Showing posts with label Salvador Sobral. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Salvador Sobral. Show all posts

Saturday, August 19, 2017

Eurovision 2017: The Aftermath


It's been a few months since the final of the Eurovision Song Contest, and I haven't wanted to write about it because as a resident of the United States, the clips have been geoblocked, so I'm not able to post anything here on this blog that are viewable to me.

I have a couple things I really want to share.

1.  The best song in the contest won for the second year in a row.


Salvador Sobral   "Amor Pelos Dois"  (Portuguese national final)

The song was a three minute bit of stillness in the middle of painfully current pop and shouty ballads.   If you can go out and find the final performance online, it's well worth it.

2.   The European Broadcasting Union has proven to be an ineffectual European bureaucracy.

I have two reasons for this.   The first is their handling of the Russian/Ukrainian conflict.   Their inability to see the obvious propaganda war the two countries would have and deal and their tone deaf response to it just proves how ineffectual and out of touch the organization is.

The other thing that is that the organization has not addressed the geoblocking in North America.  I'm certain the reason is due to a rights deal with Viacom, the company that owns the television channel that broadcasts Eurovision in the US.  Yet the EBU has said nothing and questions about the issue are not answered by representatives of the EBU.   It is another example of the lack of transparency in multinational European organizations that is expected yet frustrating.

3.  Ukraine put on a pretty decent show.

There was a lot of drama over the production of this year's contest, but when all was said and done, Ukraine did a decent job.   Other than a Ukrainian idiot who stage crashed the performance of last years winner, everything went off without a hitch.

I also found a group that I started to listen to after the contest.


ONUKA & The National Academic Orchestra of Folk Instruments of Ukraine   "Megamix"

ONUKA's performance is a medley of a number of their songs and is well worth going and listening to more of their stuff.

That's about it for this year.   I am looking forward to next year's contest in Portugal and if all things go to plan, I'll be able to vote in next year's contest. 


Monday, May 8, 2017

Eurovision 2017: Semifinal One (who will qualify)

Now it's the post where I try to guess the thoughts of people all over Europe and fail miserably!   What fun.

The Sure Qualifiers
  • Armenia
  • Finland
  • Latvia
  • Portugal
  • Sweden
The Songs Without A Chance
  • Albania
  • Czech Republic
  • Slovenia
The Undefined Middle
  • Australia
  • Azerbaijan
  • Belgium
  • Cyprus
  • Georgia
  • Greece
  • Iceland
  • Moldova
  • Montenegro
  • Poland
So my guesses are:
  • Armenia
  • Azerbaijan
  • Belgium
  • Finland
  • Greece
  • Latvia
  • Moldova
  • Poland
  • Portugal
  • Sweden
It's quite different than the songs I personally like the best.

1.  Portugal
2.  Finland
3.  Georgia
4.  Armenia
5.  Azerbaijan
6.  Czech Republic
7.  Montenegro
8.  Moldova
9.  Belgium
10.  Albania

So please, if you are reading this, please drop a vote for the Portuguese entry for this American's sake. 


Salvador Sobral   "Amar Pelos Dois"  (live from Spain Calling)




Friday, April 14, 2017

Eurovision 2017: Portugal

I am going to type words that I have been dying to type since I started following the Eurovision Song Contest back in the 1990s.

Portugal has sent the best song to Eurovision this year.

Yes, seriously.   Portugal has sent the best song to the Eurovision this year.


Salvador Sobral  "Amar Pelos Dois"

Yeah, it sounds old fashioned

Yeah, he's got a weird stage presence.

Yeah it's in Portuguese.

Yet "Amor Pelos Dois" has done something that no other song has done this year--it made me stop what I was doing and actively listen to the song.   Sobral's performance of a simple love song is extremely effective and is one of honest emotion instead of manufactured spectacle.  

If the team in charge of staging this song is able to recreate the magic in the national final performance, Portugal could have the best placing they have ever had in any Eurovision Song Contest.

Wouldn't that be awesome?