Angelic Super Saturday

This week a whopping twelve countries presented or selected their entry. Since it’s getting close to ranking time I’ll be brief so I don’t spoil it.

Bosnia & Herzegovina presented “Love in rewind,” which took a few listens for me to get used to but will probably turn out very nicely on stage.

FYR Macedona chose a more ethnic rock song, "Rusinka." Perhaps it's due to the audio quality in the clip I saw but I have no idea what's going on.

Bulgaria chose “Na inat,” a female-fronted rock song and a nice departure from their previous entries. Turkey also presented a rock song, “Live it up,” which seems familiar somehow, which will probably help its chances. Latvia chose “Angel in Disguise,” which is pretty good though I would have preferred “Banjo Laura.” Moldova chose “So Lucky,” which isn’t as good or memorable as “Boonika Bate Doba” but could have potential in the final performance.

Slovenia chose a strong power ballad, "Vanilija," while Austria, Lithuania, and Ukraine chose boring ballads,“The secret is love,” “C’est ma vie,” and “Angels.” Austria’s selection was particularly disappointing because the wonderful “Oida taunz” came in second place, which could have been the new “Dancing lasha tumbai,” in a good way. Ukraine too was disappointing as I would have preferred “Smile.”

Ukraine didn’t pick retro pop but Serbia did, with “Caroban.” Like “Smile” it’s sweet and retro but still sounds like it was made recently, and it probably has more potential since it doesn’t have strange vocal parts and genre shifts in the second half.

I was pleased with Estonia picking “Rockefeller Street,” a very mainstream pop song.
Denmark chose “New Tomorrow” which was predictably in the style of their past few entries. I would have preferred “25 Hours a Day.” As many have said, it does sound a lot like “Sing For Me.”

Sweden had their fourth semifinal and all the qualifiers were quite good but I'm disappointed that Melody Club only came seventh.