ICELAND

The Icelandic Final was held on February 15th at Háskólabíó in Reykjavik, hosted by Ragnhildur Steinunn Jónsdóttir & Guðrún Dís Emilsdóttir. Before the final there were 2 semi-finals where the list of 10 was reduced to a final of 6. The winner was chosen in 2 rounds of voting - the first to select the top 2 and the second to select the winner. In the first round the voting was 50% televoting & 50% "expert" jury while in the second round the winner was chosen by televoting alone. Wining the ticket to Copenhagen was the group Pollapönk with the song "Enga fordóma" (No prejudices)

 

I did not watch any of the Icelandic shows but did follow a lot of the comments and reactions through twitter and the Eurovision website. I did also watch replays of the acts in the final on you tube. Mot of he songs were what I would call typical Icelandic fayre with some folky and rocky numbers (and even a rogue operatic turn!) However the stand out track was definitely the winner although many would say it stood out for the wrong reasons.

 

This rock/pop number is a welcome change to the entries chosen so far, which cannot be a bad thing. The 4-piece band, all playing instruments, are backed by 2 backing singers. The set up is quite striking as the guys all wear different colours. Yes, it looks like they ARE the Icelandic Wiggles... Although they are playing instruments they end up doing a lot. There is some armography, audience participation hand capping and some Status Quo-esque dad dancing. Think Inculto but with electric guitars.

 

During the Superfinal, the two acts were required so sing the song in the language they would perform in Copenhagen. Up to now, the song had been in Icelandic all the way but for this final performance the last minute or so was in English. The song has a feel of 90s Brit Pop and makes me feel strangely nostalgic - not sure why. The 'na-na-na' parts are extremely catchy and the chorus has a very memorable tune. They also blend together really well in the singing. The English parts don't work as well and feels like they've struggled to fit the words they want into the pace of the tune. All Icelandic would have worked better.

 

The problem is that it does come across as a bit of a 'joke' entry. They look a bit funny, the stuttering parts make it sound weird and the dancing is a little bit cringe worthy. It was quite obviously when the votes came in a lot of the Eurovision fans were not at all happy with this result. However beneath this exterior this is a really catchy and enjoyable song waiting to come out.

 

I think this was the best choice and will do well. It will certainly get enough votes from the semi to get into the final and considering some of the songs that we've already got will be a breath of fresh air. I think this will appeal very much to the "Radio 2" type person and I predict this will do much, much better than people think. I may be going against the grain here but this may well be my early guilty pleasure!

 

Artist - Pollapönk
Song - Enga fordóma (No prejudices)
Music - Heiðar Örn Kristjánsson

Lyrics - Heiðar Örn Kristjánsson, Haraldur F. Gíslason
 

 

2014/06

Another week - another podcast - and a busy one at that!

In the news we catch up with the goings on in Greece, Spain and Denmark.
Then a look at the heats and semis in Estonia, Lithuania, Azerbaijan, Hungary and a disappointing Sweden.
Finally I take a brief look back at the Icelandic entry that most people seem to hate... Do I feel the same...? In addition there will be a review of this song on the website in the next 48 hours!

I also talk about tweeting Dustin the Turkey, seeing Brainstorm at Sochi and some of today's songs make me have a 90's throwback to Sash! and Supergrass.... all will be revealed...!

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You can download or listen to it here http://www.archive.org/details/recap2014_6

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2014/05

I know I said I wouldn't do one until half term but there was so much news - it couldn't wait!

Lots to catch up on this week with finals in Malta and heats in Hungary, Lithuania, Iceland and Sweden. We also catch up on song choices in Portugal and Ireland as well as the line up for EMA in Slovenia.

I open the show with  a few words on the EBU voting irregularities but as you will learn it all feels a little too little too late... Also features music from Norway, Ireland, Israel and Albania.

Finally I 'promote' my tweets, tell you all about my busy week and why 11th February will always be synonymous with me, in the ice and snow, standing at a border post in Belgium...

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You can download or listen to it here http://www.archive.org/details/recap2014_05

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MALTA

The Maltese Final was held on February 8th at the Malta Fairs & Convention Centre in Ta' Qali, hosted by Gianluca Bezzina, Ira Losco & Moira Delia. There was a semi-final on February 7th where 20 songs were reduced to 14. After a mix of "expert" jury (6/7) and televoting (1/7), Firelight singing "Coming Home" was announced as the winner.

 

Although I did not watch the Maltese final (or semi-final) the comments and reactions in social networks to the shows and results were very interesting and have made this review a little mixed. Generally the songs were of a very wide range, although a lot of the singers are almost veterans to the Maltese Eurovision qualification scene. There were a few stand out songs of differing genres including that of the winner.

 

The set up of the song is very simple with the band sat around playing their instruments and an Appalachian mountain dulcimer of all things! It seems a very coherent group and considering there are already 5 on stage there is probably room enough for another backing singer but no need for dancers. The staging of the song, as well as the name of the song, has brought comparisons to Iceland's 2011 entry of the same name. The style is similar, the band set up is similar and the style isn't far off either.

 

The thing about this one is that the blending of the voices and the harmonies from all the participants on stage is the key to the success of this song. All of the singers are good singers and the blending of their voices at times is just sublime. They also look like they are enjoying themselves and that the song is within their normal ranges. Main singers, Richard Edwards & Michelle Mifsud, are Maltese preselection veterans - the former coming a close second in 2011. Obviously if under the pressure of a semi-final they get nervous and it is just that little bit off, it could sound bloody awful.

 

There are however many concerns with this song. Obviously there are, and have already been, comments about its similarity to Mumford & Suns and especially to the Gary Barlow song "Let Go" which the chorus almost becomes. I am not sure how well this style would go down with the whole of Europe.

Another problem occurs when you see that both Malta and Switzerland have chosen basically the same song AND are in the same semi-final. As DR will be in chare of the running order I would hope that there 2 are placed as far away as possible, for their own good. Personally, although Firelight are the better and more polished singers, Sebalter's song is far superior. Looking forward, I am now hoping that there will be the ONLY two songs of this genre in the competition. If there end up being even more, then there may well be a further problem to look into.

 

There was a lot of discussion on social media regarding the seemingly unfair voting system used to choose this song. The televote mark only represented just over 14% of the scoring. However, looking back at the Maltese finals over the last 3 years, the voting weighting has always been highly in favour of the jury rather than the televote (between 14 and 33% weighting in different contests) Although I understand how this can seem unfair, it is at least consistent.

 

A slightly surprising choice from Malta, moving that folky sound from last year in a different direction. Not sure if it will grab the hearts of Europe or get them singing along. Purists will like this as a song and as a technical piece of singing but more is needed to make people pick up their phones.

 

Artist - Firelight
Song - Coming Home
Music - Richard Micallef

Lyrics - Richard Micallef

 

 

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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or like our facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/DVVHolland to find get the latest information about blogposts and podcasts or even have a look back at our old ones :o)

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