Now the ice is melting

Only six months early, it's Eurovision round-up time!

You know what would be the best news ever? Well, not quite ever, but close: Israel choosing Harel Skaat. And there's a decent chance of it happening, too. It's something I've been wanting to happen for a while now and I promise his voice/music is at least part of that desire. If you're looking for his best songs, the standard recommendation is the ballad "Ve'at," but as a girl more fond of something with a bit more BPM to it, my absolute favorite is "Haruah Teshane At Kivana" (you can't imagine how beyond thrilled I'd be if he sang a song like that and that good for the contest, even as much as I'm expecting a ballad given the general love from everyone besides me for "Ve'at" out there) with "Kamah Od Efshar" running a very respectable second; see below for "Haruah Teshane At Kivana." Like Shiri Maimon, he took second in Israel's Idols-knockoff. He's turned down the chance several times in the past, but it sounds like he's looking favorably on it now.



I'd also like to throw in I think he looks better in videos (not this particular one) than in photos. PRETTY.

(In my defense, this post was written up before the Schlagerboys' one.)

Turkey has chosen Belgian R&B-pop singer Hadise to represent them this year. If you want to get a feel for what she's like, watch her awards show performance of "Bad Boy" (well, sort of of "Bad Boy"), a single from a few years ago.



Granted, that (great) performance is mainly just flames, flashing lights, and strutting, but those aren't forbidden on the Eurovision stage, so let's hope Hadise brings it with her choice of song. For more Hadise, check out one of her more recent singles, this year's "I'm A Slave 4 U"-esque "My Body."

News possibly better than that of Harel Skaat going to Eurovision? The fact that Greece has already announced that its song this year will be written by Dimitris Kontopoulos, whose brilliance I was first made aware of when WTBX introduced me to Elli Kokkinou's still awesome revvy dance-pop masterpiece "Ise oti thelo."



Greece has also chosen their artist, who'll be performing multiple Dimitris songs before one is chosen. The set artist is one who's worked with Dimitris before: Sakis Rouvas. Yes, of "Shake It" fame--he took that song to a third place finish at Eurovision in 2004--of a whole lot of fame in Greece (as well as a couple of write-ups here on this blog), and of some songs much better than the enjoyable but not too long-lasting "Shake It." His latest single, "Kai Se Thelo," is, in fact, written by Dimitris Kontopoulos (another thanks to WTBX for introducing me to this song) and is one of those better songs.



Can you see why I love this songwriter? Hard-hitting revvy danceable pop music...sigh. Please don't let us down, Dimitris! Give Sakis an awesome song like this one and let him go out-Ricky-Martin Ricky Martin across the stage and we're good to go.

Dimitris has made some non-dance great songs, too, though. My favorite song out of Greece's national final this year was Kostas Martakis's "Always And Forever," originally a pop-with-guitars song of the sort that I'm a sucker for--that uptempo-but-gentle, uplifting, pop-with-guitars sound. He did dance it up for the show, though--much more of a typical Kontopoulos sound. Way underrated, this song is.



I also love "Stous 31 Dromous," another song Dimitris gave to Sakis. It's still got those dance/electro elements in it, but this time, they're dreamy, not disco. Lovely.



Moving back to the revvy dance-pop, Dimitris also wrote Anna Vissi's "Welcome To The Party" from Greece's 2006 national final.



There was also speculation that Dimitris wrote Ani Lorak's "Shady Lady," but I don't believe that was ever confirmed; I do think, though, that we know he did some production work on it. In other words, let's all get very excited about Greece's song now. I may be setting myself up for disappointment, but so be it--he's delivered in the past, he can deliver again.

Haruah teshane at kivana

Do you ever see someone and then think "gosh, I hope he/she has good music"? That's how I was with Harel Skaat, an Israeli singer off an Idol-like show; he took second in its second season. From snippets I'd heard of his music, I was initially worried, as it seemed to all be ballads that just dragged...but you know what? After actually having heard the album and the songs all the way through, it's not bad! I'm enjoying it a lot--it's very pretty in a melodic, flowing sort of way. Hebrew is a very easy language to listen to, too. I am convinced that he should represent Israel at Eurovision at some point in the future. There's definitely been talk about it in the past, and the second place contestant from the first season of the show, Shiri Maimon, did go on to be in Eurovision, so maybe it'll happen.

The Wind Is Changing Its Direction--or maybe "The Spirit Will Change Her." Or, transliterated, "Haruah Teshane At Kivana" or "Haruah Teshane Et Kivuna" or something along those lines--I really don't know; "הרוח תשנה את כיוונה" in Hebrew (I think). Seeing the English title, I was initially sort of hoping this would be a cover of Fame's song "Vindarna Vänder Oss," though I knew that was unlikely, since the English translation of that isn't all that different. It isn't, but the song is still very good, though in a decidedly different manner from the Fame song. This is one of the more uptempo songs on the album, but the vocal melody is more sweeping, bigger, with more of that sense of flow I mentioned. Though I love the Fame song, I wouldn't call it lovely, but that is an adjective that I'd apply to this song. The first thirty seconds are deceptive, as they don't indicate the real beat of the song--you'll start to get a feel for that around thirty seconds in, when more instruments join in, and a little after one minute in, where what you'd probably consider the real beat enters. It's the chorus that really draws you in, though, and the further and further you go into the song, the more that chorus is played with and the better it gets. The last forty seconds remind me of my favorite parts of Grégory Lemarchal songs--I think it's that certain type of guitar riff or effect that just sounds, for lack of a better word, bright. "The Wind Is Changing Its Direction" could quite easily be made into a Eurovision-friendly song--make that beat a little stronger, speed the song up a little more--but even if Eurovision songs usually feel too put on, too classless to you, take a listen to this; it's upbeat in a wonderfully pretty, almost inspirational sort of way.

This review doesn't think the song should've been included on the album, as it "undercuts the unique aspects of Skaat's talent," but I couldn't disagree more. Just because you can sing ballads doesn't mean that's all you should sing, and really, this song isn't that far away from the rest of the album; I'd argue it's an interesting mix of that sweeping vocal melody with the upbeat backing music that gives the album a much needed burst of energy just when it needs it.

In "oh, that's helpful" fashion, I don't really know where you can buy Harel Skaat's self-titled debut album; there are several places that are selling it, but I've never used them before and can't vouch for them. I think this store is reputable, though. It's worth noting that I think he's probably best known for his ballads--"Ve'at" is the song most people know him for--but he can do mid-tempo and up-tempo songs just as well, too.

Next up: something quick, probably, but maybe something from Russia the day after that.