Australia: Montaigne – Technicolour

Martin: Like the annual clamour to proclaim the Swedish entry as a potential non-qualifier only for it to sail through to the final as usual, a very specific question has occupied the fandom in recent years: Who will be Australia’s first non-qualifier?

Despite winning a national final at home, many felt that Jessica Cerro a.k.a. Montaigne could have been in trouble if the 2020 contest had gone ahead – so it’s to broadcaster SBS’s credit that they’ve selected her directly for another try in 2021 with “Technicolour”, even if means we Europeans did miss out on the fun of watching a preselection at breakfast time again.

I’m reliably informed the song’s genre is “hyperpop” (this must be what it was like for non-rockers to suddenly be confronted with the concept of “screamo” when AWS took part). What that means in practice is a nervous and jittery three minutes that are going to be a big challenge for Montaigne’s performance skills. There are hooks in there – perhaps even a few too many – but delivering them in a joined-up way is another matter. Then again, would she have written it that way if she couldn’t manage it?

Even without judging too much from her mixed-bag Mardi Gras performance, anyway, I do think “Technicolour” represents by far the biggest challenge yet to those tendentially Australia-friendly jurors.

Shi: My initial response to this song was “Wow, I love it – but there’s no way this will work on stage”. That’s pretty much where I am now too, with little less certainty on the latter but more doubts about there being enough people out there who will actively love this song as much as I do. Oh well.

Felix: Once again, this won’t be my favourite Australian entry. It’s not bad, but also not really strong. It’s a bit more edgy and positive than the other female uptempo tracks this year, and these are its strengths compared to its competitors. But that’s not enough to qualify, I’d say.

video and title image source: eurovision.tv