Slovenia 2021- Ana Soklic with ‘Amen’

Ana Soklic is back for Slovenia with another ballad, although this time it’s an English, gospel infused one:

This is quite calculated form Slovenia and is a clear attempt to get some of that jury love that has gone the way of Cesar Sampson and John Lundvik in 2018 and ‘19 by jumping on the gospel bandwagon, yet this goes a step further going for the cringeworthy, preachy lyrics (one thing that can’t be saved now) and big ‘hallelujah’ chorus.

It’s a bag of tried, tested and tired clichés, both to the modern contest and older ones. It’s the sort of entry that if it comes up short, the Slovenian delegation will be left scratching their head and saying ‘but we gave you everything you like’.

I don’t think Slovenia has a clue how to stage this or how to style Ana for it, who looks incredibly out of place and doesn’t sound her best either. They obviously need to show up with an actual visible choir of some description backing her, rather than just playing the backup vocals. There’s understandably a low budget for this production, but the Rotterdam one must be much stronger because if they show up in this form, Slovenia will be a guaranteed non-qualifier.

To be positive for a minute, as cliched and tactical as it is, there is something here. Whilst fans are busy laughing at there being 2 ‘Amen’ songs and the whole religious background to some of the entries, there is a large group of potential televoters who will take this earnestly, at face value and appreciate the religious message here. The fandom is obviously not the target audience. Juries are not exactly the most demanding of originality either and whilst this is a clear box ticking exercise, that hasn’t stopped them in the past either.

The vast majority of the time, Slovenia isn’t able to stage this to the Sweden levels of perfect-down-to-the-last-detail necessary for it to do well and even then, this could still fall flat on it’s face with juries and televoters seeing straight through it. Most of the time this just comes bottom 3 in the semi, but I am open to this exceeding expectations.

Personal Rating: 3/10 Competitive Rating: 5/10 Early Prediction: Semi One 13th-17th (NQ)