...to win a destination in the center of my heart

Few of my favorite entries (without thinking about how they'll come off when performed or how well they'll do) in this year's contest are in the first semifinal, but a few are, so let's go through those. It's worth mentioning, though, that the performances tend to only make me think better of songs, though usually not drastically--songs I found forgettable and dull before become more recognizable to me.

Rebeka Dremelj, "Vrag Naz Vzame" (Slovenia)
I've had so many ups and downs with this song--the various reworkings of it, the revealing of the English version (which thankfully isn't the main version)--but I think at the end, I still really do enjoy it, even if I kind of have no idea what to actually expect it to sound like on the night (I'm basing my final opinion off the version on the Eurovision CD). And yes, I do have generally positive feelings towards Rebeka since I love the campy "Pojdi z menoj" and the campy-at-the-beach "To je prava noč," but I'd still like this Mediterranean-flavored uptempo Europop/dance song even on its own. Apparently rehearsals have revealed her performance to be an S&M-themed car crash, which will probably only make me love her more. This isn't an ultimate favorite of mine, but there's something about the way it sparkles that brings a sense of fun (even if it is about a woman declaring her independence) many of the entries in this semifinal lack.

Gisela, "Casanova" (Andorra)
...from one uptempo Europop song which has apparently had bad rehearsals to another. It's tempting for me to play off my enjoyment of this as just a "well, it's got a danceable Euro beat beneath it--of course I was going to like it!" sort of thing, but that wouldn't be giving the song proper credit; there's something about the cheesy happy "Casanova" that I find genuinely charming (and, since I started comparing them, I might as well say that I like it more than "Vrag Naz Vzame" as well).

Laka, "Pokusaj" (Bosnia-Herzegovina)
I'm not sure this technically belongs on the "love" list yet, but it's so close to the border of "like/love" that I had to mention it, especially because with the right performance I can see myself falling for it even more. One of the more unusual songs in this year's contest (even beyond the singer's unique voice), "Pokusaj" is...well, I'm not even really sure how to describe it. Part of me wants to compare it to the music for my much-beloved Spring Awakening, which isn't to say this sounds like typical musical fare--Spring Awakening's score was composed by Duncan Sheik and is more bold lush pop-rock than anything else. That's not a totally apt comparison, but maybe it'll begin to get across the way "Pokusaj" has a pop awareness of melody but also isn't afraid to switch between group chants, a minimal and more playful verse, a rushing piano section, and--well, really, you'll probably have to listen for yourself to get any idea of what it actually sounds like. It won't be for everyone, that's for sure, but I can see myself being madly in love with it by the time the contest ends.

Kalomira, "Secret Combination" (Greece)
The chorus of this Greek pop-and-R&B song has grown on me to an almost ridiculous extent since Greece's national final, and it's often the Eurovision-related music that gets stuck in my head. Unfortunately, it's let down by a verse that's completely forgettable and really serves no purpose but to provide some filler until we can get back to the chorus (which I realize many would say is true of many Eurovision songs). Can we, I don't know, steal Armenia's verse or something (for the record, Armenia [Sirusho with "Qele, Qele"] is a fan favorite that's nowhere near a favorite of mine--it's listenable, don't get me wrong, and better than many other songs in this semfinal, but as of right now it just lacks that spark for me and the chorus doesn't hit as it should; I'm not against it qualifying to the final, but I would be against it winning...a good performance might up my opinion of it a lot, but I think I'd still be disappointed if [speaking in purely hypothetical terms] it placed really really highly in the end)?

A few notes on other songs: I keep going back and forth on Dima Bilan's song ("Believe" for Russia)...it's better than many others in this semfinal, but I just can't make up my mind about how much I actually like it. One moment I think it's fine, pretty good, the next I think I could love it, and then the next I think it's nothing special and am upset about a bunch of things related to it.

As a general rule, time has tended to diminish my ire for songs I really couldn't stand before. Except Belgium. That, though, is a song you won't soon be forgetting, so I'm not expecting it to get lost in the mix. Oh, and Estonia. I still don't like Ireland (and the musical sections of it that before I thought were actually tolerable seem to have been changed on the CD--am I imagining that?), but I'm more complacent about its existence now.m

Maybe worth mentioning as me having positive feelings towards them even if not loving them are Norway (Maria Haukaas Storeng with the '60's-sounding "Hold On Be Strong") and the Netherlands (Hind with "Your Heart Belongs To Me"). I just can't get enthusiastic about either, though; neither leaves me thrilled. I really like Maria generally and I get that "Hold On Be Strong" is classy, but I've been wondering: if it wasn't in English, would I really make it fully through the song? Maybe that's being too harsh; at the least, it sounds like the fairly simple presentation will be professional, which is a good word to describe "Hold On Be Strong" as well. There are parts of Poland's entry that I like, but it doesn't add up to anything for me; I guess the same could be said of Finland's entry to an even lesser extent--some nice guitar riffs and "hoo-hah"s, but the vocal melody on top of all that doesn't work for me.

All in all, my proper favorites are in Semi 2, but I'm still looking forward to tonight--see you all in a bit!

Baby, you're too good to be true

I've been kind of remiss in talking about some of the Eurovision and national final entries that I--well, not necessarily love, but want to say something about. Here, then, is a quick run down of some of my thoughts.

Russia
Let's start with this: I like Dima Bilan's music. I really do. However, the news we've heard recently out of Team Bilan seems too much like a team that thought they had the national selection sewn up trying to draw attention back to themselves. Sergey Lazarev's participation in the national final means that Dima is no longer one huge name amongst other less popular artists, and suddenly Dima's quest for the title of Russian representative seems a lot less sure...which makes me more than a little skeptical about the news story about Dima losing control of his name that we heard a little while ago (and which now appears to be having no ramifications whatsoever). Team Bilan then followed up that announcement with the news that (with the song they'd originally planned to enter not eligible--apparently it had been released by another artist years earlier) the song they were entering was Timbaland-produced, not an entirely surprising fact given that Dima had released the Timbaland-penned "Number One Fan" as a single earlier on (as well as the fact that as one of Russia's post successful popstars Dima and his management can easily buy a big name writer's song if they want to), but nevertheless a fact that would pretty obviously draw attention and press. Meanwhile, a clip of Sergey rehearsing, complete with a little bit of his song playing in the background, hit the Internet, shortly followed by the whole song. Dima's song was today put up on his website (admittedly in subpar audio quality).

All that background, though, may not be the most important thing--the real question is, which song is better? For me, it's easy: I definitely prefer Sergey's "Flyer (Under Fire)." Dima's song is a ballad with a typical Timbaland-type beat underneath it, a type of song I love when it's done well (Nelly Furtado's "Say It Right," Timbaland and OneRepublic's "Apologize"--though perhaps those aren't entirely accurate comparisons, since there's a little more acoustic guitar work going on here), but this just doesn't seem like a particular outstanding example of that type to me. For Timbaland knockoffs, I still much prefer the Czech Republic entry.

Sergey's entry, on the other hand, I loved from the first listen. Schlagerprick observed a little while back that it looks like we're headed for a Eurorave party at Eurovision, and "Flyer (Under Fire)" would fit right in with that environment; it's very danceable and I guess could be called "Europop." It's a song that sounds very much in the vein of Sergey's past work, though I'd say it's one of the best songs he's ever done. It'll lend itself to some group choreography wonderfully, though I'm not sure if has Eurovision winner written all over it (I'm having trouble explaining why--I think maybe just because it's not really really "big" in some way), but it's a great fun entry that I'd love to see do well on the night. I'm pretty sure it would be one of my favorite entries.

Greece
On the free and legal Eurovision mp3s front: I usually ignore all the mail I get from digital music stores I'm registered with, but amazingly you can get the non-Eurovision version of Kostas Martakis's national final entry"Always And Forever" here; you do have to be signed into their service, though, which means you'll have to register. It's been a while since I did, but there's definitely no monthly fee or anything, and I don't think you have to buy anything to create an account, just give them an e-mail address. Actually, let's just skip all that: if you're interested, here's the non-Eurovision version.

Always And Forever

Anyway, I might as well throw in my two cents on the Kostas song while I'm at it. The non-Eurovision version wasn't what I was expecting from the composer and I didn't really expect it to be something that would stand out at Eurovision, but something told me it could end up a personal national finals favorite with me, and I really think it will. The guitarry version isn't discotastic or schlagerrific or anything, but listening to it in high quality now (you can appreciate the backing vocals properly this way) has really made me realize how much I love it...which is a lot.

Kostas performed a remixed Eurovision version of the song (which, with its revving noises and dance influence, sounds more like I was expecting from Kontopolous) at Greece's national finals and took second (out of three), winning the jury vote but substantially losing the public vote.



Obviously it has no impact on the song's quality, but let's be honest, he looks pretty great here (plus, there's just something about a guy doing some group choreography that always gets me going). Let's talk about that dance break in the middle there, though--what was that? Kostas just stands there? Compare that with what we got at a similar point in, say, Charlotte Perrelli's "Hero"--right where the song should take off to whole new levels it feels like it's just gone all random and has taken a step back.

My music taste is really getting beyond predictable now, isn't it? Does it make it any better if I say No Angels's "Disappear" was my favorite song in Germany? Actually...

Germany

Germany just chose No Angels' "Disappear" to represent them this year and, though I'm skeptical as to how well the song will translate to the Eurovision stage, I adore "Disappear." A gorgeous mid-tempo ballad that's full of sweet production touches, it brings out a reaction in me similar to the one I imagine Girls Aloud's "Call The Shots" was supposed to. I'm so pleased for them, and I really hope I'm proven wrong about how well it ends up coming across at Eurovision.



As a song, I also liked the Cinema Bizarre entry, the electro-rock-pop "Forever Or Never" (it was good enough that I was able to put aside their probable origins and styling), but the lead singer proved last night (not embedded above) that he needs major frontman lessons--all he did was stand there! The fact that their performance managed to seem in any way dynamic is a credit pretty much solely to the camera work, which focused mainly on kind of jolting short shots of the band and close-ups of the singer. The chorus didn't translate well at all to the stage last night either.

Andorra

I love this. Yes, more predictable responses from me, but I think this is great if predictable cheesy catchy uptempo "traditional" Europop.

That's probably more than enough Eurovision writing for now--I'm sure tomorrow I'll be writing about Melodifestivalen, but I'll try to do something non-Eurovision related the day after that. Maybe. Or maybe I'll end up weighing in on a few more entries tomorrow in the lead-up to Melodifestivalen.

Hasta que me llores, como todos lo hacen por ti

I meant to write about this earlier, but oh well, now all the Spain news can go in one post.

It's been announced that Spanish singer Gisela will represent Andorra at Eurovision next year with the song "Casanova." Now, it's well established how much I like D'Nash, but if the following song-performancer-performer combination was an option (with good vocals) as opposed to just a presentation of an eligible song, I would've definitely wanted Gisela in Helsinki. Can she just enter this again?



On the topic of D'Nash, though, their new album, Todo va a cambiar, is out. Choosing which song to post was kind of difficult--I think I like "Hasta que me ames" best at the moment, but that leaked earlier and so has been around for a while, and "Esta vez sí" is pretty good as well...so I thought I'd just split the difference as post both for now.

Hasta que me ames--this is such great boy band stuff--how on Earth do they keep ending up with this? I have no idea, but I'm glad they do (by the way, if it's a cover, let me know!). Stick it out past the video game-sounding opening and you'll be rewarded with a really great chorus. I mean, this is just the sort of stuff that makes me think they're such a great group. Why can't the other boy bands out there come up with songs this good? If you liked their last album, you'll probably like this song too.

Esta vez sí--right, so the opening of this song really reminded me so much of something that I couldn't place and for a little while I was convinced it was a cover of something I'd heard, but apparently it was written by someone off of Operación Triunfo and released by him and his brother (going by the group name 2conSoul and with the song called "Tu serás mia"), so I guess it can't be--I don't think I've heard their version of it (though if there's some other cover of it out there that I might have heard, let me know on that as well!). Anyhow, there's some great piano going on at the beginning, in the middle 8, and throughout the song, as well as strings. I guess it's a ballad, but a moving one (in the sense of dynamism, not in terms of emotion) with energy which means, despite that big soaring chorus, it doesn't really feel like a ballad for most of the song. Lovely and catchy. And really really quality. Edit: I just did some looking about and it looks like that OT contestant I was referring to, Fede Monreal, also wrote one of my favorite D'Nash songs, "Lo haré por ti" (in addition to this album's "En medio de la calle")--I've got to do some more looking into him!

You can buy D'Nash's new album Todo va a cambiar here (physical).

Next up: maybe something French.

Elegante y guapa y con sensualidad

Oh, this is too cute in a car crash television sort of way. Out of the five artist-and-song combinations that made it to Spain's superfinal last night, Nash had two of them. I've already posted a link to the winning performance, but this was the other one.



What's going on at the beginning of that first verse, boys? Forget the words? Still, the holding up the pictures part is just too cute and clever in a novelty-esque way--the pictures they're holding up when they say "I'm lookin' for a girl" are of the four girls they were competing against in the final.

How amazing is Mirela, though? Singing "La Reina de la Noche," she took second. I think there are other songs I would have preferred her to be singing, but I hope she enters Mision Eurovision again. She can sing, she's gorgeous...and she's only 16!



However, I think the following may still be my favorite performance out of all that I've seen of Mision Eurovision (if you only watch one thing out of all these videos, make it the first minute of this one.)



How brilliant is that chair idea? The singer, Gisela, was only demonstrating the song, back when people were voting to choose which songs were best; she was never in the running to represent Spain, but I think Spain should swap the dancers for Turkey's dancers from last year and send this song and this routine next year.

(I still have to watch Nazaret's performances.)