UPDATE 5

More news and videos !

MALTA -The official video came out this week. The vocal and background of the song has changed very little but I think that the video is very clever. Shame that such enthusiasm and message cannot be relayed onto the ESC stage.




SAN MARINO – As partially previewed in the TV presentation, Senit has released a video for “Stand By” It was filmed in a very snowy San Marino, which is a bit strange for a summer song contest!




ICELAND – Firstly, the boys have decided to sing their entry in English – which I am a little disappointed at. The song is now “Coming Home” and a video for this new version was realised this week.




NETHERLANDS – Like Iceland, 3JS will be singing in English. The video for “Never Alone” can be found below.




POLAND – Magdalena has released an English version of “Jestem” called “First class ticket to heaven”. However, due to a poor reception of the song, it has been confirmed that she will be singing in Polish in Germany.




UKRAINE – The controversial winner of the pre-selection, Mika Newton, has released an official video of her song, to be sung in English, “Angel”




FYROM – Vlatko has been very busy in the studio. As well a the Macedonian version, he has been working on an English, Russian and Serbo-Croat version on his song “Rusinska”, however it looks like he will be signing the original Macedonian version during Eurovision. His new video clip of the song is below.




TURKEY – The internally selected Yüksek Sadakat have finally released their video clip of “Live it up” I think the video clip re-affirms that their show at Eurovision will not be much of a ‘show’

FYR MACEDONIA

The FYROM Final was held on February 27th at the Universal Hall in Skopje. The winner, Vlatko Ilievski with “Rusinka”, was chosen by televoting (50%) and an "expert" jury (50%).

The winning song is a very typical up-tempo Balkan number with shades of dance and rock music in the backing track. However the singing starts and it is a bit of a disappointment. The verses and choruses are not particularly catchy or memorable. Until 2 minutes in when it literally changes focus and goes all folk Russian (a thetile suggests). There is an accordion, lots of shouting and clapping - totally different. The singer then goes back to the original song but somehow the whole thing seems to make much more sense. Bizarre!

The staging mirrors the song. Vlatki is initially backed by 4 dancers doing slightly Russian inspired moves. There is also the occasional indoor firework! Then a 5th( looking quite drunk and playing an accordion) joins in. Vlatki himself does a lot of jumping and clapping getting the audience to join in. The five do lots of dancing in lines and spinning about. The whole effect looks abut like the dancers behind Alexander Rybak, but not quite as good or organised – yet.

The song needs a lot of work The backing vocals need to be seen to and the whole performance piece needs a lot of organising. Does Vlatki *really* need the guitar either? A typical FYROM fayre, and will get a lot of votes from the Russian bloc.


SINGER – Vlatki Ilievski
SONG – Rusinka (Russian Girl)
MUSIC – Gilgor Koprov, Vladimir Dojcinovski, Vladimir Dojcinovski, Jovan Jovanov WORDS – Gilgor Koprov, Vladimir Dojcinovski, Vladimir Dojcinovski, Jovan Jovanov