#I think I read that there was also some controversy over televoting in Iceland?

[eurovision-del]

I’ve finally had a chance to catch up with the national final winners from Saturday! Honestly, neither result really went my way. Firstly, Taya Dora won in Serbia and will represent them with Ramonda. She’s a fantastic singer, and I really liked the dark aesthetic of the staging, it’s a concept that’s very Eurovision-ready. The song also is unlike anything else we’ve got in the lineup this year, and I think it is a good song… I’m just not quite getting it yet. I want to like it, and maybe now I’ll have space to properly get familiar with it as its own song outside of PzE it will grow on me, but I had so many other songs I preferred in Serbia’s selection. I do think it’s a good choice for Serbia though, looking at the contest as a whole.

As for Iceland, while I like Hera Björk, I’m not keen on Scared of Heights as a song. It sounds to me like it could have been a B-side to her previous Eurovision entry, and it’s more ‘dated’ than ‘throwback’. I also found her performance a little lacking, I don’t know, I just needed more energy, either from her or her backing singers, or at least for the staging and lighting to be more dynamic. Her voice however is great, rich and powerful, she didn’t hold back on vocals! Even despite my delay getting my thoughts out, my understanding is that Iceland still haven’t confirmed if they’re going to Eurovision or not this year. If they do, I hope they rework the staging, bring a bit more ‘oomph’ to it to really highlight the positive energy of the song, but I feel this risks being a non-qualifier.