Structural Problems With The Crystal Arena?

As reported by ESCDaily problems have been found in the construction of the Crystal Hall in Baku. The faults largely lie in the glass of the arena. It is though that the amplification systems needed for the songs in the Crystal Arena could actually shatter the glass. A friend of mine studying Engineering said that being located so close to water puts the structure in danger with high vibrations from an amplification system.

Azerbaijan explained to the they have low building safety standards and really don't see what the problem is 75% of all structures in Baku completed in the last 10 years are still reasonably sound. The EBU is unhappy about this.

It is understood that further tests will be carried out but it is rumored that the EBU have alerted Rome to prepare contingency plans in the event of an emergency. It is understood Rome simply said that the same plans from 1991 will be good in 2012.

Fan Favourites?

Before any of the OGAE results come in, before everyone completes their reviews we take a look at who might be doing well across the amazing world of Eurovision Fandom.

This year there is no shortage of songs for die hard fans. I think that there is quite a number of strong songs in Eurovision this year and recently EscToday launched their polls of fans. This a good gauge because the readership of the website is so huge that they give a fairly accurate view of fans thoughts on the songs. So I took a look at the results coming through, and then twisted them around in a simple but bizarre formula to get the fan favourite.

So aside from the limitations of the model so lets have a look at the bottom two on the list.

10 Cyprus

11 Netherlands

12 Romania

So this is a interesting batch of songs. Romania are probably correctly gauged and Netherlands look about right in 11th but as you will see as we go up the list there are surprises. Netherlands don't hold a commanding number of 12's in the poll but as we look at 10's they have quite a few. For me Netherlands song as gotten a surprising reaction from fans. Cyrus being in tenth is a surprise as I had assumed that it would come out in the top 5 of this. I firstly thought that the mathematical model might be wrong but no, it only has around 26% 12's.
We now move on to the next couple of songs.

7 Norway

8 UK

9 Germany

I guess the only surprise here Germany, whose song is slightly too inoffensive, in my opinion. I was surprised to see it do so well as it is not being heavily talked about. Norway and the UK is expected, the UK has been gaining as a fan favourite country over the last number of years. Norway, well, is Norway.

4 Spain

5 Italy 

6 Serbia 

On these figures Serbia might seem a little low but it got more 12's than Italy but a lot less 10's therefore Italy is a bit higher. Spain is a bit surprising to see up that far, with no disrespect to Pastora I still think that it isn't a strong enough song to do as well on the night.

1 Sweden

2 Iceland

3 Slovenia

Sweden is certainly no surprise, the only surprise is the amount of 12's they have received. Sweden scored about 56% of the 12's. Iceland also surprised me by scoring just over 50% of 12's, while I had expected them to do well and indeed in second, but the scale of the 12's really surprised me. Really and truly Slovenia is a shock to see it do so well.

In comparison to last year fans appear to be a lot happier with the songs. Last year in EscToday's polls few songs broke 25% of 12's. This year many songs are breaking 25% (about 12 of them). Last year France and Estonia both were touching 40% however this year the top 2 are breaking 50%.  

So this might not be the OGAE, but this is a first look at fan votes. The OGAE usually delivers a highly conservative vote, so it will be interesting to see how it shapes up. Of course I will be keeping a close eye on how these countries vote. Until then we will keep the reviews flowing.

At Least I Like Her Heels, Greece: The Review

On our whistle stop tour of Europe leaving shredded songs behind us we arrive in Greece who this year just about managed to find the cash to get them to Azerbaijan. Anyhow, they saved money on the staging by having it in a shopping mall, well actually, it wasn't half as bad as it sounds. Frankie Boyle suggested to ensure that they did not win Eurovision, Greece should send "The Pedophiles". Well they did not exactly send that, but what they did send it a bit more risky.....

Anyhow, as what regularly happens in mediocre national finals the last song which was above average won. So Greece sent Eleftheria Eleftheriou to the contest with her song Aphrodisiac. So how to describe the song? Think of any Greek entry sung by a female from the last decade. I am confused between whether Greece sent this because it was a safe bet or do they think it is a potential winner. Eleftheria has definitely a song that could be compared to the songs from 2005 and 2008. While I think that this is true there is interesting things to be discussed.

Overall this is a very average entry from Greece and has the usual ethnic-pop styles. The song does not overly change much through out the song, a tangible key change or something that would draw you in a bit more. For me it feels very superficial. There are problems that do go against the song. First and foremost this has been a pretty bad draw for Greece. The third slot is not a good one. They also are sharing a semi-final with Cyprus, which does makes one set of 12 points a near certainty for Greece. However both songs are very similar, maybe Cyprus is not quite as ethnic but it does have a much better place it the running order. Both songs for me are borderline qualifiers, so this will be an interesting one to watch. The only other problem with the song is that Eleftheria has never performed this live. As she is largely an amateur in the singing world, I am not really  convinced that this will be one of the vocally perfect.

However as I alluded to in the title there is one fantastic point where she steps up the backing dances backs with her heels. But enough about any shoe fetishes which I may or not have.  

Verdict:  For me I think that it is a good song but there is limitations to that, I am not going to listen to a bad vocal performance and defend it. I think that this is a borderline qualifier. Overall I think Greece might finally find itself outside of the top 10.

Grade: C+

It's Eric Saade! No, it's Danny Saucedo! No, its TOOJI!

Before I review a song, the first thing that I normally do is go back to the national final and have a look at what I said about it. Just I was reading those I saw all the artists that Norway could have sent. I know Tooji is liked by a good number of fans but sending him to Eurovision was a missed opportunity. In retrospect the song Things Change by Bobby Bare and Petter Oien or else Plumbo would have been the most different choice. I fear that in a stronger year sending Eric Saade Mark II may not have been the best idea but anyhow, that’s what they have given us, now to tear it apart.

The song itself is a strandard Fredrick Kempe style song [even if he didn’t write it] with a strong melody in the background. It does not really build or develop and most of the excitement is hinged on a vocally good bridge in the song. Lyrically it is not overly impressive. Vocally, Tooji has given a variety of vocal performances. They range from fair to very flat. This coupled with the fact he will have live backing vocals at Eurovision may hurt his chances. The performance itself is broadly engaging, focusing on Tooji and his dancing. This may not be the case at Eurovision where the backing vocalists will be singing live and only six people are allowed on stage.

While many fans have been quick to suggest that this is Eric Saade Mark II. I am inclined to agree however that does not mean that he will get the same result as Saade. Generally, for no particular reason songs that are copies of others from last year never do as well the year after. Also the higher standard of other Scandinavian countries will not help Norway, particularly if Sweden goes to the top 3.

Verdict: A missed opportunity for Norway and given that Scandinavia is so this year they may live to regret picking such a generic song. However the strong draw in the semi-finals probably will qualify.

Grade: C+

Serious+Eurovision+UK= ?

As strange as it seems these three words all appeared appeared in an article on The Guardian blogs. The word "not" does not even appear in the sentence. Anyway without mention of the word Melodifestivalen, the blogger makes the vaguest possible terms they basically ask questions I've had for ages.

The Article is available here.

All credit to ESCNation for finding this.

Lithuania: Love Is Blind, The Song Is Naive

Every year in National Final season we get many “Love Is Insert Title Here” however it is unusual enough to actually see these get to Eurovision. So this year Lithuania decided to change that up a bit and send one of these songs. Cue Donny Montell and his song, Love Is Blind. Which, for me, is not actually a metaphor that I think is true. That aside this is a pretty average sounding song. In fact it is a little bit strange.

The song starts slowly and builds towards a fairly ok chorus and the whole song is very operatic. Part of me is very unsure if it all works together in the first place. Is it an up-tempo song or an operatic song? Who knows? I am also not a fan of the variety of rhythms of the song. The opening and bridge all don’t help the song by being too long. All in all it makes for a rather confusing entry.

So we have all that about the song. Now let’s throw a spanner into the works. The song is drawn last in the semi-final. This position has a great qualification record especially since the introduction of two semi-finals. Only the Netherlands failed to qualify from here in 2009 and let’s face it that needs no explanation. So the question here is can the song qualify? I’m not sure if it can. Semi-Final two is very interesting due to the presence of a good number of Balkan countries, strong songs from the two Scandinavian entries and good entries from Ukraine and Belarus. This will be a difficult entry of pitch here. With so many strong up-tempos and ballads it is difficult to say if Love Is Blind has a large enough base to bring it to the final.

Personally I am not a big fan of this entry. I think that it is just a bit confusing by having so many different rhythms and overly long openings and bridges.

Verdict: This is a rather confusing song that doesn’t have a huge wide appeal. In a strong semi-final it is difficult to see it qualifying but the running order might change that.

Grade: E+

Montenergo, *sighs* The Review

After a minor amount of excitement about Montenegro’s return to Eurovision their choice of their song Euro Neuro by Rambo Amadeus was probably far more shocking. Broadly speaking the medley of this song is dire but we shall strive on to get make 300 words out of this.

The song starts with a rather interesting sudden start which leads into what might be described as a fairly boring and incomprehensible rap. My problem with this song is despite a rather promising start it bursts into this really boring verses. Lyrically this was by no means a success. It is difficult to understand the lyrics largely due to strange pronunciation and the fact that they don’t seem to have any real linear thought or anything. This really annoys me.

We do not know enough about the performance to say what could turn up but I would not be surprised to see Alf Poiner’s animal cut outs or something similar. If Montenegro actually cared about qualifying they might just take into account that by running first in semi 1 i.e. opening Eurovision they may need to be careful to stop people ignoring it as another crazy ESC entry.

As regards qualification it has little chance. Realistically even if it did qualify with the public juries will most likely award this a zero, with no real neighbours in the semi-final (maybe Albania) they probably haven’t much of a chance.

Personally I think this is one of the worst songs sent to the contest in recent years.

Verdict: A dire song but we don’t know enough about the performance to gauge where it might come on the night.

Grade: No Grade – this is because I cannot actually listen to the whole song right through.

Sure Eurovision Has Been Doing That For Years!

I sat down to watch Britains Got Talent on Sunday night as I missed it on Saturday night. So sob stories aside there were some delights, like the fact that David Walliams is now a judge and Simon Cowell is back. (There was also someone from Baywatch there who didn't know the slightest bit about talent but was great to look at.)
But with the show aside every piece of talent that I looked at was straight out of Eurovision. Some with slight changes, let's have a look. (Sorry if you have to watch some of these on Youtube it won't let me embed them.

That's not Tom Dice (it's Sam Kelly instead).
No it is not, but it could be him singing here. Sam Kelly is here singing Make You Feel My Love.

It The (Ballroom) Schalgerboys
Ok, you won't see this at Euroclub (at least based on the things I've heard.) But still, this is all I could think of while I watched this. It may be the gayest thing I've ever seen.

Bradley and Barbara
It may not be Bjorn Ranelid and Sara Li but it's close.

Costume Changes
I am torn between Sean Banan and just a heap of costume changes, both of which we have seen at Eurovision. Dennis Egel is his name anyway. Make of it what you will.

  
Ell and Nikki's rehearsals
Certainly if you listened to the reports from the rehearsals Nikki was holding Eldar back which is kind of what is happening here. Good looking, not quite as good a singer girl, Charlotte is holding back phantom of the Opera (or Mc Donalds) [I can be so cruel] Johnathan. Anyhow this also provided for some really great awkward television when Simon suggested he dump Charlotte.

 

A Song For Those Who Listen. Estonia: The Review

I never fully understood why so many people love Eesti Laul however each year I always have a great respect for the winner. While the winner might not exactly always be a potential winner each year Estonia very often offers us something quite different from the rest of the pack. Eurovision 2012 so far appears to be shaping up to be one of many different songs however Estonia’s choice of Kuula by Ott Lepland was a good one [regardless of what I may have said earlier].

Ott certainly appears to be able to pull off the song really well. His convincing vocal performance gives the complex song real credibility. I understand that Ott is rather popular in Estonia. This all helps Estonia’s entry so far. The performance is quite simple and reminds me of Eddie Friel’s performance for Ireland in 1995 [Except the song is much better]. The decision to keep it in Estonian is a great one as it adds huge depth to the song. Ott performs this really well and emotionally. The big problem with the song is that it looks like it will deliver a big crescendo ending but then falls flat. This is probably the only thing I have against the song.  [Trivia fact: Kuula meaning listen is also the same as the word Chuala in Irish, which is the past tense of to listen].

The biggest problem that this song faces is being in semi-final 2. That semi-final looks to be shaping up to be one which will have fierce competition for jury votes with many Balkan ballads, a piano ballad for Bosnia and Herzegovina and the Portuguese entry. If the song was in semi-final 1 I’d say it would have a good qualification chance.

Verdict: This is a really great choice from Estonia but will probably be overlooked in a ballad oriented semi-final. Personally I am a fan of it but I am unconvinced it has all the ingredients to overcome the competition. However as Tobias over on Tobson In Euroland pointed out it offers something to those who listen, I’m just unconvinced that people will actually listen.

Grade: B+

A Song For Those Who Listen. Estonia: The Review

I never fully understood why so many people love Eesti Laul however each year I always have a great respect for the winner. While the winner might not exactly always be a potential winner each year Estonia very often offers us something quite different from the rest of the pack. Eurovision 2012 so far appears to be shaping up to be one of many different songs however Estonia’s choice of Kuula by Ott Lepland was a good one [regardless of what I may have said earlier].

Ott certainly appears to be able to pull off the song really well. His convincing vocal performance gives the complex song real credibility. I understand that Ott is rather popular in Estonia. This all helps Estonia’s entry so far. The performance is quite simple and reminds me of Eddie Friel’s performance for Ireland in 1995 [Except the song is much better]. The decision to keep it in Estonian is a great one as it adds huge depth to the song. Ott performs this really well and emotionally. The big problem with the song is that it looks like it will deliver a big crescendo ending but then falls flat. This is probably the only thing I have against the song.  [Trivia fact: Kuula meaning listen is also the same as the word Chuala in Irish, which is the past tense of to listen].

The biggest problem that this song faces is being in semi-final 2. That semi-final looks to be shaping up to be one which will have fierce competition for jury votes with many Balkan ballads, a piano ballad for Bosnia and Herzegovina and the Portuguese entry. If the song was in semi-final 1 I’d say it would have a good qualification chance.

Verdict: This is a really great choice from Estonia but will probably be overlooked in a ballad oriented semi-final. Personally I am a fan of it but I am unconvinced it has all the ingredients to overcome the competition. However as Tobias over on Tobson In Euroland pointed out it offers something to those who listen, I’m just unconvinced that people will actually listen.

Grade: B

Is Your Song The Joke?

Georgia: The Review

I have to drag myself back to this song to judge it. This is not the worst song in the contest but it certainly would be if it wasn’t for the existence of a song which I will not mention for now *Cough…Cough….Montenegro…Cough*.

Georgia has recently experienced quite little interest in being represented in Eurovision. This is strange because according to the way I calculate bloc voting they won the USSR bloc vote in both 2010 and 2011. They also have had very good results since they first entered the contest. This year they received only 13 entries for Eurovision, leaving me to believe that they will most likely have an internal selection next year. 

This year’s song is the one that matters though and this year after a national final of nine songs Georgia decided to send the song I’m A Joker by Anri Jokhadze. This was a strange choice. It is rather different to many of the entries that we have seen from Georgia before this. The studio version of the song is not that bad however I think that when sung live it comes across as being a little messy. This could be polished up before it goes to Baku but I suspect it won’t be. Vocally, given that the song is mostly about shouting, it is fine but that’s all. Lyrically it is pretty poor – “I’m a Joker…I’m a smoker.”

While this may be the poorest entry so far from Georgia, it has some very successful songs to follow. However I imagine that the juries will shoot this down and it will not register enough impact on the televote to overturn the jury decision.

Verdict: This is Georgia’s worst entry so far and more than likely won’t qualify for the final. Personally I’m not mad about it.

Grade: E

A Lyrics Change, Is That All?

So we finally have a full and complete song with mention of a certain social media site. As we have already have discussed this could be a problem in the future. Anyway here is Valentina's new song. We think this could make for a great game of spot the difference.

I only just found out that it would seem that Valentina is not actually as young as she seems. Believe it or not she is 37. That concludes my jaw dropping moment of the week.

As regards the song, it's a bit of a guilty pleasure for me. It probably won't go anywhere and I completely understand why you would hate it.

Eurovision 2012: A Forward

Now that the Heads of Delegations meeting is over, we finally have all of the songs and we now know the running order. We now enter the period when Eurovision fans have nothing to do other than speculate about entries. Happily this will only last for another 60 days when the first semi-final takes place. This is often an interesting period but before we enter into it is time to take look at the contest this year on a Macro level.

Personally, I don’t have a favourite contest of the last five or six years. Personally I thought that 2010 was probably the strongest year of late. I really didn’t love many of the songs last year (except maybe Denmark, Italy and Ireland) and for me it was a poor contest that was won by having a good position in the running order rather than an amazing song.

I think that this year has quite a lot to offer, particularly semi-final 1 which has a large number of very different songs and performers, everything from Finland to Iceland to Austria. Semi-final 2 is a bit more traditional with a great variety of ballads, for those of you enjoy them. Never fear though ballad haters Loreen, Tooji and Can Bonomo are there for you enjoyment.

Semi-final 1 has rather interesting songs and it should be watched closely how this is voted on. Denmark, Iceland, Finland and Belgium seem the most jury friendly while songs such as Austria and Russia may not have been seen in the contest before but might still score well. Semi-final 1 certainly looks to have the better variety of songs and in my view should have more entertainment value for ordinary viewers. Denmark seems like the most likely to win I think that the broad appeal to public and juries will lift this one. Denmark should also be helped by jury and public support.

I have many Jedward fans that follow the blog and many have looked for my reaction to how is Ireland going to do. I will write up a separate piece on Jedward later this week when I know the running order but to generalise, I think Jedward will qualify for the final.

Semi-final 2 should be a far more unpredictable affair. I suspect like semi-final 1 last year it will appear to be just a formality and then go surprisingly on the night.

Finally a word of caution……… Every year fans make huge mistakes about the contest. Sometimes there is a surprise performance on the night of the final or sometimes we just didn’t read the music right. Either way I believe that approaching predictions with an open, inquiring mind and a bit of radical scepticism is needed to accurately make predictions. Don’t believe all the fan polls or every commentator. Very few will get it exactly right.

Also just to say now (while I’m on this rant) that there is a tendency of fans to use these two months to allow songs to be built up over time until a general consensus is reached. This then flops on the night. Songs like Sweden 2008, Israel 2010 and France 2011 all flopped from being early favourites to midtable results because fans shut out all the outside noises and didn’t listen to the signs enough.

I think that this year is definitely an improvement on last year and without a doubt I love a Eurovision with lots of genres. Really this is the fairest way to have it. This ensures that the music will not be rejected as all being Eastern European or Schlager.

But regardless of your taste I hope you find the same enjoyment, from the best eight hours of television a year, that you do every year.

“Love and hate are strong words but at Eurovision they sometimes can be necessary ones”

 – Seán, Editor, The Best Eurovision Blog.

Now that the Heads of Delegations meeting is over, we finally have all of the songs and we now know the running order. We now enter the period when Eurovision fans have nothing to do other than speculate about entries. Happily this will only last for another 60 days when the first semi-final takes place. This is often an interesting period but before we enter into it is time to take look at the contest this year on a Macro level.

Personally, I don’t have a favourite contest of the last five or six years. Personally I thought that 2010 was probably the strongest year of late. I really didn’t love many of the songs last year (except maybe Denmark, Italy and Ireland) and for me it was a poor contest that was won by having a good position in the running order rather than an amazing song.

I think that this year has quite a lot to offer, particularly semi-final 1 which has a large number of very different songs and performers, everything from Finland to Iceland to Austria. Semi-final 2 is a bit more traditional with a great variety of ballads, for those of you enjoy them. Never fear though ballad haters Loreen, Tooji and Can Bonomo are there for you enjoyment.

Semi-final 1 has rather interesting songs and it should be watched closely how this is voted on. Denmark, Iceland, Finland and Belgium seem the most jury friendly while songs such as Austria and Russia may not have been seen in the contest before but might still score well. Semi-final 1 certainly looks to have the better variety of songs and in my view should have more entertainment value for ordinary viewers. Denmark seems like the most likely to win I think that the broad appeal to public and juries will lift this one. Denmark should also be helped by jury and public support.

I have many Jedward fans that follow the blog and many have looked for my reaction to how is Ireland going to do. I will write up a separate piece on Jedward later this week when I know the running order but to generalise, I think Jedward will qualify for the final.

Semi-final 2 should be a far more unpredictable affair. I suspect like semi-final 1 last year it will appear to be just a formality and then go surprisingly on the night.

Finally a word of caution……… Every year fans make huge mistakes about the contest. Sometimes there is a surprise performance on the night of the final or sometimes we just didn’t read the music right. Either way I believe that approaching predictions with an open, inquiring mind and a bit of radical scepticism is needed to accurately make predictions. Don’t believe all the fan polls or every commentator. Very few will get it exactly right.

Also just to say now (while I’m on this rant) that there is a tendency of fans to use these two months to allow songs to be built up over time until a general consensus is reached. This then flops on the night. Songs like Sweden 2008, Israel 2010 and France 2011 all flopped from being early favourites to midtable results because fans shut out all the outside noises and didn’t listen to the signs enough.

I think that this year is definitely an improvement on last year and without a doubt I love a Eurovision with lots of genres. Really this is the fairest way to have it. This ensures that the music will not be rejected as all being Eastern European or Schlager.

But regardless of your taste I hope you find the same enjoyment, from the best eight hours of television a year, that you do every year.

“Love and hate are strong words but at Eurovision they sometimes can be necessary ones”

 – Seán, Editor, The Best Eurovision Blog.

What Kind Of Contest Doesn't Allow Facebook?

Tonight we will (hopefully) have a new song from San Marino. As everyone should know by now Valentina Monetta's first song "Facebook" was rejected by the EBU because it contained a commercial messages. For discussion purposes let's take the standard of the song out of the equation. So while we have discussed the relationship between ICT and Eurovision I neglected to mention that there could be lyrics problem with words like "Facebook" or other websites. After all the word "google" is now a verb in the English language. This will be an on going problem for the EBU. After all words like "social media" are very broad and really are not specific enough to use in lyrics. Like words such as hoover and biro

This does bring to light the potential issue between commercial messages and song lyrics, which will continue to be an interesting area of discussion. However by setting the precedent with San Marino now, the EBU may stop this sort of thing [Careful now! :) ]  for the next while, but no doubt this issue will back at some point in the future.

Reviews: Hungary

Anyone who has spent as much of the day writing for college as I have will understand that I cannot look at the blog without feeling unwell. So I wrote this up a couple of days ago, sorry if it is not fully updated. 

Hungary

Hungary had a huge overall of their selection process this year moving from last years’ internal selection to a three show, 20 song process. I’m not sold on the whole idea that the bigger show the better the song ultimately picked. I think that has more to do with the country.

Ultimately to my surprise they selected Compact Disco to represent Hungary in Baku. The song The Sound Of Our Hearts, is quite a good one. It has a great piano intro and develops into a strong anthemic rock(ish) song. Lyrically this could do with changes in a few spots and maybe even a little Hungarian in spots to cover up some rather strange English lyrics. This would not be an unusual for a Hungarian entry. The song could be better helped by a better arrangement that would take the monotone sound out of the song and involve the audience a bit more. Vocally this is pretty poor and they have not had a good vocal throughout the selection process. This does not fill me with confidence that they will have it together in Baku but a lot can change in three months. As a performance this is reminds me a lot of Greece in 2002 (the robots, remember).

One of the biggest issues with assessing this song is there is very little like it that has been in Eurovision before. My gut would normally tell me that if it is unusual to Eurovision, and is rockish then it probably would be unlikely to qualify. However there is something in this song that I think would make it stand out in a huge stadium it hardly would win but qualifying might be made a little easier.  Personally I like this song even if it is not good enough vocally. I think overall the poor vocal performance may stop it from doing well with the juries who might actually like it otherwise.

Verdict: Qualification rests Compact Disco’s ability to improve their vocal performance, which I suspect will be unlikely. It is a nice song though. Unlikely qualifier.

Grade: C

Running Order: Winners, Losers and Everything In Between

So this morning we had a slightly delayed draw for the running order having previously been sorted into their semi-finals in January. However while the first draw is useful now that we know all the songs, today's draw allows for much deeper analysis. Before we begin our analysis is based on our running order research.

In the final the only important story was the UK getting the first slot. This is broadly not a good thing but if there was a lot of up tempo songs after it it might have a fair shot at the top 10. Italy won't be over happy with their draw given that they are serious contenders. Like last year though we really can't judge the final without knowing all the songs so we move to the semi-finals.

So in semi-final 1 we have..

1. Montenegro - Really no one seems to have a clue how this will do but it is in a slot that rarely gathers enough to qualify.
2. Iceland - Not a good draw for Jonsi and Greta. Second is not as bad a place as in the final. 
3. Greece - recent history suggests that third is one of the worst places to be draw, maybe Greece will change this.
4. Latvia
5. Albania 
6. Romania - a surprisingly good position mathematically, and being sandwiched between two very different songs will help.
7. Switzerland
8. Belgium 
9. Finland - Logical wildcard choice, but not helped by having Belgium just before.
10. Israel
11. San Marino 
12. Cyprus - 12 is a great placing, statistically the third highest average score in a semi-final.
13. Denmark - Nicely sandwiched between Cyprus and Russia.
14. Russia
15. Hungary
16. Austria 
17. Moldova
18. Ireland - Great placing for Ireland, the average score for the last placed song in a semi-final since 2008 was around 105 points. Being after Moldova also should help Ireland's chances.

Semi Final 2

1. Serbia - Not a great draw for them, as there are many other Balkan ballads in this semi-final.
2. FYR Macedonia
3. Netherlands - Bad draw for them really.
4. Malta 
5. Belarus 
6. Portugal 
7. Ukraine - Wildcard, nice enough slot.
8. Bulgaria
9. Slovenia
10. Croatia
11. Sweden - I don't think the running order will impact this song.
12. Georgia
13. Turkey
14. Estonia
15. Slovakia
16. Norway - Well positioned overall and nicely between a rock song and piano ballad. Great draw for them
17. Bosnia and Herzegovia
18. Lithuania - Not sure if this is a strong closer. Might be the second song not to qualify from last place.
19. 
    

UK Finally Reveals Their Song

At long last we now have all 42 songs, and we now know the UK entry.

This year the UK managed a fair achievement of becoming the most  hyping up a selection process solely on Twitter and by giving fans a little information was humanly possible [which makes us all seem fierce intelligent really]. Rather than spending half my evening writing up my thoughts the good people at JOYEurovision have a good podcast on it [It's only four minutes too].



I think they are broadly right in their thoughts and their fairly similar to my own. I like the song itself, but like Albania it's not something that I desperately want to see at Eurovision, it's more something it'd listen to in my own private time. [I can't figure out why I think that way though].

While it might be a good song it just doesn't sound like one for Eurovision. I also suspect that this could be a bit like France last year. France's classical opera style song was broadly liked by fans, but ultimately was a dive on the night. While we can talk about poor on the night performances and being draw beside Italy. My Dad [a huge classical music fan] heard it on the radio on the radio before the contest and thought it was pretty boring. I think the UK could end up the same way. Largely because the song does not draw you in fast enough.

The fact that it really is meant to be anthemic but then goes and does not build in the second verse really doesn't help the song. I would also lower the guitar sound and bring in a little more orchestra to add the real British touch. The trouble is because the UK have left it all so late, they cannot make real changes at this stage. It would have been better to present this song and take a look at fan reaction, make changes then produce a final version.

The UK had the chance to produce something really strong but this could fail because of the draw (That's tomorrow). But everything about the UK has surprised me this year, so maybe the result will too.

Eurovision Overload!

It seems that much has happened in Eurovision since I left on Friday and to be honest I'm hardly able to keep up with it all but here are my thoughts:

• May as well start on a positive note. Azerbaijan have presented their Eurovision entry sung by Sabina. I really thing this is good. It might not win (it has an outside chance) but really it is quite nice. You can watch the video here.
• The widely anticipated entry from the UK was released today, you can listen to it here. I will have much more on this in a later post. 
• As many videos arrive in we are seeing a couple of songs being tweaked a little bit. I don't really pay much attention to this as the changes are rarely noticeable. However Belarus have done a pretty big overhaul of their song which does help it a small little bit. You can hear there song here.
• Albania have cut down their song to three minutes and presented it in a video that to be honest looks like is out of a horror film. I still think that it is a strong song. The video is here.
• Belgium have presented their song Would You by Iris. It's a fairly basis ballad and I can't see it going to far but we'll see what juries do in semi-final 1. You can listen to the song here.

Finally I hope you all enjoyed St. Patrick's Day while some people decided to do some odd things (Green Ice Tea and Jedward?, seriously). I had a more traditional one involving buying 20kgs of seed potatoes. 

The Highs And Lows Of National Final Season 2012 Part 3

With another national final season over us and me being away from blogging and technology for a few nights, we turn our attention back to remember the highs and lows of the national final season that was. While it is almost over it will leave us with some great memories. Part 2 continues our series. #

As I should be back tomorrow so we will be back to normal but just to point out that tomorrow we should finally hear the UK entry and any others we have not heard yet. But in the meantime our series continues.

The Best Song Of The National Final season
I was one of the few fans who felt that this was song of national final season 2012 but here it is (feat. the amazing Sara Li):

Jedward's Fans
Forget Jedward they were soooo yesterday's post - they have fans lots of them - and they are about as nutty as them. Follow a few on Twitter and find out.

Greece Holding Their National Final in a Shopping Mall
I know things in Greece are bad but seriously I didn't think that a shopping center would be the best option to film a national final but anyhow that's their choice. We only need to panic about them if they win Eurovision and they propose a variety of farms with barns on which to hold their national final.

Sarah Dawn Finer - Comedian? 
I don't think anyone expected something so excellent in terms of humour from the Swedes but by God did they do so. This was such a great sketch that we had to share it once again.

Our Eurovision Friends
Without going for a big cheesy ending we just would like to say that the greatest trill of all was having so many people to talk to on Twitter or otherwise for national final season. Thank you all so much.

Did we miss something? Yes, we did, but we didn't see every national final. If you think that their was something that we missed do get in touch via the Contact Us! section and if we think that it is worthwhile we will put it up in a Part 4. (Obviously giving you full credit with a link).

The Highs And Lows Of National Final Season 2012 Part 2

With another national final season over us and me being away from blogging and technology for a few nights, we turn our attention back to remember the highs and lows of the national final season that was. While it is almost over it will leave us with some great memories. Part 2 continues our series.

Ireland holding a national final
That was a joke wasn't it. Since around October people were pretty sure that Ireland would be sending Jedward to the contest. It actually was slightly surprising to hear that there still would be a Late Late Show special. Anyhow to no ones surprise they won.

And the award for longest interval act goes to....Moldova.
After an huge national final of 22 (roughly, I can't remember) you'd think that they'd wrap it up quickly and get it over with. Oh no, instead Moldova went on the rampage with a 40 minute interval act. I'm not going to put a video of here. It seems pointless. Go and learn how to make an origami swan instead it would seem more useful.

Trackshittaz vs. Conchita Wurst
What a showdown that was in Austria between two guys (with a great song) shouting at people to shake their bottoms and well, Conchita. It really was the most unorthodox showdown of the year and Trackshittaz won by 51% which is really really close.


Loreen's Melodifestivalen Final Performance
Anyone who likes Loreen will understand just how good this amazing performance was. For me it was Melodifestivalen moment of the year.

Cringe performance in Romania.
We wouldn't have spotted this only for Eurovision Apolcalypse. (One of the best Eurovision blogs around). Anyhow I just loved Bianca Purcarea's studio version. However the vocals in her live performance could have been drowned out my rubbing nails on a chalkboard.

 We'll continue the series shortly.

The Highs And Lows Of National Final Season 2012 Part 1

With another national final season over us and me being away from blogging and technology for a few nights, we turn our attention back to remember the highs and lows of the national final season that was. While it is almost over it will leave us with some great memories.

Lys Assia Fever

Being the first to hold it's national final (like the Iowa primary in America) the first national final of the year got a huge amount of attention from fans. This was helped by the return of Lys Assia to the contest. While she have gotten a lot publicity from it her song C'est Ma Vie received only came 8th in a show of 14 songs. I still think it would have been a great choice for Eurovision, considering this appears to be a year of oldies. Then there was also the accusations that she was unfairly treated by juries etc. (It was all great gossip).

DMGP
If national finals with semi-finals and heats are not your thing the best single one night national final probably is Denmark. Therefore they get some praise from ourselves. I loved a great number of songs in that final and am very pleased to see that the ultimately sent Soluna Samay to Eurovision.


Bobby Bare 
While any act can throw itself up in a national final Bobby Bare certainly was a surprise. I loved Things Change, even if it did have the huge irony of being a song about things changing but was from a place where things never change. But of all the people who came across as very nice Bobby came across as the true country gentleman. I also was impressed by how well he understood Eurovision and compared it to a guitar club. This is how Eurovision is meant to be.

Mad Show Boys
This does not need words

Juries Correcting mistakes in Iceland
Imagine if we had to watch Blar Opal on stage at Eurovision when a great song like Mundu Eftir Mer left at home. Well this would have been the case if the public had been allowed to vote on their own in Iceland. Thankfully Jonsi & Greta Sálome are going to Eurovision for Iceland.

Part 2 should be up around the same time tomorrow assuming that Blogger scheduler works.

More and More News

So as the National Final season 2012 draws to a close everyone is rushing to get news out before the HOD meeting in four days time. At this point all songs must be finalised. So for those of you who feel you need a machete to get through all the news here's our less sharp machete - bulletpoints.

• Montenegro were first to release their Eurovision song today, sung by Rambo Amadeus the song is Euro-Nuero. To be honest I think this is the worst so far. You can watch it here. 
• Bosnia and Herzegovina were the other song revealed today. To be honest I am disappointed by it. I had hoped that she would be a bit more lively. Instead - it's another piano ballad. You can listen to it here.
• Zeljko Joksimimovic has confirmed that he will sing in Serbian. This is not surprising when you consider how lyrically poor the English Version was. Nina Badric also has confirmed she will not sing in English.
• Tickets for the final went on sale today interestingly they did not sell out which is surprising. This may be caused by Eurovision being so far away this year. I wouldn't be surprised if many fans (like myself) choose not to go.
• San Marino have confirmed that Valentina Montetta will be going to Baku for them. We will wait to hear song before we make a verdict.
• Lots of videos are appearing online for this years Eurovision. I am not going to link to them but most major fan sites will have them.
• We now know that in Belgium they will have the delight of picking between to ballads.
• And finally - there is a multitude of fan videos out there but sometimes the actually catch your eye so much that you actually care about the content. I spotted this excellent video for Jedward that was really impressive. If this doesn't light your fire - why are you reading this blog? [Created by @ed_witha_zzz]
  
  

So that's the round up for the moment. I might not be posting over the weekend as it is St. Patrick's Weekend and that means returning to internet free rural Ireland. So until next time, Ciao.

Malta: The Forgotten Entry?

As national final season draws to a close I return to the reviews of songs for Eurovision. So for now I return to Malta to examine what they, all the way back at the start of February picked.

There was a limited amount of delight when Kurt Calleja was selected to represent the small island at Eurovision with his song "This Is The Night". It was chosen by a combination of jury and televoting of 75% and 25% respectively. Anyone who was still awake while the final was ongoing will remember that voting between this song and Claudia Faniello's song was pretty intense.

The song itself is one that is probably designed to appeal to Eurovision fans. The song is an extra light pop song which relies on Kurt's vocals to actually lift the song at all. The song is pretty repetitive whether this is a good or bad thing I'm not sure. The song really is pretty bland - there's nothing in it that many other entries don't already offer. Kurt does not exactly lift the performance hugely and in my view he won a fairly weak national final.

In terms of appearance on stage I expect to see a rather boring and unimaginative stage performance rather similar to the performance in the national final. It's in the first half of the second semi-final. While I was wondering would this appeal to juries the semi-final that it is in, like last year will see many song vying for jury votes so I cannot imagine it making an impact there.

Verdict: I think that this is perhaps a song that is a little out of date. While it may appeal somewhat to fans music tastes in the semi-final it will be under too much pressure to really score very well. I expect this to be knocked out in the semi-final. Crucially it appears that even before we near Eurovision, nobody has mentioned this song which is a very worrying sign of it.

Grade: D

Grade:

Melodifestivalen Is Over. What Are We Waiting On?

Normally the end of Melodifestivalen usually occurs the Saturday before the HOD [Heads of Delegation] meeting. This year they decided to play with us fans a little and have it a week later. This means that there are a couple of songs missing still. So to round up what we're waiting on:

1. Montenegro - Song Presentation - Thursday 15th March 8:00pm CET.
2. Bosnia&Herzegovina -  Song Presentation - Thursday 15th March 8:00pm CET.
3. San Marino - There is a variety of rumours coming from San Marino about who will represent them. The latest one is that local singer Valentina Monetta and will be written by Raleph Sigel. [We're not saying that it is correct.] We suspect we will get a confirmation either today or tomorrow. 
4. Belgium - We patiently await the final national final of the year in Belgium. I'm not going to be watching it as it is St. Patrick's Day and I will be with my family but hopefully they will pick something good.
5. UK - The UK has caused many a fan to rip out a parts of their hair. But Engelbert Humperdinck's song will be revealed on the 19th March - the day of the deadline. That's cutting it fine.

ICT and Eurovision: The Dynamic Duo

In a slight change from our national final coverage today we consider the profound impact that ICT (Information Communication Technology) on Eurovision and Eurovision fandom.


When Eurovision began all the way back in 1956 nobody thought that it would grow into the massive contest of forty-something countries [maybe because there was not that many countries in Europe in the first place]. However until the early 2000's the contest really was quite a grand affair. It was closer to a piece of theater than the massive arena style concert that it is today.

But where did it all come from? What caused the massive boom in Eurovision after a period of declining popularity of television. Well in my view there were two major changes. The first was a rather simple one. This was the expansion of venues. This led to a change in the audience at the contest. No longer would it be an audience of government officials and the great and good of society. Now Eurovision fans can get tickets and today they descend upon any arena, in any country, in a flag waving frenzy.

The second and slightly more important change in Eurovision fandom is the growth of technology. This has allowed Eurovision fans to build more websites and blogs discussing the contest. But social media outlets like Twitter has succeeded in bring fans together in one place far more successfully then any other website. It allows for far more chat and opinion then we used to see. Twitter has also allowed Eurovision news to move from a newspaper style to a much more entertaining format with fast developing stories for us fans. Only as I was writing this news came through about Italy changing their Eurovision entry.

Other hugely important changes is the advent of live streaming online. This allows the contest to be shown anywhere and has lead to a huge growth in the numbers of fans that can watch the contest. This has lead to a growth of the contest in non-European regions such as the USA (Samantha Ross might elaborate a little further here)  regions such as Australia have the contest broadcast on TV so that doesn't really count. The other major advance with web streaming was the ability of fans to watch national final season. I think Melodifestivalen was the first to be broadcast online in 2005. This opened fans to the wonderful national final season in every country. This brought fans together much earlier in the year to see what was being chosen and the songs that were .

However of all the technology out there YouTube probably has changed the face of Eurovision and Eurovision fandom completely. Now you can watch almost every performance at Eurovision online any time you want. This also helps immensely with national finals and promotion of Eurovision entries. As someone who became interested in Eurovision through it's history rather than something else I heard many of them on YouTube before I got involved in the day-to-day ongoings of the contest.

Where to next?
Well this is the big question.

Somethings - such as Twitter or Facebook probably are broadly going to stay the way they are [unless new features are added]. However as a means of communication they are still really important. But as with many things in social media after the shock of the technology and the hysteria wears off, focus moves from the social side to what is actually being said in the media part. Anyone who, is a political nutcase/junkee like myself [I have other interests outside Eurovision] will have noticed that the tweet tracker in the Washington post probably is a fair way of gauging how the GOP race (Republican Primaries) is going. [I would also argue it is going nowhere]. Other internet trackers of Eurovision such as the Google tracker are very good at seeing who are the talked about entries. Anyone who is following National Final season on Twitter will understand the importance of using Twitter trends in gauging national finals.

YouTube on the other hand is another story. YouTube intends to launch their own TV channels to be streamed online. That certainly will be important as time passes. It may be one day possible to stream national finals using YouTube as a platform. Given that YouTube intends their TV channels will cater towards more niche areas rather than mainstream television. This possibly could lead to a Eurovision oriented channel online. [That's purely speculation by the way]

YouTube may also affect national finals. The advent of the "YouTube generation" of artists, to an extent, has changed the way the music industry works. This has had an impact on Eurovision as we now also see that "YouTube Artists" such as Peter Nalitch and Buranowskie Babuszki coming through in national finals. For performers or people who get famous Eurovision may offer an alternative method of getting before a huge audience very quickly. Other television shows, such as Britains Got Talent have turned to YouTube to find budding contestants.

Overall it is likely that these performers will bring more entertainment to the contest. But the other service that YouTube offers is it allows a national final performance to go viral. Buranowskie Babuszki's song "Party For Everyone" has done very well in under a week on YouTube. What will viral songs and YouTube do for Eurovision? Will this actually bring Buranowskie Babuszki a good result? These are all questions that will be answered in the future. All we can do for now is wait.

The last 10 years have seen an expansion of the Web 2.0 and social media. As this as occurred there has been a huge change in the way fans of the contest interact with one another. While I suspect that this will continue to change I also think that the pace of change will be somewhat slower. However I think we are only beginning to feel the effects of the Web 2.0 on the actual songs showcased in Eurovision.

News Flash: Italy Changes Their Song

Nina Zilli will now perform the song L'Amore É Femmina at the Eurovision Song Contest. The announce came today on Eurovision.tv. This means that sadly we've lost a great song from Eurovision, replacing it with a more contest friendly song. The song is definitely more suited to the contest and while I do like the new song I am disappointed with RAI's decision. This is largely because after Gualazzi's triumph that was the Madness of Love I thought that Italy on the back of the strong San Remo format might actually try to send songs that were a bit more classy. Songs that would appeal more to juries than public. While I think that this is going to be great at Eurovision, I still think that it is a lost opportunity for Italy to be different what is a somewhat generic contest.

Two More Songs (National Finals Have Lost All Meaning)

Moldova and Greece but as there is nothing that is amazingly show stopping picked after Melodifestivalen I'm kind of sitting here thinking "Just give us the songs already!".

Moldova's three and three quarter hour show was at best marginally interesting but that went all the way down to unbearable during the 40 minute interval act. Anyhow they picked a guy in a 1940's golf suit. His name is Pasha Parfeny and his song is called Lautar. The problem is it is not epic sax guy.

Greece also picked their song - it's a bit shallow but it will do for now. But seriously Greece - pick it in a shopping centre? What were you thinking. Anyhow the artist picked is Eleftheria Eleftheiou. Her song is Aphrodisiac. I like it all the same but I think Greece are really testing their ability to come in the Top 10. However I love her heels and feel sorry for the poor guys who have to let her stand on their backs. (Ouch!)

More news tomorrow.

Melodifestivalen 2012: Analysis and Reactions

Last night Melodifestivalen was on. Despite the fairly vast amount of criticism of the final this year, very few people actually put their money where their mouth was and watch Romania. 

So what happened? Well, all songs were performed and voted on. Loreen won with her great song Euphoria. So let's take a look at how Sweden voted and what the pattern might tell us about Melodifestivalen.

Songs and Success

While the winner of Melodifestivalen was pretty much certain and Danny came in second as expected. However the next few placings were surprising. David and Ulrik tied for third place. They were a bit ahead of where they were expected to be. The big surprise in my view was the poor showing by Molly Sanden and Lisa Miskovsky. 

How does Sweden vote?

Sweden use the same method to calculate the winner as Denmark. Juries around Europe award points to their favourite songs using a standard set of points (1,2,4,6,8,10,12). This means that one jury will award 1+2+4+6+8+10+12= 43 points. Eleven Juries award 11 x 43 = 473 points. The Public then award their own set of points 473 points. This is broken down based on the percentage of televotes it receives. So a song that gets 10% of the televotes gets 10% x 473 = 47.3 points. This then rounded to the nearest whole number.

This method was used last year but last year the juries did not have a clear winner. (Sanna, Eric and Danny were within five points of one another.) However as Eric was the winner of the televoting by a good margin (8.8%) he received 42 points more than Danny. 

Voting Patterns 

An interesting pattern emerged in the televoting. The table shows how much of the televote the top two songs took. The table beside them shows the top two in last years scoring. The top two this year took an unprecedented amount of the votes.

As a result of the 55% taken by Loreen and Danny there was a lot less votes than last year to share out among the others. This lead to the jury having much more say in the outcome of the 3rd-10th place rankings. For example Molly Sandén came second last on the televote but yet had a good margin in the jury vote. Despite a 5th place from the juries she came 5th overall. 

How did the juries vote in percentage terms? Well we converted the jury vote i.e. expressed it as a percentage of 473 points. Comparing it with the public percentages with jury percentages also helps to understand how voting worked. N.B. - Series 1 is jury votes, series 2 is public votes. (I'm not an amzing Excel wizard, sorry).

The other notable thing is that Loreen won the contest with a record number of votes in absolute terms. She pulled in a massive 670,551 votes which according to this SVT article is a record. The article is well worth a read.

Reactions

Eurovision fans are broadly happy with Swedens result and there is widespread recognition of Loreen as an exceptional artist even if she was not everyone's favourite. A number of older fans think that this is a bad choice for Sweden comparing Loreen with Kati Wolf last year who did well on fan polls but came 22nd in the final. I think people who argue that may be slightly out of touch with Eurovision Music - but that's just an opinion. However: Let the record show I believed on the 11th March 2012 I believed that Loreen was the most likely to win the Eurovision Song Contest 2012

In Sweden the fact that Loreen won seems to be rather popular but there is a couple of juicy stories from Melodifestivalen for those of us who like to take a peak at the Daily Mail.

Bjorn Ranelid has stated that only one Swedish writer wished him good luck in Melodifestivalen. Bjorn states that he now knows who his friends are and that Swedish writers have show their true colours (That's pretty cold - Ed.)

Danny has decided to be a sore loser and ran from the "green room/space" before Loreen could do a reprise. He also didn't take part in the after parties. He just went home to his girlfriends house. Today he said that Sweden had made a bad decision to send a schlager entry with Loreen. (And sorry Danny could you clarify What was your song then?) Anyway a couple of artists in Sweden have come out to say that they feel sorry for him and that they understand how much he wanted it. We just think that the better song won. Hard Lucj Danny. Well Done Loreen.

And Finally....

Of all the surprising things to come Melodifestivalen the amazing Sarah Dawn Finer Lynda Woodruff went down a storm with fans (while also poking the Brits, which we welcome.) Huge well done to Sarah for her hilarious piece. 

All Round Delight In Euroland After Super Saturday

So Eurovision fans breath a sigh of relief as Loreen won Melodifestivalen with 268 points winning five international juries and topping the public televote with 32.7% - a historical record. We will have a full Analysis of the Melodifestivalen final and semi-final voting patterns later tonight or else tomorrow.

Next came the presentation of the Serbian song by Zelijo Joksimovic. It's a lot like his 2004 entry but I really don't think that it is nearly as good. For me this could be the Harel Saart or Amurary Vassi of 2012. Anyhow the song is called Nile Ljuvbav Stvar (I could only find the English version - sorry).

Romania came next with a song that sounds like a cross between Lily Allen and Shakira. While the song may be annoying after two months, I am loving the Leather Catsuit. Mandinga is the singer and her song (sung mostly in Spanish) is called Zaleilah.

In Portugal after the usual remarkably long voting have decided to send Filipa Sousa to Eurovision. Fairly unamazing song at the moment.

Abridged Melodifestivalen Reviews

We now have the 10 songs which are going to fight it out for Eurovision. This year Sweden offers us a most diverse range of music. Earlier today I put up a Podcast with Melodifestivalen Reviews and for those who missed it missed our popular Rough Guide to Melodifestivalen

David Lindgren – This is a good song, kind of like In The Club but better. David is a good charismatic singer, but song is not strong enough to win. Might take a couple of votes from International Jury’s but I think he needs Danny to put on a poor performance. 6/10

Thorsten Flinck - Emotional but simple. Very like Caroline Af Ugglas’s song in 2009. However it is not as magical, and feels somewhat disjointed. I am unsure how this will do on night; could be forgotten given the other songs. 5/10.

Dead By April - An excellent rock song until it changes and sounds like my dog having a fit. Though it will attract rock fans it is not causing enough excitement. Little chance of winning but could pick up a few. 3/10.

Lisa Miskovsky – This is a great relaxing song after DBA but very much like Anna in 2010. It is very layered; cannot always make out Lisa in it. I would prefer something more stripped back. For me this is the Dark Horse of contest. It is doing well on Swedish polling too. 8/10.

Top Cats - One of the poorer songs in MF this year. Is that the lead singer from The Lucky Bullets? I don’t think this has a chance of winning. 2/10

Loreen – has a great song with simple staging and it is vocally amazing. The verses are a little messy and she still needs more camera contact. The studio version not near as good as live version and should be changed. It is the favourite by a good distance across all bookies. It’s probably going to win. 9/10

Ulrik Munther - Put through by teen girls from semi-final but they seem to have deserted him. It is a good quality song with a harmonica. It is vocally good however it is really generating enough excitement for the final, considering group behind him. Unlike to do very well. But could steal a couple of votes from Danny. 4/10.

Bjorn Ranelid ft. Sara Li – I just love this. Bjorn looks like my Dad only Dad 10 years younger has less hair and tan. It is a really great song which really works together. Maybe not everyone’s favourite though. I actually suspect that this could have won semi 3. It won’t do well with International Juries. But a high score in televote is conceivable. 10/10

Molly Sandén – This song is very heartfelt, emotional and this comes across on screen. However it is missing something but being a clear cut song I think it could win with the international juries but not televoters. 8/10

Danny Saucedo – Danny has a good song but semi vocals were very poor. The song is overly driven by staging and is heavily reliant on vocal’s in backing track. Danny won’t have it in ESC. Definitely one to beat but if vocally same as last time he might pick up very few votes from Internaitional Juries. He can count on a good televote score though. 4/10

Let us see what Saturday night will bring but my scores are:

• 12 - Bjorn Ranelid ft. Sara Li
• 10 - Loreen
• 8 - Lisa Miskovsky
• 6 - Molly Sandén
• 4 - David Lindgren
• 2 - Thorsten Flinck
• 1 - Danny Saucedo

Above all I hope you enjoy tonight's show and are either pleased or not to disappointed by the result. 

Melodifestivalen show kicks off at 8:00 CET/7:00GMT. 

Surprise! It's A Podcast (Melodifestivalen Final)

Today we are delighted to present our first podcast. This is a bit of an experiment for us and we'd love your feedback. We feel that podcasting is becoming a greater part of Eurovision fandom but also it is important to understand that we cannot write the huge pieces for things like Melodifestivalen that fully communicate my thoughts. If you have not been following Melodifestivalen up until now read our Rough Guide to Melodifestivalen 2012.



It was a delight to do this but four points I would like to make before you send feedback.

1. It ran three minutes longer than I wanted.
2. I pause a lot - I am trying to work on that.
3. I would love to add jingles or something so as it is not just voice. 
4. Before anyone from Ireland asks even though I am from Dublin I speak with a Tipperary accent. This is because most of my family is from Tipperary. Please don't stare in surprise like most Dublin people do.

I will put up an abridged script of the Podcast a later stage today. 

Please leave your comments at the bottom of this post. 

Russia Surprises Everyone (And Something Happened In Slovakia/Armenia)

Tonight Russia selected the most surprising entrants for Eurovision 2012 - Buranovskiye Babushki.

(I suspect this could be a serious question in a Eurovision spelling bee.) Anyway I am delighted with the Russians choice. This everything you want from a  Eurovision entry - something that represents the national music tradition, something that's current and something that is very entertaining.

If I was in the BBC right now I think I'd be puking. After all their smart moves they now don't have the oldest lead singer at Eurovision and now they are going to be squzzed by a branch of the Over-70's club. Anyway it all makes the contest more interesting. Semi 1 is shaping up to be a very interesting semi-final in contrast to the rather dull semi-final 2. Usually when this occurs the winning song comes from the more interesting semi.

Overall I think this could go either way for them. They will most likely score heavily on the televote but the juries may not go for them. This will either sink or swim.

There will be more on these wonderful elders at a later stage when I don't feel I am going to fall asleep.

Elsewhere Slovakia presented their song - it's not quite as amazing. This sort of rock has been seen in Eurovision before. It won't be expected to do overly well. 

This morning we found out what I had suspected all along when Armenia withdrew from ESC this year. This was no big surprise but it still reflects badly on Azerbaijan and the EBU despite assurances from both of them Armenia withdrew. I think though that while nothing can be done this year, the EBU should reflect on whether it is right for a country to host the contest when other countries are unwilling to travel to the host country. 

A Surprisingly Good National Final: Romania

Romania has a reasonably strong national final this year so let’s take a more in depth look at the songs.

Catalin Josan - It may be a little old fashioned but it is a great happy go lucky song. I really like this. Catalin actually looks like he has some music experience also. Grade: A-

Ana Mardane - The opening of this song sounds like a big Broadway musical number. However does develop away from this but really it is Broadway at heart. Grade: B

Vicky Red - By the looks of it this song has been on the go for some time and has racked up a reasonable number of views on YouTube. This is a really high quality song. Then comes the Disco. But so far the Romania seem to have a good selection so I don't know how outstanding this will seem on the night. Grade: A-

RPK - The band name could easily be confused as a broadcaster but aside from that this seems to be a little poorer than the songs that went before it. Grade: E+

Lucian Oros - Despite sharing a song title with a razor slogan this is an interesting song. However this song is a little predictable and boring. It's far from awful but could be better. Grade: D+

Raluca Ocneanu - It's got very artist and orginal sound to it but I'm not sure that this will bring in a vast number of votes. Grade: C-

Electric Fence - That's a strange band name. The music certainly starts off as strangely as the name would suggest. The very different sound might suggest something different but in reality it would come across as a little messy. Grade: D-.

Ovidiu Anton - It starts like it is going to burst into a massive disco remix. But oh no - here comes the self pitying guitar pop. It's is a reasonable song but you know – depressing. Grade: C

Miss Mary - This is a pretty good quality song which has huge potential but kinda falls a little flat at the times when you want it to push on it doesn’t. Grade: D

Mandinga - What is the back ground music? 15 seconds in it was answered. This is a piece of messy ethino pop music which has a great hook and actually though messy it's the best song so far. Grade: A

T&L - This may be Irish and I do subscribe to the whole "support Irish" concept, but this goes nowhere. The speaking/supposed rap is not very good. Yeah this is boring. Grade: E+

Ioana Anuta - Usual pop/rock song that turns up at many ESC national finals. Girls Don't Cry is an interesting title and some of the lyrics provoke ideas to caustic to publish on this blog. However I can be a sucker for this kind of music. Grade: B

Tasha - Seriously club music here. However it is just a small bit boring. It just doesn't seem to go anywhere. Grade: D+

Bianca Purcarea - Starts as a relaxed and gentle ballad, and in fact it begs you to hear some more. So quiet. So gentle. So bueatiful. As I write this I am also keeping an eye on the primary results in the US. But really when you have great ballads like this who needs politics. Grade: A+

Ana Mardane - So she has two songs in the national final? That's a little strange. It is very different to her earlier song. I would perfer this one personally. Grade: B+

So if I have time after Melodifestivalen I will be dropping over to Romania to support Bianca Purcarea and her amazing song. 

At Least There's Only Four Songs

So Greece usually a revered country at Eurovision, it never has been out of the Top 10 since 2003 - has finally given us all of the information about their national final so it is time to review the four songs one of which represent them in Baku! [Thank god there's only four - I'll get to bed early]

Dora - Here is a standard Greek ethic pop song. As with all the artists in this years Greek selection, is new to the music scene. This does not exactly fill me with confidence in her vocal abilities however this concern does run in all of the songs in the selection. Overall this does not seem to go very far and with so many similar songs in the selection this doesn't seem strong enough. Grade: C-

Cassiopeia - Oh god, a three piece girl band with no experience - that's going to be some vocal performance. No that's just a bit mean. The song Killer Bee is sort of the generic pop that appears a lot National Finals. Grade: D

Velvet Fire - My guess is that this sort of pop/rock song by the weird looking people will win. This song seems to be a bit poorer than Ireland 2009 and that was a bit of a low point. At least parking wardens worldwide might have this blasting out of their headphones. Grade: C-

Eleftheria Eleftherou - This probably is their best chance this year but I still am by no means convinced. It lacks, well anything to make it sound like it was made on this side of 2003.

This year Greece has presented what really could be best described as a rather poor bunch of songs. However if Greece at good at one thing it is getting a good staging at the contest when it really counts. But if this was any country other than Greece I would be putting this down as an unlikely qualifier. Then again I said the same thing last year.