Tuesday, May 11, 2010

ISRAEL 2010 - Milim

Israel ... often a supposed favorite in recent years, but has usually failed to live up to these expectations. I really don't know how they'll do this year. Their entry is good, quality work, no question ... and kudos for singing in Hebrew ... but it's also a ballad, so that makes it more difficult right there, and it's, I don't know, in some ways quite anonymous. I've listened to it a dozen times but I couldn't hum it now to save my life. Ballads can do very well in the ESC, but they have to have a hook, something that makes them instantly memorable, and IMO this song lacks that. But it's a beautiful melody and the fact that voting will begin from the start of the show this year will unquestionably work in this song's favor.

The performance was plain and unremarkable in the national final, I wonder if they'll be changing that ... if not, that'll again be making it less memorable. But it's a good song and the performance is sincere and emotional, which we know the Easterners like, so that may be good. ;-) But I have to ask one thing - WTF is up with his hair?? o_O

This is Harel Skaat performing Milim by Tomer Hadadi and Noam Horev. They will be competing on Thursday, May 27th.



Lyrics with translation here.

2 comments:

pipsa said...

A nice powerful ballad, but I guess it's been too short a time since Molitva won.
Don't know whether it's the ESC entries this year or just me, but I really cannot find a favourite! Not a single song fascinates me enough, none of them have stuck to my intracranial jukebox. It's starting to look like a really disappointingly mediocre year...

Leisha Camden said...

It's generally harder for ballads to win, always, but they can win if they have that extra something, which this song doesn't IMO. I agree about the general lineup this year ... there are no (or very few ;-) serious stinkers, but there also aren't really any entries that jump out at you. I really like some of the songs now, but that's because I've been listening to them for a week. :-) Very few instant favorites.

What I will say though that is good about this year is that we're getting some quality entries from countries that I for my part was about to give up on. I mean, three of the Big Four are sending really good songs this year. Yay for Germany, especially. :-) So that's good, definitely. :-)