ITALY

On 25th January, it was announced that the Emma Marrone  will be representing Italy at Eurovision. It was also revealed that she will be singing her self penned song "La Mia Citta" (My City)

 

This year RAI decided not to choose their entry via San Remo but through an internal selection. The song appears on her latest album and she has performed this on several television show of which videos have appeared online. It is from these I will review this entry.

 

Her song is an up tempo rock pop number, said to be inspired by 80s rock, which you can see and hear. Her style seems to shine during these types of numbers and obviously like to express herself outwardly. She is backed by an all male band which helps with the rock feel. As I watched it felt slightly similar to Amandine Bourgeois from France last year, especially the parts where she went a bit mad and screamy.

 

The song starts with a thumping drum beat, which although ear catching does go on for a bit too long, she has a very energetic performance and engages with her band as well as the audience really well. She does a lot of jumping about and in this performance in particular she is playing much more to the fans and the audience than she is to the cameras. Her voice suits this style of music and I think the style will stand out on the Eurovision stage. I also seem quite confident that she would be able to perform this well live and under pressure.

 

There are two main issues for this song - one which can be fixed and one which possibly can't. Firstly, it is a good 37 seconds too long. Even by omitting the long drum intro something would have to give somewhere else in the song. Secondly there are just no hooks or memorable moments to hang onto. The only true memorable part is the intro and I think that will have to go! This rock style will appeal to the Eastern and Baltic states but I am not sure if this is enough to get it more than about 3 points per country, if any.

This is quite a disappointment. She is a much better singer and performer than this song allows her to be. I don't even think a language change would change their fortunes. Emma should be grateful she's already in the final because I would not fancy her chances to have succeeded in the semi-final

Artist - Emma Marrone
Song - La Mia Citta
Music - Emma Marrone

Lyrics - Emma Marrone

2014/04

Recap number four!

After a couple of week's rest we have loads of Eurovision news to catch up on!
Although there have only been 2 finals since I last podcasted, there have been quite a lot of heats, song reveals, artist reveals, song snippets and plenty of gossip.
The Finnish and Swiss finals already have been reviewed on the website and I promise that a review of the Italian song will go up soon.

I think I got slightly delirious by the end!!!

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You can download or listen to it here http://www.archive.org/details/recap2014_04

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SWITZERLAND

The Swiss Final was held on February 1st at the Bodensee Arena in Kreuzlingen, hosted by Sven Epiney. After combining the televoting (50%) and an "expert" jury (50%) votes, "Hunter of stars" by Sebalter was announced as the winner.

The 6 finalists were chosen through the sub-divisions of the French, German and Italian speaking communities as well as the internet voting. Unfortunately this final was not a good one in my opinion. The songs (and performers) were of varying quality. After seeing the recap of the songs during the final it seemed a bit of a foregone conclusion that this had to win (although I would have had places 2 and 3 the other way around).

The song and performance obviously take their cues from Mumford and Sons and the folk/country/bluegrass genre. From a Eurovision viewpoint is feels like a sped up version of Sjonni's Friends or even "Fairytale part 2". Seb is backed by a similarly styled 5 piece band. Most of the focus is on Seb and he certainly does have a very engaging singing style and personality. When he's not singing he's whistling and it he isn't whistling he's playing the fiddle. His singing style is, well, unconventional but then again so is the song.

Seb IS the show. There is not that much movement by the band - most of the moving is done by the camera and by Seb's eyebrows. However because the song is made up of so many different verses, bridges, choruses, slow bits and fast bits his stance and character makes you feel like a lot of moving is happening. He has a decent connection with a camera and you genuinely feel he is enjoying himself. The song is really catchy an you find yourself singing, clapping and/or whistling along. It is nice to see whistling making a comeback to Eurovision since the heady days of "Straatdeuntje" and "April, April"

However I do have some technical concerns about this song

1) He doesn't seem to keep on time during the quieter parts of the song either going to fast or too slow. This could have just been a issue with his earphones.

2) His accent and pronunciation are very odd. Although this does bring character, energy and memorable qualities to the performance - your connection to the song is lost. You have no idea what he's singing about.

3) Can he whistle that well under pressure?

If these concerns can be worked through, this could be an early contender. Although there are aspects that need work I feel that the song is a very well made piece of work with lots of memorable parts. His personality is unforgettable and the whole thing has a certain charm about it which could work to its favour.

Artist - Sebalter
Song - Hunter of stars
Music - Sebastiano Paulessi

Lyrics - Sebastiano Paulessi
 

FINLAND

The Finnish Final was held on February 1st at the Barona Areena in Espoo, hosted by Anne Lainto & Ile Uusivuori. Before the final there were 3 semi-finals. The winner, chosen by televoting (50%) and an "expert" jury (50%) was "Something Better" by Softengine.

 

I didn't really pay too much attention to this year's UMK mainly because I was still smarting for last year's frankly upsetting result. Therefore I distanced myself and just hoped a good song would win. Due to the scheduling of the final I was able to watch the results coming in as well as the recaps of the songs during voting time. I thought that once again the range of songs was impressive from rock to folk to dance to weird! Each song had its merits as well as having reasons to be Finland's Eurovision entry.

 

Softengine is a very contemporary group. They look a bit like Frank Ferdinand, sound a bit like Coldplay but end up being a bit like The Killers. The singer is not exactly the most technically brilliant or show-stoppingly confident but he seems to pull this song off quite well, especially the strong choruses. Obviously the earworm-y 'oh-oh-oh-oh-ing'  and "all these words"- accompanied with well timed fireworks. As you will see, there is not a lot to say about this... for many reasons.

 

Being a typical band of 5, they stand (and jump about) for 3 minutes. The flashing red background used in their final performance worked well as it gave colour to their dark set and clothing but also punctuated the song during the lively parts. By the end two of the guitar players were getting a little more active, dodging about aimlessly. On the small stage it looked a bit uncomfortable and a little silly. On a bigger stage, and choreographed a bit better, it might actually help emphasise the performance towards the end.

 

This does sound like a song you could easily hear on Radio 1 or 2 which is a good thing, however  if any was to say it was a Eurovision song  think they would be pretty surprised. This is NOT exactly what people see as their stereotypical Eurovision fayre Although it has peaks and troughs and many, MANY earworms - there is no key change, no dance routine and certainly no time for a change of costume. This was more a performance to the crowd than a performance to the viewer. I feel this engagement to the camera and the connection to the voters all over Europe will need to be the thing they work on next.

 

I feel pretty positive about this. Firstly it is a good song and something that would work well outside the ESC. It's the kind of thing that if released Europe wide (especially Nordic, Baltic and western Europe) would do it the world of good pre-Eurovision. My main concern is this contains none of the formulaic traits we expect to see in a Eurovision songs. There are no gimmicks - it is a straight forward, honest, contemporary song.
Is this what Eurovision really needs?

 

Artist - Softengine
Song - Something Better
Music - Topi Latukka

Lyrics - Topi Latukka, Henri Oskár
 

2014/03

Some unexpected goings on in Eurovision land called for an unexpected round up podcast!

Obviously the *big* news was the semi final allocation draw made on Monday 20th January. For those of you not so Eurovision savvy, I try and explain what the draw is really about, why the draw is made so early in advance and also if it REALLY means anything in term of who is going to qualify...

As well as this, we have news from Slovenia, Lithuania, Finland and some unexpected news from Spain! I also play what is becoming my favourite Dutch song, The House of the Rising Sun (not really) and a prodigious semi-final song.


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You can download or listen to it here http://www.archive.org/details/recap2014_03

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BELARUS

The Belarussian Final was held at BTRC Studio 600 in Minsk on January 10th, hosted by Olga Ryzhikova & Denis Dudinskiy. The winner was chosen by televoting (50%) and an "expert" jury (50%). As there was a tie at the end of the voting between Max Lorens & Didyulya (who won the televote) and Teo (who won the jury vote) The "expert" jury had to vote again for the winner, voting unanimously for Teo and his song "Cheesecake".

I didn't intend to watch the Belarusian final but I found myself home alone because the husband was having a late night at work and so I kind of fell into it! I felt that the show was a bit oddball. The visual enthusiasm of the crowd (i.e. ZILCH) didn't seem to match with the aural enthusiasm of the crowd (i.e. FRENZIED) I will give BTRC its due and came up with a very slick show. The stage was a decent size and the screen at the back accommodated all of the settings. also the introductions were slick and all the entries were covered in a quite a short amount of time.

I can't really tell you if Teo is a great singer or not because this is not really a song to show off vocal talents. The verses are quite slow and speed up slightly in the chorus. There are no ups and downs, crescendos or diminuendos its all very samey.  It is a very wordy song at times and this does point out some of his off pronunciations e.g. "I don't want to be your trippy hamster today" Off the bat he announces "I'm not Patrick Swayze, you're not Jennifer Gray" This is not Booker Prize winning writing...

The staging of the show is very simple. Teo is backed by 3 singers dressed smartly with braces and hats however they don't do very much apart from holding up song-related paddles - last seen in "Leto Svet". Teo's dancing however leaves a lot to be desired. I can hear Len Goodman harking on about 'pigeon toes' and 'sickled ankles'. Teo also has a look of Robin Thicke about him (the shirt the suit, the spiky hair, the dead slugs on his face). I don't think this is coincidence and certainly don't think it does him ANY favours at all.

However this is Belarus. Within 5 days of his win, it was put in jeopardy.

The quite disgruntled 'runners up'  Max Lorens & Didyulya called for the results to be annulled. They are protesting on the fact that the final result, with the jury choosing between the tied entries, took no opinions of the televote into account (They got about  3000 votes more than Teo) and there fore it was rigged. The duo are hoping to appeal to the Belarussian president in order to reverse the result through the signing of a petition. Also they have announced that they would hold a concert under the slogan “For Fair Voting,” As I type, nothing has changed this result but one never knows!

How do I rate the chances of this song - I really don't know. I think it has some charm and some appeal, as well as being rather contemporary but it is NOT a Eurovision song. The subject of the song is sickly and cheesy (no pun intended there) Not even with some stage tweaking could this improve. Maybe the only way for this to improve is for it to be disqualified...

Artist - Teo
Song - Cheesecake
Music - Yuri Vaschuk (Teo)
Lyrics - Dmitry Novik

2014/02

The second podcast of the national finals season!

After a premature start in the last throws of December, Eurovision seems to have chickened out and gone back into its shell for hibernation. I *try* valiantly to scrape the remnants of news together but as you will hear not much is going on... Nothing significant anyway...

There is a brief recap of the Belarusian final (blogpost about the winning song will be up mid-week) as well as a roundup of the news and goings on from Azerbaijan, Finland, France, Hungary, Israel, Ireland, Latvia, Lithuania and Romania.

If anybody *does* know if any cheese is made in Israel - let me know....

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You can download or listen to it here http://www.archive.org/details/recap2014_02

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ALBANIA

The Albanian Final was held on December 28th at the Palace of Congress in Tirana, hosted by Klea Huta & Enkel Demi. There were also2 shows on December 26th & 27th where the 16 songs were presented. The winner, chosen by an "expert" jury was Herciana Matmuja with "Zemërimi i një nate" (One night's anger)

I have come to expect from Festivali i Këngës a evening full of rock influenced songs which go on far too long. Strangely enough this isn't really one of them! It does need a fair bit of tweaking but possibly not in the ways that "Identitet" or "Suus" were previously, However I write all of this with a heavy heart as the wrong song ended up winning. (Me Ty... was a far better song)

Herciana is a fantastic singer and has lovely, pure voice. Before she sang in the FiK final she was greeted by a very long applause by the appreciative and knowing audience. She delivers the song (in the local lingo) with a lot of feeling and gusto. She performed it twice on the night and seemed to perform it perfectly both times. The start of the song is very odd. A guitar-violin laden storm of frenzy before the lyrical piano kicks is. I suppose it would be a start to get the eyes and ears watching but would probably disappoint people when the real tune begins. Although the title of the song seems quite negative, Herciana can look a bit too happy at time, unless of course the title is a bit of a misnomer. She has a style reminiscent of Nadine Beiler with the sharp black bob hairstyle and flattering black dress.

As with many FiK entries there staging is very simple, focusing on the singer, however she fully uses the backing singers, who are tucked away in the orchestra, so they will need to be on stage. I think that her looked really comfortable on stage and could possibly take a little bit of direction (choreography would be to strong a word). I could imagine her doing something akin to 'the man in Farid's box' routine

The song is an interesting choice and many choices need to be made before it goes to Copenhagen.

1) Will they get rid of the superfluous 20 second rock introduction? Or leave that in and get rid of something else? (The song currently is about 3.25)

2) Will it stay in Albanian or go to English? Will it be a bit of both or will they translate it into something different (i.e. Italian)

3) If they do keep it in a non-English tongue, how will the stage reflect the meaning of the song? Will dancers be needed?

I feel that in the Celtic-clad '90 this could have been a sure fire hit. Although the song is rhythmically interesting and technically challenging I'm not sure that it would be appreciated by the televoters at home. There are too many tunes and rhythms to remember and it takes far too many listens to get into it (I've listened to it at least 5 times and still cannot sing the chorus tune) Here's to an interesting makeover!

Artist - Herciana Matmuja
Song - Zemërimi i një nate (One night's anger)
Music - Genti Lao
Lyrics - Jorgo Papingji



2014/01

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!           Sod that there is Eurovision to be had!!!

2014 may not have yet officially started but Eurovision 2014 is well underway.
Ukraine chose their entry just before Christmas (review is up) and Albania's Festivali i Këngës selected their entry on the 28th (review will be  up next week)

I look at what the Eurovision calendar has planned for us over the coming weeks and why this year in particular Eurovision entries are seemingly selected in waves, or as the saying goes, like buses - all coming at once! Most of them coming right near the closing date!

To keep the 'holiday' feel I select a few songs that tenuously link to this time of year!

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UKRAINE

The Ukrainian Final was held on December 21st at the NTU TV Studios in Kiev, hosted by Timur Miroshnichenko & Tetyana Terekhova. The winner was chosen by a mixture of SMS voting (50%) and an "expert" jury (50%) the winner was the song "Tick Tock" sung by Mariya Yaremchuk.

As we have come to learn with many Eurovision entries, especially from Ukraine, when this song gets to the stage in May, it won't look or sound anything like this. As it stands, the song and performance is a mess. The rest of the Ukrainian final must have been REALLY bad.

Mariya is a not a bad singer, although her pronunciation needs a little bit of work (but this is compounded by the quick delivery of the lyrics). The self-penned song could also be improved by Mariya getting some help with rewriting the lyrics so they actually make some sense! Also there is too much oh-oh-ing and whoa-whoa-ing which doesn't really help connect you with the track. The introduction is somewhat incongruous with the rest of the song and after a few listens you start to wonder why it is there. However, the start of the chorus, although slightly nonsensical, is memorable and has a feel of the earworm about it. Also has a feel of  "Have Some Fun" about it and that did REALLY well didn't it. (no).

The staging is appalling although the colouring and size of the stage have really hindered this and of course will not be such a problem in May. The dancers are too close and there are too many distractions. Her hair looks matted and her dress looks like one Ruslana passed off as being too slutty - even for her. The part when the background turns to cogs and wheels is nice and could be effective in May. She could do with more of a gimmick but that makes me think the Hell Machine could be making a come back!

In parts this is a very typical Ukrainian entry (nice looking girl, awful outfit, mid-song lift into the air) however it sounds more like a mid-placed finalist from Belarus. However, as we know a makeover is much needed and I am sure this entry will sound much more polished, punchy and memorable between now and May - they have a 100% qualification to the final to uphold!

Artist - Mariya Yaremchuk
Song - Tick Tock
Music - Mariya Yaremchuk
Lyrics - Mariya Yaremchuk