United Kingdom UNITED KINGDOM 2021 - James Newman - Embers

[escYOUnited]

Sometimes I know my fire burns low
But as long as you're with me I'll never get cold
'Til day and night, 'til darkness and light
I never worry when you're by my side

Oh, feelings change and seasons fade
But nothing will burn us out
Nothing can stop us now

Out of the embers
You and I are gonna light up the room (Yeah, you and I gonna light up the room)
Out of the embers
There's a fire burning for you (Yeah, there's a fire burning for you)
I feel the heat here
There's still a chance for us
Down herе in the ashes, yeah, thеre's something growing
Out of the embers
You and I are gonna light up the room (Yeah, you and I gonna light)

Light up the room
Light up the room

You and me forever, we're free
We're cool under pressure, and that's all we need
So take my hand, and forget the past
We're in this together, there's no looking back

Oh, feelings change and seasons fade
But nothing will burn us out
Nothing can stop us now

Out of the embers
You and I are gonna light up the room (Yeah, you and I gonna light up the room)
Out of the embers
There's a fire burning for you (Yeah, there's a fire burning for you)
I feel the heat here
There's still a chance for us
Down here in the ashes, yeah, there's something growing
Out of the embers
You and I are gonna light up the room (Yeah, you and I gonna light)

Light up the room

Out of the embers
You and I are gonna light up the room (Yeah, you and I gonna light up the room)
Out of the embers
You and I are gonna light up the room (Yeah, you and I gonna light up the room)​

 

[Iker]

Heartbeat feels like the singer is over-emoting and the hook isn't really that good.

LoveWave is decent, though it's different and towards pop-rock. The strange pause and rising scale before the main body of the song is my criticism of it, it feels a bit gimmicky. It didn't need that.

I think Justs performance in the GF was totally overdone vocally and expression -wise, I prefer the studio cut. For me the song itself was brilliant and very memorable, so I don't get your criticism about the hook not being good or something. Each to its own.

The whole track felt very fresh (I can't say that about most songs at the ESC that often sound like some rehashed thing that was lying 10+ years in the drawer) and quite bold in its sounds

 

[Iker]

I just checked to make sure indeed has a terrible track record at the ESC this century, especially since 2012.

If I were to rank your entries (not judging how the performance was like) it would look like this:
1. 2014 (pretty cool)
GAP in quality
2. 2016 (uplifting, melodic, but too MOR)
3. 2020 (underrated, for me James Newman would be more comfortable performing this than 'Embers' in Rotterdam especially as there were multiple better uptempos this year)
4. 2015 (not as bad as people thought, the performance was a trainwreck though I admit)
5. 2017 - quite underwhelming but not embarrassing.
Bad and lame stuff starts from here
6. 2021
7. 2013
8. 2018
Bloody awful those below
9. 2012
10. 2019

 

[Loindici]

But for Italy this was an exception. It's funny they failed once they selected their act internally.

It still is a bad result, however. I find it funny too, SanRemo Festival really is Italy's backbone.

 

[seagull]

There was nothing wrong with Emma herself, maybe the song wasn't to enough people's tastes, but it was probably the staging. Even with a good/popular song, you can still wreck it if you get it wrong live, see North Macedonia 2017.

As apposed to say Daz Sampson in 2006, which I found creepy at the time...

 

[musicfan]

I've felt for a while that both Sanremo and Melodifestivalen have fueled the hype of both broadcaster's entries. And really it's just because of their reputation founded upon being big events held over several days and above all of being around for so many years. And I've thought that that reputation is undeserved.

Outside of the fan bubble of both events it's really not very convincing that the music being produced at either is actually of any superior quality than many other pre-selection events. To win Sanremo for example it's obvious that you have to have a pre-existing fanbase, and that's how Maneskin won. A group like La Rappresentante di Lista isn't big enough to win it yet as even though they had a good song they weren't even up there seriously contending.

 

[Ianp16]

edit

 

[eurovizian]

Actually one of my favourite Italian entries. :'D

Also a side note, I still can't believe they've kept these 2014 up with such horrendous audio quality. It's trying to listen to them through a wall.

It's so annoying that Eurovision is still uploading clearly degraded "high quality" videos on youtube, while at the same time only releasing a low quality DVD, at a very hefty price I might add. They really should put out a bluray and high quality downloads to buy (for the fans). They never seem to learn though.

 

[Teaisloveable]

Emma Blackery (A British YouTuber/ Musician) opinions and comments on the UK in Eurovision.

Absolutely agree with her! Worth a watch

 

[MopManMoss]

2017 was a fairly decent song for 21st century UK standards but Lucie Jones just looked like she really needed to use the toilet the whole song which was massively off-putting

 

[crashworld]

To be honest, the issue why UK flopped is largely because James is not a good performer. He didn't sell the song to the fullest. The staging is alright, could have been better but it's not the worst. It didn't harm the performance nor elevate the song.

 

[Leydan]

2017 was a fairly decent song for 21st century UK standards but Lucie Jones just looked like she really needed to use the toilet the whole song which was massively off-putting

The song wasn't anything special, it was the staging that brought it to life and got the juries into it. Imagine how well she would have done with a better song.

 

[harey]

@musicfan But to me it's exactly what makes Italian entries in esc interesting: they represent the popular music in the country. In France outside of Bilal Hasani (who already had a teenagers fanbase) contestants of Destination Eurovision and the 2021 selection were no-names, former the voice contestants or people who were famous decades ago (Chimene Badi, Emmanuel Moire). So even if we individually may like or not our entries, it doesn't really represent what is aired on French radio stations or Spotify.

 

[Edweis]

@musicfan But to me it's exactly what makes Italian entries in esc interesting: they represent the popular music in the country. In France outside of Bilal Hasani (who already had a teenagers fanbase) contestants of Destination Eurovision and the 2021 selection were no-names, former the voice contestants or people who were famous decades ago (Chimene Badi, Emmanuel Moire). So even if we individually may like or not our entries, it doesn't really represent what is aired on French radio stations or Spotify.

Hum, while they were no-names, I still think our 2021 selection sounded... very French. It had great diversity, with genres we can find on the radio for some, but on other platforms too. And that's why I liked it.

UK's entry was the one that sounded the most British in recent years... I can totally imagine it airing in the charts. Doesn't mean it will but it wouldn't be a random choice.

 

[harey]

@Edweis Yeah, I totally agree in fact! I was more thinking about how it's not bad imho to have a lot of well-known artists who want to win a huge show and then go to eurovision.

And even if our 2021 got a huge diversity, for example we had no rap/hip-hop (which is the most "current" genre for young people). But anyway, just trying to check genres isn't enough, we also need good songs.

And to stay on the current topic' UK's entry is trending now, so to me it was not a BAD choice, there was just something lacking to get points.

 

[ESC94]

If someone´s interested, here´s the detailed TV disaster of the this year:

26th place -

25th place -

24th place -

23rd place -

22nd place -

21st place -

20th place -

.....

14th place -


As you can see it was a complete disaster, even in its "best" country "Embers" wasn´t that close to a point, in the end it finished last in no less than fourteen countries.

 

[spinachpie]

Oh, well at least they didn't finish dead last with all countries

 

[Lance Esgard]

ember
noun
plural noun: embers
a small piece of burning or glowing coal or wood in a dying fire.
"the dying embers in the grate"

There's still a chance for us
Down herе in the ashes, yeah, thеre's something growing
Out of the embers
You and I are gonna light up the room

The song may yet deliver what the lyrics promised. Embers died in the ashes of nul points but it may have either planted the seed for something better or something shocking.

 

[Jopi]

I like Embers, I really do. But the performance was really underwhelming, his singing wasn't good at all too. It screamed last place, and I'm so sorry for that, because, James is such a cute and positive guy, and both his songs Embers and Last Breath are awsome!
Hopefully the UK will do something about these poor results.

 

[ESC94]

I likes Embers, I really do. But the performance was really underwhelming, his singing wasn't good at all too. It screamed last place, and I'm so sorry for that, because, James is such a cute and positive guy, and both his songs Embers and Last Breath are awsome!
Hopefully the UK will do something about these poor results.

I´m hoping this for quite some time already, only to get disappointed again and again.

 

[wtf]

Why hasn't BBC still not asked Hurts? The band has publicly expressed their interest for years. They would be a great jury bait and potentially do well with televotes too But watch them choose something tacky like Frock Destroyers instead, it's very likely after the 0 point thing.