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Line-up check 2015: Switzerland

by | May 10, 2015 | 2015 reviews, Uncategorized

Line-up check 2015: Switzerland

by | May 10, 2015 | 2015 reviews, Uncategorized

Eurovision songwriters just love a good “shine” metaphor. Maybe Katrina and the Waves are to blame, with their ultra-successful Love Shine A Light setting an unwelcome precedent back in 1997. Whatever the reason, four of the last six contests have featured an entry simply entitled Shine, while the word has also been a lyrical theme for singers from Daria Kinzer to Niamh Kavanagh. And this time round, while Georgia and Malta blaze new trails with their competing Warriors, it’s Switzerland’s turn to give us a liberal dose of the “S-word” in an attempt to build on Sebalter’s thoroughly decent 13th-place finish in Copenhagen last year.

24-year-old Mélanie René is the artist flying the Swiss flag at the 2015 contest. Her visual image is slightly edgy and exotic, as exemplified in the music video below, reflecting her Mauritian origins as well as her general style. That’s why it’s all the more surprising that her song is so… well, so mainstream.

It’s not that Time To Shine isn’t trying to be a bit different. What could be a fairly standard “casting show winner’s single” actually has some interesting touches in the arrangement, with a darkness and a spiky feel in places. The song itself, though, is a fairly standard plod through the usual clichés of hiding from yourself, walking a lonely road, and choosing to stand up and follow your heart instead. It’s not necessarily that we don’t care, it’s just that we’ve heard this kind of thing so often that it’s hard to buy into Mélanie’s own version of the story. Then again, that didn’t stop Jade Ewen from successfully selling her journey to the European audience in even more bland and generic terms, so maybe I’m overthinking things here.

My verdict is that this is another addition to the already crowded borderline zone in the second semi-final. There are a lot of songs fighting for that 7th-13th territory this year, and there’s no screamingly obvious reason why this shouldn’t get through to Saturday night – just as there’s no screamingly obvious reason it should, either. I mean, as a song and a performance, it’s fine, you know? And in a line-up containing a lot of fine, some of the fine has to qualify. I just wish I could find a more compelling argument in Switzerland’s favour than “…so why not this?”.

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