Loucas Giorkas feat. Stereo Mike – "Watch My Dance" for Greece
Tonight, the Greek National final was held (odd that it was a Wednesday, as opposed to a weekend event…). After a six song national final (all sung by artists who were recent X-Factor or Greek Idol participants), a combined jury and televote came up with a somewhat unexpected winner: Loucas Giorkas and Stereo Mike’s “Watch My Dance”, a song blending a Greek ballad and English rap.
So, if you mixed this year’s Cypriot entry with a slower version of Finland’s “Lose Control” from 2009, I kind of imagine that it would sound a bit like this. If we just had Loucas or Stereo Mike up there on their own, I think that this could have been a somewhat stronger entry. But by trying to blend the two together, it feels sort of like somebody sewing a quilt made of silk and burlap. It just doesn’t sit well with me yet. (That being said, the Cyprus-born Giorkas, the winner of the Greek “X-Factor” is a pleasure to watch, to say the least!)
In all fairness, however, I hated “OPA!” the first few times I heard it last year, but it grew on me after a few listens (and after the song had been refined and remastered for Eurovision audiences). I hope that “Watch My Dance” follows that pattern. It’s Greece, so they’re just about a lock to qualify for the Final, but I think their Cypriot brothers have the stronger song, judging after the first few listens. At this point, I would be more than happy to “Watch My Dance”…but I’m not sure if I’m so psyched to listen to it in its current state.
Christos Mylordos – "San Aggelos S’agapisa" Released in Cyprus
Although Cyprus was one of the first nations to announce their singer for the 2011 ESC, they only released their song and promotional video just yesterday. Christos Mylordos, a native of Nicosia, will sing “San Aggelos S’agapisa (I Loved You Like an Angel)”:
So, we’ve got an ethno-rock-ballad from the Cypriots with a video that could have been ripped from a Colombian telenovela! This one was a bit tough to catch onto at first, partially because it has no real definable chorus, and partially because…well…it’s in Greek. But as I trolled through YouTube videos trying to find a high-quality version to post on the site, I got to re-listen to the song a handful of times, and it’s actually been growing on me! Christos is a newcomer to the Cypriot music scene, having recently won a nationally-televised music show. His winning performance on the program was of a song in English, which left many ESC fans underwhelmed. Fortunately, the powers that be (whether that was the network, the record company, or Apollo himself) have him singing in Greek (the first Cypriot entry since 2008 to be in the language).
All in all, this is a well-constructed, albeit dramatic song, that everything but the kitchen sink has been thrown into. However, “San Aggelos S’agapisa” is a lot stronger than I think people were expecting from Cyprus, and depending on the staging, this might end up being a shock qualifier. From this perspective, though, things might be a bit tough for Mr. Mylordos. Although Cyprus made it to the Finals last year with “Life Looks Better in Springtime”, singer John Lilygreen was actually Welsh…if Christos makes it out of the Semis, he’ll be the first Cypriot-born performer to do so since 2005, and no singer from the nation has qualified for the Final while singing in Greek. Stacking the deck even more harshly against Christos is the fact that constant ally Greece is performing in the first Semi, while Cyprus is in the second. This one could go either way, folks…
Vlatko Ilievski – "Rusinka" for (FYR) Macedonia!
(Disclaimer: I tend to refer to the nation referred to in this post as “Macedonia”, and not “FYROM”. I don’t mean to cause any offense, nor am I trying to make any sort of political statement. The two nations where I have lived, the United States and Chile, both maintain the general policy of calling this nation either “Macedonia” or the “Republic of Macedonia”. I hope that you, my readers, will not turn the comments section of this article into a flame war…we’re all civil and intelligent people here! Thanks! -Samantha)
Ok, now that I got that out of the way, I can get to the real meat of this article…sadly, of which there is little. After the Slovene National Final wrapped up on Sunday, I switched over to Macedonia’s Skopjefest. My hopes were high, considering that Macedonia was the nation that brought the world the incomparable Toše Proeski, as well as stars like Karolina Gočeva and Elena Risteska, all ESC alumni. Well, after a seemingly endless selection, lasting a full four hours, including an interval act that would rival watching paint dry in terms of excitement, a winner was finally selected: Vlatko Ilievski with “Rusinka (Russian Girl)”.
I’m not sure if it was the poor sound quality, the headache I was fighting off while watching Skopjefest for four hours, or the actual song itself, but I’m not incredibly impressed by “Rusinka”. Vlatko is an enthusiastic performer, and supposedly quite popular in Macedonia, but his voice just isn’t quite on the same level as some of his competitors this year. Furthermore, he’s singing about his love for a Russian girl, yet he won’t be able to count on Russia’s support in the semifinals, as they’ll be performing and voting on different nights. Maybe with a significant amount of revamping, this might be redeemed, but in its current state, this one might be doomed to languish in the semifinals, with only Belarus to keep it from the bottom of the pack.
(You see, my dear readers? I can give negative reviews!)
Maja Keuc – "Vanilija" for Slovenia
I had the pleasure of watching Slovenia’s preselection show yesterday (again, thank you to www.eurovision.tv for providing live links and on-demand replays to so many of the National Finals!), and, to tell you the truth, my expectations were somewhat low. The Slovenes, while known for their beautiful mountains and the stunning Lake Bled, aren’t quite as renowned for their Eurovision selections. They used to make a fair bit of impact on the scoreboard, but they haven’t cracked the Top Ten in a decade, and they’ve only made it to the Finals once since the Semifinals were established. Their song last year, the clumsily-titled “Narodnozabavni Rock”, was one of my least favorite songs in Oslo. I grit my teeth and braced myself for a repeat of last year’s EMA winner, a glass of wine and a pint of ice cream at my side, ready to console me if needed.
I am thrilled to say that my expectations were not only surpassed, but absolutely shattered! (Granted, I needed the wine and ice cream later that evening to get through the Macedonian selection, but that’s a story for another time.) Ljubljana really stepped up its game, and gave a great variety of ballads, pop, rock, and comedy, many of which could have been successful Eurovision entries. In the end, it came down to two superfinalists: the Lady Gaga-inspired April with “Ladadidej” and the eventual winner, Maja Keuc’s power ballad “Vanilija (Vanilla)”.
This might be not only the best Slovenian submission in recent memory (beating even 2007’s epic “Cvet z Juga“), but, in my eyes, it’s the best of 2011’s ballads so far. Maja’s voice brings just enough of an R&B influence to keep the song fresh and modern, and the arrangement is very dramatic, which I personally like. Supposedly, Maja and her team are planning to perform “Vanilija” in English in Düsseldorf, which I’m somewhat wary of. If he translation is good and her English sounds fluent enough, it could work well…otherwise, we might be in for a bit of a letdown. But this song has the potential to make people sit up and take notice, especially after a few listens.
Slovenia, as far as I’m concerned, you’ve more than redeemed yourself.
Major Monday Updates!
You would think that after a massive weekend like the one we just had, Eurovision nations would let a poor blogger have a break, right? But noooooo…
In the past half-day, we’ve had two official songs revealed (Cyprus and Belarus), one Preselection lineup released (Israel), rumors in Russia, and major shakeups in Georgia and Ukraine. I’ll get to Cyprus and Belarus in depth as soon as I’ve written my pieces on Slovenia and Macedonia, who picked their entries on Sunday, but I can definitely give you the latest news on the Russian, Georgian, Ukrainian, and Israeli news.
Russia has been one of the major Eurovision players over the past decade, not only because of the quality of its songs, but also due to the fact that they are the absolute fulcrum of the Post-Soviet Voting Bloc. Votes from all over Eastern Europe often go to Moscow, due to a shared sociolinguistic history and culture (not to mention the omnipresent allegations of political voting). But despite the massive weight of the Russian Bear on Eurovision, we haven’t heard much in the way of their Eurovision plans for this year…until yesterday. According to rumors, we’ll hear about Russia’s official plans sometime this week. It seems that it will either come down to an internal selection or a small-scale National Final, with certain artists having been approached to submit entries for consideration. One of those artists, much to my delight, are the Buranovskie Babushki! Some of you might remember these singing and dancing grandmas from last year’s National Selection, where their performance (in Udmurt!) of “Dlinnaja-dlinnaja beresta i kak sdelat’ iz nee aishon” made my list of favorite Preselection entries. If they end up going to Germany, I will definitely be making a beeline for the Russian delegation’s cocktail party…instead of vodka and blinis, will they be serving cookies and milk? I just want to hug them all!
Anyway, from Russia, we jump over to Ukraine, who, as per usual, has decided to scrap their preselection after allegations of corruption. Some of you likely remember last year’s fiasco, when an internally-selected singer and publicly-decided song was retracted after a political transition, and the winner of the subsequent preselection was rejected due to an early release. (It all turned out ok, though, as Alyosha’s “Sweet People” ended up in 10th place in the Final.) Confused yet? Anyway, after a juror on this year’s panel stated her dissatisfaction with the results, and Eurofans from all over the country have called, written, and petitioned in complaint, a second National Final will be held on March 3, with original winner Mika Newton, runner-up Zlata Ognevich, and fan favorite Jamala to compete against each other. Furthermore, the decision will be made only by a televote, and only one vote per phone number will be allowed. Let’s hope that that puts an end to this madness, or else I will personally go to Ukraine, grab the Head of Delegation by the ear, and make him pick a random name out of the Kiev Telephone Directory. (UPDATE!: Jamala has suddenly withdrawn from the second National Final, citing her unwillingness to be associated with a possibly fraudulent selection. Excuse me while I bang my head against a wall.) (ANOTHER UPDATE!: And now Zlata Ognevich has withdrawn, too! So, by default, Mika Newton will represent Ukraine in Düsseldorf…it’s still unknown if she’ll sing “Angel” or a replacement entry, but I assume the news will come soon.)
Next, we’ve got a shake-up in Georgia! For reasons still unknown, winning band Eldrine has decided to change their line-up. Lead singer Tamar “Tako” Vadachkoria has been replaced by Sopho Toroshelidze, who sang backup for last year’s entry, “Shine”. According to my calculations, three quarters of all Georgian Eurovision participants have been named Sopho…is there some sort of regional law mandating this? Are little girls named Sopho magically imbued with musical ability? Do Georgian men even sing?! Anyway, they’ll be filming the music video for “One More Day” next week in Tblisi.
Finally, we’ve got the official line-up and songs for Israel‘s 2011 preselection, “Kdam”, scheduled for March 8. Ten artists will duke it out for the ticket to Düsseldorf, including Eurovision legend Dana International. The songs represent a number of genres, and almost all of them are bilingual (either in Hebrew/English or Hebrew/French). The candidates are:
Adi Cohen – “Al Ahava“
KNOB – “Ohev et ze“
Chen Aharoni – “Or“
Idit Halevi – “It’s My Time“
Hatikva 6 – “Hakol Sababa“
Niki Goldstein – “Amri itach“
Sivan Bahnem – “Kach Oti“
Michael and Shimrit Greylsummer – “Tu Du Du“
Dana International – “Ding Dong“
Carmel Ekman – “El Gagoai“
More about Slovenia, (FYR) Macedonia, Belarus, and Cyprus shortly!
"A New Tomorrow" in Denmark
The last of Saturday’s additions to the Eurovision 2011 Roster was Denmark. The Dansk Melodi Grand Prix was, as usual, chock-full of finely-crafted pop songs, as is standard for the Scandinavian/Nordic bloc’s National Finals. After ten performances (including one by Jenny Berggren, the former lead singer from Ace of Base!), we have a winner! “A New Tomorrow”, performed by A Friend in London.
Denmark seems to have cornered the market on upbeat pop with positive messages over the past few years. Especially in 2008 and 2009, when Simon Mathew and Niels Brinck took Denmark to 15th and 13th place, respectively…will a similarly-themed tune hover around that placement, as well? Another thing that the boys from A Friend in London will have to contend with is the possible conflict with Romania’s “Change”, another uptempo song with a message to send. Furthermore, Denmark will have to contend with Ireland in their semifinal…who’s hair will reach the highest heights?
Latvia sends Musiqq – "Angel in Disguise"
Continuing on with the theme set by Ukraine’s “Angel” and Cyprus’s “San Aggelos S’agapisa (I Loved You Like an Angel)”, Latvia also chose a heavenly theme for their representative to Germany this year: “Angel in Disguise” by Musiqq.
Musiqq, formed by Marats Ogļezņevs and Emīls Balceris, formed back in 2009 and had a hit album last year back in Latvia. They beat ten other songs to get the ticket to Düsseldorf, including “Banjo Laura” by Eurovision alum Lauris Reiniks and the disco-tinged “You Are” by Pieneņu Vīns (Dandelion Wine).
Compared to Latvia’s offerings from 2009 and 2010, “Angel in Disguise” is a marked improvement. For the past two years, the nation’s come in last place in their respective semifinal, and they haven’t made it into the Top Ten since 2005. Will Musiqq make it out of the Semis? It’s tough to tell at this point, but it’s entirely within the realm of possibility. At the very least, they can likely leave their last-place days behind them, as there are definitely weaker entries in their division.
Mika Newton: An Unlikely "Angel" for Ukraine
The next song selected for Düsseldorf was the Ukrainian entry. After months of preselections, heats, semifinals, rumors, and innuendo, most observant Eurofans had assumed that the golden ticket would fall into the hands of one of three women: Zlata Ognevich, Jamala, or Anastasiya Prikhodko. Zlata’s upbeat “The Kukushka” was a perfect dance-pop number that fit in nicely with Ukraine’s Eurovision history (think “Shady Lady”, “Be My Valentine”, “Show Me Your Love”, etc). Jamala’s quirky “Smile” was an imaginative and unique offering unlike any other song in the National Selection (or any other, for that matter). And the lure of bringing in Anastasiya, who had represented Russia back in 2009, was a pretty big temptation, as well, even if her song “Action” didn’t show off very much of her vocals.
So, did the victory go to Zlata, Jamala, or Anastasiya?
Turns out, it went to none of the above! In a shock win, Mika Newton’s ballad “Angel” took the maximum points from the jury, audience text voting, and the online vote. I’m still not sure what to think of this turn of events…I had been rooting for Zlata, in all honesty. The Ukrainians had a number of unique, catchy, and creative songs that might have landed them at the top of the leaderboard in Germany, but they went for a slow ballad with little standalone personality. It’s still unclear whether Mika will sing in English or Ukrainian (she’s recorded the song in both, although she performed the English version at the Preselection yesterday). I personally hope she goes for the Ukrainian, as her English isn’t quite intelligible, and keeping it in her native language might give the song some measure of authenticity. Regardless, she looks lovely and sings well, it’s just that the song doesn’t make it up to par.
(UPDATE!: Continuing with the longstanding tradition of confusion and possible corruption in Ukrainian Eurovision proceedings, the validity of Mika’s victory as been thrown into question. Allegations of power-voting from the televote and online poll have arisen, and even one of the jurors wants an in-depth investigation of the weekend’s proceedings. Complicating matters even further, Mika herself has said that she wants to switch her song “Angel” out for a new one, written by “My Heart Will Go On” producer Walter Afanasieff. So, will the ticket go to Zlata or Jamala after all? Everything’s still very much up in the air in Kiev, and I’ll try to keep you all as informed as possible as quickly as possible!)
Zdob şi Zdub is "So Lucky" in Moldova!
Moldova burst onto the Eurovision scene back in 2005, when ethno-punk band Zdob şi Zdub stormed their way to a 6th place finish with “Boonika Bate Toba (Grandmama Beats the Drum-ma)”. Their performance was not only memorable for their catchy hooks and Anthony Keidis-lookalike frontman, but also for the fact that they brought in the Boonika herself to beat the drum live on stage in Kiev! In fact, due to the six-person limit on Eurovision performances, one of the official band members relinquished their spot on stage to give Lidia Bejenaru her moment.
Zdob şi Zdub entered the Moldovan National final this year with their folk-influenced rapcore song “So Lucky”, and ended up winning a nail-biter of a preselection, beating runner-up (and fellow ESC alum) Natalia Barbu by a single point after Jury and Audience scores were totaled up. So, how did the boys from Chişinău top themselves? Well, if Boonika’s unavailable, how about bunch of pointy hats and a girl on a unicycle?
I can almost feel how divisive this entry is going to be among Eurovision fans…some people are going to proclaim this the “ESC Party Anthem of 2011”, and others are going to scream “Where’s the singing? Where’s the music? This is chaos!” A third group will remember that this is the country that brought us all “Run Away” and all of its epic awesomeness last year, so they’ll roll their eyes, shrug their shoulders, and embrace Moldova’s unique qualities. I’ve got one foot in Group One, and one in Group Three. Zdob şi Zdub have made their careers on blending rap, punk, rock, and ethnic sounds into a big, chaotic pile of entertainment, and considering the success that they’ve had, they’re obviously making people happy out there! This is going to be a true wildcard on the ESC stage…Romania’s voting in their semifinal, so that’s a big boost for them, but fans are generally going to either love or hate “So Lucky”. What do you all think?
Oh, and just as a side note: I can’t remember the last time we’ve had so many returning Eurovision participants in a single Contest, but in 2011, we’ve got Lena, Dino Merlin, one of Sigurjón’s Friends, and now Zdob şi Zdub! Not only that, but Dana International is in the running for Israel, and a number of other previous participants took part in national selections with no success…is this some sort of record?
Nina – "Čaroban" for Serbia!
Serbia was the next nation to select their song for Germany, and the 2007 champions had an interesting concept up their sleeve for their preselection. Last year, as some of you might remember, legendary composer Goran Bregović provided three songs which were matched with three singers, the best of which went on to represent Serbia in Oslo. This year, local broadcaster RTS wanted to continue that general idea, but with a twist: instead of having one composer write a series of songs, it was decided that one family of composers would submit songs to the network. Kornelije Kovač and his daughters Aleksandra and Kristina would write one song apiece, each hand selecting who would interpret their composition.
Kornelije, who represented a then-united Yugoslavia in the 1974 ESC, came up with “Ring Ring Ring“, and matched it with local band The Breeze, who could have easily stepped out of a time capsule from 1964. The Beatle-esque tune came in third place with the televoters. Aleksandra decided to take matters into her own hands, and sung her creation, the ballad “Idemo Dalje“, on her own. But it was youngest sister Kristina who had the winning formula, pairing the Swinging 60’s throwback song “Čaroban (Magical)” with newcomer Nina Radojčić. Here’s the result:
I mean, is this adorable or what?! In Serbia’s first two outings at Eurovision as an independent nation, they reached for beautiful ballads sung by powerfully-voiced women, landing them with a victory and a 6th place. The next two years, they went for more upbeat songs sung by men, and missed the finals one year and only made it to 13th place the next. (Then again, “Cipela” was a pretty unique entry, and “Ovo Je Balkan” was one of those love-it-or-hate-it songs.) Čaroban brings in the uplifting energy from 2009 and 2010, brings in a great female lead vocal like 2007 and 2008, and infuses it with that great throwback feeling that’s so popular on charts worldwide. (Amy Winehouse, anybody?) Nicely done, Kristina, Nina, and Serbia!
The ESC Insider 