03/03/12 SPAIN

The Spanish Final was held on March 3rd at Prado del Rey Studios in Madrid, hosted by Anne Irgatiburu. Pastora Soler sang 3 songs and the winner was chosen by a 50-50 mix of televoting and "expert" jury. Pastora chose 2 songs herself whilst the other 2 songs were voted for on the internet to be here third choice for the final. Unusually the teletoving started way before the televised final - on February 22nd - and finished during the show.

The winning song with both jury and televote was “Quédate conmigo” meaning Stay with me. Quédate conmigo is a very atmospheric and emotional ballad is Spanish, co written by one of the most prolific Eurovision writers of late, Thomas G:son. Because of its international writing team, I would not say it is typically Spanish and could probably work in any language, although this is very unlikely to change for Baku. The song is not exactly singable but the repetition of the same words and same melody in the chorus makes it really stick in your mind.

Pastora is a fantastic singer and performer. She looks really into the song and had a very good emotional performance. Although she was alone on stage (backing singers will be need to be added though) she really did own the stage and looked very professional. The song really showed off her vocal range and strength especially during the high and long notes in the chorus.

Obviously being part of the Big 5 means that the song automatically qualifies for the final. This song will do really well, especially with the juries, as well as those countries who appreciate the more dramatic ballads. I have no worries about Pastor being able to pull this off in Back. Another possible contender…

SONG – Quédate conmigo (Stay with me)

ARTIST – Pastora Soler

COMPOSERS – Thomas G:son, Tony Sánchez-Ohlsson, Erik Bernholm

LANGUAGE – Spanish

03/03/12 ESTONIA

The Estonian Final was held on March 3rd at the Nokia Concert Hall in Tallinn. Before the final there were 2 semi-finals where the list of 20 was whittled down to a final of 10. Lenna and Ott Lepland made it to the superfinal where Ott Lepland was announced as the winner of Eesti Laul.

During the semi final Ott was seated at a piano whilst in the final he sang the whole song stood in the middle of the stage. He is backed by a female singer who is stuck right at the back of the stage where you cannot see her, which I don’t like. Ott does not do very much and stays very much on the spot. It may well benefit the flow of the song if he starts n the piano and then does the rest of the song stood up as this will create some movement and help build the song.

The song is a slow quiet ballad that does gain some strength through the choruses. That said it just feels a little flat and samey and is not very memorable. I don’t even think having some dancers would help the song. This said Ott does put emotion into the song and sings it well. Now of course many will be wondering if the song will be left in the original Estonian or translated into English. Unfortunately I don’t think changing the language will save this at all.

Estonia picked a really, really good top 3 for Eesti Laul butended up choosing the wrong song for Baku. Lenna or Tenfold Rabbit (who came 3^rd) would have been much more original choices and would have made a mark on the contest, even if they were a little too different for Eurovision. Unless major staging, styling or even language changes are made this is a definite DNQ.

SONG – Kuula (Listen)

ARTIST – Ott Lepland

COMPOSERS – Ott Lepland and Aapo Ilves

LANGUAGE – Estonian

01/03/12 ISRAEL

Prior to the unveiling of the song, the band Izabo was internally selected by Israeli Television to represent them at Eurovision. Strangely, the song was premiered via the internet and not via a special TV show.

The song fluctuates between English verses and A chorus in Hebrewplus the singer’s English is not too bad, although the lyrics are a little bit weak. The song’s feel is very modern yet has a 60’s feel to the melody especially in the chorus. However it is far too busy. The synthesizer parts are too complicated and the tune is very complicated.  In addition it also finishes too abruptly for my liking.

The next day they played the song at the Zappa club which was also placed onto the internet. The band looks a little odd, with the greatest amount of respect they look a little older than what their style of music suggests. They will also (hopefully) look a bit different stylistically in Baku. They don’t sing too bad really and do deliver the song well. However I am worried that the song won’t be enough of a show as it really could do with more of a visual element to it.

The song for me is too odd and really not what I would consider to be a Eurovision song. Maybe it will grow on me in time, however the average Eurovision viewer who will only hear this once may well forget this too easily.

Below is the formal released version as well as the live version,

SONG - Time

ARTIST – Izabo

COMPOSERS – Ran Shem-Tov, Shiri Hadar

LANGUAGE – Hebrew and English

29/02 12 FYR MACEDONIA

The Macedonian presentation took place in February 19^th during a special show on MKTV featuring Kaliopi, the artist internally selected by MKTV sme time ago. During the show she unveiled her song for Baku “Crno I belo” which translates as Black and White.

Kaliopi starts on the piano then makes her way to the centre of the stage where she sings the rest of the song. She is wearing quite a plain black trouser suit with black net train. Behind her are a gaggle of other musicians which in the space given looks a little too busy. This said her stage is not big, so the performance and staging will need some tweaking.

The song is not that bad. A Balkan style song which gets rockier as it progresses. The guitar solo is really not necessary and really stops the flow of the song. Kaliopl’s vocal sounds good although it sounds strained at times, but this might just be her style. It does make me worry whether she is going to be able to pull this off live. Later on in the show, she performed the song in its full English version which was really quite well written.

There are too many ‘maybes’ about this song. Maybe she will sing it well, maybe her visual performance will be good. Will she sing in Macedonian, English or both? Maybe it will qualify – maybe it won’t. On the fence.

Below are her Macedonian and English versions of the song.

SONG - Crno i belo (Black and white)

ARTIST – Kaliopi

COMPOSERS – Kaliopi and Roman Grill

LANGUAGE – Macedonian

29/02/12 BULGARIA

The Bulgarian Final was held on February 29th at the National Palace of Culture in Sofia, hosted by Milenita Nikolova, Drago Draganov & Alexander Sano. Before the final there was a semi-final where the list of 22 was whittled down to 12.  The winner was chosen by  SMS voting (50%) and "expert" jury (50%). However when the results came in there was a tie for first place between Sofi Marinova and New 5, therefore the SMS voting took precedence so Sofi took the ticket to Baku.

The song is an uptempo dance song. It starts off with a small ear worm or Sofi kind of yodelling which is repeated a few times during the song. The song is pretty formulaic and you can see where it is going quite easily. Most of the song is in Bulgarian so having a predictable melody isn’t such a bad thing. The chorus contains several different languages and it does come across as a little bit garbled. Also the chorus is sand at a very high pitch, almost to the point that every time she sings it you really fear that she isn’t going to hit those notes !

In both the semi and final, Sofi is on stage alone. She is able to command the stage quite well but I feel that the power of the song would benefit from some kind of extra presence on the stage. I also feel that giving her less to do will enable her to focus on her vocals, which as I have already stated need to be bang on during the chorus.

I would say that this kind of song will go down well with the Eastern European crowd with the language at that Romanian-style production values. I think this one will qualify and may do well with voters at home. I do feel that the song might benefit from a change of language at some point in the song.

Below are her performances from the final and semi-final

SONG - Love Unlimited

ARTIST – Sofi Marinova

COMPOSERS – Doni Vasileva,Yasen Kozev, Krum Georgiev

LANGUAGE – Bulgarian (plus a few words in various languages)

Pointless

In homage to my appearance on the BBC quiz show "pointless" during the coming week, all the songs played on the podcast are 'pointless' and scored a big fat 0 !


You can listen to me keep on saying Coventry City Football Club (LOL), trying to speak Lithuanian (LOLZ) and become rather suspicious as to who exactly Celia Lawson is (MEGALOLZ)


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


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

26/02/12 SLOVENIA

The Slovene Final was held at the RTVSLO TV Studios in Ljubljana on February 26th, hosted by Klemen Slakonja & Maja Keuc. Leading up to the final there were heats and a knockout completion (in an x-factor style way) to select the 2 acts in the final. Each act had 3 songs. In the first round, the favourite song for each participant was chosen by televoting (50%) and an "expert" jury (50%). In the second round the most popular song for each artist went through to the final which was wholly chosen by televoting.

The winner of EMA was Eva Boto with the song “Verjamem” meaning I believe. This is a Balkan style ballad currently in the local tongue. This is a very strong song and a really good performer. It has been heavily commented that the song shares a lot with a previous winner “Motliva” and shares a mood and style. It is not plagiarised but its similarity does make it quite familiar, which will gain it votes. The song builds really well from a quite start to a belting finish and is very much a complete song.

Eva is backed by four female singers who wear white dresses and funny white net things on their heads. Eva also wears a white dress, but fuller in the skirt. It also has leaves on the belt. They all move well around the set although this is not a song that needs a dance routine. This song and performance will definitely lend itself to a large stage. It will be very interesting to find if they keep the song in Slovene or translate it partially or fully into English.

Finally – a song which would be worthy of the title of winner !

SONG  -  Verjamem (I believe)

ARTIST – Eva Boto

COMPOSERS – Vladimir Graić, Igor Pirković

LANGUAGE – Slovene

26/02/12 NETHERLANDS

The Dutch Final was held on February 26th at Studio 24 in Hilversum, hosted by Jan Smit. For the first half of the competition, the 6 songs were paired into duels. The 3 winners of each duel then went into the second round where the overall winner was chosen. Voting in both rounds was a mixture of televoting (50%) and an "expert" jury (50%).

The eventual winner was the song “You and me” sung by 21 year old Joan Franka. Joan  wears a white native American Indian headdress (just like the bloke from the Village People) Her four backing singers/dancers are dressed in various Pocahontas inspired beige outfits with fringing and tassels. Joan also plays the acoustic guitar while she is singing. The look fits the song but is a little it dated (if not a bit on the jokey side) . That said it is a very noticeable look and Joan will be visually remembered however a bit of modernisation would not go amiss.

The song is a mid-tempo country song. Jans voice is quite strange and has a touch of the Lena Mayer-Landrut ‘mockney’ accent especially at the end of her words. The song is ok – however the chorus does save it slightly. The chorus is very simple and the main parts are repeated enough times to make in impact. The bridge part where she goes quite high is a little bit painful as she can get a bit too squeaky.

This is nowhere near a winner but could just about squeeze into the final.

SONG  -  You and me

ARTIST – Joan Franka

COMPOSERS – Joan Franka, Jessica Hogeboom

LANGUAGE – English

25/02/12 FINLAND

The Finnish Final will be held on February 25th at Helsinki Ice Hall hosted by Anne Lainto & Joona Kortesmäki. The Finnish selection process was quite complex…

There were shows to select and whittle down the participants and then other votes to determine the songs to qualify for the final.  The final was eventually won by Pernilla Karlsson with the Swedish language ballad “När Jag Blundar” (When I close my eyes)

Pernilla’s performance is very straightforward, which fits with the flow of the song. She has a female dancer and male cellist with her on stage although they don’t really interact. The backgrounds and lighting gives the song real mood and atmosphere. The camera work does it best to try and show the action on stage and this movement of the camera helps to show to flow  between the people on stage and the song. Pernilla and the dancer have similar dresses on which really helps with the continuity of the whole act.

The song has very nice laid back contemporary vibe with a slight jazzy feel, although in Swedish. That said her Swedish accent sounds a bit strange, although Swedish is her mother tongue. At times it sounds like Swedish but with a Finnish accent. The chords in the chorus are so sweet and intriguing that this could be a sleeper. Pernilla has already stated that she wished to sing tot song In Baku in Swedish.

I am very pleased with this choice and I think that the song itself is excellent. This will be one which will appeal to the judges, especially those who are songwriters. I personally would like some of it sung in English as I feel this would widen its appeal.

SONG  -  När jag blundar" (When I close my eyes)

ARTIST – Pernilla Karlsson

COMPOSER – Jonas Karlsson

LANGUAGE – Swedish

24/02/12 IRELAND

The Irish Final was held on February 24th at the RTE TV Studios in Dublin, hosted by Ryan Tubridy. The winner was based on a split 50-50 percentage of a jury and televoting. The unanimous winner was the act who represented Ireland last year, Jedward with their new song “Waterline”.

It was a very typical Jedward performance with lots of armography and points as well as a lot of jumping about and cart wheeling. The stage was not that big yet they were able to use all of it well. They were dressed in song very strange black and gold outfits which reminded me of a Michelin man dressed as a wasp. Being used to the huge Eurovision stage, they will be able to come up with something even bigger and bolder for May.

Unlike “Lipstick” one could say that “Waterline” is an actual song. A song with a tune, lack of tedious ‘oh-oh’earworm, no lyricy gimmicks. They *do* have to sing. Yes, they were backed by two male and two female singers but you could audibly hear the two brothers singing live. This, twinned with the fact that they were running around like made men made for quite a performance.

This is definitely one of the better songs from this year’s selections. I feel I would be safe to say that with their ‘previous Eurovision pedigree’ and huge personality Jedward are almost guaranteed a spot in the final.

Right now, I’d say this is possible the first song I could see winning.

SONG  -  Waterline

ARTIST – Jedward

COMPOSERS – Nick Jarl, Sharon Vaughn

LANGUAGE – English