Eurovision 2015: Montenegro

Pretty, ain't it?

Montenegro made it to the finals for the first time last year and they're hoping lightning strikes twice with their entry sung by Knez. 

Knez   "Adio"

"Adio" is a traditional Balkan ballad sung by Knez, a performer who has had a 20 year career in the region.   The song has a golden pedigree, with both music and lyrics by one of the most successful participants in Eurovision, Željko Joksimović.  This should give "Adio" a chance to make it to the finals.

However, I don't think as it is now, "Adio" will make it to Saturday night.

If you take a look at the successful male Balkan ballads at Eurovision, there's an aura of polished quality behind them:

Sergej Ćetković  "Moj svijet"   Montenegro  2014

 Željko Joksimović   "Lane moje"   Serbia and Montenegro   2004

Dino Merlin   "Love in Rewind"  Bosnia/Herzegovina  2011

Unfortunately, in the form it is in now, Knez and "Adio" don't have that quality.  In the video, Knez is squeezed into clothing that would look stupid on someone 20 years younger than he is and he's backed up by a group of Kardashian clones.   It's trashy attempting with all of its might to be classy.

Of course, my opinion can change once I see the performance come the night of the first semifinal, but as of right now, Montenegro's song is a big disappointment.

Countries in Review: Bosnia/Herzegovina (part one)

Although it appears landlocked, Neum is Bosnia/Hezegovina's only coastal town.

It's always disappointing when a country decides to opt out of the Eurovision Song Contest, especially so when they decide not to participate for financial reasons.  Bosnia and Herzegovina haven't entered Eurovision since 2012 due to the cost of participation.

Before starting this blog, I probably would have said "good riddance", but using this blog to look in depth into Eurovision, I am genuinely disappointed that they don't enter.  I've learned to love music from the Balkan region, and not having a Bosnian entry in Eurovision makes this Eurovision lover sad.

But it's not going to stop me from ranking the previous Bosnian entries.

I have to say that most of the Bosnian entries are pretty serious in the "Balkan Ballad" style, like the very first entry Bosnia sent, back in 1993:



Fazla   "Sva bol svijeta"   1993

Although the song sounds quite dated--you can tell by the orchestration it's from the early 1990s, "Sva blo svijeta" is worth listening to because it is one of the few times where the politics of the time are overtly shown at Eurovision.  The Bosnian war was at its zenith in 1993, and Fazla was almost unable to get out of the country due to bombings.  Just listen to the applause from the audience at the beginning of the song--an ovation that may never be repeated.

But the same straightforward, dramatic presentation can be seen in the most recent Bosnian entry:

MayaSar   "Korake ti znam"   2012

It's a lovely romantic song that was negated by the strange styling.  I was put off by the long limp hair and the oversized black dress.  (Isn't it incredible how the most minor things can put down a perfectly decent song?)

Yet, the most memorable Bosnian entry is one that breaks that mold:

Deen   "In The Disco"  2004

Ladies and Gentlemen, may I present you the gayest performance ever to grace the Eurovision stage.  (Yes, even gayer that Conchita Wurst.)  I jokingly say that this is the only song at Eurovision you can potentially get a sexually transmitted disease from.  It's so not to my taste, but I think the over the top performance is exactly why it was successful and is definitely memorable.   

6.   Maya Sar   "Korake ti znam"   2012  
7.   Alma & Dejan   "Ostani kraj mene"   1994   I do love duets where the people actually look like they enjoy being together.
8.   Alma Čardžić   "Goodbye"   1997   The first peppy sounding song that Bosnia sent.
9.   Nino Pršeš   "Hano"   2001   The presentation of the song just failed to live up to its promise.
10.   Fazla   "Sva bol svijeta"   1993
11.   Maria   "Rijeka bez imena"   2007   I like Maya Sar's take on this basic song better.
12.   Deen   "In The Disco"   2004
13.   Mija Martina   "Ne brini"   2003   This is a song that is much better in English..
14.   Amila Glamočak   "Za našu ljubav"   1996   She has a nice voice, but the song is dull.
15.   Dino & Beatrice   "Putnici"   1999   Pretentious.
16.   Laka   "Pokušaj"  2008   I have a feeling that this is a cultural thing.  I just dont get this.
17.   Feminem   "Call Me"   2005   ABBA did this much better. 
18.   Vukašin Brajić   "Thunder and Lightning"   2010   Don't bother.  It's horrible.

My top five Bosnian songs should be posted soon.

Eurovisionaries: Lisa Andreas

My final entry of 2012 is to induct another member into the ranks of Eurovisionaries--Lisa Andreas.

In Eurovision, with all the pyrotechnics, writhing dancers, and thumping beats, sometimes the simplest song and production stands out even more.

This was never more noticeable than during the 2004 Eurovision Song Contest, when Cyprus sent this song.

Lisa Andreas  "Stronger Every Minute"

 

"Stronger Every Minute" was a contrast to the winner of the contest, with the winner being the ur-type of the pyrotechinc dance numbers that ruled the song contest in the period:

 

 

Ruslana  "Wild Dances"   Ukraine

 

But for me Andreas' understated number has much more impact that the frenzied gyrating of the winning entry.   And for once, a lot of people agreed with me.  Andreas placed fifth in the final that year, garnering 170 points, the most the country has ever received in the contest.

 

What amazes me more is that Andreas was sixteen years old at the time of her performance.  Her ability to give a mature, nuanced performance at an age where I could barely differentiate my head from a hole in the ground is impressive.

 

Sadly, her performance on the stage in Istanbul was the high point of her career.  Other than making her way to the second round of the fourth season of the UK X-Factor, her post-Eurovision information is sadly lacking, just the basic CV information. 

 

But she is still out there performing, as of 2011 in a group called The Harmonics.

 



 

Lisa Andreas, Josh Roots, Samuel Paul Jacques   "Ain't Nobody"

 

She's still a good singer, and were I living in Kent, I'd definitely be searching her out at one of her gigs. 

 

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: Serbia

Back to the Balkan ballads.  It seems like every former Yugoslav republic has decided to enter a ballad instead of an uptempo number. 

Serbia's no exception.  And like Macedonia, they decided to go with a singer that has some Eurovision experience.  In this case the singer is Željko Joksimović, he represented Serbia and Montenegro in 2004 with the following song:

Željko Joksimović and The Ad Hoc Orchestra "Lane Moje"

He did a really good job too.  Coming in second to the Ukrainian dervish Ruslana, and followed it up with a third place result by writing the song "Leija" for Bosnian Representatives Hari Mata Hari (which seems to be a redux of his song with The Ad Hoc Orchestra).  Then he became one of the hosts of the 2008 Eurovision Song Contest in Belgrade, while the Serbian entrant performed another one of his songs, which came in sixth in that year's contest.

In other words, the guy has a history with the contest. 

And if you listen and watch the songs--you can make some assumptions about the song he'll perform.  It will be in Serbian, it will be heavily folk tinged, and everybody on stage will be wearing white.

So let's take a listen.

Željko Joksimović  "Nije ljubav stvar"

Well, he's wearing a white jacket, and the flute player from his last appearance as a performer is back and in the same place on stage.  The folk elements are there as well.  And he's singing in Serbian.  Pretty much called it.  And it's good--top ten placing in the final at least--and is probably the best of the Balkan ballads in this contest.

But Joksimović has attempted to prove his versatility as a singer,  the song has also been presented in English.

  

Željko Joksimović  "Synonym"

And I have to say the English version is pretty terrible. 

What may work in Serbian just doesn't work well in English.

Let's take some lines I've transcribed from Joksimović's English language performance:

• Sunshine every single day/Sunny day for sunny sorrow
• But you know the lifeless dream/That love and pain are only synonym 
• I must swim God knows why/It is my turn to cry/To live to die

The first two make no grammatical sense because he's not capable of pluralizing words that need to be plural.  It's "days" and "synonyms", not "day" and "synonym".  And the three lines, from different sections of the song make no sense--it's like the lyricist just chose a stack of breakup song cliches and strung them together.  The literal translation of the song makes more sense that the lyrics he performed.

It's painful for a native English speaker to hear and turns this interesting song unintentionally hilarious. 

So I hope he sticks with the Serbian.