Song of the Week (Feb 8th— Feb 14th)

Yet another stacked week, but picking a winner was much easier than usual. Before I get to that, some solid mentions still remain, such as from the Night Tapes album that I finally got around to, and of course national finals both real and fantasy.

Night Tapes are, as always, a delight, but for their debut album the singles were the highest highs. While “Swordsman” and “Wayfarer” were good from the new batch, none come close to winning. The good news is with this being their first full album, they have much more to give in the future and I can’t wait for more from a band that remains on a long list of artists overdue for a win.

From other sources, honourable mentions go to “Rager” by Blusher, “Viva, Moldova!” by Satoshi (and the talented Aliona Moon… despite being slightly shoehorned in), “My System” by Felicia (not my personal favourite from Melodifestivalen so far, but undeniably great), “Fényt” by Z!enemi, “Primadonna ☆☆” by Michael Medrano, “Mercurio Y Seda” by Soleá and Enrique Morente (a g’damn banger), “Untouched” by The Veronicas (wowza maybe I really need to dive deep into more nostalgic hits) and “Faded Heart” by Børns (speaking of nostalgia, what a lovely Fifa song).

Some amazing options like pretty much every week, but one song has felt like the clear winner from the get go and it’s shaping up to be an immediate classic, that being…

“Ridnym”

[embed]

I heard good things going into Vidbir, and despite being a big Jerry Heil fan, I was immediately on board with this and was so pleased it won over Jerry’s decent, but not winner worthy, song. This is a truly astonishing and insanely gorgeous song that has repeatedly taken my breath away.

Ukraine continue to absolutely devour this song contest and while it may not be an immediate winner contender, there is no reason why this shouldn’t place around the top ten. I adore Leléka and her beautiful singing, with this entry immediately becoming my favourite of the year (although I haven’t heard all the entries yet and a few new ones are being crowned as I write this).

While I have been watching a few NFs here and there over the years, this is somehow the first time a legitimate ESC entry has won this award ahead of my full listen through, and that shows that this song is exceptional as it has won me over instantly. I can’t wait to see it in the competition as the solid staging can be made even better, but with this year being surprisingly decent (music wise at least), it will have no shortage of competition.

I would admittedly like to hear a fully Ukrainian version, but the current version remains stunning. If this of all years will become the first to have more than one ESC song win SOTW… crazy timing.

Check out the other winners here:

[embed]

[embed]