Belgium: Eliot – Wake Up

Felix: Belgium, Belgium, Belgium! Now… the last two times I had Belgium in my top three was when Roberto sang about bitter pills, and Loïc about rapampam. I loved them both! So you’d think if Belgium sends a mix of both, you’d get something I totally adore. But you’re forgetting one thing: It’s 2019, the year in which no fabulous entries are allowed at Eurovision. Still, what you get is a safe candidate for my own personal top five.

“Wake Up” starts with a heartbeat-triggering synth intro and a very interesting verse, but then the balloon kinda pops with the chorus, which is a shame. I still hoped that there would be a new version of the chorus towards the end, with the same beat as in the verses. That would have been a genius touch and made it my clear favourite. But no, instead we get another repetition of that popping balloon, which leaves the composition kinda incomplete. The difference would have been immense, but sadly they didn’t go that route.

Still, as it is, Belgium is one of the most memorable and least random songs this year, and should find the way to its audience providing the staging is better than its strongest competitors Azerbaijan, Lithuania and the Netherlands.

Shi: I like both songs that Belgium is sending this year, although I still don’t entirely understand the connection and transitions between them. Each part of this – the verse and the chorus – gives me a different mood which I find a bit jarring. I find Eliot adorable, but I don’t know if he has the presence to make this stand out enough in this difficult semi, though.

Martin: This is suuuuch a lovely song – and unlike most fans (it feels like “most”, anyway), I even really like the chorus. It gets stuck in my head a lot. My main concern with the entry is Eliot, whose little-boy-lost charm risks just getting, well, lost. But I’ll keep my fingers crossed.

video and title image source: eurovision.tv