ALBANIA

The Albanian Final was held on December 22nd at the Palace of Congress in Tirana, hosted by Enkel Demi and Floriana Garo. Before the final there were 2 semi-finals and the eventual winner was chosen by an "expert" jury. The winner of the Festivali i Këngës 51 was the duet of Adrian Lulgjuraj & Bledar Sejko with the song "Identitet" meaning Identity. 

This song has an ethic edge to it  but also maintains a rock edge and a lot of the song is lead with strong drums and guitar. Here was me thinking that Belgium was the only country that still liked Simple Minds - it looks like Albania does too. However this is Simple Minds if they had been re-fronted by an middle aged Adam Lambert. The two singers have that kind of gravelly retching tone to their voice which seems to be popular in Eastern European circles but I am not sure if this will be enough to be reprieved into the final.

The song, as many Albanian entries are, are well over 3 minutes long. This is a shame as the introduction to this song (which lasts almost a minute) is the best part of the song and will probably get cut to pieces before it gets to Malmo. However the pointless dad-dancing guitar solo is the bit that really needs to be cut. Unlike many Albanian entries I would say that being translated or re-written into English would be a good thing. It does has a strong repetitive tune and having English lyrics would help the song's catchiness no end.

Needless to say this is no Suus. In many ways this is the furthest they could probably get from it. As it is, there is very little chance of this song getting to the final but with some clever tweaking it could actually be a good song.

Artist - Adrian Lulgjuraj & Bledar Sejko
Song - Identitet (Identity)
Music - Bledar Sejko
Lyrics - Bledar Sejko

LITHUANIA

The Lithuanian Final was held on December 20th at the LRT TV Studios in Vilnius, hosted by Andrius Rožickas. Previous to this there had been a slightly complicated system of heats and semis before getting to the 8-act final. The winner was jointly decided between jury and televoting. The winner of the ticket to Malmo was Andrius Pojavis with his self-penned song "Something".

The Lithuanian 'tradition' of sending slightly barmy/strange/wholly unsuitable entries to Eurovision has once again been continued into 2013.OK, I am being a little harsh here but there is a lot about this performance I do not get. On the plus side, I really like the song. Within a couple of listens I had the chorus firmly stuck in my head. It is certainly a contemporary song, in a kind of Killers/Editors style with a  bit of electro-pop thrown in for good measure. In these respects it is almost a bit of an 'anti-eurovision' song as nothing quite of this ilk has been sent before.

On the other side we have the actual performance. His voice is ok, quite memorable in places. As he also wrote the song it is fair to say this plays to his vocal strengths. However the visual performance is more akin to something you would find in Junior Eurovision. He is dressed in top hat and tails, which doesn't suit the song and more over does not suit him. During the final he was also joined by a couple of masked mime artists and a ballet dancer holding a red ball. Confused much.

I really like this song and although the lyrics are a little trite it does get in your head. But something drastic is going to have to be done about the performance of this song to make it truly memorable enough to get out of the semi-final.

Artist - Andrius Pojavis
Song - Something
Music - Andrius Pojavis
Lyrics - Andrius Pojavis

 

BELGIUM

The Belgian Final was held on December 16th on Radio Vivacité, hosted by Jean-Louis Lahaye. The internally selected singer, Roberto Bellarosa, sang all the songs and the winning song was chosen by televoting (50%) and "expert" jury (50%). This turned out to be "Love Kills"

Unlike most Eurovision finals, this was a radio based show although there was a webcam available to show Roberto singing the song. There has obviously been some criticism about this as this obviously focuses too much on the sound of the song and not on the presentation - something integral to modern Euro songs.

The song is a slow building pop song with an up beat edge. The song needs to have a much bolder beat in the background as it doesn't grow and build as it possibly should. The break part in the middle is very weak and doesn't work as it stands. The final key change in the last chorus is obviously too much for Roberto as most of the last part is totally flat. Roberto has a nice voice but he does have quite a strong accent which can make listening to the song a little tricky.

One could say that the main positive about this selection is that it really cannot get any worse. With a bit of reworking in the song, a bit of extra practise and some presentation skills it might just get better. Don't book a hotel for Brussels, Antwerp or Hasselt in May next year.

Artist - Roberto Bellarosa
Song - Love Kills
Music - Jukka Immonen, Iain Farquharson, Andreas Anastasiou
Lyrics - Jukka Immonen, Iain Farquharson, Andreas Anastasiou
 

SWITZERLAND

The Swiss Final was held on December 15th at the Bodensee Arena in Kreuzlingen, hosted by Sven Epiney. The winner was chosen entirely by televoting and that was Heilsarmee with "You and Me".

As ever, the Swiss final was an entertaining show although almost all of the songs sung were not exactly Eurovision material. The clear winner is actually a Salvation Army band, which included a man on double bass who is in his 90's ! It was the stand out song however the standard was not particularly high.

 

The song has an anthemic quality to it, although it starts off more like Lordi. The chorus is quite memorable however the rest of the song is a bit shambolic. The two singers (one male one female) are very singers and have a good rapport. There is a whiff of Jonsi and Greta Salome about their partnership and it could do with their strength in performance. Overall the staging is a bit twee and static and possibly some more drama in the background.

 

However, the winner itself is still under some scrutiny. Because of the religious connotations of the entrant they have appaently been told to change their name AND they will not be allowed to perform in uniform, which is a bit of a shame really.

Artist - Heilsarmee
Song - You and Me
Music - Georg Schlunegger
Lyrics - Georg Schlunegger

 

BELARUS

Eurovision 2012 has offically kicked off with the first (well, possibly!) full song and singer chosen by Belarus !

The Belarussian Final was held in Minsk on December 7th, with the winner being chosen by a mixture of televoting and an "expert" jury.  The winner of "Eurofest" with a full points victory from bith jury and televote was last year's disqualified winner Alyona Lanskaya. Last year she won the final with a ballad but was then stripped of her ticket to Baku after vote rigging allegations. This year she returned with a very different song.

"Rhythm of Love" is an uptempo dance song (I have a feeling we'll have a lot of these this year) with a radio friendly feel and a bit of a Girls Aloud/Swedish production edge to it. The start of the song is quite strong and the verses are well paced but the chorus is a little bit lacklustre and a bit too rushed. It doesn't have the punch that the start seems to promise. She is not a bad singer, although the accent can seem a bit garbled at times, and she has good stage presence even when she is lying on the floor! Visually it is not bad and the dancers do add a strength the song needs.

Obviously at this stage it is hard to judge how well a song like this will do when there is nothing to compare it too, however I would suggest this is a "good but not good enough". By the end of the month we should have at least 5 songs and singers to compare her too.
Knowing Belarus, she may have won the vote, but will she be off to Malmo...?


Artist -Alyona Lanskaya
Song - Rhythm of Love
Music - Leonid Shirin, Yuri Vashchuk, A. Shirin
Lyrics - Leonid Shirin, Yuri Vashchuk, A. Shirin

Eurovision Triplets

Here is the last podcast of the summer holiday and more of the triplets!

I do have a good idea for the next podcast but as I am back to work on Monday (and have the small matter of a wedding to plan for 8 weeks time) I am not quite sure exactly when that will be... but there will be one soon, I promise !

Keep an eye on the twitter feed at @DVVHolland as well as the facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/DVVHolland to find out the latest news :o)

You can download or listen to it here http://www.archive.org/details/EurovisionTriplets

Click here to listen to this podcast in your usual music player (M3U Playlist)

More Eurovision Duos

Hello again and it's back to the duos on De Vogels Van Holland !

Lots of different languages this time, from Icelandic to Maltese, as well as some background knowledge about some of the duos - including some scurrilous naked rumours !

You can download or listen to it here http://www.archive.org/details/MoreEurovisionDuos

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Trios

Hello all and welcome to another podcast!
As promised this week's show focuses on entries sung by trios.  As I have discovered, there have been far too many duets and trios in Eurovision and am going to do more shows covering them in the next few weeks.

You can download or listen to it here http://www.archive.org/details/Trios

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Eurovision Duets

This week's podcast is all about duets... and there have been a surprising amount of them ! From the 50's up to the present day, Eurovision has been littered with memorable (and not so memorable) and good (and not so good) duets and songs.

Next time we'll be adding another one to the mix to look at trios !

You can download or listen to it here http://www.archive.org/details/EurovisionDuets

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A return!

Hello all !!!!
After a shore hiatus the podcast is back - I cannot promise I will remember but now that I am *kind of* over my throat problem I will be more than inclined to actually do the podcasts without being self conscious !!!

And as you will hear, I would be very intersted to know where I can find an ESC version of the Turkish entry I play today ... Confused? Then listen!

You can download or listen to it here http://www.archive.org/details/VariousESC


Click here to listen to this podcast in your usual music player (M3U Playlist)