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: Slovenia

Charmingly picturesque.

Last year, during the Eurovision season, I was moving and didn't have time to sit down and record my feelings about the Eurovision final.   If I had, I would have been waxing rhapsodic over this song.

Tinkara Kovač   "Round And Round"

When watching the second semifinal, this song bowled me over.  The song, performance, and staging resonated with me in a way that few Eurovision songs have done before.   This would have been the song I would have voted for, and I went out and bought a couple of Kovač's albums after the contest and I can say "Round and Round" is one of my top 10 Eurovision songs.

So I was looking forward to watching Slovenia's national final, Evrovizijska Melodija.  I wanted to see if "Round and Round" was a fluke, or if Slovenian pop music is actually a secret jewel.

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EMA 2015 was at the beginning rather disappointing at first blush.   It started out with a lot of Balkan ballads and castoffs from the Swedish national finals.

And then came song six.

Maraaya   "Here For You"

Eurovision pop perfection.

I have had this song on repeat ever since hearing it.

I've memorized the lyrics.  

I whistle the tune at work, and I keep serenading my husband with this song.  (If you think this is bad, just know I live with his Formula 1 obsession.  I think it's fair.)

Yes, readers, we have my favorite song in this contest.