I have to confess, I've spent the past hour or so watching the eight finalists from this year's Hungarian national final.
And out of the eight finalists, I must admit that the winner is my favorite.
Compact Disco "The Sound of Our Hearts"
I have one main caveat to my approval for the song, and that's all due to the lead vocalist. Csaba Walkó come doesn't come across in the clip as having enough stage presence and vocal power to pull the song out of being very interesting. He had no camera presence and looks like he's drowning in a jacket two sized too large for him.
It reminds me rather of Lena Meyer-Landrut of Germany a couple of years ago. I though she had no presence or vocal power before making it to the stage in Oslo, and she wound up winning the entire thing, so that analysis must be taken with a grain of salt.
And, she did win the Eurovision Song Contest in 1988.
Yep, the Quebecois chanteuse represented Switzerland with this song:
Céline Dion "Ne Partez Pas Sans Moi"
The suprising thing is ithat she didn't win by a huge margin, as you might think from her current success. She won the contest by only one point over the UK entrant, Scott Fitzgerald. In other words, she won by the smallest margin in Eurovision history.
But she one of the most successful performers to come out of Eurovision and she gains her place as a Eurovisionary. She's just not my idea of one.
I may be offending a lot of people, but I have to ask why the Netherlands sent this song in 1975.
Teach-In "Ding-a-Dong"
Ding-a-Dong is the song won the contest in 1975 and it is the most incidiously infectious and poppy numbers to come out of the contest. I'll even confess that it is probably my favorite winner ever, but I still wish they hadn't sent the song in English. Take a listen to the Dutch version of the song.
Teach-In "Ding-a-Dong" (Dutch version)
In Dutch, the lyrics are a little bit less insipid sounding even if they may translate to the exact same thing in the English version.
It may be my bias, but I enjoy songs that are performed in one of the country's actual languages instead of English, but because pop music equals English in much of the world, Eurovision songs are mostly performed in English.
And with Teach-In, I can live with the English version. Yet I still wish they had performed the song in Dutch in the actual contest.
Both Austria and Ireland chose the songs they're sending to the Eurovision Song Contest this pas weekend, and considering they sent both sent male duos, I figured I'd put them together in one post for comparison and contrast
Ireland's Eurovision Final too place on RTÉ's The Late Late Show, where five acts were presented. And for the second year running, Jedward won the chance to represent the Emerald Isle
Jedward "Waterline"
I have to admit, this song from Jedward was a disappointment. Last year's Irish song, Lipstick, was not the best song, but it was high energy and entertaining. This song is a bad retread, and really highlights how mediocre the brothers are as singers, but after watching the other four songs competing, I can understand how they won again.
I just can't see them coming in eighth, like they did in last year's contest, though.
Austria, on the other hand, has taken over the "so tasteless it's good" spot Jedward had last year with their entrant
Trackshittaz "Woki mit deim popo"
Arguments can be made against the song quite easily. It's tasteless. It's sexist. It's tacky. And I can agree with those arguments. However, I have to admit I love it for those reasons--it's so different than anything we've seen so far in the contest. It's high energy, fun, and quite honestly, hilarious.
Who doesn't like a song that translates into English as "Shake Your Ass".
I just hope the rest of the countries enjoy the joke as well and it does well in the contest. Austria's great when it does funny.
Ten countries submitted songs to this contest-the seven from 1956 along with Austria, Denmark, and the United Kingdom. The contest was broadcast from Frankfurt am Main, Germany and each country performed one song, supposed to clock in at a time of three minutes.
The problem is that a number of countries didn't follow that rule, and this contest set records for song length.
Nunzio Gallo "Corde Delle Mia Chitarra" Italy
Italy's Nunzio Gallo sang a song that lasted 5 minutes and 9 seconds, the longest song ever performed at the Eurovision Song Contest, and was cited as the reason that a strict 3 minute rule has been in place since.
But Nunzio's longwinded song was balanced out by the United Kingdom's entrant
Patricia Bredin "All"
Coming in at only 1 minute and 52 seconds, it's the shortest song ever performed in the Eurovision Song Contest.
But there's a story even more importantly to Eurovision lore, the first scandal associated with the contest happened in the performance of one of the songs.
Birthe Wilke and Gustav Winckler "Skibet skal sejle i nat"
But none of these were the winner, with the juries--ten listeners in each country selecting their favorite song--favored the Dutch song by a margin of almost two to one margin.
Corry Brokken "Nel als toen"
And suprisingly, Alaska's Choice is the same as the juries. If fact our top three were identical to the juries, with Paule Desjardins from France coming second and the kissing Danes third. I guess it proves there is some kinship between the 49th State and Europe.
So congratulations to the Netherlands and their win. I can't wait to find out who we choose as the winner in 1958...
Latvia has been unsuccessful over the past few years at the Eurovison Song Contest. They've been consistently sending songs that are distinctly non-Eurovision friendly, and this year is no different.
Anmary "Beautiful Song"
Musically, it's a country song that has had the banjos, guitars, and mandolins replaced by an electronic piano and a drum machine. The song itself is a story song, with the lyrics being the most important aspect of the song--something that flies in the face of most Eurovision songs, which are based on a rollicking beat and musical gymnastics combined with rather simple, catchy lyrics. The story song combined with Anmary's use of the country keen makes this one of the most interesting songs to come out of the contest.
Does this mean it's going to succeed? No. This song will unlikely to appeal enough in any other country to get out of the semifinals. Is this the part of Latvian tastes or the desire of the Latvian broadcaster to send an unwinnable song to the contest? Who knows.
I'm keeping with the Scandinavian theme with the Icelandic entry for the Eurovision Song Contest. As you may well know from earlier posts, I've had more than a passing interest in Iceland's contest this year.
So why don't we take a look at the song that won.
Gréta Salóme and Jónsi "Mundu eftir mér"
The voting was rather close in Iceland, and this song is a rather dark, pop number, rather reminiscent of a countrified Evanescence. It's not fantastic, but it's not half bad either.
But then again, I keep getting distracted by Jónsi. The dude is wearing a string tie.
In Iceland, string ties may be hip and cool, but in the states, the most famous string tie wearer is the gentleman pictured below:
Harland "Colonel" Sanders--founder of Kentucky Fried Chicken
Countries keep selecting their entrants for the Eurovision Song Contest, and I've become lax in posting up in the blog.
But anyway, Norway chose their entrant last weekend, and the Iranian-Norwegian singer Tooji won with his song "Stay".
It's a solid, if rather heavy club song, well performed and choreographed. But it does sound like a knockoff of last year's Swedish entry
Tooji himself has stage presence and is very easy on the eyes, which will help him as well. In other words, it's likely to do well.
Personally, I'm not wild about the song. I doubt I'd listen to it more than once or twice before skipping over it. I dislike the musical pandering to Eastern Europe in the opening and the hard pumping club beat that is the basis of the song is totally not my thing.
Usually, I'm all aboard on the Ukraine's entry. Ruslana's winning song back in 2004 is one of my guilty pleasure winners of the song contest and the campy delights of Verka Seduchka really should not be missed. Even Ukrainian entrants that aren't as successful are still pretty decent in my book, like the protest song by GreenJolly.
With that said, let's take a listen to Ukraine's entrant from last year.
Mika Newton "Angel"
Yep, it's the one with the awesome sand animation. I have to hand it to the Ukrainian Eurovision producers. They took a pretty singer with middling talent and no stage presence singing an uninspired ballad about angels while wearing a dress with chicken feathers glued to the shoulders and turned it into something memorable enough to place fourth.
But honestly, would you have paid attention to the song had it not been for Kseniya Simonova's artistry? Doubtful.
But imagine my chagrin when I discovered one of my favorite Eurovision songs of 2011 was passed over for BrzezinskiOlivia.
Jamala "Smile"
I admit I'm a fan of quirk, so Jamala's "Smile" is definitely up my alley. But just based on stage presence and vocal ability, Jamala should have won the contest.
But the final was marred by voter irregularities, so I shouldn't really be surprised that a less worthy song happened to be sent to Düsseldorf. And it's a shame, because Jamala would have gone down very well among my group of Eurovision fans...
I know what your thinking. "Who is Domenico Modungo?"
But just take a listen to the song he performed for Italy in 1958 and you can figure out why his is most assuredly "Eurovisionary".
Domenico Modugno "Nel blu dipinto di blu"
Yes, that's right, Domenico Modugno sand the song most people know as "Volare", and is arguably the most successful Eurovision song in the United States.
It was released in the US after the performance of the song contest hitting the top of the Billboard charts in August of that year of 1958, becoming the first foreign language song ever to do so.
The most amazing thing is that "Volare" didn't win the Song Contest that year, coming in third losing to both the French and Swiss entrants, perhaps one of the most egregious discrepancies in the Song Contest.
But because of his success internationally, combined with the fact it's a standard is most every Italian restaurant I've been in, definitely makes Modugno a "Eurovisionary".
I will say this without much hesitation, I was looking forward to the French entry. In recent Eurovision memory, France sends interesting songs, be it the popera of Amaury Vassili, the electronic art pop of Sebastien Tellier, or the stylings of chanteuse Patricia Kaas.
And when France Télévisions announcement that Anggun was their internal selection to represent France in 2012, I was intrigued, since Anggun is not only from Indonesia, a novelty for Eurovision, but has had international success, especially with her song "Snow on the Sahara", which made the US Billboard Charts.
Anggun "Echoes (You and I)"
But after listening to the song a couple of times, all I can say is I'm left a little bit flat. She's got a powerful voice, the hard rock guitars introducing the song are great, the thumping dance beat and the whistling are good, and there's a unique key change. Yet somehow, putting all these things together has just left me flat.
Really, how the song will place is going to be dependant on the performance on the night of the show. If she is able to put on a complete show in the three minutes of time she has onstage, this will be up towards the top of the board. Otherwise, it's just another forgettable Eurovision song.
In other words, I'l looking forward to this performance on the night of the finals.
Who would have thought that from humble beginnings as a radio program in the mid 1950s, the Eurovision Song Contest would go on to enthrall people throughout the world?
Yet somehow, the idea of Marcel Benzençon, a Swiss telecommunications manager, of creating a "light entertainment program" in the style of the San Remo Song Festival, that could be broadcast to all the member nations of the European Broadcasting Union back in 1955 had continued to this day.
The first Eurovison Song Contest was much different than the current spectacle. Instead of the 43 countries participating in this year's contest, only 7 countries competed in Lugano, Switzerland, each entering two songs.
After all 14 songs were performed, the judges--two for each country--voted, selecting:
Lys Assia "Refrain" Switzerland
Unfortunately, the rest of the placings are unknown, the results of the voting never released, so we have no idea who actually won the contest.
However, when a group of Alaska's voted, poor Lys was left out in the cold--coming in fourth place.
A score sheet was sent out to a number of Alaskans along with a link to the fourteen songs in running order. They were asked to score the songs on both performance and lyrics on a scale from one to ten, with the worst score being 2 and the best being 20.
The results of the poll brought a very different winner.
Freddy Quinn "So geht das jede Nacht" Germany
Freddy's song was the the only song that was popular with all the voters, scoring well with all the judges. So, congratulations to Germany and Freddy Quinn, the first Alaska's Choice in the Eurovision Song contest.
But don't feel too sorry for Lys Assia. She's still around, in fact she entered this year's Swiss finals with this number.
Lys Assia "C'était ma vie"
She didn't win, but you have to admire her chutzpah.
While it seems to be well received, it's a generic dance tune that can be heard every Friday night at the local gay bar. The lip syncing and auto tuning on the song make me wonder if the girl can actually sing. But if she can sing--I assume for being somewhat successful in the Greek version of "The X Factor"--and they can pull together an interesting performance around here, it might very well make the finals.
