The Singles Jukebox

They said the party’s over, then they brought him right back…

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[6.29]

Alfred Soto: The harmonies flutter as if the acts were cyborg robins in a tree, lovely for a little while. The arrangement doesn’t smother them. These things count as progress. 
[6]

Ady Thapliyal: Mahmood has been walking back his initial “Barrio” working-class machismo in favor of homoerotic softboy ballads over his last couple of singles, a protracted process in which he has been coy about his true sexuality. It’s the mark of a great pop artist, I think, to turn the great personal dramas of your life into the hook for an album release cycle, and “Brividi” is the neat end of his current narrative arc. With his Sanremo win for this song, Mahmood is heading to Eurovision for the second time in three years, singing a big, blown-out love song with a gay-for-pay white boy in tow. I’m not unsympathetic to the power of that gesture, but IMAGINE if instead of this tasteful arrangement of piano and strings he kept on exploring the limp-wristed reggaeton of “Klan” for his triumphant return — now that’s a happy ending!
[5]

Edward Okulicz: This is how you put up a Eurovision defence, with a song that’s already topping the charts across the continent. And doing it in style too; queer without being self-conscious or overly stylised about it, almost matter-of-fact, presenting itself without comment. The only thing I don’t like is the vocal production in the chorus, turning what must have been intended as a big emotional moment into a bit of a parody sad boy thing, and making the otherwise lovely poetry a bit hard on the ears. But this has real craft and emotion working through those cracks.
[7]

Wayne Weizhen Zhang: The genre of overwrought karaoke track where the words are laid over contextless stock clips of another, unnamed country. 
[5]

Jessica Doyle: This reminds me of a long-ago Brian McKnight / Vanessa Williams duet, partly because it’s not going to age any better — 1992 had chokers and showy guitar bridges; 2022 has passionate bicycling past wind farms and BLANCO’s deliberate rasp — and partly because it may well cause a few music listeners of 2052 to say, “I don’t like emotional piano duets, but there’s this one old song I always make an exception for.”
[6]

Katie Gill: Italy, you DO know that you’re not supposed to actually try the year you’re hosting Eurovision, right? This is the year you’re supposed to send some crap nobody cares about so you’re not stuck holding the bill two years in a row. And Mahmood, who was blatantly robbed in 2019, is not “some crap nobody cares about.” I can see why it’s already doing so good, as it’s more “actual pop song” than “Eurovision nonsense” — those harmonies are the highlight. Pair it with some fun staging and in any other year, I could see it winning. But again, you’re not supposed to actually try the year you’re hosting Eurovision, so expect bitter disappointment when the Swedes inevitably crush it in the voting.
[7]

Scott Mildenhall: Once more, the Italian entry to Eurovision lives up to the country’s most positive stereotypes — it’s either magic, or they have some kind of contest of their own with traditions that run back further than its continental companion. Poise, elegance and passion are packed perfectly into the three minutes of “Brividi”, with BLANCO’s teeth-gritting angst being thoroughly enhanced by the complementary honey of Mahmood’s vocals and the delicate strings. If anything it’s a mystery why Italy haven’t pushed to bring orchestras back to Eurovision, but the theatre will regardless be undimmed; never over-the-top, but refreshingly bare.
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