Eurovision 2013: The Aftermath (part two)

After taking care of the discussion of the winning song, I can move on to things that are much more interesting.

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.

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.

Eurovision 2013: Iceland



Iceland chose their representative to the Eurovision Song contest back on February 2nd, in the fabulously named Söngvakeppnin 2013.

Nordic graphic design.  Awesome.

Like many countries, RÚV, the Icelandic national broadcaster, decided to cut back on their national finals, with only two semifinals leading to the national final, which is quite understandable. 

For most Eurovision watchers, the biggest surprise was the failure of Yohanna, the singer of one of the most successful Icelandic Eurovision entries, making it out of the first semifinal.

 

Yohanna  "Þú"

 

And although I'm surprised to say this, I have to agree.  Although I have a soft spot for former contestants trying again, this song wasn't good.  It's a lousy song, and to use a cliche "you can't make a silk purse out of a sow's ear".  

 

 



The Winner

 



 

 

Eyþór Ingi Gunnlaugsson  "Ég á Líf"

 

 

I have to say I like this song, although the look of the singer and the song don't match.  Gunnlaugsson looks like he's out of a heavy metal band, but his song is a simple ballad that pulls from Celtic folk and church music. 

 

It's very reminiscent of this song, entered in Söngvakeppnin 2012, which happened to be my favorite in last years Icelandic Eurovision selection process.

 

 

 

Íris Lind Verudóttir  "Aldrei segja aldrei"

 

As for it's success in Malmö, I can't really say one way or the other, and right now it is really all down to Gunnlaugsson's appearance.

 

Right now his look is very odd--the long hair and the beard matched with the shiny suit don't feel modern at all and made me do a double take when I saw it was the winner of this year's contest.  It immediately made me think of songs like this:

 



 

Scott Fitzgerald  "Go"  United Kingdom  1988

 



I'm all for the throwback song, but to be immediately reminded of the late 1980s isn't necessarily a good thing in my book.

 

But it's going to be down to the staging, and Iceland has been successful in prior years at Eurovision, so this song may very well have a chance to make it to the top of the table come the night of the finals...   We'll see.

 

 

Should Have Won

 

 This one is hard, because really, any of the songs could have been contenders, but I'm going to go with this number as my choice as the song that should have won:

 



 





Jógvan Hansen & Stefanía Svavarsdóttir  "Til þín"

 

I have no real reason other that Hansen had the more stage presence than anybody else in the final.  I get why it didn't win, Iceland sent a male/female duo last year, but it would have been just as worthy as "Ég á Líf".

 

 

My Favorites

 

As I mentioned before, I liked a lot of the songs, and I could probably feature all of them, but I'm going to put up one for a note I learned back in my days in choirs:

 



 

Magni Ásgeirsson  "Ekki Líta Undan"

 

The lesson is no matter how sucked up into performing the song, you always need to watch what your hands are doing.  In Ásgeirsson's case, it looked like he was milking a cow or doing something a little less appropriate for me to type.  And that greatly distracted me from his performance--no matter how much I liked the song.

 

But as for my personal favorite, I have to go with this number:

 

 





 

Haraldur Reynisson  "Vinátta"

 

I do like a mellow song, and the "MTV Unplugged" staging was surprisingly appealing to me.  Does this mean I'll start complaining about the music that the young kids are listening to soon?  More than likely.  Then I'll be yelling at them to stay off my lawn.  Yep, it's the next natural step.   Pretty soon it's going to be Metamucil and orthopedic shoes...

 

Seriously, though, I could put two more songs in this section without any trouble.  Iceland had a very strong final this year, and I highly recommend you go searching out all of the songs youself and take a listen.  It's worth the 30 minutes to listen to all of them.