Eurosunday: Keep up the good work, Europe (Don't screw it up!)

This week in Eurovisionland six countries chose their songs, bringing the total to about twenty or so (I forget what the total is since Hungary withdrew their song). Listening to all the songs together sometimes I get the feeling that this year's level of quality is lower than the previous few years. However, then I realize that no novelty/joke entries have been selected yet. By this time last year we had "Leto svet". So even if some of the entries selected so far have bored me (like "Firefly" from Cyprus), there are none that I loathe, and that is a very good thing.

Germany presented “Miss Kiss Kiss Bang” early in the week. As the name of the artist (Alex Swings Oscar Sings) implies, it is a swing song. I couldn’t help being reminded of “I Don’t Dance” from High School Musical 2, another recent swing song, and unless you’ve shut yourself off from all modern popular music (and of course you haven’t or else you wouldn’t be reading this) you know that kids love that, so it has potential.

Up until this weekend there were surprisingly few songs with ethnic influences (only Albania, Turkey, and kind of Romania). This changed when Armenia chose “Jan jan” and Moldova chose “Hora din Moldova”. Both are upbeat and fun, and a nice departure from the ballads chosen so far.

Speaking of ballads, three more were chosen this week. Iceland chose “Is it true”, which I feel is one of the strongest ballads chosen so far, along with “My Time” and “What if we”. Poland chose “I don’t wanna leave”, which is also a decent poppy ballad that sounds a little like "Everything". Lithuania chose “Pasiklydes zmogus”. I’m surprised that while nearly half of the songs have been chosen, this is the only pop/r&b ballad with male vocals. The “let’s copy last year’s winner and see if that works” doesn’t seem to be very strong this year (not that I am accusing Lithuania of that).

Norway and Slovakia had a second chance and semifinal, respectively, but none of the qualifying songs from either excited me (except maybe "Prines si ten klúc" from Slovakia). Spain also held its first semifinal, and I was happy to see "Cruza los dedos" qualify.

Sweden held its second semifinal, and I was pleased with all the qualifiers to the final and semifinal, except I would have preferred “Never Been Here Before” instead of “1000 Miles”. The song that I was anticipating the most this semifinal was “Hope & Glory”, and I was pleased to find out that it sounded exactly as everyone had expected, which is “Hero 2”, and a little “Cara Mia 2” in the intro. I encourage everyone to try singing the lyrics over the instrumental track to "Hero" - it doesn't fit perfectly but it's fun to try. I can’t say that I like the performance though, and found the boxing imagery kind of awkward.

Next week six more countries pick their entries: Bulgaria, FYR Macedonia, Greece, Georgia, Ireland, Norway. Additionally, Slovakia, Spain, and Sweden have semifinals. I'm especially looking forward to hearing BwO's song in the latter.