National Final Throwback: Erika Selin – Break Me Up

Considering Ireland is the most successful nation at Eurovision (until that record is broken, perhaps by Sweden?), their results are fairly average in the years gone by. Other than Jedward in 2011, their only qualifications led to fairly low results in the final, and after 2013, the nation hasn’t managed to qualify. Today’s National Final Throwback takes us back to 2015, where Ireland ‘borrowed’ one of the five national final acts from the nation hot on their heels for their Eurovision winning record, Sweden. The performer is Erika Selin, a Swedish singer whose claim to fame was participating on Idol, where she finished in 8^th place. The song she performed in the Irish national final was titled Break Me Up, but was it a relationship she should have had with Ireland in the first place?

I remember watching this national final back in 2015, and the main overarching theme of the national final was the severe lack of quality in music. There were five fairly average songs, perhaps minus the eventual winner Playing With Numbers by Molly Sterling (which went on to not qualify to the Eurovision final). At the time, Break Me Up seemed like a viable option for Eurovision. A Swedish singer at the front, performing an average, but catchy enough pop song. Watching this performance now, I can more clearly see the flaws in the performance.

Erika has a nice voice, which you would expect from someone who progressed through the Idol competition back in Sweden. Her voice has a country vibe to it, which is flattering in the verses of the song, but occasionally her voice leaves little to be desired. I find the song to be most promising at its intro and first verse, however after that I lose the appeal, and just find it sounds flat for what’s meant to be a country inspired pop tune. The chorus feels underwhelming, melodically and lyrically.

Overall, at the time, in a field of fairly average songs, I thought this to be one of the best but looking back, this just doesn’t do it for me. There are some redeeming features, enough to give the song a 4/10, but not much more than that.