Time for another ESC favorite. :-) Another one from 2007, which overall was a very good year for the contest ... despite what some people say. ;-)
This was one of my absolutely top favorites in Helsinki. The winner was actually my favorite that year. Kinda rare. But I so loved this song too. Still do. But of course I did not in any way, shape or form want it to win. Absolutely not. This was the Belarusian entry and Belarus can of course not be permitted to win the ESC ... not under any circumstances ... and I hope I don't have to explain the reasoning behind that opinion. It's great that they participate, though, because this song is just fantastic. I luvz it. :-)
Not only is the song itself so cool, but the presentation as well was a textbook lesson in how this should be done. (Are you getting this, Iceland??) First they made a super cool video :-) that prospective audience members, ie voters, got to see before the event. But that in itself isn't such a big deal ... Switzerland did the same in -07, but ended up looking like complete idiots ... because anyone can make a cool video if they have the resources to do so. My grandma could have made a good video if she'd had a hundred dancers and an unlimited costume budget. The problem is that you can't transfer it to the stage. Under ESC rules you literally can't even try. So Switzerland screwed up, because they did try ... whereas the Belarusian contingent decided to go for something completely different. :-)
Here's the video for the song, check it out:
It's pretty cool, and it works great with the song, but how can you transfer that to a three minute stage presentation where you can't use more than six people maximum, singer and everyone else included? It's simple, you can't. It can't be done. So the Belarusians decided to completely throw out the whole thing and start over ... and you can see below how the song was presented in Helsinki. I loved it. :-)
This is Dima Koldun performing Work Your Magic by Philip Kirkorov and Karen Kavaleryan who competed for Belarus and brought their oppressed nation an alarming 6th place - very appreciated, I'm sure, since they had never before qualified for the final ... and, indeed, haven't done so since either. :-)
Lyrics in English here and in Russian here.
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1 day ago
2 comments:
Loved both videos, and at first I didn't much like Molitva, but by the end of the song I liked it. The ESC sounds cool!
The ESC is very cool. I dig it. :-) I think I'll have to write an explanatory post soon. ;-)
Molitva is the kind of song that grows on you, I think. In 2007, I always believed that it would win. During the final, everyone at the party mocked my faith in it, but sure enough I was right. :-) And I was pretty much the only one there who had taken the time to find and listen to the songs beforehand. So ... you do the math. ;-)
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