This year marks the 6th participation of Ireland at Junior Eurovision. The nation hasn’t had the best results during their short history, however hoping to change that is Maiú Levi Lawlor with his song, ‘Saor (Disappear)’.
Anita:
Song + Vocals
Ireland ventures down the rock route for Junior Eurovision this year, with heavier drums and guitars than previous entries. Upon first listen, this song isn’t as clear cut as other entries this year. The melodies aren’t the easiest to follow, and the production is a bit messy. At any given time, there is too much happening in the backing track and it’s overpowering. This rings especially true when Anna Kearney begins singing backing vocals. Extra points for including a former Irish representative in the song, and as lovely as her voice is, it doesn’t slot into this song seamlessly.
As for the vocals, Maiú has a unique vocal tone that I think gets muffled in this track. Perhaps in a live setting, his vocals will come to the forefront. Based on his national selection performances, Maiú isn’t the strongest singer of this year’s field, but I am by no means expecting a disaster.
Performance + Act
I really have no idea what to expect from Ireland this year in terms of their stage performance. They may choose to play on the rock elements of the song and feature other ‘musicians’ on stage, which could create a nice atmosphere. Otherwise, it’s not the easiest song to stage. I am certainly curious to see how they approach this.
Conclusions
While the song has grown on me, I think objectively this will struggle to make a huge impact in Paris. The messy production is something that is hard to overcome, and I don’t think the stage show will be so spectacular to skyrocket this up the leaderboard.
Rating
5/10
Dennis:
Song + Vocals
This is one of the messiest compositions of the contest of 2021. It feels like Ireland tried to mash two songs into one, adding a lot of guitars as well. The combination of English and Irish makes it also hard to follow the song, since you are wondering a lot of the time what he is singing and whether he is still in English or not.
Performance + Act
I think it would be wise not to let Maiú carry this song all by himself. If you go for the guitars in this song, make them a true part of the act as well and rock the venue in Paris. Rock songs at Junior Eurovision are not heard that often, so if you stage that well it could give the Irish entry for 2021 a unique hook we haven’t seen a lot before.
Conclusions
Whilst you always wish every kid taking part at Junior Eurovision has success, they can’t all be winning the contest. There are always also participants that will end up in the lower regions of the contest and I suspect Ireland will be one of those nations in 2021. Unless they really go full on the ‘rock-hook’ and make it a very unique entry in the field of 2021 and thus making it stand out enough to sneak to the middle of the pack.
Rating
4/10
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