2015 Show 4

Hello - and the podcast is finally back!

I start the show with a little recap over why we've been quiet over the last few weeks as well as a little look forward to my next 11 weeks of maternity leave panic!

After some tech-troubles I now hope to get the website back up to speed!!! However being out of the loop has meant a limited knowledge of ESC-related things so this podcast is a little under-rehearsed and freeform.
I take a quick look back at some of the news as well as a look at the Swiss and Cypriot finals at the weekend. Reviews of these AND the surprise reveal of the French song should be up ont he website in the coming week I end with a mini rant about the recent 2015 semi draw...

We also have music from Conchita (no beard), one of the Aspelunds, one of the village people and Macedonia's version of Boudicca....


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GEORGIA

The Georgian Final was held on January 14th at the 1TV Studios in Tbilisi. The winner was chosen by an international jury (50%) & SMS voting (50%) which ran for two weeks before the final. The winning song was "Warrior" written and sung by Nina Sublati.

The final was an odd affair, with a presentation in the new year and a long voting window before the announcement. Many may see a similarity to the bizarre way the French broadcaster chose Twin Twin last year. The five competing songs were all very different, almost a bit too different, which could have made comparing the songs quite difficult. However, Warrior came first in both parts of the judging.

The song has a definite style and feeling. The verses and chorus have definite patterns which repeat over and over again however the verses are much stronger. The song isn't really in a set genre as it seems to dip into rock, goth and has an eastern-style electro break down in the middle. The main down side to the structure of the song is that it doesn't really go anywhere. The song stays on the same level from beginning to end which is a shame. 

Nina is no stranger to competition as she won the Georgian Idol competition in 2013. She has a good voice and an engaging personality. I do feel that she needs a little bit more help getting the words out correctly but I feel this is more of a lyric issue than a pronunciation one. Although her ability to sing is not questioned, neither is her sense of style. She has a very unique look, one possibly not seen at Eurovision, with her dark make up, tattoos and  black leather dress. Her dark style may appeal to the more rocky followers of Eurovision and might also appeal with fans of gothic series such as Game of Thrones and such like. During the song she doesn't really do much but in some ways she doesn't need to as I don't think dancing walking around or even having over done armography would suit her or the song. She seems to interpret the song with gusto and attitude.

The first thing that needs to be sorted is the song length. As is, it is about 20 seconds over. This could be negated quite quickly by either getting rid of a chorus or by chopping off most of the over-extended intro. Then there is the trouble with the lyrics. It seems to be some kind of Georgian Eurovision trait to have a song in badly written English. Parts of it need to be re-written to make sense or at least contain words that are actually found in a dictionary. As far as the performance goes the track requires backing singers but I don't think it needs much more. I almost see this song as having a "Euphoria" type staging with Nina centre and a dancer possibly around her, emphasising her status as the Warrior in the song. Maybe having drums or an industrial setting might help too. Lastly, it would help if the song really ended on more of a crescendo as I feel the song lacks a real punch, especially for a song that is so feisty.

The obvious comparison now will be with the OTHER song called "Warrior" at Eurovision in 2015. I will admit that after a listen or two I couldn't quite keep it in my head but after a few more it really starts to stick. Although not immediate, this song certainly screams Warrior more than its Maltese cousin. I think this will do pretty well in May although possibly not engaging enough to be a winner.

ARTIST - Nina Sublati

SONG - Warrior

MUSIC - Nina Sublati

LYRICS - Nina Sublati

2015 show 3

Happy New Year to you all!!!!

 In this episode I catch up with most things Eurovision-y, however as most things seem to be happening in February and March I seem to have got away with such a long gap between podcasts

Reviews of Belarus and Albania are already on the website so I haven't gone too much into detail about what I think about them, although you can probably guess my reaction to the unveiling of the national final in Georgia. I also talk about the three hosts of Eurovision this year and wonder if Conchita has what it takes to be in the green room.

In between news bites there is music from Monaco, Denmark, Germany and Greece


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ALBANIA

The Albanian Final was held on December 28th at the Palace of Congress in Tirana, hosted by Turjan Hyska, Floriana Garo & Liberta Spahiu. Before the final there were 2 semi-finals of 13 songs, with 9 qualifying from each. The winning song was "Diell" (Sun) sung by Elhaida Dani.

As ever the Albanian song was chose using their "Festivali I Këngës" competition, this edition being the 53rd one! This year's competition had a range of styles and genres although 'Balkan-esque Ballads" seemed to protrude most. All semi finals and finals were judged by a jury of Albanian music professionals, including 2012 entrant, Rona Nishliu. "Diell" seemed to be the favourite beforehand and easily took the victory.

The song starts a bit like "L'essenziale" however the tune and structure is completely different. As the song goes on, more rocky elements are introduced to the backing, including a guitar solo in the middle. The verses are quite breathy whilst the real power comes in during the choruses. I think the song is also lifted due to the presence of the live orchestra, something with will not be there in May.

Elhaida is possibly the most famous Albanian singers at the moment. Not only has she appeared in previous "Festivali I Këngës" but in 2009 she won Star Academy Albania and in 2013 she won "The Voice of Italy". So one can firmly say she is used to performing consistently live in front of a huge audience. If I had one criticism of her style it would be that she over-does it a bit and can sound like she's really straining. During the final she wore a very nice red dress with slicked back hair. This seemed to suit her as she moves around the stage with ease and seems to like to uses her arms a lot!

As ever, this Albanian song as it stands is nearer 4 minutes than 3 minutes. Apart from the guitar solo, I can't really see what they can take out without losing all the aspects of the song. The other likely change is the language. After her win, Elhaida said that the song would more than likely be performed in English. Although I am generally a bigger fan of mother tongue entries I think this would benefit from a change although part of me wonders if a change to Italian would be even more beneficial..? I don't think they should do too much to the performance quality. She doesn't need any backing singers and doesn't require the distraction of extra dancers or even a dynamic backdrop.

This is a very slick song but there is something missing at the moment. I don't feel much connection to her or the song, something that may change with a language switch. The first bit of the chorus is really the only part of the song which is at all memorable and I don't think after 25 other songs in the final this will be at the top of any televoting list - apart from Italy and San Marino maybe. It's not really the style of Eurovision songs I like but I feel that a discerning jury panel may well give something like this full marks.

ARTIST - Elhaida Dani

SONG - Diell (Sun)

MUSIC - Aldo Shllaku

LYRICS - Viola Trebicka, Sokol Marsi

BELARUS

The Belarussian final was held on December 26th at the 600 Metrov, Minsk, hosted by Olga Ryzhikova and Denis Dudinskiy. Before the final, there was an auditions process, broadcast online which reduced the field to 15. The song to be sung in Vienna will be "Time" performed by the duo Uzari & Maimuna.

BRTC had an open selection process, as they have had in most recent years. The scoring system in the final was similar to previous years as 1/8 of the score was from televoting whist the other 7 jurors have 1/8 each. Although Muzzart won the televote, they barely got any votes from the jury. At least the Belarussians are transparently opaque! The production and sound values on the webcast sounded awful and so songs that sounded bad may not have been quite as bad as we thought! For this reason, I've also added the audition film below too.

The song starts off as a piano led ballad but grows and grows into something more up-tempo and punchier. The chorus as the main selling point here, or at least should be. The song in itself is written really well with lots of highlights, and a very earworm-y chorus but what it gains in tune it lacks in production values. The violin solo 2 minutes in needs more work as it doesn't work in the performance as it was on the night and the ending is a little odd.

Uzari has quite an intriguing voice and an engaging personality - you certainly feel like he is really pulling you into the song. His voice really suits the song and I quite like the way he can't quite reach the high note in the chorus. Maimuna comes into view just before the first chorus as the music starts to change. She is a very attractive young lady but really doesn't do very much. They interact quite well although at times it looks a bit placed and forced and unnatural. Maybe one they know what the stage will be like they can work something much more stunning and visual. i find this quite odd as their audition performance showed better chemistry than the one in the national final....  Also the clock motifs on the back drop and on screen really worked and I liked the gold cogs-like necklace motif on Uzari's neckline!

This has a lot of potential. Hopefully somebody will make the chemistry between the two much more believable by better use of the staging and much cleaner camera work. As I've already said, quite a bit of work needs to be done on the production value of the backing track. I think if they can get this sorted they will have a really good entry. Adding extra backing singers might beef up the power of the chorus but I do hope not too many dancers are involved - these two are enough!

I am really surprised by this entry and I actually think this is a decent song full stop, never mind a song for Eurovision. If they sort out the production problems and make these two really connect they could be on for a really good placing. This is possibly my favourite Belarus entry ever - but that's not saying much !

ARTIST - Uzari & Maimuna

SONG - Time

MUSIC - Yuri Navrotsky, Svetlana Geraskova

LYRICS - Yuri Navrotsky, Svetlana Geraskova

NETHERLANDS

The Dutch entry was premiered via the radio on December 11th during the show "Gouden Uren" and then debuted on TV during "The Voice" the next day. The song to be sung in Vienna will be "Walk Along" sung by Trijntje Oosterhuis.

The national broadcaster AVROTROS, like the last few years, decided to internally select their act for Eurovision. Back in November the rumours were confirmed that Trijntje would be the artist and that she would be singing a song written and produced by former Dutch Eurovision competitor, Anouk.

The song will bring is a mid tempo, slightly country-ish number - it certainly sounds like an Anouk track! It reminds me slightly of "One good reason" in 1999. It has a very repetitive and ear-wormy chorus The verses are very simplistic and don't stand out, however this over-emphasises the catchy chorus. Within one listen, the "why-ay-ay-ay" part of the chorus is stuck in your head forever. Having heard the song on and off now for the past week, I would like the song to have an ever so slightly faster tempo as I think this would get people flag waving and clapping much quicker

Trijntje is a well polished and experienced performer having been in the music business since the 90's. She has great stage presence and movement, knows where to look for the cameras and how to interact with the crowd, as well as how to present herself. Her voice suits the song well and she has decent pronunciation and vocal power. She also looks really good although if she wears a similar outfit in Vienna, I'd like here to have a slightly better hairstyle or even a jaunty hat!

Keeping in mind that this is an Anouk number - I don't think there will be many changes to the song and its production! The performance on the voice was quite minimal but will need to be thought through a bit more for Austria. I don't want to see dancers, as it isn't a dancy track and would take too much attention away from Trijtje. I'd like to see a row of male/female backing singers (maybe Ilse and Marco could be persuaded to join in considering they enjoyed the Voice performance so much!) I'd also suggest it needs a consistent and quite plain background, nothing too busy

This is a very strong song with a very catchy tune. The chorus is not too repetitive but gets inside your head. This will appeal to those who just watch the contest on the night and the viewers will remember it..... Enough to vote for it? I'm not that sure. You can certainly tell that the Dutch are striding along in confidence at the moment when it comes to Eurovision and I think this should easily qualify to the Saturday night.

ARTIST - Trijntje Oosterhuis

SONG - Walk Along

MUSIC - Anouk Teeuwe

LYRICS - Anouk Teeuwe Tobias Karlsson

2015 show 2

Round up number 2 of the countdown to Eurovision 2015.

Not really that much news this week but there was some trepidation to exactly what the much hyped Dutch entry was going to sound like! There will be a review of this later in the week but you can hear my tentative first opinion here. I also watched the start of the Cyprus Eurovision selection process, which confused me greatly... mainly because I don't speak Greek!

I'm not sure if it was the lack of news OR abundance of pregnancy hormones but this week's episode seemed to go off kilter a bit too quickly! If you would like to find out more about my karaoke exploits this Christmas, OR watch my videos from the last few years, you can find them at https://www.youtube.com/user/squiresag/videos

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2015 show 1

My first round up of the 2015 Eurovision silly season!

There's firstly a nod to Junior Eurovision as well as completed national finals from Malta and Macedonia to catch up with. As for the rest, there are artist reveals and national final dates set.

WARNING - please be aware this podcast involves me bad mouthing about a certain Belgian city I didn't like (and neither did the hotel manager in Hasselt) and also made me realise I get very stressy over the French language - MY BAD!!!!!!

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MALTA

The Maltese Final was held on November 22th at Marsa Shipbuilding (home the previsous week to Junior Eurovision) hosted by Daniel Chircop and Lyona Xuereb Gatt. Before the final there was a semi-final the previous evening, with 14 of the 20 songs qualifying for the final. The voting was a mixture of an "expert" jury and televoting and the winner was "Warrior" sung by Amber.

The Maltese took the same route as they have done over the past few years, with a semi-final and final... just a bit earlier than normal! This said, I find the semi aspect of this qualification a little redundant as they only get rid of 6 songs. For a semi final I would expect the field to be cut more substantially than that. The show seemed a very Maltese affair with the same old adverts and to be honest the same old singers!

The song will bring comparisons to Moldova's failed entry last year. The minimalist dub-steppy backing track is a great palette to showcase Amber's singing and performance skills. It starts of like a normal ballad but then ramps up pretty quickly. The chorus is very memorable but the rest of the song is a little non-descript. It is very easy to become lost and unhooked during the verses. If Amber wasn't so much of an engaging singer, this song would not have worked.

Amber has an amazing voice - much better live than in the recording. I also like the way she seemed quite confident just standing there on her own, interpreting the song herself, without a barrage of dancers or an over the top backdrop. She has to push quite hard to get tot he higher notes but she never really seemed strained or OTT.

I have a feeling that Malta will probably rip this up and start all over again. It wouldn't surprise me if it turned into the hot mess of Moldova last year. I personally think it works as it is, although a revamp of the backing track might not be a bad idea. They may well give Amber a more warrior-like dress to wear, especially to stand out a bit more against that backdrop. Less is more, Malta...

However you must also keep in the back of your mind the fact that the new Maltese Eurovision rules state that they could decided to drop the song totally for something brand new...

In fairness, the field was not that strong and this stood out a mile as an obvious winner and scored 12 points from all 5 jurors AND the televoting. I don't think it will be quite the same come May. Just don't mess about with it too much, Malta!!!

ARTIST - Amber

SONG - Warrior

MUSIC - Elton Zarb

LYRICS - Matt (Muxu) Mercieca

FYR MACEDONIA

The Macedonian Final was held on November 12th at the Metropolis Arena in Skopje, hosted by Vasil Zafircev. The winner was chosen by televoting (50%) and by a range of international juries from Austria, Azerbaijan, Bulgaria, Romania, Turkey, Netherlands and Croatia (50%). After conclusively winning the televote, the act going to Vienna will be Danijel Kajmakovski with the song "Esenski lisja" (Autumn Leaves)

This year, FYROM brought back the much missed Skopje Fest to choose their entry. As well as showcasing a range of song genres in the and singers the show was really entertain. In particular the host's interpretation of a range of Eurovision classics was quite funny, especially the full on matador version of "Bandido" and the balletic rendition of "Nocturne" in something which resembled Norwegian! If anything, the most negative thing I can say is that the whole thing took too long to get going as MRT spent most of the first 30mins of the show talking to guests (mostly previous FYROM Eurovision acts) as they came into the hall.

The song is a very contemporary number that probably could be heard on most radio stations - in the local lingo of course. It has a familiar ring to it but that may well just be it's modern nature - not something FYROM has been noted for in the past. The verses of the song are quite predictable in structure and something you can find yourself getting to quite quickly but the bridge part slows the impetus the song has. The chorus could be really special with a backing track rather than the live orchestra. The ending really needs looking at as it has damp squib written all over it as it stands.

My main issue is that as it stands it is too long. I personally think they could shorten the piano introduction, quicken the whole thing up a tad and make the beat in the chorus much stronger. Considering the delegation now has 6 months to finalise an act for Vienna, they could literally do anything.

Daniel seems a very confident and accomplished singer. He has good charisma with the camera and the audience in the hall. It seems like the song is really within him and can comfortably pull it off. I would feel confident to have him as the singer representing my country. However I would definitely think of giving him something better to wear - something than makes him less like Ovi's little brother who has been let out for the night. I would also advise him to stay away from the swivelling dance steps in the middle.

As I have already hinted any kinds of changes could occur between now and May. The first thing to consider would be if they are willing to change into English. Part of me feels that if the language was to be changed it might be worth making the song much more plot driven a la "Running" last year. Secondly the song needs much more of a staging - this again may be affected by any language change. I feel that the song needs backing singers to add atmosphere but does it need dancers too...?

As there is nothing to compare it to, this is tricky.

I certainly don't hate it, yet I don't love it to pieces but it is certainly a great place to start from - it has plenty of time grow, morph and fall into its place in Eurovision 2015.

ARTIST - Daniel Kajmakoski

SONG - Esenski Lisja (Autumn Leaves)

MUSIC -Joacim Persson

LYRICS - Aleksandar Mitevski, Daniel Kajmakoski