LATVIA

The Latvian Final was held on February 26th at the LTV Studios in Riga, hosted by Ketija Šenberga & Toms Grevinš (and ad break entertainment from Riga Beaver). Before the final there a series of quarter and semi finals to produce the 4 act final. The winner was chosen by an amalgamation of televoting/online voting/spotify listens. Going to Kyiv is Triana Rark with the song “Line”.

The visuals of this song are very striking – almost more striking than the song. The stage is filled with lasers and beams of light. These then show up the graffiti type boards behind them. These then flash and glow in neon colours like large advertising sign. I can see the mosh pit filled with glow sticks waving in the air like crazy! This motif is also captured in some of the band’s instruments and their outfits. During the middle part of the song the lead singer goes into a very full on dance routine which whips the crowd up really well. Overall this is a real attack on the senses and is a great standout track. However the intro and rather weak outro need looking at so it can shave just under the 3 minute mark.

This is, in essence, an uptempo in-your-face dance song although the structure of the song is much more complicated. It starts off low and quiet but the beat and instrumentation builds up in the chorus – I say ‘chorus’ but is more like the same line repeated over and over again. Although the chorus contains the main earworm of the song I would really say it is the instrumental part after the chorus where the song becomes most memorable. There is also a break down part repeating ‘All I see is you” but I find this part of the song quite stifling as I just wish the song would let go a little and go into full rave mode

This is a bold choice for Latvia – and I guess you don’t progress if you don’t take some risks. To their credit, this currently stands out a mile when compared to the Eurovision songs chosen up to now. It won’t be everybody’s cup of tea or to every viewers taste but it will be remembered any which way. I have serious concerns about the ability of the lead singer as her performances can be hit or miss -sometimes she pulls it off good and proper, other times it sounds off key and strained. My other concern is that the flow of the song it too stop/start and I just wish it would go into full on glow sticks mode for much, much longer. If I could, I would chop out all the ‘All I see is you’ parts, elongate the instrumentals then replace the slow part at the 2 min mark with the ‘all I see is you part’

Having been drawn in the second half of semi 1, it is looking good for qualification as  only one other known entry in that half is up-tempo, and even that one is very much done in a lighter style. Just due to its original nature, this should qualify and I think, with a confident vocal show, this could be top 10.

ARTIST - Triana Park

SONG - Line

MUSIC - Agnese Rakovska, Kristaps Ērglis, Kristians Rakovskis

LYRICS - Agnese Rakovska, Kristaps Ērglis, Kristians Rakovskis

UKRAINE

The Ukrainian Final was held on February 25th at the Kyiv Polytechnic Institute, hosted by Sergiy Prytula. Before the final there were 3 semi-finals where 2 songs qualified from each, The winner was chosen by an "expert" jury (50%) & televoting (50%). However, once all the results were in, there was a tie for first place. In this case the tieing act with the better televote score would be declared the winner. Performing for the home team in in May will be O.Torvald with the song “Time”

The performance in the semi-final was different to that of the final but I will only be using the final performance for my review. The 4 man band is standing on plinths akin to large rocks or moon craters whilst on the floor there is a keyboard player on one side and a backing singer on the other. They are all dressed very shabbily in flesh coloured rags. Protruding through the chest of their shirts are digital clocks which could down to the end of the song. This clock motif is also projected on the video wall behind. There are a lot of beam of light used throughout the show and during the instrumental breakdown there are plumes of fire from the front of the stage as well as on the back 2 rocks.

Their style is punky-grungy rock and not really something Eurovision has seen for quite a while. The verses are more accessible than the choruses which are much more full on in terms of sound. The singer actually has a good voice although he looks very strained – almost like he’s in pain – when he’s singing the chorus. There is also a lengthy instrumental which is very in your face and will either be thought as really epic and spine-tingling or is a whole bunch of noise that cuts the flow of the song. The ending though is very odd and doesn’t fit the rest of the song.

One gets the feeling that Ukraine are not wanting to win again. This is a very bold choice – the kind of choice a host country can afford to make. You get to show off your country’s musical genres and styles but not feel the pressure of wanting to win the contest. That said, it is VERY different to anything else currently on offer and casual watchers of Eurovision who like this style might be persuaded to vote in their support – however I don’t think it has the accessible feel that last year’s Georgian entry. I personally quite like the song, and the performance, as it is a style of music I don't mind however general Eurovision watchers although would not say this was Eurovision material. This won’t be near the bottom but anything in the teens will be seen as a moral victory.

ARTIST – O.Torvald

SONG - Time

MUSIC - O.Torvald

LYRICS - Galich Eugene, Eugene Kamenchuk

DENMARK

The Danish Final was held on February 25th at Jyske Bank Boxen in Herning, hosted by Annette Heick & Johannes Nymark. The winner as chosen by a ESC fans jury (50%) and SMS & mobile app voting (50%), In the first round they selected a top three, then the second round selected a winner. Going to Kyiv is Anja Nissen with “Where I am”

Anja, who is wearing a long red dress, is alone on stage for the entire performance however it is obvious from the off that there are prominent backing singers on the track. She starts with her back to the audience which is blacked out with lights in the audience like stars. The screens show slow motion videos of dropsof water creating cicles in a pool of water and the lights behind her are shades of blue. The camera then spins around her showing her now facing the audience she then manoeuvres herself to the centre of the stage to start the first chorus. The whole of the stage glows a burning orange and the video screen shows flames of fire. During the end chorus she spends a lot of time doing vocal runs whilst the wind machines start up. She does look very alone on stage and the use of fire behind her scarlet dress is a very strange choice of backdrop indeed.

In all honesty there is nothing much to say about the song. It starts off with chanting from the backing singers – which is quite an odd way to begin a song, especially as none of the chanting contains the title of the song. The song is a mid-tempo song with a contemporary radio feel to it. The verses are a little weak and quite forgettable. The chorus is more memorabl although the pitch seems to be at the top of her range and seems a little screechy at times. The main trick the chus has is that the title fo the song is repeated twice as the last line, which makes you remember it. Neverthess Anja give it all she’s got and does a really good job at belting out the song and reaching some of the higher notes at the end.

This is so bland. It also didn’t help that the three songs in the superfinal were all bland and generic too. There is nothing in the song or the performance that hooks me and I feel that this will be the reaction throughout Europe. It also doesn’t help that there are already songs chose for ESC that one might confuse or mix this up with. Ideally they need to get a more narrative in the stagecraft to be able to strike out for the other songs.
Anja is Australian but has Danish parents but this won’t help as Australia is in semi 1 and therefore cannot vote as Denmark are is semi 2. This song really doesn’t deserve to qualify however Anja can take some solace in the fact that she is much, much better than this song and maybe we might see her again for Denmark OR Australia in the future.

ARTIST - Anja Nissen

SONG - Where I am

MUSIC - Anja Nissen, Angel Tupai, Michael D'Arcy

LYRICS - Anja Nissen, Angel Tupai, Michael D'Arcy

MOLDOVA

The Moldovan Final was held on February 25th at the TRM TV Studios in Chisinau. The day before the final there was a semi-final which reduced the long list of 14 to a final of 8. The winner was chosen by televoting (50%) and an "expert" jury (50%). The winners were Suntroke Project and “Hey Mamma”

The SunStroke Project is made up of a main singer, a violinist and possibly the most famous man from Moldova – Epic Sax Guy!. They are centre stage dressed extremely smartly in black suits. To their left are three female backing singers, dressed in white flowing slitted dresses, veils and small bouquets – signifying a wedding. Throughout the song dance they do a strange one-legged dance routine. Behind them are flashing blocks of light, followed by of concentric circles growing bigger and smaller. During the chorus, the words “Hey Mamma!” also appear. At the end of the song, the backing dancers join the band on the main stage and participate in a full on “Running Man” dance routine. At the end of the song the backing singers turn around and throw their bouquets into the audience.

There is a strong bassline to the song which repeats throughout. The instrumentation to the song is very minimal and is mainly punctuated by the sax parts after the chorus. The chorus is very repetitive and every memorable but goes on just long enough not to become boring and earwormy. The song repeats itself quite quickly – you get through a verse, chorus and a sax instrumental just under the minute mark, Because there are so few layers to the song’s production, every part of the song can be heard and so the backing singers efforts need to be absolutely on point. If I had one major criticism it would be that the song doesn’t really grow to a big finish but I guess all of the build up is in the visuals.

SunStroke Project represented Moldova, with Olia Tira, back in 2010 with a performance (especially by the sax player) that went viral around the world. Although less spectacular, this is a much better song. ”Run Away” was much more in your face in terms of production and visuals than this. This performance is very understated and just about works. The component parts work altogether, but probably would not work as a stand-alone memory devise. This is a very modern, summery and radio-friendly song and I think if this did well in the contest, they would do good business in the charts around Europe.

This is a breath of fresh air from the female ballads. It has a certain charm and tongue in cheek-ness that will appeal to the voters at home but also have a contemporary feel that will charm the jury. This should easily qualify and might even be a top 10 finish.

ARTIST – SunStroke Project

SONG – Hey Mamma!

MUSIC - Alina Galetskaya, Anton Ragoza, Sergey Stepanov, Sergei Yalovitsky

LYRICS - Alina Galetskaya, Anton Ragoza, Sergey Stepanov, Sergei Yalovitsky

SLOVENIA

The Slovenian Final was held on February 24th at Gospodarsko Razstavisce in Ljubljana, hosted by Tina Gorenjak, Maja Martina Merljak, Tanja Kocman & Mario Galunic. Before the final there were 2 semi-finals where the top4 qualified from each. The winner was chosen by televoting (50%) & 6 regional "expert" juries (50%). The winning act was Omar Naber singing his self-penned song “On my way”

Omar is alone on stage with a microphone stand and starts in black and white. Around him are bold spot lights which accentuate the contrast whilst in black and white. At the start of the first chorus the screen turns back to colour which shows the stage a cobalt blue colour. It then reverts back to black at white for the chorus again, returning to colour for the rest of the song. During the end repetition of the chorus, he loses the stand and moves about at the front of the stage before placing his hand in the air during the last line. The camera angles are very clever with mostly close ups apart for the chorus which gives a feeling of movement and ‘going’ somewhere. That said there is very little movement by Omar and this could look might have looked like a very static and boring performance in the hall.

The song starts off gently with a piano intro. The tune of this part of the song is very old fashioned, maybe even a little twee, with some very predictable rhymes andsome very odd phrases. It is then beefed up with a harder drum beat and orchestration in the chorus which mirrors the change of visuals. This pattern is then repeated for the second verse and chorus. After this there is some oooh-oooh-ing before another chorus with added key change. This doesn’t quite follow the tune of the previous ones as there are extra lines at the end. The whole thing finishes off with a repetition of the title. Apart from the last chorus, Omar sings this really well and gives quite a solid, almost musical theatre-esque vocal serenade.

This is a performance of contradictions. Omar is dressed nattily in a jacket, jeans, trainers, one glove and sports his (trademark?) spikey hairdo. His performance style involves a lot of gesticulating, pointing, beckoning, leg shimmying and a rather wide leg stance. But this is a slow song, an anthemic ballad, albeit a dated one. Nothing he does suits the song. He either needs to calm down or speed up the song. The song is really nothing special, in fact I think a lot of the meaning of the song is lost because of the muddled performance. The lyrics, as I stated before, are old hat and explore nothing new. It's so idiosyncratically Eurovision - it's all too much, . One might even expect to see this at Eurobeat Moldova (the spoof Eurovision musical) rather than Eurovision itself.

I cannot see who would vote for this - or why. It might appeal to musical lovers (espeically those on the jury) but it is just too derivative to stand out. I am not even sure what they could do to make it better. Omar Naber is well known in Eurovision circles has he participated in the semi final in 2005 but did not progress – but many see this as an injustice. That said, this qualifying would ALSO be an injustice.

ARTIST - Omar Naber

SONG - On my way

MUSIC - Omar Naber

LYRICS - Omar Naber

MALTA

The Maltese Final was held on February 18th at the Malta Fairs & Convention Centre in Ta' Qali, hosted by Daniel Azzopardi & Charlene Mercieca. In a change from recent years, there was no semi final and there was no jury - the winner was chosen just by televoting. Going to Kyiv is Claudia Faniello and the title of her song is "Breathlessly"

Claudia is alone on stage wearing a long white evening gown. She starts at the back of the stage and during the first instrumental moves forward to the front of the stage. Behind her is a very non-descript backdrop of white/black/blue lights which strobe ever so slightly throughout the song. Eventually this turns into bare trees and snowy scenes which doesn’t fit with the song at all. This mellow exterior allows the focus to be wholly on Claudia but also makes it look a bit lifeless and slightly generic.

The song starts off with a piano intro and stays this way until the chorus when the gentle percussion and guitars come in. The verses contain very few lyrics and one might lose interest very quickly with all the stopping and starting, Before the second verse they introduce a more distinct drum beat which turns the song from a piano based ballad into a soft rock/country number. The chorus has a slightly off kilter time signature with some lines being longer than others. The ending is also odd. Claudia finishes off the last note but the backing carried on for almost 5 seconds afterwards. On the positive side you could barely notice because the crowd was cheering so hard for her. The tune of the song sound very familar, however I am yet to put my finger on what exactly it reminds me of.

Claudia has been trying to represent Malta at Eurovision for so long, it’s just nice for her to finally get that chance – also her brother represented Malta twice (‘01 and ’06) She is a very good singer and has very good stage and camera presence -you can tell she is experienced at this type of singing contest. Although her dress is very pretty and classy, her styling make her look more 38 than her actual 28 years of age. The fact of the matter is that Claudia needs to keep doing what she is doing - the camera angles, backdrop and styling need all the focus and direction.

As far as the song goes, it starts off well but as soon as the drum kicks in it loses focus and loses its intimacy. In addition, because it is such a slow song there is little repetition – you don’t even finish the first verse by the time you have clocked up a minute. If Eurovision songs could be 4 mins long, this might have enough time to wind up properly and be a real belter - but it isn't. It starts off well but ends up being a whimper rather than a bark and is a non-qualifier to the finals as it is.

ARTIST - Claudia Faniello

SONG - Breathlessly

MUSIC - Philip Vella, Sean Vella, Gerard James Borg

LYRICS - Philip Vella, Sean Vella, Gerard James Borg

                                                                           The song starts around the 0:40 mark

POLAND

The Polish Final was held on February 18th in Warsaw, hosted by Artur Orzech. The winner was chosen by a 50/50 split of jury and televoting. The winning act was Kasia Moś singing the song “Flashlight”

Kasia is backed by a small band on stage. On the video screens there are images of Kasia herself as well as flocks of birds – all depicted in black and white There are also lots of beams of white light again the back background. She is dressed in a browny-beigey floaty dress which is see through in the skirt. There is not much movement on stage although there are a lot of long shots and sweeping camera movements.

There is a slow build up to the first beat when Kasia starts to sing. After the verse there is a short breakdown where she starts to sing low and in short bursts of rhyme. This catches you a little off guard as you would expect her to go straight into the chorus. She then sings the chorus but again catches you unawares as it is much lower than you would expect. What is also unusual about the pttern of the song is that the tune of the verse and chorus are practically identical which gets the tune into your head very quickly (and will also help when picking the 20s slot for the recap) The ending is a little poor as she sings her last chorus then starts warbling notes until the end.

Out of the 10 songs on offer this was not the best (although not bad) however she was the best singer and the two combined make it quite a radio-friendly contemporary entry. I have many issues though with the construction of the song. The first chorus doesn’t sit right when sung low, it would work better if sung twice - once low, then high. Also the ending is very weak especially when it has been preceded by 20 seconds of mindless wailing. In fact if the wailing was left out and the intro shortened, there would be enough room in the 3 mins to do this. Kasia also needs better direction and more awarness of the camera. Also, if the background was more literal to the story of the song, she wouldn’t have to work so hard at telling it through her hands and arms. Finally, the title of the song is so obscured in the first line of the chorus I’d rather they called it “In disguise” or “Hypnotised”.
This is not bad song but for a one time listen it comes across as disjointed and hard to follow. This is very much a song that becomes clearer after 4-5 listens. I am not sure how or if this can stand out in a semi final or final. In their semi, they only have one close neighbour and very few of their diaspora countries to vote for them. However the second half of semi 1 is not known so there is little to compare against but my gut feeling is that this is going to miss out.

ARTIST - Kasia Moś

SONG - Flashlight

MUSIC - Kasia Moś, Pete Baringger, Rickard Bonde Truumeel

LYRICS - Kasia Moś, Pete Baringger, Rickard Bonde Truumeel

HUNGARY

The Hungarian Final  was held on February 18th at the MTVA Studios in Budapest, hosted by Csilla Tatár & Levente Harsányi. Before the final there were a series of heats and semi finals to chose the final of 8 songs. The winner was chosen in two rounds of voting. Firstly, the top 4 was chosen by an "expert" jury but in the second round the winner was chosen solely by televoting. Going to Kyiv is Joci Pápai singing his self-penned song “Origo” (Origin)

Joci is joined on stage by an odd can/drum instrument (which he plays), a female fiddler and a very beautiful gypsy dancer (whom he dances with at one point). Joci is dressed in what I would say was a ‘modern take’ on a national costume. It is not the most flattering of outfits, as Joci is quite tall, stocky and very hairy! On the video screens, there are different views of dancers and instruments being played. During the broadcast, they used some very clever framing effects which help place the camera shots of the song on the TV screen.

The song begins with Joci singing with minimal backing which builds up to the ‘jaloma lomma’ chorus. The tune is very mesmerising, although not immediate, but the whole thing grabs your attention very quickly. During the first instrumental he plays the milk churn and you see the dancer and fiddler. The song is structured very cleverly. By the 1.50 mark he has already sang two verses, two choruses and had two sizable instrumental breaks. However, it is here everything goes a bit strange. Suddenly he breaks out into a Scroobius Pip type spoken word/rap part – but in Hungarian – then reverts to the chorus to the end. This part could be when the disconnect happens to the voters at home and might need looking at.

This is a very pleasing entry. Not only is it very different to everything else that has been selected but also feels culturally close to the country it has come from. Between now and Eurovision they may need to make some tough decisions about the staging and setting of the song. I think it would be going against the whole meaning of the song if it was suddenly plonked into English however the rap part might benefit from having some of it in English or have somekind of picture story behind him.. I like the staging as it is but on a bigger Eurovision stage it might look a bit sparse – again this might be fixed by having better background screens. Hungary should be pleased and feel proud to back their entry and I personally think that I final without this in it would be a great loss.

ARTIST - Joci Pápai

SONG - Origo (Origin)

MUSIC - Joci Pápai

LYRICS - Joci Pápai

170214

Hello again, and a big fat sorry for being sooooo late with this episode..

It's fairly basic and possibly my last Eurovision podcast for a wee while (I explain more at the end of the podcast) but as ever I run down the runners and riders as it stands, go through the calendar of upcoming events and end with a look back at some of the national finals and selections made over the last couple of weeks... March is going to be one BUSY month!

Even though the podcasts might be silent for the next few months, I will be focusing my attention to writing the reviews for the blog and keeping you up-to-date with the latest songs in the running for the Eurovision 2017 title... Before you know it, it'll be early April and it'll be time to dust off the box of tricks for Shite or Alright !

Music comes from Poland and Switzerland !

So, you can follow all the fun and games on twitter at https://www.twitter.com/ESCarmchair  
or like our facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/ESCarmchair

You can download or listen to the latest podcast here - https://archive.org/details/escarmchair-170214

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

ITALY

The Italian entry was selected and confirmed on February 11th during the annual Sanremo Music Festival, hosted by Carlo Conti and Maria De Filippi.. Before the final there was a week full of qualification, wild card and second chance rounds before the final of 16 was finalised. During the final, the winner was chosen via a combination of a demographic jury (30%) expert jury (30%) and televoting (40%). As with the last couple of years, the overall winner of the festival is given first refusal as it whether they want to represent the country at Eurovision. During the press conference, it was confirmed that the winner would go to Kyiv. The winning act was Francesco Gabbani singing "Occidentali's Karma"(Westerner’s Karma)          

The setup of the song is very simple although the presentation was ever so slightly different throughout the week. Francesco starts on stage alone (although of course at Sanremo there is a conductor, a full orchestra and numbers of backing singers either side of him) about half way through he is joined on stage by a dancer, who is disguised as a gorilla and by the end of the song they are interacting and dancing together. Behind them there is a very colourful backdrop which mirrors the story of the song, including henna patterns, yoga positions and the evolution of man from apes.

The song starts off very quietly, when suing live he sang the first part a cappella but am unsure if this will be replicated at Eurovision) His voice and personality is very engaging. The song is very cleverly written as there are lots of words you can pick out that mean something to an English speaker e.g nirvana, singing in the rain, Buddha, web and of course karma. The tempo and rhythm of the song is very repetitive and the chorus is such a joy. The point where the audience and orchestra should ‘ah-yeah’ is just spinetingling. I can almost see the whole audience during ESC joining in at that point as well as joining in the new dance craze sweeping the continent as we speak. I would say that my only reservation would be the very abrupt ending although in some ways it ties up the loose ends between the singer and his new primate pal.

This is an incredibly instant song. If you don’t remember Francesco, you will remember the gorilla. If you cannot remember the song you will remember the dad dancing routine. In some ways, this is a hark back to the low-key gimmicks of the 70s and 80s Eurovision with the sub-English lyrics, dance routines and costumes. There have been questions raised about the subject of the song and whether it is artistically sensitive or verges on showing cultural appropriation. The song is about other (mostly Eastern) cultures and philosphies but more about the people who pick and choose things from these different cultures or see themselves as experts or 'gurus' because they've googled it. I think it is more a social look at shifts in society rather than pointing at the cultures themselves.
 As it stands’ the song is around 30 seconds too long. The song could be sped up a little and possibly the very short instrumental taken out but apart from that I am struggling to see where they can take away time without stunting the song’s flow. My main guess might be that they reduce one, or both, of the choruses by a few lines.

This is such a happy, carefree and beautiful song and nothing would make me happier than seeing this rocket up the leader board in May. But there are 2 questions that needs answering

1 – who IS behind that gorilla mask…. and 2 – do Italy REALLY want to win…?

ARTIST - Francesco Gabbani

SONG - Occidentali's Karma (Westerner’s Karma)

MUSIC - Francesco Gabbani, Filippo Gabbani, Fabio Ilacqua, Luca Chiaravalli

LYRICS - Francesco Gabbani, Filippo Gabbani, Fabio Ilacqua, Luca Chiaravalli

                             (This video was from one of his performances during the week - not the final)