Disco? In My Ballads?

I've been busy with my personal life and felt there was too much negativity on the internet immediately after the Eurovision final, so I'm sorry if anyone was interested in hearing my opinion on that.

Today I decided that it would be a good idea to browse the back catalogue of some of this year's Eurovision artists for future Mp3 Mondays. One song that I found was too good a find to put off a couple of days. Listening to winner Marija Serifovic's 2006 album "Bez ljubavi" was an interesting experience. Besides the beautiful ballads that I expected, there are also some R&B influenced tracks. Probably the most pleasant surprise for me was the song "Nije Mi Prvi Put" which seems to be somewhat of a disco tune. For those in doubt, it has plenty of "oooh-oh-ohs" too. Those of you who didn't like "Molitva" might like this song a little better.

Download Marija Serifovic - "Nije Mi Prvi Put"

Semi Final Result Reaction

The bad thing is that most of my predictions on the top ten of the Eurovision semifinal this year, which I posted on various forums, were only half right. Even more puzzling is the fact that none of my brother's favorite songs qualified (this may be a bad omen for France on Saturday, then).
The good thing? Most of my favorite songs qualified! My top 10 songs from the semifinal, in order of most liked to lesser liked, are:
Belarus, Serbia, Cyprus, Moldova, Slovenia, FYR Macedonia, Switzerland, Georgia, Bulgaria, and Denmark. Out of those, the only ones that didn't qualify were Cyprus and Denmark (which I kind of expected not to), and Switzerland (which I thought would qualify). The ones not in my top 10 semifinal songs that qualified were Turkey and Latvia (which I expected), and Hungary...which completely surprised me. She sang well, but the song was boring and she was dressed kind of sloppily, but I guess that worked for Dima Bilan last year, and it could work for her.

Even though Europe's top 10 isn't my top 10 exactly, it is still very close, and even with more participants in the semifinal I am more accurate than last year, when 5 of my top 10 semifinalists qualified. Also, more of my favorite songs qualified than did my brother's.

So, this is what I hope the final's top 10 will look like, although I'm pretty sure it won't look at all like this:
1)Belarus
2)Serbia
3)Sweden
4)Spain
5)Moldova
6)Slovenia
7)FYR Macedonia
8)Georgia
9)Bulgaria
10)France
And since there are 2 Big 4 countries in there, I'll make it my top 12:
11)Russia
12)Finland

Emovision?

Today, in the interest of science, I got my emo little brother to listen to some of this year's Eurovision songs. If he liked a song on the first listen, then surely any other teenage kids with mostly bad taste might like it too. He listened to the songs that I thought he wouldn't instantly hate until he got bored and and his reactions were a bit surprising.

His favorite was Israel. He responded positively to it from the beginning, and by the end he was singing along with the chorus. He also thought Austria and France were "not that bad." He thought Malta's intro sounded familiar, and thought it was good too.

He thought Estonia, Iceland, Spain, Sweden, and Ukraine's songs were just okay. Shockingly, he didn't like Andorra's song much. He liked the chorus but disliked the verses.

He disliked Belarus, Bulgaria and Cyprus, and immediately asked for me to turn off Belgium and Finland. He also thought the United Kingdom's song was "stupid."

He had some odd comments for some songs. Of Switzerland, he said, "I would never have this on my iPod but it's okay." He also said he would have liked the Czech Republic's song if it was in German. Despite this, he didn't like the German song.

So there you have it. If he is correct then Israel, Austria, France, and Malta will do very well, and favorites Belarus, Bulgaria, Switzerland, and Sweden may not do as well as people who bet on them would have liked.

The Very Obvious Top 5

Welcome to the last Eurosunday ranking post of 2007. I want to thank all the readers who have read and commented on my posts these past few months. Here are my top 5 songs.

5. Spain
D’Nash – “I Love You Mi Vida”
Reaction: This wasn't my favorite potential Spanish song, but it's still a great song. The guitar throughout the song makes the whole thing danceable, not just the chorus. The lyrics are also interesting, even though I can only understand about half of them.
Best Part:Key change
Rating: 5/5

4. Cyprus
Evridiki– “Comme Ci Comme Ca”
Reaction:Funny that this song has the same draw in the semi as the song that was in this position last year. This is a very cool electro/rock song. Evridiki sings it with an appropriate mix of boredom and anger that makes the message of the song clear.
Best Part: Chorus
Rating: 5/5

3. Sweden
The Ark– “The Worrying Kind”
Reaction: I know it’s an unpopular opinion on the pop side of music blogs, but I have grown to love this song. It’s probably a bad thing, but I relate to the lyrics of this song way too much. If loving a song for its lyrics alone is an indie/emo thing to do, don’t fear, because I also love the music. It sounds kind of like “Love Knows (Where My Rosemary Grows)” meets “Waterloo”, which doesn’t sound appealing on paper because I strongly dislike the first song, but turns out to be great. This song also made me give a second listen to the Ark’s other song and turned me into a fan of theirs (I bought their new CD, loved it, and recommended it to my friends). Surely the most fun song about anxiety disorders ever.
Best Part:
Rating: 5/5

2. Serbia
Marija Serifovic– “Molitva”
Reaction: First, I have something I want to say, and that is that the negatice comments across the interwebs about Marija's appearance seem a little misogynist to me. There are a few male performers this year who are, in my opinion, very unattractive, but you don't hear anyone talking about them, do you?
Now that that's out of the way, this is a beautiful ballad, and my favorite Eurovision ballad since "Angel" in 2005. It is intense and dramatic at some parts and gentle at others. Marija sings the song well and has a great vocal range.
Best Part: The long note towards the end
Rating: 5/5

1. Belarus
Koldun– “Work Your Magic”
Reaction: If you haven’t heard, I am a big geek. It’s basically “Never Let You Go, Part 2” and with any other lyrics would have also gotten a 4/5. But I gave it that extra point because it’s about magic, and I am a loser who thinks magic is cool. Partly because of this, and because of the James Bond style intro, the song is ridiculously cheesy and over-the-top, and I love it. Best Belarusian entry ever (yes, even better than “Love Me Tonight”), and my top entry of the year.
Best Part: : “I am able and I’m willing, yes I’m willing” This is the best part of any song this year
Rating:5/5

This week, I'm going to also have some other, more fun, Eurovision Top 5 lists, as well as reviewing the semifinal and the final (which I didn't do last year, so severe was my shock at Anzej doing poorly) so keep checking back every day.