Ballad time

It's now crunch time for Eurovision selection season. This and the next three weekends will have several entries chosen or presented per week.

This week, several countries chose or presented ballads by female singers. On Valentine's Day, Belarus chose "All My Life". I'm disappointed it wasn't "We are the heroes" but it's a fine dramatic ballad. Italy chose Nina Zilli as their representative. She performed "Per Sempre" in Sanremo, but it's unsaid if she will perform that song in Baku. Croatia presented their song "Nebo" by another Nina, which is better than some of their other recent entries. Latvia held a national final and chose "Beautiful Song" which was my favorite of the songs in their selection this year, but that's not saying much.

Ukraine picked "Be My Guest". I'm disappointed it wasn't "Dance" but it is a good song and goes back to the "tradition" of Ukrainian entries being uptempo songs sung by female singers, as opposed to the ballads of the past two years.

Georgia chose "I'm a Jocker." Since I don't have anything nice to say about it, I'll wait until March to say more.

Germany chose "Standing Still" which I don't like as much as their Lena entries but it is contemporary and has potential.

Some countries also had semifinals. Finland had one of several selection shows and finally opened up voting for the semifinalists. Of the semifinalists, my favorite are "Noitanainen" and "We are the night" so I hope those make it to the final.

Sweden had their third semifinal. "Why am I crying" and "Mirakel" qualified to the final and "Lovelight" and "Youngblood" qualified for the Andra Chansen round. This was my least favorite of the three semifinals so far and I am surprised at the result for "Youngblood" as it sounded like a rough draft of "Manboy".

Lithuania also held their third semifinal, from which three songs qualified, none of which appeal to me at first listen.

Estonia had their first semifinal. None of the qualifiers are my favorites, and I'm disappointed that "Fight for love" and "Bon voyage" didn't qualify.