Switzerland 2021- Gjon’s Tears with ‘Tout L’Univers'

Gjon was one of the most likely returnees to live up to his previous attempt and ‘Tout L’ Univers’ does just that:

To me the verses present the first real goosebumps moment of the year along with the money note entering the final chorus. In the French ballad battle, this trounces ‘Voila’ and the build and progression throughout is excellent. Compositionally, its nothing ground breaking but the familiar structure does not hurt it at all.

Juries will be queueing up to reward this with points as I have no doubt Gjon can handle the high notes which are essential here. His vocal range may be something of an acquired taste however. I used the word ‘pretentious’ for Bulgaria yesterday too, but there is a strong element of that here. Gjon and the delegation will have to work hard at this to ensure it can connect with the audience and go beyond simply ‘impressive’ which is essential to get the televote too.

This of course has a lot of similarities to ‘Arcade’ and its certainly possible Eurovision isn't ready for another ‘sad boy at piano ballad’. Like Bulgaria may be good enough to ignore the Eilish similarities, this may be to ignore the previous winner similarities but its a concern I have for the record, particularly with Eurovision winners changing dramatically year to year over the past decade.

Whilst much stronger than France, Barbara Pravi is a spanner in the works here. This type of entry can afford little vote splitting and they are going to have to be kept apart if they draw the same half.

This year somewhat reminds me of 2016, a lot of 2nd-5th place entries but no obvious winner. In the absence of any real 10/10 entry, The Swiss are in the winners discussion and are one to keep well on side.

Personal Rating: 8/10 Competitive Rating: 9/10 Early Prediction: Semi Two 1st-3rd, 1st-5th in the Final.