Hey everyone! I’m back, and still obsessed with this year’s Eurovision :,]
To the point where I make analyses of the songs I really like. Performance wise, vocals wise, everything.
And, actually surprising, the song that started this was not Kraj mene by Lavina (still peak though). It was Bella, by Aidan Cassar.
So, surprising fact: I like more than one song this year. I do talk about Lavina a lot because they’re my favorites 😛
But anyway, I looked into Bella, because I thought it was just interesting. Then, I decided to look in the official MV.
And my brain started running.
Now, I have a theory behind the song’s meaning. Is it right? Probably not. BUT. Still something to think about.
I PRESENT: The Dead Bella Theory. That the song Bella isn’t just a sweet ballad, but an elegy to “Bella”.
[NOTA BENE: This does not take the National Final into account! I forgot about it :,( The feminine shadow will be referred to as Bella, and the speaker of the song will be referred to as Aidan.]
At the beginning of the music video, when Aidan says, “Hello, my friend”, he’s staring off into the distance and holding a rose. His gaze is fixed forward, not up at the dark sky or at the ground, and we cannot see where he is at the moment. This shot could represent the first few seconds of being unable to process grief.
“Bella” first appears as a shadow in an empty hallway. It’s in this hallway where we also see Aidan enter a room, running, etc. This shot could represent him feeling lost in the new grief of losing Bella, as he’s running in a hallway that we never see the end of. He appears to be pushed out of a room [the sudden loss of Bella] yet entering another room [the change in phases of life–she was here, now she isn’t].
Several times, Aidan appears topless or conducting an orchestra. Aidan being topless represent the vulnerability he feels about the love, and the grief of losing Bella. He’s exposing himself to talk about her. The orchestra could represent all of his feelings and thoughts for Bella coming together in love.
Right before the big Maltese chorus [“Miskin min hu bħali, miskin min hu hekk…”] he’s in the woods. Kind of like the woods you’d see in horror movies. And there is a SINGULAR rose on a branch. The other branches are dead, or have otherwise no life on them at all.
He touches its petals, hesitantly, and when he draws back, there is blood on his hand. Reinforcing the idea Bella is dead, as the rose seems to be a symbol of her presence. It’s a recurring motif in the song [roses and their petals], and the red rose is commonly associated with love.
The hallway in the last Maltese part is tilted, and Aidan is shown falling and hitting (?) the wall in the aforementioned hallway. We get two shots like this, which could represent Aidan feeling out of balance after the loss of Bella.
The rose from the start is momentarily shown burning up in flames, withering away, symbolizing Bella’s life withering away, irreversibly as fire burns.
He’s staring, it’s revealed, at a window with WHITE FLOWING CURTAINS and nothing but LIGHT visible from it. We can’t see past the window. This window parallels the barrier between life and death, as light is usually associated with the afterlife. Aidan may be trying to process the fact Bella “went into the light” where he could not follow.
He’s surrounded by plants, it seems, but isn’t looking at any, and the plants appear dead. Again, dead plants, or barren.
The rose from before is now burnt and dead, but he’s still holding it and hasn’t seemed to notice. He refuses to let go of Bella after she is dead and gone.
And the orchestra Aidan is conducting throughout ceases to play, as he makes the ending gesture of a conductor. I don’t think this gesture represents love ending, but the painful feeling after losing a loved one where everything kind of stops. The orchestra could also symbolize Bella’s life, as Aidan has faith she is still alive, or maybe Bella hasn’t died yet. When it ends, it represents Aidan’s acceptance of losing her.
But what about the Eurovision performance?
See, Bella appears for actually very little of the performance. She appears when Aidan first sings, “che bella,” and appears in multiple of the arches when Aidan repeats “Bella” several times.
When he sings “ma che bella bella bella” Bella is spinning SO quickly between the arches she blurs. The blur could represent Aidan trying to keep the memories he made with Bella, but since her death, he is losing them.
“Bella” also disappears from the arches in the grand final during the rose tornado and the only light is pointing up. Up to where most religions consider the gods to live, or the place people go to in the afterlife.
So the line “and you left me waiting” probably doesn’t JUST mean “Bella” ghosted him or left him. [Aidan, like. The real Aidan sobbed on this line in the Grand Final. It hurts my soul every time I watch.]
Bella is probably DEAD. Died before he could see her again, maybe. Maybe he waited for her and she never came, because, well. She died.
Bella is haunting him. Aidan misses her, and it’s affecting him very deeply. He’ll never see her again. She’s too far away. He’ll always be waiting. He’ll keep holding onto her, because. It’s still her.
Love still lingers after death.
…Idk though I could just be delusional
Maybe this analysis/theory gave you some insight into the song 😛 Hope you enjoyed, see you next week!