The Jack Johnson sound that Trent is performing is pretty nice. Very radio friendly.
The problem is that this song is pretty nice and very radio friendly. There isn't anything that makes me think the song will translate well on the stage in Kyiv and that's a nail in the coffin for Austria's chances in making the final.
Austria doesn't have any musical allies at Eurovision, so to make it to Saturday night there has to be something special about the performance. Three minutes of perfectly pleasant pop isn't going to make people pick up the phone.
Austria has chosen the musical version of a kitten calendar picture
I have to hand it to Austria, when watching their national final, Wer singt für Österreich?, I was not bored. The program, presented back on February 12th, didn't fall back on the usual Eurovision tropes.
I still don't know the musical genre this song belongs to
AzRaH "The One"
The music just calls out to be played over and over again. Is it jazz? Is it rock? I don't know. I just wish the singer's nerves hadn't gotten the best of her, because boy is it hard to listen to. Go search out the recorded version of the song.
I'm also amazed by the provocative nature of this song:
Bella Wagner "Weapons Down"
I really never expected a song like this to be presented in a national final, much less come in third. The song is about a standard Eurovision topic--peace--but the song style and presentation were meant to unsettle. That is something that is rarely seen at Eurovision and I have great respect for Wagner as an artist and the Austrian jury for ranking this so highly.
But when all the votes were tallied, this is the song that won
Zoe "Loin d'ici"
Yep. It's in French. And she is dressed up like a Disney princess. Zoë is nineteen years old, but the styling of the song makes her look much younger, and like Iceland's entry last year, it's something I I actively dislike The combination of the pretentiousness of the use of French and preciousness in the presentation of this song make me cringe. As is, I cannot see anybody wanting to vote for this unless they were young girls unlikely to be allowed to vote in the semifinals because it's past their bedtime.
I wish I could be kinder to Austria's choice, but when it cam from a contest that had such interesting music and this was the song chosen, I can't help but be a bit disappointed.
I'm getting to the end of my national final reviews, and now I'm getting to the host country. Austria is hosting Eurovision this year after the win of Conchita Wurst (as if you didn't already know that).
Conchita Wurst "Rise Like A Phoenix" 2014
And now ÖRF, the Austrian broadcaster, has to do the delicate dance of selecting a song to represent them on home soil.
It's generally assumed that the host country doesn't want to host Eurovision two years in a row. Although every country taking part in the contest gives money to the EBU for the right to participate and broadcast the contest, it costs millions of euros to put on the show. It's currently estimated that Austria has spent 35 million euros on this year's Eurovision Song Contest.
In response to this, the host country selects a middle of the road song that is going to be respected but not going to light the light on fire.
And this year, Austria has chosen the perfect song to do just that.
The Makemakes "I Am Yours"
The Makemakes have been somewhat successful in their home country, with a couple of Top 40 singles and a forthcoming album. They're competent musicians, and their performance is spot on.
Besides, it's the perfect example of a safe home crowd song--it's three minute aural blanket. Nobody is going to say bad things about it, but it's also not going to get anywhere near the top of the scoreboard.
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That said, I kind of with that the Austrian public had gone completely left field with their choice and selected the song that came in fifth:
Johann Sebastian Bass "Absolutio"
The well performed insanity of Johann Sebastian Bass, a "electrorococo" band, would have put on a great show and would have been a memorable part of the sixtieth Eurovision Song Contest--going down with acts like Telex and Gypsy.cz
Yeah, it means they would have likely come in last. But in a year of utterly safe songs, a bit of color would make things fun.
Austria was very unique in their approach to Eurovision this year. Instead of a national final or a surprise announcement of performer, The Austrian broadcaster, ORF, announce their performer--Conchita Wurst--back in September of last year.
Yet the song, "Rise Like A Phoenix", was one of the last songs presented--announced just a few weeks ago on March 18th.
The process in announcing their choices was intriguing, but then again, Conchita Wurst is an intriguing performer.
Conchita Wurst is the drag persona of Tom Neuwirth. Wurst came to national prominence after her second place finish in the 2011 Austrian national finals and has parlayed that success into becoming a minor celebrity in her home country, appearing on reality television shows like "The Hardest Jobs In Austria".
Conchita Wurst "Rise Like A Phoenix"
Wurst is serving some Shirley Bassey realness, and in my mind it's the best kind of realness to be served. Instead of the typical Bond-lite songs that come to Eurovision, this sounds like it could be the anthem of the next Bond movie.
And Wurst knocks it out of the park with both the vocals and the performance. It's one of my two favorite songs in this contest.
But whether it will do well has absolutely nothing to do with the quality of either the song and performance. It's going to depend on how people across Europe respond to Ms. Wurst herself.
Neuwirth created Conchita Wurst--a bearded lady--as a statement against the discrimination he faced in his teenage years. Wurst is a symbol for equality for all people--no matter their gender or sexual orientation--and that sort of freedom is not allowed in the many countries that take part in the Eurovision Song Contest. That up front statement could potentially be a turnoff to those who don't agree with Ms. Wurst's beliefs.
It's going to be one of the suspenseful parts of Eurovision this year and I can't wait.
Austria is always a wild card when it comes to Eurovision songs. Sometimes they're fantastic, some times they are horrible, but most of the time they're out of step with all the other countries of Europe, so finding out what they're going to send is always interesting.
Austria picked their representative to Eurovision on February 15th in the program Österreich rockt den Song Contest. (Which is less fun to say than some of the other national selection programs, but that's probably because I have a good grounding in German.)
The program was rather simple compared to others. Five acts were asked to perform two songs--the first a previous Eurovision Song Contest winner, then the song they were to perform in Malmö. Sadly, the cover songs aren't readily available on You Tube, because I'd like to post one or two of them up. So all I can really do is move on to:
The Winner
Ladies and gentlemen, Austria has also sent an American to represent them at the Eurovision Song Contest.
Natália Kelly "Shine"
Ms. Kelly, born in Hartford, Connecticut, handily won the contest by bagging most of the public voting and scoring well with the jury. It quite obvious. She has a powerful voice and a confident stage presence. Combine that with a song that would sound quite comfortably coming out of the British singer Adele, and you have the makings for a winning song.
It's a solid choice, but I do hope they have a complete rethink on the staging of the song. It currently feels like they're copying everything from this song.
Nadine Beiler "The Secret Is Love" 2011
It worked quite well for Ms. Beiler back in 2011, but Ms. Kelly has a completely different look and feel, and the spotlight from above just makes Kelly look rather scary instead of sleek and sophisticated. But that's a minor quibble.
My Favorite
I have to say that shine is quite a strong song for Austria to send, but I doubt I would ever go out of my way to find more of Natália Kelly's music.
However, I've discovered a contender for my Eurovision song of the year in the Austrian final.
Yela "Feels Like Home"
While listening to the clip, I went out on Spotify and favorited this song. Her honey-tinged vocals, combined with the drums and ukulele. hit my personal musical sweet spot.
I can't seen this having much pan-European appeal, though. I think it would have played much like another song from 2011.
Anna Rossinelli "In Love For A While" Switzerland 2011
"In Love For A While" had a lot of love from the juries, but didn't score particularly well with the European voters, and I suspect "Feels Like Home" would have done the same thing.
But ask me which song from the 2011 Eurovision Song Contest has stuck with me, it's "In Love For A While". And which song from the Austrian final will stick with me? It's going to be "Feels Like Home".
Back again with the next entry for the Alaska's Choice, this time for 1964.
First the basic facts--Denmark, the winner of the prior year's contest hosted and the show was presented from Copenhagen's Tivoli Koncertsal on March 21st, 1964. Unfortunately, due to a fire at the Dutch broadcaster, no recording of the full contest exists to view, so like the 1956 contest, we had to use recordings. Luckily this year an audio recording still survives--so our votes were taken from that recording.
For the first time in a number of years, there were a change in the countries that participated. Sweden withdrew from the contest due to a boycott from their singers, while Portugal entered for the first time. With Spain and Portugal in the contest, Eurovision became politicized and a protester stormed the stage after the Swiss entrant, holding a sign protesting the autocratic governments of the two countries on the Iberian Peninsula.
Unfortunately, the political climate may have had an affect on the results of Portugal's first entry:
António Calvário "Oração"
Calvário's song received no points from any of the other juries, and came in dead last in the competition (along with the songs from Germany, Switzerland, and Yugoslavia).
I suppose the "nul points" results for four countries really is unsurprising, because the winner of the contest received a third of all the possible votes, marking Italy's first victory in Eurovision.
Gigliola Cinquetti "Non ho l'età"
And, of course, nether of these songs fell in the same place in our voting. Calvário landed in 10th place, while Cinquetti came in fifth.
To be honest, the voting for this year's Eurovision Song Contest surprised me--I had expected Cinquetti to do as well with our group as it had done with the voters in 1964, but she was beaten by a number of "also rans"/
Finland took fourth with this number about doing nothing on Sunday:
Lasse Mårtenson "Lasikotellen"
And the Dutch moved up from tenth to second with Anneke Grönloh's upbeat song about a very forgiving girlfriend:
Anneke Grönloh "Jij bent mijn leven"
But the big shocker is the winner of our poll:
Udo Jürgens "Warum nur warum"
Good old Udo kept coming back in the mid 60s trying again and again to win the contest, but for us, he won the first time out. Had Europe been as sensible as we were, and voted for what I considered his best song, perhaps we wouldn't have been subjected to two more years of his sleep inducing music..
So there's 1964 in a nutshell and a surprising Austrian win. Stay tuned for 1965...
As I mentioned in my review of Austrian Eurovision songs, I would be writing more about Global.Kryner, the Austrian entrant in 2005.
They opened the Contest that year with this Latin/German beer hall number.
Global.Kryner "Y Asi"
It didn't do well, coming in 21st out of 25 songs in the the semi-final, but based on the presentation video above, it was far and away my favorite song that came out of that year's contest.
I loved it so much I actually ordered the album, the first time a performer from the Song Contest actually made me part with my hard earned money.
And I'm glad I did, because they are a fantastic cover band.
They sold me on a Madonna song!
Global.Kryner "Like A Virgin"
They made me realize what a great piece of pop writing this is!
Global.Kryner "Toxic"
They were able to reinterpret an overdone standard in an interesting way!
Global.Kryner "Somewhere Over The Rainbow"
f you haven't listened to their music, you really should go seek them out and pick up one or two of their CDs. They perform sunny, fun music that is well worth a listen.
I admit it, I'm proselytizing a bit, but they are Eurovisionary, and well worth a bit of promotion.
It's taken me over a month to sort through and rate all of the Austrian Eurovision songs. The sheer number made it difficult to place them in an order. But after going over them, I'm confident of my placing and hope you enjoy my top five songs.
Doing this review, I finally figured out how I can be Austrian-American and Lutheran.
So let's start with the song I ranked as fifth:
Global.Kryner "Y Asi" 2005
You've got to love a song that's completely out of the box, and this fusion of yodeling, Austrian folk music, and Latin rhythms is just infectious. I admit their performance was a little flat and I can see how they didn't make it out of the finals, but I can't rank a future Eurovisionary entry anywhere less than fifth.
What came in fourth was a complete surprise:
Stella Jones "Die Welt dreht sich verkehrt" 1995
I would never have thought that a very 90s light R&B song would be up on the top of my list, but Ms. Jones, who started performing with her mother in Germany when she was seven years old, has the stage presence and light touch with the lyrics that makes me want to listen to the song again and again.
And let's face it, the female saxophonist with the blowout and the lace gloves is pretty freaking awesome.
Third place was another fun discovery:
Marianne Mendt "Musik" 1971
It's 1971, so the song is hip and happening, the orchestra is a little heavy on the piccolo, and Mendt's nerves are definately on full display, but I cannot get this song out of my head. It a tragedy she had to sing first in the 1971 contest; I suspect had she drawn someplace later in the contest, she would have done much better.
Second place was another suprise.
Camilla Corren "Vielleicht geschieht ein Wunder" 1963
The BBC did wonders when they put on the 1963 Eurovision Song Contest and this allowed Corren to shine while performing her song. Instead of a live concert, 1963 was the only contest that looked and felt like a pre-recorded show, and the shots of Ms. Corren selling this romantic ballad help make this song even better than is.
That said, Corren's voice is lovely, and even without the visuals, it's a compelling song to me, with a rudimentary understanding of German, and is definately fantastic.
And finally, my top pick:
Nadine Beiler "The Secret Is Love" 2011
The biggest issue with Austrian entrants to Eurovision is that they alway seem flat in one way or another. Even with some of the top five, there's usually something not completely pulled together.
However, Beiler's performance in 2011 was perfect in every way. I cannot find a flaw with her performance, and although it wasn't to Europe's taste--she came in 18th in the final, I consider this to be Austria's best Eurovision song.
And that's my take on the Austrian Eurovision songs. I'd love to know your opinion on Austrian entries, so feel free to post below or e-mail me at eurovisionalaska@gmail.com.
There's a theme with most of the songs in this section of the Austrian Eurovision songs, and it's the fact that Austria seems to have a taste for music that doesn't alway mesh with the rest of Europe.
Ah, the Sacher torte... How I love you so, you wonderful Viennese invention...
6. "Weil's dr guat got" George Nussbaumer 1996
7. "Heute in Jerusalem" Christina Simon 1979
8. "Sag ihr, ich lass sie grüßen" Udo Jürgens 1965
9. "Weil der Mensch zählt" Alf Poier 2003
10. "All To You" The Rounder Girls 2000
11. "Sonntag" Mess 1982
12. "Reflection" Bobbie Singer 1999
13. "Falter im Wind" Milestones 1972
14. "Kinder dieser Welt" Gary Lux 1985
15. "Die Zeit ist einsam" Timna Brauer 1986
16. "Tausend Fenster" Harry West 1968
17. "Say A Word" Manuel Ortega 2002
18. "Venedig im Regen" Thomas Forstner 1991
19. "Du hast mich so fasziniert" Harry Winter 1960
20. "Sehnsucht" Jimmy Makulis 1961
21. "Die ganze Welt braucht Liebe" Liane Augustin 1958
22. "Nur noch Gefühl" Gary Lux 1987
23. "Nur ein Leid" Thomas Forstner 1989
24. "Keine Mauern mehr" Simone 1990
25. "Maria Magdelena" Tony Wegas 1993
This unique musical taste is really noticable with the songs that come in sixth and seventh on my list:
George Nussbaumer "Weil's dr guat got" 1996
Christina Simon "Heute in Jerusalem" 1979
Personally I like the idea of a gospel number and a German cabaret number, but they were out of the box choices to go to Eurovision and were not particularly successful--Nussbaumer coming in 10th and Simon coming in dead last.
Most of the rest of the songs in the rest of ths songs in this section are songs that followed trends that were in pop music at the time:
Manny Ortega "Say A Word" 2002
Mess "Sonntag" 1982
Harry Winter "Du hast mich so fasziniert" 1960
All three are prefectly nice but completely forgettable songs, which seems to be a trend among Austrian Eurovision entrants.
The only song that I feel disappointment in is the following number:
The Rounder Girls "All For You" 2000
I'm a sucker for Motown songs, and the three ladies in this girl group have great voices, but they were really let down by a bad vocal mix and nerves, which made me rank then tenth--lower that I really wanted to rank them. Which pretty much translates as "Does anybody have a The Rounder Girls album then can send my way?"
Wait. They have some albums on Spotify! I know what's going to be playing on my computer for the next couple of hours.
I've been procrastinating posting this installment of my "Countries in Review" series in my blog. When I started the project The previous countries were very easy to rank, having entered Eurovision only in the past decade or so.
Sadly, when people think about Austria, they think about Julie Andrews.
This isn't the case with Austria, which has participated in forty-five contests since their debut. That means that watching and ranking the songs was more tedious than I thought it would be.
And because there are so many songs, I've decided to split the post into three parts--starting with the bottom twenty in my ranking.
26. "Woki mit Dein Popi" Trackshittaz 2012
27. "Nur in der Wiener Luft" Eleonore Schwarz 1962
28. "My Little World" Waterloo & Robinson 1978
29. "Zusammen geh'n" Tony Wegas 1992
30. "Mrs. Caroline Robinson" Springtime 1976
31. "Wenn du da bist" Marty Brem 1981
32. "Warun nur warum?" Udo Jürgens 1964
33. "One Step" Bettina Soriat 1997
34. "Boom Boom Boomerang" Schmetterlinge 1977
35. "Einfach weg" Anita 1984
36. "Merci, Chérie" Udo Jürgens 1966
37. "Für den Frieden der Welt" Petra Frey 1994
38. "Du bist Musik" Blue Danube 1980
39. "Warum es hunderttausend Sterne gibt" Peter Horton 1967
40. "Hurricane" Westend 1983
41. "Lisa Mona Lisa" Wilfried 1988
42. "Du bist" Tie Break 2004
43. "Wohin Kleines Pony" Bob Benny 1957
44. "Der K und K Calypso aus Wein" Ferry Graf 1959
45. "Get A Life - Get Alive" Eric Papilaya 2007
There's a lot that I could write about, I think the most obvious is the song I've ranked at 36.
Udo Jürgens "Merci, Chérie" 1966
Udo Jürgens won the 1966 contest with this plaintive ballad, one that I personally detest. I've listened to it once or twice, and when I here it in clips of winning songs, I'm just confused. It is a song of the time, but for whatever reason, it's always turned me off.
But my own personal distaste, I have to say that Jürgens is a consummate singer and musician. He performed the song well, and that's why he won the contest is 1966. It's just not to my taste, and can't be nowhere near the worst.
Below Jürgens, most of the songs can be divided into two groups, the weird novelty song (which Austria has a taste for more than most countries) and boy band groups.
The boy band phenomenon is always difficult, because if they're on key and the mikes are balanced, it's really effective, but when it's not, you get something like this.
Westend "Hurricane" 1983
I still can't understand why this song came in ninth...
And it's rather self evident why a novelty song like "Der K und K Calypso aus Wein" ranked so low.
Ferry Graf "Der K und K Calypso aus Wein" 1959
Did it get taken seriously back in 1959? Not really, but now it's unintentionally hilarious.
But in listening to all of the songs, the one that has to rank the lowest is this little number.
Eric Papilaya "Get A Life - Get Alive" 2007
Austria left the contest for a number of years after this song sank like a stone in Helsinki, getting only four points in the semifinal and convincing the Austrian broadcaster ORF to not participate in the contest for a number of years.
The song isn't bad, but the staging is completely disastrous. I am all for AIDS awareness but the fact that weird chicken-people dancers came out of a marabou AIDS ribbon is beyond tacky. It also contrasted with the sparkly silver hoodie and the filmstrip background. It just didn't congeal in a way that goes beyond tacky and into mild offense.
It might have been saved had Papilaya had a bit of charisma, but he was completely upstaged by the disaster going on behind him. In my opinion it's the worst song Austria's sent.
And that's it for the bottom twenty... Stay tuned for songs ranked from 24 to 6 in my next post.
Well, tomorrow is the day when Eurovision begins in earnest, with semifinal one.
Sadly, I'm going to be stuck at my office, crunching numbers while Europe votes for their favorite songs. So between projects I'll be furiously refreshing my web browser to find out the ten songs that will move on to the final.
And like most people who blog on the Eurovision Song Contest, I'm choosing my ten songs and we'll see how they do.
This song in my favorite of all the songs in the contest this year; I would have never thought that a Swedish language song would be that way. I hope that Ms. Karlsson will get enough jury votes to make it through to the final, because where it's placed, I don't think the viewing audience will vote for it.
Although I can see why this song can offend people, I like it and hope it makes it to the final. It has a crazy energy that no other song has this year, and that energy makes it one of my favorites.
Out of all the songs in the contest, this is the song that has the seal of approval of the lovely Janet S., which means that it's going to delight the other people at my Eurovision viewing party. Any Eurovision song that is accessible to my Gen X friends is A-OK in my book.
I have to say this song has grown on me, but I doubt that this will appeal to enough people who hear it for the first time to make it through. It's just so dramatically different than anything else, having it in the finals will
6. Russia "Party for Everybody" Buranovskiye Babushki
I love the idea of them more than I like the song, but they're sure to make it through to the final, but there's still
This is the catchiest song in the semifinal and probably my guilty secret song, because it's not the type of song I go for.
The sad thing is that I'm certain one or more of the songs on my list are going to be dropped, and I'm suspecting the two weakest songs on my list are Finland and/or Albania. One of them is going to get replaced by the "dynamic" duo from Ireland for certain, and a number of other songs could take out the other without any problem.
The fourth Eurovision Song Contest took place in Cannes, France on March 11th, 1959. Twelve countries participated in the fourth Eurovision Song Contest, with Luxembourg opting out, the United Kingdom returning, and Monaco debuting.
I'd love to be able to say that there was some sort of exciting scandal that took place during the fourth Eurovision Song Contest, but it seems that this contest took off without any hitches or scandals. (Although there is an unconfirmed rumor that France and Italy didn't vote fore each other to prevent the rival song from winning.)
After the songs were performed (on a troika of rotating backdrops with pictures of scenery from each participating country), the juries, made up of 10 people each selected their favorite song. After the voting, the winner was the Dutch entrant, making the Netherlands the first country to win the contest more than once.
Teddy Scholten "Een Beetje" the Netherlands
But the Alaska jury, as usual, came up with a different result. and we did the same thing as the original jury--this is the first time a country won our contest more than once.
Freddy Quinn from Germany was our choice as the winner for the 1959 contest, and we gave the title to Germany again:
Alice and Ellen Kessler "Heute Abend wollen wir tanzen geh'n" Germany
We were suckers for singing and dancing German twins. They did dance moves on the rickety set and sounded good. Can you blame us for choosing them?
A place checking song in a calypso beat that blends in waltzes and yodels. Yep, it's one of the more bizarre entrants, and there was no way I could leave it out...even though we placed it in ninth place.
And for those of you who are interested, here's our breakdown of the songs.
1. "Heute Abend wollen wir tanzen geh'n" Alice and Ellen Kessler Germany
2. "Uh, jeg ville ønske jeg var dig" Birthe Wilke Denmark
3. "Een beetje" Teddy Scholten the Netherlands
4. "Piove (Ciao, ciao banbina)" Domenico Modugno Italy
5. "Irgenwoher" Christa Williams Switzerland
6. "Sing Little Birdie" Pearl Carr and Teddy Johnson the United Kingdom
7. "Oui, oui, oui, oui" Jean Phillippe France
8. "Augustin" Brita Borg Sweden
9. "Der K und K Kalypso aus Wien" Ferry Graf Austria
10. "Hour toch van mij" Bob Benny Belgium
11. "Mon ami Peirrot" Jacques Pills Monaco
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.
I don't know what you've been doing in your spare time, but in my spare time I've been paying attention to the national selections for this year's Eurovision Song Contest--learning the names of the singers in Austria's national final, listening to the songs in Iceland's first semifinal, and wondering if Jedward will be representing the Emerald Isle again.
But that doesn't really make for a good blog post.
Thankfully, two countries have already chosen their entrants, so let's take a listen:
Switzerland
After a convoluted selection process, where the German, French and Italian broadcasters entered songs into the selection, and eventually this Swiss public selected Sinplus, a duo made up of the brothers Ivan and Gabriel Broggini.
Sinplus "Unbreakable"
And after listening to this a couple times, I'm still completely underwhelmed. They come across as a college cover band you'd see at the bar on a Thursday night that were attempting to become legit by playing their own compositions. In other words, I admire their gumption, but I wish they'd go back to playing "Beautiful Day" or "Clocks".
Albania
Albania's selection process was a little less convoluted, with the winner, Rona Nishliu, winning the Festivali i Kenges, the process the country has used to select their entrant since 2004. Rona is Kosovaran, which should make for some interesting political voting, but let's take a listen to the song.
OK. She has pipes. The orchestration is pretty. But the song combined with her look is rather frighening--the high pitched wailing combined with the mess of hair and the Albanian lyrics are off-putting. Hopefully this will get fixed with a stylist and an English translation of the lyrics.
