Laika Party (Ireland 2025)

Next up, we have a song about the very first dog to orbit the Earth, sacrificed by the Soviets to further their understanding of space. It's Emmy, with Laika Party.

Source

Also, as a bonus, here's a relevant Taskmaster clip about it.

Lyrics: 70%
Composition: 65%
Vocals: 68%
Staging: 64%
Vibes: 75%
Overall: 68.4%

Verdict: My kid loves repeating the words "bum-bum" for some unfathomable reason (he finds butts funny), yet in one 3-minute song I swear I've heard more "bums" from Emmy than from my 3-year-old kid.

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LYRICS - Total: 17.5/25 (70%)
Subject Matter: 9.5/10
Effective Use of Language: 1/5
Clarity: 3.5/5
Flow: 3.5/5

Lmao. This is without a doubt the song that covers the most unique topic this year. And it's something that deserves coverage, too. We should know the history of humanity, and the sacrifices it took us to get there. High score for subject matter, then, but not quite a perfect 10 - while it captured my imagination, Shh was just that much better.

The lyrics, though, I'm far less sure about. I mean, I get the sentiment - Emmy's dreaming about a world in which Laika never died, a world where things turned out a lot better than they did. And it would be kind of a downer to sing about a stray dog dying of heat exhaustion. But at the same time, there's no need to overly romanticize the actual event. There's a difference in singing about what you wish happened, vs glossing over the actual goings on.

I don't have an issue with the chorus ("I hope Laika never died and that she spins around us still"). I like the chorus. Wishful thinking doesn't diminish the gravity of the topic. But the verses... the verses are complete nonsense.

"All we know is that she saved the world" - no she didn't. Charitably, the most you could say is "it remains to be seen". VERY charitably.

"She got sent away, but she wasn't afraid" - she was probably fucking terrified. She had to be strapped in so she could only stand, sit, or lie down or something like that for the rest of her short life.

"Left the cheering crowd," - no. The exact opposite. There were public protests and worldwide debates on the ethics of animal cruelty in the name of science.

"... but she loves to fly..." - double no.

"Singing along to the stars and sun" - The Soviet government claimed they euthanized her, but she died of hyperthermia.

"And if she didn't fly, nor would you and I..." - no. "We shouldn't have done it [...] We did not learn enough from this mission to justify the death of the dog." - Oleg Gazenko.

Laika wasn't a brave explorer that wanted to soar through the space. She was a sacrifice, a victim of the Cold War space race.

You could attribute the lyrics to the innocent imagination of a child (in which case this song should really have been in Junior Eurovision or something), but IMO, to adults, Laika deserves to have the truth of her life remembered.

Also, there are more butts referenced here in this song than in a Minions movie. The instrumental/bum bit serves no purpose that I can imagine, and I think it reeks of lazy songwriting.

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COMPOSITION - Total: 13/20 (65%)
Melody/Bass: 4/5
Instrumentation: 3.5/5
Development: 2/5
Coherence: 3.5/5

Melody is ok. I do especially like the chorus, it's a fun sort of chill. I like how the synth(?) has that otherworldly/misty sort of feel. It contributes to the atmosphere.

That said, the final post-chorus had me going "oh god, AGAIN?" after the key change in the final chorus lead to more "bum"s. Like, seriously, this is the one song that, although I can vibe with, I actually think overstays its welcome. If Laika Party drops its last post-chorus and just goes straight form the key change section to the final "Like a party in the sky", I really think it would flow better.

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VOCALS - Total: 17/25 (68%)
Vocals: 13/20
Immersion: 4/5

Vocals were not terrible, but also not great (maybe I should've given it 13.6 instead hehe). It does sound like there's a little shakiness in the verse phrases ("You have probably heard" / "but she wasn't afraid" / "Through the comets and the stones" etc), which, for a song that isn't that vocally strenuous compared to some of the other songs this year, is a little underwhelming.

I could kind of imagine Emmy being that little child with the active imagination, trying to think of a better ending for Laika, I suppose. 

Emmy's ending "Sky" feels like it's in a slightly different accent from the rest of her words. Not a criticism, just wondering why.

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STAGING - Total: 16/25 (64%)
The Show: 6.5/10
The Story: 6/10
Outfits: 3.5/5

The performance was good-ish, though not great. The lighting was nice (though at this point I kinda low-key feel that the blue-pink-purple lighting scheme is kind of cursed - see Ronela, Brooke, and a few others), the smoke was fun and gave an "above the clouds"/"in space" vibe. But the post-chorus marching bits felt quite random and not very purposeful. Emmy and her brother Erlend also feel very, very static. It's not helped by the zoomed-out shots, where the singers and dancers just look small and the LEDs aren't moving at all.

The storytelling was... pretty meh. The most glaring part to me was the visuals of the army of astronauts marching, which got a "what the hell, why is this so childish" response. Like, I know it's through the eyes of a child, but that doesn't mean the staging has to be so childish. 

I could be charitable and presume the marching astronauts are meant to symbolize the relentless progress of humanity through the sacrifice of Laika, but given the vibe of the song and its happy romanticizing lyrics, I very much doubt this was actually the case. Which raises the question of what the purpose of it was, and I'm kind of leaning towards it being just as filler as the "bum"s in that section. This feels like one of those times where the curtains were just blue, if you get the reference.

At least the other visuals (the Laika "constellation", outer space, and the moon) make some sort of sense. Though again, given the presentation of the song and the associated staging, I'm not sure I believe that the moon is there because it's an enlightened reference that represents the final destination of the journey that "began" with sending Laika into space, as opposed to it just being there because the moon is partying up there in the sky somewhere. 

Outfits were okay. Again, it kinda feels like it straddles the line between childish and fitting. I mean, star glasses...?

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VIBES - 75%

It's pretty good; I love the verses. The non-lyric post-chorus bits turn me off after a while, though.