Eurosunday: Happy 2009!

It’s the first Sunday in January and you know what that means – first The Goggles do Nothing Eurosunday of the year!

There have been a remarkable number of selection shows so far, mostly from Bulgaria and Malta, that I haven’t had enough time to follow in depth except for watching each of the entries on Youtube once. I like Malta’s “Innocent Heart,” but that’s all that sticks in my mind as of now from either of those two countries. I’ll go back to their songs once the finalists have been selected.

Spain is again doing a selection through MySpace and I admit, I’m waiting for the 50 finalists to be selected before even thinking about sitting down and listening to all the songs.

Belarus picked its five finalists some weeks ago. Right now “This is my day” and “Fantastic girl” are my favorite of them.

Finland’s songs were revealed and it seems that the 2nd semifinal will be a Semifinal of Death, as my three favorite songs (“Doctor doctor”, “Lose control”, and “Surrender”) are being performed then.

Moldova’s songs were released and like the past two years, I have one immediate favorite, which is “Woman’s winner”. Its neighbor Romania’s songs were also revealed and there are a lot of good songs but no particular favorite after one listen through.

I’m mixed on how I feel about the United Kingdom’s new approach. They have a big-name songwriter but are choosing from a selection of unknowns for the singer, and the song hasn’t even been written yet. Still, I feel I should pay special attention to the United Kingdom this year because I have been harsh on them every other year, and they do seem to be actually trying this time around. Unfortunately, I can’t seem to find any way to watch the first episode yet (are there any words sadder than “0 seeds”?) but once I do I will try to write about it.

Two countries recently revealed their songs: Albania and Turkey. Albania’s song, “Me Merr ne Enderr” starts off a bit like “Naj Svet Zakriči” from EMA 2007 and then on the chorus, and the key change especially, it reminds me a little of “Plan B”/”Mr. Nobody”. I will wait until the 3:00 edit to give my final word on it but this could become my favorite Albanian entry so far.

I’m indecisive about Turkey’s song, “Dum Tek Tek”. At first I didn’t like it, but it is too catchy to stop listening to. It feels like with the right visual performance it could easily do well because it sounds like a dance hit, and not just because of the d-word.

That’s it for this week (unless I finally acquire a copy of episode 1 of “Your Country Needs You”). Next weekend brings semifinals in Finland, Iceland, Malta, and the United Kingdom.