Ukraine 2021- Go_A with ‘Shum’
*Updated video and review below, original kept for posterity
Ukraine’s jury has decided which Go_A song will Go_A to Rotterdam, with Shum getting the nod:
‘Shum’ was the obvious choice out of the three with much more effort going into it than the other two options. Why send an album song and not the single after all?
From that version though, a good 50 seconds will need to be cut out to make this Eurovision ready, my recommendation would be to cut the most of the second instrumental until the flute kicks in and then cut the remaining 25 seconds off the ending.
I’m sure there will be many readers thinking the ‘more the better’ in terms of shortening this. As was ‘Solovey’, this is a polarising effort and there will be many viewers to whom this is like nails on a chalkboard. There’s less nuance here certainly, and this will struggle badly with western jurors, although in some ways the structure here allows this to flow and build better. Personally, I’m down with this sort of stuff and this is very much a love it or hate it, which is not bad for the televote.
As always, Ukraine have a fair level of support in the semi final but will need an engaging stage show to try to score as well as possible with the public with juries unlikely to have this in their ten. At the moment, I have 8/9 countries likely to be a stronger package than Ukraine so this will be in a real fight to escape. Going off past form, I just give this the nod for now. If Go_A make the final, their vote should at least hold up well and a midtable finish is in reach.
Personal Rating: 10/10 Competitive Rating: 6/10 Early Prediction: 8th-13th in Semi 1, 12th-18th in Final if a Q.
REVAMP UPDATE (09/03)
Seeing as there’s been a few significant changes to this and this isn’t just a 3 minute cut/ richer production revamp, it’s worth revisiting this. Here is the official Eurovision version that will represent Ukraine:
My initial reaction was negative to this revamp. The important parts and instrumentation are all there but with a slightly different melody and arrangement. It’s definitely jarring, but almost impossible to judge having heard the original.
I will say that this should have started slower, especially the vocal if not the instrumentation, to give it more room to build and reach it’s crazy crescendo. That’s the biggest error and the only one I can really give objectively.
In terms of qualification, we obviously have a much clearer picture of the competition and my ‘early prediction is less early’. On the plus side, Russia and Australia are below my expectations whilst no other country has really over performed. On the downside, Russia may slightly eat into the votes for this.
Qualification is still in Ukraine’s hands as I trust them to stage it correctly -with a big pyro budget- and this will probably perform similarly should it make it through.
Personal Rating: 8/10 Competitive Rating: 6/10 Early Prediction: 8th-12th Semi One, 12th-17th in final if a Q.