Eurovision 2025 song (p)reviews: part 7/7 (San Marino, Cyprus, Israel, Switzerland, France)
Here's my final batch of Eurovision 2025 reviews: 5 entries, none of which really inspire me if I'm being frank, but which I wanted to review in the interests of completeness. So with apologies in advance for my lack of enthusiasm, let's get these reviews finished! And remember, I'm not angry, I'm just disappointed...
(Scoring system recapped at * below)
San Marino: Gabry Ponte - "Tutta L'Italia" ★
This stands out in the competition by being in 12/8 meter (as ever, the vast majority of entries are in 4/4). I quite like the touches of folk instrumentation. It's pleasant enough but quite simple in concept and overall sounds like a football chant. It suffers a little from using the same chord progression in both the verses and choruses (though at least there's a bridge section with a different progression).
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| Gabry Ponte (formerly of Eiffel '65) looking quite... Blue |
Honestly, I've mostly had enough of this song at the half-way point. I also struggle to imagine how this can be staged well in Basel if we are stuck with the existing formula of DJ bouncing around (but not singing) plus 3 masked men singing (but standing still).
Cyprus: Theo Evan - "Ssh" ★
This is a concept I appreciate: the lyrics appear to be a literal riddle, the answer of which was intended to be revealed on the Eurovision stage. The lovely folk at Overthinking It reckoned they had the answer well ahead of time (hypothesis: the song is about the mythical figure of Adonis) though their theory clashes with the official, yet confusing, announcement from the Cypriot delegation (apparently it's about Leonardo Da Vinci's "Vitruvian Man"). Since "Vitruvian Man" doesn't seem to answer the riddle nearly as neatly as Adonis, I'm very much hoping this is last minute trolling from Cyprus, and not just terrible riddle-writing.
Essentially, I quite like the EDM choruses but don't like the delivery of the spoken word verses, which kind of remind me of children teasing each other in the playground. I've no hate for this one but I do struggle to see what its appeal was supposed to be for the casual viewer.
Israel: Yuval Raphael - "New Day Will Rise"
This is another example of the kind of ballad that I hate. At least it's in 3/4, which sets it apart, and I don't absolutely hate the orchestration in the backing track (it's not as over-the-top as Serbia's, for instance) and there are a couple of tasteful synth additions. The chords progressions used are generally extremely dull and well-worn, saved only by a gracefully-executed key change towards the end. Yuval's voice sounds perfectly nice, but then this is the studio recording, and even a perfect live vocal won't save a boring song. I'm afraid this gets zero stars from me, as I would definitely skip it, despite acknowledging it's not the worst possible example of a ballad.
Switzerland: Zoë Më - "Voyage" ★
Like Poland's Luna from 2024, I've already filed Zoë (and her song) in my brain as "sings breathily, mistakenly thinks that automatically makes the song sound really emotional and artsy". It's a bit of a shame, as I think the composition is pleasant enough and well orchestrated in the accompaniment. There's a livelier, more dramatic section which provides much-needed variety. Had Zoë tried swapping from light and breathy to a more full and focussed sound, I'd be much more sympathetic. However I don't think her breathy quality quite matches up to the orchestral swell during the choruses. A good effort, but not quite enough to make my playlist and so it's limited to 1 star only.
France: Louane - "Maman"
And to finish, you guessed it: another dull ballad of exactly the sort I hate. At least I acknowledge my bias, right? To acknowledge the positives first at least: Louane's vocal delivery is really solid, and it's a great sign that the French delegation arranged for the first outing of this song to be a live performance, thereby avoiding that all-too-common problem with internal selections, namely "it's a great studio recording, but can they sing it live?". I'm not completely appalled by the harmony, and I can't predict exactly what's going to happen, but... in hindsight none of the chords interest me. Neither is there much in the way of rhythmic interest. While the melody is not super-predictable either, it's just not enough to stop me skipping this track. I very much hope Louane does a great job, and sings her heart out in this very personal song. But I am definitely not the intended audience for this one.
37 done, all finished!
So now all that's left is to review the Semi-final non-qualifiers. Oh, and the national final honourable mentions. And review the Grand Final performances... and maybe do some sort of overall round-up of the 2025 contest? So quite a lot, actually... stay tuned!* Scoring system recap:
Remember that at this point my overall my goal is to review the songs themselves in their studio versions. I'm using the same starring system I used from 2023 and 2024, namely:
no stars = if I had control of the playlist I would turn it off or skip
★ wouldn't skip if it came up on shuffle
★★ on my "2025 Eurovision Favourites" playlist on Spotify
★★★ spent my own money getting a digital download; gone digging around their back catalogue for more stuff
★★★★ bought their entire back catalogue; checking out tour dates
