This year, the Greek broadcaster chose to internally select their act, and they chose hip hop act Argo, which will represent the nation with the song Utopian Land. The song, as per their usual genre, is a hip hop crossed with the traditional instruments often heard in the Greek entries. It’s also interesting to note that the song features Pontic Greek dialect.
The song starts off very mysterious sounding, and that’s probably the most promising portion of the song. From there, the female voice comes in with the English chorus. From there, it’s a very simple composition – chorus, verse, chorus and so on. Personally, as I’m going through a bit of a rap-loving phase, I enjoy that element of the song. I also enjoy the instrumentation, but there’s one thing that brings it down for me, and that’s the English chorus. I just find the lyrics to be really badly written. I think it’s the fact that they have rhymed the first three lines of the chorus, but Utopian Land doesn’t rhyme and that really seems to offend my ears. It seems such a little thing to be picky about, but it just brings it down for me. I think I also would have enjoyed it a little more if it was only male voices.
I hope the staging brings us a lot of traditional elements, as it’s a huge part of the song. Traditional costumes alone would bring this song more attention, as audiences seem to eat that stuff up for breakfast, lunch and dinner.
As for my prediction of qualification – they’re in semi-final 1. Semi 1 is a tough field. Do I think they deserve to qualify? No, not really. I think Greece is one of those countries that will always qualify, even with songs that aren’t all that fantastic (2014, prime example for me). Saying that, do I think it will qualify? Yes. I think Greece’s spot into the final is almost always certain. Without bashing the song down too much, because I don’t necessarily hate it, I think with the right staging and a good vocal performance on the night will make me realise that it is deserving of a place in the final.
With all that said, I’m going to give it a 5.5/10. Without the English choruses/female vocals, I think this would have been a lot higher on my list. I really love the instrumentation, and that alone is worth the score.
Guest Reviewer:Â Anastasia
Since it was first released ‘Utopian Land’ by Argo caught everyone’s attention and combining the Pontian music with the rap style. It definitely stayed in our mind! Being catchy and different at the same time the song itself gives us a strong message and calls us to join an Utopian land where everyone dances and has fun!
Argo will hope to continue where Maria-Elena Kyriakou left off and climb the scoreboard further – albeit with a completely different sound! Do you think that this unique (for the European standards) song will make it through? I just want to say good luck to everyone who worked in the song and I hope it will qualify to the final. Don’t forget to tell us your opinion in the comments below!
Score: 8/10
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