Eurovision 2013: Malta

It's a race against time to get my reviews of the national finals in before the first semi on Tuesday morning, and it wasn't a smart thing for me to put off the Maltese national final.

Malta's final, broadcast back on February 2nd, is the largest final in this Eurovision season, with sixteen songs competing for a chance to be sent to Malmö.

An underdog won the contest.

This song was expected to win:

 

Kevin Borg   "Needing You"

 

 

Borg made a name for himself in Sweden, where be became the winner of Swedish Idol, and establishing himself as a musical presence in that company.  So it was kind of expected that he would win Malta's Eurovision Song.

 

However, Borg was pipped to the post by the singer of this song.

 

 

Gianluca Bezzina   "Tomorrow"

 

Gianluca is a doctor who sings in a band for fun, and his performance of the pop story song "Tomorrow" scored incredibly well with the both the jury and the public.  It gave him the win.

 

I can see how Bezzinna topped Borg, and it's due to the performance styles.  Bezzina's freshness and enthusiactic charisma is so much more compelling that Borg's smooth professionalism.  It makes Bezzina stand out and is my choice between the two songs.

 

But had I been a Maltese juror, I wouldn't have given either of them my top score.  I would have chosen this song as my favorite.

 



 

Davinia Pace   "Betrayal"

 

I enjoy the faux-Bond "Betrayal", and Pace's voice is quite entrancing.  I must admit her stage presence leaves a bit to be desired, but that could be corrected.  What shocked me is the fact that I got sucked in by a Thomas G:son song.  

 

G:son is currently the darling of the Eurovision world, having composed last year's winning number, and has had songs performed in finals all over Europe.  I feel kind of ashamed by being sucked in by one of his songs; I feel I should be cooler.  (It's just taught me to be more accepting of what's popular.  Popular doesn't always equal bad.)

 

As finals go, however, I have to say that the Maltese final as a whole was really quite good.  Who would have thought in a country of less than half a million people would have such good singers and be able to put on such a good show.  I recommend you go and watch the entire show.  PBS did quite a good job and all of them would have been worthy choices to go to Eurovision. 

 

Well, almost...

 

 

Dominique   "Too Little Too Late"

 

Sorry Dominique, you have a clear voice, but the song was a little above your skill level.

Eurovision 2013: Romania

Romania is a country that has had a very successful track record at Eurovision in the past few years, so the results of their national final--Selecția Națională--usually produces a song that could potentially contend in the Eurovision final.

I have to say that the Romanian public chose the most interesting song to be sent to Eurovision this year.

 

Cezar   "It's My Life"

 

Interesting, right?   Cezar is a classically trained countertenor and this song an audition piece, featuring his vocal range.  It brings to mind a song from a couple of years ago:

 

 

Malena Ernman   "La Voix"   Sweden   2009 

 

I have to admit that "It's My Life" is definitely stands out this year--as many other commentators have noted, this is a serious ballad laden contest.  Cezar's performance is the antithesis to that, and it's one of the few songs that have a whiff of camp to it--something that has been missing from the contest in the past few years.

 

As for Cezar's chances to make it to the final, I have to say it's questionable at best.   Although Ernman did rather well--coming in fourth in her semi-final--a man singing at the level of a mezzo-soprano is much less acceptable than a comely blonde.

 

But Romania is the last song in the semifinal it's placed in and Romania has qualified every year that a semi-final has been in place--so it's likely to qualify and sink to the bottom on Saturday night, much like "La Voix" did.

 

I can respect the choice of the Romanian public.  I don't understand the choice.   I would have gone with the song that won the jury vote:

 



 

Electric Fence   "Emilia"

 

It its own way, "Emilia" is as odd as "It's My Life", but it's weirdness is very much of many of the Moldovan entries of previous years.  Those Moldovan entries have become personal favorites, and I would have loved seeing Electric Fence bouncing around the stage in Malmö.

 

Would it have been a better choice?  I honestly don't know.  But it would have been fun to watch.





Eurovision 2013: Azerbaijan

Well, now that Azerbaijan has won and hosted the Eurovision Song Contest, the big question was what would they do next?

And the answer to that was--karaoke night!

After years of well polished, well turned out performances in the contest,  I actually decided to sit down and watch the final of Milli Seçim Turu, Azerbaijan's national selection process. 

This was absolute torture to sit and listen to.  Absolute torture.  I cannot believe that the Azerbaijani national broadcaster would put on a show where it seems like everybody was off key and the sound design was done by a rank amateur.  

For example take a listen to poor Nigar Huseynova's performance:

 

Nigar Huseynova  "I Still Believe"

 

She's a soprano.  The audio people were so unprepared for her high note it causes feedback.  And you can hear the wind machine at the end.

 

The songs and the music weren't that much better.  Take a listen to my vote for worst song in a Eurovision final this year.

 

 

Aysel Babayeva  "Sleazy Mo"

 

I'm going to paraphrase a justice of the Supreme Court of the United States here.  I may not know how to define atrocious, but I know atrocious when I hear it.

 

Really none of the songs come out particularly well.  Even the winning song sounds particularly terrible in the final.

 



 

  Farid Mammadov   "Hold Me"

 

I must admit I would have voted for him because he actually sounded great during the chorus of his song, something that nobody else was able to do with the bad sound engineering.  (Although I do dock him points for mumbling his way through the first verse.)   And I like the ombre shirt. 

 

I have no real opinion on Mammadov, he seems capable enough and the song seems likely enough to make it through to the final.  I fully suspect that the Azerbaijani music machine will train him and clean him up enough to allow the song to make a good showing.

 

Watching the entire thing leaves me with one question.  Are Azerbaijani national finals always this bad?   San Marino had a better presentation, and they're a country with less than 40,000 people.

 





Eurovision 2013: Italy

Have you ever disliked a song because of the look of the singer?

For me it happened with the Italian entry this year.

 

Marco Mengoni   "L'essenziale"

 

 

"L'essenziale" and Mengoni were selected by a committee attached to the San Remo Song Festival, the song contest that inspired Eurovision.

 

What's different this year is "L'essenziale" is the winning song, picking up 36% of the votes in the final round.   It's a rare event where the Italians will actually send the winning song at San Remo to Eurovision.

 

With that pedigree, I expect the song, a sly comment on the current economic crisis in Italy buried in a romantic ballad, to do pretty well.   And since Mengoni is a seasoned performer, I suspect he's going to take command of the stage.

 

My problem is with Mengoni himself.   I don't have much tolerance for metrosexual males, and Mengoni seems to be primped, preened and tailored within an inch of his life.    It's a gut reaction and one that I will try to get over once I listen to the song without the visuals.   But that's part of what Eurovision is; even if the song is the best song in this year's contest, I wouldn't vote for it, just off of his appearance.

Eurovision 2013: Estonia

Wow!  Estonia had a really good show!   Lots of good songs.   Lots of talented singers.

And the Estonian chose the dullest of the songs to represent them in Malmö.

Birgit Õigemeel   "Et uus saaks alguse"  

Õigemeel was a winner of Estonian Idol--Eesto otsib superstaari--just like last year's winning singer Ott Lepland, so she had a built in fan base across the country.

The song is a straightforwardly bland ballad.  Bland, bland, bland.   It's musical white noise.  A rejected Taylor Swift song.  Although it's got a horrible placement in the semifinal, it could do well if it makes it out of the semifinal and SVT decides to place it late in the final, because bland songs can do quite well if placed properly.  All in all, it feels like a redux of last year's song, and "Kuula", albeit successful, also felt bland to me.

I suppose I'm against this so much because Estonia could have sent a song that could have been a contender for winning.

 

Winny Puhh   "Meiecundimees üks Korsakov läks eile Lätti"

 

This is a bit of absolutely brilliant punk performance and an acid antidote to the pablum of Õigemeel, who performed two songs previously. 

 

The in your face insanity probably put off some people; Winny Puhh came in third.  But I would have placed this alongside Anouk's "Birds" as my favorite national song of 2013. 

 

Really, a number of songs in the Estonian final would have been a much better choice than "Et uus saaks alguse".  Take a listen to these and you'll agree with me on this one.

 

 

Liisi Koikson & Söörömöö   "Üle vee"

 

A modern Estonian take on jazz singers like Astrud Gilberto!

 

 



 

Kõrsikud   "Suuda öelda ei"

 

Indie pop that could be part of the soundtrack of my life! 

 

 



 

Põhja-Tallinn   "Meil on aega veel"

 

A rap song that actually works.  Shocking!

 

Any of these could have been better songs to send to Malmö, but we're stuck with the one song sung by a young woman under a spotlight that I actually don't like.

 

Next year...   Next year...

 

 

 





Eurovision 2013: Bulgaria

Bulgaria is an anomaly in Eurovision.  While surrounded by Eurovision powerhouse nations of Greece, Turkey, and Ukraine, Bulgaria has only qualified once for the finals of the Eurovision Song Contest.

Their only success in Eurovision came back in 2007 with this song.

 

Elitsa and Stoyan   "Voda"  2007

 

The percussionists did quite well, coming in fifth in Helsinki.

 



So after a number of years without any success, it makes perfect sense that the Bulgarian national broadcaster went back to the same well and asked Elitsa and Stoyan to represent their country.

 

In the Bulgarian national final, Elitsa and Stoyan performed three different songs and a split jury/public vote selected the winner.

 

Two songs tied for first, and since public vote trumps the jury vote, this song was selected to go to Malmö.

 

 

 

Elitsa and Stoyan   "Kismet"

 

 

However, due to a copyright issue on "Kismet". the song was withdrawn and replaced with the song that came in first with the jury.

 

 

 

Elitsa and Stoyan   "Samo Shampioni"

 

 

I hate to be cynical here, but I feel like the copyright reasons wasn't the true reason for the song to be withdrawn.   "Kismet" is a pretty song, but it is not close to duplicating the song the did so well in 2007.  "Kismet" focuses more on the harmonies of Elitsa and her backup singers not the percussion.  "Samo Shampioni" does.  In fact, "Samo Shampioni feels very much like a retread of "Voda".  

 

But even with the rather unforeseen change in songs, the Bulgaria has a good chance to qualify this year.  They're placed at the end of the first half of semifinal two, and their sound is very different than anything else being sent this year.  They're also in a semifinal that doesn't have as many obvious qualifying songs.  I would say only Finland, Greece, and Georgia are sure qualifiers from the second semifinal.  That means Bulgaria may be able to sneak in.

 

I personally can't wait to see where they land come result time.

 





Eurovision 2013: Macedonia

If you've been a reader of my blog, you know that my favorite song in Eurovision last year.

 

Kaliopi  "Crno i belo"

 

So I was looking forward to hearing the selection of the Macedonian entry this year.

 

And I have to say that I was highly disappointed when I heard this song.

 

 

 

Esma and Lozano  "Pred da se razdeni"

 

He's a good singer.  She's a good singer.  But it feels like they're performing two different songs in two different places, and as my rule on duets, it fails completely, and I fully suspect it's not going to make it out of the semifinal--especially since it is third in the running order.

 

What is interesting is that "Pred da se razdemi" wasn't the original song choice for Macedonia.  At the original presentation on February 27th was this song.

 

 



 

Esma and Lozano  "Imperija"

 

"Imperija" was changed because the Macedonian public didn't like the song.  

 

I can't see what's so bad with it; in fact, the singers seem more cohesive in "Imperija".  If I knew how to speak Macedonian I might feel differently, but as an English speaker I don't see any point in the change.

 

All in all, I'm disappointed by Macedonia this year.  Maybe next year...