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Albania ALBANIA 2020 - Arilena Ara - Fall From The Sky

How do you rate this entry?

  • 12

    9 10.7%
  • 10

    7 8.3%
  • 8

    7 8.3%
  • 7

    7 8.3%
  • 6

    10 11.9%
  • 5

    13 15.5%
  • 4

    11 13.1%
  • 3

    5 6.0%
  • 2

    9 10.7%
  • 1

    1 1.2%
  • 0

    5 6.0%

  • Total voters
    84

escYOUnited

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September 28, 2009
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crashworld

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May 12, 2018
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Oh lord, what have they done? Now it has become another basic English ballad that is going to get eaten up by the other ballads in the semi finals. I am downgrading this to a 3 (when it has the potential to go up). I fear this is a NQ for them.
 
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RainyWoods

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February 9, 2012
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They took out my favourite part (the violin solo with the backing vocalists bit) and totally gutted the verses, making them less melodic. It was so dynamic and flowed beautifully before. It's generally lost quite a bit of power from the changes made. It doesn't pop out as well.

Thankfully the chorus melodically is still the same. They hit less hard now though with that very chill beat they've added really not helping matters. It feels slower too. The only positive for me is how haunting the piano is at the beginning of the song and as Arilena enters the final chorus. That's gorgeous.

It's not a disaster and melodically I think it's almost as charming as ever, but none of this needed to happen. It was perfect before. Why take the drive away from the verses? I'll get used to it, but seriously Albania, this was not the song to tear apart. Actually, I know what this reminds me of. When someone has won Eurovision and they come back to perform their song with a fancy new arrangement.
 

ag89

Well-known member
Joined
May 17, 2015
Posts
1,727
Ok, so they basically removed all elements that could have been considered as "ethnic" or did not sound mainstream (violin, then that part with deep male vocals...). This is fine, it seems the focus now is only on the vocals while the previous version was more instrumental + vocals showcase.
 

mauve

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February 28, 2018
Posts
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Location
Germany
Oh my oh my. NO. The original charm has faded. Not completely, but the ethno vibes ... where are they? I could have lived with the song being in English, but the new arrangement sounds too perfect. What I feared happened. It sounds too mainstream now. Okay, the melody is still there, but the song doesn't make me FEEL like it used to. I am not sure if I will downgrade my usually 10 pts. I should to 8. I feel just sad.
 

RainyWoods

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I'm starting to feel I could easily live with changes in the verses if the chorus could hit as hard as it did before, and we still had the massive finale with the soaring strings and backing vocals. That's what upsets me the most about this new version. It's lost its punch. I'm not feeling the new added bridge section and the final chorus. All the big moments and shifts don't come as organically as they did before.

I feel like if I hadn't been so in love with the original, spamming it to death for months, I'd probably love this arrangement of the song. If this was my first time with it I'd be like "wow".
 

Mainshow

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December 23, 2018
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13,900
:4: They turned an interesting entry into something less exciting. It's still emotional and her voice can shine but overall, it doesn't sound special or convincing anymore.
 

mauve

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I'm starting to feel I could easily live with changes in the verses if the chorus could hit as hard as it did before, and we still had the massive finale with the soaring strings and backing vocals. That's what upsets me the most about this new version. It's lost its punch. I'm not feeling the new added bridge section and the final chorus. All the big moments and shifts don't come as organically as they did before.

I feel like if I hadn't been so in love with the original, spamming it to death for months, I'd probably love this arrangement of the song. If this was my first time with it I'd be like "wow".

That is exactly how I feel as well. I can only hope that live she will return to some of the NFs elements. xcry
 

RainyWoods

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That is exactly how I feel as well. I can only hope that live she will return to some of the NFs elements. xcry

The original arrangement allowed for such powerful moments with the staging. It was so dynamic and an experience. I'm not getting that from this, but hopefully it works better live.

I'm kind of perturbed by the poll reseting as now I have to leave the song unranked for a while cause I'm confused. I'm disappointed but I also feel it's still probably in a different league to the majority of the other ballads this year.
 

Edweis

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I could live with the English language even if it wasn't necessary in the least. But the new arrangement ? Nah, sorry you just basically stripped it of everything I could find interesting. I'm not worried about Arilena delivering it live and lifting the song a little, but we could have done without this revamp.
I think I'll downgrade it from 5 to 4.
 

Ezio

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January 29, 2017
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Loin d'ici
From 12 down to 6.

Fallfromthe.... sounds terse...... and SKKYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY is just a primal screamfest....... sorry Albania, you are out
 

A-lister

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December 28, 2009
Posts
32,843
Karma for unnecessary changing the language and trying to make it more "mainstream"... Albania you did these stupid "revamps" 2014-2017, and see how that went for you? Last two years you managed generally better but no no, let's do it wrong again...

Not that I care, Elvana Gjata was the real winner for me still...
 

dezbee2008

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March 8, 2012
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2,277
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Florida
I don't remember how many points I gave the original, but this one, though it lost its charm, I'm giving it a 5
 
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