We might actually get a surprise winner this year.
I'm sure we'll have a better idea after the semis, seeing the local feedback and all, but at the moment things look very open to me.
Alika is nice enough, but far from a certain winner. I'm getting Jaagup Tuisk vibes here.. might be too theatrical and overblown for our televoters.
Especially with several more 'easy' ballads to compete with! I could see our televoters going for Sissi or Andreas or Janek over Alika. She's an excellent live singer tho', so if she can wow people on stage (and her competitors don't), she could still take it. But I'm unsure our voters will vibe with this enough.
Elysa is also decent, but lacking a little something. Could benefit from lack of strong uptempo pop & snatch the win, especially if it gets to the superfinal with two ballads.
But doesn't quite have the catchy hook Stig's strongest songs have had. Elysa also isn't the strongest live singer.
Honestly, I'd send one of the two rock songs.
30 years and we've never sent one of those! Both Bedwetters and Ollie would make for pretty good entries.. if they can pull it off live that is. They might split the vote & cancel each-other out tho'. Also it remains to be seen if our televoters like rock
that much.
Never had any get too close to winning.. then again, rock songs in EL are pretty rare to begin with. Well, this year would be a nice chance to send one since there aren't many obvious frontrunners or big standouts.
Try something different to our usual ballads & pop songs.
Anyways, overall quality this year is nice enough, tho' (as it often happens) lacking in something truly outstanding. Nice variety tho', got several ballads, some rock, bit of rap, jazz, indie.. at least it isn't 90% vanilla radio pop like some years have been.
And the lack of obvious favorites might make for a pretty interesting show! Whether anything could make a dent in actual Eurovision.. probably too early to say. Nothing screams obvious top 10, but a couple could probably get us to the final at least.
Got several jury bait options, but need to actually pass the semis first.