I have to confess, I've spent the past hour or so watching the eight finalists from this year's Hungarian national final.
And out of the eight finalists, I must admit that the winner is my favorite.
Compact Disco "The Sound of Our Hearts"
I have one main caveat to my approval for the song, and that's all due to the lead vocalist. Csaba Walkó come doesn't come across in the clip as having enough stage presence and vocal power to pull the song out of being very interesting. He had no camera presence and looks like he's drowning in a jacket two sized too large for him.
It reminds me rather of Lena Meyer-Landrut of Germany a couple of years ago. I though she had no presence or vocal power before making it to the stage in Oslo, and she wound up winning the entire thing, so that analysis must be taken with a grain of salt.
And, she did win the Eurovision Song Contest in 1988.
Yep, the Quebecois chanteuse represented Switzerland with this song:
Céline Dion "Ne Partez Pas Sans Moi"
The suprising thing is ithat she didn't win by a huge margin, as you might think from her current success. She won the contest by only one point over the UK entrant, Scott Fitzgerald. In other words, she won by the smallest margin in Eurovision history.
But she one of the most successful performers to come out of Eurovision and she gains her place as a Eurovisionary. She's just not my idea of one.
I may be offending a lot of people, but I have to ask why the Netherlands sent this song in 1975.
Teach-In "Ding-a-Dong"
Ding-a-Dong is the song won the contest in 1975 and it is the most incidiously infectious and poppy numbers to come out of the contest. I'll even confess that it is probably my favorite winner ever, but I still wish they hadn't sent the song in English. Take a listen to the Dutch version of the song.
Teach-In "Ding-a-Dong" (Dutch version)
In Dutch, the lyrics are a little bit less insipid sounding even if they may translate to the exact same thing in the English version.
It may be my bias, but I enjoy songs that are performed in one of the country's actual languages instead of English, but because pop music equals English in much of the world, Eurovision songs are mostly performed in English.
And with Teach-In, I can live with the English version. Yet I still wish they had performed the song in Dutch in the actual contest.
Both Austria and Ireland chose the songs they're sending to the Eurovision Song Contest this pas weekend, and considering they sent both sent male duos, I figured I'd put them together in one post for comparison and contrast
Ireland's Eurovision Final too place on RTÉ's The Late Late Show, where five acts were presented. And for the second year running, Jedward won the chance to represent the Emerald Isle
Jedward "Waterline"
I have to admit, this song from Jedward was a disappointment. Last year's Irish song, Lipstick, was not the best song, but it was high energy and entertaining. This song is a bad retread, and really highlights how mediocre the brothers are as singers, but after watching the other four songs competing, I can understand how they won again.
I just can't see them coming in eighth, like they did in last year's contest, though.
Austria, on the other hand, has taken over the "so tasteless it's good" spot Jedward had last year with their entrant
Trackshittaz "Woki mit deim popo"
Arguments can be made against the song quite easily. It's tasteless. It's sexist. It's tacky. And I can agree with those arguments. However, I have to admit I love it for those reasons--it's so different than anything we've seen so far in the contest. It's high energy, fun, and quite honestly, hilarious.
Who doesn't like a song that translates into English as "Shake Your Ass".
I just hope the rest of the countries enjoy the joke as well and it does well in the contest. Austria's great when it does funny.
Ten countries submitted songs to this contest-the seven from 1956 along with Austria, Denmark, and the United Kingdom. The contest was broadcast from Frankfurt am Main, Germany and each country performed one song, supposed to clock in at a time of three minutes.
The problem is that a number of countries didn't follow that rule, and this contest set records for song length.
Nunzio Gallo "Corde Delle Mia Chitarra" Italy
Italy's Nunzio Gallo sang a song that lasted 5 minutes and 9 seconds, the longest song ever performed at the Eurovision Song Contest, and was cited as the reason that a strict 3 minute rule has been in place since.
But Nunzio's longwinded song was balanced out by the United Kingdom's entrant
Patricia Bredin "All"
Coming in at only 1 minute and 52 seconds, it's the shortest song ever performed in the Eurovision Song Contest.
But there's a story even more importantly to Eurovision lore, the first scandal associated with the contest happened in the performance of one of the songs.
Birthe Wilke and Gustav Winckler "Skibet skal sejle i nat"
But none of these were the winner, with the juries--ten listeners in each country selecting their favorite song--favored the Dutch song by a margin of almost two to one margin.
Corry Brokken "Nel als toen"
And suprisingly, Alaska's Choice is the same as the juries. If fact our top three were identical to the juries, with Paule Desjardins from France coming second and the kissing Danes third. I guess it proves there is some kinship between the 49th State and Europe.
So congratulations to the Netherlands and their win. I can't wait to find out who we choose as the winner in 1958...
Latvia has been unsuccessful over the past few years at the Eurovison Song Contest. They've been consistently sending songs that are distinctly non-Eurovision friendly, and this year is no different.
Anmary "Beautiful Song"
Musically, it's a country song that has had the banjos, guitars, and mandolins replaced by an electronic piano and a drum machine. The song itself is a story song, with the lyrics being the most important aspect of the song--something that flies in the face of most Eurovision songs, which are based on a rollicking beat and musical gymnastics combined with rather simple, catchy lyrics. The story song combined with Anmary's use of the country keen makes this one of the most interesting songs to come out of the contest.
Does this mean it's going to succeed? No. This song will unlikely to appeal enough in any other country to get out of the semifinals. Is this the part of Latvian tastes or the desire of the Latvian broadcaster to send an unwinnable song to the contest? Who knows.
I'm keeping with the Scandinavian theme with the Icelandic entry for the Eurovision Song Contest. As you may well know from earlier posts, I've had more than a passing interest in Iceland's contest this year.
So why don't we take a look at the song that won.
Gréta Salóme and Jónsi "Mundu eftir mér"
The voting was rather close in Iceland, and this song is a rather dark, pop number, rather reminiscent of a countrified Evanescence. It's not fantastic, but it's not half bad either.
But then again, I keep getting distracted by Jónsi. The dude is wearing a string tie.
In Iceland, string ties may be hip and cool, but in the states, the most famous string tie wearer is the gentleman pictured below:
Harland "Colonel" Sanders--founder of Kentucky Fried Chicken
