Lucky 13 Songs

This week three countries chose their Eurovision entries, and now 13 songs, or a third of the total, have been made public. Instead of reading up on Eurovision events I spent much of this week watching and discussing Olympic men’s figure skating, which is somewhat Eurovision related considering the silver medalist was part of an Eurovision winning act.

Malta chose “My Dream,” a sugary ballad that isn’t their best but is pretty standard for them, and definitely better than last year’s. If we can accuse other countries of jumping on the solo-male bandwagon, then can we accuse Malta for jumping on the young-woman-singing-ballad bandwagon in response to last year’s 2nd place song, despite being this being what Malta “does”?

FYR Macedonia chose “Jas ja imam silata”, which didn’t get me at first listen but upon a few more listen’s it’s not that bad. I think I’ve just been softened to Eurovision ex-Yugoslav pop-rock through repeated exposure.

Slovenia chose “Narodnozabavni Rock,” a bizarre mixture of musical styles that will probably end up in a similar place on my list as previous songs that attempted that.

Three countries also had semifinals. Slovakia had their second semifinal. The qualifiers were good but my favorite is from the first semifinal.

Lithuania also had their second semifinal. “Running fast” is unique and decent, as is “Field of Kings“. “I Love a Boy Who’s In Love With A Fairytale” straddles the line between novelty song and subversive.

Last but not least, Sweden had their third semifinal of Melodifestivalen. This semifinal was of poorer quality than the previous weeks in that it did not have as good a sketch with Dolph Lundgren in it. The actual songs themselves were of mixed quality, but some good songs qualified. The qualification of “You’re Out Of My Life” was no surprise, given the popularity of Darin, but “Kom” qualifying was a different story. I thought “Kom” would be one of those poppy fan favorites that only makes it to 5th place, so I was very shocked when it won the public vote. Alcazar’s fourth attempt, “Headlines,” made it to the second chance round, as well as “Heaven or Hell” by Crucified Barbara, which is sadly not about Guilty Gear.

Next week six more countries select their entries: Bulgaria, Georgia, Latvia, Slovakia, Spain, and Turkey, and a few others have more qualifying rounds. As for potential national final winners, I’d like to see “Your morning lullaby” in Latvia, “Horehronie” in Slovakia, and “Beautiful Life” in Spain (though it will probably be “En una vida”).