The Goggles Do Nothing!

RIP Dance and Erase You

2012-01-29T22:06:00.000-05:00

Two countries chose/presented their songs for Eurovision this week. Cyprus chose "La La Love," my favorite of the bunch so far. France presented "Echo (You and I)," which is in the middle of the pack for me.

Finland and Ukraine selected finalists from their larger pool of entries and I will be sad to see "Erase You" from Finland and "Dance" from Ukraine go. Just imagine how a zombie themed performance would have turned out on the Eurovision stage!

Hungary had their first semifinal, from which four songs qualified, my favorite being "Vizio."

Iceland had their final semifinal. I think the best two songs qualified, but my favorite is still from the first semifinal.

Norway had their second semifinal, from which three songs qualified. "Ola Nordmann" and "Crush" are good, but I wish "Shapeshifter" or "You and I" had qualified instead of "Make It Better."

Next week: Belarus and Malta pick their songs, and more semifinals from Hungary, Norway, and Sweden!

2012-01-25T21:37:00.003-05:00

I took another listen to the cut songs from the first Norwegian semifinal and "Elevator" stood out to me more on the second listen. What a shame that it didn't qualify.

It sounded a little bit to me like something a Korean girl group might record. It turns out that Dsign Music, who wrote the song (along with last year's "I Can" for the UK) have in fact written songs recorded by Korean girl groups, among many others.

One hit they wrote is "Genie" by Girls' Generation:

"Elevator" sounds maybe closest to "Pinocchio (Danger)" by f(x):

Oddly enough, f(x) also recorded "Dangerous", the demo of which seems to have been recorded by the first performer in last year's Melodi Grand Prix, Carina Dahl.

Super Scandinavian Saturday

2012-01-22T16:40:00.000-05:00

This weekend only had 3 selection shows, all from Scandinavian countries and all on Saturday.

Denmark selected their entry, "Should have known better." Surprisingly, I kind of like it. It was one of the better songs in their selection and I prefer it over a lot of the other recent Danish entries. Definitely my favorite Eurovision '12 entry so far, but of course it's from a currently very shallow pool.

Iceland had their second semifinal, from which two songs qualified. Both are okay but not as good as last week’s.

Norway had their first semifinal. Three songs qualified, my favorite of which is "High on love."

Next week has a few more selection shows. A final in Cyprus (any of the 3 songs would be great) and semifinals in Finland, Hungary, Iceland, and Norway.

Beautiful Songs?

2012-01-15T22:27:00.000-05:00

This weekend brought just a few semifinals. No more songs revealed or selected until next week, it seems.

Latvia had their second semifinal. Most of the qualifiers are mediocre. I prefer "She's a queen" and "Beautiful song" out of the qualifiers, but none of the songs performed are really special at all. Such a disappointment after last year, but maybe that was just an outlier.

Iceland had their first semifinal. I'm happy about "Mundu eftir mér" qualifying but I really wish "Leyndarmál" had also qualified, as it was my favorite from this. "Stattu upp" is okay but it somehow sounds a little too close to the Taio Cruz song "Dynamite."

Bulgaria had their semifinal. I'm happy with the results, as I really like half of the qualifiers. There's a good chance that they'll select a good song as their entry.

Next week should be very Nordic as Iceland and Norway have semifinals and Denmark selects their entry.

Happy New Year, New Songs 2012!

2012-01-08T21:18:00.000-05:00

Is it time for EuroSunday again? Actually, it’s probably a little late.

There’s been a couple of singer selection shows to pick Eurovision performers but as always, since these shows don’t pick the songs, I won’t cover them.

Two entries have already been chosen. “Unbreakable” from Switzerland is a fine rock song. I’m not sure if it’s got enough in it to make it to the final yet, but the field is still open, and it’s a little more appealing than their “The Highest Heights” from 2009.

Albania chose “Suus,” a ballad that doesn’t seem like it goes anywhere with a lot of screaming. However, when listening to it I felt like it might be giving me a similar reaction to Ukraine’s 2010 and 2011 songs, which didn’t appeal to me at first but ended up being very good and successful by their final staged versions. The singer sure does have a powerful voice.

A few other countries have narrowed down their songs in televised semifinals. A few weeks ago, Belarus held a semifinal from which five songs qualified. I only like “We are the heroes” by Litesound, whose previous attempts I’ve also enjoyed. Latvia had their first semifinal and chose five songs to qualify, of which I only like “My World,” which is cute and has some potential.

Next week brings semifinals from Iceland and Latvia (there’s probably others too). Here’s to a good Eurovision 2012!

Reactions and Predictions, Semifinal Style

2011-05-10T19:31:00.003-04:00

What a shocking first semifinal! Poor Norway, their song was wonderful but didn't qualify, I wonder if it came close. And poor Turkey for not qualifying even though they were the runner-up last year.
I only got six out of ten qualifiers right, my worst in years. Congratulations to all the qualifiers, including those I didn't believe in earlier: Hungary, Lithuania, Serbia, and Switzerland.

I might as well post my predictions for the second semifinal now:

BOSNIA & HERZEGOVINA
DENMARK
ESTONIA
IRELAND
ISRAEL
LATVIA
ROMANIA
SLOVENIA
SWEDEN
UKRAINE

Before tonight I would have put Moldova in there but after tonight's results I don't think that's what juries would go for, and telephone voters wouldn't be enough to push it over the top. Instead I put Slovenia, which could be replaced with either of the other female-sang ballads, Austria and Slovakia, but Slovenia's inclusion instead of those is just wishful thinking. Good luck to everyone on Thursday!

Prediction Time Part 1

2011-05-09T22:09:00.002-04:00

In less than 24 hours the first Eurovision semifinal this year will have passed. Here are my predictions for the qualifiers:

ALBANIA
ARMENIA
AZERBAIJAN
FINLAND
GEORGIA
GREECE
ICELAND
NORWAY
RUSSIA
TURKEY

Pretty much the countries from this semifinal that have a 100% qualifying record in the two-semifinal format, minus Portugal and plus Finland because the juries will probably swing the score that way. No matter the result, good luck to all the performers!

Top 5 Popular Songs

2011-05-08T21:36:00.000-04:00

Time for my top 5 songs for this year’s Eurovision.

5. Israel
Dana International - “Ding Dong”
Reaction: I shouldn’t fall for the typical schlager but it happens anyway. This is no “Diva” but it’s a flashy glittery pop song that hits the spot.
Best Part: Bridge and final chorus
Rating: 5/5

4. Sweden
Eric Saade “Popular”
Reaction: Of course this song was going to be this high. This is a fantastic song for a teen idol type, with typical Swedish catchiness. Uncharacteristically for a song penned by this writer, the key change isn’t awkward. The whistling introduction also works well.
Best Part: Ending
Rating: 5/5

3. Norway
Stella Mwangi - “Haba Haba“
Reaction: This is the most fun song in this year’s contest. It has a joyous, clapping singalong chorus that takes up most of the song. It would be repetitive if it were not so catchy, but I could hear the chorus forever.
Best Part: Chorus
Rating: 5/5

2. Bosnia & Herzegovina
Dino Merlin - “Love in rewind”
Reaction: What’s not to love about this song? Questionable math, SITO, woah-oh-oh-oh-oh, the addition of the trumpet in the second verse, female backing vocals that blend well with the male lead vocal, and a lot of emotion.
Best Part: Last chorus. Also SITO!
Rating: 5/5

1. Russia
Alex Sparrow - “Get You”
Reaction: I almost didn’t put this at number 1 because the intro added in the final version of the song breaks the song up a little too much, but the remaining song is my favorite. It has that RedOne hit quality, and it’s much better than “Dance Alone” from this year’s Swedish selection. It has an aggressive flirtiness and the catchiest chorus in the contest.
Best Part: Last chorus
Rating: 5/5

Tomorrow night I’ll put up my predictions for the first semifinal.

They can

2011-05-01T21:13:00.000-04:00

It’s time for rehearsals already, as well as my top 10! It was really hard making placement decisions this time, as I like my top 8 about the same. I would love for any of these songs to win.

10. Ireland
Jedward - “Lipstick”
Reaction: This is a fun, modern, and a little trashy pop song. It’s playful and flirty and very mainstream-friendy. A quick look at Youtube shows that this song already has a large number of teenage girl fans, so hopefully that will work out for them.
Best Part: Chorus
Rating: 4/5

9. United Kingdom
Blue - “I Can”
Reaction: This sounds exactly what you’d expect from an aging boy band, and I mean that in a good way. The vocal harmonies are great, a little reminiscent of Backstreet Boys back in the day (that is also a good thing). It’s a great, strong power ballad.
Best Part: Chorus
Rating: 4/5

8. Estonia
Getter Jaani - “Rockefeller Street”
Reaction: This song is by the best named singer this year (reminds me of Getter Robo). It’s poppy, quirky, and youthful. The subject of the song is a night out at an address that doesn’t exist and certainly doesn’t sound like any of my nights out in Manhattan but probably sounds like my idea of a night out in Talinn if it produces songs like this.
Best Part: Bridge + final chorus
Rating: 4/5

7. Hungary
Kati Wolf - “What about my dreams?”
Reaction: This is a strong dance-pop song, maybe a little dated (it sounds very turn-of-the-millennium) but it works. It has a catchy chorus and lots of interesting high notes.
Best Part: Hungarian verse
Rating: 4/5

6. Latvia
Musiqq - “Angel in disguise”
Reaction: After so many years at the bottom, it feels good to put the Latvian entry near the top. Like last year’s entry, the English lyrics are a little iffy, but this one works really well. The chorus is very catchy, especially the guitar part. The rap verse also works very well.
Best Part: Last chorus
Rating: 4/5

I love Belarus...and 4 others

2011-04-24T20:57:00.001-04:00

Another Eurovision sunday, this time it's the top 15! As always, I hope the winner comes from this group or one of the two following ones.

15. Finland
Paradise Oskar - “Da da dam”
Reaction: This is a good song to rank just following Earth Day, as it has a nice environmentalist message. It’s not too heavy-handed and is actually kind of sweet. It’s better than the similar singer-with-guitar songs from last year.
Best Part: Choruses
Rating: 4/5

14. Belarus
Anastasiya Vinnikova - “I Love Belarus”
Reaction: So do I, if they keep making songs like this! Belarus lately has excelled with over the top ridiculous entries, and this is no exception. The romantic nationalism helps, too. The love object seems to switch between country and lover. The ethnic instrumental touches pull the song together and add energy.
Best Part: Bridge and last chorus
Rating: 4/5

13. Netherlands
3JS - “Never alone”
Reaction: This one just kind of snuck up here. It’s a middle-of-the-road pop-rock ballad, but it’s much better than it sounds on paper. It has good lyrics and a catchy chorus. It could have gotten boring but it stays consistent throughout.
Best Part: Chorus
Rating: 4/5

12. Serbia
Nina - “Caroban”
Reaction: The inclusion of this retro-styled song makes up for the lack of Ukrainian “Smile,” and it’s probably the better song. It has wonderful sweet and romantic lyrics (at least what I can tell from the English translation). It’s full of energy and emotion.
Best Part: Last chorus
Rating: 4/5

11. Slovenia
Maja Keuc - “No one”
Reaction: This is like Mr. Nobody Part 2, hopefully for lyrical content and not because it could be good but forgotten when it comes time for voting. This is a dramatic power ballad with some really biting lyrics (“no one will ever ever love you/ no one will ever ever touch you” wow!) Like the Cypriot and French songs this year, the structure of the song departs from the typical verse-chorus-verse-chorus-bridge-chorus, but I think this one works the best.
Best Part: “You came to me one night/like a morning light” Where have I heard that before?
Rating: 4/5

What about my Sognu?

2011-04-17T21:40:00.002-04:00

Finally in the top half of the ranking! These songs just missed out on being in the top and getting close to the 4/5 or 5/5 rating, but they're all still very good.

20. Austria
Nadine Beiler- “The Secret Is Love”
Reaction: This song weakest part is the a capella opening, like some girl singing to herself wandered onto the stage. Once the instruments start this is a very sweet ballad, and the choir in the last part of the song gives it some power. It sounds a little “singing-competition-winner,” but so did the UK’s song in 2009 and that worked out well for her.
Best Part: Last chorus
Rating: 3/5

19. Iceland
Sjonni's Friends- “Coming Home”
Reaction: This song has a bright and cheery old-fashioned sound that is made depressing with the lyrics and backstory. Maybe it intends to make the listener both clap along and cry. The heavy and mixed emotions might not work for all but it works for me.
Best Part: Bridge and last chorus
Rating: 3/5

18. France
Amaury Vassili - “Sognu”
Reaction: This is a little bit of a risky move since lots of people think this is a winner, and it might very well be, as it pushes the buttons of several demographics. Amaury has a nice operatic voice and the song increases in tension as it goes along. The last note can make hairs stand on end. If it had more of a conventional structure with a memorable melody I might have put it a lot higher, though.
Best Part: The part 1:07 to 1:41
Rating: 3/5

17. Azerbaijan
Ell and Nikki - “Running Scared”
Reaction: This one is another favorite that isn’t at the top of my list. It’s a well produced contemporary pop ballad, and out of all the songs in this year’s contest it sounds like the one most at home on the pop charts. It drags on a little and comes across as cold and unfeeling; “Drip Drop” was similarly well produced but pulled it off a lot better.
Best Part: “Oh-oh-oh” intro
Rating: 3/5

16. Croatia
Daria Kinzer - “Celebrate”
Reaction: This is the cutoff point for songs I really like/love this year. This is just a very fun party song about parties. Very joyous and fun. The lyrics are a little unusual (“shine like a comet/in our musical galaxy”) but are cute so they work.
Best Part: “Put your/Hands up”
Rating: 3/5

Still alive for a while

2011-04-10T21:03:00.003-04:00

This week's portion of the ranking is the middle of the pack: not the best but definitely not the worst. These songs all have their charms and strong points.

25. Slovakia
Twiins - “I‘m Still Alive”
Reaction: This is a nice contemporary pop ballad. The vocals are decent enough. This song’s flaw is that it’s too repetitive. The chorus goes on for what sounds like forever and it isn’t particularly catchy. However, it’s very professional sounding and has a positive message.
Best Part: Verses
Rating: 3/5

24. Lithuania
Evelina Sasenko - “C’est ma vie”
Reaction: This song is a very generic ballad that could have been the entry for any country in the past twenty years. However, there’s just something so pleasant and sweet about it. It’s great for falling asleep to, and I don’t mean that as an insult in this case. Sometimes the strings + pleasant female voice + questionable English lyrics just hits even when it shouldn’t.
Best Part: Last chorus
Rating: 3/5

23. Poland
Magdalena Tul - “Jestem”
Reaction: Is this one the fan favorite of the year that I just don’t get? It’s a competent and well-produced pop song, but no part of it is very catchy to me. It’s fun, but not enough to stand out.
Best Part: Intro
Rating: 3/5

22. Switzerland
Anna Rossinelli - “In Love For A While”
Reaction: This song sounds exactly like its music video: music for hip young city-dwellers to have dinner parties to. It sounds appropriate for any other event with precious and twee people in plinky xylophone love, too: weddings, indie movies, clothing commercials, or whatever they do. It’s a bit similar in sound to “Satellite,” but without it’s energy and catchiness.
Best Part: The “na na na na na” part.
Rating: 3/5

21. Denmark
A Friend In London - “New Tomorrow”
Reaction: This song is the other side of the Swiss hip-young-city-dweller coin. The chorus is a call-to-arms for young people to make a very non-specific “new tomorrow,” presumably appealing to hopeful activists who aren’t opposed to commercial music. It’s very memorable and hopefully will lyrically connect with the intended audience. It also has a nice “oh-oh-oh” chanted bridge.
Best Part: The “we can change it all todaaaaaay” pre-chorus
Rating: 3/5

Madness of rankings

2011-04-03T20:04:00.002-04:00

Here are the next five songs in my Eurovision ranking. Not too much to say, as these are now towards the middle of the bunch: neither outstandingly bad nor good.

30. Italy
Raphael Gualazzi - “Madness of love”
Reaction: Italy returns after over a decade with a song intended to trick juries into voting for it. It seems like a very typical jazz song. It’s competent but there’s nothing really special about it. The wailing and increased trumpets at the end of each chorus were probably intended to give it that something special, the madness of the title, but it just comes off as annoying.
Best Part: Chorus
Rating: 3/5

29. Turkey
Yüksek Sadakat - “Live it up”
Reaction: Turkey must not have to try any more, because this definitely feels like less effort went into it than “Deli“ and “We Could Be The Same.” It definitely sounds simple and familiar. It’s all the same to me as those songs got approximately the same ranking as this one does. A nice fun party rock song with some Turkish flavor in the strings.
Best Part: Instrumental + bridge
Rating: 3/5

28. Armenia
Emmy - “Boom boom”
Reaction: This song doesn’t know what it wants to be. It starts off as a pop song with heavy drum, a little like “Qele Qele,” but during the chorus it turns into a watered-down disco. If this was done by any other country it would flop, but with the Armenian name/fan base/performance style it probably has a chance.
Best Part: “Ay-yi-yi-yi”
Rating: 3/5

27. Germany
Lena - “Taken by a stranger”
Reaction: It’s no “Satellite,” that’s for sure. It sounds like an album track rather than a single. The talk-singing and bassline give it a smooth, almost mysterious quality. Unlike “Satellite” it’s not immediately catchy and it feels much longer than it actually is.
Best Part: Instrumental bridge
Rating:

26. Bulgaria
Poli Genova- “Na inat”
Reaction: This is a unique rock song with female vocals. The melody, especially in the chorus, is a little unusual sounding but it works.
Best Part: Chorus
Rating: 3/5

Fighting for passion

2011-03-27T21:28:00.002-04:00

This week: five more below-average songs. Not at all terrible, but nothing that says "winner" or even "qualifier".

35 Portugal
Homems da Luta- “A Luta É Alegria”
Reaction: This is either supposed to be a 70’s style protest song or a novelty song, or maybe both. It has a somewhat pleasant melody but looks too silly on stage even though it is apparently very serious.
Best Part: Chorus
Rating: 2/5

34. FYR Macedonia
Vlatko Ilievski- “Rusinka“
Reaction: Either the vocalist can’t sing or there is no melody here. The majority of the good parts of the song come from the folk song it’s based on. Despite that, it’s kind of fun. The accordion solo saves the song.
Best Part: Accordion solo and the following “laj laj laj” part
Rating: 2/5

33. Ukraine
Mika Newton - “Angels”
Reaction: This sounds like a mediocre album track on a mediocre album by a mediocre singer. I was wrong about “Sweet people” last year as that was actually compelling on stage, I don’t think this one can be saved. The instrumental part is bland, and it probably could have used more electric guitars like “Sweet people.”
Best Part: Introduction
Rating: 2/5

32. Spain
Lucia Perez - “Que me quiten lo bailao”
Reaction: This is a cute folk-y song. Lucia has an interesting kind-of-raspy voice. However, cute can only go so far and it gets boring by the second verse.
Best Part: Bridge
Rating: 2/5

31. Albania
Aurela Gace - “Feel the passion”
Reaction: She sure does have a lot of passion! This song is very shouty, more shouting than singing. Despite the passion it doesn’t have much a melody behind the screaming.
Best Part: Albanian chorus
Rating: 2/5

Stand by for better songs

2011-03-20T13:24:00.002-04:00

It's time for my sixth annual Eurovision rankings! Last week should have been the first but since not all the songs were announced then this week will be a super-sized one with my eight least favorite songs from this year's group of 43.

43. Belgium
Witloof Bay - “With love baby”
Reaction:The minute this song was selected I knew it would occupy the bottom spot on my ranking. The acapella with beatboxing is annoying and a little embarrassing. It sounds so amateur, even more than other songs this year that sound like a national broadcaster picked a random person off the street to sing. This is a song a school or community acapella group would perform at some local concert, not the winner of a lengthy national competition (to be fair the second place in the Belgian selection also sounds like an amateur night entry, but it wasn’t as annoying as this).
Also, the band’s name and the song title are almost the same! That’s only excusable if the song is actually good.
Best Part: The loud “WITH LOVE” at the intro, so you know to change to the next song quickly.
Rating: 1/5

42. Romania
Hotel FM - “Change”
Reaction: This sounds really close to recent Danish entries, like “All Night Long.” It just plods along in its pseudo-Danish way, at best pleasant and at worst annoying. It never really gains enough energy or emotion to matter. The actual Danish entry beats it its “let’s change the world” message.
Best Part: Key change with heavier drum part.
Rating: 1/5

41. Malta
Glen Vella - “One Life”
Reaction: I will give this song credit for being catchy, but it is so low quality that it sounds like something produced for a vanity label. Even after a few re-recordings the song still has bad audio quality. The bridge in particular is awkward and seems tacked-on. It seems the past few years Malta has wasted good singers on awful songs, and this is no exception.
Best Part: WAAAAAAAAN LAAAAAAAIF
Rating: 1/5

40. Moldova
Zdob si Zdub - "So lucky"
Reaction: What a fall from “Boonika bate doba.” This is a boring rock song that shuffles along in some parts and jumps all over the place in others. The trumpets just induce a headache instead of injecting it with energy. The only good part is the short sax solo, but it’s nowhere as epic as last year’s.
Best Part: Sax solo
Rating: 1/5

39. San Marino
Senit- “Stand By”
Reaction: This song is so dull that it’s hard to remember how it goes. It’s good for falling asleep to at least. The backing chorus that comes in the last chorus is much too nasal and whiny.
Best Part: Intro?
Rating: 1/5

38.Georgia
Eldrine - “One More Day”
Reaction: If this could be compared to any song from that past few year it would have to be “Deli,” except that was better in every way. This song lacks an interesting melody and power in the vocals. The rap part is unnecessary.
Best Part: Chorus
Rating: 1/5

37. Cyprus
Christos Mylordou - “San aggelos s’agapisa”
Reaction: Boooooring. Cyprus seems to alternate between boring entries every 2-3 years and this is one of the boring years. There aren’t really any repeating parts in here, and although there’s nothing wrong with that, there are a few other songs like that this year that do it much better. If you can’t remember how the song goes and there’s no “wow” parts why bother voting for it?
Best Part: The part that starts at around 0:50 that might have been a chorus
Rating: 2/5

36. Greece
Loucas Yiorkas Feat. Stereo Mike - “Watch My Dance”
Reaction: This is a very mixed song. The sung parts are somewhat powerful but the rap part is awful. Both vocalists sing at a slow pace that sounds like they are tired or bored. The song goes along at the same boring pace, never gaining any tension.
Best Part: Chorus
Rating: 2/5

Oh My God: It Never Ends

2011-03-06T22:16:00.003-05:00

This is going to be my last national finals coverage post as I won’t be able to post next week and soon after it'll be time to start the rankings.

Cyprus and Greece both presented songs that sound similar on paper (male vocals, ethnic sound, sung in Greek) that couldn’t be more different in reality. I prefer Cyprus’ as it’s more consistent throughout the song, but the Greek song definitely takes some risks.
The Belarusian song is fabulous in so many ways and could be another “Love Me Tonight,” but there’s some controversy over if it was performed before the cutoff date, so we won’t know if that will be the actual song performed this May.
Slovakia presented their song “I’m Still Alive,” yet another ballad. It’s very professional sounding but some of the other ballads have better hooks.
Armenia, Croatia, and Portugal all chose their songs on Saturday and all were underwhelming on first listen.
Sweden had their second chance round and chose the lesser of the two "Oh My God"s.
Early on Sunday the Russian song leaked in a live version and if this is indeed the song for the contest then it's already high in my rankings. I already liked the singer's "New Russian Kalinka" and of course RedOne constantly puts out good songs.
There are about seven songs left to be chosen and presented, so let's hope they're good ones!

Angelic Super Saturday

2011-02-27T20:24:00.000-05:00

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.

One More Sunday

2011-02-20T21:38:00.002-05:00

Five countries chose their songs this week, bringing the total number of songs presented thus far to fifteen.

On Valentine’s Day Poland chose “Jestem,” an upbeat and modern pop song. It’s good, but I preferred the runner-up, “Ktoś taki jak ty.”

Germany chose “Taken By A Stranger,” which isn’t as immediately appealing as Satellite, but isn’t at all bad.

Spain chose “Que me quiten lo bailao,” which is kind of weak but if it’s still a demo there’s opportunity for improvement. As it is it sounds a little too close to Portugal 2009.

Georgia chose “One more day,” which is a rock song and thus a bit different from the country’s previous songs.

Italy chose the “Follia d’amore” for their return. It sounds like an uninspiring jazz song to me, but it will probably be a jury favorite.

Four other countries had semifinal rounds. Estonia had their second semifinal, from which five songs qualified, including my favorite “The Storm.”

Latvia had their third semifinal, a second chance round. Two songs qualified, “Cinderella” and “Look Back At Me Again,” neither of which sound like winners.

Lithuania had their third semifinal, from which three songs qualified. Of the qualifiers, my favorite is “I will break free,” and “Be my baby” is nice too.

Sweden had their third semifinal, and although I think it was the weakest so far it had some good qualifiers. “Popular” is a little too “It’s Gonna Rain” and not enough “Manboy,” and also it really is a little reminiscent of Lili & Susie’s “Oh Mama” like various internet commenters have said, but it was inevitable that the teen idol would qualify. The other qualifier, “The King” is Kempe-does-rockabilly and though the aesthetic annoys me I can’t stop listening to the song; it is ridiculously catchy. The second chance qualifiers were more of a surprise. “Spring för livet” seemed a little dull to me and “I thought it was forever” seemed like a fan favorite that would flop, but I’m happy it qualified.

Next week: A lot more finals! I can't make predictions for all of them, but I'd like to see "Banjo Laura" win in Latvia and "Smile" win in Ukraine.

Oh My God: Again

2011-02-13T19:43:00.003-05:00

This week marked the first Eurovision "Super Saturday" of the year, as 5 songs were chosen.

Early this week Germany had a semifinal in which 3 songs qualified for the final.

Ireland chose their entry on Friday, the modern pop song "Lipstick." This marks probably the first time that an Eurovision contestant had recently appeared in an RPG commercial. Will Jedward be bringing their DSes to Dusseldorf? Their song may not be the most highbrow but it was definitely better than the runner-up "Falling" which was too "Drip Drop" lite.

Latvia had their second semifinal during which five songs qualified for the final. My favorite, “Banjo Laura” qualified, as did my second favorite, “Angel In Disguise.”

Lithuania also had their second semifinal, from which three songs qualified for the final, my favorite of which is probably “C’est ma vie.”

Estonia had their first semifinal, from which five songs qualified, including the fabulous “Rockefeller Street” and “Baby Had You.”

Sweden had their second semifinal with shocking results, but I’m pleased with the qualifiers, “I’m In Love” and “7 Days and 7 Nights.” The second chance qualifiers were surprising but they were very well performed.

Malta chose “One Life,” a very average upbeat pop song. Maltese songs have lately gotten revisions before they go to Eurovision, so maybe this one will get polished.

Belgium selected “With love baby” and my favorite song came second in their selection. Unfortunately it is a very average jazzy a capella song.

Finland chose “Da da dam,” an acoustic guitar song with a nice environmentalist message. Some internet commenters have been comparing it to “Me and my guitar,” but I don’t see similarities beyond the singer’s instrument.

Iceland picked “Aftur heim,” a cheery song with a depressing backstory. Don’t know how well it will do in Eurovision but it’s better than quite a few songs picked so far.
Norway picked the fabulous and energetic “Haba Haba.” It’s defi
nitely the most interesting and memorable song out of the ten picked so far.

Next week: Georgia, Germany, and Poland select their entries, and a few other countries have semifinals.

Oh My God: Sweden and Others

2011-02-06T17:38:00.001-05:00

This week there weren't any national finals, just a bunch of semifinals.

Spain and Croatia had semifinals this week, but no songs in competition were sung so I won’t review those.

Austria narrowed down their field of 30 songs to 10 in an online selection. I like 4 out of 10 of those songs, so there’s a good chance they’ll pick a good one.

Germany held their first semifinal and picked three songs to go to the final: “Maybe,” “Taken by a stranger,” and “What happened to me.” All of these songs sounded kind of like album tracks (appropriately so, since all the songs in this selection are the tracks on Lena’s new album), and the singles are probably in the next semifinal. Out of this group of qualifiers, my favorite was “Maybe” but not by much.

Latvia had their first semifinal and chose five songs to go through to their final. None of the qualifiers resonate very well with me, but if I had to pick a favorite I’d pick “You are.”

Lithuania had their first semifinal, in which three songs qualified. Sasha Song’s “The slogan of our nation” is definitely not his best song but it’s passable. “Days Go By” is also a saccharine ballad, but is more boring. “7th bus” is a decent retro rock song. The best of the non-qualifiers was probably “Candy Baby.”

Sweden had their first semifinal and picked two songs to go to the final and two songs to the second chance round. The first finalist, “In The Club” was really repetitive but not a surprise because Danny seems to be a teen idol type. The other finalist, “Me and My Drum” was a welcome surprise. The second chance qualifiers were “Something in Your Eyes”, which is an ABBA ripoff if there ever was one, and “Desperados.” I’m very disappointed about the 5th placing of “Oh My God,” as it was my favorite in the semifinal.

Norway had their second chance round and chose “Alt du vil ha” and “Fire below” to go to the final next week. I’m happy about the first, not so much about the second as it was my least favorite in the second chance round.

Next week: more semifinals, and at least 5 songs get chosen!

Haba Haba Good Weekend

2011-01-30T20:53:00.001-05:00

Earlier today, The Netherlands chose the least boring song out of their five-song selection, “Je Vecht Nooit Alleen.” It’s still boring enough that I don’t have much to say about it.

Norway had their third semifinal yesterday. My favorite before the show was “SOS” but that didn’t qualify, and it wasn’t that great on stage either. Of the qualifiers to the final, my favorite was “Haba Haba” which seems to be the favorite of the fans and the Norwegian iTunes buyers. The other direct qualifier, “Dance Tonight,” is also decent. Of the second chance qualifiers, “Nothing Remains” is definitely my favorite.

Iceland also had their third semifinal, but none of the qualifying songs really appealed to me.

Finland had their third and last semifinal. This was definitely my favorite of the three. Of the qualifiers “Dancing in the Dark” and “Pamela” were the best.

Next week is the Norwegian second chance round. Of that selection I’d probably like to see “Nothing Remains” and “Alt du vil ha” qualify the most. A few other countries have semifinals with songs that haven’t been revealed yet. See you next week!

More Scandinavia Shorts

2011-01-23T21:33:00.002-05:00

I've been very busy lately so I'll keep this week's commentary short.

I thought Croatia was going to have their first semifinal with the actual songs, but it was only a performer selection, so I won't comment on their selection until the songs have been revealed.

Finland had their second semifinal and three songs qualified to the final. “Sydämeni kaksi maata” is my favorite of the three but none amaze me.

Norway also had their second semifinal. "You're Like A Melody" was my favorite of the night so I'm happy it qualified, a little less so about the other qualifier "Depend on me." Neither of the second chance qualifiers, "Allergic" and "Oh oh (Puppy Love)" excited me.

Iceland had their second semifinal as well. "Nott" was the best of the night and of their selection so far, but it's no "Is it true." It has a great performer but not as an amazing song. If it wins the national final I don't see it doing as well as "Is it true" did.

Next week: more of the same!

Scandinavian Firsts of the Year

2011-01-16T21:23:00.001-05:00

I skipped last week because nothing much was happening, but this weekend a few countries held semifinals.

On Friday, Finland had their first semifinal. I’m not a big fan of the qualifying songs. “Rapture in Time” is probably the most original and energetic of this semifinal’s qualifiers. “Synkän maan tango” is okay too but it’s just an average tango that might not do so well if it makes it to Dusseldorf.

On Saturday Norway held their first semifinal. My pre-show favorite was “Trenger mer” which didn’t qualify but I’m not too broken up about it as it wasn’t very good on stage. Of the qualifiers “Vardlokk” is the one I like more but it’s slow to excite, and I’m not a fan of “Not that Easy.” The two qualifiers to the second chance round, “Daisy” and “Alt du vil ha” are good but not my style, although I prefer the latter a bit more.

Iceland also held their first semifinal on Saturday which resulted in two qualifiers: “Ástin mín eina” which is a ballad, the better of the two but not amazing, and “Ef ég hefði vængi,” an average rock song.

Next week brings semifinals from all these countries plus Croatia. Of the Finnish songs in next week’s semifinal, I prefer “Strong” and "Sydämeni kaksi maata,” but neither very strongly, and the songs in the other three countries’ semifinals haven’t been revealed yet.

Back for a while: 2011

2011-01-02T21:35:00.002-05:00

I am back from the long Eurovision off-season to welcome in the new year of songs. Already three songs have been chosen for the 2011 Eurovision contest.

The first song chosen and released to the public this for this year's contest was Switzerland's "In love for a while" performed by Anna Rossinelli. I'm not sure which version to comment on. The demo version is plain and sounds like a demo. The live version adds more instruments, including an ukelele, giving it a fuller sound but also making it more twee. Definitely the best and most mainstream sounding song so far.

Next was Albania with "Kënga ime" performed by Aurelia Gace. This song will probably go through an edit or two like most Albanian songs lately, but I doubt it will gain an interesting melody, despite its passionate performance. Then again, I also thought France 2009 was boring and went nowhere and we know how that turned out.

Finally, on New Year's Day Romania chose "Change" by Hotel FM. I agree with some other commenters in various other places on the internet; this song sounds very "Denmark". In the national final he's even wearing suspenders like Simon Mathew. It's pleasant but not exciting, but there weren't many other better songs in the group of competitors.

A few other countries have had online selections going on but I'll refrain on commenting on them until their televised selections approach. Ukraine has had a couple of semifinals but besides saying that "Smile" seems like the front runner to me, I won't comment on those any more until more have been held.

What's up for next week? I don't know! I usually rely on ESCToday's calendar but they haven't updated it. You'll have to wait and find out!

Germany won!

2010-05-29T18:35:00.002-04:00

After all the speculation that it was wide open this year, the pre-contest favorite won, showing that Youtube decides the winner. I'm a little frightened because this means that my 8th ranked song won for the third time in a row. Like other years, one song from my top 5 was in the actual top 5. I could write more about who I was happy for and who I was disappointed in, but instead of complaining on the internet I'm going to keep it short and go out.

I hope buying tickets is a lot easier next year than it was this year, maybe I can finally get some...lots of direct flights from New York to various places in Germany...
Congrats Germany!

Final predictions!

2010-05-29T10:03:00.004-04:00

I was too upset by Sweden and Croatia's failure to qualify from the semifinal to write a reaction sooner (really, I was just too busy). I got 8 out of 10, not bad. I was worried Ireland wouldn't qualify and really wasn't expecting Cyprus to qualify.

So, some predictions for the final of Eurovision 2010!

- I really have no clue who will win. Nobody seems to be giving me nor the internet at large an "oh wow this is going to win" feeling.
-American Idol coverage has taught me that teen girls with unlimited text messaging plans like cute boys who play acoustic guitar. Belgium or Cyprus?
-Or maybe they just like cute boys in general, adding Israel and Serbia (I suppose Josh from the United Kingdom would count as cute too, but I don't want to believe that the song will do well). Maybe they like girls who look like teen pop idols, which would include Azerbaijan (Safura looks more than a little like Miley Cyrus on TV, thankfully she is a better singer) and Portugal.
-Of course, Germany is the pre-contest favorite and since the rehearsals look decent she could do very well. Maybe she'll win and any speculation otherwise will just be denial.
-All I hope for is an exciting voting sequence with a winner who is not apparent from the first few 12s.

So, before I go, enjoy some art and enjoy the show! Good luck to everyone performing!

Petr Nalitch as Marvel character Whiplash, by Anonymous

2010 Semifinal 2 Predictions

2010-05-27T09:28:00.002-04:00

I didn't get a chance to type up a reaction to the first semifinal on Tuesday since I had to hop on a train right after the show, but I wasn't surprised at the results, except for Portugal. I got 7/10 qualifiers right, which is pretty good but shows that my method of making the predictions wasn't very good.

Here are my predictions for the 2nd semifinal of Eurovision 2010:

ARMENIA
AZERBAIJAN
CROATIA
DENMARK
GEORGIA
ISRAEL
ROMANIA
SWEDEN
TURKEY
UKRAINE

I had IRELAND in there before, and I'll be crossing my fingers for them to qualify (especially if they replace Denmark, Georgia, or Ukraine), but after the math it was between them and Ukraine and Ukraine simply has more (neighbors) going for them. This is a case where I'd love to be wrong.

2010 Semifinal 1 Predictions: Math the Moment!

2010-05-25T11:50:00.003-04:00

The first semifinal of Eurovision 2010 starts in about three hours and I now have my predictions. I've been watching rehearsal footage and reading reviews, but instead of basing my predictions on something useful like observations of the performance, I'm basing my predictions on meaningless statistics.

I combined two sets of rankings to make a "jury vote" and "public vote." Assuming that hardcore fans vote similarly to the juries, I used the OGAE voting as of the most recent one released on ESCToday, which can be found here, to create a jury ranking. Assuming that general internet users vote similarly to the general public, I used Google's Eurovision forecast, to create a public ranking. I then combined the two rankings, adding the entries' places in both, like so (first number is OGAE, second is Google):
1. Albania 12+5=17
2. Belgium 1+20=21
3. Croatia 19+3=22
The countries used above are just examples.

It feels a little pointless to do predictions based on flawed numbers (both rankings allow countries to vote for entries that are not in their own semifinal), but considering that now one can vote for a song before it has even been performed, it's important to take into consideration the pre-contest hype.

Based on the above, here are my predictions for the qualifiers from this evening's semifinal:

ALBANIA
BELARUS
BELGIUM
ESTONIA
GREECE
ICELAND
MOLDOVA
POLAND
SERBIA
SLOVAKIA

Top five for you

2010-05-23T21:42:00.001-04:00

Finally, it’s under one week to the Eurovision final and thus it’s time for my top five songs this year!

5. Iceland
Hera Björk - “Je ne sais quoi”
Reaction: Of course, I have to put the schlager song in my top five. Formulaic as the genre tends to be, this hits all the requirements for a satisfying experience. It’s more “This is my life” (Iceland 2008, not Sweden this year) than “Someday” , with an uplifting dance beat.
Best Part: Last chorus
Rating: 5/5

4. Ireland
Niamh Kavanagh - “It's for you”
Reaction: It’s a little similar to Norway’s song this year, but this is the better ballad (after the bridge it becomes a power ballad). The chorus feels a little “different,” adding a little mystery and personality to this traditional ballad. Like Iceland, it hits all the requirements in its genre, except these requirements include big strings and a smooth key change.
Best Part: Last chorus
Rating: 5/5

3. Azerbaijan
Safura - “Drip Drop”
Reaction: What good things can be said about this song that haven’t already been said. In short, it sounds like a modern major hit. It’s a little reminiscent of “Believe,” but only because both are slickly produced ballads, hooks all over the place, a little American-sounding (even though “Drip Drop” has Swedish writers). This sounds more 2010 than any other song in this year’s contest.
Best Part: “You smell like lipstick”
Rating: 5/5

2. Armenia
Eva Rivas - “Apricot Stone”
Reaction: This and Greece are the only “ethnic” dance songs this year, and this has the added benefit of being sung in a beautiful voice by a beautiful woman in (hopefully) a beautiful outfit. The lyrics are unique and interesting: instead of being about romantic love, they’re about love of country and self-determination. The chorus is very strong, and gets stronger with the added vocal acrobatics at the end.
Best Part: Final chorus
Rating: 5/5

1. Serbia
Milan Stanković - “Ovo je Balkan”
Reaction: Last year I was kind of wishy-washy with picking a favorite, but this year I’m back to a definite favorite. Yes, Keith Mills isn’t the only person to give this song their top marks! I’m not familiar with much of Bregovic’s work but after this song I might have to be. In a year seemingly filled with ballads, this is the most joyous and fun. Someone on ESCNation described this song as having “farty brass” but I wouldn’t change anything about the brass parts. They build and build until the song is full of energy. The chorus is instantly memorable, and Milan’s vocals are perfect. There are some silly parts (“Balkan Balkan Balkan!”) but instead of ruining it they make it even more fun. My favorite Serbian song since “Molitva” and my favorite song of Eurovision 2010!
Best Part: “Samo malo samo malo” to the end
Rating: 5/5

Tomorrow or Tuesday morning I will post my predictions for the first semifinal!

200th post! Top 10!

2010-05-16T23:12:00.003-04:00

Finally, my 200th post! And it's about my 6th through 10th favorite songs from this year's Eurovision. I love them all and would be happy if any of them won.

10. Moldova
Sunstroke Project & Olia Tira - “Run Away“
Reaction: This seems like it should be a mess -- violins in electro dance? -- but it works really well. The violin is more “Fight” than “Fairytale.” I wasn’t a fan of Ms. Tira in her previous attempts but in this song she sounds great. A little trashy, but a catchy and simple chorus.
Best Part: Bridge
Rating: 4/5

9. Sweden
Anna Bergendahl - “This is my life“
Reaction: Look, I can put Sweden outside my top 5 for once! The lyrics are nonsensical (“misty moon/you’re gonna see”?) and only vaguely about authenticity, but once the backup singers come in before the last chorus it becomes magical and you believe every word.
Best Part: Bridge to end
Rating: 4/5

8. Germany
Lena - “Satellite“
Reaction:I’m giving this my lucky 8th place seal of approval, considering its popularity in the charts, polls, and betting. It’s a fun little pop song of the sort one might expect from a cheery young female singer-songwriter, and works even though that’s not the case here. It would fit in place in a commercial for iPods or something else that gives you a little mainstream hipness. The lyrics have a spunkiness to them and Lena’s accent is adorable.
Best Part: “I bought new underwear light blue/and I wore it just the other day”
Rating: 4/5

7. Norway
Didrik - “My Heart Is Yours“
Reaction: I give up, I can’t resist Fredrik Kempe’s songs. This is one of the strongest ballads of the year, very Irish sounding in a way. The lyrics are a little creepy (“I watch you at night”) but that’s part of its appeal.
Best Part: Classic Kempe key change
Rating: 4/5

6. France
Jessy Matador - “Allez Ola Ole“
Reaction: This song sounds like a big summer hit, very different from anything else this year or in years past. In a sea of ballads it’s nice to have a big catchy party with a big catchy chorus that anyone can sing along to. Allez Ola Ole!
Best Part: Intro
Rating: 4/5

Almost there! Next week brings my top five!

Eastern European Kinds of Funk

2010-05-09T21:49:00.003-04:00

Time for songs 11 through 15! Now we're getting to some of my favorites. It's almost Eurovision time: next week rehearsals start and I'll have to rearrange my predictions and favorites based on live performances, but first my ranking of the recorded versions.

15. Albania
Juliana Pasha - “It's all about you”
Reaction: This is a pretty modern electro-pop influenced song, reminiscent of “Keeps Getting Better” by Christina Aguilera. It would be just “okay” were it just an ordinary radio single, but for Eurovision this year it’s pretty good. It’s improved a lot from its first version, with very catchy verses and chorus, and with decent English lyrics.
Best Part: Instrumental after first chorus
Rating: 3/5

14. Lithuania
InCulto - “Eastern European Funk”
Reaction: Some may call this a “novelty” entry because it has a sense of humor, but it’s also got some of the cleverest lyrics in this year’s contest, political yet still entertaining. The kazoos in the introduction and first verse are fun without being insulting. When the brass starts the song becomes a little ska, and when the synth starts at the end it becomes even more danceable. Definitely my favorite Lithuanian entry since I’ve been writing this blog, if not ever.
Best Part: Final chorus
Rating: 4/5

13. Finland
Kuunkuiskaajat - “Työlki ellää”
Reaction: This was one of my early favorites but slid down because of later revealed songs. I can see where this song doesn’t appeal to everyone, but I love it because it’s so cheerful. It’s sweet and folky with cute handclaps. It kind of sounds like it belongs in Tetris. Doesn’t its fast pace and repetition just make you think of falling blocks?
Best Part: Slowed down then sped up final choruses
Rating: 4/5

12. Croatia
Feminnem - “Lako je sve”
Reaction: Feminnem is back! This is a lot of people’s favorite ballad this year, and unfortunately it isn’t mine, but it’s up there. One could say it’s a little similar to “Believe” in production, which is a good sign for its chances. It starts off a bit slow, but its final minute is intense, with strong vocals and instruments, and a soft yet powerful ending.
Best Part: Instrumental, bridge, and final chorus
Rating 4/5

11. Slovakia
Kristina - “Horehronie”
Reaction: I love a good ethnic-influenced pop song, and this is one of the few this year and also one of the best. It has a lot of wonderful drumming and flutes that makes you want to dance in its magical world. I prefer the verses to the chorus, and the melody of “Keď sa slnko skloní na Horehroní” is beautiful.
Best Part: Instrumental intro and first verse
Rating: 4/5

5 More Solo Male Singers

2010-05-02T21:39:00.003-04:00

This week brings songs 16 through 20, which all have something in common...they're all sung by solo male singers!

20. Israel
Harel Skaat - “Milim“
Reaction: Yes, this guy has a great voice, giving the song lots of emotion. One can’t really go wrong with a power ballad. It starts off a little dull but builds to a great finish. But as with Greece, I suspect that this is high in the fan polls because many of those voters have crushes on the singer. I would let it slide if I shared that, but in this case I don’t.
Best Part: Last chorus
Rating: 3/5

19. Russia
Peter Nalitch & Friends - “Lost and forgotten“
Reaction: I really wanted to hate this song, but it’s a lot more listenable than some songs that I wanted to like. The chorus is catchy in a singalong way, even though it’s supposed to be depressing. However, it’s also surprisingly funny: the second verse always makes me smile. That probably makes it a little bit of a novelty song
Best Part: “What are you doing, man?” “I’m looking at her photos. What should I do with them?” “Drop them into the fire”
Rating: 3/5

18. Switzerland
Michael von der Heide - “Il pleut de l’or“
Reaction: This is catchy in a sort of retro way, a mid-tempo song with lots of strings. The male lead and female backing vocals are strong and work well together. I prefer the German version but the French version is very good too.
Best Part: Bridge
Rating: 3/5

17. Bosnia & Herzegovina
Vukašin Brajić - Thunder and lightning
Reaction: Not as good as their past few rock songs, but it’s still pretty good. This song is a strong power ballad with a memorable chorus and an interesting ending. The studio version sounds a little under-produced, but that probably means that it will be close to the live version.
Best Part: Ending
Rating: 3/5

16. Bulgaria
Miro - “Angel si ti“
Reaction: In the past four years, Bulgaria could be counted on to provide some fabulous and trashy dance song. It’s not unique like “Voda,” but it’s more interesting than “DJ Take Me Away.” I think “Illusion” has a slightly better melody than this year’s entry, but that was also a huge mess. Miro sounds like he has his act together, and his song has a chorus that anyone can sing along to.
Best Part: Chorus (“Angel si ti…”, not “Woah-oh-oh”)
Rating: 3/5

Next week: The really good songs! (11-15)

The Best Cover of Shalalie

2010-05-01T08:34:00.001-04:00

Why didn't this go to Eurovision...yes I'm being serious.

Songs will be better in spring

2010-04-25T22:27:00.001-04:00

Another week, another five songs. Luckily I got this in before midnight EST, so I wasn't sha-la-late! But enough with the bad pun, here's the ratings:

25. The Netherlands
Sieneke - “Ik ben verliefd (Sha-la-lie)”
Reaction: Like an insane jack-in-the-box, the power of sha-la-lie hits you in the face with its cheesiness. It’s hard to believe that this song was written in 2009, or that a song by a pretty teenage girl with no crazy costumes could be considered as a “novelty” song. The backlash to the song is especially productive; there are probably hundreds of covers out there (and some even commercially released) in the few short months since the first demo hit the internet to make one think, “if only.”
Best Part: Bridge
Rating: 3/5

24. Denmark
Chanee & N’Evergreen - “In a moment like this”
Reaction: This is very Danish without being as boring as the previous two years’ entries (although those did very well with everyone but me). Maybe it’s the G:Son writing credit that gives it a big of schlager. The female singer has an interesting and unique raspy sort of voice.
Best Part: Key Change
Rating: 3/5

23. Turkey
maNga - “We could be the same”
Reaction: This song is very clearly going top ten if its Youtube hits account for anything. Turkey’s second rock song in three years, it’s much fresher than “Deli”, with a fairly happy and upbeat chorus, and with greater appeal. Even though it’s in English it sounds very Turkish.
Best Part: Instrumental introduction
Rating: 3/5

22. Greece
Giorgos Alkaios & Friends - “Opa”
Reaction: There are a few fan favorites below this in my rankings (Spain, Denmark, Turkey) but the one I will probably have to defend myself most on should anyone actually read this. It’s a typical Greek entry, very catchy with an ethnic sound, perfect for lighting up the dance floor and the scoreboard. Unfortunately, it looks and sounds like it is sung by a very annoyed and bored man. The shouts of “hoo” and “hey” add another touch of masculinity.
Best Part: Shouty parts! Opa!
Rating: 3/5

21. Cyprus
Jon Lily green & the Islanders - “Life will be better in spring”
Reaction: This is a sweet and beautiful guitar ballad. It has probably one of the strongest choruses in this year’s group of songs. Unfortunately, it feels like it’s lacking something and kind of drags on by the end.
Best Part: First chorus
Rating: 3/5

Next week: songs 16 through 20! But before then: more shalalie!

What for are we listening

2010-04-18T21:02:00.002-04:00

Another Sunday in spring, another five songs. I've made it past the bad/dull ones into the "good-but-not-amazing" ones.

30. Latvia
Aisha - “What For? (Only Mr. God Knows Why)”
Reaction: This song has the most charmingly strange lyrics this year. A good, if depressing, message shines through the broken English. It’s just a shame that the music is a little dull.
Best Part: "I've asked my uncle Joe, but he can't speak/Why does the wind still blow and blood still leaks?"
Rating: 2/5

29. Georgia
Sofia Nizharadze - “Shine”
Reaction: This is much better than the “Shine” last year. It’s a sweet and powerfully performed ballad. Unfortunately, it’s not unique and memorable enough to be higher on my list, but I wouldn’t be upset if it did well, assuming it had a good performance.
Best Part: Last chorus
Rating: 3/5

28. Spain
Daniel Diges - “Algo pequeñito”
Reaction: I’m getting to be really superstitious about this ranking: the last two years I had big fan favorites (Norway 2008 and France 2009) at this spot and acknowledged that while everyone else liked them, I didn’t. And what happened? They were in the top 10 in the final. This song again is a fan favorite (or at least it was in the period before all the songs had been chosen), and with my luck in predictions, it could do very well. I can see where it could be appealing, and it’s not badly written, but it’s too carnival-sounding for me to want to listen to it again and again.
Best Part: Ending
Rating: 3/5

27. Portugal
Filipa - “Ha dias assim”
Reaction: This starts off like a 90’s Disney ballad, then turns into a 90’s Mariah ballad. It’s a little dated and generic, but it’s moving while it lasts.
Best Part: Last chorus
Rating: 3/5

26. Poland
Marcin Mrozinski - “Legenda”
Reaction: This is the most “Fairytale”-like song, and not just because of the name. It’s not as powerful as last year’s winner, and it’s a little weak on the verses, but its strong vocals and drumbeats on the chorus make up for that.
Best Part: Key change
Rating: 3/5

Next week: Songs 21 through 25!

Stuck in an Eastern European kinda funk

2010-04-11T21:47:00.002-04:00

It’s time for the second week of my Eurovision ranking, still at the tail end with songs 31 through 35. After coming up with this week’s list of songs, I realized that they have something in common, giving this post its title. I don’t mean this to be an insult towards those countries: I’ve had all but Estonia in my top 5 before. Their songs this year just don’t impress me.

35. Belarus
3+2 - “Butterflies"
Reaction: This would be a fine dramatic ballad if all went well, as it’s got the right parts: strings, soft drumming, vocal harmonies. However, the whole product is so dull that it could be called what some fans term “funeral dirge.” The melody is pleasant, but it’s performed with little emotion or energy and is thus forgettable.
Best part: Last chorus
Rating: 1/5

34. Ukraine
Alyosha - “Sweet People"
Reaction: Another one of those “the world is bad” songs in the vein of, say, “Nobody Hurt No One.” Despite the serious subject, it doesn’t make an impact and the music isn’t interesting
Best part: “In theatres and video games/They watch what we send to ruin”
Rating: 2/5

33. Estonia
Malcolm Lincoln - “Siren"
Reaction: This is one of those songs that a lot of people like for being different and modern and interesting, but I just can’t get into it. The chorus is decent, but the verses are just as monotonal and annoying as a siren.
Best part: Chorus
Rating: 2/5

32. Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia
Gjoko Taneski feat. Billy Zver & Pejcin - "Jas ja imam silata"
Reaction: I wanted to like this song, as every year I grow more accustomed to Balkans-style Eurovision rock. It’s better than their effort last year, but it could be better. The rap part is awkward.
Best part: Guitar solo
Rating: 2/5

31. Romania
Paula Seling feat. Ovi - "Playing with fire”
Reaction: I can see where this upbeat song might appeal to some, but the melody doesn’t appeal to me. The bridge, with Ms. Seling vocalizing a very high note, sounds very strange and not in a good way.
Best part: Instrumental intro
Rating: 2/5

Next week: Songs 26-30!

Eurovision Ranking 2010 Begins!

2010-04-04T21:04:00.002-04:00

After a short end-of-selection-season hiatus I’m back for my fifth (!) annual Eurovision rankings. I’m starting a lot later than the past few years (this time in 2007 I was doing songs 21-25 out of 42) because there’s only 39 songs this year and the contest is later than usual. It was difficult to pick a bottom four this year, as there aren’t really any “novelty” entries that would usually occupy those spots on principle. Instead of violent revulsion there’s just boredom and disappointment.

39. Slovenia
Ansambel Roka Žlindre & Kalamari - Narodnozabavni rock
Reaction: This year Slovenia gets the honor of the bottom spot on my ranking, not because it’s done something to offend me but because I always have a soft spot for Slovenia’s entries and this one just disappointed me. Instead of sounding like a structured song, it sounds like a rock band and a polka band wandered onto the same stage and started jamming. It feels like it could go on forever the same way until one or both parties got bored.
Best Part: I can’t get past “Naj bo, naj bo, naj booooo” without skipping to the next song
Rating: 1/5

38. Belgium
Tom Dice - Me and my guitar
Reaction: It’s not an awful song really, but it’s the type of song I don’t normally listen to unless the melody is particularly interesting or the lyrics are particularly clever, neither of which are features of this song. The lyrics are both too authentic in a gooey emotional way and inauthentic (it’s about getting one’s big break, but the song is performed on TV so he’s obviously already gotten his). The music is unmemorable, and there are much more memorable acoustic guitar ballads in this contest.
Best Part: Rhyming “fall” with “falls”
Rating: 1/5

37. United Kingdom
Josh - That sounds good to me
Reaction: The final version hasn’t been released yet, so I really shouldn’t write on it, but it’s already April and I can’t wait much longer. The live version of this is really disappointing because it’s written by a songwriting team with so many good songs under their belt, but this one is just so mediocre that it’s bad. For a song about having a good time the whole song is unenthusiastic and the rhythm of “Just add your laughter/it’s happy ever after” is annoying. I really hope this gets a revamping for the better and that I’ll regret putting this song in this spot come May.
Best Part: Instrumental opening
Rating: 1/5

36. Malta
Thea Garrett - My Dream
Reaction: I liked this song when I first heard it, but that was in comparison to the poor selection of songs from Malta. In comparison to the other songs chosen this year, it barely rates. It’s a sweet ballad with synthesized strings that is just too mediocre compared to other mediocre ballads. It’s pleasant and well sung but that’s not good enough. Malta needs to step it up in future years. If Chiara can’t save a mediocre ballad, then how can a newcomer who is no Chiara do it?
Best part: Last chorus
Rating: 1/5

Next Sunday I'll do songs 31-35, but this week I'll write a little more on this set of songs, time permitting. The rankings are pretty negative now but it can only get more positive as it continues.

Short Sunday Roundup

2010-03-14T21:11:00.000-04:00

Very busy tonight, and I don’t want to write too much in fear of being repetitive when I start my rankings soon, so here’s some short first impressions of the songs chosen this week:

Estonia - “Siren” - I don’t get it, I really don’t
Greece - “OPA” - fan favorite that I don’t get
Germany - “Satellite” - very modern, not Eurovision-y
United Kingdom - “That sounds good to me” - is it the 90’s again
Sweden - “This Is My Life” - everyone knew it would win
Serbia - “Ovo Je Balkan” - crazy, in a very good way, I love it much more than I should
Bosnia & Herzegovina - “Munja I Grom” - good rock song, not up to their standard but better than many in this contest

Overall I think the biggest thing I learned from six weeks of Melodifestivalen is that Sweden should send Dolph Lundgren riding a Segway next year. It doesn’t matter what song he sings, and he doesn’t even have to sing. It would get votes.

All that is left is the songs from Azerbaijan, France, and Israel, and then shortly after that I’ll start my big ranking of all the songs.

Feminnem is back...and so is everybody else

2010-03-07T18:28:00.001-05:00

Before I start the post, a partially-fictional conversation:
Me: "I don't think I'll go to Oslo. It's not worth the trouble."
An hour later...
Croatia: "We picked Feminnem."
Me: "What."

Just as I was about to give up on the whole thing this year, Croatia made me proud and chose Feminnem with "Lako je sve." I don't like it as much as "Call Me" but it's a strong ballad and it's great to see them return.

Some other familiar faces were chosen this week. Ireland also chose a former entrant, 1993 winner Niamh Kavanagh with "It's For You". Along with Norway this is the best ballad in a sea of ballads so far. Lithuania chose InCulto with "Eastern European Funk" who made an attempt back in 2006. I like this song better than both their song in 2006, "Welcome to Lithuania", and the song that eventually won their selection. Moldova chose Olia Tira, who had been making attempts for nearly every year that they've entered the contest. This year she performs "Run Away" with SunStroke Project, an interesting dance song. Sweden also chose a familiar face from their Andra Chansen to move into the final: Jessica Andersson, who represented them in 2003.

Early this week Azerbaijan chose their song...or did they? I'll write on their song later, assuming they choose one by the time I get to my ranking.

Turkey chose "We could be the same," an upbeat pop-rock song that feels very modern

Romania chose "Playing with Fire," an upbeat pop duet featuring piano.

Ukraine and Portugal are similar in that they both chose generic and dated ballads that are sentimental enough to be enjoyable but not memorable.

Russia chose "Lost and Forgotten," whose title may be a self-fulfilling prophesy.

Belgium presented "Me and My Guitar," an honest-sounding acoustic guitar ballad that will appeal to everyone but me.

Nine countries have songs that remain unchosen or unpresented: Azerbaijan, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Estonia, France, Germany, Greece, Serbia, Sweden, United Kingdom. By next week all of them (with the possible exeption of Azerbaijan) should be known, in the last weekend of the national final season.

This is my blog, my friends

2010-02-28T22:04:00.000-05:00

This week a couple more Eurovision entries were chosen. With two weeks left there are still half of the entries left to be revealed. I’m in the middle of midterm time so I’ll keep it short.

Spain chose “Algo pequenito,” not my favorite from their selection but it’s still charming.

Belarus chose “Far Away,” which isn’t as good as their previous few entries and is thus kind of depressing after the long string of fabulous male solo singers.

Georgia chose "Shine" which is much better than the Dutch "Shine" from last year, and also quite different since it is a classy ballad rather than a schlager disaster.

Latvia chose "What For," which I like because it is depressing and quirky, and has very very awkward English lyrics.

Slovakia chose the fan favorite "Horehronie,” which is much better than their entry last year.

Bulgaria chose “Angel si ti,” which anyone could have seen coming as it was the only entry written by the performer.

Sweden had their fourth and final semifinal. The qualifiers "This is My Life" and "Hollow" weren't my favorites - that would be the second chance qualifier "Human Frontier - although they were very good.

Next week, Sweden has their Andra Chansen round, of which I would like to see "Headlines" or "Human Frontier" qualify, but sadly only one of those are able to. According to Esctoday.com's calendar, twelve countries are going to select or present their entries in the next seven days:Azerbaijan, Belgium, Croatia, France, Ireland, Lithuania, Moldova, Portugal, Romania, Russia, Turkey, Ukraine. Hopefully all of those songs will sound like winners, or at least be very good.

Lucky 13 Songs

2010-02-21T20:31:00.000-05:00

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”).

Legenda of Manboy

2010-02-14T23:43:00.004-05:00

It's barely still Sunday here (by a minute!), so it's still time for Eurosunday.

Two more songs were added to the list of selected entries. Armenia's "Apricot stone" was a good choice as it was my favorite out of the entries in the national final, although I was a little confused by the title as I'm more used to hearing it referred to as a pit rather than a stone. Poland chose "Legenda" which is one in what could be a long line of male solo singers in this contest, but so far the first one with a song that heavily features string instruments.

Slovakia had their first proper semifinal after weeks of quarterfinals. Luckily their best song "Horehronie" qualified with a large amount of the popular vote. Lithuania also had their first semifinal with some decent qualifiers but nothing that stuck out to me.

Sweden had their second semifinal, with the much-awaited (by me) song, "Manboy" which flew into the final. As anyone could have predicted, it had an infectiously catchy chorus with awkward lyrics. Mr. Saade doesn't seem like a manboy at first glance to me so I will take his word for it that he isn't. Andreas Johnson, who I now realize sounds like Swedish Bono, also qualified with "We Can Work It Out." Of the second-chance round qualifiers, I liked Pauline's song, "Sucker For Love", and her hairbow.

Next week: Finals in FYR Macedonia, Malta, and Slovenia! Semifinals in Lithuania, Slovakia, and Sweden!

Surprised it took this long for this to happen

2010-02-09T12:28:00.004-05:00

Just because "The Dragontower" didn't win in Norway doesn't mean they didn't pick a song with fantasy themes. You see,

"My Heart is Yours" is totally about Twilight! And thus, it will score very very highly. At the very least, better than "Vampires Are Alive."

Scandinavia, Spring, and Shalalie

2010-02-07T18:18:00.001-05:00

This week had a total of 5 songs selected for Eurovision, three of them from Scandinavian countries. Iceland chose “Je Ne Sais Quoi” which of course I am thrilled with, since it has “fan favorite” written all over it.

Norway chose “My Heart is Yours,” which sounds vaguely Irish. I was a little confused as to why people like it until I saw the songwriting credit -- it’s more of that Fredrik Kempe song magic. The lyrics are a little creepy ("I watch you at night" really?) instead of romantic at first listen, though.

Denmark chose “In A Moment Like This,” co-written by another songwriter of fan favorites, Thomas G:Son. It’s not my favorite song from the national final, but it’s decent.

Cyprus chose “Life looks better in spring,” which I’m not enthusiastic about yet. It has a good melody but it’s missing energy. I like it better than last year’s song, though.

The Netherlands chose the worst possible arrangement for their song “Ik ben verliefd (Shalalie)”, which sounds even more old-fashioned than the demo version.

I’m not going to comment on the Azerbaijani or German semifinals just yet as they seem to be choosing the singer rather than the song.

Slovakia had another two quarterfinals. I liked “Horehronie” and “PRidaj si ma” but not many of the others.

The best comes last: Sweden had their first semifinal. None of the songs stood out as “fan favorites” but it was still a pretty amazing set. “Unstoppable” brings back Natalie as a recurring character, and I applaud that practice in modern songs. “You’re Making Me Hot Hot Hot” is a classic 5th place song. “The Saviour” is ridiculous quasi-religious rock musical theater. “Keep on Walking” is burned into my head, its chorus so catchy it’s going to get annoying. And I get the feeling that “Road Salt” is going to be this year’s “Snalla Snalla,” although I’m wrong whenever I get these feelings.

Next week is a little slower: semifinals in Sweden and Slovakia, and finals in Armenia and Poland.

Calm before the winter (song) storm

2010-01-31T17:28:00.000-05:00

This week brought a couple of live Eurovision preselection shows. It’s the last week in January before the national final/song presentation rush of February and early March.

Yesterday Finland chose their entry, “Työlki ellää.” I’m disappointed that it isn’t “Anastacia,” but it is still very good. I like the woman-in-fancy-dress-playing-accordion. So far it’s the first song chosen for Oslo that was memorable upon first listen, so that’s a good sign.

Norway had their second chance round, and while my favorites didn’t make it through, “Yes man” and “Jealous cause I love you” made it to the final. They’re both decent songs, thought I like the latter better.

The qualifiers in the third Slovakian quarterfinal were pretty good, and overall this looks to be a jump in quality over last year. “Z osnov” stands out as the most interesting qualifier in the the third semifinal, as it is a decent a capella song. As I’ve said before, I don’t care much for a capella but it has a novelty factor and is performed well. “Niečo máš” also stood out as a decent ballad. I didn’t like the qualifiers in the fourth quarterfinal as much. “Tón” was the most interesting out of that group, but not by much.

Next week is completely packed, with 10 live shows. Slovakia will have two semifinals, Azerbaijan will have their sole semifinal, and Germany and Sweden will have their first ones. The number of countries with entries selected will more than double by next Sunday, as five songs are selecting their entry: Cyprus, Denmark, Iceland, Netherlands, and Norway. As for predictions, I haven’t heard the songs in Cyprus and Denmark nor the performers in the Netherlands, but I predict “Don’t Wanna Lose You Again” or “Make My Day” for Norway or “Je Ne Sais Quoi” in Iceland. These are probably very unoriginal choices, however, and the “fan favorite” is never a guarantee to win.

More Scandinavia and Slovakia

2010-01-24T21:56:00.001-05:00

This week in Eurovision brought another crop of semifinals and quarterfinals.

Slovakia had their first two quarterfinals. None of the qualifiers from the first semifinal are very interesting. The second one was much better. “Emotions”, “Paradise versus Babylon”, and “Blue Sun” are decent and have promise.

Finland had their third semifinal. I was pleasantly surprised that “Sydän ymmärtää” got the wildcard, but I like all three other songs that qualified to the final.

Iceland also had their third semifinal. This semifinal brought my favorite song of the Icelandic selection, which (no surprise here) is “Je ne sais quoi.” It’s very “This Is My Life Part 2.” I was very happy that it qualified. I’m less fond of the other song that qualified.

In Norway’s third and last semifinal, “Don’t Want to Lose You Again” predictably qualified. I like it somewhat, but not as much as other songs from previous semifinals. I do like the songs that qualified for the second chance round, “Tokyo Night” and “I’ll Take You High.”

Next week we get the first national final in a month, from Finland. My favorite is “Anastacia” so I hope it wins. In addition, Norway has a second chance round and Slovakia has two more quarterfinals.

One more day of just semifinals

2010-01-17T20:43:00.002-05:00

This week had no new national entries revealed or chosen, although some singers were announced. There were also a few more semifinals, from the same countries as last week.

Malta had their sixth and final semifinal, and none of the songs really appealed to me. A few days later they announced the running order for their final, and most of the songs I liked are in the final.

Moldova also announced the qualifiers to their national final. I don’t have a favorite out of all the songs at first listen, but there are some decent songs in there.

Finland had their second semifinal. I’m happy that “Love at the first sight” qualified, though I don’t like it live as much as “Anastacia” from last week.

Iceland had their second semifinal, and “One More Day” and “Gleði og glens” qualified. I like the first one better than the second, but neither are favorites.

Norway also had their second semifinal. I was pleased that my favorite from this semifinal, “Give It To Me” qualified. This song being my favorite was no surprise, since I liked this singer’s songs in the previous editions of MGP (although out of the three, “Always always” is my favorite). The other qualifier, “The Touch” is a sweet ballad but nothing really special. Since last week, “Make My Day” has grown on me and it feels most like a winner out of the songs so far.

Next week brings additional semifinals from Finland, Iceland, and Norway, and the beginning of the Slovakian selection.

Beginning of the busy season

2010-01-10T21:25:00.000-05:00

First EuroSunday of this year! Last week I didn’t post because nothing much happened (just one semifinal from Malta) but this week was definitely more busy, with one song presentation and four semifinals.

Switzerland presented their song, “Il pleut de l’or.” It’s not bad but it doesn’t strike me as a winner, even with only three songs known now.

Malta had their fifth semifinal, and none of the songs really impressed me at first listen. “Euphoria” and “Hypnotized” show some promise, though.

Finland had their first semifinal. My favorite “Anastacia” qualified to the final, and it’s probably my favorite song remaining in their preselection, along with “Love at the first sight” which is in a later semifinal. “Anastacia” won the semifinal with over half the vote, so it’s definitely got a big chance to be the final choice. My other favorite from this semifinal, “You Don’t Know Tomorrow” didn’t qualify.

Iceland also had their first semifinal, from which two songs qualified to the final. “The one” is a sweet ballad that I could see do well, but I’m less thrilled about “Out of Sight.”

Norway had their first semifinal, and two songs qualified. The first, “Make My Day,” didn’t grab me immediately but like with Maria Haukaas Storeng’s song in 2008, it is not unlikely that it will win the national final. “The Dragontower” was a bit of a surprise, since it’s so BROOTAL and METAL. It’s always a pleasure to see some metal in these preselections, since it so clashes with the idea of what Eurovision music is, yet it’s not a mean-spirited parody of the contest. Always, it’s interesting to have songs with mythological themes such as this one.

Next week brings semifinals in the same countries that had semifinals this week.

Last Eurosunday of the Year

2009-12-27T21:50:00.000-05:00

Apologies for not updating much in the past few months, but I have been very distracted with schoolwork. It’s that time of year again, time for Eurovision reselection shows and internal selection announcements!

Two songs have been revealed so far, but not in their final versions. Today Albania chose “Nuk mundem pa ty,” a nice electro pop song that isn’t amazing but has potential in its inevitable reworking. I wish I could say the same for the Dutch song, “Ik ben verliefd (sha-la-lie).” It sounds completely dated and will continue to be that way unless rearranged in a completely unexpected style.

Malta has had three semifinals already, and the third one was the first live show of the year that I watched. I really like the songs in that semifinal, except for “Choices.” It’s hard to pick a winner so far, because the live versions done in the small television studio for these broadcasts don’t sound much like the studio recordings or live Eurovision versions.

Finland’s web selection a few weeks ago was disappointing, as “Ei minua,” the best song in that selection, was eliminated. My favorite out of the finalists is “Love at the first sight,” with “Anastacia” as a second.

Belarus, Poland, Slovakia all had some of their songs leak and I haven’t listened to them all, but I do like “Jak ptak” from Poland.

Next week there’s only one live show: Malta’s 4th semifinal. To make up for the lack of live show info I’ll give some opinions on the other songs that have leaked that I haven’t discussed yet.

Happy New Year, and here’s to a great Eurovision season!

Manboy!

2009-10-14T15:05:00.002-04:00

The first 27 Melodifestivalen song titles have been announced and I don't usually do a post like this until the songs themselves have been revealed but Sweden has clearly produced the best song title of the season already.
That song title is "Manboy", and since it's a Fredrik Kempe production it will probably be some epic schlager that, if chosen, would probably get under 50 points in the final.

The "webbjoker" competition has also opened to voting, so hopefully a good entry will come from that.

Speaking of internet selection of songs, Finland's web-voting ends soon, and I really hope that "Ei minua" makes it to the national final. It's the best of the lot by miles, and is also very Finnish.

Summary of my Summer + Fall

2009-10-12T10:50:00.002-04:00

I haven't posted since May because mostly nothing went on except work. In September I saw the Pet Shop Boys, which was amazing.
This is really just a post for me to say that tonight I am GOING TO SEE KYLIE MINOGUE!!!!

Idol Fan Response: Overreaction or Underreaction?

2009-05-21T20:41:00.001-04:00

I’m not an American Idol fan and I haven’t watched the show since season 4. However, it was impossible to avoid the fan response to the result of last night’s finale. It seems a lot of people think that the runner-up, Adam Lambert, was the runner-up and not the winner because of homophobia on the part of the voters.

As was made clear last weekend, I don’t always have the same music taste as the public. It’s upsetting when there’s a difference but I deal with it and don’t cry for a recount. But I get the feeling that some of these fans online are overreacting. They’re acting a lot like Clay Aiken fans back in 2003 when he got to second place, and Clay Aiken fans are supposed to be the loony fanatics of the Idol fandom. I should know, I was one of them – I bought his first album though I haven’t bought any others.

However in just blaming a block vote of homophobia, people are forgetting two other blocks of voters. First, pre-teens and teens, who as the media says to us, send a lot of text messages, and text messages are more likely to get through than phone votes. Second, a good amount of votes (between 38 and 40 percent, depending on who says it), came from Arkansas, the winner’s home state. Frankly, that’s more troubling to me than any of the other theories – that the winner is the one with more hometown/home state support rather than the one with support across the country. I wonder if it would be possible to weight the votes from each state, like with the Electoral College used in presidential elections (and yes it is appropriate to make that comparison because who I’m sick of the “more people vote for American Idol than the President” complaint because more people can vote in Idol the only thing you need to be eligible to vote in that is a phone line). That way they can have an extended voting sequence, and who doesn’t love that? It also makes the whole process more transparent, because they have never actually released the vote totals ever as far as I know.

Or maybe it’s just I’ve spent too much time reading posts by Eurovision fans who say that people will vote for their country or their neighbors no matter what they put on stage, just replacing “country” with “state”, and immediately expecting an outcry about “regional voting” and being really confused when I don’t find one.

Another Reason Belarus Should Have Been In The Final

2009-05-17T23:45:00.003-04:00

One of the highlights of Tuesday's semifinal slipped my mind when I was writing my reaction blog, and it wasn't even part of the performance.

Look to the last five seconds of this video:

Who is that well-coiffed man shaking the Belarussian flag at the camera? It's Koldun! Why people didn't rush to their phones to vote for this song after the man who gave the world "Work Your Magic" gave this song his approval, I don't know.

Final Reaction - No Surprises

2009-05-16T19:14:00.002-04:00

The winner of Eurovision 2009 shocks no one! As you may have heard elsewhere by now, Norway won pretty much unanimously. The jury vote hasn't been released as of this writing but I'm sure they got high marks, and they were in the top 3 of voters in every country in their semifinal except France so that means they were probably the televote favorite too. I'm a little disappointed that there wasn't a more exciting voting sequence, unless you count the race for the other places in the top five. But I am happy that like the years before, the winner was in my top 12 and one song out of my top five made it into the top five, as Azerbaijan was in third place. The other four in my top five didn't do nearly as well, with Finland coming in last place, but I'm satisfied that they at least qualified.

The semifinal results were released and Finland and Croatia were the jury picks. Like last year, my 1st place song in my rankings came 12th in its semifinal but made it to the final on the jury vote. I'm shocked that Sweden got fourth place in its semifinal, but not as shocked that it did so poorly in the final. If it wasn't a hit with Swedish juries in Melodifestivalen, it wasn't going to be a hit with other juries across Europe. I'm confused as to why Albania would give Netherlands 10 out of their 11 points, and why Belgium got their only point from Armenia.

The performances themselves were all very good and most were better than their semifinal performances, but I must mention the other highlights besides the competing songs. The part of the opening sequence with Dima Bilan was amazing.

He flies! He struts in place! He strips! He walks through a group of women unfazed! He sprints in place! He runs through a walls! He runs through the wind! He walks through a group of photographers unfazed! He runs through another wall! He strips again! He runs through yet another wall! He flies to an angel! Even when the thunder and storm begins, he'll be standing strong like a tree in the wind. The source of this new power must be in his hair. Although his glorious mullet made him strangely appealing, this new longer hair must give him the power of strength, immobility, and flight!

The voting sequence itself was boring and surprisingly even more predictable than in years past (instead of giving all their points to their neighbors, countries give all their points to their neighbors and Norway), but the highlights were the Slovenian presenter attempting to have a moment of silence for Love Symphony (where were the moments of silence in 2006 and 2008?) and Laka being himself giving the Bosnian points.

It was a great show and now I'm ready to detox myself from Eurovision until the fall. It's been fun and now that it's over I can finally have time to blog about other things.

Semifinal 2 Reaction

2009-05-14T17:19:00.002-04:00

Either I have popular taste this year or I am getting better at predicting. I got 9 out of 10 qualifiers right! The only one I got wrong was Serbia which was replaced with Denmark. I should have known Denmark would qualify but it was just wishful thinking. Just like Tuesday's semifinal, my top seven from the final plus another one from my top ten qualified.

Also the curse that has plagued my rankings seems to have lifted. Every year at least one of my top five songs does not qualify for the final, but this year all of my top five qualified. In fact, my top 14 songs are all in the final (13 qualifiers plus one automatic finalist). Nineteen of my top twenty-five are in the final (outside my top 25 are Denmark, Estonia, France, Germany, Portugal, Russia).

I'll post some predictions for the final on Friday night or Saturday morning once the draw has happened and the finalists rehearse.

2nd Semifinal Predictions

2009-05-14T12:31:00.002-04:00

It's three hours to the second semifinal of Eurovision and it's time for me to post my predictions. I haven't been reading any of the coverage of the dress rehearsals because I've been busy until today, so I don't really have any rehearsal impressions. I'm going to test my luck and include my top seven from my rankings again, but from what I've seen of the earlier rehearsals I think they have a shot.

Even though I don't really "get" Estonia's song it seems a lot of people do, so I think it would qualify, either by viewer votes or as jury pick. Serbia is also outside my top 10 in my ranking, but it seems that the live performance looks very entertaining. Just based on the song alone I'd rather see Hungary and Ireland in the place of those two, but based on the live performances I'm not sure that would happen. I just have a feeling that Denmark and Netherlands won't qualify. I'll probably be proven wrong about Denmark, but even with the draw I will be shocked and cry "jury pick!" if Netherlands qualifies. That, or "drunk dialing."

Here are my 10 predicted qualifiers for the second semifinal of the Eurovision Song Contest 2009:

ALBANIA
AZERBAIJAN
CROATIA
ESTONIA
GREECE
LITHUANIA
MOLDOVA
NORWAY
SERBIA
UKRAINE

Good luck to all the performers, and the journalists giving such great coverage of the event so computer-bound viewers like me can see a glimpse of what's happening behind the scenes in Moscow.

Semifinal 1 Reaction

2009-05-12T17:37:00.001-04:00

Although the camerawork was disappointing in much of the performances of semifinal, the very end was thrilling and fantastic. I am very pleased with the result since I got 8 out of 10 predicted qualifiers right, and the 2 that qualified that I didn’t predict (Sweden and Israel, in place of Belarus and FYR Macedonia) were ones I mentioned I hoped would qualify.

I’m even more pleased that 8 out of my top 10 songs from this semifinal in my rankings qualified (Bulgaria and Montenegro were in my top 10 and didn’t make it, Malta and Portugal weren’t and did). In fact my top seven in this semifinal all qualified, which includes six members of my top ten overall.

Here are some of my highlights from the show:

Montenegrin singer almost flashes audience when she sits down and spreads legs, and then her dancer pulls her skirt up and we all see her underwear. How embarrassing.
Belarus and the person in the fire/wind bag
Armenia’s laser fingers
Iceland’s too close closeup at the beginning
Portuguese singer’s dress - very pretty
Maltese postcard teaching the audience the Russian for “fairytale” -- this was to confuse voters to make them think they were voting for Norway
t.A.T.u. lip-synching in the interval act
Svante looking happy before the results were announced - his face tells you how well western countries do
The male presenter calling Israel “the most politically correct song” in the contest, because it’s true
FINLAND QUALIFIED!!!
The female presenter saying that “the country that wins has to give me citizenship” before Iceland was announced

On Thursday morning (or rather afternoon to European readers) I’ll have predictions for the second semifinal.

1st Semifinal Rehearsal Impressions and Predictions

2009-05-12T12:16:00.002-04:00

It’s time once again to test my crystal ball and make some predictions. Despite what the rest of the blogging world thinks, I think that Finland has a chance. The song’s rehearsal videos have a very large number of views on Youtube. Just by looking at eurovision.tv’s videos, the two Finnish rehearsal videos have the second highest number of combined views as of Monday night, only behind Turkey. Since those views can’t all be from Finland and me I think it shows that there is some interest in it that may result in some televotes. But perhaps I'm just being overly optimistic.

I'm not optimistic about Sweden though - although I like the song itself I never liked the Melodifestivalen performance, with its blinding green and white backdrops, and this one seems to be similar. I'd love it if Israel qualified but I'm not sure it will happen. I'm also hesitant about Malta because Malta is neighborless Malta, but it's also Chiara and if for some reason this does not please viewers it will almost certainly please the juries. I know FYR Macedonia and Portugal were especially low on my rankings, but their performances seem pleasant enough to attract viewers.

Here are my predicted qualifiers for the first Semifinal of the Eurovision Song Contest 2009.
ARMENIA
BELARUS
BOSNIA & HERZEGOVINA
FINLAND
FYR MACEDONIA
ICELAND
MALTA
PORTUGAL
ROMANIA
TURKEY

Good luck to everyone involved, and I'll post again once the show is over with my reactions.

Semifinal Analysis: Ranking vs. Performance Last Year

2009-05-11T18:18:00.003-04:00

Although each year is a new experience and thus examination of past statistics are unhelpful, I continue to do it. I’ll also be the first to admit that that my rankings are horribly inaccurate compared to the actual results, and usually give insight into nothing other than my personal musical tastes. A simple analysis of my top-ranked semifinalists from 2006 to 2008 shows this. In 2006 and the second semifinal of 2008, only five of my top 10 ranked semifinalists qualified. In 2007, the first semifinal of 2008, and 2008 overall, seven of my top 10 ranked semifinalists qualified. Also, in all three previous years of my rankings, I have never had all of my overall top five in the final.

Behind the cut are some statistics comparing the performance of the semifinalists from 2008 to my rankings of them. Their actual place in the semifinal is in parentheses, and their placing in the final is in a second set of parentheses if they managed to qualify.

2008 Semifinal 1
1. Slovenia (11)
2. Bosnia & Herzegovina (9) (10)
3. Russia (3) (1)
4. Greece (1) (3)
5. Armenia (2) (4)
6. Poland (10) (24)
7. Azerbaijan (6) (8)
8. Netherlands (13)
9. Belgium (17)
10.Finland (8) (22)
11. Israel (5) (9)
12. Romania (7) (20)
13. Norway (4) (5)
14. Ireland (15)
15. Andorra (16)
16. San Marino (19)
17. Moldova (12)
18. Montenegro (14)
19. Estonia (18)
In this semifinal, the top three was in my top five. Five of my top ten were in the top ten in the final. Only Russia had the same place in my ranking and the actual results. Four other countries (Andorra, Azerbaijan, Estonia, and Ireland) were one place off from the actual rankings. None of the 1/5 rated songs qualified, a first for me.

2008 Semifinal 2
1. Sweden (12) (18)
2. Iceland (8) (14)
3. Ukraine (1) (2)
4. FYR Macedonia (10)
5. Czech Republic (18)
6. Portugal (2) (13)
7. Belarus (17)
8. Malta (14)
9. Albania (9) (17)
10. Bulgaria (11)
11. Switzerland (13)
12. Georgia (5) (11)
13. Cyprus (15)
14. Lithuania (16)
15. Latvia (6) (12)
16. Croatia (4) (21)
17. Denmark (3) (15)
18. Hungary (19)
19. Turkey (7) (7)
My top 10 was horribly off, with only one song scoring in the top ten in the final. Only the top two and the bottom three of the top ten in the semifinal were in my top ten. Both the tenth place through the public vote (FYR Macedonia) and the tenth place through jury vote (Sweden) were in my top five. Four of my bottom five were in the actual top ten.

This just goes to show that my ranking is completely inaccurate once the performance factor is added. Last year my predictions on the day preceding the show were more accurate than me pre-show favorites.

Always on my mind

2009-05-10T20:36:00.000-04:00

The top five in my Eurovision ranking this year is interesting. This is the first top five that has no solo male vocalists, although two of the songs have both male and female vocals. I also feel that I should mention this before anyone else does: three of them have been in my top 5 before. If this trend continues then I predict in 2010 my top five will be those three plus Slovenia and something else unexpected. As I said last week, there are a lot of songs in this contest this year that I really like, so just because a song didn’t make my top five doesn’t mean I don’t think it’s amazing. Also, this ranking does not reflect last week’s rehearsals, as I finalized these positions before rehearsals started, and I’ll write more on the rehearsals and my impressions of them later.

5. Ukraine
Svetlana Loboda - “Be My Valentine (Anti-Crisis Girl)”
Reaction: In the national final I didn’t like this but after it got cleaned up my opinion completely changed. There’s a lot of variety in this song. The verses have horns and drums, while the choruses are all pulsing synth. It’s a very “busy” song with a lot of things going on at once, but it instead of sounding cluttered it gives it energy and keeps it constantly interesting.
Best Part: “I call you on the phone/you speak in monotone”
Rating: 5/5

4. Sweden
Malena Ernman - “La Voix”
Reaction: Initially I resisted this song and its hype in favor of other Melodifestivalen songs (“Hope & Glory”, “Moving On”, “Save the Night”) and I still prefer those to this, but after the initial shock of its win I was eventually won over. Fredrik Kempe must have some sort of mind control power because despite my efforts to the contrary I end up liking most of his songs in Melodifestivalen. The combination of pop and opera and camp results in some fabulous monstrosity that is even less serious than the other Eurovision popera songs but just as fun.
Best Part: Last chorus
Rating: 5/5

3. Romania
Elena Gheorghe - “The Balkan Girls”
Reaction: This is just a typical pop song, but the melody is very memorable. It has a late-90s-pop feel, which gives me a little false nostalgia. The lyrics are cute and memorable, and make an attempt to be deeper than they seem (“I wonder if beyond this/there could be something better”). I like the addition of the ethnic horns to the instrumental breaks, but I prefer the choruses that don’t have them.
Best Part: “I’m gonna start my weekend with gin, tonic, and lime”
Rating: 5/5

2. Azerbaijan
AySel & Arash - “Always”
Reaction: In a year with a few very good ethno dance pop songs, this is the best. It’s more eastern than the others geographically but still sounds very western in a way with the synth and bass line during the verses. The song keeps up a fast pace and doesn’t drag on. It has one of the catchier choruses in this contest, but the verses are also memorable.
Best Part: Introduction
Rating: 5/5

1.Finland
Waldo‘s People - “Lose Control”
Reaction: I have a small trend of putting a 90’s-style Eurodance song at 2nd place (see: Romania 2006, Iceland 2008) and the minute I heard this song I expected I would do the same. The problem was that I couldn’t find a song that I felt I should put higher. I usually don’t prefer dance songs with rapping parts in the verses unless they have an interesting rhythm, which this one does. The pre-choruses and choruses are very strong and definitely my favorite of the year.
Best Part: Part before and start of the last chorus, where a key change should be, but even its absence doesn’t detract from this
Rating: 5/5

Tomorrow I’ll post my reactions to the rehearsals and my predictions for the first semifinal of 2009. Good luck to all the participants (of whom I’m sure none visit my blog).

Party Like a Balkan Girl

2009-05-07T23:13:00.003-04:00

I only subscribe to the print editions of three magazines, and one of them is Time Out New York. I got this week's edition this afternoon and just about the last thing I expected or even wanted to see after some difficult exams was a picture of the Toppers in their silly silver outfits in print, but there it was, in the middle of an article about next week's Eurovision festivities. It briefly confirms the sad fact that no local channels broadcast the contest (unless some kind reader can tell me which premium cable channels do show it)It also had a listing of the magazine staff's favorite songs and a list of places where one could eat and drink (emphasis on drink) to remind you of various European countries. It was short and didn't even take up an entire page but it's so rare to read about Eurovision in local media for me that I thought I might mention it.

Source: Time Out New York

Let the music make you raise your hand

2009-05-03T21:38:00.003-04:00

Rehearsals have already started in Moscow and it’s time for my top ten. I really like my whole top twenty very much, so the difference in preference between these songs and the top 5 are very minute. As of this writing only one of them has had a rehearsal, but I hope that all of these are successful on stage and do very well in their semifinals and ultimately the final.

10. Greece
Sakis Rouvas - “This Is Our Night“
Reaction: I’m not sure electronic dance music is Sakis’s strength, but the writers of this song did a good job making up for any weakness. The chorus is very catchy and the backing vocals and instrumental are strong and well chosen.
Best Part: The beeping alarm sound before the first chorus during “When I look into your eyes/It comes as no surprise”
Rating: 4/5

9. Israel
Noa & Mira Awad - “There Must Be Another Way“
Reaction: I know this is blatant political propaganda - Hebrew and Arabic lyrics about wanting peace and finding another way - but I still love it anyway. I will forgive political lyrics in this venue if the music is appealing enough(see: what would have been Georgia 2009), and this one is. This is probably the only song this year whose verses I vastly prefer to the chorus. Although I usually prefer loud instrumentals, I love the simplicity of this song, with two clear beautiful voices in harmony and soft guitars.
Best Part: Bridge
Rating: 4/5

8. Norway
Alexander Rybak - “Fairytale”
Reaction: Last year’s overwhelming betting favorite (and in that case, actual winner) was in this spot too. However, I do not have an irrational fannish devotion to Mr. Rybak like I did and do for Mr. Bilan. I find his voice strange and nasal, but that just might be part of the appeal. The prominent strings are also very strange sounding. The song has a sort of haunting madness to it. The instrumental and lyrics combine to give the feeling of obsessive yet unrequited love.
Best Part: Violin solos
Rating: 4/5

7. Armenia
Inga & Anush - “Jan jan“
Reaction: This is a fun mix of ethnic and modern music, but unlike others that fall under that description this year it sounds more like folk than dance pop. I like the combination of the two female sisters’ voices, as well as the combination of English and Armenian.
Best Part: “We aren’t free/fixed like a tree/to the holy ground/with my sound”
Rating: 4/5

6. Bosnia & Herzegovina
Regina - “Bistra Voda”
Reaction: I never really thought of myself as biased towards Bosnia & Herzegovina’s songs, but considering they’ve ended up in this ranking range three of the past four years (and Deen and Feminnem were favorites of mine the two years I started this ranking) I may have a bias towards giving high marks to their songs. I should probably rename the number between five and seven “Bosnia & Herzegovina.” On the other hand, maybe they are just very good at producing songs that I like. This song mixes Balkan strings with militaristic drums. The lead singer also sings very passionately but not too excessively.
Best Part: Last chorus
Rating: 4/5

Next week is the top five. It may be a bit of déjà vu for some readers as three of them have been in my top five before. Even though you can guess which songs they are by now, I hope you’ll come back next week to see the final order and my rankings. Here’s a hint to keep you interested: three of them were instant favorites as soon as they were chosen, and the other two weren’t but grew on me very quickly.

Dancing Hora!

2009-04-26T22:30:00.002-04:00

I can hardly believe that it’s almost May and I’m down to my top 15. In the past three years, the winner has always been in my top 15 (placing 12th, 2nd, and 7th) and I hope the trend will continue this year.

15. Bulgaria
Krassimir Avramov - “Illusion”
Reaction: This is kind of an “old-meets-new” song. This song mixes “ethnic” instruments with electronic instruments, and on top of that there is a blend of a chorus and a high male solo vocal. It’s a little like Bulgaria’s 2007 entry, but with a pop music structure. The verses are a little weak, but I love the choruses. Also, it’s worth mentioning again that it has the best preview video of any of the songs this year.
Best Part: Introduction
Rating: 4/5

14. Moldova
Nelly Ciobanu - “Hora Din Moldova”
Reaction: This is an ethnic dance song, but not in the way my number 11 and 12 picks are. Rather, it is the kind that has men in traditional costume dancing and shouting “hey!” in the background. However, in this song, even the female lead vocalist gets in on the “hey!”. Not that it hasn’t been done before, but it’s always fun to hear. The lyrics are about a dance from Moldova, without actually revealing facts about Moldova.
Best Part:“It’s a dance you’ve never seen/from my country called Moldova”
Rating: 4/5

13. Albania
Kejsi Tola - “Carry me in your dreams”
Reaction: In a way this kind of reminds me of “Plan B”/”Mr. Nobody”, especially in the chorus. It’s a wonderfully catchy pop song, although I like the production on the original Albanian version better.
Best Part: Key change
Rating: 4/5

12. Spain
Soraya - “La noche es para mi”
Reaction: This is a typical ethnic dance song. Despite being sung in Spanish, it sounds very Greek, which makes sense because several of the songwriters have Greek names. It is catchy in both the verses and the chorus.
Best Part: “La noche es para miii/La noche es para miiii” at 2:39-2:47
Rating: 4/5

11. Turkey
Hadise - “Dum Tek Tek”
Reaction: Like Spain, this is also an ethnic dance song, although this one sounds more Turkish. It’s more dependent on heavy drums. I love the shouting bits after the choruses, over the instrumental parts. I also like the shouting of the title, which far from complete nonsense seems to be onomatopoeia for a heartbeat.
Best Part: “No one can kiss like you do/as if it’s your profession”
Rating: 4/5

Next week: the top 10, and my productivity reaches its annual low when rehearsals start and the videos are posted all over the internet.

Get out of my way or just stay

2009-04-19T23:22:00.002-04:00

This week I'm entering the top 20 of my Eurovision 2009 rankings, which means the contest is just over three weeks away. It's getting harder to place them as we get closer to the contest because the quality is increasing.

20. United Kingdom
Jade Ewen - “It‘s My Time”
Reaction: As I said before, I didn’t really have expectations for this, but it exceeded them. Because of the songwriter, it is a typical pop theater diva ballad, and It’s more polished than some other ballads lower down my list. It fits well as a coronation song for the winner of a competition, so hopefully this will do well, or else the lyrics will be hilariously ironic.
Best Part: “I’ve been down, down so long, but those days are gone now”
Rating: 3/5

19. Montenegro
Andrea Demirovic – “Just Get Out of My Life”
Reaction: I still maintain that this song is the same as “Innocent Heart” from the Maltese selection this year, since they sound very similar in the chorus and have the same writers. Unlike the first song, this has more of an edge and is more fun than sweet.
Best Part: Chorus
Rating: 3/5

18. Ireland
Sinead Mulvey & Black Daisy - “Et cetera”
Reaction: This is a by-the-numbers pop punk song, with emphasis on the pop. It’s kind of reminiscent of Avril Lavigne’s poppier stuff (although that is always the comparison anyone makes with pop-punk with female vocals, isn’t it?). For a breakup song, it’s surprisingly upbeat and fun.
Best Part: “That's just the way my life goes/Still love me, even she knows/You say you're sorry, but you're not”
Rating: 3/5

17. Iceland
Yohanna - “Is it True”
Reaction: This starts off as a sweet pop ballad by a singer with a clear, youthful voice. As it progresses the backing strings multiply, until the end where it steps around the edges of being a power ballad. It doesn’t go there completely, but the songs with a remarkable amount of power without being overdramatic.
Best Part: Key change
Rating: 3/5

16. Croatia
Igor Cukrov feat. Andrea - “Lijepa Tena”
Reaction: There’s always at least one “Balkan ballad” each year, and this year’s is from Croatia. Like most of the others, it starts off quiet and ends louder and stronger. I like the combination of the male lead vocal and the female backing vocal.
Best Part: “Tenaaaaaaaaaaa” in the chorus
Rating: 3/5

Love & Kitsch

2009-04-12T22:37:00.001-04:00

Happy Easter! I’ve made it to the halfway point of my ranking with this week’s group of five songs. Since this is my top 25 I’d be delighted to see any of these songs (and the ones in the following four weeks, naturally) make the final.

25. Belgium
Copycat – “Copycat”
Reaction: I know, this is a novelty entry, a three-minute joke about Elvis. However, this song is too fun to resist. Who knew a song about jealousy could sound so joyous? The female vocal singers add something to the song to make it more than just an Elvis impersonation. Also, this is the first song in the 50+ year history of the contest to contain the word “kitsch” in the lyrics. I’m surprised it took that long for that word to be used, considering that’s what the contest is considered to be about (although the song uses it in reference to clothing instead of the general aesthetic).
Best Part: “Cause nobody duplicating my jive/would ever get away with that alive”
Rating: 3/5

24. Lithuania
Sasha Son – “Love”
Reaction: This is the only R&B ballad with male vocals this year, but unlike what one might expect from that description, it’s completely its own thing, different from Dima Bilan’s successful efforts. It’s more restrained and serious. This is definitely my favorite Lithuanian entry from the past few years.
Best Part: Key change
Rating: 3/5

23. Hungary
Adok Zoli – “Dance With Me”
Reaction: After you play a certain amount of rhythm games, you may start to imagine what other songs would like like were they in that particular game. I have that problem with this song and imagining it in Osu! Tatakae! Ouendan!/Elite Beat Agents. This is helped by the fact that this song reminds me of this song, even though I know the two sound absolutely nothing alike – maybe it’s just a similar tempo and structure, I don’t know. Other than that, this is a midtempo disco-influenced song that isn’t too original but is still enjoyable. I still can’t help picturing this song accompanied by whistling male cheerleaders.
Best Part: “Just yesterday we were on the floor/like somewhere in the movie or a club in Singapore”
Rating: 3/5

22. Andorra
Susanna Georgi – “La teva decisió (Get a life)”
Reaction: I still have fond memories of Susanna’s entry into Dansk MGP two years ago, “Two Are Stronger Than One”, and this one is just as good. She has a very sweet voice, and keeps this midtempo acoustic guitar song from being boring. Also, this is much less condescending than Austria’s 2007 song also called “Get a life”.
Best Part: Chorus
Rating: 3/5

21. Malta
Chiara – “What if we”
Reaction: I hate to put this here because I love Chiara, and “Angel” was and still is my favorite song in the 2005 contest. I’m also confident that this will have an amazing live performance that will make me regret placing it this low. However, it’s just not as stirring as “Angel” or other ballads higher on this list, and I don’t really like the instrumental – it would feel more effective with a simpler instrumental that highlighted her voice more.
Best Part: Bridge
Rating: 3/5

Next week, the top 20!

Rankings That Never Lie

2009-04-05T22:07:00.000-04:00

This week I’ll discuss my 26th-30th favorite songs from this year’s Eurovision contest. Although I haven’t yet reached the halfway point, I’m starting to get to the songs that I really enjoy.

30. Switzerland
Lovebugs - “The Highest Heights“
Reaction: This sounds like one of those modern mainstream rock bands that everyone but me likes, and thus I can’t make a good comparison (Coldplay? U2? Fill in the blank here). Despite it being in a genre that I’m not well versed in, and the singer’s voice being too raspy for my tastes, it’s not a bad song.
Best Part: “Oh, I’ve got no head for heights”
Rating: 3/5

29. France
Patricia Kaas - “Et S’il Fallait Le Faire”
Reaction: I seem to always have one like this every year. This is a fan favorite that I enjoy but just don’t see the brilliance in. The singer has a strong voice and the backing instruments give it a nice haunting effect. I love the verses, but I don’t like the melody in the choruses.
Best Part: Key change at beginning of second verse
Rating: 3/5

28. Belarus
Petr Elfimov - “Eyes That Never Lie”
Reaction: I sense that Belarus has settled on a pattern. It’s a decent rock song, but then again, it’s a less good version of “Hasta La Vista” which is less good than so-on-and-so-on. It’s hard not to compare it to previous efforts when it is so similar to them.
Best Part: Chorus
Rating: 3/5

27. Serbia
Marko Kon & Milan Nikolic - “Cipela”
Reaction: This is a departure from Serbia’s previous two entries, as this one has male vocals and is not a ballad. I always appreciate the use of accordion. I don’t really like the spoken verses but I like the catchy sung choruses.
Best Part: Chorus
Rating: 3/5

26. Slovenia
Quartissimo - “Love Symphony”
Reaction: In my 4 years of doing Eurovision rankings, this is the first time I’ve placed the Slovenian entry outside the top 10. However, I really do like this song. I like the use of classical string instruments and piano with flourishes of electric guitar. It sounds like it would be much better suited as background music, perhaps as a battle theme in a video game. On its own on a stage and with vocals, it drags on a bit and isn’t as strong. That isn’t to say that I don’t like the vocals, but as a purely instrumental song and in a different context, as an accent to other visuals, it becomes much better than it is on the Eurovision stage.
Best Part: The shouts of “Hey!”
Rating: 3/5

Let Us Sing and Swing

2009-03-29T21:40:00.002-04:00

I spent the majority of this week’s writing time ordering and reordering my top 30 and didn’t remember to write anything about these five songs until (almost) too late.

35. Portugal
Flor-de-lis - “Todas as ruas de amor”
Reaction: This song is very sweet and sounds like it could be played in the background of some cafe or other charming sidewalk eating establishment. However, it doesn’t excite or captivate me. It's a sweet and sleepy song.
Best Part: Instrumental breaks
Rating: 2/5

34 Russia
Anastasiya Prikhodko - “Mamo“
Reaction: I really wish I liked this song more, since I’ve really liked the past three Russian entries. Maybe I just don’t like songs named after people’s mothers. I have similar complaints with this song to those that I had with Belarus’s 2006 song - too shouty, no memorable melody - although this one is more well sung.
Best Part: Last chorus
Rating: 2/5

33 Cyprus
Christina Metaxa - “Firefly”
Reaction: This is a soft, sweet ballad, with a somewhat unusual subject matter. It kind of drags on for the first two minutes, and only really picks up momentum in the last minute
Best Part: Last minute
Rating: 2/5

32 Germany
Alex Swings! Oscar Sings! - “Miss Kiss Kiss Bang”
Reaction: As the artist name implies, this is a swing song. As irrelevant as this style first seems, a lot of people seem to enjoy watching it on TV (Idol theme nights, and "I Don't Dance" from High School Musical 2). It will certainly make for a more energetic stage show than Germany’s last two entries with genres that are not commonly found in the contest (2006 and 2007).
Best Part: Final choruses
Rating: 3/5

31. Estonia
Urban Symphony - "Rändajad"
Reaction: This song uses several different strings to create a haunting and exotic feel. I the vocal melody isn’t that memorable in the long run, but during its three minutes of playtime it makes for an interesting experience.
Best Part: Instrumental break about two minutes in
Rating: 3/5

Shine get!

2009-03-22T21:59:00.002-04:00

This week I'm finishing the bottom part of my ranking for ESC 2009. It's not such a bad lower fifth - so far there's nothing that attacks the audience's taste (although perhaps I have a habit of putting songs like that higher than I claim to in theory).

40. FYR Macedonia
Next Time - “Nesto sto ke octane“
Reaction: This shatters any thoughts I had about a personal bias towards FYR Macedonia, as I liked the past 4 Macedonian entries a lot more than the general fan population. However, this year’s entry is kind of boring - like hair metal but without the energy.
Best Part: Chorus
Rating: 1/5

39. Czech Republic
Gipsy.cz - “Aven Romale“
Reaction: I feel the same way about this song that I did about “Push the button” - a bunch of different connected parts that make the song seem fragmented and drag on too long, although this definitely has more energy. The chorus is memorable
Best Part: Shouting “Aven Romale!”
Rating: 1/5

38. Poland
Lidia Kopania - “I don‘t wanna leave“
Reaction: I think I read a comparison to “Everything” from 2006, but I don’t see any similarities. It’s an unmemorable ballad with nonsensical lyrics in the chorus, and I admit I haven’t made it through the entire song many times because it just doesn’t grab my attention.
Best Part: Key change
Rating: 1/5

37. Netherlands
De Toppers - “Shine“
Reaction: Is it possible for something to be too over-the-top for me to enjoy? This song has shown me my limit, because the lyrics are too sugary and silly for me to stomach. The song is about love, light, and song curing the world of war and suffering, or something like that, and makes me want to find hidden violent themes in other schlager songs. Also, the shout of “Shiiiiiine” at the beginning of each chorus is too silly for me to like.
Best Part: “Love will make you glow in the dark” If only!
Rating: 1/5

36. Slovakia
Kamil Mikulčík & Nela Pocisková - “Leť tmou”
Reaction: This is a beautiful orchestral ballad, and the singers have impressive voices, but the song itself is just not memorable. The chorus starts and doesn’t really go anywhere. There’s nothing unpleasant about listening this song, but nothing exceptionally interesting either.
Best Part: Chorus
Rating: 2/5

Not “Believe” Again, Unfortunately

2009-03-15T21:56:00.001-04:00

It’s finally time for my 2009 Eurovision Song Contest song ranking. I’m sad that the national final season is over, but now I have the opportunity to listen to a group of songs over and over, write and re-write my rankings, analyze statistics, and do other related nerdy things. I’m using the same format as the past few years. In posting my bottom 2 out of 42, I assume that Georgia has indeed withdrawn (a shame since I really like their song), although it seems it won’t be certain until the draw tomorrow, so if the draw changes anything I will edit this into a bottom 3 out of 43.

42. Latvia
Intars Busulis - "Probka"
Reaction: This song is about being stuck in a traffic jam, and listening to it is almost as frustrating as being stuck in traffic. There may be some art to this that I’m missing, but on the surface it seems to be several different pieces of noise connected together in an annoying whole.
Best Part: The female vocal parts
Rating: 1/5

41. Denmark
Niels Brinck - "Believe Again"
Reaction: This song kind of occupies the spot Montenegro held for me the past two years. I end up calling it “old-man rock” even though neither Mr. Brink nor the previous two Montenegrin singers are very old. I just find that kind of light rock very boring and annoying. It’s inoffensive enough for it to not sound out of place on a loudspeaker in a department store, but also not attention-grabbing enough. I realize though that my opinion on this genre is unpopular, so it will probably do much better than I want it to.
Best Part: Last chorus (in the national final there was a wind machine, which seems hilariously unnecessary for a singer with short hair).
Rating: 1/5

Schlager Soldier

2009-03-11T00:05:00.002-04:00

As stated before, “Hope & Glory" is one of my favorite songs from Melodifestivalen this year, because it is like “Hero” all over again, but with male vocals and the intro from “Cara Mia”. Just as the lyrics to “Hero” were full of clichés about love being somehow comparable to a hero in its ability to survive, the lyrics are full of clichés about fighting for love. It’s a noble sentiment, fighting for one’s love, but one lyric from the first verse troubles me:

“I tell you I’ve been a soldier since childhood days/I fought a battle for my life in many ways”

Hold on. These lyrics don’t have anything to do with love. Taken at face value, the lyrics state that the singer was a soldier since childhood and has had a hard life. A child soldier. If I’m reading this correctly this is the most upbeat and fabulous song about child soldiers ever. The background seems to be only an afterthought to the singer’s current concern with his fight for love against nondescript obstacles. This certainly doesn’t explain the live performance’s boxing motif - the chorus clearly refers to battles, boxers don’t participate in battles. It’s probably just a metaphor and I’m probably overthinking this but maybe I’ve stumbled upon a great schlager conspiracy…

Also, I know the Academy Awards/Oscars were a few weeks ago but starting at 7:02 I was almost expecting Hugh Jackman to start singing a certain song…

Eurosunday: Three Songs Left

2009-03-08T20:56:00.002-04:00

It’s almost the end of national final season. The general fan consensus seems to be that this year’s group of songs are disappointing at best and completely terrible at worst, and each week brought another collective groan of disapproval. However, I don’t think this year is completely terrible. Maybe the past few years have just been particularly good. There aren’t as many instant favorites as the past three years, but quite a few songs are growing on me.

Israel chose “There must be another way”. I really like the verses, but not the refrain (which thankfully is very short).

Azerbaijan presented “Always”, which is a great ethnic dance song similar to Turkey’s.

Russia chose “Mamo”. I’m disappointed because it isn’t as good as their three previous entries, and sounds more like their songs from 2004 and 2005.

Estonia chose “Rändajad“, which is a little close to “Love Symphony”.

Serbia’s choice, “Cipela” starts off completely unappealing, but the chorus is somehow catchy.

Ukraine’s song, “Be My Valentine” seems like a mess, but both “Show Me Your Love” and “Dancing Lasha Tumbai” started off messy and were rerecorded and ended up better, so I hope they’ll release a new better version.

Slovakia picked “Let’ tmou”, a wonderfully performed ballad. The song itself isn’t too memorable on first listen but the presentation is memorable enough.

Sweden’s Andra Chansen was the high point of this week’s selections. My four favorite songs are in the final (“Stay the Night”, “Hope and Glory”, “Alla”, and “Moving On”). I'm really pleased with the quality of songs this year. I’ll write more on the final throughout this week.

Only three songs remain unchosen or unrevealed. Next week Sweden will choose from the 11 songs in their final and Belgium will present their internally selected song. I’m not sure when the Czech Republic picks their song, but it should be before I start my full 43-song-ranking.

Hello GMA, Hello Bono

2009-03-05T17:57:00.003-05:00

Yes, I'm misquoting Dustin the Turkey, but when else am I going to get an opportunity to do so (unless there's a chance to write about goulash).

U2 will be performing at my university tomorrow morning for an appearance on Good Morning America. For my non-American readers, it is a light news television program airing in the early morning (7:00-9:00 AM EST) on ABC. Most of the morning shows of that variety have frequent concerts outside their studios, but for some reason they decided to have this particular performance at my school.

As a music blogger, I should probably go to this and post something about this. However, no matter how important and influential they are I find them to be dull at best and annoying at worst. They’re just not my thing, and don’t post angry comments trying to convince me otherwise. Also, word is that many a student will stay up all night Thursday drinking and start hanging around the outdoor stage in the snow at about 4:00 or 5:00 AM, so that they don’t oversleep and miss the show. How that results in them actually remembering the show I don’t know. Also in my sleepiness I’ve spun up some conspiracy theory about how this is meant to make the administration look good while overshadowing the efforts of student organizations to get interesting performers to come to our school, but that’s not for this blog.

I’ll probably end up going to it and try to take some pictures, and maybe write up a little review.

Now I have to set foot inside a Hot Topic

2009-03-04T22:04:00.002-05:00

Today it was announced that Cinema Bizarre (they of "Forever or Never" in the German ESC selection last year) are opening for Lady Gaga on her North American tour, was sold out before I realized I wanted to go. Luckily, I found out that they are playing another show a month later in the lovely Highline Ballroom which I have been inside of frequently in the past year or so. As I said back in April, I liked "Forever or Never" a lot more than the song that was chosen, "Disappear". Their debut album is also pretty decent.

Their debut US single, "Lovesongs (They Kill Me)" will be released on March 17th...exclusively in Hot Topic stores. Although the song's not my favorite (I like their other singles better), I will probably end up buying it because the band members met at an anime convention of all places, so I feel obligated to support other geeks in their fabulous music endeavors.

Eurosunday: Seven more...moving on

2009-03-01T22:25:00.001-05:00

This week seven songs were revealed. This was a pretty good week, because there’s only one song that I don’t like.

Switzerland revealed their entry, “The Highest Heights”. It’s a modern rock entry. I want to say it sounds like Coldplay but that’s only because I’m uneducated on the subject of rock so I can’t make a very accurate comparison.

Hungary revealed their entry, “Dance With Me”, which is pretty fabulous disco. I don’t like it as much as Georgia’s song so far but it’s not bad at all. Hopefully this is the actual entry and they won’t change their minds like the last two times this year’s Hungarian entry was announced.

Croatia picked "Lijepa Tena", which is a typical Balkans-style ballad, but I like it.

Portugal chose "Todas as ruas do amor" which is cute and charming but hasn't grown on me yet.

Latvia picked "Sastregums", which will be performed as "Probka" in Moscow. I can’t really find anything to say about it now, as I don’t find it very interesting.

Spain picked "La noche es para mi", which wasn't my number one choice but it was still one of my favorites so I'm pleased.

Sweden held its final semifinal, and what a show it was. I can't say I hated any of the performance. I enjoyed Star Pilots' performance even if their song seems close to plagiarism. Agnes and Anna & Maria had fabulous performances as well. I was nervous during the "La voix" vs "Moving On" duel at the end. From the 1 minute clip I loved "Moving On", and I love the performance (Wind machine! Rising platform on key change! Winking at the camera!), but I'm still not sold on "La voix", which made me very disappointed when the results came in.

Bosnia revealed “Bistra voda”, which like Switzerland’s song sounds like some rock band I don’t listen to and thus can’t make a good comparison. On first listen the chorus is pretty stirring, so that’s a good sign.

Only 10 songs remain unchosen or unrevealed. Next week Israel, Estonia, Russia, Slovakia, Serbia, and Ukraine pick their songs, and Sweden has a second chance round, which I will probably cover prior to the event.

Eurosunday: We don't wanna political entry (or do we?)

2009-02-22T19:40:00.002-05:00

Last week I mentioned that no joke entries had been selected yet. Little did I know that would prove to be untrue as soon as the next Wednesday. Georgia picked the politically-charged disco song “We don’t wanna put in.” I must be a hypocrite because I like it and think its kind of funny and definitely fabulous, but I’ll discuss that more when I write the rankings.

Greece picked “This Is Our Night”, which is not what I would have expected from Sakis after “Shake It” 5 years ago but it was the best of the three songs in the Greek selection. At first listen it reminds me a little of “This is my life” from Iceland last year.

Ireland chose “Et cetera”, a cute pop-rock song. It’s nice to see an all-female rock band in Eurovision for the first time in a few years (was the last time Vanilla Ninja in 2005?).

The overwhelming majority of the population of Norway, it seems, chose “Fairytale”. It’s a unique folk-inspired song that’s a bit haunting, but sounding unlike any of Norway’s previous “folky-haunting” entries.

FYR Macedonia chose “Nesto sto ke os”. It’s a rock song that isn’t that memorable at first listen. It’s probably my least favorite Macedonian entry of the past few years, but at least they’re trying something new.

Bulgaria chose “Illusion”, which has a high male vocal. I’ll probably do a post on the songs’ music videos later, but as of now this has the most interesting video. It’s a little bit along the lines of “Tornero” and “Work Your Magic” in that it is a parade of strange-looking people -- except this one has nudity.

Sweden had its third semifinal. I know everyone talks about the first semifinal as the one of lower quality, but I feel like in the past two years it has been the third that has the least number of songs that I like. Coincidentally, both had BWO, who went to the Andra Chansen this time. That’s what they get for sending a ballad, although I really liked their live performance. I’m a little disappointed that E.M.D. made it to the final, because I really dislike their live performance. I must have become too old to appreciate boy bands. My favorite in this semifinal was Sofia, with BWO second.

There are only three more weeks left of pre-selection before all the songs have been chosen. Next week Croatia, Portugal, and Latvia (and probably more) choose their entries, and Slovakia, Sweden, and Spain have more semifinals. I’d like to see Femminem’s song in Croatia and Mirela’s song in Spain do well.

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

2009-02-15T21:52:00.004-05:00

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.

Eurosunday: Your Guide to Paradise

2009-02-08T22:06:00.001-05:00

This week five songs were revealed/chosen, and the results were kind of depressing. France, Hungary, Cyprus, and Malta all chose uninteresting ballads and Andorra’s song is a little more uptempo but still uninteresting. I’m hoping they will all grow on me within the next few months. However, I am pleased that Chiara is back, and although I’m not wild about the song I know I can expect a great performance of it.

None of the songs from the 3rd Norwegian semifinal are favorites of mine, although “Fairytale” is strangely appealing.

Sweden had its first semifinal, and it seems everyone is upset that Shirley Clamp didn’t qualify. It didn’t wow me at first listen, personally. I’m happy with the two songs that qualified for the final. “You’re My World” is upbeat and catchy, while I had low expectations for “Stay The Night” it exceeded them greatly, with catchy hooks the entire 3:00. (Funny side story: the first time I heard Alcazar was 2002 on a trip to London and I bought a CD that had “Sexual Guarantee” on it. At the time I thought it was incredibly stupid that they would say the band name in the song. After 7 years of pop corrupting me I’m disappointed when the band name isn’t said in the song).

Next week, Armenia, Iceland, Lithuania, Moldova, and Poland pick their songs. I would be thrilled if Moldova picked “Women’s winner”, but there are a few other songs I’d be happy with too. Norway, Spain, Sweden, and Slovakia also have live shows (Norway has a second chance round, and the others have semifinals).

Eurosunday: Six is the Magic Number

2009-02-01T20:06:00.000-05:00

This week, six countries picked songs for Eurovision. Some of them I love, some of them I like, and others I’m not really excited about.

I’m thrilled that Finland picked “Lose Control”, as it was one of my favorites.

The United Kingdom picked Jade, who I think does a very good job with “My Time”. It’s certainly the best song that the United Kingdom has sent to Eurovision since I started watching, and probably before. I can’t say that I absolutely love it though, but it’s because of a personal bias caused by knowing too many musical theater fans in high school (the type who don’t stop singing…ever). Lyrically it makes a great winner’s song for a talent competition such as Your Country Needs You, but who knows if it will work in the context of Eurovision itself. Despite that it’s already stuck in my head, so that’s a good sign of its memorability.

As a side note, I enjoyed seeing Dima Bilan back on tv. I am disappointed that he has grown out his hair as the mullet really was part of his charm. However, he made up for it by ending his performance in an undershirt and jeans.

Romania picked “The Balkan Girls”, and although I didn’t notice it when I was giving the songs a first listen, I have to say it’s pretty good and catchy. My only worry is that it may be too catchy – a hook like “The Balkan Girls, they like to party, like nobody, like nobody” is just begging to be made into a Facebook bumper sticker. Also, it is important to note that Elena has two costume changes in her national semi/final performances.

Slovenia chose “Love Symphony”, which is the most unique song picked so far in that it is almost entirely instrumental. I haven’t listened to it enough to form an opinion but it certainly stands out.

“Believe Again” from Denmark didn’t excite me but it sounds radio-friendly so far. “Shine” from the Netherlands feels a little too cheesy, even for me.

Again, the Lithuanian songs don’t really interest me except maybe “Part of me”. In the interest of brevity I think I’ll skip writing about them again until they select a song.

I like both of the qualifying songs in the first Norwegian semifinal, but neither are immediate favorites. From Iceland’s fourth semifinal, I like “Got No Love” but not the other qualifying song.

Next week Andorra, Cyprus, and Malta pick their songs. Lithuania, Norway, Sweden, and Ukraine have semifinals. I’ll be very busy next weekend and there’s a good chance I won’t be able to post about that weekend’s shows and songs until Monday.

Eurosunday: 150th Post!

2009-01-25T21:10:00.002-05:00

As the title states, this is my 150th post on this blog, which means I've posted around once a week on average, which makes no sense because I've posted so infrequently that I can barely remember what points I posted more frequently. Anyways, on to this week's Eurovision decisions.

This week, two songs were chosen/revealed. First is the entry from Belarus, “Eyes That Never Lie.” It’s a pretty good rock song sung by a teen idol type…I’m beginning to sense a pattern. I’ve only heard a live version so it has a chance to improve in a later version, but it’s nowhere near my favorite entry from the country (also not my least favorite either).

Just when I was really starting to like “Zauvijek volim te” Montenegro busts out something that sounds very poppy and exactly like the usual thing I like. I don’t know if it’s just me or not, but “Just get out of my life” sounds a lot, a lot like the disqualified “Innocent Heart” from Malta this year.

In Finland, the top song, “Speakerbox” used sign language in the choreography. The song itself didn’t make that big of an impression on me but visually it looks better and seems a lot more earnest than “The War Is Not Over” did in 2005. The other qualifying song, “Kirkas kipinä” made more of an impression on me, although it’s still nowhere near my favorite in the Finnish preselection. If Jari Sillanpää wins the ticket to Moscow, it might start to feel like a repeat of 2004, since Sakis Rouvas is the Greek performer (although I’d love it to be a repeat of 2005 with Chiara, Omar Naber, and Feminnem, even though I’m not too fond of the first two’s songs this year and I haven’t heard Feminnem’s song for Dora yet).

I predicted it last week (not that it took much skill) -- the United Kingdom sent the Emperors of Soul home. Personally, if it was up to me I would have sent them home just for singing a Billy Joel song, but that’s because I’ve been forced to listen to too much Billy Joel throughout the years. Jade’s spot in the bottom two was much less predictable, since she seems to be “the chosen one” of Your Country Needs You. The remaining three acts are all decent and assuming the song fits their voice, could do decently as well, although my favorite is definitely Mark.

The time has come for me to actually listen to the Bulgarian songs, what with the addition of the good songs as wildcards directly into the semi and final. Still, none of the songs really interested me. Here’s to hoping that something really great will be found in the final.

Norway held its first semifinal this Saturday. Unfortunately, I don’t have as many early favorites as I had hoped. I like “U look good”, but mostly for the lead singer’s outfit. It will probably grow on me by the final. I also like “Tricky” and really enjoyed the performance (by that I mean the outfits), but not as much as everyone else seems to.

Lithuania had their final quarter-final, and aside from maybe “From the distance” and “Kelias pas tave” none of the qualifiers interested me. Iceland too didn’t really have anything that interested me, although “Lygin Ein” was my favorite of their songs this week.

Next week three countries will have semifinals -- Iceland, Lithuania, and Norway. Six other countries will make their final decisions: Denmark, Finland, the Netherlands, Romania, Slovenia, and the United Kingdom. I'd like to see "Det det" win in Denmark, and "Druga liga" in Slovenia (although I haven't heard all the songs yet). My favorite Finnish songs are no secret by now. None of the Romanian songs I've heard really excited me, unlike last year. And of course, I haven't heard the songs from the Netherlands and the United Kingdom (song in the singular, in that case).

Eurosunday: Doctor Doctor, Make It Better!

2009-01-18T20:41:00.001-05:00

First this week was Finland’s second semifinal, which I was anxiously anticipating. “Doctor doctor” was much better live than I’d imagined, which makes it all the more disappointing that it didn’t make it to the final. “Lose control” had a duller live performance (yes, even with the guys playing with fire, because the singers just kind of stood there in a mass) but at least it sounded good and made it to the final. “Surrender” also sounded great and the female singer had a fabulous outfit (purple dress + giant snowflake).

On the British side of things, I was kind of happy that Charlotte went home since she was the most nervous-looking, yet also felt bad for her for the same reason. I assume that since Charlotte was in the bottom two last week and eliminate this week, could the Emperors of Soul be eliminated next week, and the other member of the bottom two that week eliminate the next, and so on?

I didn’t really like either of the Icelandic songs that went through very much, although “Undir regnbogann” had a delightful performance with its 1/100th of a marching band. None of the songs from Lithuania this week excited me either, although if I had to pick one of all of them I’d pick “I dangu” -- and no, the outfits don’t remind me of anything…

Next weekend, things start getting exciting and busy. Belarus picks their song on Tuesday. Bulgaria, Finland, Iceland, and Lithuania have more semifinals. Norway has its first semifinal, and the United Kingdom continues to do its elimination-show thing.

Eurosunday: Broken Innocent Heart

2009-01-11T21:14:00.001-05:00

I’m disappointed with the results in Malta, Lithuania, and Romania, as my favorite songs from each (“Innocent Heart”, “Ar tu mane matei”, and “Without cha”) were cut, but hopefully something else will interest me. Hopefully future songs from Lithuania and live performances in Malta and Romania will give me new favorites.

Moldova also trimmed their list down but luckily they all the songs that I like, including “Women’s winner”! Hopefully it will hold up on stage in the national final, whenever that may be.

Iceland held its first semifinal and I like “Is it true”. Finland held their first semifinal as well and neither qualifying song was bad, but they didn’t interest me much. I’m much more excited for next week’s semifinal.

I finally got a chance to watch some of the United Kingdom’s live show, and tuned in just as the voting was ending. I was surprised that the BBC was able to gather together a bunch of “unknowns” that look like they could stand a chance. Based on one performance, I like Mark’s and Jade’s voices and stage presence. However, it’s a little discomforting knowing that the song hasn’t been written yet, although I’m sure ALW can write a decent song quickly under pressure. I don’t know how I feel about Diane Warren as the songwriter. It shows that the UK is really trying this time, but it could also indicate that the song may be a middle-of-the-road non-offensive bland ballad.

Next week, Finland, Iceland, Lithuania, and the United Kingdom will hold semifinals. As stated earlier, I’m really looking forward to Finland’s show -- I hope “Doctor doctor” and “Lose control” sound good live!

Eurosunday: Happy 2009!

2009-01-04T19:54:00.002-05:00

It’s the first Sunday in January and you know what that means – first The Goggles do Nothing Eurosunday of the year!

There have been a remarkable number of selection shows so far, mostly from Bulgaria and Malta, that I haven’t had enough time to follow in depth except for watching each of the entries on Youtube once. I like Malta’s “Innocent Heart,” but that’s all that sticks in my mind as of now from either of those two countries. I’ll go back to their songs once the finalists have been selected.

Spain is again doing a selection through MySpace and I admit, I’m waiting for the 50 finalists to be selected before even thinking about sitting down and listening to all the songs.

Belarus picked its five finalists some weeks ago. Right now “This is my day” and “Fantastic girl” are my favorite of them.

Finland’s songs were revealed and it seems that the 2nd semifinal will be a Semifinal of Death, as my three favorite songs (“Doctor doctor”, “Lose control”, and “Surrender”) are being performed then.

Moldova’s songs were released and like the past two years, I have one immediate favorite, which is “Woman’s winner”. Its neighbor Romania’s songs were also revealed and there are a lot of good songs but no particular favorite after one listen through.

I’m mixed on how I feel about the United Kingdom’s new approach. They have a big-name songwriter but are choosing from a selection of unknowns for the singer, and the song hasn’t even been written yet. Still, I feel I should pay special attention to the United Kingdom this year because I have been harsh on them every other year, and they do seem to be actually trying this time around. Unfortunately, I can’t seem to find any way to watch the first episode yet (are there any words sadder than “0 seeds”?) but once I do I will try to write about it.

Two countries recently revealed their songs: Albania and Turkey. Albania’s song, “Me Merr ne Enderr” starts off a bit like “Naj Svet Zakriči” from EMA 2007 and then on the chorus, and the key change especially, it reminds me a little of “Plan B”/”Mr. Nobody”. I will wait until the 3:00 edit to give my final word on it but this could become my favorite Albanian entry so far.

I’m indecisive about Turkey’s song, “Dum Tek Tek”. At first I didn’t like it, but it is too catchy to stop listening to. It feels like with the right visual performance it could easily do well because it sounds like a dance hit, and not just because of the d-word.

That’s it for this week (unless I finally acquire a copy of episode 1 of “Your Country Needs You”). Next weekend brings semifinals in Finland, Iceland, Malta, and the United Kingdom.

Keen on Jolin

2008-12-03T19:54:00.002-05:00

I recently got a Zune Pass compliments of a friend-of-a-friend who is interning at Microsoft, and used this opportunity to download a lot of music within the 2 week period. I decided to listen to Infernal's "From Paris To Berlin" album for the first time, and discovered something that I suppose has been well known to everyone but me until now - Taiwanese singer Jolin covered Infernal's "Keen on Disco" as "Bravo Lover", which is on the same album (Agent J) as her cover of BWO's "Sunshine In The Rain". What other covers of songs by Scandinavian acts could be hidden on "Agent J"???

Infernal - "Keen on Disco"

Jolin Tsai - "Bravo Lover"

Mp3 Monday: Birthday Party!

2008-11-03T23:06:00.003-05:00

For my birthday I got the Wink Album Collection because now everybody knows that I love covers and I love Wink and I also love things that I don't need. I haven't listened to all 23(!) CDs yet but I made a point to listen to "無実のオブジェ" first, for it is a cover of "Invincible" by Pat Benatar. It is from their 1992 CD Nocturne and I have provided it as a birthday present from me to you.

Download - Wink - "Mujitsu no Object"

We Love Cyndi and Kate

2008-10-20T22:59:00.005-04:00

I think by now you should know that I am obsessed with Asian covers of western songs, so imagine my delight when I head about this.

God bless Japan for giving the world "We Love Cyndi: Tribute to Cyndi Lauper", an album full of fabulous yet heavily accented covers, and, most importantly, what seems to be the first new recording from tommy february6 in 3 years! Of course I do love tommy heavenly6 and the brilliant green and I have spent lots of money on cds from them, but there is a special place in my heart for february6. tommy covers "All Through The Night".

I also made a wonderful music store find a few weeks ago when I found an imported copy of Kate Ryan's "Free" at Borders at the Time Warner Center, for $9 (after coupon). Some europop sympathizer/fan must have been in charge of purchasing, so many thanks to this mystery staff person.

Asia's Living A Celebration

2008-09-20T12:24:00.003-04:00

This exciting news made me return from my blogging hiatus: Asiavision Song Contest announced!

"The annual song contest is planned to be a six-month regional and national tournament culminating in the Grand Final. The song contest will be distributed in the following countries: China, Cambodia, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Japan, Laos, Macao, Malaysia, Pakistan, Philippines, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand and Vietnam." - Eurovision.tv

Watching the Olympics last month got me excited again for international friendly competition (well, hopefully friendly) and made me realize that it's one of the reasons I like Eurovision (well, that and the music, of course). I'm really hoping that this actually happens, as it should be really fun to follow. As of the current "mid-2009" date, it looks like it could overlap with Eurovision season but that doesn't seem like a problem if it happens. The only real disadvantage I see for my viewing is the time zone problem - it was difficult enough watching live footage of the Olympics at odd hours, and depending on where the first contest is hosted I may have to wake up very early on Saturday mornings. However, this is probably very good for Australian fans who have to wake up at similarly odd hours to watch original flavor Eurovision.

I have about as high hopes for the quality of the songs in this as I do for Eurovision: the national finals will be mostly trash but the songs for the final will be mostly decent. Don't disappoint me now, Asia!

Mp3 Monday: When The Angels Sing

2008-05-26T12:22:00.005-04:00

No matter the results of the final, my favorite thing about following Eurovision and its national selections these past three years has definitely been discovering dozens of great artists and songs that I would have never heard of otherwise.

Just this year there were several artists who I was already familiar with from following the contest – Charlotte Perrelli and Dima Bilan from their previous participations in the contest, and Gisela, Nico of Romania, both members of Euroband, Ani Lorak, Diana Gurtskaya, Tand amara of FYR Macedonia from their previous participations in national selections.

There were two other performers that I was familiar with through non Eurovision venues. First, I had heard of Sebastien Tellier through his work with half of Daft Punk. Second, I had heard of No Angels through another girl group that had covered two of their songs. And that group is none other than...

…Taiwanese girl group S.H.E! Their seemingly endless back catalogue of covers includes two covers of No Angels songs, “When the Angels Sing” and “Come Back”, on their 2003 album “Together”. I wanted to post these back when I wrote about Germany's song in my ranking, but due to unfortunate circumstances I was unable to, so I'm posting it now.
This is not the first artist that S.H.E has covered who went on to compete in Eurovision - they also covered "Everytime" by Britney Spears, which was co-written by Annet Artani who represented Cyprus in 2006. It will be interesting to see if this trend continues.

Download - No Angels - "When The Angels Sing"
Download - S.H.E - "Tian Shi Zai Chang Ge"

Download - No Angels - "Come Back"
Download - S.H.E - "Bai Se Lian Ge"

Eurosunday: The Morning After

2008-05-25T08:29:00.002-04:00

So, Russia won and Sweden flopped. Unlike some people I'm not going to let this get to me, because really the only result that matters now is the winner, as everyone else gets a chance to start fresh next year (this is assuming they keep the two semi finals format). And what a winner. Some people have been complaining that it was fixed - since I wasn't there I can't know for sure, but it is sure that Russia, unlike a lot of Western countries, put a lot of money and effort into their entry. They had a popular singer whose star has only risen since his last Eurovision appearance, a popular ice skater, and a popular American songwriter. Even if we forget about neighbor/diaspora voting, I think this is a good winner because it is an Eurovision winner that is contemporary and reflects what is in the charts at the time.

As for my dear favorite Sweden, I'm disappointed but not surprised. I accept that it just wasn't everyone's cup of tea. I think that something that perhaps the Swedish broadcasters need to look into is a simpler stage for Melodifestivalen, or at least if they keep up the trend of the past 2 years of a large stage with several elevation differences, to change the choreography before Eurovision so it looks better on a simple flat stage. This combined with poor camerawork gave Charlotte's performance less of a visual appeal (also some people say that she looked freaky, but I try not to say mean things about people's appearances).

Just like the past three years 1 song out of my top 5 was also in the top 5, so it's a good enough result for me. In 2006 and 2007 3 song in my top 10 were also in the top 10, and this year I got 4 in the top 10. Like 2006 the top 3 of the night were in my top 10.

My fellow New Yorker with Greece came 3rd, congrats to her. Norway did just as well as other fans predicted despite me not liking it. My bad on that, but good for them. I think Malta should consider changing their name to Schlagerboyland, or at least giving the duo positions with their broadcasters, because for the last two years they give their 12 points to whoever the Schlagerboys want. Congrats to them for having such a sway over the public! Joke entries crashed and burned across the board, as Spain came in 16th. It's interesting how there were so many ties, including a 3-way tie for last place.

It seems so far to me that the two semi final format works, because even though it doesn't cut down on block voting in the final (because that's impossible) it increases the quality of the songs in the final. And what quality it was. The songs from my top 5 that were in the final (Ukraine, Iceland, France, Sweden) were all fabulous! France's performance showed that if your country's broadcaster has stopped caring about Eurovision, this is the way to do it, unlike Spain's trying-too-hard comedy entry. The beards, the golf cart, the helium, the nonchalance - it was a bit of a trainwreck but a brilliant one. I think this is the first time I have seen a singer inhale helium on stage while singing during a live broadcast.

So, no matter the results, the winners to me are the best songs and performances, and this year's Eurovision season has provided a lot of great songs and performances and introduced me to many great new songs and artists.

Predictions for the Final...or Not

2008-05-24T10:06:00.005-04:00

It's finally here and after all this time reading about it...it's still pretty hard to make a prediction. This is most likely due to the addition of two semi finals, because we know that 20 songs were voted on enough by viewers to pass on to the finals already, but since we don't know how those songs placed each song has the potential to be a neighbor favorite, the jury pick, or the overwhelming favorite. This change really seems to be positive: getting better songs into the final instead of letting last year's top 10 slide by with minimal effort, cutting down on complaints of neighborly and diaspora voting (at least in the semifinals, the complaints will be there in the final), and finally adding more suspense and excitement to the whole thing, which is really the point of an entertainment program - to entertain and excite you. The change in the fan community has been amazing too. In February and March a lot of people were complaining about the quality of the songs, but now the general consensus seems to be that this final will be excellent.

I will offer some (unoriginal) predictions about the Big 4 and last years winner: The United Kingdom, Germany, and unfortunately France will probably end up as part of the bottom 5, and Spain and Serbia will probably end up in the top 10 if not the top 5. My record so far is about 75% so I know I'll be wrong on at least one or two of these.

Now, as for who I hope will win: I'd be thrilled if Sweden, Iceland, or Portugal won; happy if Armenia, Bosnia, Greece, Romania, Serbia, or Ukraine won; worried for the fan reaction if Russia or Spain won; and any other winner would either surprise or disappoint me.

Again, I'll wish good luck to all the performers, stage crew, and broadcasters that they put on an entertaining and technically flawless show!

Note: I will comment on the final results tomorrow, as I want to see the fan response before I say anything

Semifinal 2 Reaction

2008-05-22T17:05:00.003-04:00

Oh! My! God!
This evening when the qualifiers were announced is the tensest this contest has made me this year, and what a thrilling end to the show! My predictions were only 70% correct, instead of what I thought were almost certain qualifiers Belarus, Bulgaria, and FYR Macedonia, we got Albania, Denmark, and Iceland! I think the internet is in shock, and I'm sure a lot of people have lost money on bets.

Other points of interest
- Georgia's dancing nurse postcard
- Lys Assia being a diva "Usually I get a standing ovation"

In my opinion this will be a great final. 16 finalists (including 3 automatic finalists) are in my top 25, and the ones that aren't have grown on me a bit, with the exception of the UK and Denmark's songs. I'll write more before the grand final on my predictions for its result.

Predictions for Semifinal #2

2008-05-22T12:38:00.002-04:00

Late again, but not too late. It's been harder to predict this semifinal, because there are fewer songs that it seems everyone agrees will qualify. Here goes:

BELARUS
BULGARIA
CROATIA
FYR MACEDONIA
GEORGIA
LATVIA
PORTUGAL
SWEDEN
TURKEY
UKRAINE

Let's see how many I get right or wrong. I have a feeling that I'll be even less accurate than last show.

Mic Stands Shine A Light

2008-05-20T20:29:00.003-04:00

The song that most of the usual places are upset about not qualifying is "Your Heart Belongs To Me" from the Netherlands. It was wonderfully performed, but one thing in particular stuck out. Look in the background...what do you see?

LIGHT-UP MIC STANDS

You may think, what does that have to do with anything? Take a trip back to 2006. What fan favorite that year had those objects?

And we all know how that turned out (as a side note, I only just now noticed that the backing dancers do the famous knee swing).

Therefore, it seems that brightly color microphone stands harm a song's chance of qualifying. Please comment if there are any examples that prove me wrong that I have forgotten about.

Semifinal 1 Reaction

2008-05-20T17:05:00.003-04:00

Whew! What a relief for the voting to be over! For once, I'm glad to be wrong (although I think getting 8/10 is good enough). I'm happy that Estonia and Moldova didn't make it and that instead Finland and Norway did. I'm also happy that both Americans qualified. The qualification that gets me most excited is Israel, because it breaks the "curse" of song #2 not qualifying (and obviously I want song #2 on Thursday to do well).

It's interesting that only 3 of the qualifiers came from the first half of the show. It's hard to tell if this is from a stronger 2nd half or the fact that there is less of a wait between hearing these songs and voting.

Besides that, it was for the most part a great show. I really loved the postcards but the camerawork wasn't that great.

I'll post again before the 2nd semifinal with my predictions for that.

Predictions for Semifinal #1

2008-05-20T12:14:00.004-04:00

It's a little late, but there's still two hours until the show begins, so it's not too late in my mind.

Here are some predictions I feel confident will come true (in both semifinals):
- A fan favorite will turn out to sound abysmal and will not qualify.
- An expected qualifier will not, and a song that few expected to qualify will (this one will be assumed to be the jury's pick).
- More eastern than western countries will qualify.
- Everyone will be unhappy with the result, and claim that the contest is going downhill/fixed/not worth their broadcasters' money.

Really, if there's anything I've learned about fandoms in general, it's that everyone has something to hate about what they love.

As for my predicted qualifiers, it's been hard to guess, because besides five countries that seem certain to qualify (I don't have to tell you which ones they are), the five remaining spots seem pretty open.

So, for my predictions, I'm going to be pessimistic and pick 10 "eastern" countries. That way, if any "western" countries qualify, it will be a pleasant surprise (whereas if I pick a few western countries and none make it, it will be an end-of-the-world disaster like everyone made last year out to be). I'm also leaving Slovenia out for that same reason, because it seems the staging is weird and I don't want it to break my heart if it doesn't qualify.

ARMENIA
AZERBAIJAN
BOSNIA & HERZEGOVINA
ESTONIA
GREECE
ISRAEL
MOLDOVA
POLAND
ROMANIA
RUSSIA

I'll post again this evening after the show, with my opinion on the result, which will hopefully be better than my prediction. Good luck to all the performers and delegations (although if any of them are reading my blog just before they have a show to put on, they must have their priorities all wrong).

Eurosunday: These songs are so divine

2008-05-18T19:42:00.002-04:00

Finally it's time for the final Eurosunday ranking. I'm a little sad as I wish I could have spent more time and effort on this year's preselection reviews and rankings, but due to unfortunate school and family circumstances I was unable to. However, I'm also happy that this year's Eurovision season is coming to a close and by Thursday night we'll know the lineup of the final, and by Saturday night we'll have a winner. These are my top five songs and I can genuinely say that they're my absolute favorites of this year's group of songs.

5. Ukraine
Ani Lorak – Shady Lady
Reaction: This song exudes confidence, and it’s cliché to say this, but it’s fierce. It has a big fabulous catchy disco chorus. By the end Ani seems to claim control over the listener.
Best Part: ”I am a brand new star that you've never knoooooooooooown”
Rating: 5/5

4. France
Sebastien Tellier - Divine
Reaction: I was a little surprised to like this, as it’s very minimalist, and I think this is the first time I find low-fi to be charming. The singing is restrained but the melody is surprisingly catchy. The combination of the computerized doo-wop backing vocals and the French electro feel make this song sound both old-fashioned and modern, and completely charming and fun.
Best Part: Intro
Rating: 5/5

3. Slovenia
Rebeka Dremelj – Vrag naj vzame
Reaction: I loved the original version, which was more electro, but I love the newer version with more guitars too. It’s fun and catchy, but also has a hint of anger that is appealing.
Best Part: Chorus
Rating: 5/5

2. Iceland
Euroband – This is my life
Reaction: This was my favorite song in the Icelandic selection, but after it was translated into English I loved it more. This is like Romania 2006, an anthemic dance song with a memorable sing-along chorus. It has a positive message without getting saccharine, and the male and female vocals work well together.
Best Part: End of the bridge: “I have the power to change my waa-aa-aays! O-o-o-oh! This is my lii-ii-iife!”
Rating: 5/5

1. Sweden
Charlotte Perrelli – Hero
Reaction: Though it was the last song selected, I have listened to this song the most and it’s at the top of my list. It may have been soullessly engineered to be extremely catchy, with each little piece put together to sound perfect, but of course I can look past lack of integrity if the song appeals to me enough. And this song is wonderfully, impossibly catchy, with each little piece sounding great, especially the chorus, which seems to pop into my head even as I recall other songs. It’s a 3 minute piece of Swedish pop heaven.
Best Part: Key change
Rating: 5/5

Thank you for reading this year's rankings. This week I'll have comments before (predictions) and after (reactions) each live show.

Still so deaf to ask me why

2008-05-17T21:56:00.002-04:00

Before I discuss my top 5 songs in Eurovision this year, I feel I should revisit the previous songs, especially the ones in the bottom half of my ranking. After listening to all the songs repeatedly, my opinions on a few of the songs have changed.

Estonia's song still remains at the bottom of my list, as it’s the least funny of the joke entries this year, which is to say that it is unfunny. While comparing my lists from the past years I noticed a startling trend: In 2006 I put Lithuania second last, and in 2007 I put Latvia last. An observant critic could use this to claim that I have a bias against the Baltic countries, and in fact my opinion of their songs has worsened over the two years I have written this blog - in 2006 my highest ranked Baltic song was Estonia at 21, in 2007 it was Estonia again at 26, and this year it was Lithuania at 30. I assure you that I have no bias against Baltic countries nor their musicians, and that these particular songs and performers just haven’t captured my heart.

But given my bias for and against performers (see #37 2006), it only came to my attention after I had written about it that Latvia’s Pirates of the Sea includes one member of Buonaparti.lv, those purveyors of popera pap. I guess he has changed his target demographic from bored housewives with Italian fetishes (who get something from more appropriate countries this year) to children up past their bedtime. I’ll still give this one a pass because it’s catchier. Also, I finally remembered what it reminded me of:

Moldova has been sounding better and better to me, relaxing rather than boring as I initially felt (also when I first heard it I only heard the live version, and the studio version made improvements), and it even manages to get its way stuck into my head. It’s still nowhere near the top of my list but if I could redo my list I’d even put it towards the middle.

Spain has become a lot funnier to me, and somehow I’ve managed to memorize the first verse. However, I’m still keeping it at the bottom of my list because while it starts off funny, it fades fast, and after only two minutes I start getting bored. As much as I hated Ukraine’s song in 2007, it really grew on me and by the final I understood why it did well. Like Ukraine 2007, Spain this year seems to be the joke entry most likely to do well. However, even though ‘Dancing Lasha Tumbai” had fewer lyrics than “Baila el Chikichiki,” it managed to be musically catchier, due to infectious instrumental motifs and key changes.

When I first heard the Sanmarinese song, I instantly thought it was dull. Though I still don’t think that highly of it, after hearing a better quality version I realize it’s not as bad as I thought. Also, the lead singer is kind of cute.

Eurosunday: Believe In Me (who Believes In You)

2008-05-11T21:14:00.002-04:00

Welcome to this week's Eurosunday. This week's is the penultimate for 2008, as this week I rank my top 6-10 songs.

10. Czech Republic
Tereza Kerndlova – Have Some Fun
Reaction:While I suppose a lot of Eurovision songs become guilty pleasures in different company, this song is one that I truly feel a little guilty for liking whenever I look at fan response. This song seems to be universally disliked by Eurovision fans, but I find it to be sweet and catchy. This is a simple pop/r&b ballad, not very original, but it has a cuteness and sunniness to it. The chorus has been stuck in my head since I first heard it.
Best Part:“We really get along/Like the sun goes with the sunshine/Like the grape goes with the grapevine”
Rating: 4/5

9. FYR Macedonia
Tamara feat. Vrcak & Adrian – Let Me Love You
Reaction: It’s criminal that this hasn’t gotten much fan attention. This is like Ninanajna 2008. Like Macedonia’s 2006 song, this is a hip-hop dance song, but this year’s song has a lot more going on. Drums and strings blend to create a stirring background, and the female singer and male rapper work well together.
Best Part: Chorus
Rating: 4/5

8. Greece
Kalomira – Secret Combination
Reaction: Greece has returned to the formula that won the contest for them in 2005 – female vocals with upbeat Greek-pop, although this time they picked an American instead of a Swede (and from Long Island no less!). It’s a very catchy song that will be perfect for summer.
Best Part: Chorus
Rating: 4/5

7. Russia
Dima Bilan – Believe
Reaction: Just two years after he reached second place in Athens, “They Call Me” Dima Bilan is back, this time with a more American sounding r&b ballad – naturally, as it was penned by an American. The lyrics are inspirational and the violin adds to the melody without drowning out the vocals.
Best Part: Bridge
Rating: 4/5

6. Bosnia & Herzegovina
Laka – Pokusaj
Reaction: It must be a mark of a good song that it can make me look at a genre that I had previously dismissed. This is definitely artier than the usual Eurovision song. The song starts with with chanting and by the chorus it explodes into piano-indie rock. I, a pop fan for the most part, would probably dismiss this as being the work of a hipster weirdo (which no doubt it is), but the chorus is so catchy, the lyrics are so sweet, and the whole act is so endearing that I can’t help but smile and enjoy it.
Best Part: Final choruses
Rating: 4/5

Next Sunday I'll reveal my top 5 songs (although if you can't guess by now what they are, there's no hope for you). However, you won't have to wait until next Sunday for more posts on the subject because I'll be doing more pre-contest recaps, with posts on preview videos, rehearsal impressions, and my ever-inaccurate predictions.

Eurosunday: I've Deciphered the Code

2008-05-04T22:26:00.004-04:00

Today's Eurosunday contains the bottom third of the top 15. That may not seem a very significant number, but it's right about the point where I can call the songs listed some of my favorites. The last two years these spots have resulted in mixed scores – each year two end up in the top 5 and the other three end up at the bottom of the final or never make it there. As this is the group of rankings with the most stable actual performance, I'm a little tempted to pick 2 songs that I think will do well and 3 songs that I won't be upset with if they don't do well, but I've tried not to do that this time.

15. Malta
Morena – Vodka
Reaction: "Vodka" feels like a pop spy thriller, and not just for the lyrics. The driving beat of the lyrics feels like you're on a chase. The chorus and instrumental parts are bouncy and fun. Like the title implies, it leaves you with a bit of a buzz.
Best Part: Chorus
Rating: 4/5

14. Belarus
Ruslan Alehno – Hasta la vista
Reaction: "Work Your Magic" was my #1 pick last year, so of course I love this year's take on a young man from Belarus singing some camp tune. At the beginning of the year this was easily one of my top three songs, when it was disco. Some weeks later it was reworked to have a rock sound, presumably to be more like "Work Your Magic," and it seems that it's taking itself more seriously yet is still over-the-top enough to enjoy for that fact. It's great song, but somewhere along the line you realize that you're listening to a copy of a copy of Dima Bilan, and why listen to a copy when the real thing is in the same contest?
Best part: "I'm gonna miss you/Maybe"
Rating: 4/5

13. Armenia
Sirusho – Qele qele
Reaction: This song starts out sounding very traditional, and then swiftly turns into an ethnic dance song with strings and drums. It's comparable, maybe, to "My Number One" in this area. It combines local flavor with a drum beat to create what should be a dance floor hit.
Best Part: "Qeeeele" in the chorus
Rating: 4/5

12. Portugal
Vania Fernandes – Senhora do Mar
Reaction: This song starts off with the sound of waves and accordions, and grows more intense as it goes on. It's a bit like this year's "Rijeka bez imena", and not only because they both mention bodies of water. It starts off subtle and as the song goes on the backing instruments and vocals get louder. It's a Western answer to Balkan ballads, a challenger ready to aim for their success in the contest.
Best Part: Ending
Rating: 4/5

11. Serbia
Jelena Tomasevic – Oro
Reaction: In the Serbian national final, I was hoping for "Zavet" (which could be called "Molitva 2: Return of the Backup Singers") to win, but my second favorite was this one. Simply put, it's "Lane Moje 3". There's nothing wrong with that (unless you have problems with the writer of an entry hosting the show). Its strong strings and vocals keep this ballad from being one that puts you to sleep.
Best Part: "Nu na nej" chorus
Rating: 4/5

Next week I'll have my top 6-10. Will there be surprises? Probably not. Will I successfully defend my choices and taste? Hopefully.

DJ (and Singers) Take Me Away

2008-04-27T22:36:00.002-04:00

Welcome to another Eurosunday. This week I enter my top 20. Even though these songs are around the middle of my list, they are still all very good. This year’s competing songs keep appearing stronger and stronger, as there has been a lot of movement in my top 20 over the past weeks as final versions get released.

20. Azerbaijan
Elnur Huseynov & Samir Javadzadeh - Day After Day
Reaction: I get the feeling this may be an unpopular choice, as a lot of people online seem to have this at the bottom of their personal rankings. I like the angel/devil theme and the battle between two sides that comes across in the vocals (although I can’t tell what they’re saying, although I know it’s in English). It’s theatrical and over the top in a way that you can‘t tell if they‘re being serious or not, which I can always count on to catch my attention.
Best Part: “Daaaaaay after daaaaay” in the chorus
Rating: 3/5

19. Bulgaria
Deep Zone & Balthazar - DJ Take me away
Reaction: This dance songs is all over the place, starting out with scratching, moving to reggae, and then a combination of the two. The vocal chorus is simple but catchy. This song would sound perfect on a club dance floor.
Best Part: Instrumental chorus about 2 minutes in
Rating: 3/5

18. Albania
Olta Boka - Zemren e lame peng
Reaction: This song starts out with acoustic guitar strumming and by the chorus adds electric instruments, becoming a power ballad. As the song continues, it goes back and forth between the softer verses and the more intense and catchy chorus. The singer has a lovely youthful voice.
Best Part: Chorus
Rating: 3/5

17. Poland
Isis Gee - For Life
Reaction: This song should be a staple of any party DJ’s wedding selection. The last wedding song in Eurovision, “Tomorrow I Go” from Albania in 2005, although it was one of my favorites from that year, doesn’t have the wedding accessibility as “For life” does. This song is the story of a couple’s love, resulting in their wedding. Usually wedding songs get too sappy and boring for me, but this one has a memorable chorus. It’s also very American-sounding, no doubt due to the homeland of the singer.
Best Part: Chorus
Rating: 3/5

16. Germany
No Angels - Disappear
Reaction: I was originally more APPREHENSIVE to this song when it was selected, because I really wanted Cinema Bizarre to win the German ticket. However, after I gave this song a chance I found that it was actually very good. This is a modern-sounding girl group pop ballad, in the vein of maybe Girls Aloud’s “Call The Shots”. A good feat by a girl group that has been around since 200.
Best Part: Chorus
Rating: 3/5

Next week I'll have my top 11-15.

Erano stupende

2008-04-20T14:25:00.000-04:00

Welcome to this week's Eurosunday, in which I will count down my top 21-25 songs. This week was especially hard to write because over time I've been revising my rankings and it's been very hard to decide which songs will be in my top 20. Despite all the internet worry over this year being weaker, after repeated listenings to all the songs it seems that this year's group of songs is actually much stronger than it seemed just a month or two ago.

25. Georgia
Diana Gurtskaya - Peace will come
Reaction: I remember Diana from Belarus' preselection last year, with her song "How Long" that I wasn't very fond of (luckily "Work Your Magic" won instead). This song is thankfully much better than her previous try. This one is a rock song with a good melody and positive message
Best part: Bridge
Rating: 3/5

24. Finland
Teraesbetoni - Missae miehet ratsastaa
Reaction: My criteria nowadays for a good rock song is, would it be fun to play in Rock Band? This one definitely passes that test. I guess Finland has found that metal is its "thing" for Eurovision, since their last metal song won it. With lots of guitars and "hoo! hah!" grunting, this is one of the more macho songs in the contest's history.
Best Part: Key change and ending
Rating: 3/5

23. Belgium
Ishtar - O Julissi
Reaction: This song is charming and even a bit magical. It sounds like something you'd hear while skipping through a forest with magical friendly woodland creatures around you, or while playing the Sims (since it is in a fictional language, it wouldn't be out of place on the game's radio stations). The song's ending, with key changes, sounds like the performers are having fun.
Best Part: Ending
Rating: 3/5

22. Netherlands
Hind - Your heart belongs to me
Reaction: This song has a fun bouncy feel with a good drum beat and Middle Eastern-sounding strings. Even though the song's subject matter is less than sunny (getting over a bad relationship), the music makes you want to dance.
Best Part: Chorus
Rating: 3/5

21. Switzerland
Paolo Meneguzzi - Era Stupendo
Reaction: I admit that the hype has affected me on this one. Along with Norway, I like it and acknowledge that it's a very good song, but it doesn't move me the way it has for others. That said,
Best part: Final choruses
Rating: 3/5

Next week I'll reveal the bottom part of my top 20!