Israel 2021- Eden Alene with ‘Set Me Free’

Following Israel’s online vote and their reveal show, ‘Set Me Free’ has been selected as Eden’s song for Eurovision 2021:

Let me start by saying I like Eden, I think she’s got talent, can fit a range of genres and is charismatic. Unfortunately, both this year and last she has been given a bunch of songs that are borderline qualifiers at best. Either mediocre middle of the road stuff or songs structured and wrote quite poorly. It seems composers are somewhat influenced by ‘Toy’ and are trying to bring some unpredictability and whilst the idea isn’t bad, the execution is. Added on to this is the styling of Eden as a diva which needs to be paired back. A bit is fine to match the song, but there’s a balance needed to keep her voteable.

‘Set Me Free’ is a complete non event of a song and whilst all of Israel’s options would have struggled, this was probably the poorest choice. You have literally heard everything the song has to offer after 20 seconds, making this feel an incredibly long three minutes. There’s also no clear path for staging this.

‘Set Me Free’ would have few qualification hopes under in an average field but that second half of semi one looks ridiculous on paper. Azerbaijan, Cyprus, Malta, Romania, Norway and perennial qualifiers Ukraine are all likely to be stronger and the first half is little comfort with Sweden, Russia and Lithuania 3 of the top 5 in the outright. Already at this stage you get the sense there are maybe only 2 or 3 spots realistically up for grabs.

I doubt Israel can pick up enough points from either the jury or televote in that semi; they seem to be walking into a minefield and ‘Set Me Free’ can not guide them through it.

Personal Rating: 3/10 Competitive Rating: 2/10 Early Prediction: NQ, 13th- 17th in semi 1