Lena’s been "Taken By a Stranger"!
After an exciting final, we finally know which song Lena Meyer-Landrut will be presenting on the home stage in Düsseldorf…
…drumroll please?
And the winner is “Taken By a Stranger“, written by the American songwriting team of Gus Seyffert, Nicole Morier, and Monica Birkenes. (Incidentally, last year’s winning song for Germany, “Satellite”, was written by an American/Danish team.) This surprisingly understated electropop number was a huge favorite among the German audience and foreign Eurofans alike, although it’s not without its detractors. I think it plays into Lena’s quirky style quite nicely! It’s interesting to envision the stalker-ish images that come up in “Taken By a Stranger” next to the puppy-love sweetness of “Satellite”…
As I’ve mentioned earlier, the German broadcasters are pretty stringent on what gets to stay up on YouTube, so you might have to check out the official network webpage for the National Final performances of “Taken By a Stranger” and runner-up “Push Forward”.
(Update: Found one!)
The Weekend Preview, 2/18
And another big weekend kicks off for Eurofans everywhere!
First, we’ve got the Finals of “Unser Song Für Deutschland”, Germany‘s national final. Lena will sing the six remaining songs from the two semifinals, and within the next few hours we should know the song that will represent the home country this year. And the finalists are:
Maybe (Daniel Schaub, Pär Lammers)
Taken by a Stranger (Gus Seyffert, Nicole Morier, Monica Birkenes)
What happened to me (Lena Meyer-Landrut, Stefan Raab)
A million and one (Errol Rennalls, Stavros Ioannou)
Push forward (Daniel Schaub, Pär Lammers)
Mama told me (Lena Meyer-Landrut, Stefan Raab)
Also tonight, Spain will select their Song/Singer combination. Last week, the performers were narrowed down to Lucía Pérez, Melissa, or boy-band Auryn. Each act will perform three unique songs each, and after a 50/50 jury/audience vote, we will know who will carry the Spanish flag to Düsseldorf!
El sol brillará (Rafael de Alba)
Evangelyne (Kjell Jennstig, Dejan Belgrenius & Kristin Molin)
Volver (Primoz Poglajen, Jonas Gladnikoff, Camilla Gottschalck & Christina Schilling)
Abrázame (Antonio Sánchez-Ohlsson & Thomas G.son)
C’est la vie! It’s allright (W&M, Nestor Geli, Susie Päivärinta, P. Andersson & M. Lindberg)
Que me quiten lo bailao (Rafael Artesero Herrero)
Diamonds (Nestor Geli, Susie Päivärinta, Pär Lönn)
Eos (Jesús Cañadilla & Alejandro de Pinedo)
Sueños rotos (Primoz Poglajen, Jonas Gladnikoff, Camilla Gottschalck, Christina Schilling)
On Saturday, Georgia will select their entry. From seven entries, only one will have the honor of becoming their nation’s fourth official Eurovision entry (fifth, if you count their withdrawn 2009 entry!). You can listen to the songs here.
Temo Sajaia – Soldier song
Salome Korkotashvili – Love
Sweet Pills – Face to face
Dito Lagvilava and November – New day
Nini Shermadini – Rejected
The Georgians – Loved, seen, dreaming
Eldrine – One more day
The Final official selection this weekend is expected from Italy, as the annual San Remo Festival will wrap up. Now, rather than simply having the winner go on to compete at Eurovision, a special jury made up of local dignitaries, network officials, and one of the festival’s hosts will select the nation’s first representative in fourteen years. San Remo this year includes two competitions under one umbrella: one contest for up-and-coming artists and another for established stars. It’s still unclear if the jury will select a new name or a well-known entity for their representative, but hopefully we’ll find out soon.
Anna Tatangelo – Bastardo
Anna Oxa – La mia anima d’uomo
Luca Madonia with Franco Battiato – L’Alieno
Max Pezzali – Il mio secondo tempo
Roberto Vecchioni – Chiamami ancora amore
Tricarico – 3 colori
Albano Carrisi – Amanda è libera
Nathalie – Vivo sospesa
Modá with Emma Marrone – Arriverá
Davide Van De Sfroos – Yanez
Patty Pravo – Il vento e le rose
Giusy Ferreri – Il mare immenso
La Crus – Io confesso
Luca Barbarossa and Raquel del Rosario – Fino in fondo
(Just for the record, my favorites are Modà feat. Emma, Nathalie Giannitrapani, Giusi Ferreri, and Anna Tatangelo!)
We can also expect semifinals from Croatia, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, and Sweden…phew!
It’s the TWiinS for Slovakia!
After a game of hot-and-cold that would make Katy Perry’s head spin, Slovakia decided to participate in Eurovision 2011 (as opposed to paying a hefty fine imposed by the EBU for a late withdrawal). In order to save money and resources, the Slovak broadcaster decided to go with an internal selection this year, as opposed to the full preselections that we’ve seen from them in 2009 and 2010. After a few weeks of rumors that last year’s runner-up Mista or the local “Idol” winner would represent the country in Germany, it was officially announced today that 24-year-old sisters Daniela and Veronika Nízlová, better known to the world as “TWiiNS” would represent their homeland with the song “I’m Still Alive”. (Sadly, my favorite, Tomáš Bezdeda, wasn’t on the shortlist this year.) Daniela and Veronika are no strangers to the Eurovision experience; they were backup singers for the Czech Republic’s 2008 entry, “Have Some Fun” by Tereza Kerndlová. (Then again, knowing that “Have Some Fun” came in second-to-last place in its semifinal, I’m not sure if the Nízlovás would willingly admit their prior participation…)
The song will be premiered on March 5th, when the girls will perform during the Miss Slovakia Universe Pageant.
To hold us over until then, here’s another single from the TWiiNS:
So, it looks like we’re up for an epic battle between the TWiiNS and Jedward: which pair of genetic doubles will reign supreme?!
It’s Magdalena Tul for Poland!
As a Valentine’s Day gift to Eurofans everywhere, the Polish delegation decided on their representative to Eurovision 2011 today. After ten performances and a public televote (which, unlike many other national finals, was what the decision was entirely based on, rather than splitting the choice with a professional jury), the Polish decision was made, loud and clear. With a full 44.47% of the vote (twice as much as the runner-up), the winner was Magdalena Tul’s “Jestem (I Am)”:
Magda, a 30-year-old Gdansk native, is an experienced performer (she’s appeared in local productions of “Miss Saigon”, “Cats”, and “Grease”, among others).
Now, I generally have terrible luck when it comes to having my favorite songs from a preselection actually make it through to Eurovision itself. “Jestem”, however, immediately stood out to me when I heard it for the first time. Even though it’s in Polish (a language I don’t speak in the slightest), it’s instantly catchy and memorable, with a great beat. Poland’s debut entry, “To Nie Ja!“, came in second place back in 1994, but the nation has only made it back into the Top Ten once since then. In my opinion, this is the best song that Poland has sent to an ESC in years, and if Magda keeps the energy high, this might just end up turning into 2011’s “Shady Lady”.
It’s Glen Vella for Malta!
The last song to be selected this weekend for the 2011 Eurovision Song Contest came from Malta’s Preselection. A highly competitive National Final with many experienced performers, including two-time ESC participant Fabrizio Faniello, “Malta Eurosong” was definitely packed with a number of strong performances. After sixteen songs and a close finish, the winner was Glen Vella with “One Life”:
Vella, who will turn 27 on the night of this year’s Eurovision Final, came in second place after last year’s Malta Eurosong with “Just a Little More Love” (which, if you close your eyes, you could easily imagine being sung by Michael Jackson). “One Life” is a catchy, danceable number, quite a departure from the inspirational ballads that TVM has given us over the past few years. Malta hasn’t sent a solo male singer to Eurovision since Fabrizio’s 2006 performance (which, incidentally, came in last place in the Finals that year). In fact, in Malta’s 23 Eurovision appearances, they’ve sent songs performed by solo males only seven times, with two of those performances bringing up the rear of the leaderboard. However, three of those male-driven performances ended up in the Top Ten. That hit-or-miss track record for Maltese men makes Glen’s chances hard to predict this year. “One Life” is positive and energetic, and they have the benefit of having the United Kingdom (the closest thing the island nation has to a Bloc voting ally) casting their ballots in their semifinal. But will it stand out enough? We might have to see what other nations send before a prediction can be made…
It’s Witloof Bay for Belgium!
Belgium was the next nation to pick their representative this weekend, and after a 14-song final, both the professional jury and the public audience gave their maximum points to acapella group Witloof Bay and their song “With Love Baby”.
While Witloof Bay’s performance is strong, considering they’re depending purely on their voices and have no musical backing track to fall back on, acapella has traditionally been a risky move at Eurovision. I can only think of one other acapella song that has been performed at the ESC (2006’s “I Hear Your Heart” by Latvian group Cosmos), and it only reached the finals that year because of automatic qualification. Granted, I think “With Love Baby” is a better song than “I Hear Your Heart” (and you know that people will be comparing the two over the next few months!), and Wallonia has definitely taken some risks at the ESC over the past few years. (Remember, this is the network that sent an Elvis impersonator, a song in an imaginary language, and one of the first Eurovision songs to actually sing about Eurovision (how very meta!).
This year marks the 25th anniversary of Belgium’s lone win in Eurovision, with Sandra Kim’s “J’aime a la Vie (I Love Life)“. I don’t think that this silver anniversary portends a victory for the Belgians, but at the very least, you’ve got to give them credit for creativity!
Oh, and for the record, my favorite entry in this year’s Belgian selection was “Elle Merveille (She Wonders)” by Alexandre Deschamps, which came in 4th place.
It’s Stella Mwangi for Norway!
The last of our swing through the North this weekend comes courtesy of our friends up in Norway, who, as usual, pulled out all the stops for the Finale of their Melodi Grand Prix. There were eight songs in this final round of competition, with two from each of the three semifinal heats and two songs from the Siste Sjansen (Last Chance) round. From those eight performances, four would be selected to move on to a so-called “Golden Final”, where jury and audience votes would determine the ultimate winner.
Making it to the Golden Final, ironically, were both of the two songs from the Siste Sjansen round, along with the two qualifiers from the third semifinal. And the final tally, after all of the votes had been counted…
4th) Sie Gubba – “Alt Du Vil Ha (Everything You Want)“
3rd) The Lucky Bullets – “Fire Below”
2nd) The BlackSheeps – “Dance Tonight”
1st) Stella Mwangi – “Haba Haba (Little by Little)”
Despite her young age, this Kenyan-Norwegian performer has had experience and chart success performing all over Scandinavia and Africa. In fact, only one day after “Haba Haba” took the MGP victory, it knocked Lady Gaga’s “Born This Way” off of the top spot on the Norwegian iTunes chart. Stella’s high-energy performance and easy-to-remember hook made this song a no-brainer for the victory. If she can keep this momentum up, she might end up as a front-runner for this year’s ESC title…
And, as a point of trivia, “Haba Haba” will be the first time that Swahili will be heard on the Eurovision stage! “Haba haba hujaza kibaba” is a proverb meaning “little by little fills up the measure”. According to Wikipedia, this will be the 53rd language heard at the ESC (52nd if you don’t count imaginary languages). Needless to say, this makes the linguistics nerd in me very happy…
It’s Sigurjón’s Friends for Iceland!
The second of the trio of Nordic entries revealed this weekend came from the finals of the 2011 Söngvakeppni Sjónvarpsins in Iceland. Out of all of the finals that happened this weekend, this was the one that I was looking forward to the most, not only for its quality of entries, but also considering the emotional force behind one of the entries, “Aftur Heim (Back Home)”. It had been co-written by Sigurjón Brink, and was originally intended to be performed by him as well, but his sudden passing from a heart attack at the age of 36 threw the song’s participation into flux. After a bit of time and soul-searching, Sigurjón’s family decided that a group of his friends would take up the mantle and soldier on in his honor: Gunnar Ólason, Vignir Snær Vigfússon, Pálmi Sigurhjartarson, Matthías Matthíasson, Hreimur Örn Heimisson and Benedikt Brynleifsson.
“Aftur Heim” went up against a very strong set of opponents in Iceland’s final, including Eurovision 2009 runner-up Yohanna, X-Factor winner Jógvan Hansen, and well-known rock singer Magni Ásgeirsson. In the end, though, it was the song with the sunny melody and the tragic story that won the whole thing, with Magni’s “Ég trúi á betra líf (I Believe in a Better Life)” coming in the runner-up position.
Here’s the winning performance out of Iceland:
I’m not sure if the emotional impact that the Icelandic selection felt with this song will carry over in the same way in Eurovision as it did for the preselection, but standing on its own merits, I think that “Aftur Heim” is a beautiful song, and the singers’ voices work very well both together in harmony as well as individually. Many Eurovision fans are still reeling a bit from the fact that the lovely Yohanna wasn’t selected to represent her country again, but as that shock wears off, and fans start listening to “Aftur Heim” in depth, I have a feeling that it will grow on people, and maybe become an underground favorite, as “No No Never” was back in 2006 for Germany. Will it find success in Düsseldorf? It’s very hard to say at this stage of the game, but at the very least, I think the guys did their late friend very proud.
One last comment, and it’s simply a personal opinion: I honestly hope that Sigurjón’s friends choose to honor his memory in one final way by keeping the lyrics in Icelandic. Now, if Sjonni kept English lyrics on standby in case it won the National Selection, that’s one thing, but if that’s not the case, I think that it would honor the integrity of both the artist and the song to keep this version of the song as intact as possible. Again, this is just me talking…er…typing, and I recognize how much of an advantage it can be to sing in English for Eurovision, but I think the song (and what it reflects) is beautiful and poignant as it is.
Paradise Oskar for Finland!
Yesterday was a long one on Eurovision-land, and we’ve got a lot of news to share with you! Let’s get cracking…
Finland:
Euroviisut 2011 wrapped up last night with ten finalists trying to snatch the golden ticket to Germany. After the first round of voting, a “superfinal” was announced for the three highest vote-getters, and the voting began again. Here are the Finnish Top 3:
3) With 12.6% of the superfinal vote, “Good Enough” by Father McKenzie
2) With 40.7% of the superfinal vote, “Blessed with Love” by Saara Aalto
1) And, with 46.7% of the superfinal vote, the winner is “Da Da Dam” by Paradise Oskar!
Paradise Oskar is the stage name of 19-year old Axel Ehnström, who wrote “Da Da Dam” on his own. It’s been drawing a lot of comparisons to last year’s Belgian entry, “Me and My Guitar” by Tom Dice. I can definitely see why: both Tom and Axel are polished young men with similar sartorial style, standing alone on stage with their guitars, singing simple, sweet, self-penned tunes that address important issues (in Tom’s case, following your dreams; in Axel’s, the environment). I don’t think that Axel went out to copy Tom, but I think it’s simply further proof of my hypothesis that what’s successful in one year will carry over to the next. Tom brought Belgium their highest placement in years, and gave the Flemish their highest scores ever. I can’t imagine Axel going out there saying “I’m going to copy this formula and take it to the top”, but I can see how a young singer-songwriter could look at Tom’s success and think “maybe there’s a place for me and my message out there in Eurovision…I could give this a shot”.
As we’re still figuring out who Finland will be competing against in the First Semifinal, it’s hard to say how “Da Da Dam” will stack up. But the song is well-written and well-performed, with a universal message that almost everyone can support. There are always at least a few “message songs” in Eurovision, whether it’s about world peace, saving the planet, or having faith in yourself. This one checks the box nicely.
Stefanos, my dear, I await your thoughts! 😉
The ESC Insider 
A Quick Holiday Message from the ESC Insider…
Feb 14
Posted by Samantha Ross
To all of the lovers out there, here’s a sweet little holiday message from Svetlana Loboda:
If you’re in a relationship, Happy Valentine’s Day! If not, Happy Singles Awareness Day! 😉
Posted in Special Comment, Ukraine
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