Eurovision Season 2020: February Update II
And suddenly, we had 14 of the 41 songs set to do battle in Rotterdam come May! It's feeling tense and exciting and thrilling and above all so very, very, very European! Yes, some of our favourites have fallen and yes, we have had surprises (and a missing televote) in national final season but it's all part of the game, isn't it? There's been a lot that's happened so let's all just take a moment to recap starting with our new class members!
Armenia
So to start by giving credit where credit is due, this at the very least feels different in terms of the sound and the genre and the beat. Armenia has a history of doing this even if that hasn't been apparent over the last few years. The problem is that any time you have a song that attempts to put itself out there in a way that is very different you run a risk of if people will get it or not. I don't get this and I'm not sure that much of the voting public at Eurovision will get it either. However, it's got a good spot in the second half of the second Semi and I can see this sneaking through in the same way that the dross that was last year's Belorussian entry also made the grand final. They might want to do something with the staging though as I don't remember the whole throne thing doing wonders for Ester Peony last year!
Belgium
Have we found the natural successor to Sennek (and believe me when I say that I really don't mean that in a good way). This is a classic example of a song where you wait the entire three minutes for it to get going and it never really does. I've never been a massive fan of the Belgian entries at the contest but I could at least appreciate that they were trying to create an identity that went somewhere. It seems that they have lost that identity now and in a first semi where everybody will be vying ferociously for voters' "attention" (more on that later), I can really see this getting lost.
France
Well, I've got egg on my face after my last post and the subsequent criticism that 'The Best in Me' has received and yet, I still like this! Now, I will offer the disclaimer that I also enjoyed 'Bigger Than Us' and that whilst enjoying this, I also acknowledge that it is not a competitive entry and will most definitively not win Eurovision. As I told my partner, I'm not entirely sure how the group of talented people who wrote this song got in a room and wrote this nor am I sure why the French broadcaster insisted on picking a singer to sing this song as opposed to picking a singer first and working with them to find an entry that was a good fit. Giving Tom a bloody guitar would be a good start which is why I hope the broadcaster bows to criticism and goes for the acoustic version which at least gives the song a little bit of identity to play with on the Rotterdam stage! Poor Tom, you're going to get slaughtered from all sides for this one and you are firmly leading the race to the bottom!
Lithuania
So I know we're still early in the process of Eurovision entries being released but some bookmakers at the time of writing have this song at less than 4-1 to win the whole thing. Does anybody seriously think this song has winner credentials? Catchy song? Yes. Fun performance? Yes. Will it get out of a competitive first semi? Probably yes. That's all I'm giving it, I'm not convinced this will place in the top 10 and I don't think it will better Ieva Zasimauskaite's 12th place finish in 2018. I'm sure time will now prove me wrong but I really don't see what in this act screams "Eurovision champion" in any way, shape or form.
Norway
I watched this national final and unfortunately, everything about this year was a series of great ideas that successfully captured the attentions and excitement of the Norwegian public and Eurovision fans around the world that will be completely forgotten in the aftermath of this televoting malarkey. It's a shame because I think that when we look back on this year's National Finals season, there's a very strong case to be made that MGP was a better and more entertaining selection show than this year's Melodifestivalen. We even had a voting sequence that went down to the wire and certainly surprised me. As for the song itself, I have said on several Facebook groups that it is probably the closest we have so far to a song that has winner credentials but I still don't think it will win (largely because to me, the entire thing sounds like a rehash of Sanna Nielsen's 'Undo').
Poland
Ha! So you all thought Lake Malawi was going to walk this one? Well we were all wrong and to be honest, I'm delighted. I got a distinctive sense from Albert that he thought he was going to walk the competition so when the win went to Alicja Szemplinska, I was automatically delighted. I like 'Empires' in its vein of songs that sound like they could be a Bond film song. Will I be listening to it for years to come? Probably not, but at least this teaches the Belgians how it's possible to make a song in this genre and for it to actually go somewhere. Also worth thinking about - aside from the fact that Poland are in the second Semi (the "weaker" semi where the United Kingdom will be voting), they can rely on a healthy televote from their diaspora and if North Macedonia can win last year's jury vote, this can definitely get a reasonably good jury score if it's staged well.
Slovenia
Whilst I appreciate Slovenia's general shift towards more songs in Slovenian, I find 'Voda' to be fairly dull. Ana Soklic has an undeniably good voice and having not watched the show, this could have been the best of the bunch but I am just not convinced by its ability as a competitive song, particularly as it will have to get out of the top half of the first semi.
Ukraine
I've done a lot of writing about what I define as "competitive songs"... 'Solovey' is most definitely a competitive song. It's in the native language; it has a killer beat; it has vocals from somebody who walks the line perfectly between traditional and accessible and it is incredibly catchy. I stand by my statement about Norway being our closest thing to a winning song, but of the songs we have heard so far, I think Ukraine will ultimately end up doing the best and I think a top 5 finish is incredibly realistic for them. So distinct is the Ukrainian identity at Eurovision that it took me a while to realise that this song will be the first entry in Ukrainian to grace the finals stage since GreenJolly represented them on home soil in Kiev.
I know... deep breath, that was a lot of recent selections. Hang on in there though because we still have a bunch of national finals to come!
Belarus
Hate to be harsh here but whatever wins will crash out in the first semi anyway.
Croatia
I think Croatia are missing a trick by not making any of the songs available for the final. Dora is probably quite a good national final but I have always found it quite difficult to get excited about as there has never been anything that has given me a proper buzz to watch it. HRT need to sort that out! I would like Croatia to have a proper go at the contest but I can't really comment as I don't know how close or far they are from that.
Estonia
The more I follow this year's Eesti Laul, the more grateful I am that I ended up going to the final last year rather than this year. Jaagup Tuisk is set to win this one with 'Beautiful Lie' which just sounds like a slightly cheap, Estonian version of 'Arcade'. Maybe that makes it competitive? I personally don't see it. The staging is nothing special, though I am happy to see that the pattern of random women turning up in hotly-tipped Eesti Laul performances is still very much alive and kicking! On the bright side, their spot at the top end of the second semi means they will probably have a fighting chance whatever they send.
Iceland
I assumed when I got around to writing this entry that it would mean getting the chance to share my thoughts on 'Oculis Videre'. Instead, it's looking like 'Think about Things' will get the ticket and I can't entirely understand why. I didn't like 'Oculis Videre' but at the very least I understood why other people liked it. With this one, I get the funky beat and the George Ezra-esque low voice, but for me they don't meld nicely together in the way that they clearly do for a number of fans. This will probably go through but I'm not expecting it to do anything in particular on the Grand Final Saturday. As for Songvakeppnin itself, I will be spending it in the corner quietly waving my Isold & Helga flag knowing that they won't beat either of the two aforementioned songs but that at least it's a sweet little duet.
Moldova
Not going to lie, I didn't even know that we had access to all of the Moldovan songs before I started writing this blog post so I had to spend a good block of time going through all 20 finalists! My report back is that it will probably go to either 'My Wine', the Dream Team-written 'Prison' or the fan favourite 'Die For You' but for my money, I would like to see it go to 'Moldovita'. Whoever does get through will be the recipient of the Moldovan staging makeover that we have come so accustomed to in the last few years and which almost pulled off the remarkable feet of sending Anna Odobescu through last year's action-packed Second Semi! Whilst it's tricky to call who this year's Moldovan entry will be, I have gotten into the habit of looking out for the Moldovan entry and that's always an exciting prospect.
Romania
Now don't get me wrong, I like Roxen. I think that the five entries on offer have their own distinctive feel. I think that she is a very talented performer with a good voice. I like the style of the way that the lyric videos have been shot. That's it. I don't think she's going to win and I think the part where she is currently second in the betting odds to win the whole contest is utterly ludicrous. 'Cherry Red' looks like the favourite to win the ticket and it's a decent song but it's not wow. With some good staging, maybe it reaches the top 10 but definitely not top 5 and absolutely not winner. It will be curious to see how everything unfolds on Sunday and I am looking forward to seeing Roxen at the contest but I do think both the bookies and the Eurovision fandom need to take a deep breath for a moment.
Serbia
By contrast, I had managed to pick my way through the Serbian entries when they were all released and there really is nothing in here to set the pulses racing. It's a shame because Serbia are supposed to have a decent record at this contest but I just don't see what's in that race that is going to be a competitive entry. Somebody please show me the one I've missed!
Israel
This is a big year for artists who look really exciting who are going to have their songs internally selected. Destiny looks good, Jeangu Macrooy looks good, Victoria looks good, Vincent Bueno looks good and Eden Alene is another addition to that exciting list. I haven't heard any of the four competing songs so I can't say much about how this Israeli package will translate to the Eurovision stage but all I will say is that at the time of writing, I am very excited about what she will bring to the contest. I think this will be a huge year for diversity at Eurovision and that it's not unrealistic to imagine that even if it's not Alene, we could have a BAME winner at the contest for the first time since 2001.
And finally, some words on two under-performing big 5 nations who will reveal their internal selection choice on Thursday!
Germany
When are the Germans going to actually send a song in German. I know it's a silly and potentially needless point but when you have a music industry that is filled with top-quality German language artists and your strategy of sending songs in English hasn't really been working, maybe it's time to shake it up? NDR claim that they have fixed the problem by getting more Eurovision fans on to their panel but I think the issue of Germany at Eurovision is way more systemic than that. The fact is that I haven't been truly excited by a German Eurovision entry since Cascada and even that was fairly relative given they had sent Lena's 'Satellite' only three years earlier! Sort it out Germany, there is no reason that you can't be consistently placing on the left side of the scoreboard every year!
United Kingdom
And speaking of no reasons for poor performances, the annual let down of the BBC process of picking out the nation's Eurovision entry is set to take place on Thursday and it's live on Radio 1 and 2! With France having taken a head-start on the race for 26th, the Brits don't have anything to lose to a certain extent but that hasn't stopped the BBC from picking the same formula in the past. I would love nothing more than to be proven wrong on Saturday and to have a package that the UK can get behind and get exciting about but I have been burnt too many times to start counting any chickens before they are very clearly hatched.
That's your lot for this week, I will be coming atcha with a March update next week as we take a special look at all of the recent picks, consider if a certain stylistically French song might win the Portuguese ticket and our previews of the Scandanavian finals complete with some farmhands in Sweden, an orchestra in Norway and a porn star in Finland! It's all happening!
Armenia
So to start by giving credit where credit is due, this at the very least feels different in terms of the sound and the genre and the beat. Armenia has a history of doing this even if that hasn't been apparent over the last few years. The problem is that any time you have a song that attempts to put itself out there in a way that is very different you run a risk of if people will get it or not. I don't get this and I'm not sure that much of the voting public at Eurovision will get it either. However, it's got a good spot in the second half of the second Semi and I can see this sneaking through in the same way that the dross that was last year's Belorussian entry also made the grand final. They might want to do something with the staging though as I don't remember the whole throne thing doing wonders for Ester Peony last year!
Belgium
Have we found the natural successor to Sennek (and believe me when I say that I really don't mean that in a good way). This is a classic example of a song where you wait the entire three minutes for it to get going and it never really does. I've never been a massive fan of the Belgian entries at the contest but I could at least appreciate that they were trying to create an identity that went somewhere. It seems that they have lost that identity now and in a first semi where everybody will be vying ferociously for voters' "attention" (more on that later), I can really see this getting lost.
France
Well, I've got egg on my face after my last post and the subsequent criticism that 'The Best in Me' has received and yet, I still like this! Now, I will offer the disclaimer that I also enjoyed 'Bigger Than Us' and that whilst enjoying this, I also acknowledge that it is not a competitive entry and will most definitively not win Eurovision. As I told my partner, I'm not entirely sure how the group of talented people who wrote this song got in a room and wrote this nor am I sure why the French broadcaster insisted on picking a singer to sing this song as opposed to picking a singer first and working with them to find an entry that was a good fit. Giving Tom a bloody guitar would be a good start which is why I hope the broadcaster bows to criticism and goes for the acoustic version which at least gives the song a little bit of identity to play with on the Rotterdam stage! Poor Tom, you're going to get slaughtered from all sides for this one and you are firmly leading the race to the bottom!
Lithuania
So I know we're still early in the process of Eurovision entries being released but some bookmakers at the time of writing have this song at less than 4-1 to win the whole thing. Does anybody seriously think this song has winner credentials? Catchy song? Yes. Fun performance? Yes. Will it get out of a competitive first semi? Probably yes. That's all I'm giving it, I'm not convinced this will place in the top 10 and I don't think it will better Ieva Zasimauskaite's 12th place finish in 2018. I'm sure time will now prove me wrong but I really don't see what in this act screams "Eurovision champion" in any way, shape or form.
Norway
I watched this national final and unfortunately, everything about this year was a series of great ideas that successfully captured the attentions and excitement of the Norwegian public and Eurovision fans around the world that will be completely forgotten in the aftermath of this televoting malarkey. It's a shame because I think that when we look back on this year's National Finals season, there's a very strong case to be made that MGP was a better and more entertaining selection show than this year's Melodifestivalen. We even had a voting sequence that went down to the wire and certainly surprised me. As for the song itself, I have said on several Facebook groups that it is probably the closest we have so far to a song that has winner credentials but I still don't think it will win (largely because to me, the entire thing sounds like a rehash of Sanna Nielsen's 'Undo').
Poland
Ha! So you all thought Lake Malawi was going to walk this one? Well we were all wrong and to be honest, I'm delighted. I got a distinctive sense from Albert that he thought he was going to walk the competition so when the win went to Alicja Szemplinska, I was automatically delighted. I like 'Empires' in its vein of songs that sound like they could be a Bond film song. Will I be listening to it for years to come? Probably not, but at least this teaches the Belgians how it's possible to make a song in this genre and for it to actually go somewhere. Also worth thinking about - aside from the fact that Poland are in the second Semi (the "weaker" semi where the United Kingdom will be voting), they can rely on a healthy televote from their diaspora and if North Macedonia can win last year's jury vote, this can definitely get a reasonably good jury score if it's staged well.
Slovenia
Whilst I appreciate Slovenia's general shift towards more songs in Slovenian, I find 'Voda' to be fairly dull. Ana Soklic has an undeniably good voice and having not watched the show, this could have been the best of the bunch but I am just not convinced by its ability as a competitive song, particularly as it will have to get out of the top half of the first semi.
Ukraine
I've done a lot of writing about what I define as "competitive songs"... 'Solovey' is most definitely a competitive song. It's in the native language; it has a killer beat; it has vocals from somebody who walks the line perfectly between traditional and accessible and it is incredibly catchy. I stand by my statement about Norway being our closest thing to a winning song, but of the songs we have heard so far, I think Ukraine will ultimately end up doing the best and I think a top 5 finish is incredibly realistic for them. So distinct is the Ukrainian identity at Eurovision that it took me a while to realise that this song will be the first entry in Ukrainian to grace the finals stage since GreenJolly represented them on home soil in Kiev.
I know... deep breath, that was a lot of recent selections. Hang on in there though because we still have a bunch of national finals to come!
Belarus
Hate to be harsh here but whatever wins will crash out in the first semi anyway.
Croatia
I think Croatia are missing a trick by not making any of the songs available for the final. Dora is probably quite a good national final but I have always found it quite difficult to get excited about as there has never been anything that has given me a proper buzz to watch it. HRT need to sort that out! I would like Croatia to have a proper go at the contest but I can't really comment as I don't know how close or far they are from that.
Estonia
The more I follow this year's Eesti Laul, the more grateful I am that I ended up going to the final last year rather than this year. Jaagup Tuisk is set to win this one with 'Beautiful Lie' which just sounds like a slightly cheap, Estonian version of 'Arcade'. Maybe that makes it competitive? I personally don't see it. The staging is nothing special, though I am happy to see that the pattern of random women turning up in hotly-tipped Eesti Laul performances is still very much alive and kicking! On the bright side, their spot at the top end of the second semi means they will probably have a fighting chance whatever they send.
Iceland
I assumed when I got around to writing this entry that it would mean getting the chance to share my thoughts on 'Oculis Videre'. Instead, it's looking like 'Think about Things' will get the ticket and I can't entirely understand why. I didn't like 'Oculis Videre' but at the very least I understood why other people liked it. With this one, I get the funky beat and the George Ezra-esque low voice, but for me they don't meld nicely together in the way that they clearly do for a number of fans. This will probably go through but I'm not expecting it to do anything in particular on the Grand Final Saturday. As for Songvakeppnin itself, I will be spending it in the corner quietly waving my Isold & Helga flag knowing that they won't beat either of the two aforementioned songs but that at least it's a sweet little duet.
Moldova
Not going to lie, I didn't even know that we had access to all of the Moldovan songs before I started writing this blog post so I had to spend a good block of time going through all 20 finalists! My report back is that it will probably go to either 'My Wine', the Dream Team-written 'Prison' or the fan favourite 'Die For You' but for my money, I would like to see it go to 'Moldovita'. Whoever does get through will be the recipient of the Moldovan staging makeover that we have come so accustomed to in the last few years and which almost pulled off the remarkable feet of sending Anna Odobescu through last year's action-packed Second Semi! Whilst it's tricky to call who this year's Moldovan entry will be, I have gotten into the habit of looking out for the Moldovan entry and that's always an exciting prospect.
Romania
Now don't get me wrong, I like Roxen. I think that the five entries on offer have their own distinctive feel. I think that she is a very talented performer with a good voice. I like the style of the way that the lyric videos have been shot. That's it. I don't think she's going to win and I think the part where she is currently second in the betting odds to win the whole contest is utterly ludicrous. 'Cherry Red' looks like the favourite to win the ticket and it's a decent song but it's not wow. With some good staging, maybe it reaches the top 10 but definitely not top 5 and absolutely not winner. It will be curious to see how everything unfolds on Sunday and I am looking forward to seeing Roxen at the contest but I do think both the bookies and the Eurovision fandom need to take a deep breath for a moment.
Serbia
By contrast, I had managed to pick my way through the Serbian entries when they were all released and there really is nothing in here to set the pulses racing. It's a shame because Serbia are supposed to have a decent record at this contest but I just don't see what's in that race that is going to be a competitive entry. Somebody please show me the one I've missed!
Israel
This is a big year for artists who look really exciting who are going to have their songs internally selected. Destiny looks good, Jeangu Macrooy looks good, Victoria looks good, Vincent Bueno looks good and Eden Alene is another addition to that exciting list. I haven't heard any of the four competing songs so I can't say much about how this Israeli package will translate to the Eurovision stage but all I will say is that at the time of writing, I am very excited about what she will bring to the contest. I think this will be a huge year for diversity at Eurovision and that it's not unrealistic to imagine that even if it's not Alene, we could have a BAME winner at the contest for the first time since 2001.
And finally, some words on two under-performing big 5 nations who will reveal their internal selection choice on Thursday!
Germany
When are the Germans going to actually send a song in German. I know it's a silly and potentially needless point but when you have a music industry that is filled with top-quality German language artists and your strategy of sending songs in English hasn't really been working, maybe it's time to shake it up? NDR claim that they have fixed the problem by getting more Eurovision fans on to their panel but I think the issue of Germany at Eurovision is way more systemic than that. The fact is that I haven't been truly excited by a German Eurovision entry since Cascada and even that was fairly relative given they had sent Lena's 'Satellite' only three years earlier! Sort it out Germany, there is no reason that you can't be consistently placing on the left side of the scoreboard every year!
United Kingdom
And speaking of no reasons for poor performances, the annual let down of the BBC process of picking out the nation's Eurovision entry is set to take place on Thursday and it's live on Radio 1 and 2! With France having taken a head-start on the race for 26th, the Brits don't have anything to lose to a certain extent but that hasn't stopped the BBC from picking the same formula in the past. I would love nothing more than to be proven wrong on Saturday and to have a package that the UK can get behind and get exciting about but I have been burnt too many times to start counting any chickens before they are very clearly hatched.
That's your lot for this week, I will be coming atcha with a March update next week as we take a special look at all of the recent picks, consider if a certain stylistically French song might win the Portuguese ticket and our previews of the Scandanavian finals complete with some farmhands in Sweden, an orchestra in Norway and a porn star in Finland! It's all happening!
Comments
Post a Comment