This section I'm going to call the "sacrificial lambs". These are songs that deserved to do much better than they did, but due to placement in the running order they got lost in the shuffle.
The best example of this is the starting song in the contest.
Amandine Bourgeois "L'enfer et moi" France
SVT put Ms. Bourgeois in the starting position of the contest with her very French song. Her pitch perfect performance was the best way for the contest to start out, and she killed it. And gave a rather nice Tina Turner impersonation in her leather fringe dress.
Problem is was she was forgotten. Bourgeois landed in 23rd place, gaining almost all of her paltry 14 points from the microstate of San Marino.
The same thing could be said for the song that SVT placed three songs after Ms. Bourgeois.
After watching the semifinal, I had pegged the Finnish entry as a possible dark horse to win the contest.
The last of my "sacrificial lambs" is one that I could see being argued with more, the song from Iceland.
Problem is was she was forgotten. Bourgeois landed in 23rd place, gaining almost all of her paltry 14 points from the microstate of San Marino.
The same thing could be said for the song that SVT placed three songs after Ms. Bourgeois.
After watching the semifinal, I had pegged the Finnish entry as a possible dark horse to win the contest.
Krista Sigfrieds "Marry Me" Finland
But being placed as the first upbeat number in the contest meant that it was forgotten by the end, getting a few votes from around Europe and wound up 24th.
(I know many people would think it's because of the "lesbian" kiss at the end, but had this been placed in the last six songs of the contest, that "controversy" would have have been a moot point.)
The last of my "sacrificial lambs" is one that I could see being argued with more, the song from Iceland.
Eyþór Ingi Gunnlaugsson "Ég á líf" Iceland
Mr. Gunnlaugsson ballad was placed after the winner and in my mind he performed the song better than the winning song. But unfortunately, being after the "fan favorite" meant that he was was going to get the unfair comparisons or completely ignored by the people still swooning over Denmark.
Iceland wound up in 17th place with points coming from all over "Western" Europe. with a song that is, in my opinion, much more appealing.
Ah, the sacrificial lambs. I hope to goodness that the EBU goes back to the previous, random, drawing of song places. What makes for a good show is really subjective and I prefer the idea of randomness giving the songs a chance to be placed in prime spots in the show, not the machinations of a few producers.
No comments:
Post a Comment