ROMANIA 2010 - Playing With Fire

Romania is one of my favorite countries in the ESC. They've sent some really wonderful songs. Especially in 2005 and 2006, I just loved their entries both those years. Still do. :-) So I'm always looking forward to seeing what they'll come up with. And I'm of course extra happy to see their entry this year, since it has a Norwegian element. And not just any 'element' ...

Ovi Martin is Romanian but has grown up in Norway, and he really loves the ESC ... he's been in our national contest twice, with some pretty good songs. Last year he almost made it ... he got through to the last round ... but of course our little hobbit was totally unbeatable. ;-) But he really wants to be in the show ... !! And this year he's kind of made it. It isn't his own song, but at least he's performing it. And it must be so cool for him to be performing the Romanian song on stage here in Norway. Kudos to Ovi ... !! :-D

And what's even better is that the song is good too. I like this entry a lot ... it has a great beat and is really catchy, and it's a relief to see a good uptempo quick song in this sea of ballads. I really like this combination of singers too ... these two look good together, they've got chemistry and their voices work really well together. I think that how well this song will do is going to depend to a large extent on the presentation. The song itself has a lot of potential, but the performance needs to look good too. Fingers crossed that they'll do something classy with it ... !! :-)

This is Paula Seling and Ovi Martin performing Playing With Fire by Ovidiu Cernăuţeanu. He will be competing for Romania on Thursday, May 27th. Good luck!! :-)



Lyrics here.

Two years and counting ... !!

Yes, believe it or not, today it's actually been two years since I started this blog. That is a slightly scary thought ... time goes really quickly. Maybe best not to think about it. ;-)

In these two years I've written, let me see ... 1,074 posts. This will be the 1,075th. Really best not to think about that ... !!

I'm sure no one else had any earthly idea that this anniversary was coming up ... I'd actually forgotten it myself up until the day before yesterday. (Hey, it's progress - the first anniversary I totally forgot until almost a week after it had been and gone. ;-) But even so I got a fantastic present today. The absolutely wonderful BookCrosser Travelina gave me wings on BookCrossing.com - doesn't that sound like total nonsense?? :-D OK, what it is is that there are two kinds of membership over on BC - regular membership, which is free, and 'members plus' which you have to pay a little money for ... only $5 for a month, but still, it adds up ... this is called 'wings' by almost all the members over there because that's what it was originally called, and management hasn't been able to make us stop using that term. ;-)

Anyway ... this afternoon I suddenly discovered that I had wings again. Go over there and look at my name, you'll see little dragonfly wings around it. I went to my profile to check the dates (you can see when your wings will expire, if you're logged in) and was confused at first ... Members Plus expires on May 15th, but that's today? How can I have wings for one day? o_O Then I noticed the year ... 2011! :-o Wings for a whole year, that's $30 ... I think that is incredibly kind of her to do that for me. Totally made my day. :-)

Thank you so much, Travelina!!! :-)

We now return you to your regularly scheduled programming. Next up, Romania!!

THE NETHERLANDS 2010 - Ik ben verliefd (Sha-la-lie)

The Dutch entry. I don't know what to say. Welcome to 1968?

I really have absolutely zero idea what they were thinking when they picked this entry. It almost makes you think it's a joke, doesn't it? I mean, it's ... I don't know. I really don't know what this is. o_O

I have to say that I truly pity this singer ... I don't know why they are putting a 17-year-old through this. (I know, she doesn't look 17 ... !!) This song was chosen in a way that is quite foreign to us Norwegians - the song was picked first, by the NPO, AFAIK, not by vote ... and then the vote was to choose which of five singers would perform it. This poor girl won. I'm sorry, 'won'. There was a huge backlash against the song and the singer really caught it ... but the tide of public opinion turned, fortunately, and the song's become a big hit. But that's because people are feeling sorry for her, I'm afraid ... not because of the qualities of the song. Which are ... what, exactly?

I'm tempted to say non-existent. I mean, it's a fun song ... I guess ... it's uptempo and catchy. But it's like a time warp back to ca 1970. I didn't know people were writing songs like this any more. And I think it's completely crazy that they're sending this to the contest in 2010. I don't know what they think they're doing. Again, it's like a joke. This song might have done really well 40 years ago, but parts of the world have moved on since then.

They may get some votes from older viewers in the West who get nostalgic about their youth when they hear this. But that may still translate to nil points. And it will be well deserved, if so. >:-(

This is the unfortunate Sieneke performing Ik ben verliefd (Sha-la-lie) by the clearly sadistic Pierre Kartner. He will be competing for the Netherlands on Thursday, May 27th, and he ought to be ashamed of himself.



Lyrics with translation here.

UKRAINE 2010 - Sweet People

Ah, Ukraine ... perhaps the most schizo participant in the ESC. They send some great entries, some bizarre entries, and some embarrassingly shitty entries ... sorry, but last year was really a low point. Their results have, unsurprisingly, varied greatly. However, they have also won the whole shebang ... and that was only on their second try. So, you never know what to expect from the Ukrainians.

This year ... this year I'm in two minds about their entry. In a way it's good, I like it a lot, but on the other hand there are problems with it too that I think will be a stumbling block for Ukraine this year.

The song is interesting, it's quite original and I applaud their efforts to stand out from the crowd. The theme of the song is good, not just the usual love & heartbreak stuff. The singer is pretty standard ... a pretty blonde with a low-cut dress ... but she gives a good performance, and her voice is unusual, it has a lot of character. The problem with the song is that it's rather unmelodious ... it has a difficult melody that I think may be too ambitious for the ESC audience. It took me a while to like it, I had to listen to it a few times. But, alas, the voters won't have that luxury. I think the majority aren't like me and don't know half the songs by heart weeks before the event. ;-) So although I like the song and I'm impressed with their level of ambition, I'm not sure it'll do very well. I hope it does, fingers crossed ... but I think it's immediate appeal isn't really there. But we'll see. The professional juries will probably react very favorably to this song, and hopefully their input will be enough to push this song into a good score. :-)

This is Alyosha performing Sweet People by Borys Kukoba, Olena Kucher and Vadim Lisitsa. They will be competing for Ukraine on Thursday, May 27th.



Lyrics here.

AZERBAIJAN 2010 - Drip Drop

This song is one of the major favorites this year. I'm afraid I don't quite see that. I like it, I do, it's a good entry ... I just don't think it's up there with the best this year. Azerbaijan hasn't been competing for long, this will only be their third year, and they've done very well for themselves so far. No doubt they will do so again this year, but I don't think (and I actually don't hope) that they'll make it all the way.

Good things about this song are, let's see ... the melody's good, it has a catchy tune for a ballad, the singer has a good voice. Technically there's nothing really wrong with it. Bad English, but what do you expect from Azerbaijan. ;-) The one big problem with this song is the presentation. But that really is a big problem. I mean, seriously, take a look at it. WTF is that shit about?? That is a pretty screwed up outfit and a very screwed up choreography.

What it looks like is that someone needs to explain to Team Azerbaijan that when the rules say no more than six people on stage, the key phrase is no more than ... it doesn't mean that you have to have six people. So just fire that choreographer and get rid of those so-called dancers. Brrr.

This is Safura performing Drip Drop by Anders Bagge, Stefan Örn and Sandra Bjurman. These three Swedes will, somewhat absurdly, compete for Azerbaijan on Thursday, May 27th.



Lyrics here.

SWITZERLAND 2010 - Il pleut de l'or

'It's raining gold' ...

It may not actually end up doing so, but this entry really deserves to do well. The Swiss have been sending some pretty good entries in recent years - I absolutely love their song from 2008 - but have been doing badly nevertheless. A little ESC mystery there. It means that even though IMO they should have zero problems getting to the final with this song, I may be wrong. I thought the same about Paolo Meneguzzi.

Anyway ... I like this song. I like it a lot. It's catchy, has a great beat, I love that it's in French ... the singer's not your usual standard-issue pretty boy (check out his ears! :-D) ... it's very melodious, it's ambitious, there's just nothing wrong with this song. It has the potential to do really really well ... and I for one seriously hope that it will. I like it more and more every time I hear it. Fingers crossed for Switzerland ... !! :-)

I would think that the new voting system will work in this song's favor. It has a lot of energy and could well get people to reach for their cell phones while they're listening. Here's hoping. :-)

This is Michael von der Heide performing Il pleut de l'or which he cowrote with Pele Lorriano, Heike Kospach and André Grüter. Good luck to them when they compete on Thursday, May 27th.

A live performance here, nothing freaky about that ...



But here's the official video - lightsabers ahoy ... !! o_O



Lyrics with translation here.

DENMARK 2010 - In A Moment Like This

I am torn about the Danish entry this year. I like it ... I've been listening to it quite a lot, it's great as, well, pleasant background music. ;-) So I'm kind of hard pressed to find something to find something bad to say about this song ... it's the kind of entry that I can really say nothing much against, but on the other hand it doesn't have much in the way of personality or originality either. It's a completely standard pop song, and while there's nothing wrong with that as such, 'pleasant background music' isn't really what tends to garner the points in this contest.

The one word I would use to describe this song would probably be 'safe' ... if I was able to use just one word. ;-)

Ooh, there is one negative thing I can say about it, actually. The stage names of the performers are totally lame-brained ... especially his. Seriously, give us some credit.

This is Chanée and N'Evergreen - yeah, right - performing In A Moment Like This by Henrik Sethsson, Erik Bernholm and, take note, Thomas G:son. Bringing out the big guns, but not to much effect. I would actually kind of like to see this song do really really well, because it was originally entered in Sweden, but wasn't accepted there, the Swedish selection jury didn't like it. And then it won in Denmark. :-D So it would be fun if it placed really well, but, meh, it won't.



Go here to see it in full screen ... or anything other than partial screen. :-)

Lyrics here.