Estonia 2023: Alika with ‘Bridges’

Super Saturday delivered a whole bucket load of new entries to Wade through, the first of which was Alika with ‘Bridges’ for Estonia.

I know there are some supporters of this but to me it's the “we have Adele at home” song of the year without really staking a claim to be anything better. The start is promising but by the time of the first chorus we've entered very mediocre territory and in general the verses are far superior. The central bridges metaphor and narrative isn't one that really hits home and leaves this lacking in emotion.

Alika is fine but I don't find her particularly engaging either. The staging will probably be carried over (we'll definitely get a piano on stage) and is about par for a song like this.

Whilst the televote liking novelties and juries liking ballads is a bit over simplistic, Estonia are probably the first significant loser from the switch to 100% televote in the semi final, particularly coming in the first half and with no significant diaspora. Semi 2 may be weaker but qualification is not a done deal in my opinion and this could find itself on the borderline. If it does make the final juries may have it just outside the top 10 (helped by a lack of options) before a pretty inevitable televote snub in the sub 50 pts range.

Personal Rating: 6/10

Competitve Rating: 6/10

Early Prediction: Semi Final Two 8th-12th, 17th-21st if in the final