My review:
CYPRUS 2020 - Sandro - Running: "decent but ultimately impactless"
I hate to repeat myself so much, but this is my tenth review and I feel like I labelled many songs as "ok but not doing much" already. The Cypriot one is sadly one of them for me. First of all, I'm sending a compassionate thought to Sandro: poor boy had to sing a song he didn't feel, and although I wouldn't have been here for it either, the delegation should have let him go the Shawn Mendes guitar-driven ballad route, as it seemed to be his thing.
"Running" comes off as a disposable pop demo to me, giving me Imri's "Alive" vibes. It's strange because I appreciate that the structure is a bit chaotic to all appearances with the breaks, that there is a blend of electronic sounds and organic instruments. But at the same time, it's borderline cheap and as dull as dishwater. I don't frequent satanic places, but I imagine this is the stuff gay bars or clubs wouldn't mind playing during pre-dinner time. Of course, the lyrics aren't dealing with particle physics, but I won't pour water on a drowing man. Why did I think he sang
"I don't feel like sucking" instead of "I don't feel like talking"? Now I can't unhear it.
I'm not sure what Cyprus was trying to achieve with both Sandro and that song, honestly. As I said, I don't mean the package is bad per se, it's just "there", and that is the trend I deplore this edition.
Prediction-wise, it was a NQ, regardless of the presentation. This effort had no target audience, it didn't go far enough musically to be remembered imo. And Sandro wouldn't have been able to sell his thing like Imri did. Since they got rid of him, I'm unsure what the Cypriot team will do next. In all honesty, I have no expectations: their recent track record shows that they don't have a clear vision surrounding their participation, it's mainly about facile Swedish pop stuff, so... yawn. But who knows? Maybe they saw people didn't get hot this time around, so they may change tack? Wait and see.