EUROVISION 2019 REVIEW: MONTENEGRO - D Mol - Heaven

Another day, another ESC 2019 review! Thanks for coming back!

Montenegro once again stuck to the Montevizija national final to select their chosen act for this year's contest. After a very questional and suspicious voting sequence, where fan favourite Andrea Demirovic who would've absolutely brought Montenegro back as a contender managed to come LAST in the televote, D Mol managed to win overall with the song 'Heaven'.

Here are my thoughts:

What I Like: Let me say it - Montenegro is my guilty pleasure this year. Unlike most other people in the fandom, I actually found something appealing about 'Heaven' from first listen. It has an anthemic and almost nostalgic chorus and it feels as if it was made to stick in the viewer's mind. I do believe that in a field of 16 other incredibly strong entries this will have next to no effect in terms of gathering votes when we approach Tel Aviv, as so many acts grab for your attention, especially in Semi-Final 1, but at least there is something to work with. Not to mention the revamp is a more high-quality final product for the jurors to respect, with the cultural elements tied into the song. I actually believe that the man performing the instrumental on the beach is one of the best components of the video and I'd love to see that incorporated into their live performance, but with D Mol being 6 members, sadly we won't see anyone else other than them on stage. However, I am certain that when they work with the producers in Tel Aviv they will create a far more professional product than what we got in Montevizija.

What I Don't Like: The basic fact is that we have more professional and polished acts in this year's contest that put Montenegro to shame. They are young and that can be seen as 'cute' to viewers, but with Zena from Belarus in the same semi-final giving us a way more Eurovision-ready song and performance, it kind of puts this effort to shame. Its almost as if D Mol struggle to get out of their musical theatre academical roots and oversell the whole thing to the point where the song becomes so cheesy that they've practically created a dairy factory (weird analogy 2/41 complete). I'm all for giving new acts a break and a chance to shine, but Eurovision infront of 200 million viewers is not the time and place for it.

Prediction: Montenegro is in the first half of the first semi-final. Although there is a charm to how they work together it just has no radio friendly appeal in 2019, and I don't really think it has a gimmick or a USP for televoters to get behind it either. Sadly, this is one of the few acts this year I am certain won't advance from the semis.

Final Score: 6/10

Summary: A fun guilty pleasure that becomes an earworm instantaneously that won't turn many people away but won't create the urge for people to rush to their phones and vote in May.

Thank you for reading! Please leave a like on this post and please check out my other blog posts. Also, feel free to follow me @ESCTBy for more Eurovision ramblings!