From Rona To This: Albania - The Review

Festival I Kenges is by far and away one of the strangest national final formats currently in existence for Eurovision. Not because it has a confusing format (if you don’t mind annual format changes) but it throws out some of the most random winners compared with an national final format, with no set pattern nor any sign of a theory emerging about what constitutes a good song in FiK. Last year certainly was a year which gave me great confidence in the Albanian selection process and as followers of this blog will know I was a huge fan of her and her song.

Despite that confidence building moment Albania have taken that and smashed it into many pieces, leaving me curled up in a corner rocking back and forth screaming about the advantages of public selection. Why you might ask? Well, I’m not convinced that sending Adrian Lulgjurai and Bledar Sejko and their song idenditet was the right choice. Firstly I think that it is too much of a pop/rock song to do very well at the contest. Secondly I think the FiK performance didn’t suggest anything special about the pair that will bring them through the glass curtain and into peoples living rooms.

The song itself is probably one which is a bit too rockish for me to like it. However I like parts of the song however there are other parts of it that just turn me off. The song is very Balkan sounding even for a rock song.

Overall the success of this song depends on the jury support it receives. It may come in the public’s top 10 in the semi-final but if the juries don’t support it its dead in the water.

Verdict: It just feels that Albania has learned nothing from last year. This still feels like this song could come from any FiK final.

Grade: D- (42%)

Tranche One Has Arrived

I think its definitely a strange year to have no less than six Eurovision songs already selected and its not even Christmas. Over the last four days three more songs have been picked. To summarise:

Albania
Albania have chosen to send Adrian Lulgjuraj and Bledar Sejko, with the song Identitet. This is a rather odd choice from Albania in my opinion, I was expecting something that was a bit closer to Rona's song last year. While that would have been a difficult song to spot I really didn't expect Albania to go with such a rockish song. You can listen to the song here.

Lithuania
Lithuania have decided that Andrius Pojavis will represent them in Malmo with the song Something. There was going to be nothing formulaic from Lithuania this year after last year, still this song fails to impress me, thought with a little work it could improve greatly. You can see the national final performance here.

Ukraine
Ukraine have decided the runner up from last years contest will represent them in Malmo. Zlata Ognevich will represent them in Malmo with the song Gravity. It sounds like it was pulled straight from the Lion King, not that I view this as a bad thing. Certainly one of the best songs selected so far. Very much looking forward to seeing this one on the Eurovision stage. You can see the national final performance here.

Overall I am not overly impressed by the first tranche of songs which have arrived, however they are generally from countries who I am rarely a huge fan of. The remaining songs, in case you missed them are:

Belarus - Alyona Lanaskaya - Rhythm of Love
Belgium - Roberto Bellarosa - Love Kills
Switzerland - The Band that won't perform under the name The Salvation Army - You and Me

If anyone has written a post that attempts to explain why so many songs have been picked before Christmas, please let me know, I'd be most interested to reading it.

JESC 2012: Reviews - Part 1

It's hard to believe that another Eurovision year is nearly upon us. And, like every year, it kicks off with the Junior Eurovision Song Contest. This year, as you should know, Netherlands is hosting it. In the run up to the rehearsals here at the Best Eurovision Blog, I'm taking the time to look at the contestants and what they have on offer this year.

Egor Zheshko - A More-More
Belarus
Belarus kicks off this years contest with a rather odd but catchy song for Junior. This is vocally pot on but may be hard to pull off on the night, though some might argue that he survived the national final so should put up a good show at Junior. Backing dancers are distracting and I think that they might be Belarus's acceptance that the song is not really that good. Personally I could see this doing very well with the juries on the night but I don't think it is a winner by any stretch. It bounces along nicely but does feel longer than 10 minutes.
Verdict: A good show and vocal but not a winner.
Grade: C

Lova Sonnerbo - Mit Mod
Sweden
This is what I love to see at JESC. A simple song and good singer who capable of performing a moving performance of the song. However as much as I love it is difficult to see it doing extremely well at JESC and Sweden have entered more interesting songs than this to the contest and yet have not really reaped the rewards of it. So it is difficult to see this one doing extremely well.
Verdict: Strong song but lacks a lot, though I still love it.
Grade: B+

Igzidora Gjeta - Kam Nje Kenge Vetem Per Ju
Albania 
At any level it is difficult to understand what Albania will send to the contest and sadly this year is no different. There song this year has a really promising opening but then descends into the dangerous hell that many we have heard so many times at JESC. Though Albania's light jazz song may have done well at grown-up Eurovision this one clearly is disorganised with the strangest combination of instruments I've heard in recent years. Not a winner, but maybe I've set the bar to high for a debuting country.
Verdict: Poor debuting entry
Grade: E

Compass Band - Sweetie Baby
Armenia 
The last review for today is for the Armenian entry. Once again this does not live up to my expectations but then again it is JESC. However this song does not work on any level. It sounds like a poor school choir and I just don't get what is good about it. However some parts of the song are ok, so I shall not tear it to shreds.
Grade: E

Disappointing first set of reviews, but you are more than welcome to disagree with me. Bring it on (Bitch!)

And Now We Know...(Day 1)

So as the sun sets over Paris [Only place I could think of where the sun might be setting right now]. But the day has come to an end and having looked at at least 100 photos of Eurovision Taxis as well as hours of rehearsal videos, we now know a lot more about Eurovision 2012. But in a nutshell what have we learned?

• Based on everyone's blog posts we now know it is not very easy to get to Baku, especially if you travel through Istanbul.
• Montenegro is as bad on stage as we first thought, however no one knew quite what to expect all the same.
• Iceland and Romania are the big winners from today, they are now much more favoured to win in the betting odds and reports from Baku about them are impressive.
• Greece has a very typical Eurovision entry. She is not able to sing it well enough live.
• Latvia continues to divide people between lovers who think it is a marginal qualifier and haters who think it is still a very bad song still and she is a good vocalist.
• Albania was as impressive as ever but I think it might be something that the ney sayers have to see live to believe. I really like this though.
• According to my friend the ESCInsider Switzerland far better looking in real life. As a hetrosexual I have no opinion but as they say - know your target market. Their diction as also improved.
• Iris from Belgium has a great pair of lungs. She really came up to the mark in rehearsals today.
• Finally Finland have dropped the dancer which is a great move on their part in my opinion.

Up until now I have avoided making predictions but I think at this stage that Iceland and Romania are the definite qualifiers and Albania is a very likely qualifier. My guess is that there will be one qualifier from either Switzerland, Belgium or Finland and since the rehearsal I am inclined towards Belgium, but that's very difficult to call. I think that Greece is the only other possible contender but if the vocals don't improve it could go the way of Turkey last year.

If you missed our earlier posts they are here:
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3

Rehearsals: Day 1: Part 2 Latvia - Romania

Unfortunately due to my usual Sunday routine I was not in a position to stay in live mode for the afternoon. Anyhow here's how the rehearsals look to be going for the first half of the the first semi-final.

Latvia - Rehearsal Video
Those who have followed the blog will know that this is far from one of my favourite entries. Anmary's vocal performance today is really, really good but I don't like the display behind her. I think it lacks a strong colour. This is as close to my lovely horse as you can get and I suspect that it will stay this way. Anmary still is a very strange performer onstage too. This needed something really special to stand out onstage and it has not delivered on this. I cannot see this qualifying.

Albania - Rehearsal Video
Without a doubt I am really delighted by how well this is working onstage. Vocally this is just outstanding. The only issue that could be a problem is that Rona needs to make far more contact with the camera for this song to really score well on the public televote, but otherwise it has been a great performance. The extra drum towards the end should lift it and make it a little more anthemic. This does mean though that sound mixing will need to be very, very good for this all to work. Media reaction to this song has been equally positive but no one seems to be predicting this as either a qualifier or not.

Romania - Rehearsal Video
Romania has impressed me today. I found this a bit boring up until now but the extra bass in the song is excellent. If it doesn't come across on TV this will flop. Up until now I have felt that it is just a bit soft. But no, instead it is more like something from a club which I would listen to. This is well listened to and liked by the press and people seem to have a soft spot for this. Vocal concerns were also knocked today with a strong showing from the lead singer. After the first five songs this really should stand out to the televoters.

Lots More News

• Rona Nishliu has released her song Suus in English, the version is a bit more jazzy than her actual Albanian version. You can listen to the song here. Personally I think it is a masterpiece of music but I am in the minority who actually like the song.
• Eurovision in Concert was last night. If you were at it I really hoped that you enjoyed it. If you weren't (like myself) then the photos and videos are now starting to appear online, check escXtra.com and EscToday.com 
• Finally in other news, Norway's OGAE have declared their votes for Eurovision 2012, unsurprisingly Sweden and Iceland got 12 and 10 points respectively, with Serbia and Romania getting 8 and 7 points. This puts Sweden very firmly in the lead with about 13% of clubs declared. Iceland are in second position. 

Back to reviews tomorrow.

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. 

Review: Albania

Albania

Please note that this review is based on the long version sung at Festival I Kenges 50, and the song will be shortened for ESC 2012.

Albania surprised me this year by picking a song which I was a fan of. Normally I would pass on the Albanian entry. They selected the song Suus sung by the remarkable Rona Nishliu. This is a song that relies heavily on a strong vocal performance. While I don’t doubt Rona’s ability it is not a safe bet. The song needs to be shortened. This may seem like quite a job but in my view it can be done. The song is currently about 4:10 long. The part before the higher (shouty) part is about 90 seconds long. 50 seconds could easily be knocked off this. 30 seconds could be taken off of the second verse.

One of the biggest threats to the song will be staging, particularly how to present Rona. In Fik she presented both with the peasant look (blue/grey dress) and the richer look (weird black leather jacket with dark dress). Neither suits a 25 year old well. Albania has to work out how to present the song and (as Chiara knows) this is essential. Backing singers would ruin a great song. As I have previously said it is difficult to figure out how it will do in ESC. However I believe that juries are prepared to back a vocally strong song to get it through to the final even if they don’t continue to support it in the Final (More on that in a later post). However as with Switzerland we just don’t know the trends at this stage. If there are a lot of ballads from the Balkan region (remember who Serbia is sending), then this song could struggle. We also don’t know the quality of songs this year. This could still give us an Olsen Brothers moment.

I recommend a dress like what she wore at the national final on the night except use a more normal looking leather jacket. Leave just Rona on stage with a piano and violin player (sitting and distant from Rona) combined with grey/blue lighting. The other problem is in the National Final she did not open her eyes very much during the performance, when she did, she looked at the floor. This leads to a lack of an emotional connection with the audience and voters and needs fixing.

Personally I have supported the song through the National Final and intend to support it at Eurovision. I get different feelings and emotions from music and this song gives me feelings that I normally don’t get from just a normal Eurovision song; even if I really like it. Having said that I don’t know what it will look like on stage in Baku or even with Albania you just don’t know how it will sound.

Verdict: A strong song which could take Albania out of the Semi Finals but not into the Top 10 with the support of Juries. I know it is not everyone's cup of tea but I think it is possible to believe that this could come first with the juries in the semi-final. I really like this song and think it has a lot of depth. However we still have not heard the final version.

Grade: B+

Important Day Today (At long last)

As i'm sure your all aware Albania selects their song tonight. As far as I know there will be no live commentary from The Best Eurovision Blog. Therefore we recommend the article on escXtra or follow @ESCInsight on twitter. But keep an eye on our twitter page just in case my guests leave early or I get a chance to run upstaris.
A full list of artists for tonight is available here. ESCToday also have a poll running and as the largest independent website I find their polls the best available online. Enjoy tonight.

In other news the rumour mill appears to suggest that we are going to find out who the Turkish representative is going to be today. There is serious talk on Twitter but nothing is confirmed yet. We will try to keep you updated.

The Albanian Briefing

So as previously posted, Albania is currently selecting it's Eurovision entry for 2012. While I am keeping a close eye on the contest, it is not as close as I would normally keep. However one song has really stood out and it is a song I hope to see in ESC 2012.

Rona Nishliu - Suus

I really don't know why I like this song so much but lets just say it evokes something deep inside of me that I don't normally feel with Eurovision Music, it is emotions that I normally get from the really good Opera or similar. I ask any Albanians reading this Blog to support it, sadly though the juries will have to make up their minds themselves.

Due to the celebration of Christmas we sadly will not be able to have the time to watch Albania's selection. Over the next week I will continue to keep a close eye on what is happening out there but unfortunately there will be no coverage of the festival. (Unless some of my guests can't turn up).

We hope you are enjoying Christmas/Holidays and assure you we will be back in the new year. (A more detailed review of the season so far and our plans for the year going forward will be published soon.

We also hope to have a review of ESCInsights book up before the 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.