Take Me To Heaven

This week's post is super-sized, since I was unable to post last week. In the interest of preventing your browsers from crashing, videos are behind the cut. This week's posts covers finals in Cyprus and Switzerland, plus semifinals in Hungary, Iceland, and Latvia.


 After what seemed like a thousand preselection rounds, Cyprus chose their song. One of the six in the final was "Deila den agapo" by Nearchos Evangelou & Charis Savva. It's got an unique language mix of French and Greek. Maybe it's for the best that it didn't win, since Cyprus doesn't have a good track record with French entries...


Hungary had heats the past two weekends. The first heat had "Lead Me to Heaven" by Magyar Bori, a cool synthpop song plagued by a less than perfect delivery.


The second heat had "Lőjetek fel" by Leander Rising. It's always good to hear metal in Eurovision preselections, and this song has a passionate delivery.


The fan favorite in Iceland's first semifinal was "Myrkrið hljótt" by Erna Hrön Olafsdóttir. While it's a powerful musical theater ballad, it really does have that "OGAE Second Chance selection" feel to it. The songs in next week are better.


Latvia's first semifinal included "Save our love" by Linda Ķaukule. It's a sunny 90s throwback with a laidback acoustic guitar feel and a catchy bridge.


Switzerland, neighbor to the host country, chose their entry in a six-song final. "Take Me Back to 23" by Deborah Bough was the best of the five other songs. It has a cute disco influence that's kind of fun.


Next week is really "on" season as there are seven selection shows. Estonia, Finland, Hungary, Iceland, Latvia and Sweden will have preselection rounds. Denmark will have their ten-song final.