For my last set of reviews before I log off for the night, I’ve collected the remaining three songs from Heat 1 which are available online (as far as I can see). The songs by Elonas Pokanevič and Mary Mo will have to wait until tomorrow.

Aldegunda — “Holiday”
Look, I like a banger as much as the next person, but there needs to be a bit of substance. This just doesn’t have it. There’s far too much repetition in the lyrics, and it’s not even fun repetition. “I’ll tell you what” and “All I want is what you want”? No thanks. I guess I should have paid more attention to the initial lyric “what you see is what you get”. The music’s nothing to write home about either. The best bit is when the vocals slip into Lithuanian to end the song — suddenly all the sugar-pop bounciness falls away and finally we find a few precious seconds of something interesting.

Erica Jennings — “Back To Myself”
A soulful singer paired with a low-key shimmering EDM backing track might not necessarily sound like a winning combination, but this works very well. Jennings’ vocals are outstanding and understandably central to the song, but she leaves some room for the synths to swirl around her and amplify her emoting. The backing vocals are particularly on point too. A key change is something usually celebrated in Eurovision circles, but I think it’s clunky in this song: there’s more than enough in what’s already been established without needing to change pace.

Viktorija Faith — “Walk Through The Water”
I suppose I could have been a bit more prepared given the surname of the singer and the title of the song, but I didn’t expect what feels very much like a Christian ballad to surface in a Eurovision national final. Not that I think this contest needs to exclude particular genres, but this is certainly an usual thing to find these days. Putting all this aside, I can see how the song could comfort people with its fairly simple structure and easy-to-follow, uplifting lyrics. However, I find it to be too sentimental and I don’t think this is what the average Eurovision viewer tunes in to see.