Switzerland – The Swiss entry to the Eurovision Song Contest in Baku will be the first to be selected in this Eurovision season. The national final is held in Kreuzlingen on December 10 and will see 14 acts from all over the country compete for the Swiss ticket to Baku. In this editorial I have written down my thoughts (quite randomly) while listening to the songs, have assessed their chances at winning the national final and if they were selected, their chances at the Eurovision Song Contest. I don’t mean to hurt anyone’s feelings, tastes can differentiate! So here we go:You can listen to all the songs on our Eurovision playlist and vote for your personal favourite in our Swiss National Final Poll!
Katherine St. Laurent – Wrong to Let You Go
A québécoise representing Switzerland in Eurovision? Where have I heard that before? Ah yes…. Katherine St. Laurent’s song does sound like your typical Céline Dion (Switzerland ’88) ballad, which could just as easily be on the B-side of a single of the Canadian songbird. Wrong to Let You Go is well performed, has a little passage in French and has a nice melody. It’s not the Molitva kind of ballad tough that leaves you breathless and makes you feel… well.. flashed. As I’m a ballad kind of guy, I still like it loads!
- Personal opinion:
- Chances to win the national final: medium
- Chances at Eurovision: low
Sosoflou – Quand Je Ferme Les Yeux
One of three entries that are entirely in French. The video indicates what may shine through in the song as well: This is not professional. Despite or maybe due to this fact, the song is quite charming and has a catchy chorus. Unfortunately it reminds me a lot of the kind of song that Luc Plamondon wrote for Starmania all those year’s ago. For Eurovision, this might sound a bit too dated. Still just for being French, this gets plus points!
- Personal opinion:
- Chances to win the national final: low
- Chances at Eurovision: low
Ze Flying Zézettes Orchestra – L’autre
This is the second French entry in the national final and this times it’s typically French (at least what I understand to be typically French). There are fiddles, guitars, rather acceptable and creative lyrics (for a Eurovision song and certainly this national final). It comes across very folksy and sympathetic. I could imagine hearing it while “flaner” (strolling) through the streets of Paris (or Zürich *g*), hearing this played by a street band and stopping to listen to it. Furthermore it is well sung and rather catchy. My black horse!
- Personal opinion:
- Chances to win the national final: medium
- Chances at Eurovision: medium
Atomic Angles – Black Symphony
The youngest participants with one of the most “modern” songs in the competition. The song is typical girl band sound with electro elements, repetitive and frankly a little annoying. Young people will probably like this (not that I’m old) but we haven’t even heard the girls perform live (expecting nothing adelesque…). They are nevertheless one of the favourites to win this. The usual television viewer would probably assess this as most Eurovision. Hopefully the Swiss won’t let themselves be influence by such devilish toughts when voting on December 10.
- Personal opinion:
- Chances to win the national final: high
- Chances at Eurovision: medium
Guillermo Sorya – Baby, Baby, Baby
Sorya has a great voice, very much my taste! A little Motown, a little sunny boy! The song is nothing that special, but it is catchy! I caught myself humming it on my way to university. Unfortunately this took at least 3 listens to be appreciated by my ears (don’t know why) which is a little too much for Eurovision. I also like the harmonies. The lyrics are a bit repetitive but not as uncreative as others (that we’ll talk about later!). It is a bit in the style of Max Mutzke and Stefanie Heinzmann so the Swiss might quite like it…
- Personal opinion:
- Chances to win the national final: medium
- Chances at Eurovision: low
Patric Scott feat Fabienne Louves – Real Love
Ah yes… Beauty and the guy who pretends he’s interested in her..(well..it did work this year (Azerbaijan!)). The two look nice together, but I just don’t think they mean what they sing about ^^. The song is a bit too schlager for my taste and the lyrics (I told you it would get worse) are incredibly random and uncreative (Just real love… I will give you my heart…not just a part of it). If I didn’t know any better I would say Dieter Bohlen had something to do with this. Nevertheless I have to praise their (especially Patric’s) vocal abilities.. Let’s hope they can keep it up on the night of the national final!
- Personal opinion:
- Chances to win the national final: medium
- Chances at Eurovision: low
Chiara Dubey – Anima Nuova
The only Italian song in the selection! A beautiful ballad, very reserved, sensual and fragile. Normally I would fall for a song like this in 3 seconds. In this case I didn’t… There’s nothing rational that I could explain this with but something is missing. Maybe a catchier chorus? A less squeaky voice? I don’t really know! The fact that this is performed in Italian gives it a more romantic quality though. Even though she won’t win, Chiara deserves a good placing at least!
- Personal opinion:
- Chances to win the national final:medium
- Chances at Eurovision: low
Sinplus – Unbreakable
This is the only song in this selection that I liked after just one listen. This is extremely catchy and energetic. The song could easily be a radio or even chart hit. Not to mention that the boys are quite easy on the eyes. I have one problem with this: The pronunciation of the lead singer is awful! At first I didn’t even understand what the chorus was supposed to say (and I’m still not really sure…). I hope if they win they work on this problem as it is really distracting. The lead singer is a pretty good singer and a good performer. My favourite for Switzerland!
- Personal opinion:
- Chances to win the national final: (very) high
- Chances at Eurovision: quite high
Lys Assia – C’était Ma Vie
Ok… what can I say? It’s Lys Assia! It’s Lys Assia! It’s the biggest Eurovision legend (maybe except the ever more arrogant Johnny Logan and the dissolved ABBA) Lys Assia! If this song was sung by anyone else (with the exception of maybe Celine or Adele) I would say this song is a typical, flat , boring Siegel ballad… but it’s Lys Assia! I’m not sure I can hold myself back from trying to vote for her when she stands on that stage in Kreuzlingen with her dress from 1956 and her song that sounds so boringly and yet beautifully nostalgic. With all the publicity she is getting she is another big favourite to win the crown! What can I do? Es ist halt die Assia!
- Personal opinion:
- Chances to win the national final: high
- Chances at Eurovision: medium
Emel – She
Ethnic song from a Swiss girl with Turkish roots… After the annoying lalala part at the beginning I would bet my all that the following part is an almost exact replica of a famous Shakira song (not that the rest of the song is very non-shakiray). The arabic influences may bring Switzerland some sympathy votes at Eurovision, but otherwise I don’t see this going very far… One plus point of this song are the lyrics (except the mentioned lalala…): anthem for the lot of Turkish women and criticism of patriarchy (Honor is taking you way too far…She was your little sister girl, how could you take her away….Freedom is stronger than fear) ! Good lyrics is better than nothing!
- Personal opinion:
- Chances to win the national final: low
- Chances at Eurovision: low
Ivo – Peace & Freedom
I love this raspy voice! My favourite vocal performance in this national final. The song is quite nice as well, guitars, melodic, everything I usually like! Unfortunately, there is one big problem: the lyrics are just pretentious! (Time for peace and freedom e.t.c) And the “I have a dream” bit at the beginning makes me wanna puke (sorry). Nevertheless, if I pretend not to understand English this song is very enjoyable and this voice just hits my taste button ^^.
- Personal opinion:
- Chances to win the national final: low
- Chances at Eurovision: low to medium
I Quattro – Fragile
Another camp group of tenors with slimy hear, singing pretentious, pompous “classical” music. The only song in this selection I can not stand to listen to! I’m just scared that so close to Christmas people, certainly those who will probably watch the national final, will fall for this. Let’s hope not!
- Personal opinion:
- Chances to win the national final: medium (scared)
- Chances at Eurovision: low
Raphael Jeger – The Song in My Head
Starts like a schlager, continues like a schlager and ends like one… The lyrics are horribly simple and uncreative (raise your voice and sing along with me.. That’s the song in my head making me happy every day from now to eternity…) , the chorus is trying too hard to be catchy and thus fails to achieve its aim even more. The voice is not special enough to save this either. No just no!
- Personal opinion:
- Chances to win the national final: low
- Chances at Eurovision: low
Macy – Shining
This is a nice radio-friendly song. For some Eurovision fans this is the clear favourite, I can’t really see why… The song is nice enough, but it’s not catchy enough and really goes nowhere (maybe I will “get” it after a few more listens).All in all this is not special enough to get a lot of votes on December 10.
- Personal opinion:
- Chances to win the national final: low to medium
- Chances at Eurovision: low
All in all the Swiss national final has a bunch of quite charming and listenable songs. The only one’s that could have a shot of bringing Switzerland to the Eurovision final again are Sinplus (!), Lys Assia (just due to her story) and to a lesser extent Ze Flying Zézettes Orchestra. However, the favourites to win the national final for me are Sinplus, the Atomic Angles, Lys Assia and the dark horse Ze Flying Zézettes Orchestra.
What do you think about the contestants? You can listen to all the songs on our Eurovision playlist and vote for your personal favourite in our Swiss National Final Poll!
Related articles
- Switzerland: Lys Assia to Wear Her 1956 Winning Dress
- Switzerland: Cat Fight Between Lys Assia and Atomic Angles?
- Switzerland: The Full National Final Line-Up
or how Manuel agreed with us on Sinplus/Ze Flying
I still think “shining” will win :p
Patric Scott feat Fabienne Louves – “Real Love” FTW!!!!
Who is that, Marko?
Nicki Minaj!
Thanks.
for me: Sinplus in Baku!
The chorus of Sinplus’ song is “Swim against the stream, following your wildest dreams” the problem is that he’s got it backwards and says ‘sweem against the strihm’ instead of ‘swihm against the streem’ :p
Yeah you’re right ^^ It’s all about phonetics ^^
I do hope he fixes that mistake…by the way I wonder what song will get a huge revamp before the live show or is that not allowed? I remember Anna’s song last year didn’t even have a ukelele during the internet selection….
Maybe Atomic Angles? They seem to be pretty ambitious…
I will not tell any of you my favorites because they might flop harder that way XD
Svashta! :S
And what is the reason of being in blog about ESC then? :S
I was joking. Let’s see who guesses the correct song first
I enjoyed reading this editorial. I can understand why Manuel wrote what he wrote. It’s hard to predict who is going to win without having heard all of these guys (and lady, I can’t bring myself to include Lys in the guy category). That said, I have to say that ‘Unbreakable’ loses some of its shine live (his accent is off-putting). I have two bets: the safe one (‘Wrong to let you go’) and the bold one (‘L’autre’). If Lys manages to pull it off live, she will win, imo.
Great editorial … and I agree with every single observation / evaluation.
That’s not what Mark Twain would want ^^
I still think that Macy could win this national final even though it’s not my favorite (that would be “L’autre”. And I really really really hope Lys Assia doesn’t win. I doubt even the juries would vote for her.
There is no clear favourite and the field is quite open. The live performances will be the pivotal. It’s going to be an interesting show.