EUROVISION 2019 REVIEW: FINLAND - Darude feat. Sebastian Rejman - Look Away

Welcome back to my ESC reviews!

Finland once again stuck with the 3-song UMK format, this time with iconic DJ Darude. This was without a doubt a way weaker selection than what we got with Saara last year, which was evident in the ratings. I would much rather see them go back to the 10-song format, as UMK was one of my favourite selections in 2017 (bring back Club La Perse xo). Anyway, the song that was chosen in the end was the least bland one, 'Look Away'.

Here are my thoughts:

What I Like: The staging we saw for 'Look Away' in UMK was very impressive, unlike what we saw with Saara last year, which is a slight improvement. The staging gives me elevated Demy 'This is Love' vibes in the middle 8, as they managed to actually create an LED effect what looked like the character in-question, as opposed to Demy's weird mermaid corpse in 2017.

'Look Away' is also the best option we had in UMK as it managed to encorporate Darude both musically and visually, which I believe is evident to the song's possible success in May, as he is the name that is carrying the song and will ultimately be the only reason people will vote for this song to be quite honest.

What I Don't Like: We were all excited when Darude was selected to represent Finland, but the bland offerings he gave us in the national selection unfortunately made us all Look Away (soz i'm writing this at midnight after a night of no sleep you can't judge me ok). There's something about 'Look Away' that's so painfully generic and a non-event that after you've heard it once, you'd rather not go back to it (which is evident because as I'm typing this I'd usually listen to the song I'm writing about, but I'd rather listen to The Lovers of Valdaro right now thank you very much). I actually think the only time I've managed to sit through the entire duration of this song was for this review, and it doesn't really go anywhere. It's actually such a shame that Darude watered down his sound for Eurovision when going for something more reminiscent to Sandstorm would've not only been a great marketing strategy, but quite frankly more interesting than what we've got. Also that vocalist brings zero charisma, uniqueness, nerve and talent and ultimately brings the overall product down.

Prediction: This would be a certain DNQ if Darude's name wasn't tagged along with this. There is the chance he squeaks in, but Darude himself isn't exactly meme material (unlike Epic Sax Guy), therefore people might just overlook the name status and just see an average EDM song, something Estonia manages to sell better in the same semi-final. Therefore, I really do think this could go either way, but I'm leaning towards a no at this point.

Final Score: 5/10

Summary: This has the potential under Darude's name power (take a look at the YouTube comments), but that is the only potential this has. A song shouldn't have to ride on the coat tails of the act's previous work to succeed though, which makes me seriously doubt its chances. A big bag of wasted potential here.

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