Czech Republic 2021- Benny Cristo with ‘Omaga’

The Czech Republic have today released their entry for Rotterdam with Benny Cristo returning, this time with ‘Omaga’:

Jan Bors (former Czech head of delegation turned sassy youtuber) has been busy declaring this the best Czech entry ever. That’s quite big talk with the Czech’s a decent country at Eurovision now qualifying three from the last four times, with their best effort -‘Lie To Me’ -reaching 6th place. ‘Kemama’ too was not a bad attempt, despite some of the revamp’s best efforts and could have took them to another final.

Jan did a lot of good work for Czechia and is no fool, but this isn’t getting close to a top 5. ‘Omaga’ is good for what it is and there’s a path for it to do well: Juries might appreciate the variety this will bring and the modernity, whilst Benny could bring a good level of energy to grab the public’s attention.

The song, like the Kemama revamps may have too much in there. There’s a bit of a wall of sound, slightly too many layers which is not necessary at Eurovision. This is a contest coming from an arena (or studio TV potentially), watched on tv in groups, not on high quality headphones. Sometimes a more stripped back production helps to keep it hooky and memorable. I couldn’t remember much of this one after listening to it the leaked version one time earlier, and I’m still not certain how much of a hook is there after hearing the full version once or twice. The fact this is fairly one paced throughout doesn’t help.

To stay with the negatives, I don’t overly trust the staging for this. The whole ‘Kemama’ revamp farce makes me a bit cautious with Benny’s artistic vision, and the level of control he might have. It could very easy be too busy and messy. The song may also be targeting a fairly narrow demographic, both in terms of age as well as from country to country overall.

But on the upside this is a happy, vibrant, summery song which is easy to overlook in the middle of a freezing February and I see this settling around the 80s-120s mark until rehearsals. On a very good night, with a good draw where this can liven up the party a little, a top 10 may just be in reach though this is not a guaranteed qualifier and could fall through the cracks and miss the final too. It’s that type of entry where my early prediction could be way off to either side and it will all come down to staging.

Personal Rating: 2/10 Competitive Rating: 6/10 Early Prediction: Semi 2 7th-11th, 15th-20th if in final.