stronger than the last edition for me, but, again, it's not a bad selection, but also not among the best ones, probably (we can't, however, really compare without actually knowing other nfs). My top, probably, looks like that: 1. MYDY - Red Flag Parade 2. Elly - The Angel's Share 3. Lenny - Good Enough 4. Tom Sean - Dopamine Overdose 5. Aiko - Pedestal 6. Tomas Robin - Out of My Mind 7. Gianna Lei - Starlet My top 3 is pretty high above the rest. I admit that some lyrics of "Red Flag Parade" aren't the best and it's really similar to "I Wanna Be Your Slave", but it's still quite enjoyable for me and they had the most entertaining performance of the show. With 100% tele in semis they definitely will qualify, but I'm not sure about beating the Vesna's result in the final. Still, the best choice for me. Elly's song is also really good and I love her, indeed angelic voice. The staging is similar to Slovenia 2016, but I'm sure they will improve it, if they win. A bit worried about qualification chances, but it's still good. Lenny also has a pleasant voice and a song, but it's just not really impactful. With juries it would have had more chances to qualify, so I don't think that she's the best choice in terms of result, but she still deserves to be known. Aiko seems to be one of fan favourites and I probably would like it more with a less messy performance and if the song was more memorable (for now I can't recall a moment of it). I agree that Tomas Robin is the best vocalist of this selection, but this song just makes me sad for some reason and not in a good way. Overall, I think that Czechia would be in safe only with MYDY, but I wouldn't mind about Elly or Lenny, too.
I don't mind anyone having one of my bottom two as the winner. They're both just not really my sort of songs so I was always going to be a bit harsher on them and that's fine. Bit sad for Gianna because I think she's going to be last place for a lot of people and, she's a good artist. It was more, maybe she just wasn't ready for this level of live performance yet? I think Czechia are probably in the running to qualify with any of these songs tbh. Gianna's and Lenny's are probably the least competitive in a televote SF right now, but could be revamped to help that a little.
@@kaleproject3495I, actually, prefer Gianna's song to Tomas's, so it can be one position higher in my top. It's really Tomas's voice against Gianna's song. Also, "Dopamine Overdose" is growing on me and, probably, in my top 3 now, although really close with Lenny.
I think a lot of the songs are of a similar level, so I can see some movement in people's rankings. Nothing's outright bad here and, Elly aside, nothing's obviously great. So for people who aren't sold on Elly, I can understand this selection being wide open.
My top 7: 1. The Angel's Share 2. Red Flag Parade 3. Dopamine Overdose 4. Good Enough 5. Pedestal 6. Out Of My Mind 7. Starlet About the songs, they were at least good, one way or another. There are two frontrunners for me, MYDY and Elly. I was team Elly ever since I heard the song, but the backup dancers looked and felt really out of place (like every interpretive dancer on Eurovision). MYDY's song on the other hand grew on me a lot, and the performance was hands down the best performance of the night. Overall, this was a really solid NF, despite the not-so-ideal liveshow. In fact, aside from the bad bad sound mixing, I find everything else about the NF wierdly charming in some way, even the cringeworthy MC. And "Sweet like Teriyaki" was iconic, ngl.
Yeah, having poor production on the live performances of the songs definitely benefited the song that was the simplest in both terms of composition and production, which was Mydy's. I have a feeling if this was based just on song (as Czech selections used to be), that we wouldn't even be discussing Mydy as a potential winner. I always say, consider the song first, and the performance later. There's months to get better at that (check Vesna from last year) but it's harder to improve a bad song. Always hold up UK 2018 as an example of a selection that ignored all the better songs and simply chose the best performance of a simple song as its winner.
I've kinda divided the selection into 3-4 songs that I would like to be considered and 3 that I don't think should be in the running. Unfortunately, it seems, for some reason, the fans are getting behind Mydy and that is disappointing. It's not one of the better songs here and seems to have benefited from its simplicity and relative ease that it can be performed well on a low-budget, low-production stage.
So... just leaving a comment since the results dropped. Aiko won and I honestly can't understand why buuuut I guess her fans are happy x) Clearly not for me and I can already tell it will very certainly be low on my Eurovision ranking and, for me, that's a really bad result, really think it was the worst pick for me and one of the worst overall :s. It isn't the best song here, it's alright and that's it, not sure what people find so outstanding in it since I've seen quite a few comments praising it but... If I just even compare it to other rock-y/metal-y NF entries which could be selected like My Friend from Ollie... The latter eats Pedestal whole and leaves no crumbs, both song-wise and vocally-wise, and that comes from a person who isn't into rock/metal songs that much but My Friend is such a better song with strong vocals. There's also the issue with the votes coming from international fans that I'm also afraid the support of superfans won't be enough for her when Eurovision comes. Then, live-wise, the performance was a complete mess, more so than all other performances anyway and the vocals weren't there which is concerning to me. Obviously that can improve but... I'm unconvinced because it seemed like the vocals weren't the focus of this at all which does count for me. Anyway, all I can say is it's a strange choice to me, hopefully it doesn't lead to a NQ for Czechia though, but time will tell ! Standing by my comment a few days ago when I ranked the songs, I think it could qualify but it isn't a sure qualifier at all, feels very borderline to me and I believe it was the worst of the possible options for ESC apart from Starlet overall.
Tbh, it definitely sounds as if there was *some* sort of issue with the international televote results, although it's difficult to work out exactly what that could be. Some have said that the app used for the international voting made it very easy to accidentally vote for Aiko when trying to simply listen to the songs and then not being able to change the vote afterwards. There's also the possibility of blatant vote manipulation, either nefariously or through a small group of fans. Simply, the landslide in the international vote did not reflect the social media commentary that you would normally associate with such a result. There was no indication that she was in the running to win nor that she would win by such a margin. Whatever the issue was, there's no way the broadcaster would tell us at this stage as it would be entirely detrimental to the entry that they're currently "stuck with" (sorry). All they can do, is make sure that it doesn't happen next year and whatever noticeable changes occur in the process will probably be an indication of what went wrong this year. I think this song has no chance of qualification, regardless of how confident the Czech delegation are that they can make something of it.
While this is a significant step up from whatever the hell Malta’s was, I didn’t think this was a great lineup 💀 I got spoiled by ESCZ 2020 so each year has just been diminishing returns ever since. The best ESC options here are probably The Angels Share (a song I like!) and Red Flag Parade (A song I really don’t like!), but my vote went to Lenny. While the song needs a definite revamp, she’s just miles ahead of any other performer here and I love her voice. NF season is pretty disappointing for me so far, but hey at least Annalisa is back in Sanremo and the Mello lineup looks decent (although I’m disappointed by the lack of middle aged diva entries that only I enjoy)
For me, it's probably similar to 2020 in that, in both years, I didn't like the two rockier/indie-sounding songs and quite liked everything else. I'm not writing off "Good Enough" if it does win. The issues I pointed out could 100% be corrected with a good revamp and some cutting off the musical fat, so to speak. When it gets good, it really is good. Even if I seem harsh with some of the songs, I'm pretty sure all of them would have a shot at qualifying, which is something I can't say about almost all of Malta's selection, so it is like comparing apples and oranges. National final season-wise, I'm pretty good so far. I've never been the biggest fan of the Czech selections so having a song like Elly's is a HUGE plus at this stage of the game and, let's be honest, who was expecting anything from Malta's current system? Combined with France's really good effort, I've had a good start. And we haven't even had FiK yet!
Just to remind everyone, this is a very "in the moment" response to the songs and performances. My ranking may change given a bit more time listening to the songs, though, I'm pretty sure my first place is going to stay my first place!
So nice to see another national final ranking from you! One of the highlights of every season for me.
Your top is very reasonable as always and your comments are agreeable, even though our rankings differ (as you will notice later today).
Thanks so much! I will look forward to seeing what you think of the songs later. Overall, this is just my preference. I actually think it's a good selection!
@@kaleproject3495 Check my latest community post.
Yay, a smaller selection with overall consistent quality (even if not the best production live) ! :D I quite like your top and most of your comments, we don't have that much different tops on this one tbh.
So, here's my personal top 7 and thoughts :
1) Tomas Robin - Out of My Mind : Love his vocals and definitely agree I think he's the best vocalist here. I also love the song, it builds pretty wonderfully, love the electronic/synth touches as well personally :D His voice is instantly memorable to me. I also feel like it's always interesting to have a grittier voice with an instrumental like this, so don't feel like it's an issue, I actually like the contrast it provides with his voice. I can see the point why a grittier instrumental could work with his voice though. The melody is catchy as well. I just do have to say I'm not sure it would be the best choice for ESC since I feel like it leans more towards a great radio track than a complete Eurovision package, would need a really slick staging to have the greatest possible impact, but it's definitely one of the best songs here to me and probably the best for my taste in this selection (although pretty much all 7 songs are good in their own right in this selection). He got my vote online anyway :3
2) Elly - The Angel's Share : Great song and good vocals. Love that it's a ballad with really good percussion and a pretty good build as well. Also has some catchiness to it because of this but also the lyrics. Otherwise pretty much agree with what you said and it actually probably is the best choice for Eurovision in this selection, because I can picture a more effective staging in my mind than for Tomas' song where I'd just expect a slick staging, this offers more options in my opinion. The only reason why I have it as second place is just that it's a bit less to my own taste and that I feel like her vocals were less impactful than Tomas' although I love the dreamy, mystical and pure qualities it has. It's really good nonetheless :D.
3) Tom Sean - Dopamine Overdose : Great song, pretty good performance but unconvinced by the vocals. They're kind of drowned by the song and production of it here, they're kind of too whisper-y/breathy for most of the song for my taste. Might be production issue. Can't deny the song is a banger though and it doesn't deserves to be lower, just feel like the two above songs are better or as good as this in their own right but with better vocals and still decent performances enough to be higher than this. If it were to go to Eurovision, vocals need to be polished in my opinion and similarly to Tomas' entry, I feel like the staging possibilities might be a bit more restrained and that it definitely needs a slick staging on the Eurovision stage to work.
4) Lenny - Good Enough : Good song but does take a while to get to the point where it really starts to shine. Could struggle at Eurovision because of this. I think overall it has meaning and that's good, but the song itself doesn't give out much to latch onto before the last third. Overall, pretty much agree with everything you said, Lenny is very good. I like it but I don't love it, could be improved. Unfortunately don't think it's a choice to consider for Eurovision as it is right now though, would quite certainly need a revamp and to get more quickly to the point.
5) Mydy - Red Flag Parade : Well, most people seem to like it a lot but I'm more on the same mindset as you on this one :D. I think it's pretty good for what it is but it just isn't for me. The plus side is definitely the performance of it and the aesthetics. It was very good. I don't have much else to add on this one apart that I can see the aesthetics they could be going for at Eurovision more clearly as well because of the performance and know they work so that's also a plus side. Overall, for me, it's actually okay but it's not my thing, I just find the song not as interesting as some other songs apart from the opening and some little parts which are similar to it during the song. I can also see why people would think it's a good choice for Eurovision, especially because of the performance and aesthetics but for me it isn't the best option regarding that ; talking about clear fan favourites, Elly - The Angel's Share seems like the better option.
6) Gianna - Starlet : Not convinced by the song although it's decent and quite cute, it just doesn't feel competitive, it lacks power somewhere and is too same-y throughout. Definitely felt alone on stage as you mentioned as well, it wasn't the way to go. I do like her vibe though. Overall, can't see this working at Eurovision though unfortunately, even with a revamp I'm unsure. Don't think it's a choice.
7) Aiko - Pedestal : Still an alright song for what it is but it's not for me and that I do feel like wasn't performed that well. Quite like Tom Sean to me, her vocals were often drowned out by the song and production of it but even felt like more of an afterthought than anything here as I felt like she was mostly talking and then she proceeded to just scream quite a lot. Does have more power than the song above but is just completely uninteresting to me. The percussion is alright but that's all I can see as a real positive here. Overall, probably the song with the least qualities out of them all although it's still alright compared to songs we can see in other selections. What hurts this as well is that, while it's not my direction, I think Mydy - Red Flag Parade is far better than this if they want to go for an edgier song direction with a bit of a rocky edge, less poppy than most other options. This song is not an option because of this imo.
As a summary, I think Elly - The Angel's Share is probably Czechia's best choice for Eurovision but people seem to really like Mydy - Red Flag Parade and it's pretty good so it might get the ticket and overall I think it would probably work but I don't see it as the best option since I think you can do more with the former. Then, Tomas Robin - Out of My Mind, Tom Sean - Dopamine Overdose and finally Lenny - Good Enough are good options that could work but have some question marks and especially for the latter two, progress can be made in my opinion with vocals or a revamp so it gets to the point more quickly and thus becomes more impactful for Eurovision :)
It's a good ranking! We only have a few minor differences but the main split between the songs looks correct to me. We also have a lot of similar thoughts about the songs so I'll just pick up on a few differences of opinion.
- I think Lenny's song could work at Eurovision, just because of how well done that final minute of the song is. I actually don't have a problem with the first minute really, but it just needs to get out of that first gear a lot faster. A revamp of the middle third, with a bit more of the drive and impact that the last third has, would make the progression so much smooth and the song feel like less of a drag.
- I wouldn't worry about Tom Sean's vocals for the Eurovision stage anyway. The issues he has in this performance could easily be covered up by the (permitted!) pre-recorded backing vocals. If anything, his song is the one that could use these the best. It was clear on the Czech stage, that the acts were receiving very little vocal help lol.
- Mydy being the favourite, based mostly on the live performance, does bring up the question of whether having these live performances is of benefit to Czechia at this point. Mydy has, alongside Gianna, probably the easiest song to sing live, and when the sound production is not of a great standard, it was obvious that more vocally-demanding songs were going to look worse in comparison. Is it better to have the better live performance at this stage being selected or the best song that you can make better live later? If we solely based it on the live performance, I don't think we would've have Vesna selected last year and that ended up working out alright for the Czechs.
There's also issues about the over-importance of an "international" vote accounting for so much at this point...because in December, it's not a genuine international vote that is indicative of Eurovision televote, but rather a collection of international Eurovision fans who follow the Czech NF in December. It's almost like an Ogae vote and we know how they go sometimes. ;)
@@kaleproject3495 Yes we have very similar opinions overall on this one :D About the differences :
- I think Lenny's song could work at Eurovision but not as it is now and that's my question mark. They need to revamp it correctly and bring more urgency to the whole thing. I do completely agree with what you say, just don't think it's an option at this stage and at the same time, it'd be a risk to choose it in that sense. I don't actually have an issue with the 1 or even whole 2 first minutes of the song either, just that it is too slow-building for Eurovision in my opinion. I don't really mind it myself although I'd like it more if it had more of a build during the first 2 minutes quite probably. So tbh we pretty much agree on this as well, just needs more drive and impact in the middle third and to me it seems doable but if it were to be picked, they really need to not mess it up ^^
- I don't know, I'm not a fan of vocally-weak pop entries, if you remember Poland last year I had the same criticism. I value vocals quite a lot I have to admit xD And they're just not really there. I agree they can be covered-up but you'll still feel the vocals of the main singer are weaker than others, the question being, does it matter for a lot of people really and well, doesn't seem like so, I may be in the minority :D Otherwise, I do agree with what you say, it's true. Very very little vocal help and I can clearly see the use of pre-recorded backing vocals on this, although I don't like choices like this haha. I really prefered when you needed to have live backing vocals and singers to at least have decent vocals. My issue here was I barely could hear him, especially when the song was getting bigger. Could be production issues, but compared to most others which had the same conditions sounded better. That's the only aspect I don't like about it though, the song is great and the performance was convincing enough for such a small stage and with the issues that come with it.
- Hmmm, that's an interesting question yeah. Personally, I think the performance shouldn't be the only focus as you can always improve before Eurovision happen, although obviously it's better to still have a decent performance at this point but most songs in the selection do check that box to me. I also definitely agree with the issues on stage and despite that, I thought Elly, Tomas Robin and Lenny sounded quite good as well so... I'd actually say it's better to pick the best song or at least one of the best songs you can make better live later on. Can also pretty much agree about Vesna last year if we go on about this point. Anyway, as I said, I'd rather see Elly - The Angel's Share going to Eurovision between her and Mydy who seem to be the fan favourites.
Yeah, that's also a very valid point :D Fortunately you can't really make a terrible choice in this NF apart from Aiko and Gianna (for Eurovision) imo, although the first could maybe work, at least qualify, since it should still be 100% televote semis but is just weaker than all the other options in every way so that would be an odd choice.
My favorite was Out of my mind. I hope it at least gets a top 3, but the results feel up in the air. I do worry that Red Flag Parade has the highest chance though.
Out Of My Mind would probably do better with a jury, or in this case, the domestic vote. It's probably in the bottom two of the international vote unfortunately.
Be interesting to see what the results actually are. Usually, in Czechia, we have a pretty good idea what's likely to win, but this year, honestly, you could make an argument for most of these to do well in the international vote.
I would go for Tomas or Tom Sean. They seem the most ready. Don't really see what's so special with Elly's song
Heehee. It seems there is a little bit of a kickback to Elly's song here! Interesting. It seems so clear to me but maybe my mirror needs a wiping. 😂
@@kaleproject3495 haha lol.. it's just difference in opinion, I guess 😅 I think with that song you feel it or you don't. You do and I don't. NO problem 😅
I just think it's such a well-produced and well-executed song. But with songs like that, I know that, to some people, they come across as a bit cold and disconnected ("Die Together" had the same problem with some listeners).
Our Czech list are almost uncanny. I am still alternating between Gianna (as a song) and Mydy (as a performance) for my 5th, and between Tom and Tomas as my 2nd, but other than that, we might be having the same order of preference here. You comments are also quite close to mine.
Those are the exact two debates I was having when compiling my list, actually. Oh along with the," just how high can I place Lenny?" issue. Czechia is not adverse to a revamp, so I wonder if they chopped her song up and put it back together (with a bit more urgency), how good it could be?
Well, as it happens, your top-2 are my most (Elly) & least (Tom) favorite of this NF.
You disliking Tom's performance or song more? Or both? XD
@@kaleproject3495 Definitely the song, it's just not my style at all & the lyrics cringe me the fuck out. His performance was fine, not great, but far from the worst.
Yeah, I can see that. I'm pretty good with this style of music and I actually respond to it better when it doesn't take itself too seriously, which is why the cringe lyrics are a bit of a godsend tbh.
I mean, to me, it's clear that Elly has far and away the best song here...but it's an international vote amongst Eurovision fans that pretty much decides the winner here and that rarely matters to them.
@@kaleproject3495 I guess we'll find out on Friday, but I've seen a lot of people having Elly's song near the top of their list, so there's definitely a chance.
@@philipdawson7800 Just waiting now lol
07. Starlet
06. The Angel's Share
05. Out Of Mind
04. Good Enough
03. Red Flag Parade
02. Pedestal
01. Dopamine Oversode
My winner is the only one that I'm excited for
It's a good winner!
How did you feel about the performance? I have to admit, I wasn't expecting it to be able to be good, but I thought it was! With a Eurovision staging budget, I see potential, especially with pre-recorded backing vocals.
Hi ^^
7. This is a huge mess tbh. (7)
6. I really like this one (4)
5. Not really exciting for me, but its alright (6)
4. Yep, its good enough. But not more (5)
3. This one is pretty great I think (2)
2. Love it ! (1)
1. Also very good and powerful (3)
I'd probably divide them into four possibilities and three I wouldn't want to see in ESC.
Tom Sean has my favorite song, but I feel he could get lost in the ESC lineup. I would send Red Flag Parade as the most logical Eurovision choice
Tom Sean's song would only work if Czechia was very confident about how to present it. I think it needs something very slick and polished on the ESC stage to work.
Hi!
Unpopular opinion, apparently, but I think Aiko is the clear standout here. The song is energetic and the overall package is at least solid, though a bit unpolished, specifically the vocals.
To be honest, I wouldn't have guessed Elly and Tom would be so liked by the fandom. I feel like 'The Angel's Share' is a bit overdone, and the lyrics are quite nonsense. 'Dopamine Overdose' was performed enjoyably, but like MYDY's song, it's also kinda static and feels too repetitive. It also lacked a bit vocally.
My top:
1. Pedestal 7/10
2. Red Flag Parade 6/10
3. Starlet 4,5/10
4. The Angel's Share 4/10
5. Good Enough 4/10
6. Out of My Mind 3,5/10
7. Dopamine Overdose 2,5/10
I honestly have no idea who will win this year, but I feel like the majority of fans won't be that satisfied with the outcome 😅
Great video!
It does seem as if Red Flag Parade should walk the international vote and, if memory serves, the balance of voting is very heavy in that area...so I think it's a pretty likely outcome.
We also have a reverse ranking situation going on here!
Pretty far from my order lol. Not much disagreement in the comments tho
I'm always pretty heavy on song over performance...so I can understand where we have our differences. :3
I don't see this as a strong NS, I generally think the production is amateurish compared to other years and some performances weren't that much well executed. Also I'm not connecting with The Angels Share : although it's not bad I just don't think it goes anywhere, it also suffers from a lack of vocal range. Idk maybe it'll grow on me. I do agree with your share about your 2nd and 3rd, but I definitely think Red Flag parade has the most interesting choice, with the right atonement and the same energy this could bring them at least out of the bottom 20
Production when it comes to the show itself, absolutely. Issues with production on the studio versions of the songs themselves? Surely not! After trawling through Malta's songs, the difference here it a Godsend!
I think with The Angel's Share, it's the switch-up in the tempo of the percussion in the chorus that really gets it somewhere. It would be very easy just to do three choruses the same here but they make it feels like it's building. I think it works! Tbh, I didn't really focus much on the vocal aside from noting that it was competent. Maybe some bigger notes would make the song a bit more obvious in its quality, possibly?
I'm not seeing Red Flag Parade at all, yet it seems to be a favourite. Putting the "similarities" I pointed out in the video aside, the instrumental is just so dull. I feel like the stage performance and the frontwoman are trying to cover up a lack of actual song there.
Hi!
I don't know if it's stronger than the last edition for me, but, again, it's not a bad selection, but also not among the best ones, probably (we can't, however, really compare without actually knowing other nfs).
My top, probably, looks like that:
1. MYDY - Red Flag Parade
2. Elly - The Angel's Share
3. Lenny - Good Enough
4. Tom Sean - Dopamine Overdose
5. Aiko - Pedestal
6. Tomas Robin - Out of My Mind
7. Gianna Lei - Starlet
My top 3 is pretty high above the rest. I admit that some lyrics of "Red Flag Parade" aren't the best and it's really similar to "I Wanna Be Your Slave", but it's still quite enjoyable for me and they had the most entertaining performance of the show. With 100% tele in semis they definitely will qualify, but I'm not sure about beating the Vesna's result in the final. Still, the best choice for me.
Elly's song is also really good and I love her, indeed angelic voice. The staging is similar to Slovenia 2016, but I'm sure they will improve it, if they win. A bit worried about qualification chances, but it's still good.
Lenny also has a pleasant voice and a song, but it's just not really impactful. With juries it would have had more chances to qualify, so I don't think that she's the best choice in terms of result, but she still deserves to be known.
Aiko seems to be one of fan favourites and I probably would like it more with a less messy performance and if the song was more memorable (for now I can't recall a moment of it).
I agree that Tomas Robin is the best vocalist of this selection, but this song just makes me sad for some reason and not in a good way.
Overall, I think that Czechia would be in safe only with MYDY, but I wouldn't mind about Elly or Lenny, too.
I don't mind anyone having one of my bottom two as the winner. They're both just not really my sort of songs so I was always going to be a bit harsher on them and that's fine. Bit sad for Gianna because I think she's going to be last place for a lot of people and, she's a good artist. It was more, maybe she just wasn't ready for this level of live performance yet?
I think Czechia are probably in the running to qualify with any of these songs tbh. Gianna's and Lenny's are probably the least competitive in a televote SF right now, but could be revamped to help that a little.
@@kaleproject3495I, actually, prefer Gianna's song to Tomas's, so it can be one position higher in my top. It's really Tomas's voice against Gianna's song.
Also, "Dopamine Overdose" is growing on me and, probably, in my top 3 now, although really close with Lenny.
I think a lot of the songs are of a similar level, so I can see some movement in people's rankings. Nothing's outright bad here and, Elly aside, nothing's obviously great. So for people who aren't sold on Elly, I can understand this selection being wide open.
My top 7:
1. The Angel's Share
2. Red Flag Parade
3. Dopamine Overdose
4. Good Enough
5. Pedestal
6. Out Of My Mind
7. Starlet
About the songs, they were at least good, one way or another. There are two frontrunners for me, MYDY and Elly. I was team Elly ever since I heard the song, but the backup dancers looked and felt really out of place (like every interpretive dancer on Eurovision). MYDY's song on the other hand grew on me a lot, and the performance was hands down the best performance of the night.
Overall, this was a really solid NF, despite the not-so-ideal liveshow. In fact, aside from the bad bad sound mixing, I find everything else about the NF wierdly charming in some way, even the cringeworthy MC. And "Sweet like Teriyaki" was iconic, ngl.
Yeah, having poor production on the live performances of the songs definitely benefited the song that was the simplest in both terms of composition and production, which was Mydy's. I have a feeling if this was based just on song (as Czech selections used to be), that we wouldn't even be discussing Mydy as a potential winner.
I always say, consider the song first, and the performance later. There's months to get better at that (check Vesna from last year) but it's harder to improve a bad song. Always hold up UK 2018 as an example of a selection that ignored all the better songs and simply chose the best performance of a simple song as its winner.
I want Tom Sean to win and am now officially one of his stans. But I'm afraid, MYDY are going to Eurovision.
I've kinda divided the selection into 3-4 songs that I would like to be considered and 3 that I don't think should be in the running. Unfortunately, it seems, for some reason, the fans are getting behind Mydy and that is disappointing. It's not one of the better songs here and seems to have benefited from its simplicity and relative ease that it can be performed well on a low-budget, low-production stage.
@@kaleproject3495 yeah, sad, Tom didn't go, but I hope the best for Aiko. At least, it's not Mydy.
@@aiko_and_jann_defender I...don't think that's a better outcome lol.
This was pretty much as bad as it could have got for Czechia imo.
@@kaleproject3495 I'm low key glad, it was Aiko, not Mydy.
@@aiko_and_jann_defender Both pretty bad songs but at least Mydy could perform theirs live at this stage.
So... just leaving a comment since the results dropped. Aiko won and I honestly can't understand why buuuut I guess her fans are happy x) Clearly not for me and I can already tell it will very certainly be low on my Eurovision ranking and, for me, that's a really bad result, really think it was the worst pick for me and one of the worst overall :s.
It isn't the best song here, it's alright and that's it, not sure what people find so outstanding in it since I've seen quite a few comments praising it but... If I just even compare it to other rock-y/metal-y NF entries which could be selected like My Friend from Ollie... The latter eats Pedestal whole and leaves no crumbs, both song-wise and vocally-wise, and that comes from a person who isn't into rock/metal songs that much but My Friend is such a better song with strong vocals. There's also the issue with the votes coming from international fans that I'm also afraid the support of superfans won't be enough for her when Eurovision comes. Then, live-wise, the performance was a complete mess, more so than all other performances anyway and the vocals weren't there which is concerning to me. Obviously that can improve but... I'm unconvinced because it seemed like the vocals weren't the focus of this at all which does count for me.
Anyway, all I can say is it's a strange choice to me, hopefully it doesn't lead to a NQ for Czechia though, but time will tell ! Standing by my comment a few days ago when I ranked the songs, I think it could qualify but it isn't a sure qualifier at all, feels very borderline to me and I believe it was the worst of the possible options for ESC apart from Starlet overall.
Tbh, it definitely sounds as if there was *some* sort of issue with the international televote results, although it's difficult to work out exactly what that could be. Some have said that the app used for the international voting made it very easy to accidentally vote for Aiko when trying to simply listen to the songs and then not being able to change the vote afterwards. There's also the possibility of blatant vote manipulation, either nefariously or through a small group of fans.
Simply, the landslide in the international vote did not reflect the social media commentary that you would normally associate with such a result. There was no indication that she was in the running to win nor that she would win by such a margin.
Whatever the issue was, there's no way the broadcaster would tell us at this stage as it would be entirely detrimental to the entry that they're currently "stuck with" (sorry). All they can do, is make sure that it doesn't happen next year and whatever noticeable changes occur in the process will probably be an indication of what went wrong this year.
I think this song has no chance of qualification, regardless of how confident the Czech delegation are that they can make something of it.
Festivali i Kënges top 31?
Sometime next week! I just got back from a Vietnam trip and still haven't watched all of the songs yet. :3
@@kaleproject3495 Ok, sorry for being impatient.
@@dimidrugg9592 No worries! I'll be on it once I'm done with family Christmas obligations!
While this is a significant step up from whatever the hell Malta’s was, I didn’t think this was a great lineup 💀 I got spoiled by ESCZ 2020 so each year has just been diminishing returns ever since.
The best ESC options here are probably The Angels Share (a song I like!) and Red Flag Parade (A song I really don’t like!), but my vote went to Lenny. While the song needs a definite revamp, she’s just miles ahead of any other performer here and I love her voice.
NF season is pretty disappointing for me so far, but hey at least Annalisa is back in Sanremo and the Mello lineup looks decent (although I’m disappointed by the lack of middle aged diva entries that only I enjoy)
For me, it's probably similar to 2020 in that, in both years, I didn't like the two rockier/indie-sounding songs and quite liked everything else.
I'm not writing off "Good Enough" if it does win. The issues I pointed out could 100% be corrected with a good revamp and some cutting off the musical fat, so to speak. When it gets good, it really is good.
Even if I seem harsh with some of the songs, I'm pretty sure all of them would have a shot at qualifying, which is something I can't say about almost all of Malta's selection, so it is like comparing apples and oranges.
National final season-wise, I'm pretty good so far. I've never been the biggest fan of the Czech selections so having a song like Elly's is a HUGE plus at this stage of the game and, let's be honest, who was expecting anything from Malta's current system?
Combined with France's really good effort, I've had a good start. And we haven't even had FiK yet!
Sad to break it to y'all, but the girl on position 5, straight up doesn't know how to sing.
Abysmal selection overall
Yeah, it was a bit of a struggle of a live performance was that. >.>
Like I said though, her studio stuff is really good.
In fairness, she apparently had bronchitis