This year the Danes are doing it right. Their Melodi Grand Prix contest which takes place this Saturday, has a selection of ten songs – most of which are hugely listenable. And repeat listenable at that. They released previews last week, and then the full songs on Tuesday. And while there’s quite a few that we keep going back to, there’s one in particular that deserves singling out for its amazingnessness.
It’s ‘We Own The Universe’ by Daze.
Incidentally, this was the entry we were most excited about hearing on name alone – since we were big fans of their late 90s and early 00s stuff. Back then they were either doing the Aqua thing pretty much just as good as Aqua were (with the likes of ‘Superhero‘ and ‘Together Forever‘) or they were attempting to create something away from that sound, and still managing to sound brill (have a gander at ‘2nd Chance‘). So the fact that ‘We Own The Universe’ sounds nothing like Daze or anything we were expecting from them, yet still manages to live up to our hopes of it being our favourite song from the ten, is a credit to the track.
So what does it sound like then?
Christ almighty. We’d call this poppers o’clock, but we don’t think a standard whiff of amyl would even do this justice. This is more like something which has been drenched in the stuff, set alight, and is now up in flame(r)s and showering everything around it in bright purple sparks. Yes it’s camp, yes it’s ridiculous, and hell no it would never work outside of a Eurovision context. But it’s set itself amongst that very context and it’s blossomed into a fine specimen as a result of knowing its audience. There’s a key change, there’s a turbo powered synth, and there’s an ambitious vocal that we’re gonna be hoping with bated breath that the singer can replicate live on Saturday night. Brilliant.
Oh and it’s from the same two songwriters that were behind Loreen’s ‘Euphoria’ – like you needed any further persuading to listen to this.
