2016 Reviews – Russia – Sergey Lazarev – You Are The Only One

For a while now, Russia has been the favourite with the bookmakers to win Eurovision 2016 and it’s easy to see, when they are sending their best male artist with the song You Are The Only One. The song is a crowd favourite, but is it mine?

Short answer, no. I’ve never found myself to be a big fan of Russian Eurovision entries, as I’ve found many of them to be generic and contrived. This year I don’t feel any different. The lyrics are incredibly cheesy, and it’s all been heard before. There is absolutely nothing revolutionary here – the closest thing to that would be the song being in something other than the typical 4/4 time signature. I’ll admit, it’s nice to see a song breaking out of the 4/4 but I think it’s been wasted on a corny song. The different time signature does give the backing music some tension and keeps the intensity high throughout the whole performance, which I think will work well on the Eurovision stage, but again, it’s just a shame that the actual song as a whole does nothing for me.

The song is quite repetitive, and I think it could have benefitted from a better bridge between the 2 final choruses, rather than a very brief moment of quiet. Regardless of what I think of it, it’s clear this song will do very well, and could potentially win as predicted. I certainly won’t be happy to see it win, but I know that it’s a very real possibility.

His vocals live are good, and we know the stage performance is going to be really solid with the team behind him. This will definitely make an impact with audiences, and will get the votes. This isn’t a song I find myself listen to often… or ever, really. I think there are songs this year far more cutting edge and deserving of the win, but if Russia wins, I can’t say I’ll be overly surprised.

This song to me is average, so I’ll give it an average score of 5/10. I know I’m not the only one, but I’m certainly one of few who don’t seem to like this song. I suppose that’s the great thing about Eurovision, we all like different things, and it can add to the unpredictability of the contest.

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