Eurovision 2015: The Aftermath

Although Eurovision has been over for a couple of weeks, I'm typing about it now because I've finally had my yearly Eurovision party.

Congrats to Sweden.  We ranked your fourth.

Usually I have it a little while after the live broadcast, it's an excuse to have people over, make some interesting food, and have a little bit of fun by ranking the songs.

It's always very interesting on where we agree and disagree with the voters from Europe.

Our Favorite:

Aminata   "Love Injected"   Latvia

Latvia's first final qualifier in eight years won us over with the exceptional vocals from Aminata and the extremely modern, almost avant garde, staging.

It was ranked in the top five of everybody at the party and would recieve our "douze points".

Other Winners:

Lisa Angell   "N'oubliez pas"   France

Even though Angell was placed in the "slot of death", performing second on the night of the final, Angell's passionate hit us in the sweet spot, coming in second our voting and would have received ten pomts from us.  Angell receiving only four points was one of the biggest shocks of this year's voting.

Ann Sophie   "Black Smoke"   Germany

Ann Sophie wouldn't have gone away with "nul points" if our little group of voters were considered.  "Black Smoke" came in sixth in our voting and picked up five points from us.  The sexy staging  and the powerhouse vocals worked for this little group of Americans.

The Biggest Loser:

Elhaida Dani   "I'm Alive"   Albania

I'm always happy when Albania makes it to the finals, but I have to agree with almost everybody else at our party and put Dani dead last.  There's no hiding off key, screechy vocals.

Other Losers:

Polina Gagarina   "A Million Voices"  Russia

Although Russia came in seventh in our voting, the little group I had over was made up of members of the LBGT community and their allies.  Politics caused us to vote the song down our list, even though we all admitted she hit this song out of the park.

However, the booking of Gagarina by the crowd was extremely tasteless.  She's just a singer, not a politician.

Nadav Gued   "Golden Boy"   Israel

Israel may have hit the top ten in European voting, but the ethnopop from a guy attempting to be Justin Timberlake attempting to be Michael Jackson got more jeers than kudos.

The fake selfie at the end of the song was a particular groan worthy moment...

And that's Eurovision 2015.   Now it's time to focus on a move and look forward to 2016 and the contest in Sweden.

Top 10 Before The Show: Eurovision 2015

As the rehearsals are going on in Vienna, I now get to the fun part of my blog--choosing my favorite songs.

Read on and enjoy

10th place:

Lisa Angell  "N'oubliez pas"   France

France is always a great country when it comes to Eurovision, and I'm a sucker for chanson.   Naturally Angell's song was going to be high on my list.

9th Place:

Electro Velvet   "Still In Love with You"   United Kingdom

I love the out of left field choice of the UK.   It's weird and most of all fun.   Fun is something missing in this year's contest and I hope Electro Velvet are going to bring a little bit of joy.

8th Place: 

Guy Sebastian   "Tonight Again"   Australia

Australia is sending a commercially successful song that is a catchy as hell.

7th Place:

Nina Sublatti   "Warrior"   Georgia

There are a lot of moody young women singing dark dramatic songs at Eurovision this year.  This is the only one that hasn't been overworked to death.  

6th Place:

Elina Born & Stig Rästa   "Goodbye to Yesterday"   Estonia

I cannot deny that this is one of the best songs in the contest.   I can understand why it's one of the favorites.

5th Place:

Aminata   "Love Injected"   Latvia

Latvia has finally come to win, not place last in the semifinal.  It's delightful to see.

4th Place:

Daniel Kajmakoski   "Autumn Leaves"   Macedonia

I must confess that Kajmakoski's work on reaching out to the Eurovision fan base has worked on me.  If you haven't checked out his cover of Yugoslavia's 1983 entry, Džuli, you really should.    It's made me go back and take a listen to his entry that I wrote off back at the beginning of my tour through the 2015 songs.   It's popped up to the top of my replay list.

3rd Place:   

Monika Kuszyńska   "In The Name of Love"  Poland

I'm surprised by the fact I keep playing the Polish entry over and over again.   Simple songs sung well always hook me.    I don't know if it will qualify, but for me it works.

2nd Place:

Ann Sophie   "Black Smoke"   Germany

If Eurovision songs won on sheer memorability, "Black Smoke" would be my winner hands down.  This song has been stuck in my head since I first heard the darn thing, and it's a great one to have on the car stereo with the volume cranked up.   It also doesn't hurt that it's in my vocal range.  Hello new karaoke song.

1st Place:

Maraaya   "Here For You"   Slovenia

Hands down my favorite song in the contest, and they're going to be the group I'll definaletly follow in the future, joining a small list like Anouk and Patricia Kaas.   Have you heard their other versions--the remix with the students of their music school?  Or the remix with the a capella choir?   This song has legs and Maraaya has the musical chops.

Eurovision 2015: Latvia

Right now, rehearsals are happening in Vienna,so it's high time I finished up the tour of the national finals with Latvia.

Latvia has has one of the worst track records at Eurovision in the past few years, not qualifying for the final since 2008.  And because of those duff results, it was rumored that Latvia would withdraw this year.

Instead of withdrawing, Latvia has completely rethought their selection process, and unlike some other countries (Ireland), the rethink worked.

Instead of the weird tweeness that has haunted the national finals of prior years, Latvia's final had four interesting and rather modern songs to choose among.

ElektroFolk   "Sundance"

Markus Riva   "Lights On"

MNTHA   "Nefelibata"

(Well, maybe not Markus Riva. His song is really kind of lame.)

But the jury and televoters selected the best of the songs to represent them.

Aminata   "Love Injected"

She's got a powerful voice, the visual is striking, and all in all, it think this is the best song Latvia has ever sent.  If they can't qualify for the Eurovision final then there is no justice.