After a two year absence, Poland has decided to enter Eurovision again. Happily, they've brought a song that I like quite a bit.
Donatan and Cleo "My Słowianie"
This rap/folk hybrid is really infectious and entertaining as hell. I look forward to blasting this from my car radio while driving around town--which gives it bonus points in my book.
Yet for all of my personal cheer-leading, I can see this suffering from the same fate the coolest song from last year's contest.
Who See "Ingranka" Montenegro 2013
Who See's rapping was on point and the stage show was fantastic, but it was just a little too "out there" for many of the viewers and went nowhere--coming in twelfth in the semifinal.
I predict that the same thing will happen with "My Słowianie". It doesn't deserve that fate, but it's just the nature of Eurovision. It's supposedly looking for something modern but tends to go for safe and recognizable.
Here's hoping that coolness will prevail and Poland makes the finals.
I would love to be able to stay impartial, but I can't help it. My favorite song made it to the final this year!
Anouk "Birds" The Netherlands
Absolute perfection as far as I'm concerned--the shots of her with the crowd waving along to the song with the stage behind her completely sold it.
Mind you I about had a heart attack watching the results. The results are random. Yeah, right. They were specifically calibrated to give me a freaking heart attack.
But the real shock of the first semifinal was the absolute lock out of any countries from the former Yugoslavia. None of the four countries from the former Yugoslavia made it through to Saturday night.
It could be because of the new ranking of songs, where all are ranked instead of the top ten. But when you look back at the songs from Croatia, Montenegro, Serbia, and Slovenia, none of them were true contenders this year, because they were either poorly performed or inaccessible to Europe as a whole.
For example:
Who See "Ingranka" Montenegro
This is a pretty amazing performance, and perhaps the most "in your face" performance in the semifinal. It feels fresh and modern, but outside the Balkans nobody would vote for it.
But the shock qualifier for me was another Benelux country:
Roberto Bellarosa "Loff Keels" Belgium
Bellarosa looked like a scared chicken when he was performing and his English pronunciation of phrases like "Love Kills" and "bitter pill" (excuse me "beater peel") make me wonder what was in the water to put Belgium's number over something like this.
Klapa s Moro "Mižerja" Croatia
When something like this happens, I have to remind myself it's not always about the quality of the performance, it's what sounds more popular. So the amazing Klapa s Moro are going home while the Belgian chicken clucks another day. (I'm not bitter. Not one bit.)
I am looking forward to Thursday and the second semifinal. If the production is half as good as the production for this semifinal, it's going to be the best Eurovision Song Contest in years.
Any country who can put a fresh spin on last year's winning song
Loreen and Children of Malmö "Euphoria"
and provide comedic relief that is actually funny gets my vote.
Lynda Woodruff (Sarah Dawn Finer)
(Sadly they don't have her first part of her tour of Sweden isn't available online yet. Enjoy this clip from this year's Melodifestivalen.)
If you have the time, you really should watch the entire contest--it's easily streamed from the official Eurovision website.
Now back to listening to the songs. Maybe after another six or seven listens I can actually figure out what's going on with the Serbian entry...
