ARMENIA

The Armenian Final was held on February 25th, hosted by Gohar Gasparyan. Before the final there were 2 semis reducing the field of 20 to 10. The eventual winner was chosen by televoting (50%) and an international jury (50%). The winning act was Sevak Khanagyan singing the song “Qami” (Wind)

Sevak is alone on stage. He is sporting quite an impressive beard and a rather confusing fake chest bodice top. The screen behind him is showing a kind of abstract blue outer space scene until the last rendition of the chorus. There are also backing vocals on the track but no extra people can been seen on the stage. Sevak moves around a bit on stage but nothing at all choreographed and seems very natural and meaningful.

The song starts off quietly with piano backing. The song is quite simple and really shows the Armenian language as something that sounds quite pretty. The song is a very slow builder, after each rendition of the verse or chorus the backing music ramps up ever so slightly almost like each layer of the track is added one by one. It is not until the very end of the second chorus does it really step into fighting territory. Sevak’s full voice is charged at this point and gets to show not only his power but his range. Although the song is in Armenian, I would say the song sounded not atall ethnic, in fact it’s more musical theatre than cultural.

A 100% Armenian language entry is unheard of in Eurovision terms so it will be interesting to see how well this does. The flow of the song is very slow and takes a little bit too long to get to the big crescendo. I almost feel like the song needs to be another minute longer (which is against the rules) or a minute shorter (which could happen but won’t). The backdrop idea with the silhouette of the lady is an interesting one but the fact that such technology won’t be in-built into the Lisbon stage means this might need to be rethought. I also don’t quite understand the whole ‘costume’ of the armoured breastplate either – maybe it is just a visual gimmick? As for the song it is quite memorable and the simplistic title makes it easy enough for non-Armenian speakers to at least feel like they can sing along. This isn’t immediate but is a definite grower and once you’ve heard it and know what’s coming you need to listen to the end again !

ARTIST –  Sevak Khanagyan

SONG –  Qami (Wind)

MUSIC - Kostyantyn Bocharov, Anton Karskyi, Mike Ryals

LYRICS - Sevak Khanagyan, Anna Danielyan, Viktorya Maloyan

LATVIA

The Latvian Final was held on February 24th at the Riga Film Studio, hosted by Justs Sirmais & Dagmara Legante. Before the final there were 3 semi-finals with 8 songs in each. The winner was chosen by a combination of jury (50%) and televoting/online voting/spotify listens (50%). The winner was Laura Rizzotto with “Funny Girl”

Laura is solo on stage in a red dress with black seams. The scene around her is mostly red, either as beams, lights, strobes, shapes or splodges. They all seem to move in time with the minimalistic track. In this way it is slightly reminiscent of Aminata’s performance a few years ago – even the colouring is similar. There are backing vocals on the track but nobody seemed to be visible on the stage with her. It must be said that the production values and camerawork are very good.

This is a jazzy, almost cabaret, song and performance with a minimalist electronic backing track. I would almost expect Jessica Rabbit to come out halfway through. It starts of quite conversational in its style of singing and you find yourself listening very carefully to the words of the song. The structure of the song is pretty much predictable and the sections of the song are well defined. As the song progresses you see that the camera work is very deliberate and focuses a little too much on her gesturing and choreography. Her voice is not bad, and the change between her chest voice and head voice isn’t bad either. She starts to struggle near the end of the song to get the high notes in the chorus and you sense she is tiring by the end – maybe she needs to pace herself better?

This is a very distinctive song and once again we find ourselves hosting a style of song we have not seen yet this year. I have a couple of issues that could be ironed out quite quickly. Firstly, strip back the ‘routine’. By focusing on the movements that are memorable or highlight the narrative it will look slicker and more stylised. OR, in a controversial move, I’d like to see her with a dancer. I could imagine her doing something similar to what she does now but acting out the piece with another dancer (or even 2 other dancers to show the competitive atmosphere). They also need to come up with something more creative in terms of lighting and stage setup. This is not a bad effort but it leaves me cold and slightly disengaged. I can also see this falling flat with the audience in the hall who might feel disengaged from a performance that is very much for the camera.

ARTIST –  Laura Rizzotto

SONG – Funny Girl

MUSIC - Laura Rizzotto

LYRICS - Laura Rizzotto

HUNGARY

The Hungarian Final was held on February 24th at the MTVA Studios in Budapest, hosted by Krisztina Rátonyi & Gábor Alfréd Fehérvári. Before the final there were 3 heats and 2 semi finals. The winner was chosen in two rounds of voting. In the first round the jury chose their top 4 and in the second round the winner was chosen by televoting. The winning act is AWS singing “Viszlát nyár” (Goodbye summer)

The band is spread out across the stage. All of them are static apart from the lead singer who is very active! The main colour of the set is yellow with yellow lights and beams and shapes surrounding them although there are some red and orangey tones too. The whole thing is brought together by the occasional flickers of fire on the video wall behind them. Although there is little moving around the stage there is a lot of action going on the camera angles emphasise this. The guys are all dressed very casually with rather normal haircuts, rather than the stereotypical long haired leather clad images one might have.

This is a very full on rock number with plenty of head banging and screaming/singing. The song is in Hungarian and normally this would make understanding the song quite hard but not in this instance. You get the feeling this is quite an angry, almost redemptive song. The song starts off really in your face with 4 bars of full on guitars, drums and headbanging. The verses are slightly more sedate than the choruses but are still in the rock vein. After 2 renditions of the verse and chorus the singer starts with the rock screamy/shouting whilst the whole band joins in with some group headbanging. This then leads into another chorus with a key change!

Once again we have another style of song through to Eurovision which can be no bad thing. However it must be said that this genre is not to everybody’s ear and has already polarised a lot of the fan community. The fact that this style has never really done well at Eurovision AND that is it in Hungarian is not doing much for their chances of qualifying, however I like the fact they have chosen something really different and showcasing a type of music that is obviously enjoyed there. Good luck to them I say !

ARTIST –  AWS

SONG – Viszlát nyár (Goodbye summer)

MUSIC - Dániel Kökényes, Bence Brucker, Áron Veress, Soma Schiszler

LYRICS - Örs Siklósi

UKRAINE

The Ukrainian Final was held on February 24th at the Kyiv Polytechnic Institute, hosted by Sergiy Prytula. Before the final there were two semi-finals, three songs qualifying from each. The winner was chosen by a mixture of televoting (50%) and jury (50%). Going to Lisbon will be Mélovin with the song “Under the ladder”.

The staging for this one is rather more complex than what is seems at first glance. Mélovin appears at first in front of bright white lights wearing a long coat over his clothes. The white is then taken over by red and the stage is covered in red squiggles and a kind of spikey cog/spiral shape behind him. There is also some use of a wind machine at this point. It is also at this point you can see his backing singers behind him (just). At around the 2 minute mark he takes the coat off and runs up some steps where there is a piano and fire starts to burn underneath!

The song starts off quite quietly with piano backing. The tune of the song is quite simple with a lot of alternating between 2/3 notes – a bit like going up and down a ladder! At the end of that section the beat kicks in and the song flows from there.  The song doesn’t have a chorus of such, just some oh-oh-ohing which is a bit of a waste really. The title of can be heard in the song but you really have to listen for it. When he then walks up the staircase at the 2 minute mark the song suddenly quietens down and becomes more melodic and more interesting to the ear however the oh-oh-ohing starts once more before the song finishes rather suddenly.

This is a really interesting song with quite a few memorable hooks however I think the musical differences between verse and chorus in the first part of the song could be exaggerated even more to give it even more flow. He has an interesting look but I think he could go even further with it or be even more extravagant in his performance levels. Mélovin  doesn’t have a bad voice but his accent at times is intelligible which makes me switch off. Also the fact that the ‘chorus’ is just oh-oh-ohing annoys me quite a bit. I like the use of the piano staircase but not sure if this can be brought on and off again within a minute at Eurovision, so maybe they will need a different gimmick? As I say, this is not bad entry and  the studio version would not feel out of place on the radio but I think it is a little tame, if not disappointing, live. I suspect this will qualify but nowhere near a winner.

ARTIST –  Mélovin 

SONG – Under the ladder

MUSIC - Kostyantyn Bocharov, Anton Karskyi, Mike Ryals

LYRICS - Kostyantyn Bocharov, Anton Karskyi, Mike Ryals

SLOVENIA

The Slovenian Final was on February 24th at the RTVSLO TV Studios in Ljubljana, hosted by Vid Valic & Raiven. Before the final, there was a semi-final where the long list of 16 was cut in half. The winner was chosen by televoting (50%) & 6 juries (50%). The winner was Lea Sirk wih the song “Hvala, Ne!” (No,thank you!)

Lea is joined by 4 dancers. They are all dressed quite darkly although Lea's outfit is not at all flattering. The stage is very dimly lit in a kind of blueish tinge which means you can see the outlines of people quite easily but not faces and details, unless the camera moves in for close up. The floor of the studio flickers in different ways with moving geometric lines and flashes of blue and pink emphasising the speed and beat of the music. Lea also has light pink hair which ties the colour scheme all together.

The song is an electronic pop song in Slovene. Not being in English, the song relies a lot on the rhythms and the visual elements of the song to keep you interested. The song starts with the dancers doing some armography before cutting to Lea. The setup of the performance is quite traditional with Lea in the centre with the dancers around her. During points of the second verse the dancers have white picture frames The main hook of this song is the very minimalistic chorus which is very memorable and had a repetitive dance routine. The ending is quite clever at Lea knocks over each dancer saying “Ne” to each one at a slightly different pitch mimicking the winding down of a toy

This was possibly the most commercial sounding song of the bunch and looked quite slick. It is also nice that they have sent a song in Slovene as  this adds to the mysterious and slightly aloof vibe of the song. My main issues are with the presentation. I think the choreography is very predictable and that the dancers are too over the top during the chorus. It needs to be much more stylised, uniform and much more precise. I would also like to see Lea dressed in something much more fitted to make her silhouette shand out against the dark lighting. Also there are backing vocals on the track but no extra singers on stage. Unless she can find dancers who sing she may need to rethink parts of the show. This is a decent starting point but needs a lot of work – it’s good but nowhere near right yet.


ARTIST –  Lea Sirk
SONG – Hvala, ne (No thank you)
MUSIC - Lea Sirk, Tomy DeClerque
LYRICS - Lea Sirk Tomy DeClerque

MOLDOVA

The Moldovan Final was held on February 24th. The winner was chosen by a 50/50 televoting and jury mix. Going to Lisbon is the group DoReDos with the song “My Lucky Day”

The members of the band are stood behind large mirrors. As we discover these mirrors are moved around the stage creating different shapes, frames as well as making different reflections and visual tricks – think cheap kaleidoscope! In fact most of what you see in the reflection is the audience! Behind the mirrors are backing dancers that do the moving but also come out periodically doing street/Cossack crossover dancing in suits – go figure? The floor is also pulsing blue-ish white circles of light like a disco floor but can only really be seen on the above shots.

As I have already nodded this is a very choreography heavy routine and the whole thing is staged within an inch of its life. The 2 men are also dressed in suits like the dancers whilst the female singer is dressed in quite a fancy short, tight and silvery dress, which doesn’t really go with everyone else. The song has a fast folky base and has a very Balkan-esque brass and drum filled introduction which repeats in the background from time to time. The three members take it in turn to lead the vocals and although they are not bad singers there is something very lacking about the sounds they are making. The song stays pretty much on a level until the final 30 seconds when it goes full on Balkan with some mass dancing, de-de-de-ing (with clapping slapping hand gestures) and ends rather suddenly.

This was the obvious big favourite before the final partly because they are a known act but also because of the people who wrote the song. As a plus this is another genre to add to this years list and I think the group will be a lot of fun in Lisbon but I really think everyone involved need to have a total rethink about this entry. I am not at all suggesting it is awful but it feels like everything but the kitchen sink has been added, ending it up is a right royal hot mess. The song is fine it just needs a clearer identity. The mirror gimmick looked appalling, they need to wear something totally different, or have a costume change for that final switch up and they need to unravel that stayed choreography. If anybody had any balls it would be switched, partially or totally, into Romanian! This is Eurovision by numbers and I really really really don’t like it.

ARTIST – DoReDos

SONG – My lucky day

MUSIC - Philipp Kirkorov

LYRICS - John Ballard

GERMANY

The German Final was held on February 22nd at Studio Berlin Adlershof in Berlin, hosted by Linda Zervakis & Elton. The winner was chosen using a combination of  televoting, international jury and a panel made up of German TV viewers. The winning entry was “You let me walk alone” sung by Michael Schulte

Michael is alone throughout the whole number and is stood behind a video screen, although it is more akin to a laptop but with screens on both sides. The screens not only show words and lyrics from the song but also a series of black and white family photos, I assume from Michael. The lighting of the rest of the set is quite abstract and not really noticeable. Michael is dressed quite casually in a black t-shirt and jeans and tussled red hair.  

This is a very simplistic piano led ballad with more than a nod to the Adele’s “Someone Like You”. The song really goes into detail the importance of family and the relationships between those people. This is very much backed up by the video screen images. The song has a fairly standard verse chorus verse chorus structure then has a short break of oh-oh-oh ing which also gestures the entrance of more orchestration. We then have a last rendition of the chorus which has a more prominent drum line to it, signalling the crescendo to the end of the song, which ends with the final word of the song – alone – in big letters behind him. Michael is not exactly the most emotive singer visually, but his voice fits the song perfectly – sounding confident and at no point do you feel he can’t reach the notes or will lose the tune.

Before the show, this was the only song I thought had any legs in it. During the live final it seemed rather obvious that this was possibly not only the best song but also had the neatest show/presentation. It seems as though Germany has gone for the ’less is more’ approach this year. The song has a nice feel to it and the lyrics are heartfelt and not too much on the cheesy/soppy side either. That said I don’t think the true narrative of the lyrics hit me until many listens later and then I felt quite a connection to him and the song. I think the last chorus revamp could be even bigger and grander. Also ending with the word ‘alone’ on the backdrop is a very bad idea. Yes, it’s the last word and it’s in the title but it doesn’t fit with the inclusive and loving feel of the rest of the song. It ay also be interesting to see if they keep/bring the screens to Lisbon or if they try something else on stage. Although this was a bit of a ‘no’ hours after the show, it is very much a grower.

ARTIST – Michael Schulte

SONG – You let me walk alone

MUSIC - Michael Schulte, Thomas Stengaard, Nisse Ingwersen, Nina Müller

LYRICS - Michael Schulte, Thomas Stengaard, Nisse Ingwersen, Nina Müller

SERBIA

The Serbian Final was held on February 20th at the Sava Centar in Belgrade, hosted by Dragana Kosjerina, Kristina Radenkovic, Branko Veselinovic & Aleksandar Stojanovic. The winner was chosen by televoting (50%) and  jury (50%). Going to Lisbon will be Sanja Ilić & Balkanika with the song “Nova Deca” (New Children)

The staging of the song is quite simple. Firstly, the background is filled with blue, red and white lights and as the song progresses stars appear making it more like a brightly lit up midnight sky. There are 6 members on stage - 2 women clothed is floaty dresses and four men dressed in black. Sanja is stood near the back with a synthesiser, next to him is a drummer whilst the flautist moves around the stage. The other 3 members do most of the vocals although there seems to be backing vocals or possibly use of reverb on the backing track, which may affect the staging going forward.

The song is a more ethereal style of Balkan ballad, almost to the point where one might think this was the Greek entry! The song starts off with one of the female singers warbling in that very Balkan way. The other female singer joins in and they harmonise very well. This lasts almost a whole minute before the male singer begins the main body of the song. It then, quite quickly, goes back to the warbling and you start to wonder how many words there actually are in the song. However it is also at this point in the song that the drums and the beat really kicks in and turns this into a more dancy type number, There is more trilling, some na-na-nej-ing and a bit of sidestepping choreography before going back for a short warbley ending.

At first, I found this entry very very odd. It took me quite a few listens to process what was going on - the different singing styles, changes of pace, the role of each person on stage as well as working out what the song was about. This all said and done this is a rather memorable entry. The bare bones of the whole act is promising, although many things will need looking at. The big question is whether or not more backing singers will be required. If so they will need to replace the non-singing members but this might then bring down the level of performance, unless they can find people who can do two jobs at once. This is going to be quite the balancing act. Looking at its semi, it has a good chance of qualifying as there are a number of friendly Balkan countries in semi 2. Overall I think this is a very interesting entry, with much potential, but don’t see this as a winner.

ARTIST –  Sanja Ilić & Balkanika    

SONG – Nova Deca (New Children)

MUSIC - Sanja Ilić, Tanja Ilić, Danica Krstajić

LYRICS - Sanja Ilić, Tanja Ilić, Danica Krstajić

MONTENEGRO

The Montenegrin Final was held on February 17th at the Hilton Hotel in Podgorica, hosted by Dajana Golubovic & Ivan Maksimovic. The winner was chosen by two rounds of SMS voting - the first to select the top 3 and the second to select the winner. Going to Lisbon is Vanja Radovanovic singing “Inje” (Hoarfrost)

The stage is quite dark and mysterious and Vanja is joined by a pianist on one side and a string trio on the other (although they very oddly did not appear during his main performance, only the reprise – hence the empty chairs!) He is dressed quite smartly in a black suit with intricate golden edging. He wanders about the stage a bit and looks into the camera a bit but seems a little lost and directionless. Behind them all the backdrop is dark with white streaks growing downwards, imitating the spread of the frost Vanja sings about.

The song builds very nicely from a piano introduction. The strings that come in close behind create a very mysterious atmosphere. As he starts singing you wonder if this is going to go more musical theatre but he reins that in quite well. The song doesn’t seem to follow the normal verse/chorus sequence, it feels more like there are a couple of repeated tunes on which the different lyrics are transposed. During the final reprise of the chorus, drums are more prominent which emphasises the build the song has over the three minutes. The ending of the song is very typical of this style of song and punctuates the final seconds of the song in a memorable way.

This is a nice solid Balkan ballad and feels like something different (again) to everything selected for this year’s Eurovision. Vanja seems like a good singer and he seems to have written a decent enough song but there are issues. In a nutshell the whole shebang needs work. The orchestration needs revamping, the staging needs more thought and Vanja really needs to work on his stagecraft.. Having read the lyrics, which are wonderfully poetic, he needs to somehow pin down to the audience what he’s singing about, preferably without becoming a really poor Željko Joksimović tribute act.

I think this would make a very interesting qualifier and in a semi with a couple of close-ish neighbours and Slavic brethren it has a chance of getting a decent vote but I fear this may lose out.

ARTIST – Vanja Radovanovic

SONG – Inje (Hoarfrost)

MUSIC - Vanja Radovanovic

LYRICS - Vanja Radovanovic

BELARUS

The Belarussian Final was held on February 16th at BTRC Studio 600 Metrov in Minsk, hosted by Olga Ryzhikova & Teo. The winner was chosen by televoting (50%) and an "expert" jury (50%). Winning both parts of the vote was Alekseev with the song “Forever”

The singer is alone on stage throughout the whole number. He is dressed in an led suit which lights up in different patterns and colours depending on the part of the song he is singing. The backdrop works in tandem with the suit showing a myriad of monochrome images, shapes and strobing lines. As a concept, this is an interesting one, however I think this is an idea more for those in the hall than on TV. |On a wide shot the effect works fine but on close up it looks far too random and the sight of the bulbs so close up almost ruins the ‘magic’.

The song itself is a smooth contemporary ballad. The tune of the song seems very memorable and the chord progression quite familiar. The repetitive piano accompaniment is something well used in modern pop songs. He starts off singing very very low which really sound at all good but once he gets to the next part he goes up an octave which feels much more comfortable. The chorus also roves a problems as several times during each reprise of it he falls flat on many of the big notes. In addition the lyrics, if not a little banal and written in slightly broken English, is made worse by Alekseev’s poor pronunciation. In fact the part he sings best is the bridge at the 2 min. mark.

One of the many problems one has as a Eurovision fan is that sometimes the back story behind an act can overshadow how you view of the song itself. Alekseev had initially entered this into his homeland national final, Ukraine, but withdrew so he could enter Eurofest in Belarus. Many see this as quite a cowardly and unnerving move especially seeing the pool of acts entering the NF for Belarus was much smaller. Add this to the fact that a Russian language version of this has been available for quite a while might have made this ineligible but yet it still stands. Whatever I may think of the ‘legality’ of the song not much can get past the fact that as good as the song is, it is very badly sung. In addition looking at the other songs and acts in its semi this is vanilla plus with few neighbours to boost its votes they are already on the back foot. If they get through to the final with this I will be very surprised.

ARTIST – Alekseev

SONG – Forever

MUSIC - Kyrylo Pavlov, Evhen Matyushenko

LYRICS - Kyrylo Pavlov, Evhen Matyushenko