CROATIA 2010 - Lako je sve

Croatia is a country I really want to like in the ESC, because a good friend of mine lives there - she's Croatian, from Zagreb - and it's such a beautiful country ... but I had a hard time doing so for a while, they've sent such middling songs. Just ... meh. Or worse, of course. ;-) But then in Belgrade their entry was SO amazing ... !!! I just love that song so much, it is so beautiful and so incredibly charming. I love it. :-) And their song last year was wonderful too. So my hopes were much higher this year.

These were somewhat shaken when I realized the performers would be the girl group with perhaps the dumbest name evar - Feminnem. (I mean, what is that?!) They performed the Bosnian song in 2005 ... in English, brr. This year they're singing in Croatian, fortunately. ;-) But where was I.

Oh yeah - it's a good song. :-) Actually a very good song. A beautiful melody. The contest is just flooded with ballads this year ... too many, IMO, it's difficult to keep them apart. Ballads are traditionally a hard sell in the ESC, and I think it's going to be even more difficult this year, partly because of the voting system and partly because it's just so many of them. But this one really ought to stand out. A lovely melodious song, performed with good voices and a lot of feeling. The official video is pretty screwy, but we're not going to be watching that, so hopefully that won't matter. :-) I just hope the performance on stage won't be too weird. Fingers crossed. :-)

A very pretty ballad that should definitely get to the final. Here's hoping. :-) This is Feminnem (shudder) performing Lako je sve by Branimir Mihaljević, Pamela Ramljak and Neda Parmać. They will be competing for Croatia on Thursday, May 27th.



Lyrics with translation here.

For those of you who are interested, check out my Youtube channel - there was a concert tonight in City Hall Square where seven of the entries were performed, and I was of course there and recorded most of it. :-) Three videos are up now, and more will be uploaded soon ... and there are more of these concerts planned, so check back, I'll be adding a bunch more videos. :-) It was really fun to see the entries performed on this pretty tiny stage, and people had a great time, so stop by if you get the chance. :-) You can see the program here.

CYPRUS 2010 - Life Looks Better in Spring

This is the kind of song that about which I really feel the less said, the better. Cyprus has been sending some good songs the past few years, but, what can I say, not this year. The first time I heard this song, though, I thought I might like it ... but I was soon disenchanted. It opens pretty well ... OK, yet another ballad, but still, kind of understated and sweet. But then the chorus starts. Oy vey.

Seriously ... what were these people thinking?? Tell me, tell me about your feelings? WTF is that about?? This is 2010. I don't understand how someone can write lyrics like these and keep a straight face. It almost makes me think it must be some kind of joke. o_O

Other than that, the song is OK ... nothing special, and won't get to the final, but apart from the horrendous lyrics, nothing much wrong with it. It gets pretty repetitive, and the presentation of it in the national final was yawn-inducingly boring ... and the song really is far too standard and safe to get anywhere in this contest.

Tell me about your feelings ... !! Bah, humbug!!

This is Jon Lilygreen & the Islanders - sheesh - performing Life Looks Better in Spring by Nasos Lambrianides and Melis Konstantinou. They will be competing on Thursday, May 27th.



Crappy lyrics here.

BULGARIA 2010 - Angel si ti

Bulgaria can generally be relied on to suck beyond belief in the ESC. They debuted in 2005 with something completely horrendous that I've fortunately mostly succeeded in blocking from my mind ... and they've for the most part continued this tradition since. In 2008 they suddenly came up with something fun and different and pretty cool ... but of course it didn't last. They managed to place surprisingly well in 2007, 5th place with something really weird, but strangely catchy. That, however, is the only time they've even managed to qualify for the final. It's a weird country, ESC-wise. This year ... ?

This year they have IMO risen above their usual standards, although this entry is nowhere near the best and probably won't qualify. But it doesn't suck. :-) Unfortunately the performance in the national final was atrocious ... check it out below ... it has weird choreography, the singer wears an awful outfit (I hate his t-shirt so much) and they ought to get an award for Most Extreme Overuse of Wind Machine. So it's an OK song presented really badly. His voice isn't half bad - I gotta tell you, this song is SO much better on CD. ;-) It does get rather repetitive and isn't very hummable ... so no prizes for Bulgaria this year, but nothing to be ashamed of either.

This is Miroslav Kostadinov performing Angel si ti that he cowrote with Mihail Mihailov. Serious props for writing it himself. They will be competing on Thursday, May 27th.



Lyrics with translation here.

Ooh, and happy Draw Muhammed Day!! I can't draw for shit, or else I would have made a drawing. But here's an interesting post about someone else's drawing and what someone said about it.

Constitution Day 2010

A few pictures from Monday. I took strangely few pictures this year. But there will be a video pretty soon. :-)

25% flag waving fail.

100% flag waving fail!

But they finally got it right. ;-)

Part of our delicious feast ... and look, what a beautiful bouquet of flowers KAS had decorated with.

Toasting Norway and birthday girl AudiX78 in my traditional May 17th jello. ;-)

IRELAND 2010 - It's For You

YAY for Ireland ... !!! :-D

The Irish are the most-winningest nation ;-) in ESC history ... they have won a record seven times, four of which were in the 90s and three of these again were in consecutive years. It was a difficult decade for RTÉ. :-) However, those days are rather long gone, and for the past ten years or so Ireland has been really struggling. I'm sure we can all agree that the low point was the singing turkey doll. Brr.

I'm not going to go into the details of why & how it's been going so badly for Ireland in recent years BUT it would now appear that they have figured it out for themselves. This year the Irish song is so good ... !!! I was so happy when I first heard it - finally I can like the Irish entry again ... ! ;-) Major kudos for making a serious effort and sending something to be really proud of once again.

Before you say anything, yes, this is totally our song. I mean, there's always accusations of plagiarism being bandied about, but this is hardly even plagiarism ... this is just out and out the same song. o_O It is our song, too, not theirs - we chose ours more than a month before they had their national final. ;-) But it's really interesting. The similarities between these two songs are so striking, yet the less original one - the most recent choice - is the best one. :-)

Two reasons - partly the ethnic element, ie, the Irish entry has a bit of an Irish sound to it, the flutes and what not, whereas there is nothing Norwegian about the Norwegian song. If you didn't know it you'd never guess it was ours ... it could have come from pretty much any participating country. Well, most of them. ;-) Mainly though it's thanks to the singer. Try listening to the Norwegian entry first, and then the Irish. You may think that Didrik is a really good singer ... but you'll be cured of that delusion the moment the Irish singer opens her mouth. ;-)

In the last post I couldn't find anything I liked about the entry; in this one I can't find anything I don't like. There are some problems which may make it difficult for this song to do really well - it's a ballad, so it may get lost in all the other ballads this year, although it's certainly one of the very best of the bunch. Performing 12th in the second semifinal isn't going to help. We have one thing on the Irish ... our singer is a young hot guy whereas theirs is kind of a middle-aged woman. With a lot of young people watching & voting, he's a safer ticket than she is. But she is such a wonderful singer. Amazing voice, fantastic technique, great stage presence, she's perfect! :-)

Yay for Ireland this year and fingers crossed. :-)

This is the brilliant Niamh Kavanagh - who performed Ireland's winning entry in 1993, so she really knows what she's doing - singing It's For You by ... another bunch of Swedes, mostly. Lina Eriksson, Jonas Gladnikoff, Mårten Eriksson and Niall Mooney. They're everywhere ... !! This talented quartet will be competing for Ireland on Thursday, May 27th. Good luck to ye!!



Lyrics here.

Funny not-quite-story from real life: I brought the CDs to KAS and trilltrall's house yesterday and we listened to all the songs while we ate ourselves into a coma. trilltrall had never heard this entry before yesterday and he is a staunch Didrik supporter ... you may remember that he refused to wear black for Keep of Kalessin when we all watched the national final together. :-D He was really quite shocked by this entry. He wants to officially call foul on Didrik's behalf. :-D

But it's all to the good, because we don't want to win, remember?? ;-)

SLOVENIA 2010 - Narodnozabavni Rock

Ah, Slovenia ... fifteen participations, middling results, up until the past few years when they for some reason started bombing almost every year. Weirdly, IMO, because I've really liked most of their entries the past few years. The worse they do, the more I like them ... ;-)

Seriously, though, they are clearly doing something wrong as far as the rest of Europe is concerned, and I'm afraid they're only continuing the trend this year. They're trying to mix rock and folk music elements, and while that can be fun sometimes, it totally fails here. In pretty much every conceivable way. The tune maybe could have been fun, but nah, it's just annoying. The flips back and forth between one style and the other doesn't work at all, the two styles don't mesh well at all and the costumes, well, the least said the better. Ethnic elements are one thing, and I know that they like that a lot down east, but seriously ... if that's what people are looking for then Serbia blows this thing totally out of the water.

This song in itself isn't hopelessly bad, but there are so many elements that combine here and not a single one of them works out, so it's just ... It's just a lost cause this year for the Slovenians. This is the kind of entry that really makes you think that if this was the best they could come up with for their national contest, then what the hell were the other entries like. And then you think that you really don't want to know ... ;-)

Anyway, see for yourselves. I challenge you to find one good thing about this entry. :-) This is Ansambel Roka Žlindre & Kalamari performing Narodnozabavni Rock by Marino Legovič and Leon Oblak ... they will be competing for Slovenia on Thursday, May 27th. Never to be seen again. >:-)



Lyrics with translation here.

Ooh, I solved my own challenge! They're singing in Slovene, I applaud that. :-) But one more thing? Anyone?

Gratulerer med dagen!!!

Norway, thine is our devotion,
Land of hearth and home,
Rising storm-scarr'd from the ocean,
Where the breakers foam.
Oft to thee our thoughts are wending,
Land that gave us birth,
And to saga nights still sending
Dreams upon our earth,
And to saga nights still sending
Dreams upon us on our earth

Men of Norway, be your dwelling
Cottage, house or farm,
Praise the Lord who all compelling
Sav'd our land from harm.
Not the valour of a father
On the battlefield
Nor a mother's tears, but rather
God our vict'ry sealed,
Nor a mother's tears, but rather
God for us our vict'ry sealed.

Norway, thine is our devotion,
Land of hearth and home,
Rising storm-scarr'd from the ocean,
Where the breakers foam.
As our fathers' vict'ry gave it
Peace for one and all,
We shall rally, too, to save it
When we hear the call,
We shall rally, too, to save it
When we hear, we hear the call.

Ca 1864.
Lyrics by Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson.
Music by Rikard Nordraak.
Translation unknown.