This Saturday night, Danish broadcaster DR will host this year’s one-night contest to find Denmark’s entry to the 2017 Eurovision Song Contest.
Ten songs compete, with a mixture of a public vote, a jury, and a handful of Eurovision fans – all deciding which song will go to Kyiv and hopefully give Denmark their first placing in the final since they hosted the whole thing in 2014.
Artist wise, there are no majorly big names here. A couple of Danish X Factor graduates, one “joke act” from last year’s UK X Factor, and the runner-up at Melodi Grand Prix in 2016. But as we all know, we don’t need a big name to deliver a big song.
As for the songs though, while it’s not a bad selection this time around, nor is it a classic year by any means. And unfortunately a decrease in quality from last year’s line-up. Ironically, it’s the UK X Factor tabloid fodder – Sada Vidoo – that turns in the best song in the purely objective sense. With Ida Una and then the guitar pop duo Calling Mercury providing what are probably the line-up’s only surefire Eurovision qualifiers. That’s not to say that there aren’t a few other semi-highlights here for us pop fans – with particularly Johanna Beijbom delivering fun pop for a Eurovision national final, if unlikely to ever have a life anywhere else these days.
If you’re in a hurry and would rather not sit though all ten, we’d skip to those four. But you can read our snap opinions on all ten below.
DR are being a bit odd with the songs this year – not uploading them to Spotify outside of Denmark, and not allowing them on YouTube either. But you can listen to all ten songs in full right here.
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Ida Una – One
(Peter Bjørnskov, Lene Dissing)
It’s like they’ve taken a huge Nordic dance hit from the last six months and toned it down a notch or five especially for Eurovision, covering it with a layer of cheese in the process. And we love it! An enormously uplifting tune that we reckon could do splendidly for Denmark.
Thomas Ring – Vesterbro
(Thomas Ring)
An urban electronica song with an instrumental chorus. This is certainly the most current song of the line-up, along with Ida Una’s ‘One’. It would sound right in place on tomorrow’s New Music Friday playlist on Spotify. But it also sounds as though it was made precisely to that order. And it’s therefore quite….basic? Still, if any song is gonna cause an upset and win over our favourites – it’s this one.
Rikke Skytte – Color My World
(Mads Løkkegaard, Joël Pagiël MacDonald, Mohamed Alitou, Laura Kloos)
An earthy folk-pop number with all of the drums, claps, and pipes that this normally entails. This song is basically here to meet DR’s annual ‘Only Teardrops’ remit.
Anja – Where I Am
(Anja Nissen, Angel Tupai, Michael D’Arcy)
After finishing second last year, Anja is back with a very different sound. She delivers a 90s tinged, r&b flavoured, pop song with an ambitious chorus. An old fashioned diva belter. We preferred her entry last year though!…
Calling Mercury – Big Little Lies
(Thomas Sardorf, Rune Braager, Martin Luke Brown)
Undeniably charming melodic guitar ballad. This wasn’t really tailored to our tastes – so the fact that it manages to meet them regardless, says quite a lot about the potential of this song.
Anthony – Smoke In My Eyes
(Kim Nowak-Zorde, Kasper Larsen, Hans Petersen, Ollie Marland, Phil Plested)
Big and brassy, soul and funk in tone, a lot going on, but yet they couldn’t manage to fit in a good melody amongst all of it. Sad.
René Machon – Warriors
(Astrid Cordes, Alexander Grandjean, Hans Petersen, Lars Andersen)
A trying-to-be-anthemic pop-rock torch song with a generous side of county music. This is the kind of thing that Denmark loves to send to Eurovision……and then fail to qualify to the final with. We hope they don’t fall for it for a third year in a row.
Sada Vidoo – Northern Lights
(Christoffer Lauridsen, Andreas Öhrn, Alessandra Günthardt)
Don’t be fooled by the novelty appearance of the “living doll” – ‘Northern Lights’ is possibly the most accomplished composition in this line-up. A brooding yet eventually rousing anthem that has an engaging vocal draw you in before hitting you with a layered and complex production.
Jeanette Bonde – Hurricane
(Jeanette Bonde, Alexander Grandjean, Jeppe Pilgaard Ulrichsen, Nermin Harambasic)
An electronic pop song that promises to be going somewhere, but never really gets there unfortunately. There are a lot of female fronted up-tempos here – and this ends up being the least memorable of the lot.
Johanna Beijbom – A.S.A.P.
((Peter Wallevik, Daniel Heløy Davidsen, Patrick Devine, Dimitri Stassos, Freja Jonsson Blomberg)
The sort of thing you’d have heard on a Kylie album (definitely not a single) at any point over the past ten years. Dated, but there’ll always be a place for this in a contest like Melodi Grand Prix. Unabashed disco pop that will hopefully be a visual treat on the night. We’re not sure how long we’ll be listening to it after Saturday though….
