Australia 2021- Montaigne with ‘Technicolour’

Following it’s first live performance and release on streaming platforms, here is Australia’s effort for Rotterdam:

Now to me, this is baby’s first song. Glittery artwork, lots of ooo-aoo-a-aas, and a lazy chorus. I did think Australia looked a high price for a while, but thankfully the chorus vocal and teaser allowed me to dodge this. ‘Technicolour’ has been patched together in a horrible way and I genuinely feel this is a demo for 5 songs stitched together. The hook is strong at least, so there is that.

Being a divisive song is not bad, but there are going to be many more televoters who hate this rather than love it. I would also argue that the televote for Australia has been below expectations every year they have been in the contest. Whilst 2015, ‘16 and ‘19 did well, there may have been room for more in each year. There’s a definite lag on their televote and whilst I don’t think they’re “unwelcome” they are treated with a bit more scepticism, meaning they can’t get away with mediocre efforts.

Montaigne is not voteable to the wider public if she turns up trying to do something ‘artistic’ or unique. It could all be a bit too much if Montaigne is given the freedom to stage this as she wants and her voice is quite grating, evenwhen she manages to keep in tune. I was waiting for that live performance on this one and again Montaigne’s vocal is off in parts again, although it was not as bad visually as I feared.

Add all of that together however and you have all of the ingredients that make up a car crash.

I really don’t see this doing well with the public at all, especially in the first half of a strong, majority female semi.

The question is, will juries push this through with it being Australia? On that front, this is a much, much weaker composition than Isaih’s horribly performed effort which relied on the juries whilst there’s less room for the sort of staging that lifted the poor in studio form ‘Zero Gravity’ up. I do think this will be more highly rewarded than if it was Samanta Tina singing this for Latvia, but even then there is a limit to how much the juries can realistically do to push this through, and if they even want to because on merit this should be nowhere near the final.

Australia would have been in trouble last year, and look to be again and this should really be their first non qualifier. A penny for Diane Warren and Dami Im’s thoughts.

Personal Rating: 0/10 Competitive Rating: 4/10 Early Prediction: 12th-16th Semi One, 19th - 24th in the final should it qualify.