What A Week!

So as the technical rehearsals draw to a close we now have had a really fun week so I'm going to use this post to look back on that as well as to tell you my top 10 for semi-final 1 and to look to the week ahead.

Rehearsals Week 2012
Sunday (last week) saw the beginning of the rehearsals with the first half of semi-final 1 starting. The big winners here were Iceland and Romania who both went from being likely to definite qualifiers. Belgium also perked themselves up as possible qualifiers. There was one car crash which was Greece who raised a couple of eyebrows with their performance, particularly vocals.

Monday saw people actually consider that there was a mild chance that San Marino could qualify. Denmark and Russia both gave us performances that leads me to believe either could win the first semi-final. Moldova seems to have come across well on stage and Pasha showed us he had some vocals. Ireland managed to underwhelm everyone but everyone still thinks that it is sailing through to the final. Austria was Monday's car crash.

Tuesday saw the rise of Macedonia and the fall of Bulgaria but was by far the dullest day we had.

Wednesday was Sweden's day as their march to victory began. Loreen certainly has her critic's though and there is certainly an anti-Sweden vibe coming through from Baku. It's in many blogs but it seems especially prevalent in the press reports from Baku. Other highlights included Norway's off key rehearsal [well if your like me and don't like Tooji]. Bosina & Herzegovina also fell in many peoples expectations.

Thursday and Friday saw second rehearsals begin. Austria and b redeemed themselves a little, and Ireland got the fountain working. Russia proved that everyone still loves the Grannies and Greece showed they can make marginal improvements to a vocal performance.

Saturday and Sunday saw Sweden take to the stage and finally nail the performance [depending on whether you think she mumbles the song or not]. Norway also managed to get the vocal performance back together. The Big 5 and Azerbaijan also showed us that they are able to take the lead at Eurovision. Italy showed they might not have cared about Eurovision but that they can still do there best to try to win it. Italy now in moved as a strong favourite, probably second to Loreen. Germany showed that Stefan Raab can still produce a good entry and Germany has exceeded expectations to become one of the potential winners of the contest. The UK left us all a bit worried after the first rehearsal but we all calmed down a bit after the second rehearsal. Clearly Engelbert can pull this off live.

My Top 10 [Semi-Final 1]
So that was rehearsal week, but how do the songs stand now? Well I will publish my thoughts on the semi-final 1 qualifiers on Monday Night/Tuesday Morning after I get reports for the dress rehearsals and more importantly the jury final. But for now my Top 10 favourites [and my votes are]:

• 12 points - Denmark
• 10 points - Iceland 
• 8 points - Finland
• 7 points - Austria
• 6 points - Romania 
• 5 points - Russia
• 4 points - Belgium
• 3 points - Albania 
• 2 points - San Marino 
• 1 point - Greece

So that's my Top 10 I expect some of you might disagree with it but unfortunately you cannot change my music tastes.

Tomorrow

Though the will be no live shows tomorrow, it is an important day. At 3pm CET the first full run through of the dress rehearsal will begin and, more importantly, at 9pm CET tomorrow evening the jury final will take place. I will have a blog post assessing what happened in that. See you all tomorrow.

Reaction To Rehearsals: Day 8

So today might be the last day of rehearsals but that doesn't mean there are a lots of second rehearsals to get through today.

Estonia - Ott had a great rehearsal today but he is playing around with the notes in the song a lot which might be a little risky. I haven't seen this on the screen but it does look very static on stage, unless camera work is really good this could be a bit dull looking on stage.

Slovakia - Some corrections were made which is a relief. I'm not sure if this is a qualifier but I'd say it still has a chance.

Norway - Vocally this is back on track. He is using a backing singer to get him over the harder notes though, which is something that don't agree with. Tooji is really going to have to make sure he doesn't over perform this.

Bosnia & Herzegovina - This does remind me of Eurovision entries of old. I hate the dress though and I'm not hearing anything overly positive from Baku though.

Lithuania - This song is growing on me (well the last 90 seconds anyway).  This was a good rehearsal but the blindfold really must be dropped.

UK - There have been some very good changes in aspects of the performance but most importantly this was vocally good today. This is looking like a strong entry from the UK.

France - This still looks messy today but it is vocally good again which is a massive concern dealt with.

Italy - This was done as a full dress rehearsal and all is looking perfect on stage, there are very few faults in this entry.

Azerbaijan - All very similar to yesterday's performance but they are deliberately trying to lose this by throwing in the wailing man in the middle. Bit dull but anyhow.

Spain - This is as good as yesterdays performance, which was excellent. In spite of people claiming there is no major connection I think that this is the best vocal at Eurovision.

Germany - After Germany's great rehearsal yesterday all that they would need to be able to do, they held their own today and I think that they should be pretty pleased to be able to do that.

So that's all the technical rehearsals done for 2012. Tomorrow evening dress rehearsals kick off in Baku, with the jury final later that night. I'll put up a post later tonight looking back on this week.

  

Rehearsals: Day 7 - I Think

Even though the press claim that you lose track of time in Baku I also have the same problem to report. Despite being here in Dublin rehearsals have started to morph into one long day. However today we have a lot of excitement to look forward to as the big 5 and Azerbaijan take to the stage for first rehearsals. Anyway how are things shaping up?

Slovenia - This rehearsal seems to have gone well, those who have been listening to the ESCInsight podcast this morning may have heard parts of it in the background. All in all Slovenia should be very pleased with this. However the high number of balkans in this semi-final will be a serious problem.

Croatia - This does not seem to be working perfectly on stage. Somethings are going wrong and now we have two Balkan ballads together. This looks like a non-qualifier unless Nina can bring it all together.

Sweden - Sweden appear to have had a great run through. While some might claim that this is looking messy on stage the performance is broadly the same as the one that won Melodifestivalen and that was fairly amazing.

Georgia - Anri is a good performer and had a really good first rehearsal. Today he seems to have really come across well and looks like a possible qualifier, after being previously written off. Typical Georgia.

Turkey -  Turkey did a full dress rehearsal today and it appeared to be really, really strong, which has changed many peoples attitudes to the song. It all has come together really well. So we should be happy with that. BUT I don't think that the song is that great.

Then there was lunch and then started the Big 5 and Azerbaijan rehearsals.

Germany - Rehearsal Video
Despite having a fairly poor song this year Germany has really come up in terms of the staging and performance of this entry. Having come through Unser Star Fur Baku Roman certainly appears to be a competent performer on stage. Vocally this was impressive and the band style performance looks good and makes up for Roman's fairly static performance - but then again could you really start dancing during a song called "Standing Still"? While the performance is good, if it was surrounded by ballads it could struggle.

France - Rehearsal Video
Auggun took to the stage with five dancers who are used a lot throughout the performance. The performance is done with a wind machine and when you combine this with the dancing it all looks a bit weird. Vocally this was not good given that this shouldn't be a problem for an experienced artist. All in all it looks a bit messy on stage. The backdrop is strange and might be to fast moving to look well on the cameras. We shall see what they change tomorrow but I suspect that not much will change. A disappointing rehearsal but there is still a lot of scope to change this.

Italy - Rehearsal Video
I would say that based on what I am reading on the blogs Italy is definitely the favourite of the press over in Baku. Personally I think it is one of the best out there but I see it as a third to fifth place song rather than a winner. Vocally this is excellent, as rehearsals go this was probably one of the best that we have seen however I do think that backdrop is poor and jars badly with the song. I would be aiming for a more Lena-esque performance if I was producing this song. I also think that there is an argument for this song if you compare it to Lena in 2010. However Lena was a more charismatic singer and for this to do well it needs to have charisma thrown in and I'm just not getting this at the moment. But it still is the second most likely song to win. I'll give it that.

Azerbaijan - Rehearsal Video
After watching Italy this pales in comparison. Azerbaijan have done an awful lot right here. The performance is simple and straight forward. The guy in the background is a bit creepy. Overall though this is fairly bland song. However it is Azerbaijan and they are the host country so this will not do to badly. The bridge sounds dire though. This is solid, a safe bet and should give Azerbaijan a reasonable placing.

Spain - Rehearsal Video
Pastora Soler had a great first rehearsal. However it is not personal enough and it needs to make a much great attempt to connect with the cameras. Vocally though this is jaw droppingly good. I think that the overall performance is great but it reminds me of Niamh Kavanagh's in 2010.

UK - Rehearsal Video
The highly anticipated performance by Engelbert Humperdinck, finally took place today. The rumours about the Strictly Come Dancers in the background were correct. The backdrop was an interesting choice and might be just a little moody for the opener to the competition. Engelbert though is giving a really great performance. Although there is a problem with the last notes it is looking well overall and I think that the UK should be able to just about beat last years result.

Serious+Eurovision+UK= ?

As strange as it seems these three words all appeared appeared in an article on The Guardian blogs. The word "not" does not even appear in the sentence. Anyway without mention of the word Melodifestivalen, the blogger makes the vaguest possible terms they basically ask questions I've had for ages.

The Article is available here.

All credit to ESCNation for finding this.

UK Finally Reveals Their Song

At long last we now have all 42 songs, and we now know the UK entry.

This year the UK managed a fair achievement of becoming the most  hyping up a selection process solely on Twitter and by giving fans a little information was humanly possible [which makes us all seem fierce intelligent really]. Rather than spending half my evening writing up my thoughts the good people at JOYEurovision have a good podcast on it [It's only four minutes too].



I think they are broadly right in their thoughts and their fairly similar to my own. I like the song itself, but like Albania it's not something that I desperately want to see at Eurovision, it's more something it'd listen to in my own private time. [I can't figure out why I think that way though].

While it might be a good song it just doesn't sound like one for Eurovision. I also suspect that this could be a bit like France last year. France's classical opera style song was broadly liked by fans, but ultimately was a dive on the night. While we can talk about poor on the night performances and being draw beside Italy. My Dad [a huge classical music fan] heard it on the radio on the radio before the contest and thought it was pretty boring. I think the UK could end up the same way. Largely because the song does not draw you in fast enough.

The fact that it really is meant to be anthemic but then goes and does not build in the second verse really doesn't help the song. I would also lower the guitar sound and bring in a little more orchestra to add the real British touch. The trouble is because the UK have left it all so late, they cannot make real changes at this stage. It would have been better to present this song and take a look at fan reaction, make changes then produce a final version.

The UK had the chance to produce something really strong but this could fail because of the draw (That's tomorrow). But everything about the UK has surprised me this year, so maybe the result will too.

Eurovision Overload!

It seems that much has happened in Eurovision since I left on Friday and to be honest I'm hardly able to keep up with it all but here are my thoughts:

• May as well start on a positive note. Azerbaijan have presented their Eurovision entry sung by Sabina. I really thing this is good. It might not win (it has an outside chance) but really it is quite nice. You can watch the video here.
• The widely anticipated entry from the UK was released today, you can listen to it here. I will have much more on this in a later post. 
• As many videos arrive in we are seeing a couple of songs being tweaked a little bit. I don't really pay much attention to this as the changes are rarely noticeable. However Belarus have done a pretty big overhaul of their song which does help it a small little bit. You can hear there song here.
• Albania have cut down their song to three minutes and presented it in a video that to be honest looks like is out of a horror film. I still think that it is a strong song. The video is here.
• Belgium have presented their song Would You by Iris. It's a fairly basis ballad and I can't see it going to far but we'll see what juries do in semi-final 1. You can listen to the song here.

Finally I hope you all enjoyed St. Patrick's Day while some people decided to do some odd things (Green Ice Tea and Jedward?, seriously). I had a more traditional one involving buying 20kgs of seed potatoes. 

Melodifestivalen Is Over. What Are We Waiting On?

Normally the end of Melodifestivalen usually occurs the Saturday before the HOD [Heads of Delegation] meeting. This year they decided to play with us fans a little and have it a week later. This means that there are a couple of songs missing still. So to round up what we're waiting on:

1. Montenegro - Song Presentation - Thursday 15th March 8:00pm CET.
2. Bosnia&Herzegovina -  Song Presentation - Thursday 15th March 8:00pm CET.
3. San Marino - There is a variety of rumours coming from San Marino about who will represent them. The latest one is that local singer Valentina Monetta and will be written by Raleph Sigel. [We're not saying that it is correct.] We suspect we will get a confirmation either today or tomorrow. 
4. Belgium - We patiently await the final national final of the year in Belgium. I'm not going to be watching it as it is St. Patrick's Day and I will be with my family but hopefully they will pick something good.
5. UK - The UK has caused many a fan to rip out a parts of their hair. But Engelbert Humperdinck's song will be revealed on the 19th March - the day of the deadline. That's cutting it fine.

Sorry? Engelbert Humperdinck You're joking!. Oh your not...

It's finally official: BBC has lost their minds. Send Engelbert Humperdinck to Eurovision.

Time has come to give a reaction. I never have spent an hour after an announcement think about this one. This is a most strange move by the BBC and will divide people. Personally I think that it that he is a little to old for the contest. I'm not saying that in the sense of his age it's more his music style that is old. At the grand old age of 75 he will be one of the oldest performers ever on the Eurovision stage. While he may have the world's greatest songwriters behind [no seriously, they actually could be the world's greatest], he will come across as just a little has been.

I accept the arguements of both sides of the debate. I'm quite a fan of the old music myself. I think the Engelbert [full name to long to write] is quite a distinguished name from that era. However I am unsure that despite the great era of music it may not be fit for the Eurovision stage. I also am unsure whether or not juries will perceive him as being a little to yesterday or not. It is perfectly possible that they would not. But if they did it would really kill the UK. My guess on the whole issue is that BBC picked someone who the tabloids might actually treat humanely thus raising the basic public perception of Eurovision.

I have noted the many comments on Twitter in regards to his selection my favorite coming from Danny Lynch:  "If this was my laptop I'd probably have smashed it against the wall in sheer annoyance". However after the intitial shock most fans are now giving more logical reactions and less emotive reactions like Ian Howell who pointed out that "My objection is that he doesn't represent a popular strand of British music. No top 20 hit in UK in 40 years"  On a macro level I am noticing that the very young generation of ESC fans [i.e. 20 or less] are tending to be disgusted with the news. The mid range [20-30] seem to vary and older than 30 seem to support him. Of course this is just a rough outline and there are many in different categories.
Finally I accept the argument that people over 30 watch Eurovision [like my parents and grandparents]. I just believe that they don't vote very much compared to younger demographic groups. However over-30's won't be enough. Judging reactions I think that you would need to be over 67 to really like him.

As a Commerce [fancy word for Business Studies] student I would really love to know the long term BBC Eurovision strategy is and what they have identified as the core points of competition between entries to justify such a decision.

But anyway we leave the last word to Eddie Izzard [thanks to the EscInsider for reminding me of this one.]