Saturday, April 10, 2010

POLAND 2010 - Legenda

The first time I saw this entry, it was the official video version ... and I was not impressed, to say the least. Weirdly, when I then looked at the live version, from the national finals, the entry was much better. The singer's voice is better and the song even seems more melodious. Weirdness. But I guess that means that the song may have a better chance live than what one might initially assume. :-)

That doesn't mean it has much of a chance, though. I'm not really sure I can say what exactly is wrong with it, but I don't see it scoring very highly. The singer's not too bad, although I don't agree with the extreme praise of his voice that I've come across a few places. The lyrics are kind of stupid ... but what do I expect from Poland, right? ;-) The chorus is pretty good, I like the chorus. But it isn't very catchy - the pretty good-ness just lasts while I'm listening to it, five minutes later I can't hum it for shit. So ... I question whether this will stick in the minds of the audience. However, with the new voting system in place, that will matter much less, of course. The new system will be to the advantage of songs like this one, that aren't very memorable but not at all too bad then and there.

This is far from the worst we've heard from Poland, and it's not entirely without some originality and creativity. I don't think it'll be the worst we'll see this year. :-) But I can't see it getting more than mediocre results. Nothing really wrong with it, but it's also not memorable. So ... meh. Check out the difference between live and video though, that's pretty unusual. :-)

This is Marcin Mroziński performing Legenda, composed by the man himself and with lyrics by Marcin Nierubiec. These two namesakes will be competing in Telenor Arena in Bærum outside of Oslo on Tuesday, May 25th, 2010.



This is the official video. It has some moments that for some reason remind me of Twilight. Not a good thing, obviously.



Lyrics here.

Today's post is an ESC review because it's about damn time, and I chose Poland's as the entry to review today because it would then also give me a good opportunity to say how shocked and saddened I am by the terrible tragedy that has struck the Polish nation today. I could hardly believe it when I first heard about it earlier today. It sounded like something that could only happen in a Hollywood movie. But sometimes the truth is worse than fiction. My sympathies and condolences to the Polish people, and not least to all those already touched by the dreadful events at Katyn so many years ago. This is all just so horrible that it's hard to believe it's true. My deepest condolences. :-(

1 comment:

pipsa said...

Sorry to say, but I can't remember ever liking a Polish ESC entry.. It has to be said that the Marcins have made a good job with this one though, I can see it making it to the final (part of the votes being sympathy votes..?). Funny how these fairytale (no pun intended) based songs with powerful folk music feeling have arisen in the recent years. Kinda makes the competition more interesting as not everyone's trying to invent the same Euro-pop song, but if I see one more Ruslana-type act with loads of drums and swirling on the stage, I'll puke.