Austria 2024: Kaleen with ‘We Will Rave’
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Ok everyone’s favourite Israeli games developer haven’t paid me off, you may now be seeing ads on site but I still have some standards. Anyway, this is a good bit of fun and the worthiest recipient of the cat bopping meme in a long time in a Eurovision context. Not to say this is a landmark uptempo entry, it's just so fitting here. An unashamed throwback but one with a different sound to the many 80s and 90s inspired entries across the modern contest and national finals. Kaleen seems a good enough performer but whether she can get an audience to buy into this is my big question, and I can’t help but shake this other meme from my head:
To make the most seemingly random comparison possible, there’s a touch of DJ Bobo (Switzerland 07) here and how out of place he came across trying to be “hip”. From what I have seen, Kaleen also reminds me of Natalia Gordienko a little - a good performer and one I have a soft spot for but where I can appreciate many won’t take seriously. This is perhaps just me but some tiny % of this package just feels a little off in a way it’s hard to put into words.
This is not an easy transition to the stage and for a more obvious comparison we have Lumix ft Pia Maria from 2022 for how these club songs can struggle, although this starts at a much higher base. Having the audience surround the stage in Malmo could help this feel like a suitably big production but there’s still a large possibility that cringe factor comes through.
Concerns aside, I don’t see much likelihood of an NQ unless semi 2 sees an extreme uptick in quality (Greece, Armenia and Georgia do all look capable…) I’m also assuming this will open the show but that should not affect its chances.
In the final it will be mostly shunned by the juries for pretty obvious reasons: this is not their typical fare and whilst I appreciate the different approach, they would be prioritising something akin to Jacqline's ‘Effortless’ in Melfest for example as your female pop song or Italy’s ‘La Noia’. I’d expect it to be somewhere around 15th with them perhaps with this not being relevant enough to the current music scene or otherwise differentiated enough in a Eurovision context.
Without much of a base vote, Austria could suffer a drop off and struggle in the final which is a bit of a shame. There's a chance this clicks and does pretty well with the public, perhaps making the lower reaches of a televote top 10 but I see that as the more unlikely outcome at this time. Again, another review after Cyprus which I expect to be on the negative side of things but there we go. Sure to be a fan favourite and carry some hype that way but I don’t believe this will convert that love come May.
Personal Rating: 8/10
Competetive Rating: 6/10
Early Prediction: 5th-8th in semi final 2, 14th-18th in the final.