More Eurovision updates
Feb. 9th, 2009 12:34 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jawnbcNational final season is roaring along. This past week Andorra, Cyprus and Malta selected their entries; today Germany announced (but didn't preview) theirs. We also now know the Hungarian song, after a mini-drama.
First up is Cyprus, a country whose fortunes have faded after a solid 5th place in 2004 with Lisa Andreas and "Stronger Every Minute" (my wedding song!); since then they've lingered around the bottom of the scoreboard in the semi-finals.
This year the overwhelming winner was "Firefly" by Christina Metaxas:
Very interesting, well written pop song. Very poorly sung though: I think no one would fault CyBC for picking a different singer. The song could do very well with the right one.
Next up is Malta, my favourite ESC country. Traditionally Malta's done well with rather solidly built gals with good voice and buckets of charisma (1992, 1997, 1998, 2000, 2005). Or with gravelly-voiced men who can rip a Joe Cocker tune up good (1993, 1995). Or with a gal who ignites the loins of every man in Europe with a Mediterranean holiday romance fantasy (1996, 2002). Or just a nice song sung with heart (1994, 2000, 2004).
What doesn't work for Malta is sending someone out of sympathy (2007), or a gimmick (2008). Or Lynn Chiricop (2003). After 3 bad results in a row, Malta went with the expected and safe choice: Chiara's back, with "What if we":
The sound problems at the beginning are a bit worrisome.....
Chiara had victory wrenched from her hands with the last voting nation in 1998, and finisihed a strong-but-distant third in 2005. Her 1998 entry was lovely and her 2005 one--"Angel"--magnificent. This is currently "pretty good", but it needs to be reworked a fair bit before Moscow. Third time is rarely the charm at Eurovision, but others have won on a second go-around with weaker songs than this. Regardless, her vocals are what get televoters' attention.
Andorra had a 3 song mediocre selection and picked the only decent one of the bunch: Susanne Georgi's " La Teva Decisió":
Not bad, not memorable. And I always worry when the national final allows the entrants to lipsynch rather than sing live.
Hungary is sending Mark Zentai. No...wait....song's already been recorded, they're not sending Mark. Instead they're sending Kátya Tompos with "Magányos Csónak". It's a power ballad from a film score. Not bad, not bad at all...but again want to see/hear it live. Here's the song embedded in a slide show:
Germany is sending Alex Swings, Oscar sings with "Miss Kiss Kiss Bang." I can't imagine that being any good....but thanks Germany for keeeping craptastic entries in the Eurovision final 2 years running...
First up is Cyprus, a country whose fortunes have faded after a solid 5th place in 2004 with Lisa Andreas and "Stronger Every Minute" (my wedding song!); since then they've lingered around the bottom of the scoreboard in the semi-finals.
This year the overwhelming winner was "Firefly" by Christina Metaxas:
Very interesting, well written pop song. Very poorly sung though: I think no one would fault CyBC for picking a different singer. The song could do very well with the right one.
Next up is Malta, my favourite ESC country. Traditionally Malta's done well with rather solidly built gals with good voice and buckets of charisma (1992, 1997, 1998, 2000, 2005). Or with gravelly-voiced men who can rip a Joe Cocker tune up good (1993, 1995). Or with a gal who ignites the loins of every man in Europe with a Mediterranean holiday romance fantasy (1996, 2002). Or just a nice song sung with heart (1994, 2000, 2004).
What doesn't work for Malta is sending someone out of sympathy (2007), or a gimmick (2008). Or Lynn Chiricop (2003). After 3 bad results in a row, Malta went with the expected and safe choice: Chiara's back, with "What if we":
The sound problems at the beginning are a bit worrisome.....
Chiara had victory wrenched from her hands with the last voting nation in 1998, and finisihed a strong-but-distant third in 2005. Her 1998 entry was lovely and her 2005 one--"Angel"--magnificent. This is currently "pretty good", but it needs to be reworked a fair bit before Moscow. Third time is rarely the charm at Eurovision, but others have won on a second go-around with weaker songs than this. Regardless, her vocals are what get televoters' attention.
Andorra had a 3 song mediocre selection and picked the only decent one of the bunch: Susanne Georgi's " La Teva Decisió":
Not bad, not memorable. And I always worry when the national final allows the entrants to lipsynch rather than sing live.
Hungary is sending Mark Zentai. No...wait....song's already been recorded, they're not sending Mark. Instead they're sending Kátya Tompos with "Magányos Csónak". It's a power ballad from a film score. Not bad, not bad at all...but again want to see/hear it live. Here's the song embedded in a slide show:
Germany is sending Alex Swings, Oscar sings with "Miss Kiss Kiss Bang." I can't imagine that being any good....but thanks Germany for keeeping craptastic entries in the Eurovision final 2 years running...
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Date: 2009-02-09 10:32 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-02-09 11:15 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-02-09 10:58 pm (UTC)I quite like Hungary's tune; I can't wait to see it performed live as well.
May Susana Georgi actually be able to perform the song live and give a decent performance -- no whorehouse outfits, no antennae, nothing amazingly stupid. And please drop the calesthenics "dance" duo in this video!
no subject
Date: 2009-02-09 11:16 pm (UTC)Andorra? Nothing memorable about her or the song. Antennae might help...
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Date: 2009-02-10 03:32 am (UTC)As for Andorra? It's not terribly memorable but if everyone keeps picking ballads then it'll be one of the few upbeat tunes in the whole semifinal. :: laugh ::