Semi 2: 12 Switzerland

A young man armed with expressive eyes and a violin sounds like a recipe for success at Eurovision. But in all fairness Alexander Rybak had something this chap is lacking. Quite a few things, actually.



Sebalter - Hunter of Stars (Switzerland 2014)

If you're not paying proper attention, watching with only half an eye and half an ear, you could easily mistake this for being quite a good entry. It has many clever little ingredients that are easy to like: the violin, the whistle hook, the friendly face of the singer.

Sebalter is cute and has an OK voice but his national final performance showed he is not enough of an artist to keep a song like this together. He gives an over-excited performance with his overwhelming nervous energy spilling all over the place. An intense look is good, a frantic one is less appealing.

Maybe anyone would look that nervous if we had to perform a song like this. It's almost a good song but severely underdeveloped. Every time it almost takes off it interrupts itself and in spite of the efficient whistle hook there is nothing much to remember here.

Qualifier: No. There is no other song in this semi that has "non-qualifier" written all over it in capital letters like this one has. Not the worst one, only the least likely to qualify.

My grade: 2/5