Belarus: ZENA – Like It

Shi: I doubt there’s a more appropriate title for a fun-but-uber-generic little uptempo pop song than “Like It”. Because I do like it. I don’t love it, but I also don’t dislike it. I tap my foot to it, and I don’t skip to the next track when it comes up on shuffle, but I also never actively search for that track.

I like Zena, too. She exudes the kind of fearless confidence only 16-year-olds (and younger) can have. That can also be a bit annoying, but I think she’s at the lower end of that particular scale. She also looks like a mini-Tamta, but while she’s definitely better than young Tamta was, she’s got nothing on grown-up Tamta.

I’m not entirely ruling out its qualification chances, because this semi has a couple of obvious qualifiers, a couple of obvious NQs and then a wide gray zone in between. But it it will need a staging that works some serious magic to stand out. (And I mean stand out in a positive way, not in a traumatize-the-audience way. Sit down, Alekseev.)

Martin: I’m not sure magic is required so much as competence, but that’s often still a big ask for Belarus. ZENA/ЗЕНA/O’G3NA has a lot of natural charm and I also like the song, in a “second single by a late-90s Australian soap actor” kind of way, but I hope she’s given the freedom to deliver it in a way that suits it.

Felix: Aw, Belarus. I really, really like it! In other years, it might have been in the midfield of my ranking, but it’s one of my favourites in this disastrous 2019 line-up. This one is charming, easy, lightweight, catchy. Nothing spectacular, but hey – I like it.

video and title image source: eurovision.tv