The Tryout

So here i my first try at doing a podcast !!!

Basically I finally have a webcam (with mircophone) as well as the proper software on my laptop !!!
Ashamedly I have been fine tuning these 18 minutes for 2 days.

I just wanted to check that the whole process worked so that I can do more in the future !

If you have any ideas for future show themes (or have a particular request) I am open to offers !!!!
Either leave a comment here or, even better, tweet me at @DVVHolland :o)
If you found it ok and got to listen to it please let me know - I just need to know it worked !

Either listen to the link below or you can down load it from http://ia700801.us.archive.org/22/items/TheTryout/
 Please listen and (try to) enjoy !

29/12/11 ALBANIA

The

The Albanian Final was held on December 29th at the Palace of Congress in Tirana, hosted by Nik Xhelilaj, Enkeleida Zeko & Hygerta Sako.

The Albanian entry was chosen via the long running “Festivali i Këngës” which was celebrating its 50th edition. Before the final there were 2 semi finals on the 26/27th December where the initial set of 28 was whittled down to a final of 20. The winner ,as ever, was chosen by a jury and in Eurovision style each member awarded 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,10 and 12 points to their preferred entries. This part was quite funny because the presenters were going much too fast for the poor bloke trying to input the scores into the computer which almost brought the graphics to a stand still. By the end I think it was very close to breaking down! However there was a clear winner.

The winning song was “Suus” – meaning Personal – sung by Kosovo-Albanian, Rona Nishliu. Born and raised in the former Yugoslavia (now present day Kosovo) she moved to Prishtina when she was 13. In 2005 she entered the Albanian Idol competition placing in the top 5. She is very striking with her very large eyes (even larger mouth) and her long flowing dreadlocks.

Before I start there are some provisos to my analysis of the winning song. Firstly, the Albanian preselection involves an orchestra. Its addition does gives every song a lot of backbone, atmosphere and extra oooomph, something that won’t be there at Eurovision. Secondly the song is over 4 minutes long and I certainly would not like the job on abridging it down to 3. Thirdly, the song is in Albanian and as of writing I don’t really know what the song is about or what it means, which doesn’t help.

The song starts off as a quiet piano based ballad which then starts to get quite jazz-influenced in places. It is not exactly the most merry of songs and doesn’t really have a sing-along-able tune or hook to catch you and interact with. The song takes quite a while to get warmed up and build to the peaks in the chorus. The chorus however is quite extraordinary. The orchestration really builds and changes to unexpected chord sequences while Rona shouts, screams, yodels and yelps over it like Mary Margaret O'Hara on “November Spawned A Monster” by Morrissey. The instrumental part in the middle is also wonderful to listen to and has an almost military sound to it. Rona is a very inward performer, a bit like Max for Germany back in 2004 and the song also does not give a lot of scope for audience interaction. It is a very memorable song, but possibly not for reasons you would like a song to be remembered.

It is quite hard to give a full and round opinion because so many things about the song have to change. I would be quite shocked if the language of the song was to change. It would be hard, if not impossible, to set English lyrics to such a complicated melody and keep the mood of the song. We will just have to see over the coming months what changes are made and make a judgement then.

As ever, Albania are going to send a very interesting song to Eurovision and I can confidently predict there will be nothing else quite like this one when we get to Baku in May !

SONG  - Suus (Personal)

ARTIST - Rona Nishliu

COMPOSER - Florent Boshnjaku

LYRICIST - Rona Nishliu

LANGUAGE – Albanian (title is in Latin)

kjf

Newsflash 1

I cannot believe how much Eurovision news is coming out and it is not even 2012 yet!!!

Bad news first - both Czech Republic and Poland have confirmed they will not be particpating in the next Eurovision. Let's hope it is only temporary and are back for the 2013 round!

Three more countries have announced artists for Baku.
Montenegro internally selected the strangely named Rambo Amadeus described as " the self-titled musician, poet, and media manipulator". He certainly seems a very interesting artist with a very colourful and artistic manner. It is more than likely that he will write/compost/produce the song himself. Wondering if this is entry is going to be more like Laka or Gypsy.cz ...?
Bosnia Herzegovina seeems to have shocked everyone by NOT announcing Hari Mata Hari! In fact their star for Baka was on the Eurovision stage just last year. Maya Sar was one of Dino Merlin's backing singers in Dusseldorf - she was plinky plonky bad piano miming woman !!! It was also suggested in acrtles that she will be singing 'her own' song.
There was shock though with the sudden and unexpected announcement from Spain. Yesterday they internally chose Pastora Soler to represent them in the final. However it looks at though there will be a national final in February to choose her song. Although Soler's style is more flamenco she has suggested that she would sing something more pop-influenced.

2 selections are still underway - Slovenia and Belarus.
Slovenia is now down to the final 3 acts in Misija Evrovizija. Nika Zorjan, Eva Boto and duo Nika & Eva Prusnik will compete in the final on January 8th where 2 acts will proceed to the EMA show in Febrary when song and act will be set in stone.
The semi-final of Belarus's EuroFest took place on Wednesday 21st.The cast of 15 was reduced to a final 5 which includes Gunesh, Litesound, Alena Lanskaya, Victoria Aleshko and Uzari. The first 2 being stalwarts of the Belarussian preselection procedures while Uzari was a backing singer last year.

The next national final on 29th December sees the Albanians choose their entry via "Festivali i Këngës" which will be celebrating its 50th edition.

10/12/11 SWITZERLAND

The Swiss Final was held on December 10th at the Bodensee Arena in Kreuzlingen, hosted by Sven Epiney.

The entry was initally started through an internet selection process. Then the 3 language stations of Switzerland chose their entries, with varying processes and methods of choosing, ending up with a 14 entry final.

The process of the final itself was quite strange. The songs were not sung in full. Each entry was performed as a 2 minute mini-song. Apparently this would mean that the three 'judges' would have more time to talk to the the contestants and talk about the songs... However as the vote was 100% televote I still don't know as to how much of a smart move this was (unless the judges used their time to favouritise and critique the acts to influence)  The  jury seemed to make it quite clear which songs they liked and disliked, and were seemingly very rude the very first Eurovision wnner, Lys Assia (who is 87) about her entry and her singing.

After all the acts had sung there was time for televoting. Then the top 3 were revealed...
Chiara Bubey... Ivo... and... Sinplus. And with 17.87% of the total vote, the winner was...

SINPLUS !!!!

I loved this song from the first moment I heard it. Although I thought it was a great song, I had doubts as to how well it would do in a Eurovision contest. I thought it might be a but rocky (and possibly a bit too cool) for a Eurovision selection but I was pleased as punch it won.
There are some concerns about the singers accent, and there have been calls that the song should even be better sung in their native Italian. It would be interesting to hear an Italian version but I thnk there singer's voice is very distinctive and he sings quite well (his live perfomance was very similar to the single recording). The words are quite difficult to pronounce, even if you are English, so I feel that the calls about his accent are a little picky.

Also interesting to note that 2 for the top 3 (Sinplus and Chiara) were part of the Italian selection process, the only TV station that had a live semi-final... all the rest were internal selections.

Anyway, here are there semi-final and final perfomances that saw them get the first full ticket to Baku !

SONG  - Unbreakable

ARTIST - Sinplus

COMPOSERS - Gabriel Broggini, Ivan Broggini

LYRICISTS - Gabriel Broggini, Ivan Broggini

LANGUAGE – English

2012 - up and running !

We may not have a bone fide venue for the ESC but next year's preparations are already underway!

It is only the 1st of December and the Eurovision train is very much up and running.

Here is a round up of the Eurovision news…!

As of writing 38 countries have announced their participation!

The Czech Republic have already announced their schedule for the year and it does not feature an ESC entry. Armenia may decide to withdraw due to its political status with Azerbaijan, Poland’s bad run of recent results mean that their delegation is thinking hard before making a firm decision, whilst the situation with Slovakia gets stranger by the day (more later!) Montenegro has announced it will be returning this year, while the other 2 Ms (Morocco and Monaco) have also suggested returns for 2012, but nothing confirmed as yet. Andorra, however, announced they are sadly leaving the EBU and therefore will not be in this year’s or any future competition. Shame really…

3 countries are already into their selection period!

Switzerland stated the ball rolling with preliminary voting on the internet all the way back in September. The different language stations of Switzerland have made their decisions and selections and their final to select a successor to Anna will be on 10th December.

Slovenia have decided on “Misija Evrovizija” this year, similar to the "Unser Star Fuer Oslo" show which selected Lena for Germany in 2010. The casting shows started back in October and are now down to their final 5 candidates. The song(s) to be sung in Baku will not be revealed until the final which should be in the new year.
Austria announced 9 of their 10 finalists oday. The last entry will be via a webvote. Interested parties need to enlist themslves onto the OE3 website and the best judges performers will be open to a public internet vote. The winner of which will be given the final spot in the final!

6 countries have already selected an artist - although one is a maybe!

Cyprus revealed their entrant back in August. Ivi Adamou was an entrant in the most recent edition of X-Factor Greece, finishing in 6th place. The song will be selected internally by CYBC and will be revealed sometime in the new year.

Once again Željko Joksimović will be taking the stage for Serbia. Željko, who came second for Serbia&Montenegro back in 2004, was the writer of  the Bosnia-Herzegovina entry in 2006 AND in 2008 he hosted the contest and wrote the Serbian entry!  It is thought he will compose the song himself although no concrete details of the song have been made available.

Belgium’s entrant has been chosen by VRT internally, a method that worked well in 2010 when Tom Dice came 6th. Iris, or Airis as it is spelt in her homeland, is an up and coming singer who is on the same record label as Dice. She is only 16 and is the youngest Belgian entrant since Sandra Kim.

Kaliopi will FINALLY grace the Eurovision stage for FYR Macedonia. She was unfortunately one of the casualties of the very unfair pre-selection process of 1996 but she has been internally selected for the show next year. It is thought that she will pen the song herself and it is highly rumoured that the song will be sung in Macedonian in Baku.
Another surprise announcment is that of the internal section from France. Anggun is an Indonesian born singer-songwriter but has been in showbusness since she was 12. He repetoire has been in a multitude of langaues so it may be interesting to see what we get from France this year.
The maybe is Slovakia. Mid-November it was announced that Miro Šmajda (runner up in the first series of Slovakian Pop Idol) had been internally selected by RTVS but only 2 days later this was put into some doubt. Apparently there are some 'contractual isses' which need sorting- meaning he's probably been told he will have to pay his own way (like Natalia Barbu for Moldova in 2007)

December sees 2 national finals coming to conclusion -

Switzerland chooses on the 10th

Albania’s yearly “Festivali i Këngës” will conclude on 29th December.