The Black Mamba – Love Is On My Side

I was busier than expected this week, which is the reason for the short amount of updates here. I hope I can compensate for that by featuring here a great song that was totally overlooked at this year’s Eurovision Song Contest.

If you have never heard of that contest (it is not very popular in North America), our friend Jeff from the great Eclectic Music Lover blog, offered a concise summary when he reviewed the winning song from this edition, which wasn’t my favorite but I didn’t dislike. There is something you need to understand about Eurovision: most people watch it –and we’re talking about more than 200 million worldwide– not because of the quality of the contestants but to laugh at some of the over-the-top and often ludicrous acts that some countries send to this contest each year (for example, this one). A jury from each country awards points to 10 other countries, which accounts for half of the total amount of points. The other half comes from popular vote (people can’t vote for the act representing their own country). However, quite often political reasons influence how the country juries vote and the general public regularly selects the most extravagant acts, which means that the winning song is rarely the most deserving one (I mean, this song won in 2018). Therefore, if you don’t hate the winning song, you can consider yourself satisfied.

All that being said, this year’s edition was better than expected in terms of the quality of the contestants. Most of them were at least decent and a few were even more than good. In my opinion, by far the best entry was the act representing Portugal: The Black Mamba, and their song Love Is On My Side. It finished in 12th place but as I explained above, that doesn’t mean much. What really matters is that the tune, which was the first Portuguese song in the contest performed entirely in English, is outstanding. It starts with bluesy undertones reminiscing of rock tracks from the 1970s, which contrasts very well with the catchy chorus more typical of an #indierock track. It also helps that the band’s frontman’s, Pedro Tatanka, voice is really distinctive and perfect for this kind of music.He wrote the song inspired by a sex worker the band met during a trip to Rotterdam in 2019. Written from her perspective, it reflects how all hope is not lost even when life does not go as planned.

I hope you enjoy Loves Is On My Side as much as I did.

Featured on the following mixtapes: