Loreen – Euphoria (The Video)
As I've blogged and reblogged this song for a couple of million times, it may be apparent that I really like it. Loreen FINALLY released the video to her Eurovision smash "Euphoria", better late then never she thought. While the imaging is nice, I have to say the video does not add anything to the song. It lacks the power the song transmits on its own, and to be honest, it even de-powers the song. While shooting in the Swedish forest could produce a stunningly strong image, it feels a littlebit static and unfocused. Moreover, releasing a video when the song is steadily declining on all charts, is rather useless, it was better to spent time and money on a folow-up or to have it ready before the victory, which has been over a month ago now.
Alway the bridesmaid… Александр Рыбак – Стрела Амура
Poor Alexander Rybak, winner of Eurovision 2009, he's always the clown. Other people are happy and he's alone. Not sure what the sudden nudity offensive is for (you'll see him undress and showering) And if he's always lonely, what are the condoms on his sink at 0:23 for? Well, it's all kinda sad really...
Eurovision 2012 – Review
Ok, so now my overdue review of this years Eurovision Song Contest, the ultimate cheasefest, well not this year. While last year left me empty handed (face it, there wasn't even ONE song i found worth winning), this year was full of goodies. For the first time since Ruslana won in 2004, the song of my choice won! And don't forget the lovely songs of Cyprus (not the best performance), Romania and Norway, a completely undeserved last spot! Also the elderly were represented: Russia had their crazy bread baking grannies who undeservedly came second, and the UK Engelbert Humperdinck, who seemed having trouble to keep up with the pace, and losing key in the process. Another noted entry: Albania, was a pleasure to some, and an ear sore to others. Some high notes were quite disturbing if you'd ask me. So here they are. The highs: my top 4
Ivi Adamou – La La Love
THANK GOD! Ivi Adamou, who's representing Cyprus at the ESC 2012 has released a REAL video. Not that tacky promo I posted already 2 times. This song is worth reblogging, and let's hope it gets the 12 points at least from ally Greece the 24th of may. Even though Sweden replaced Cyprus as my favorite, it's still a great song. Now with a nice video!
Valentina Monetta “Facebook uh oh oh”
I can see what San Marino tried to do for their Eurovison entry of 2012: Take a familiar name and repeat it x times. Too bad they're not sending this song to the Junior version of the contest, because Valentina is way to old to get away with a song as infantile as this one...
Anggun – Echo (you and I)
As much as I like the concept of an army full of naked, gay soldiers, this song aint cuttin' it! What's with the sudden change in rhythm? It's just hysterical if you ask me. Anggun is a good singer, but this is definitly not her best song. I predict they could've spent their money better lowering the national deficit than trying to win Eurovision. Besides, like it or not, there's never been a non-Caucasian win in the contest before (except for Estonia), and as racist as it might be, it's the harsh reality of European voting...
Eurovision 2012 second update
After almost all countries selected and presented their contestants, MIXKULA will serve you the most palatable ones right here! I have to say that the quality level of this year is much more reasonable than last year. That being said, so far I've only found 2 songs good enough for my iPod: Cyprus with "La La Love" and Sweden with "Euphoria" by Loreen.
Then there are the lesser, still ok songs from Romania and Bulgaria. With my comments on the Bulgarian entree by Sofi Marinova, "Love unlimited" being the following: The persona of Sofi nore her voice seem to fit the musical base of the song. She seems to be a good singer, but it doesn't seem right. For the rest a nice Play & Win type of song. Mandinga of Romania seems to catch the balkan spirit and WILL end highly on the scoreboard. But as far as predicting a winner, it's always wishfull thinking.
Greece serves us a song by Eleftheria Eleftheriou called "Aphrodisiac". Though the beat could seem original (Or Uzbek for that matter) Eleftheria seems kind of a slutty bimbo, and I doubt her singing capabilities. The lyrics are just too simplistic and the verses are devided into syl-la-bles... It will probably end high, but let's face it: Greece is in no way able to host the contest next year, so don't be dreaming of going to Athens next year.
Love the kitten…
It's not like I particulalry like this song by Moldovan DARA, but the kitten is just SOOOOOOO cute! It looks just like my Turkish Van kitten. I just had to share it, for the kitten's sake. Tomorrow we'll see if Dara will be singing this song on the Eurovision songcontest as 11 march the national selection of Moldova will take place.
Is this a joke?
Turkey's entries to the ESC are usually pretty damn solid. Not this year. Is this a joke, I wonder. Are the Turks tired of landing the top positions at the Eurovision Song Contest? If it weren't for the diaspora, I wouldn't even give this song a chance to qualify for for the finals...
Eurovision: More of this please!
Cyprus had a good idea: Bring a contemporary pop song to Eurovision. Ivi Adamou with La La Love brings us the RedOne sound that's burning down the clubs around the world. Needless to say this video sucks big time, but the song is two thumbs up from me!
Eurovision 2012, first update.
I kind of let off writing about Eurovision for 2012, because it would seem to eager to start in 2011, and I didn't want to dissapoint myself too early. I wasn't wrong to do so. Albania's pick Rona Nishliu, who is yet to discover the hairbrush sings "Suus" for us. Not too bad, but really that hair screams for a brush! I CANT STAND LOOKING AT IT! Macedonia is not a particular standout, decent song. Sinplus from Switzerland sounds just like... U2 and bunch of other Rock songs. Nice if it's your cup of tea. To top off the bad news: It's not Atiye who will be representing Turkey but Can Bonomo will, so another cup of sour Turkish coffee this year (and a guaranteed non-win)...
Eurovision 2011 review…
Even if it was the most underwhelming Eurovision song contest of the last couple of years in terms of show and quality, the scoring was rather enticing. Some very suprising results came out of the votes and some favourites were smashed!
Personally i wasn't surprised Blue didn't go far, the vocal capabilities of the boyband are hardly impressing. Another favorite of the bookies, France, didn't fare well either, the background was very nice, but the song was not set in the right picture. Also Germany's snoozefest didn't score well, and again I wasn't surprised.
However, even if she didn't sing very nicely, Norway's 'haba haba' made a shocking failure to place in the finals, and Hungary's power-song ended up far to low for my taste, even if it was kind of a Eurovision cliché and her dress was kinda ugly... Estonia's "Rockefellar Street" a welcome break from the Euro-drama we've heard in all the other songs, placed second to last, a true pitty, for my taste.
From all the top 10 placing songs, i do admit Azerbaijan was the best show and song, since the rest was really bad. I really suspect some maffia activity behind the placing of Italy as runner-up, since it was a pure ear-torture. Raphael was clearly without voice, and resembled from time to time a cat in heat. Sweden's Eric Saade, with his overall nasal vocality, was my pick if i had to choose from the top 3, just because he looks good and the song was kind of catchy, were it in an irritating way tough. Ukraine's Mika Newton also failed to impress me, and her dress looked like she just plucked a chicken before going on stage! Denmark was pretty good, but it's not really my genre of music.
However, it is interesting to see what Azerbaijan will do with Eurovision 2012 so I'm exited nevertheless.
Top:
Trash:
Tamed dances
Our beloved Ruslana is back with a tamer image. She's thrown "Hey" and "Wild'" out the window and converted to a more mainstream pop image. For sure she looks really good in this video, and she sure does her dance routines well. But I'm not completely convinced about the song. I'm sure it will work in Ukraine, but it's sounds a little dusty to me. I do enjoy her spectacular voice though, WOW!
How low is low budget?
There are times that I wonder if it was better not to make a video at all. At some points this video is quite allright. But just for fractions of seconds. They chose a horrible location to shoot the video, and kept the original lighting. The point where she looks totally deranged is when she starts vacuuming the set. Darling, housewives are not hot!
Favorite flops
The Eurovision predictions this week were full of turmoil. We saw France hit the top of the polls and predictions and even the bookies made high stakes, too bad the bubble inflated, now Sweden hits the top again. Lets see what happens in 2 months from now. Blue should REALLY retire, it's not funny anymore! Neither sexy. Amaury Vasillu shouldn't stop singing, he's pretty good at it, I'd just enjoy him more as a model.
Istanbul in 3:42
Sertab Erener looks very good in her new video "İstanbul" This video is amazing because it really captures the essence of Istanbul in 3:42 In fact, I like the video even more than the song!
Serebro drank their coffee!
Thank god Serebro returned with a less apathic song this time. After their first single "Song No. 1", that came third in the Eurovision Song Contest 2007, they seemed to enter a state of sleepyness in their songs. Now they've broken the chain and awakened. Thank god!
The winner according to Youtube
This year the Eurovision shows a low in songs that interest me, however I'd like to give a prediction of the winner using viewing totals from youtube, let's see how the overall favorites are doing. My favorites of these are Hungary, Estonia and Norway. I think the vocal capabilities of Sweden and Norway are dubious, Stella's "Haba Haba" is like the new "Waka Waka" and Eric Saade's "Popular" is an obnoxious ABBAeque-song that however enters your head and seems indelible. Poland's "Jestem" is the usual Polish pop-rock song. Lena's tries to go back to the 60's and should've participated in the Avengers. Dino will do good with the elderly, he kind of remind me of Roger Witthaker. My prediction: anyone of the top 3 youtube hits I think, with special attention to B&H because they always get a lot of political votes.
Norway, Stella Mwangi ± 1 300 000
Bosnia Herzegovina, Dino Merlin ± 1 200 000
Sweden, Eric Saade ± 1 100 000
Poland, Magdalena Tul ± 1 000 000
Germany, Lena ± 950 000
Hungary, Kati Wolf ± 800 000 +
Estonia, Getter Jaani ± 500 000