Super Saturdays! (and Sundays)

We are well and truly slap bang in the middle of Super Saturday season, where countries participating in the Eurovision Song Contest of 2010 set about chosing their entries.

My first post detailed Albania's effort, first out of the bag on Boxing Day, Netherlands then revealed the song, if not the singer , and Switzerland handed us the bizarrely named "Il pleut de l'or" by Michael von der Heide on January 9th



Finland chose their entry on January 30th and have gone for a sort of traditional number, which is ...errr.... different to say the least



We then embarked on the first round of Super Saturdays last weekend on February 6th. The night was a Scandinavian Songfest, with the Norwegian final, Danish Final, Icelandic final and the first semi final of the massive Melodifestivalen in Sweden, which rivals any actual ESC in terms of popularity and enthusiasm. Unfortunately, the Swedish broadcaster SVT refuses to release any content of any of the songs that go though, as they feel that this will give an unfair advantage to the songs in the earlier rounds over those appearing later. We had fun chasing clips around YouTube, only for them to be removed in around 10 mins!

I managed to get the Norwegian live streaming working for their national final, and although the picture was only 4 cms tall, I thoroughly enjoyed the show - had a feeling that the regional juries and the televote would go to My Heart Is Yours by Didrik Solli-Tangen. It's a show stopper of anthemic proportions, almost a mash-up of the rugby song "World In Union" and "You raise me up"




A quick search for appropriate links, and I was off to Copenhagen in time to see the nailbiting finale between Byan Rice with his song, Breathing - which we thought had it in the bag, and Chanee and N'Evergreen with "In a Moment like this" and almost fell off me chair when Chanee and N'Evergreen triumphed. It's a little twee, but a nice enough tune. One thing that's worth a mention is the Danes love of the wind machine - I was concerned poor Chanee would end up representing the UK as it seemed she'd be blown across the channel anytime soon.. check out the video



It was a more staid (and cheaper) affair in Iceland next. No surprises that the mighty Hera Bjork are representing them this year. She came so close in Denmark last year, losing out to a much lesser song in my opinion. She dusted herself off, sang backing vocals for Iceland's Johanna in the contest itself, and turned her back on Denmark to finally get the backing of the public and the ticket to Oslo with Iceland. "Je Ne Sais Quoi" is a big dancy number, with an even bigger key change - but Hera can handle it. She was a bit shouty on the night of the finals, if you get a chance to listen to the studio version, do - she's on top form and weeks of promo appearance should iron out any niggles in her live performance.



And then it was Sunday....

Cyprus have pulled a blinder this year, in my opinion. A lovely simple song sung by a good old Welsh boy! Jon Lilygreen is not a traditional pick for Cyprus, a nation which has been overlooked in recent years, but I love the song, and it's my favourite of the chosen few so far. What do you think?




And then we arrived at the farce that was the Netherlands picking the singer of their god-awful contribution, which I've linked to in my first blog. It was written by the man behind the Smurfs and it has all the trademarks of a big chunk of Edam and everything that is wrong about Eurovision in the modern times. Five singers gave their own spin on the song, and four judges and the audience each had one point to award to their favourite. The result was... a tie. In the event of a tie Father Abraham himself was to pick the singer that he wanted. But he decided he couldn't do that, for the longest time! He decided that he was going to flip a coin - imagine how the acts felt, all their hard work and chance to play to an audience of millions decided on the flip of a coin. At the very last moment, Father Abraham said "ooh, Seinicke" and with that, a 17 year old female with more than a passing resemblance to a 40+ year old Jayne McDonald won her place on Europe's biggest stage. It's awful - and if you want to see it for yourself, you can YouTube it ... it makes me ill and I don't want it on my laptop! :p


So that was last weekend, and with the EBU deadline for submission of songs landing on 22nd March, there are more Super Saturdays, Sundays and Fridays to come in the next month, shame I can't watch them all, but will be very interested in the following (and include the UK in this if they ever finally officially release a date *sighs*)

March
06 - Romania (final)
06 - Moldova (final)
06 - Croatia (final)
06 - Portugal (final)
07 - Belgium (presentation of the song)
07 - Russia (final)
07 - Ukraine (song presentation
10 - Belarus (deadline for announcing participant)
12 - Germany (final)
12 - Estonia (final)
12 - Greece (final)
13 - Sweden (final)
14 - Bosnia & Herzegovina (song presentation)

After these dates, we have a long two months build up to the start of the contest, with first rehearsals taking place on May 16th

Hopefully I will be able to blog all the entries, some I'll love, some I'll loathe ... but that's Eurovision!

Favourite Eurovision Contests of the Noughties

I was asked recently, with the advent of a new decade, to rate the competitions that have taken place this century. This is a tough one! Most of the contests are memorable for me because of the songs, and therefore have been rated as such, but some gain points for venue, or lose them (I’m looking at you Denmark and Moscow!)

1. 2006 – Damn that was a great contest, only marred (in my eyes) by the twin travesties of my dear Anzej Dezan faltering in the semis, and the she-devil that is Fearne Cotton giving out the UK scores. I loved the set in 2006, and the performances – including the shock that was Lordi and all the controversy surrounding Silvia Knight, it was great to watch the clips of her shouting at the crowds on youtube. By far my favourite of the decade, also this was the year that I got broadband, and was able to join in in the pre-contest build up! Here's a link to my favourite song, the wonderful Slovenian entry, Mr Nobody by Anzej Dezan

2. 2004 – Istanbul put on a great show, and I felt the songs this year were really strong (except for the lamentable James Fox of course!) Lisa Andreas blew my mind for Cyprus, and Ruslana was a breath of fresh air, also enjoyed the French, German and Macedonian entries, and we got our first Eurovision view of Sakis! Yeah ... maybe not all good then... Here;s the lovely Lisa Andreas bringing the house down, difficult to believe she was just 16 years old at the time

3. 2005 – Loved Masha and Pasha as presenters, although Pasha’s enunciation of the English language took a bit of getting used to! Fab, fab songs this year – but again, performance won out in the end with Helena Paparizou. Stand out songs for me were Israel’s Shiri Maimon, Chiara’s best effort, Angel, Greenjolly for the host country (yes, I am alone with that one I know!) the sparkly Norwegians and the truly bonkers Moldovan entry with their Grandmother playing a starring role! A contest that I do watch again and again. Too obvious for me to link Chiara or Shiri Maimon, so here's Greenjolly for the host nation

4. 2001 – Not so much for the songs, but the sheer size of the arena (which didn’t work well in my opinion) the over-excitedness of the Danes, the dreadful rhyming couplets of the presenters, the ensuing hoo-haa regarding Terry Wogan’s comments and the BBC having to apologise on his behalf. Watching the show I thought that it was a sure thing that Denmark were going to do the double, I felt that their song was head and shoulders about anything else. The fact that Estonia just pipped them was a complete shock, I thought their performance was a shambles! It has to be a link to Denmarks Rollo & King, I'm still really cross that they came second :)

5. 2002 – I expected more of Estonia, but enjoyed the fairytale postcards anyway. I was cross at Latvia winning, when would voters stop thinking that de-robing was reason to win? I loved the French entry, Sandrine Francois put on an amazing performance, and deserved higher than 5^th place. I also thought that Ira Losco deserved to drop a couple of places for wearing a crocheted outfit, but then I’ve never been a fashionista! Jessica Garlick thoroughly deserved 3^rd place though, and it was a proud night to be from the UK! The link has to be the effortless performance of Sandrine Francois from France, just beautiful...

6. 2007 – By the time of the 2007 contest, I was a completely obsessed fan, trawling the internet daily for gossip and watching literally hours of youtube clips, puts a whole new slant on it. On various forums we had massive debates regarding the Marmite entry of the year, Verka Seduchka’s “Dancing Lasha Tumbai” and it wasn’t til 2 days before the semi’s that I finally got it, and slapped a whole bunch of cash on it to win. Bit of a surprise when Molitva triumphed, but a worthy winner I think, devoid of over the top performances or clothes shedding (which was a relief when you come to think about it) Loved Georgia’s maiden entry with Visionary Dream, and the lovely Roger Cicero, who deserved to get a lot higher than 19^th place! There followed on forums plenty of controversy regarding alleged “block voting” which ran and ran ….God, and how bad were Dervish for Ireland?! My choice in the end has to be the follically challenged Roger Cicero from Germany, just love this song - so different and yet completely ignored by all but the back up juries who announced after the contest that a big bag of points would have come his way if the telecoms systems had failed :(

7. 2008 – My son, the fondly nicknamed Little Anzej, finally realized that Eurovision was for life, and became as interested as any (then 6 year old) boy could. I championed poor Isis Gee for Poland (never been one to back a winner!) and the Divine Sebastien Tellier and was absolutely livid that Dima Bilan won with his over the top use of a world champion ice skater and world famous violinist! Andy Abrahams never stood a chance for the UK, and it was a bit sad to watch his dad dancing and obvious oblivion regarding what modern Eurovision is all about. Serbia put on a great show though, with one of the best sets of the decade. I'll link Isis Gee, who came second last from Andy Abrahams due to getting 12pts from Ireland - sure, she's pretty scary looking, but I still liked the song!

(Video refuses to upload - check it out on youtube...)

8. 2009 – It still seems like yesterday to me, I couldn’t bear the vastness of the stadium, the stage that dwarfed even the mighty Petr from Belarus, and the postcards before the entrants were just mad! It was right that Fairytale won though – its simplicity and catchiness meant that there was never going to be anyone else within a shout of it. Pleased for the re-surgeance of the UK, although I have a horrible feeling it was a one-off (like 2002). I hope that Oslo don’t think that they have to do bigger to get better in 2010. Favourite song of the year? I think it has to be the Lovebugs from Switzerland who were unjustly knocked out of the semis, it’s the only one I still play regularly! Here they are in all their out-of-tuneness ... it's all about the song, people!

9. 2003 – Made you go *thud* for all sorts of reasons, and it became clear to me (probably 3 years too late) that the contest was becoming about the performance, the build up and the hype, more than the song. It continued that way until 2007!I still think that tATu’s Ne ver’, ne boysia was in no way worthy as a song of being the favourite, but favourite it was. The hype surrounding the lipstick lesbians included the chance of them doing a complete no-show, so it was a relief to see them actually on stage, although their live performance was anything but a relief! Then there was the UK getting nul points – and quite rightly so, it was an abomination of a performance! Shocking thing is, I don’t have a favourite from this year, hence it being last. I have to pick one though, and will go with Spain's Beth, singing "Dime"