Eurovision 2013: Belarus

Well, it's the beginning of the Eurovision season, and first out of the gate is Belarus.

And the first thing I want to say is never change.  Although the winner of the contest wasn't a particular surprise, the ten songs in the final were unique and different--showing the musical tastes of Belarus as a whole, and I liked that very much.

Oh, and thanks for bringing them back to play their Eurovision hit.

 

Aleksandra and Konstantin  "My Galileo"  2004 (from the Belarusian final)

Any reason to hear this song is a good reason in my way of thinking....

But back to the important stuff:

The Winner



 

Alyona Lanskaya  "Rhythm of Love"

 

 

An unsurprising win, since she had won the previous year (and lost per a presidential investigation).  So her return with a dance number pretty much allowed her to walk away with the win--she picked up the maximum points with the both the jury and the phone vote.

 

 

Should Have Won

 

 

 

Alyona Lanskaya  "Rhythm of Love"

 

 

Belarus hasn't had a lot of success in the Eurovision Song Contest, making the final only twice in the nine years they've competed, and "Rhythm of Love" was the most likely of the ten songs to make it to the final in 2013. and they've got plenty of time to jigger with the song to make it work in Malmö.

 

At least lose the lying on the floor and the half naked men.  Neither equal success in Eurovision.  Look here and here for examples.

 

 

My Favorite

 

Please, go listen to all ten songs.  It's worth the thirty minutes of time.  You can see the Belarusian Henry Rollins, enjoy the song stylings of a group that may unironically be called The Beaver Band, and this:

 





 

 

Nuteki Band  "Save Me"

 

Is it hard rock Coldplay?  Is it performance art metal?  I don't know, but it's sure worth a watch.

 

But my favorite is the one that was completely unexpected--Belarus has a lot of ethnically flavored music, and love their heavy metal music as well, so this was an unexpected delight.

 

 



 

 

Daria  "Catch Me Again"

 

Yep, it's the lost number from Cabaret.  Naturally, it wasn't going to win--in fact it came in dead last in the public vote, but wow is she good... 

 

And I want to say something to the ladies of Viva Voom Brr-lesque, please use this song, I will come and throw dollar bills...  

 

 





Eurovision 2012 Entrants: Belarus

Just a few more days until the first semifinal and only two more songs to review.  And to begin the end of my reviews, Let's take a listen to the Belorussian entry.

Litesound  "We Are The Winners"

I have to say this is not the type of music I'm a fan of.  I like my rock to be a little more hardcore, not the pop rock that Litesound is performing.  But, if they performed the song this way, and thy got a good draw, I would think they had a chance to go through to the finals, since this sound is nowhere to be found elsewhere in the contest.

The funny thing is that this song wasn't the winner in the Belorussian national final.  When the voting was done at the national final, another song took the top spot.

Alyona Lanskaya  "All My Life"

But after accusations of vote fixing were bandied around, the President of Belarus, Alexander Lukashenko, personally investigated, and discovered that the accusations were correct and "it had to be decided on the presidential level, but this was a matter of justice and it was his duty to stand up for justice".

I just find the fact that president of Belarus felt the need to step in and solve the problem of choosing a Eurovision winner...  It would be like Barack Obama determining the winner of America's Got Talent was the wrong one.  It seems a very trivial issues, and something that should be able to be solved without the head of government stepping in to solve the issue.

Yet who am I to judge on what's politically important?  I'm just a blogger living half a world away from Belarus...