EUROVISION 2019 REVIEW: CYPRUS - Tamta - Replay

Welcome to the next review!

Today we go to Cyprus. Following from the Fuego of last year, Cyprus are sending the same team once again this year, this time lead by Greek-Georgian singer Tamta, who will sing 'Replay'.

Here are my thoughts:

What I Like: What I really commend about 'Replay' is that it manages to keep the popular elements of Fuego's production last year without copying too much of its style. The production of Replay actually feels more expensive than Fuego, with that brass drop and euphoric pre-chorus giving me butterflies of excitement for the live performance. This is the huge arena banger that is going to get the party started and they've managed to even tweak some of the production flaws that Fuego had. This feels tighter, and there's no drop before the chorus hits which keeps the pace going throughout, something that bugged me about Fuego in the studio cut. Not to mention Cyprus once again have delivered us a high-budget visual that others would wish to create. The fact they have worked with the same team as last year means they have been able to improve on last year detail-by-detail instead of copying bit by bit what went well last time, which is admirable and can only mean good things for the live performance. If it ain't broke, don't fix it!

Also, a quick little mention to Tamta finally doing the contest after what feels like years of many Eurovision fans, including myself, having her at the top of my wishlist for Greece or Georgia at the contest, the ironic thing being that in the end she settled for neither lmao, but great to see her take part nonetheless.

What I Don't Like: Okay, let's face it: Replay is not a lyrical masterpiece for the ages. Its your shallow pop banger that the contest needs. That being said, I do notice the lyrics a little more here than in Fuego, and that had the line 'Pelican fly fly flyin', so that's a bit concerning. There's also the obvious issue that we could be underwhelmed by Tamta's performance because we by default have high expectations following Eleni, so I'm hoping that she'll be able to deliver to Eleni's standard from last year both vocally and visually while also doing her own thing.

Prediction: Its opening the show with a huge bang and I see no circumstance where this doesn't qualify. I don't think it'll win but the lack of female bangers this year as opposed to last year could make this match Eleni's result this year due to the lack of other competition, and the female banger audience will always be a huge chunk of the Eurovision audience. Or, it falls on its backside because its such a blatant Fuego re-attempt to the casual viewers. This will definitely be an interesting one to follow, but its definitely going to be in the final.

Final Score: 9/10

Summary: The banger that this contest truly needed this year. On my spotify, this one is on Replay, Replay, Replay, yeah... ew i'm so sorry.

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