Eurovision 2015: The Aftermath

Although Eurovision has been over for a couple of weeks, I'm typing about it now because I've finally had my yearly Eurovision party.

Congrats to Sweden.  We ranked your fourth.

Usually I have it a little while after the live broadcast, it's an excuse to have people over, make some interesting food, and have a little bit of fun by ranking the songs.

It's always very interesting on where we agree and disagree with the voters from Europe.

Our Favorite:

Aminata   "Love Injected"   Latvia

Latvia's first final qualifier in eight years won us over with the exceptional vocals from Aminata and the extremely modern, almost avant garde, staging.

It was ranked in the top five of everybody at the party and would recieve our "douze points".

Other Winners:

Lisa Angell   "N'oubliez pas"   France

Even though Angell was placed in the "slot of death", performing second on the night of the final, Angell's passionate hit us in the sweet spot, coming in second our voting and would have received ten pomts from us.  Angell receiving only four points was one of the biggest shocks of this year's voting.

Ann Sophie   "Black Smoke"   Germany

Ann Sophie wouldn't have gone away with "nul points" if our little group of voters were considered.  "Black Smoke" came in sixth in our voting and picked up five points from us.  The sexy staging  and the powerhouse vocals worked for this little group of Americans.

The Biggest Loser:

Elhaida Dani   "I'm Alive"   Albania

I'm always happy when Albania makes it to the finals, but I have to agree with almost everybody else at our party and put Dani dead last.  There's no hiding off key, screechy vocals.

Other Losers:

Polina Gagarina   "A Million Voices"  Russia

Although Russia came in seventh in our voting, the little group I had over was made up of members of the LBGT community and their allies.  Politics caused us to vote the song down our list, even though we all admitted she hit this song out of the park.

However, the booking of Gagarina by the crowd was extremely tasteless.  She's just a singer, not a politician.

Nadav Gued   "Golden Boy"   Israel

Israel may have hit the top ten in European voting, but the ethnopop from a guy attempting to be Justin Timberlake attempting to be Michael Jackson got more jeers than kudos.

The fake selfie at the end of the song was a particular groan worthy moment...

And that's Eurovision 2015.   Now it's time to focus on a move and look forward to 2016 and the contest in Sweden.

Eurovision 2015: Who Will Qualify?

A close up of part of the stage.

The second semifinal is harder to predict because the songs in this final are much better and there isn't a real voting bloc of countries (save the Nordics) that make choosing songs obvious.

So here we go.

The Sure Qualifiers

• Norway
• Azerbaijan
• Iceland
• Sweden

The Songs Without A Chance:

• San Marino
• Portugal
• Switzerland

The Undefined Middle:

• Lithuania
• Ireland
• Montenegro
• Malta
• Czech Republic
• Israel
• Latvia
• Cyprus
• Slovenia
• Poland

So after killing my darlings, here's my ten

• Lithuania
• Ireland
• Norway
• Czech Republic
• Latvia
• Azerbaijan
• Iceland
• Sweden
• Cyprus
• Slovenia

I really doubt I have more than six right, but this semifinal has a lot of songs that are all worthy of qualification and I've selected a couple that a true long shots.

And here's where I make my pitch to any European reader:

If you are willing to spare one of your votes for an American blogger, please send one in for Slovenia.

Maraaya  "Here For You"

I've been a fan of Maraaya when I first heard "Here For You" and my love is still unabated.  I want Slovenia in the final and since I have no choice in the matter, all I can do is ask.

Semifinal One: The Aftermath

Hooray for the ten finalists!

Well, I just shocked myself.  I took a look at the list of songs I selected to make it through to the final, and I got nine out of ten correct.

Here are the ten finalists:

• Armenia
• Belgium
• Greece
• Estonia
• Serbia
• Hungary
• Russia
• Albania
• Romania
• Georgia

The only one I missed was Albania.  I had the Netherlands in instead.

But for those of you who aren't interested in watching the whole thing, here's some of the highlights of the contest.

The Biggest Surprise:

Elhaida Dani   "I'm Alive"   Albania

I'm happy that Albania has made it into the final.  But Dani got really lucky because her final performance was off key and rather stilted.

My guess is that she had a superb performance last night and she scored well with the juries.  It's the only explanation for the qualification.

The Biggest Disappointment:

Trijntje Oosterhuis   "Walk Along"   the Netherlands 

I'm certain that Oosterhuis and the Dutch team wanted to make the final, and the vocals were superb.  But everything else chosen was chosen to make people not vote for it.  The clothes, the camera shots, and the lighting all were weird for no good reason.

Had she performed the song as she had on The Voice Holland this would have been in the final.

The Song I Would Have Voted For:

Boggie   "Wars For Nothing"   Hungary

I enjoy watching the semifinals without knowing much about the final performances.  That means a song that I didn't necessarily rate will get my vote.   Like last year's San Marinese entry, I didn't rate Hungary's song highly.  But when seeing this live, this was the song I would have voted for.  A simple song performed perfectly will get my vote.

The Can't-Miss Song

Eduard Romanyuta   "I Want Your Love"   Moldova

It's a rare song that makes you feel like you could get a STD by watching it.   Good job Mr. Romanyuta.  You made me feel like taking a course of antibiotics.   And now you need to watch it too.

Semifinal One: Who Will Qualify?

Now here comes the fun part of Eurovision week, attempting to prognosticate the choices of European juries and public.

The Sure Qualifiers:

• Russia
• Estonia
• Romania

The Songs Without a Chance:

• Moldova
• Macedonia  (It hurts me to put Macedonia here.  I really love the song.)
• Belarus

The Undefined Middle:

• Armenia
• Belgium
• Netherlands
• Finland
• Greece
• Serbia
• Hungary
• Denmark
• Albania
• Georgia

So, after taking a look at the rehearsal clips, my choices to qualify are:

• Armenia
• Belgium
• Netherlands
• Greece
• Estonia
• Serbia
• Hungary
• Russia
• Romania
• Georgia

I'm not really good at predicting, so take my choices with a grain of salt.  I'm looking forward to how everything shakes out on Tuesday.

Top 10 Before The Show: Eurovision 2015

As the rehearsals are going on in Vienna, I now get to the fun part of my blog--choosing my favorite songs.

Read on and enjoy

10th place:

Lisa Angell  "N'oubliez pas"   France

France is always a great country when it comes to Eurovision, and I'm a sucker for chanson.   Naturally Angell's song was going to be high on my list.

9th Place:

Electro Velvet   "Still In Love with You"   United Kingdom

I love the out of left field choice of the UK.   It's weird and most of all fun.   Fun is something missing in this year's contest and I hope Electro Velvet are going to bring a little bit of joy.

8th Place: 

Guy Sebastian   "Tonight Again"   Australia

Australia is sending a commercially successful song that is a catchy as hell.

7th Place:

Nina Sublatti   "Warrior"   Georgia

There are a lot of moody young women singing dark dramatic songs at Eurovision this year.  This is the only one that hasn't been overworked to death.  

6th Place:

Elina Born & Stig Rästa   "Goodbye to Yesterday"   Estonia

I cannot deny that this is one of the best songs in the contest.   I can understand why it's one of the favorites.

5th Place:

Aminata   "Love Injected"   Latvia

Latvia has finally come to win, not place last in the semifinal.  It's delightful to see.

4th Place:

Daniel Kajmakoski   "Autumn Leaves"   Macedonia

I must confess that Kajmakoski's work on reaching out to the Eurovision fan base has worked on me.  If you haven't checked out his cover of Yugoslavia's 1983 entry, Džuli, you really should.    It's made me go back and take a listen to his entry that I wrote off back at the beginning of my tour through the 2015 songs.   It's popped up to the top of my replay list.

3rd Place:   

Monika Kuszyńska   "In The Name of Love"  Poland

I'm surprised by the fact I keep playing the Polish entry over and over again.   Simple songs sung well always hook me.    I don't know if it will qualify, but for me it works.

2nd Place:

Ann Sophie   "Black Smoke"   Germany

If Eurovision songs won on sheer memorability, "Black Smoke" would be my winner hands down.  This song has been stuck in my head since I first heard the darn thing, and it's a great one to have on the car stereo with the volume cranked up.   It also doesn't hurt that it's in my vocal range.  Hello new karaoke song.

1st Place:

Maraaya   "Here For You"   Slovenia

Hands down my favorite song in the contest, and they're going to be the group I'll definaletly follow in the future, joining a small list like Anouk and Patricia Kaas.   Have you heard their other versions--the remix with the students of their music school?  Or the remix with the a capella choir?   This song has legs and Maraaya has the musical chops.

Eurovision 2015: Latvia

Right now, rehearsals are happening in Vienna,so it's high time I finished up the tour of the national finals with Latvia.

Latvia has has one of the worst track records at Eurovision in the past few years, not qualifying for the final since 2008.  And because of those duff results, it was rumored that Latvia would withdraw this year.

Instead of withdrawing, Latvia has completely rethought their selection process, and unlike some other countries (Ireland), the rethink worked.

Instead of the weird tweeness that has haunted the national finals of prior years, Latvia's final had four interesting and rather modern songs to choose among.

ElektroFolk   "Sundance"

Markus Riva   "Lights On"

MNTHA   "Nefelibata"

(Well, maybe not Markus Riva. His song is really kind of lame.)

But the jury and televoters selected the best of the songs to represent them.

Aminata   "Love Injected"

She's got a powerful voice, the visual is striking, and all in all, it think this is the best song Latvia has ever sent.  If they can't qualify for the Eurovision final then there is no justice.

Eurovision 2015: Austria

I'm getting to the end of my national final reviews, and now I'm getting to the host country.  Austria is hosting Eurovision this year after the win of Conchita Wurst (as if you didn't already know that).

Conchita Wurst   "Rise Like A Phoenix"   2014

And now ÖRF, the Austrian broadcaster, has to do the delicate dance of selecting a song to represent them on home soil.

It's generally assumed that the host country doesn't want to host Eurovision two years in a row.  Although every country taking part in the contest gives money to the EBU for the right to participate and broadcast the contest, it costs millions of euros to put on the show.   It's currently estimated that Austria has spent 35 million euros on this year's Eurovision Song Contest.

In response to this, the host country selects a middle of the road song that is going to be respected but not going to light the light on fire.

And this year, Austria has chosen the perfect song to do just that.

The Makemakes   "I Am Yours"

The Makemakes have been somewhat successful in their home country, with a couple of Top 40 singles and a forthcoming album.  They're competent musicians, and their performance is spot on.   

Besides, it's the perfect example of a safe home crowd song--it's three minute aural blanket.   Nobody is going to say bad things about it, but it's also not going to get anywhere near the top of the scoreboard.

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That said, I kind of with that the Austrian public had gone completely left field with their choice and selected the song that came in fifth:

Johann Sebastian Bass   "Absolutio"

The well performed insanity of Johann Sebastian Bass, a "electrorococo" band, would have put on a great show and would have been a memorable part of the sixtieth Eurovision Song Contest--going down with acts like Telex and Gypsy.cz

Yeah, it means they would have likely come in last.  But in a year of utterly safe songs, a bit of color would make things fun.