My review of "Lights And Shadows":
-The Netherlands have been sending country music-flavoured entries far too often to me this decade, I mean past a few years the same genre gets boring, change is always welcome. When finally this year announced a musical evolution (or at least a one-year break away from country music), I actually became very curious and hopeful I'd hear something refreshing from the Dutch. Well, I didn't know what to expect really, but certainly not this... If you are a fan of the song, you may not want to read the rest of this post, because my opinion on it isn't what I would call eulogistic... "Lights And Shadow" is a ballad whose message about keeping the faith when gravely sick is commendable, I totally respect what OG3NE had to say, and even more so that they were directly negatively affected by that themselves. However, Eurovision remains a song contest to me and, even the best and most poignant message ever is nothing if the music isn't my cup of tea, which is what happened here. Putting the lyrical content aside, "Lights And Shadows" is as dull as dishwater imo: it started out with a short a cappella intro showcasing the vocal harmonies the three sisters seem to be known for, then an electric guitar and discreet beats accompanied them during the first verse (the vocal melodic lines are quite basic and unexciting tbh, it seems like I've heard this before). When the chorus kicked off, keyboards and slightly more noticeable beats expanded the instrumentation while introducing a pace change. Melody-wise, it flowed nicely for what it was but it flowed like water on stone: meaning there isn't anything memorable, which is problematic for a chorus (within the framework of the contest ofc). The second verse and chorus are pretty much the same vocally and musically. Finally, the bridge spiced things up a little bit with craking beats and dramatic synth notes. The last vocal note of that part is particularly cheesy and cringeworthy tbh. The chorus resumed with a stripped down/almost gospel-like vibe (probably the best part of the song imo) before going back to the usual instrumentation. It's really hard for me to objectively see what's so great about this song tbh: the melody is cliché and forgettable, the arrangements are completely outdated (in a bad way), structure-wise it's not exciting either (apart from the bridge, it's pretty linear) and - even if the message is laudable - it's lyrically a tad cheesy. Many people praised the vocal harmonies, which for sure are on point, but that's not enough in my book to consider it particularly remarkable. I would take "Ik Ben Verliefd" and "Walk Along" over "Lights And Shadows" anytime. Overall, it sounds very mid-90's British girl band b-side to me, the kind of saccharine ballad I would have never thought of hearing again in this day and age. Pros: the harmonies, which are clearly the sole minor asset this effort has. Cons: the entire song - from the uninspired melody to the antiquated arrangements - are the level zero of creativity. Nothing special here.
If I had to specify a highlight here, I'd say the beginning of the last chorus, with its stripped-back instrumentation, sparked my interest for a few seconds.
-Vocally, OG3NE were on point. All their performances were pitch-perfect and harmonies very neat and professional... even though separately their voices aren't that special. What I'm going to say is a bit mean, but... being vocally perfect is the very least these girls could do because imo their purpose was to sell a vocal performance rather than a song, given that the composition lacked a bit of eveything that makes a Eurovision entry interesting. They followed the steps of Ruth Lorenzo, Dami Im and Anja Nissen insofar as all these singers went to the contest as if they were on x-factor or some other talent show. Singing well is important, but having a good song is still more important in my book, as I couldn't care less about well-performed mediocre songs.
-Visually, it was minimalistic. The three sisters were standing next to each other at the center of the stage with the sentence "cry no more" displayed in the background. Then people hugging each other and hands separating appeared (which was cheesy af tbh, the imagery was very second-class American romance TV film). During the chorus, they showed bits of the lyrics on an orange-ish cloudy background which resembled candlelights I guess, and then the silhouette of a woman in lights and shadows (referring to their mother). Candles decorated the floor during the second verse as the girls walked towards the audience. Honestly, all of that looked like a pile of cheese to me, I only save the colour scheme (purple, blue, orange), but Czechs used it better imo. Camerawork-wise, they obviously made a good job at highlight every one of them and I assume that they wanted to lay emphasis on them and their performance more than anything else, because there wasn't much to watch otherwise. Personally, I think the staging was kinda tasteless, or maybe it's because it was so in line with the song that I didn't like it. Outfit-wise, the girls wore shiny dark purple outfits (two dresses and a suit)... Even as far as their clothing is concerned, I'm hesitant: it wasn't bad, but they looked older than they are dressed like that.
-Results-wise, it's my official biggest shock of the year. To begin with, I was convinced they were 100% out in the second semi, so their qualification kind of came out of nowhere to me. But the most hilarious thing was their final 5th placing with the juries...
Above Italy, Moldova or Belgium...
Anyway, I side with the televoters on that one: 15pts was pretty much the maximum the song deserved and seeing them land outside the top 10 was a personal relief. In my ranking, "Lights And Shadows" is 42nd out of 43 songs: it's totally unremarkable and "off-topic" in a Eurovision lineup. Meh. I don't know if I should expect a country comeback next year, that would be nice to keep trying new things, but please be daring! Enough with blandness. See ya next year
