It's only a few weeks until Eurovision week, so I'm going to have to get moving on the reviews of the rest of the national finals.
Israel's final, Kdam, took place on March 7th, with ten different artists performing to represent their country.
I must say that the ten songs were rather dull and uncompelling, and can be summed up by this number.
Liran Notik "Alive"
Kdam tends towards this--good looking young people singing pretty bland songs.
Only two songs actually stood out to me, and those are the two were the top two songs.
Ron Weinreich "Love Is One"
Moran Mazor "Rak bishvilo"
Either of them would have been a good representative for Israel--but Mazor's popularity with the public pushed her above Mr. Weinreich.
I appreciate Mazor's Nana Mouskouri realness, and she's really polished. I just hope they figure out how to dress her in a flattering way--the dress is pretty unflattering. You can be a normal figured woman and be sexy--but the Israelis need to take that note.
I've been heaping a lot of praise on winning songs lately, and I was looking forward to praising the winner of the Serbian national final, Beosong.
I had to call in help to review the winner, because I needed help coming to terms with the winning song, because all I could think is the women look slutty when I think they were going for sexy.
Moje 3 "Ljubav je svuda"
So I called in the help of my go to person on when I need a ruling on sexy--Kamala S. Kamala is the founder of VivaVoom Brr-lesque, Alaska's premier burlesque troupe, and my go-to gal for all things fabulously feminine.
So take it away, Kamala:
"The devil suit is borderline, but since she doesn't do any serious stripper moves and because it looks like they are doing some sort of angel vs. devil concept, I would say that this is mostly sexy and only about 5% slutty. Good thing they can sing. And walk in those heels!"
Now that the question of sexiness has been settled, let's get to the song. I think it was the most Eurovision friendly of the numbers presented in Beosong, and it was the vote winner in the semi-final. Seeing it win here is unsurprising. I just find it doesn't hold up when you compare it to prior years' entrants. "Ljubav je svuda" is no "Nije Ljubav Stvar" or "Čaroban".
All in all Moje 3 is good enough to make the final, but I can't see this song getting in the top half of the table as is. It feels amateurish, not professional or fun, and because of that I can't see the song getting high marks outside of the Balkans.
Maybe next year.
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On the other end, there is a performance that was totally not Eurovision but completely blew me away.
Marija Mihajlović "Halo"
This is pretty much the antithesis of a Eurovision Song Contest song--a blues tinged ballad only accompanied by a piano and a couple of backing singers.
It is beyond fabulous. And came in fourth.
Mihajlović has worked in Serbia as a backing singer, jingle singer, musical theater actress, and voice coach. "Halo" is one of the songs from her new album, which, if I can find it for sale in the United States, I will be purchasing.
It's the best part of Eurovision, the discovery of new musicians. (And if any Serbians read this and can recommend a place for me listen to more of her music, please let me know.)
Cyprus is the most recent country to have been hit by the economic crisis that has been affecting much of the continent, but unlike Portugal or Bosnia and Herzegovina, Cyprus' national broadcaster, CyBC, decided to send an established singer in the region to Malmö.
Despina Olympiou "An Me Thimase"
Olympiou is sending a very old school song, lyrically having more in common with the Greek singers who represented other countries back in prior decades:
Nana Mouskouri "À force de prier" 1963 Luxembourg
It's a change of pace that I must confess I enjoy. Olympiou is seasoned singer and that appeals to me, just like Anouk does.
I can foresee the same problem for Olympiou as I see for the Dutch entry. I can't see countries giving high votes to the Cypriot entry, and this is compounded by the fact that Greece (who would give Olympiou twelve points) votes in the other semi-final.
Because of this, I don't see the voting going Ms. Olympiou's way, even if she gives a performance that knocks it "out of the ballpark", because it's not a rip off of something that is more modern in the contest. But hopefully with the small number of songs--16 in the semifinal--Olympiou will be able to perform on the night of the final.
I'll be the first to admit it. I don't quite understand Latvian taste in pop music.
I've just finished watching the Latvian national final, courtesy of www.eurovision.tv, and the twelve songs are very interesting. None I would likely select to play on a regular basis.
The winner is a rap/pop duo called PeR with this song.
PeR "Here We Go"
Like most Latvian entrants or recent years, I can't see this making it through the final, especially when it is starting out the contest. (Although I must admit I enjoy the humor of making the first song in the first semi-final of 2013. Nice job SVT.)
The closest analog to this is last year's Austrian entry, and "Woki mit deim Popo" sank to the bottom that year. I can't see "Here We Go" doing much better.
I thought PeR was a joke act, but they seem to be real players in the Latvian music scene and were successful enough to have two songs to make it through the Latvian final Eirodziesma 2013.
PeR "Sad Trumpet"
I have to admit that they have some musical chops. Their lead singer, Ralfs Eilands, has a great voice in this song but the beat boxing added absolutely nothing. "Here We Go" is the better of the two entries, without question.
So who would have I gone with?
My personal favorite was the song that placed dead last:
Sabīne Berezina "Upside Down"
Ms. Berezina's song was the one that seemed fun, but she was cursed with off key backup singers and some bad styling. The dual curse is probably the reason that you can't easily find clips of her performance in the final, but had things been perfect, "Upside Down" would have been a wildly better choice.
But based on performance alone, the song that should have gone was the third place song:
Marta Ritova "I Am Who I Am"
Latvia's answer to Regina Spektor would play better to the Eurovision audience than PeR is likely to do.
But success at Eurovision doesn't seem to the the primary point of Eirodziesma. The Latvian audience chooses the song that they like the best and that's what's sent, unlike countries who work their hardest to send the "winning" song.
I like that ethos, and I'll be happy if PeR has a good ride in Malmö.
I cannot believe that I'm going to say this. I really like the Georgian entry.
Nodi Tatishvili & Sophie Gelovani "Waterfall"
I'll be the first to admit that this is a very calculated choice by the Georgian broadcaster, GPB. They got the composer of the winning entry from last year, Thomas G:son, and looked at the staging of the winner from two years ago and came up with this song.
Usually I would deride this sort of thing, but the choice of Tatishvili & Gelovani have something that Eurovision duets in previous years tend not to have--chemistry.
If you take a look back a prior years' duets, the singers feel like they're singing in different worlds.
Chanée and N'evergreen "In A Moment Like This" Denmark 2010
Ell and Nikki "Running Scared" Azerbaijan 2011
Greta Salóme & Jónsi "Never Forget" Iceland 2012
You may feel differently, but I feel that there was no connection between the singers in the three songs I've posted above, while the Georgian entry has that connection. It looks like the two actually like each other. For me, that goes a long way to sell the song, since my idea of a good duet is set up by this song.
Dolly Parton & Kenny Rogers "Islands in the Stream"
Tatishvili and Gelovani are the singers who come closest to that level of chemistry that Parton and Rogers have. That means I'm flying the flag for the Georgian entry, even though I tend to hate duets in Eurovision.
My ongoing tour through the national finals continues with the Hungarian national final "A Dal".
To be honest, it was a rather lackluster affair with eight artists competing to with this song winning the entire thing:
ByeAlex "Kedvasem"
It's not particularly surprising, considering the selection for the entire portion of the contest.
To make it into the final, there was a 50/50 split between the group of judges--five people who have a direct connection to the Eurovision Song Contest--and televoting. Half the songs were selected by the jury, while the other half were selected by the public.
In the final, this was changed, with the five judges ranking the songs. Then the top four were placed to the public vote.
Three of the four songs were jury choices from the very beginning, and they favored this number:
András Kállay-Saunders "My Baby"
However, those three were outvoted by ByeAlex, who was ranked fourth at the end of the jury process, but was the only one the general public actually liked.
There isn't particularly anything substantial to "Kedvasem". It's perfectly nice and would be great as a background song in an iPod or a Levis commercial. But as a winning song it's got no real chance. It's got a good chance to make it into the final--with a nice placing at twelfth--but I can't see it storming the charts anywhere, much less storming to the top of at the finals.
Honestly, I couldn't see any of their songs storm anywhere. It's sad, because "A Dal" was a well put together, enteretaining little show. It makes me wonder what sort of show the Hungarian national broadcaster would put on if they won the contest.
Yet again I'm writing up a song that was chosen internally by a national broadcaster. TROS chose to send the singer Anouk and the song "Birds".
Anouk makes a great deal of sense to send to Eurovision. Within the Netherlands, Anouk is quite successful, with both popular and critical appeal. A quick search of her name show multiple Saturn and TMF awards--Dutch music awards. And for American readers, she might be best described as the Dutch Alanis Morissette. Her albums are made up of self penned, personal songs backed by a guitar heavy band.
Anouk "Three Days In A Row"
Her entry into Eurovision is much different than her previous work
Anouk "Birds"
Instead of rock guitar and an up front stage presence, we have a song that sounds very much like a throwback to the Eurovision songs of old--a Dutch take on the French chanson that won in the very early years of the song contest.
It's an interesting change in her work, and this song, from her soon to be released Sad Singalong Songs, is in my wheelhouse. She's gone from the Dutch Alanis Morissette to the Dutch Aimee Mann. And I love Aimee Mann, so I'm going to be grabbing this album if and when it's released here in the States.
As for its chances at Eurovision, I can't really decide. It's one of those songs that is either going to sink to the bottom or rise to the top.
Anouk is an established singer that has one awards for being the "Best Live Act", so she has the ability to command a stage and connect with an audience. But the song is very quiet and mournful, quite different that the upbeat power ballands and dance numbers that pepper the semifinal the Netherlands is in.
I'm expecting it to unfairly sink beneath the dance tunes and power ballads from the rest of Europe, but I'll be delighted if it makes it into the final.
