🇨🇿 Aiko "Pedestal" REACTION & ANALYSIS | Czechia🇨🇿 | Eurovision 2024
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- čas přidán 7. 06. 2024
- I react to the live performance of Aiko singing "Pedestal", as well as giving my thoughts on what strategy Czechia could use to do well at Eurovision 2024 in Malmö
I also talk about the NF controversy and take a look at Czechia's stats in the contest.
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Timestamps:
0:00 Intro
0:29 The Czech National Final
1:34 Reaction to Live Performance
3:58 The Song
5:21 Strategy for Czechia
7:54 Opinion on NF controversy
9:08 Czech Situation in ESC
10:55 Czech stats and QF rate
Eurovision Hearts: Thanks to Smthngnw on Wikipedia
Outro Screen Music:
Song: MBB - Feel Good (Vlog No Copyright Music)
Music provided by Vlog No Copyright Music.
Video Link: • MBB - Feel Good (Vlog No Copyright Music)
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a revamp, a vocal coach, cardio and maybe it'll qualify. they really gotta pull a 180 on this one. i'd be mad if i were czech. having their representative being selected by everyone but them is a slap to the face
As a czech, the absolute biggest issue i have with Aiko winning is the fact that we have basically kneecapped any chances of the song being taken in any serious capacity whatsoever with that live. Every single review, take, opinion and so on of the song for the next 5 months will be "The studio is good i guess but i am concerned about her vocals..." Basically the Vesna situation but on steroids. Aiko will be seen as Netherlands 2023 - I honestly do think that when Mia and Dion got to ESC, their vocals were actually okay, but because every single review of their song had to address that their original performances were trash, the public opinion of them was bad just by default. I do think that Aiko can become ok by the time she goes to ESC, but will anyone care by then? At least from most of the reviews i've seen, nobody really likes the song. Anyways, because horrible vocals are pretty much a staple of ESCZ, i wonder whether ČT should go back to the 2022 format, which IMO worked really well.
Regarding the voting, yeah, it's basically certain that the votes were somehow botted. The amount of votes multipled by like 4x since last year, but i do think that BOTH Aiko and Elly (probably their record companies) botted the votes. There wasn't any runaway winner, so it's really sketchy that the vote distribution ended like this. Also, the official announcement said that "the winner changed every two days", which means that Aiko had to get a huge boost of votes during the last 2 days. I do not think that anything will be changed, but it's a pity. When i voted (for MYDY, of course lol) i wasn't even shown any captcha or anything - i just pressed a button and my vote was counted. I wonder whether the real ESC will have similar controversies.
Also, unrelated, but the s in vesna isn't pronounced like "zh" as you do, it's a simple "s" as in the world "sun"
Yeah super wierd that there was no verification method when you voted. Basically asking for people to try and rig the vote lol.
I don’t think the vocals were bad! I mean she is no Alika, but that’s not the point of a song like this anyway. The mixing was poor, she was over energized and moved about too much - all things that can be fixed! In comparison with Mia & Dion, their situation was much more dire - they had a song they couldn’t handle. Go Aiko!!
I really hope she doesn't get slammed like Mia and Dion did by the Dutch media. 😖 I think what will help is time too. It's such a long time before the pre-parties so plenty of time to turn the narrative around.
@@DarkFlareGC I think there’s a good chance media will take a liking to her, not a pretentious bone in her body ☺️
Do you know what's even worse about her win or entry in general? "Pedestal" was performed in June 2023, which means that the song isn't even elligible (until it is discussed) to compete...
Here's the video. Watch from 14:50:
czcams.com/video/ynaXkBvrmSs/video.htmlfeature=shared
i think I would have been happy with most of the songs - it is quite wild that the vote was THAT high though! apparently people are saying they voted for her by accident because she was the first one in the list on the app, thinking it would play her song rather than lock the vote in. it would be so bananas if Aiko's giant score was the result of confusing UI design haha.
eeeep, yea thats definitely something that theyd need to look into. although i wouldnt usually expect to hear the songs player while voting? is that normal on other NF voting apps?
Yes, they need to have a system where another song is listed first for anyone voting, it's her song, the next user sees Elly first and Aiko put last, etc, etc.or they should employ a system, where it's possible to log out of a choice you made per accident.
@@ESCTom yeah, I'm not sure! i had no problem voting for who I wanted - but i guess I could see how someone may not realize what tapping the song would do? it's been brought up on multiple platforms so i just wondered if there was something to it.. it would still need to be looooads of people making the same error though. aiko seems lovely, and I'm sad that she's getting backlash for this win.
Im so excited for this year already😁I'm loving these alternative acts so much
Been listening to this song a lot. It sounds a lot more current than the other 6. I can see myself voting for Pedestal in May if the performance matches he quality of the music video
Tom, thanks for the calm and optimistic view on this. As a baby eurovision fan I was very excited for my first full national final season, but being on social media and seeing the outrage that every single announcement is being met with is kinda depressing. I am glad you add some positivity to the landscape.
Thank you Tim 🙏🏻
Also keep in mind that social media now really is geared towards anger and outrage, the algorithm really does feed off of them. I always make sure Im logging off it regularly
I quite like the punky energy of this entry. Obviously this setting wasn't ideal, but Aiko seems pretty confident. As you say, there's lots of time to elevate this.
All very well said. Aiko wasn't my first choice (that goes to MYDY) but i am still happy with the results. I think that it absolutely can qualify if/when it gets elevated. Better staging and better audio could really make it because it already is a song that stands out. I know people aren't too happy about the international vote weighting, but for me it was exciting to take part in the Czech final. I'm from Canada so I don't have a home team, but getting to take part got me invested in their artists 🙂
My jaw dropped when I saw that Aiko won; I really thought it was going to be between mydy and Elly. However, if people were voting based on the studio version of the song, then I can see how Pedestal won. The song seemed more “complete” to me and not as repetitive as some of the other songs. It kind of stinks, though, that she wasn’t the Czech public’s pick.
I voted for Elly based on the live performances but later listened to the studio version of 'Pedestal' and liked it (I've had it stuck in my head a few times the last week & a half).
I think it's clear the Czech delegation are reaching out to the international community - I mean, the national final was in English - which is fine with me if that's what keeps Czechia coming back.
yea i think they are living on a knife edge and they absolutely have to be pragmatic. Benny won his NF arguably cos of his Czech fans and i think they learnt their lesson from that
This really was a smashing breakdown of the song, kudos!
Everything about this is so punk, I love it! So glad she won, I’m sure they’ll do something really cool with this in Malmö! 🥳🕺🏻💥
Woohoo! Time for all the Top 2 of 2024 videos!
So nailbiting! 😂
The issue that she is supposed to be practicing for Eurovision, not for a concert. Her energy is great... for a concert. She needs to calm down a bit, have a consistent vocal, change the outfit, actually have choreo and learn to keep the mic at a consistent distance from her mouth
shes got loads of time to work on all that though. i think the acoustics werent great either cos pretty much all of them sounded bad. apparently it sounded ok within the club
The qualities you describe, should be in place already for any artist. Why would any singer have to learn about how to hold a microphone??!!!
I love the song 🎧 ❤🎉
It reminds me of Iceland this year. Didn't care for that either.
With the voting system this year, they received almost 5 times as many votes in total compared to last year. Some people will probably mention how easy it was to spam the system by opening a new private browser (not sure how many caught on to that). Last year though, you had to create an account, log in and vote. That could also be a reason why much more people voted this year. If you remove obstacles, you're obviously going to get more votes.
I agree that this will stand a fighting chance of qualifying if revamped considerably before May. I didn't initially think Vesna sounded great live last year but as you mention, the delegation really elevated the song and the final performance was solid and the top ten placing very respectable (I'd be elated if my country came tenth!)
I did have to smile when you mentioned delegations that can afford to score poorly without worrying too much about the public losing interest (no prizes for guessing who I'm thinking of!) Though I guess it helps to occasionally get a strong result to renew public interest (such as 🇬🇧 and 🇪🇸 2022, 🇫🇷 2021 and 🇩🇪 2018).
this song kinda reminds me of some of Olivia Rodrigo's songs (specifically Brutal and Good 4 U). I have 0 idea if there's inspiration or not but that's what comes to mind for me.
Speaking of Fiesty Female entries, I watched Alesia Michelle's video earlier and I thought what she said about the track record of these songs or songs of a similar nature isn't the best.
For example:
Israel 2014
Italy 2014
Latvia 2017
Armenia 2019
Albania 2022
I think the studio version is grand, I'd listen to it, the hook is memorable. For the live version though, a good bit of work needs to be done. Aiko has charisma which is great but because the vocal is intense early on, it doesn't allow the song to build as much and also her vocal is quite strained. She's quite our of breath and shouty towards the end of the performance. It has time to improve and I hope it does.
She can tone it down and seem less angry, I think what most people didn't like about the performances you mentioned were the angryness, Europe does not seem to support the "angry" howling women vibes haha. WAlso, some of these you mentioned had some major vocal issues, which Aiko has more than enough time to improve if she really wants to.
As a Czech myself…. Ehm… no
I really don't think the sound and audio during the show wasn't a huge issue. Because how does that explain that horrendous performance for Starlet?
Aiko's performance overall was messy, she was kind of out of breath as she was moving here and there. The song is great but everything else can improve and there is plenty of time for that!
aiko song is really the best based on the studio stage
Tom, thank you for the level-headed commentary on this entry. Definitely beats the more unproductive reactions on the social media platforms.
It's not a level-headed review. It is too pro the song and the artist. I was shocked that this won.
so you're another in the Aiko echo chamber, basically.
Thanks JB 🙏🏻
After watching Olivia Rodrigo blow up over the past couple of years, i remember thinking that we would be getting a slew of Olivia Rodrigo inspired acts, and so far I've spotted a couple of these acts. Anet Vaikma from Estonia & Aiko from Czechia.
For me, I much prefer Anet's Vaikmaa's song, but it doesn't exude the punk energy Aiko's song does. 'Pedestal' just falls flat with the performance. I know once it has been worked on (and they're going to make sure they work on it like mad after all the negative online feedback). Gutted Mydy didn't make it. I feel they've missed an opportunity there.
PS: I'm still trying to get over Gianna Lei's performance 😳
omg yea poor Gianna, that really didnt go well 😢
Yea i get the flatness that youre talking about. im very confident that theyll fix that between now and May, and also the better visuals and acoustics will address a lot of that too
Aiko was my third choice behind Mydy and Elly, who I thought gave better performances that night, but I thought from the beginning that Pedestal has big potential that can't really be realized in the club with the crummy audio. Pretty much everyone sounded off that night and I would guess audio quality had something to do with it. But the song by itself is quite good I think, I've had it stuck in my head a bunch. Having nothing to compare it to, and assuming the final product elevates to what I think it can be, I could see this finishing mid table (15-20) in the final if it qualifies. It's not better than France, but it's better than everything in the Maltese final so...
I love this song. I think it's a dark horse; this terrible live final gives a whole lot of room to improve and blow away the jury with a glow up.
The studio version was the best out of the 7. If she improves her live vocals and performance, Pedestal has every chance of qualifying.
Btw there is a video of Aiko performing pedestal in june
omg really? do you have a link?
@@ESCTom czcams.com/video/ynaXkBvrmSs/video.htmlsi=BjHRJIJi6I1AskE6 timestamp 14:55
Will she be disqualified? 😮
@@someothername7886no, people say its one of esc’s “strictest” rules but there hasn’t been anyone dqed for performing their song before sept 1st as long as it hasnt been released. theres been other artists do the same
@@thumbsup5524 Oh, okay! Thanks for letting me know. 🙂
To be honest, I am not completely agreeing on the part. That in this case that the international votes are weighted more. Actually not the biggest issue is that it weights more but the fact that I was counted as Czech vote for example because I live here however in ESC I can vote for Czechia if I want to since I have Hungarian number so the rest of the world it does counts. And my friends from Italy they voted but they are also living here they counted as Czech vote same applies to my Slovak friends and I can say more and more example to this. I think this voting platform was not good in general. Also you could have voted infinite times if you wanted to basically. Based on that Mydy and Elly got the two biggest fan groups in general if you check social media and they were not even close to beat this girl is just a bit suspicious to me. I have no problem with Aiko going if that’s what the decision is alright. However I am worried about this if it will Nq we might loose Czechia for next year I think that would be the worst thing…so just to use this argument that let international vote have more power alright but most of the time and these are facts here the televote kills the Czech entries. Last year Vesna got very little televote with a good song, we are Domi also little televote. So I think in this case Elly or Mydy could have been a way less risky choice. I trust in the Czech delegation though if they have an idea how to work with this no problem. However I feel that it was not the peoples choice like I just go on social media almost no one picked Aiko 1st. Somehow it just doesn’t feel right to me. Anyway good like for Aiko good luck for Czechia 🇨🇿
Yeah, that's all kinda sus, but we're probably reading too much into it.
@@in_wino_veritas it could be. It is just a bit weird I am not pissed or anything I am just trying to understand because last year it was very clear, also the year before it was very clear I mean the results. This time it is not that much. Don’t get me wrong I am not accusing anyone with anything the Czech delegation is fine like it is not something like Poland last year when it was seen clearly that it was not about a song they wanted Blanka because of her connections. I am just saying for the future I hope they will change things on the voting because again a lot of us are not from here but voting and if the goal is to win over people who will vote for them than those people who live here but foreigners maybe should be counted as well to the international votes. Also I hope they secure the voting page better which not allowing to vote infinitely. That was just my opinion. If Aiko is the one she is the one. I hope Czechia will qualify and gets a results what keeps them in the competition. Also next year Slovakia will come back so they will have better chances since from there point will come for sure.
NQ
I just hope she tones down the screming and changes the dress.
Pedestal would be such a better song if Mydy was singing it.
Ok Tom
First i must declare that i didn't vote for Aiko in ESCZ......i was pretty underwhelmed by the whole show if I'm being honest. Lenny got my begrudging vote based on her superior vocal ability....but not fussed by whoever won.
What did stir me however, is the results segment.......were they frightened of an unruly crowd reaction?....therefore no public reveal?
A weighted result in favour of the international vote i totally understand and accept. But counting each individual vote in an accumulated manner seems totally unfair.
A very small campaign in Aiko's home base of Brighton would totally skew the vote.
The overall voting figures were not huge.
Why not award 12, 10, 8 , 6, 4, 3, 2 as an example, depending on where they finished in each of the 2 votes?
To finish 1st in international vote and 5th in domestic surpasses 1st in the domestic and 2nd in the international vote?
As i said, i voted for Lenny, so wasn't emotionally attached either way but if i was Elly, I'd be really cheesed off.
How will you attract top domestic artists going forward if they feel that their home support is superfluous in comparison to an act popular in a small, highly populated area overseas?
This system is surely not sustainable!
Either way, i wish Aiko every success in Malmö but i fear Prague 2025 is but a dream unfortunately
😪😪😪
yea they used the 1-7 point system before in 2022 and 2020, so im not sure why they changed. It might have been due to Benny getting the top czech points and then not doing well (albeit with a different song), and then in 2022 the top Czech voted song also would have flopped imo. So maybe theres a pragmatism here that the Czech delgation believe that the Czech public dont have a perfect record of choosing the best song?
@ESCTom can't disagree with you there.
However, if they cant "trust" the local population to choose wisely, then ditch the faux democracy and internally select.
Or would that leave nobody to hide behind when selections go wrong?.............just saying!!
😉😉
@@johnmoynahan874 speaking as a Czech: public interest here is not very high, which means a big chunk of our televote doesn't come from the perspective of "I want to listen to 7 songs and pick the best", but from "my favourite artist shared on their social media that I should support them by my free vote". Which is why our 2019, 2021 and 2022 televotes were won by the star with the largest fanbase and there's little point in that.
(This year was different, Elly has some 2000 followers on instagram, which further supports the "botting" theories. Everybody expected Lenny to win our televote).
But it still a good idea to not go internal, because that doesn't help building up the Eurovision brand. In the long term we really need the televised national final with a better production in order to make Eurovision a thing people talk about. It's a slow progress, paycheck by paycheck :) but it's already something compared to where we were 5 years ago where the only live presentation the artists gave was at random public pianos in the streets. That too had its magic (Barbora Mochowa singing True Colors on a railwaystation was pure poetry), but we surely are better off now :)
@HayashiMinoru absolutely agree with you that Czechia is in a better Eurovision place now than 5 years ago. Its just the procedures of the voting which really annoys me.
If the HoD wants a pure international perspective, then that's fine. But don't bother with the illusion that the domestic audience has an input because that is obviously not the case. This process offends my principles of a democratic vote. I so want Czechia to win Eurovision in the near future but hopefully with a more honest process. As i said to Tom, i have no axe to grind with the winner as i didn't vote for her or Elly. I still wish Aiko success in Malmö as the selection process has nothing to do with her. 🫰
Keep the scream but the rest can go. It reminds me of Italy 2014. I liked Emma more but the song bombed out at 21. I don't see Aiko going into the final. At least, not with my vote.
There is just no shot this performance actually resulted in winning the selection fairly🤔
The song itself isn’t even bad it’s borderline decent in studio but dropping that mess of a live performance should have completely ruled out Aiko’s chances considering the closeness in quality of the other songs (that had realistic chances of winning) which were all performed better…
I’d argue this isn’t even close to Annabelle - Running Out Of F* Time in the 2021 selection quality wise. This is sadly a major downgrade in comparison to We Are Domi and Vesna🤷♂️
Tom, it doesn't matter who goes....we all know who's winning and why 😂😂
To be honest even wildcard for Vidbir have better song than this one
poland 1 points
Not the best song in the national final imho. Elly should've won. But I wish her all the success in Malmo.
Perfomance is so amateurish for me.
They are not going to get Top 10 with this!
Neither they would with Elly so what's your point lol? Elly clearly didn't do well with the international vote and that wouldn't change by May ha, Europe is just tired of the same generic pop made for eurovision song and home girl had no energy performing it
I really do not like this. I would not listen to it
I dont love the songs its meh
Strange that a song about self love and respect is performed like this. Sexy half naked outfits and dance movements. How does that get the message across? The studio version and video are okay. I will not vote for it.