La Poupée Monte Le Son (Luxembourg 2025)

Next up, breaking free of the past and cutting the strings that control her, we have Laura Thorn representing Luxembourg with La Poupée Monte Le Son!

Source

Lyrics: 88%
Composition: 87.5%
Vocals: 76%
Staging: 100%
Vibes: 100%
Overall: 90.3%

Verdict: Far and away my favourite song this year. Criminally underrated. Pity her vocals were a bit shaky.

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LYRICS - Total: 22/25 (88%)
Subject Matter: 7.5/10
Effective Use of Language: 4.5/5
Clarity: 5/5
Flow: 5/5

Yes, it's an empowerment song, but it's so much more than just that. It specifically pays homage to a past winning Luxembourg song and tears the idea of it to shreds. It's not just empowerment in lyrical form - it's empowerment in physical form as well. It's pretty unique in that sense, and I love the idea of righting a few wrongs. France Gall was taken advantage of, and Laura is standing up for her and saying "never again". Sure, the idea behind it is simple, but I love it anyway. Its lyrics are strong and unapologetic with a cohesive theme running through it all.

Some might say the lyrics, especially the "na na na" chorus, are lazy - I disagree, and address that down in the "composition" section. IMO the lyrics are part of a compositional idea and can't really be divorced from it.

And man, the pacing and phrasing of the lyrics, the way it sounds - I feel like I just got a eargasm. This is wonderful.

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COMPOSITION - Total: 17.5/20 (87.5%)
Melody/Bass: 4.5/5
Instrumentation: 5/5
Development: 3.5/5
Coherence: 4.5/5

Very, very energetic, very listenable. I just can't get enough of it. I have played JUST the instrumental track - no vocals - and loved it just as much, if not even more. It's not the most original, perhaps, but it's still fantastic, and there's so much detail here. Plus there's this little bit that reminds me of Phantom of the Opera. And I suppose it could be argued that Christine is the Phantom's puppet, as she is forced to sing what he writes, her path written for her.

I also want to shout out the "na, na na na, na, na" line in the chorus. I have heard some people say that it's filler lyrics and lazy writing, and I have to say that I kind of disagree. Sure, it may sound like filler, but there are two things at play here. Firstly, we want to look at the context - in this case, the story being told. Laura's a doll that's trying to break free - to turn up the volume. Well, every phrase of "na"'s paint that really well - they only rise in pitch and volume! The purpose of the line is to, quite literally, have la poupée monte le son: "na, na na na, NA, NA". So yes, maybe they're lyrically a little empty, but... if you look at dolls, aren't their words essentially "filler"? I mean, yes, they don't just go "na", but the point is that they largely don't have the agency to say what they want.

Secondly, it's used to develop the idea of the doll breaking free from her bindings, of course! The bridge signifies the doll getting loose, which is also reflected in the performance with Laura existing the house, her costume change, and the eventual destruction of the dollhouse. In the final chorus, Laura doesn't sing a single "na"! The "na"s are relegated to the backing track, and Laura starts actually singing instead - long and smooth like how a human would move instead of short and jerky like how a doll would! IMO it was a pretty interesting and fun bit of musical storytelling that a lyrically complex line would've obscured. The "na"s feel empty, but it's purposefully and not lazily empty.

Instruments were great too. The strings were prominent, frenetic at times, and certainly fantastically appropriate (I mean, puppetry, duh). I love how strong the bass is - very foot-stomping, and contrasted against the lightness of some of the other instruments - the piano right at the end of the bridge, the ones playing the title melody (sorry, can't tell which one it is) - it's a very nice juxtaposition. There are so many details here (ticking clock, electroshock), and it's so lovingly crafted. There were some areas where I wasn't sure whether it was a bit much, but on the whole it fit together really well.

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VOCALS - Total: 18/25 (72%)
Vocals: 13/20
Immersion: 5/5

For me, this was the area in which LPMLS fell a little short - Laura did sound a little pitchy here and there. It wasn't bad, but it was significant enough to affect my enjoyment of the song, because there were definitely a few points - especially ones that were more prominent/important - where I went "ooh, that doesn't sound quite right".

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STAGING - Total: 25/25 (100%)
The Show: 10/10
The Story: 10/10
Outfits: 5/5

This is BEAUTIFUL. There is so much STORY here, and the show is fantastic as well! 100%, no question. In fact, in this instance, I am struggling so hard to avoid breaking my own damn ranking system and giving this staging extra points, because it deserves 1000%. This is LOVE. This is PRIDE. This is EFFORT, and hell, I think this is even better than Bambie Thug's!

Let's start with the dollhouse. There's the brief image of a dollhouse being held by someone, then a zoom through the keyhole, then the focus on Laura, with the original Poupée de cire, poupée de son playing like a video in the background and a giant eye peeking in through the window. The use of the floor LEDs for this was brilliant; I think they're the only act that interacted with the floor in this way; Laura's clearly meant to be a tiny, insignificant plaything. Then there's the dancers picking up Laura, an immobile doll, and walking her out of the dollhouse. The frame on top has "Laura's World" on it, adding even more to the image of this being a carefully curated puppet show.

But then in verse 2, the dollhouse starts malfunctioning; the lights in each room go on and off with increasing frequency, the path out of the dollhouse grows longer and longer as Laura purposefully strides away from it, and then right as we enter the second chorus, the electroshock runs through the house.

In the bridge, the doll has fully left the dollhouse, we only see the outside of it. She's torn off her bindings; she's no longer a pretty pink plaything, but now her own shining self, full of individuality. I also love the detail in the background LED's - you can still see the items in the room which she left! And then in the final chorus, the dollhouse explodes; Laura is no longer a doll, but a real girl, and she casts the remains of the dollhouse away.

Now there's the dancing. In the beginning, Laura is totally immobile; she's moved only when her puppeteers want her to, with the chair and the table around her being pushed about by giant hands as well. We then transit to the actual dancers having to pick her up from the floor, and they largely control her movements as she walks with stiff legs and blinks extremely unnaturally. Their actions are very "in control" - big motions that loom over Laura, small gestures that are indicative of directions/commands given. 

In the first chorus Laura starts walking more normally, despite the dancers' best attempts to continue to exert control over her, which sets up the battle in the second verse between Laura and her controllers as they face off against each other, culminating in "Avec toute ta collection de figurines" where she finally gets to push back against her puppeteer. Then the second pre-chorus comes, and you can see as the expressions on the dancers faces grow fake and their movements stiff and wooden (compare 1:07 and 2:08 in the video of the performance.)

((And since I'm here, I want to just detour for a little while to say that at 1:06 when there's that clap sound the dancers actually CLAP. THANK YOU. Not like in Fighter, where there's a clap/stomp sound and the dancers DON'T MAKE IT DIEGETIC (tbh not sure if that's the right word in this context), which drove me INSANE.))

And then we get the outfit change, signifying Laura finally leaving her dollhood behind as she drops the pink frills, lace-up toy dress for a silver dress that lets her shine. She's cut her strings, she's a new, real girl, and she's going to sing her heart out.

Put together, this is BY FAR the best staging this year. No context. Like I said, I would give this a thousand percent if I could.

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VIBES - 100%

I have listened to a 1-hour version of this multiple times. I've listened to this over 100 times in one day. I'm OBSESSED with this song. The instrumental is great enough to listen to on its own, and that's something I've done multiple times too. Hell, I've talked to other people about this song, people who don't even Eurovision!

I suspect that this might become my new favourite Eurovision song of all time.