Girl group O’G3NE will represent The Netherlands at the Eurovision Song Contest this year. They are truly among the best of talent we have in The Netherlands and expectations have been sky high ever since this was announced.
They’ll bring the song “Lights and Shadows” to the contest, which has the girls singing their famed harmonies throughout the whole song. The powerful ballad reminds me a little bit of another girl group. A girl group from the past.
Back in the early days, The Beach Boys and the Mamas and Papas were also known for their harmonies and their offspring formed a group called Wilson Philips. I think it was in the 90s when they exploded on the global charts with a power ballad called “Hold On”.
The message of both songs is the same. Life has ups and downs (or lights and shadows), but you have to hold on through its downs because they lead to better times. In order to provide the needed strength both songs have an equal amount of anthem like choruses in them.
Of course “Lights and Shadows” is way more updated in music, though it is kept clean of today's fashion trends in music, probably to create a timeless track as Eurovision songs do end up in the history books.
As usual, you can tell that O’G3NE have a massive R&B influence in their vocals. It's in the pronunciation of words and in the chosen harmonies altogether.
There are high hopes that this will lead to an international breakthrough for O’G3NE. Everyone is sure they have that potential. The girls themselves have been at this since they were kids and have already taken part of the Junior Eurovision Song Contest, so even with this they have been around the block. They are gracefully going through the circus with the strict professionalism I’ve come to expect from them now.
I'm not sure that the song has got the potential to win, nor have I heard anything about them coming up with any surprises for their performance during the contest. It's just a matter of time before we know if this is a time of lights or shadows.
