Isn't That What National Finals Are All About?

After a surprising night of national finals and semi-finals we've two more Eurovision entries, and many songs have been eliminated in the quest to find a Eurovision entry. Many people have been shocked to see some of the choices made in some of the shows yesterday. But really is this not The story continues....

Malta
Malta have selected Gianluca Bezzina, to represent them in Malmo, with his song "Tomorrow". It's a delightfully bouncy song and might do well at Eurovision. On reflection though it was not my favourite entry in Malta, it probably was the best selection. Hear Gianluca's song here.

What could have been one of the most embrassing stories to come from eurovision.tv they put a story up on eurovision.tv saying that Amber had won the Maltese selection about one hour before results were due to be announced

Iceland
In one of the Iceland's most surprising moves they selected Bill Bailey Thomas G:sson Eybor Ingi Gunnlaugsson to represent them in Malmo. By all accounts it is a poor choice from a fairly selection which is a same given the strong run that Iceland have had since 2008. You can listen to the song here.

Sweden 
Melodifestivalen is my favourite national final and despite its critics last year it is able to produce some really great songs. In last nights semi-final Daivd Lindgren and YOHIO progressed to the final directly with Eric Gadd and Cookies 'N' Beans going to Andra Chansen.

Unusually and surprisingly SVT do not appear to have censored the songs progressing in the contest from the internet, perhaps they understand that at this stage they would have some job to do that. They also have left the semi-final up on their site and you can watch it here. 

I was also very impressed with Danny and Gina as presenters the interval act was very impressive. Well done!

Norway
Three more songs have made it to the final in Norway. Gaute Ormasen, Sirkus Eliassen and Aledén all qualified. The most surprising of these was Aledén who came in first place. As far as I can see this had nothing to do with her legs.

Hungary
I don't pay much attention to Hungary so I shall let escXtra fill you in.

So we can all look forward to next weekend when Norway and Finland will select their entries.

Who Can Malta Choose?

The lengthily Maltese national final takes place tonight and after a long semi-final last night will anyone be awake? Last night was fairly unsurprising and succeed in eliminating some of the real junk though surprisingly knocked out one of my favourites, Klinssman. Anyway what can the choose from tonight?

Scar – Superstar

I’m half expecting either the wimax ad (You’d have to be Irish to understand) or else a tribute act to Paul Harrington and Charlie McGettigan. This is certainly a potential winner but I still am not convinced this is an ideal Eurovision choice. Grade: B

Dorothy Bezzina – Starting From The End

I never got Dorothy, her songs are always very good vocally but are never particularly warm. This one is no different. Probably will do well with juries. Grade: E-

Corazon Mizzi – My Stranger Love

Corazon’s song is probably similar in ways to other songs in this national final. However something about her voice makes me think that she might just standout a little more in the national final however perhaps I just prefer her voices to others in MESC this year. Grade: D-

Jessica Muscat – Ultraviolet

Can fiery red heads go to Eurovision? Yes of course, remember Niamh Kavanagh? Certainly Jessica has a pretty distinctive look. Her song is also fairly good and reminds me a bit of Lena Meyer Landrut. Maybe has an outside chance? Grade: B-

Gianni – Us Against The World

Gianni may have his fans from last year but I doubt that they will be overly impressed with this teen pop song that really is unimpressive. Last year I had him down as someone who could represent Malta at Eurovision in the future, however I don’t think 2013 is the future. Grade: D

Davinia Pace – Betrayed

I don’t like this, for no reason at all. I just don’t. Sorry. Grade: G

Kevin Borg - Needing You

For some reason I overlooked this last night and when I was writing up my first reviews. This is a strong ballad but that's only by Maltese standards. It doesn't really go that far. Grade: D

Richard Edwards – Fall Like Rome

Seasoned MESC competitor returns with another dramatic song. This is certainly one of the more stand out song in MESC however I still wonder if he could actually win given that he has missed out so many times before this. Never the less I think this is a possible winner and could be in Malmo. Grade: B+

Janice Debattista – Perfect Day

This is a vanilla song, plain and simple. Not that it is never a bad idea to err on the side of caution in a national final this is just lacking in many areas and there are so many similar songs in this national final. Grade: E

Deborah C – Love-O-Holic

This is my favourite song in the competition. I loved Deborah last year and once again I find myself in the same position this year. Sadly vocally she was way off last year, hopefully the year has done her some good. If this worked it could have a chance of winning but if it goes wrong it surely won’t be as bad as last year. Grade: A

Claudia Faniello – When It’s Time

Claudia is back for yet another national final with yet another dull song. Personally speaking I think if they weren’t go to send her with the song Pure I cannot imagine her doing well enough with this one. It is dull and predictable. Grade: E+

Gianluca Bezzina – Tomorrow

Anyone else thinking Train’s Hey Soul Sister? Certainly I am. I think this is somewhat like it but none the less this is a very sweet song and Gianluca’s charisma helps to boost the song. A strong entry that may well win. Grade: B+

Chris Grech – Never Walk Away

Another plain song with some U2 overtones. Chris is quite an introverted performer so this song may not come across as well as it should. Slow rock songs also don’t tend to do extremely well in national finals. Grade: E+

Petra/Richard Edwards – Wonderful Today

I personally would prefer their individual song than this duet. It really does not show off Richard’s vocal abilities and the age difference (apologies if there is no difference). Taxi for this one then. Grade: E

Amber – In Control

Also a dull song. It tries to be right but gets it so wrong. Grade: E+

Dominique Azzopardi – Too Little Too Late

Another dull ballad. Dominique has a delicate and gentle voice but it still will not take away from the fact that the song really is just not that outstanding. Grade: E+

News Flash: So Much News, So Little Time!

We're at that stage of the Eurovision year where there are announcements left, right and center and it is near impossible to keep up especially when you have exams this week (poor me). Anyhow here's an overview of the news of late:

• Spain have announced that El Sueno de Morfeo will represent them at Eurovision. They are a pop/rock band with some Celtic influences. Personally I am excited by them at look forward to seeing what they have to offer in the National Final.
• Heilsarmee selected to represent Switzerland in this years Eurovision Song Contest, and the EBU looked to be having a little bit of a discussion about the whole Salvation Army thing they have going on. Anyway they have committed to work for a solution so that should not have a huge impact on the overall contest though it was exploited a bit during the slow news days that were there earlier this week.
• Germany have announced eleven of the twelve names participating in their national final including Cascada who I am very interested in, particularly as she should have a good chance and it certainly it a big name in the contest
• Anyhow Malta have published their 24 songs for their national final, so far I have not heard all of the songs but I am impressed by Deborah C - I have a soft spot for her but there will be reviews in due course. 
• Over in Israel they have changed the selection process making it larger, one of the few countries to enlarge their national final this year.  I haven't ever paid much attention to K'dam so I don't really expect to do so this, but you never know.
• So that's all for now Lithuania hold their national final tomorrow night, so hopefully I'll be on Twitter watching it with you, and if I'm not there's always the first proper endurance contest of the year - Albania on Saturday evening.

Reaction To Rehearsals: Day 3: Part 1

Today seems to be a bit dull and given that the songs that have been on stage in the first half this does not surprise me. However there is much to discuss.

Serbia - Rehearsal Video
Without a doubt Zeljko is more than able to perform on stage. The performance is awfully similar to the 2004 performance and based on the number of steady cams on stage there will be a lot of close ups of instruments. The background is very blue. Zeljko is going to walk out onto stage as the instrumental starts [reminds you of anything].

Macedonia - Rehearsal Video
Once again I was not sure what to expect here. I don't like the song particularly. Vocally this is spot on and people are very impressed with the vocals but that is not surprising. The background is blueish and fairly unremarkable. All in all this is getting positive feedback but really am unconvinced about this song in a very vocally strong.

Netherlands - Rehearsal Video
This is the highlight of the start of this semi-final for me. As I have previously mentioned I never really liked what she wears but I think overall this is working really well on stage. It hasn't really lifted itself immensely but it is a song that is really dividing people. While I cannot look at this without thinking that Lesley Gore is going to jump out and launch into a verse of Sunshine, Lollipops and Rainbows. The background is not to different from the national final. I can't call this at the moment.

Malta - Rehearsal Video
I'm not a massive fan to this song but at the same time the remix has done a lot for it. Vocally it is risky particularly that note at the end which might have to be dropped after a couple of nights at the Euroclub. The shadows of people dancing in the background is something that I'm surprised that they have not been used before. Vocally though risky the rehearsal was good. The backdrop is fairly unremarkable, being very similar to the one from the entry before.

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:

Here We Go Again: The Odds Check

The good people over at Nicerodds have been good enough to try to tap into the Eurovision fan market by putting together the odds from many Irish, UK and Nordic bookmakers. Many of the countries that have not even detailed about their national final yet are given odds but we are not going to consider most of them yet as it just reflects a countries historic strength at Eurovision.

• Going first to Austria where unsurprisingly Conchita Wurst the favorite to win, with (surprisingly) 3 punkt 5 and Trackshittaz lagging behind. I wouldn't be  surprised if there was a surprise winner in Austria but Conchita and Trackshittaz would be good in Baku.
• Moving North to Germany where we see Roman Lob is the Hot favourite to win, given that he seems to be winning the qualifiers so far this is not surprising. It will most likely be him in Baku, and I do actually need to see him as I have not seen him performing yet.
• Moving further north again to Sweden where Youngblood and Molly Sandén are favourites to progress from semi-final 3 but after yesterday it is clear we need to see the songs first. In terms of the winner of Melodifestivalen 2012 
• So what about ESC? Sweden somewhat surprisingly are riding upfront possibly reflecting the strength of Melodifestivalen 2012. Serbia follows probably because of Zelio Zehomsomethingorother. We will have to hear his song first though. Otherwise the usual suspects are there, Azerbaijan, Armenia etc. Interestingly Ireland is quite high - 14/1 (reflecting Jedward being in our national final). Of the songs picked Norway is 14/1 to win with Denmark behind on 18/1 however one bookie is only offering 7/1 on Denmark making them the clear favorites at this early stage. Cyprus is 25/1. France, despite being well up on fan lists (not mine) is 50/1. The longest odds of a currently picked song is Malta on 130/1.

100 Tweets Later And We Have Song Six

Tonight after a marathon National Final we have reached the end of the Maltese selection. To explain how bored people were: You may notice sometimes during the dull part of a national final we will post up a Why not visit the blog? tweet [Our marketing department say it is a good idea]. Normally this generates 2/3 extra visitors. When I did it during Eurosong I got 15.

Anyway we all woke up just after midnight to see what was a rather entertaining voting. The ultimate winner was KURT CALLEJA who will sing This Is The Night for Malta in Baku. Full review will be out in a week or two but suffice to say I think it is a little average.

Moving on to other matters at hand Hungary and Lithuania had their semi-finals tonight also and I gather that they passed off without anyone watching them.

However most interestingly Sweden held their first Melodifestivalen semi-final which was a entertaining and as interesting as ever. I think people have finally gotten their heads around the "poor" songs and are now accepting that the songs are not normally seen in MF. This meant that we had one of the most intriguing contests in a long time. I know our predictions were out (badly) but Swedes are very changeable in their nature when it comes to Melodifestivalen. Sean Banan and Throston Flinck went to Anfra Chansen with Dead By April and Loreen advancing to the Final. I thoroughly enjoyed Melodifestivalen this week and look forward to next week.

Norway too held their ultimate semi-final. This one turned out to have a couple of surprises (most of them were very pleasant). The biggest surprise was Yaseen & Julie Maria coming third with their song Sammen. I didn't think very much of it and my mind is still unchanged but I think their performance highlights why the number of people on stage needs to be restricted. Tooji also made it through. He was the Norwegian answer to Eric Saade and the number of similarities was actually freaky. It turned into a bit of a spot the difference competition [He didn't wear leather gloves]. He deserves credit for an excellent performance however coming second means that he will be first to sing in the final which may not work in his favor. The best and most pleasant surprise was how well Bobby Bare and Petter Oien's song came across on the stage. Everything about it worked and Bobby was such a country gentleman. I was really impressed by what appeared to be the bond between the two men. It was real music.

Norway is expected to announce their wildcard on Thursday. We suspect it will go to the Canoes but also consider Minne-Oh, Lisa Stokke and especially Lise Karlnese to be in with a chance.

That brings this evening to a close. The next big event will be on Monday with Germany holding heat 5. However we tend to ignore Germany for the moment. We will be busy over the coming week preparing for the weekend so please be patient with us if things are quiet during the week.

P.S. We don't have a marketing department.

Sweden, Norway, Hungary, Lithuania, Malta and Dublin vs. Kerry

[Skip this paragraph if your not interested in sport] So as we look forward to a great night of national finals we also notice that Dublin is playing Kerry tonight in Gaelic Football which is just a little bad timing but we will keep the Irish people watching Melodifestivalen updated with the score. A little Irish trivia: Dublin bet Kerry last year in the All-Ireland Football despite not being expected to do so. This is a league match which is not so important but being a rehash of last years All-Ireland people will have good expectations.


Moving on to more interesting matters primarily concerning Eurovision:

• Malta picks their Eurovision entry this evening. It is to be done on a 75% jury and 25% public basis. You can read our review of the final here. However to cut it short we are supporting DEBORAH C feat. LEILA JAMES for Malta with their song You Make Me Go Uh Uh. 
• Sweden holds the first semi-final of Melodifestivalen tonight. Read our review here. We are looking forward to seeing Loreen and Marie Serneholt as well as Abalone Dots and Sean Banan. But we have to throw a big shout out to Afro-Dite also. We suspect due to the rather low quality of songs that this could go anyway and we expect a surprise or two.
• Norway holds it's final semi-final tonight in anticipation of their final next week. They will also be giving out a wildcard from the jury but we do not know when they will do this. Our reviews of Norway are here.
• Hungary and Lithuania are also holding semi-finals tonight but we are not covering them for the moment. Our Hungarian reviews can be found here.

So if you thought that tonight was going to be quiet or without a few surprises think again.

And as always our twitter @besteuroblog will be in full swing tonight. Things should be kicking of around 19:00 GMT/20:00CET

We gladly welcome your comments on what you will be watching tonight.

Update: I forgot to do a look at the odds for this week: In Norway Tooij is favorite to qualify to the final. Followed by Lise Karlsnes and Petter Olson & Co. In Sweden Loreen is the favourite to go directly to Globen with either Sean Banan or Dead by April bringing up the rear is Thorsten Flick and The Moniker depending on which bookmaker you use. We cannot find any odds for Malta at the moment but if you know someone offering odds do let us know through the usual communication. 

Updated Adjusted Maltese Reviews

Now that Malta has gotten rid of a couple of songs we publish our reviews again and preview their national final.

 Amber - Very unusual song, her voice is strong. However the song, though interesting, is a bit repetitive and the climax and final verse are by not strong enough given what they seem to be building towards in the first verses. Maybe this is intentional but I suspect not. - Grade: E-

Claudia Fanniello - A strong ballad . Returning artist Claudia gives a great number with the song Prue. This has all the hallmarks of a good song but Claudia lifts it well, however there has been problems with her vocal performance in the past at the final. So let us hope she can pull this one off. Grade : B+

Corazon – No review. Grade: D

Dancia Muscat - Grade: C-

Deborah C. feat L. James - Fab Alert: This is schlager, two bouncy (and good looking) girls jumping around singing a song that you just know they'll murder live. However massive live disaster performances are best avoided by a schlager style pair of heels. We shall see. If Deborah wears a leather catsuit on the night [she has done it before] I'll give this an A+ in the meantime. Grade: A

Dorothy Bezzina - Interesting, that’s all I'll say. Very possible contender but strangely seems a little cold. Grade: B-

Fabrizio Faniello - Those of you hoping for something the same as last year will not be disappointed. However it is difficult to know if Fabrizio is worth sending to Eurovision again. Those with a liking for beards that make you look like Mahmoud Ahmadinejad also will not be disappointed. Grade: B-

Francesca Borg - Dire. How did this qualify. Grade: G

Gianni - Poor quality rock with few redeming features other than a good end. Grade: E

Janvil - Grade: C-

Kaya - This might not be schlager but it does raise the standard. This is the first song I have heard that lifts to the standard that we would expect at Eurovision. An early favourite? It is not my favorite but I do expect it to do well. Grade: B

Kilnsmann - Why start by sitting on the ground? The chorus of the song sounds a bit boybandish however it is pleasant. Pleasant never won Eurovision but anyhow. But is it meant mean to be pop/rock or a boyband? There are some performance flaws but a nice song. Grade: C

Kurt Calleja - Very good but he needs to be able to live on the night to get to Baku. But remember Maltese voters are arguably the madest hatters of all ESC western countries. This is a nice song but this still would need a real live performance to lift it. If Kurt can pull that off the song has a hope. However I can only grade on what I hear in the studio version. Grade: C

Lawerence Grey - Good voice, dullish song we lots of these in Malta. Song only gets duller. Why wear a suit? Grade: D-

Richard Edwards - Look at me now is a better song than the last couple that I listened to it before, however this is still not over interesting. Nevertheless I like the overall song somewhat. Grade: D

Wayne Micallef - Grade: F

Overall Malta have taken off more poor songs then they left in. We are reasonably happy with the outcome of the Semi-Final and hope that DEBORAH C FEAT. LEILA JAMES are representing Malta. While this may be unsure you can always be sure we will have an opinion on their Eurovision entry once they select it.

Continuing Maltese Reviews

1. Deborah C. feat L. James - Fab Alert: This is schlager, two bouncy (and good looking) girls jumping around singing a song that you just know they'll murder live. However massive live disastor performances are best avioded by a schlager style pair of heels. We shall see. If Deborah wears a leather catsuit on the night I'll give this an A+ in the meantime. Grade: A

2. Dorothy Bezzina - Interesting, that’s all I'll say. Grade: B-

3. Eleanor Cassar - Boring, poorly constructed pop song - good voice wasted on a poor song. Grade: E+

4. Fabrizio Faniello - Those of you hoping for something the same as last year will not be disappointed. However it is difficult to know if Fabrizio is worth sending to Eurovision again. Those with a liking for beards that make you look like Mahmoud Ahmadinejad also will not be disappointed. Grade: B-

5. Francesca Borg - Dire. Grade: G

6. Gianni - Poor quality rock with few redeming features other than a good end. Grade: E

7. Isabelle - No faults. Beat is good and the music is arranged well. Not outstanding. It could build more and have a stronger ending. Grade: C+

8. Janice Mangion - Grade: D+

9. Janvil - Grade: C-

Conclusion of And the winner is series tomorrow. We will have the last part of this series Wednesday.

First Malta Reviews

So after much waiting here are the first of the reviews of the Maltese songs. All songs have been assigned a grade from an A+ to E- are passing grades (i.e. I would listen to it again) and failing grades would be either F, G or NG. F and G are songs I would not listen to agian because I feel they are just below standard for their genre. NG means non gradable and only applies where a song is so bad I couldn't listen to it for long enough to grade it or where I feel the song may be personally offensive. While all songs have received a grade they have not all been commented on. This is due to the number of songs in Eurosong and the fact that they sometimes seem a bit bland. Songs without a comment are usually neither great nor very poor. Anyway enough with the rules lets get cracking.

1. Amber - Very unusual song, her voice is strong. However the song, though interesting, is a bit repetitive and the climax and final verse are by not strong enough given what they seem to be building towards in the first verses. Maybe this is intentional but I suspect not. - Grade: E-

2. Anna Azzopradi - Anna's light jazzy voice is pleasant and does grow in strenght in the chorus. Song is boring and the backing vocals which really should complement her voice actually seem the wrong. Grade: G

3. Annalise Ellul - It is a nice song that we see a lot of in the Meditreainain national finals however it is difficult to see them doing all that dancing in the final when vocals have to be live. Dance reminds me of Turkey 2003. Grade: D-

4. Claudia Fanniello - A strong ballad . Returning artist Claudia gives a great number with the song Prue. This has all the hallmarks of a good song but Claudia lifts it well, however there has been problems with her vocal performance in the past at the final. So let us hope she can pull this one off. Grade : B+

5. Corazon - Grade: D

6. Dancia Muscat - Grade: C-

More tomorrow.

So many songs......So much time

Malta is one of the non-nordic countries whose national final I actually do follow. Today they released all the songs in the semi final for you to listen to so over the coming days I will put a few reviews. As with many countries national finals some of the songs are just a little......ah (bored grunt) so while I will put up a grade for each there may not always be a review to go with it sorry!

ESCInsight have an ebook launched written by website editor Ewan Spence, about the Junior Eurovision Song contest 2011. Which is a fair achievement in two weeks. I will have a review of it posted to the blog over the coming weeks (hopefully before New Year)

Malta's In! (But no word from Albania)

Malta has declared that it intends to go to ESC 2012 and is to have their national final on the 28th January. I am looking forward to it. Malta as extended the rule for repeat appearances from three years to five. Which I think is very harsh. I've always have a soft spot for Malta though.


Albania is to hold Fesival I Kenges but so far have not stated if they are going to Eurovision. 
 

Small Bits Of Everything

I am always keen to see a Eurovision Song doing well in the charts. However this story is a little different. It seems Kelly Schembri has become an overnight sensation in Malta. Her rise to fame has been noted by some Big wigs in Britain who hope to make her a star and she has made a new video of her song "Love Me Like Your Money"

The Reference Group should have concluded  their meeting during the week and any information that should come from that will be commented on.

Sweden have been first out of the trap and have called for songs for Melodifestivalen 2012 (Wow, first time I've had to write about NF season 2011). As always they have many ways of getting to Melodifestivalen but this year the Web Joker has been reduced down to one entrant. This is probably a good thing as the Web Joker for me has always been a rather dull song. It simply takes away a place that could go to Sanna Nielsen or Timoteij.