Russia Surprises Everyone (And Something Happened In Slovakia/Armenia)

Tonight Russia selected the most surprising entrants for Eurovision 2012 - Buranovskiye Babushki.

(I suspect this could be a serious question in a Eurovision spelling bee.) Anyway I am delighted with the Russians choice. This everything you want from a  Eurovision entry - something that represents the national music tradition, something that's current and something that is very entertaining.

If I was in the BBC right now I think I'd be puking. After all their smart moves they now don't have the oldest lead singer at Eurovision and now they are going to be squzzed by a branch of the Over-70's club. Anyway it all makes the contest more interesting. Semi 1 is shaping up to be a very interesting semi-final in contrast to the rather dull semi-final 2. Usually when this occurs the winning song comes from the more interesting semi.

Overall I think this could go either way for them. They will most likely score heavily on the televote but the juries may not go for them. This will either sink or swim.

There will be more on these wonderful elders at a later stage when I don't feel I am going to fall asleep.

Elsewhere Slovakia presented their song - it's not quite as amazing. This sort of rock has been seen in Eurovision before. It won't be expected to do overly well. 

This morning we found out what I had suspected all along when Armenia withdrew from ESC this year. This was no big surprise but it still reflects badly on Azerbaijan and the EBU despite assurances from both of them Armenia withdrew. I think though that while nothing can be done this year, the EBU should reflect on whether it is right for a country to host the contest when other countries are unwilling to travel to the host country. 

Will Armenia actually be in Baku?

Today word came through that we can expect to see 43 countries in Baku for ESC 2012. While the participation list was almost a month late (we would normally expect it between 25th Decemeber and the first week of January), the big question answered today was Will Armenia be in Baku? And the answer is yes.

But what does this actually tell us? Well all that this means is that Armenia have stated they are going to Baku and they have paid the participation fee. Now this is fairly important. As we all know there is considerable tension between Armenia and Azerbaijan this was made clear in the 2009 contest when issues over the postcards arose. However by getting this far Armenia have shown that they are prepared to come to Baku. The biggest concern is safety. Armenians don't come into Azerbaijan and (up until recently) even if you have an Armenian stamp on your passport you could not enter Azerbaijan. These rules will have to be relaxed given that some fans traveled to JESC in Armenia last year. This shows the level of intolerance that exists.

So in spite of the EBU's announcement, the HoD for Armenia stated today that even though they are on the list, they are not 100% sure that they will go, citing safety concerns as an issue. While Slovakia may have decided to come to Eurovision last year as withdrawing would be to expensive, Armenia may opt to stay at home and as I say "be live chickens".

While I am not against Azerbaijan hosting the contest, I do believe that the EBU will have to work harder to ensure that Azerbaijan plays ball. They may even have to be prepared to change the venue at short notice. But whether Armenia are in Baku or not may show us just how far the EBU are prepared to go to keep politics out of Eurovision

Reaction to Latvian Semi-Final and some other points

So after a relatively uninteresting semi-final, but a fun night on twitter (Thanks to all), we have 5 songs out of Eirodziesma. The qualifiers were good with the exception of Andris Abelite who I thought was below par. I think PeR are the ones to watch from this semi-final. They came second with the juries, which means that they could do well. However I would think the song is over repetitive. 

The big disappointment for me was Laura Bicane and Romans Sladzis folk music which surprised me by how good it was. Naturally I was pleased to see Ruta Duduma make it through.

In other news.....

We have not got a list of participates from the EBU yet and we look forward to see if Armenia is on it. I think it is delayed because the EBU doesn't want politics dragged into Eurovision but a draw is expected around 16th January so we will be keeping a close eye on that.


A campaign video has been launched for Rick Santorum Nickolas Sarkozy Jedward? We are unashamedly supporting Jedward for Eurovision  and we think this is just great.

In a somewhat surprising turn of events San Marino have pulled out of Jesc 2011 claiming they could not find a singer - I'll let you make your own mind up on that one.


A new eurovision website has lauched. EscXtra.com.....Spot the difference between that and the old escdaily.


Also I now am going back to do some reviews of songs in this years JESC 2011 in Yerevan. Where better to start than Armenia. This year Dalitia will represent the host nation.


The song in my opinion is pretty average and I would be slow to put it on the MP3 player. Dalitia's pronouncation is poor and the voice in the background is awful. I just think this is the average song that causes JESC to fall in peoples eyes.

In Or Out?

Each year there is a bombardment of news and rumour about who is in or out of next years Eurovision Song Contest. So, without further ado the list of confirmed so far is:
Azerbaijan                     
Denmark
Germany                        
Hungary
Austria
Switzerland
Finland
Belarus 
Belgium
Netherlands
Sweden
Estonia
Slovenia
Croatia
Slovakia
and .....Czech Republic (Only country to declare a return)


Withdrawals are possible from Israel and Armenia, due to a National holiday occurring on the day of the final and because the contest is in Azerbaijan respectively


I have a piece prepared for the And the winner of Eurovision 2012  is? series about Azerbaijan which I will post up later this evening.

And The Winner Of Eurovision 2012 Is.....?: Part 1

At the end of each Eurovision year I try to make some sense of all the statistics. I try and see where all the countries are at. Normally this is an operation done inside my head, but because I have a blog now I'm going to put it up here. However this has proven to be a success on many years. Therefore I have written up a number of reviews for about 20 countries. The first in this series is Armenia.

If Armenia come to Eurovision at all [that remains to be seen], they may a little try extra hard to win in Azerbaijan. It would be very understandable. Given Emmy’s narrow failure to qualify, Armenia may come out fighting next year. Excluding 2011 they have had a string of good results since their debut; however it should be noted they have been dragged down the scoreboard by the juries rather than the public, who support them. Armenia has a large block and diaspora vote ready if they bring a good enough song, but they don't have a strong neighbour vote. They have a very flexible national final structure which can only benefit them. Armenia also can make any song look good on stage with choreography and large boxing glove chairs….

Yereven 2013? If they turn up [very unlikely] I could see them with a strong entry for the Azerbaijani stage. A win is possible but I don’t expect something over daring for 2012. They may just settle for 8^th place or so. But they always have a good shot at it and are not a country to be ruled out.

Armenia

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Emmy

Boom boom

Boom boom (Final version)
Boom boom (Instrumental version)

Boom boom (Tribute to Balkans remix)
Boom boom (Acoustic version)
Boom boom (Dj Serjo remix)
Boom boom (1st videoclip)
Boom boom (2nd Videoclip)

Boom boom (Live playback video at NF)

Boom boom (Live video at semi 1)
.

Final songs:

Emmy - Ayo

Emmy - Boom boom

Emmy - Goodbye (Long version)

Emmy - Hi

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