2016 JESC Reviews – Australia – Alexa Curtis – We Are

Australia is back for their second entry into Junior Eurovision, and this year, we’re sending Alexa Curtis with the song We Are. Alexa is another former Voice kids’ participant, so we know that she is capable of performing in front of big audiences, but does the song have what it takes to win?

The song is very smooth, planned, perfect even, but this year, I have the same issue that I had with My Girls last year, where the song just sounds too contrived. It feels like a song written for the purpose of being a good pop song, but the emotion doesn’t feel authentic, and I feel that more with this song compared to last year’s song. I think that the song is quite plain, and doesn’t really extend itself like some of the other entries this year.

I do like this song, but I don’t love it, and I think it might reach the same fate as My Girls, which is a mid-table result. Even in general, I think Australia is wanting to impress Europe, but it’s not giving any personality in the songs we have sent. I’m probably more critical, considering Australia is my home country, but I really do think this song needs something special, and at the moment it doesn’t have that. It could be the case where Alexa builds vocally on the song on the day of the show, and I hope she can, just to give the song more dimension.

I think the staging will be pretty generic, and I can’t imagine anything too outrageous. As a result, I really do think that we will end up somewhere lost in the middle. With such good pop songs in the mix, and such good ballads, I find this song to be halfway in the middle but it doesn’t stand out enough to surpass all those songs.

Overall, this song isn’t doing much for me, and as such, I’m going to give this a 6/10.