FYR Macedonia tries another catchy pop tune for Eurovision
FYR Macedonia desperately needs some Eurovision success. The country only reached the final of the contest once in the past 10 years. Last year things were looking good when Jana Burceska’s ‘Dance Alone’ became one of the fan favourites before the show, but the performance wasn’t strong enough to get her into the final. This year the Macedonian broadcaster internally selected duo Eye Cue to fly to Lisbon with the song ‘Lost and Found’.
Eye Cue consists of vocalists Bojan and Marija. Bojan wrote the track together with Darko Dimitrov while Marija takes the lead in the vocals. Let me start by saying that ‘Lost and Found’ is a decent, enjoyable composition that might not be very suitable for the contest it is about to participate in. The song changes pace and vibe from verse to chorus, going from a laidback reggae inspired sound into uptempo pop. This transition might sound odd on first listen. The song is almost halfway through when we get to hear the chorus for the first time, which might cause voters to lose their attention while watching the Macedonian performance. Having said that, when the chorus finally comes around it does deliver a swinging and catchy melody.
Marija’s voice has a gorgeous tone that she hopefully will be able to show off in a live setting too (judging from the acoustic version they did recently, she delivers live too!). Looking at the music video, all I can hope for is that she won’t be performing that silly choreography live on stage as it only distracts from the song really. As much as I enjoy ‘Lost and Found’ and wish the Macedonian delegation some luck after all these years, I am afraid we will not see Eye Cue in the final unless they give the performance of a lifetime.
Review of Semi Final Performance:
FYR Macedonia has mastered the art of butchering potentially great songs with awful staging in recent years and unfortunately this year was not an exception. Admittedly, Eye Cue’s ‘Lost and Found’, was a bit too all over the place in terms of genres to make an impression in three minutes, although the hooks are certainly there. Whatever was left was ruined with a messy stage show, probably the most hideous outfit of the night (including a costume change that made things even worse) and some questionable vocal work towards the end. I will still listen to ‘Lost and Found’ after the show, but with that performance there was no way they would qualify. They finished 18th out of 19.
Read our other Eurovision 2018 reviews: ALBANIA – ARMENIA – AUSTRALIA –AUSTRIA – AZERBAIJAN – BELARUS –BELGIUM – BULGARIA – CROATIA – CYPRUS –CZECH REPUBLIC – DENMARK – ESTONIA – FINLAND – FRANCE – 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 – SWITZERLAND – UKRAINE – UNITED KINGDOM