Switzerland sends duo Zibbz to Lisbon with ‘Stones’
There is not really a nicer way to put it. Switzerland is one of the worst performing countries in Eurovision in recent years. After 2006 they have only made it to the final twice, finishing last in said final one of those two times. Both in 2015 and 2016 they finished last in their semi final as well. Still, last year’s result was slightly hope giving. Timebelle’s ‘Apollo’ finished 12th in its semi final, only missing qualification by 4 points. This year, the country selected the duo Zibbz with the song ‘Stones’ in their national final. Will they finally bring success?

Zibbz is a band consisting of sister and brother Corinne and Stee Gfeller. The two wrote and produced their track together with Canadian recording artist Laurell. Let us start with the good news here. Corinne has a distinct, raw type of voice with a whole lot of power. The bad news however is that this voice deserves a stronger song. ‘Stones’ is not a bad tune in any way, but in order to impress in Eurovision, the chorus becomes too repetitive and there is a lack of a proper build up and climax. The chorus goes off the first time it comes around, but then we basically heard the whole song already and we still have two minutes to go. It is hard to picture who will pick up the phone and vote for this. Hopefully the jury will award her voice enough points to save Switzerland from failure this year.

UPDATE: The Swiss team premiered the music video with a slightly updated and more polished version of the song. The question is if this will change their fate as there seems to be zero hype around this entry and they are still constantly in the bottom in the predictions of the bookmakers…

Review of Semi Final Performance:
ZiBBZ (which stands for siblings) from Switzerland brought some straightforward pop and raw vocals to the Eurovision stage. Their song ‘Stones’ is decent, but does get repetitive pretty easily. The first time the chorus comes around, it does make an impact, but after a minute you heard it all. Singer Coco sounded great, but the endless walking around the stage or the ‘Britney and Christina in 2001’ styling did not help. Someone should have told them that addressing the audience in the venue at a televised contest usually does not come across well either. Brother and sister gave it their all, but it simply was not enough for qualification. It was televoting that stopped Switzerland from entering the final with a 15th spot, as opposed to juries that put them through in 10th place. This overall resulted in a 13th position.

Read our other Eurovision 2018 reviews: ALBANIA – ARMENIA – AUSTRALIA –AUSTRIA – AZERBAIJAN – BELARUS –BELGIUM – BULGARIA – CROATIA – CYPRUS –CZECH REPUBLIC – DENMARK – ESTONIA – FINLAND – FRANCE – FYR MACEDONIA – GEORGIA – GERMANY – GREECE – HUNGARY – ICELAND –IRELAND – ISRAEL –ITALY – LATVIA – LITHUANIA –MALTA – MOLDOVA – MONTENEGRO – THE NETHERLANDS – NORWAY – POLAND – PORTUGAL – ROMANIA – RUSSIA – SAN MARINO – SERBIA – SLOVENIA – SPAIN – SWEDEN – UKRAINE – UNITED KINGDOM