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.

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: The Aftermath (part one)

I've had to give myself a day before I posted this up, because I'm rather disappointed by the results of this contest.

I must admit that I've never been much of a fan of the winning number, but I can appreciate it's got catchy chorus and a hummable melody.

Emmelie de Forest  "Only Teardrops"   Denmark

It just seems rather generic.   As my friend Michael W. noted, it "sounded like he had heard it before" but in  a hundred different songs".  It's not a song that is particularly memorable or original.

But as Eurovision tends not to reward originality, this is an example of a perfect winner.   De Forest will become one of those artists that will not make a splash outside of her country again but be back at Eurovision year after year after year.

Could she become her generation's Lys Assia?  Only time will tell.

My Predictions: Final 2013

Like everybody who has a love of the Eurovision Song Contest, I've been sitting down and analyzing the running order for the final.

Here's the running order, as determined by the lovely people at SVT.

1. France

2. Lithuania

3. Moldova

4. Finland

5. Spain

6. Belgium

7. Estonia

8. Belarus

9. Malta

10. Russia

11. Germany

12. Armenia

13. Netherlands

14. Romania

15. UK

16. Sweden

17. Hungary

18. Denmark

19. Iceland

20. Azerbaijan

21. Greece

22. Ukraine

23. Italy

24. Norway

25. Georgia

26. Ireland

Of course, I'm going to be looking at my personal favorite, Anouk for the Netherlands.  Unluckily drawn into the first half, she's got a good position--the last song in the first half.   She's also between two really lousy songs--the Armenian ecoballad and the (forgive me for offending delicate sensibilities) salute to menstruation--Romania, which will hopefully make the song stand out.

Anouk   "Birds"   the Netherlands

I hope for a good result for the Dutch entry--maybe a top ten position.   I doubt Anouk can win--the song is kind of too classy for the room.  If it does, just expect me to be very, very, happy.

As for likely winners, if I were to put down some money, I'd actually go with Ukraine. 

Zlata Ognevich   "Gravity"   Ukraine

It's well placed and if performed the way it was in this clip, it's worthy of winning the Eurovision Song Contest.

And as a long shot, I'd put some money down on this song too:

Krista Sigfrieds   "Marry Me"   Finland

Hatred has turned to love on this one.  

But to be honest any number of countries songs would be worthy.   Norway, Georgia, Ireland, Italy, Greece,  France, Russia, Moldova, and Iceland are all songs that I would be happy to see win.  

Really there are only three songs that are likely winners that I don't particularly care for.

Cascada   "Glorious"  Germany

Emmilie de Forest   "Only Teardrops"   Denmark

Both of them seem way too generic to actually inspire love, but they are true fan favorites. 

Farid Mammadov   "Hold Me"   Azerbaijan

And on this one, the song is very much back burner to the fantastic gimmick.   It's like the sand lady from Ukraine a few years back.    That's not a particularly flattering comparison, but it's going to get votes.



But all of this analysis is really pointless.  I'm just looking forward to tomorrow morning--the final starts at 11 AM local time here in Alaska.   And then comes my favorite part of the Eurovision season.  The Eurovision parties to determine Alaska's Choice!