Songs Of The Weekend

This weekend I'm off to a far and distant land where internet doesn't really exist. Anyhow, next weekend will see the rehearsals for Eurovision beginning in earnest. But for now I leave you with my two favourite songs from last year, from Denmark and Italy. In a very poor year these shone through and I think that they are living proof that the contest produces great music.

These always get a good few plays on the MP3 player [That's right I don't use Apple].

Real posts on will be back on Monday.

LESS THAN 4 WEEKS TO EUROVISION

I know that things are falling behind here but while Eurovision may be just around the corner, for me, that corner is called college exams. Anyhow its going to take another ten days and then a further 3 days to get over the after exam party hangover. Anyhow there is a small bit of business to be talked about:

• I've only just realised that the first semi-final of Eurovision is less than 4 weeks away. YAY
• The good people running West-End Eurovision this year are going to streaming it live tomorrow night on their website.
• Spain and the UK have announced the results of their OGAE votes, full results are over on escXtra. Unsurprisingly Sweden received both 12's. This leaves Sweden in the lead. Italy and Netherlands got the two sets of 10 points. UPD: As I was writing this I noticed that Finland and Croatia have also awarded 12 points to Sweden and Loreen. This now puts Sweden on course for a landslide victory - It's all starting to remind me of Norway 2009.
• Finally Eurovision Croatia sent me over a video which I actually think is very heartwarming and nice to see fans out and about rather than simply on the internet. You can see it here.

"The Most Mature and Classy Entry This Year"

After making one of the most successful returns to Eurovision last year and the Gualazzi effect*, there was a huge unprecendented interest in San Remo this year. There has been a wild spread acceptance that San Remo is a vehicle which is  able to produce very high quality entries. Especially ones that will be of good enough quality that they will be able to score very well with the juries. Like last year Italy surprised everyone by deciding to send little known singer Nina Zilli and her song Out of Love.

After all the pushing and shoving that was involved in selecting the Italian enter this year (remember Per Sempre?) I think that Italy have actually come up with a song that they should be both happy and proud of. This might not be my favourite in the contest but it is very close. The song has some of the jazzy and blues overtones from last year’s entry. Noteablely Italy have also decided to send a song that use Italian and English interchangeably. Overall the song reminds of one that you might expect from an artist like Imelda May. I think that juries will lap this up.

Staging is going to be a key issue for this entry. Nina is going to need a lot of Charisma to pull off an entry like this. I’m not convinced that she will actually have this when it is required. The running order does not exactly help Italy but the song is strong enough to do very well if the performance is right.

Verdict: Not sure if they picked the right singer for this entry but all the same I think this another strong entry from Italy. The standard this year is a lot higher than last year and ultimately this will impact on how Italy do. However a top 5 finish is likely. Overall it could be the most mature and classy entry of the year.

Grade: A

*The Gualazzi effect is the way I explain how entries, such as Italy’s last year, which are not overly liked by fans when first picked but after a high score at Eurovision everyone thinks that they are amazingly good.

News Flash: Italy Changes Their Song

Nina Zilli will now perform the song L'Amore É Femmina at the Eurovision Song Contest. The announce came today on Eurovision.tv. This means that sadly we've lost a great song from Eurovision, replacing it with a more contest friendly song. The song is definitely more suited to the contest and while I do like the new song I am disappointed with RAI's decision. This is largely because after Gualazzi's triumph that was the Madness of Love I thought that Italy on the back of the strong San Remo format might actually try to send songs that were a bit more classy. Songs that would appeal more to juries than public. While I think that this is going to be great at Eurovision, I still think that it is a lost opportunity for Italy to be different what is a somewhat generic contest.

The Next Four Eurovision Songs

 My, that was a busy day. This is my reaction piece to the finals that were held today. The reaction piece to the semi-finals is here. So here we have the four songs that were selected today:

At no earlier than 13:00 GMT Ukraine selected their entry sung by Tina Turner impressionist  Gaitana with song "Be My Guest" it is rather good too.

Next up is Croatia Nina Badric, with the song Nebo - I am unsure about this song but suspect this could be one of the weaker songs from the Balkans this year. (I wonder is she still off sex too).

Then Latvia delivered a disappointment of a result by sending Anmary with the song "Beautiful Song".

And finally late in the day, Italy came out with an excellent song by Nina Zilli. She was selected with the song Per Sempre. However it is not known if this is her song for Baku. I would love to see it in ESC.

Tonight: It's Another Super Saturday

Today sees a huge marathon of shows across Europe. 4 Acts will be selected today/tonight we know one of those already that is Ukraine who had their final at the ungodly hour of 11:30 CET - here in Ireland that's 10:30 and I wanted a lie on more than I wanted to watch Ukraine. So I didn't see it but I have seen the winner. [full post later].

Otherwise two songs will be presented tonight - that's Italy [who I am very much looking forward to hearing] and Croatia. Croatia will have a special show at 20:00 CET which lasts one hour so we such hear the song around 21:00 CET. Italy will present their song as well tonight and I suspect that it could be very late tonight [after 23:00 CET] before we hear the song I am not sure what I will be watching tonight so I recommend watching the usual channels for information about Italy.

Latvia also will select their entry tonight in a dual final format. The first will be at 18:00 CET [about one hour from now] and the second super final will be at 20:00 CET. I will throw up the review shortly.

Sweden holds the third semi-final of Me.lodifestivalen tonight at 20:00 CET. You can read our reviews of it here.

Lithuania holds a semi-final too at 20:00 CET. Estonia holds one which starts at 20:30 CET. You can read our reviews of the Estonian semi-final here.

This may all be bit  confusing so I recommend the page that escXtra have developed.

We Haven't Had News For A While.

So a belated Happy Valentine's Day to you all. Another Valentine's Day alone for me and...and...*sobs quietly*... now Belarus seem to have lost the ability to pick a good Eurovision song.

• As I have previously mentioned Belarus today at the most annoying hour of 15:00-17:00CET they have not selected Litesound but instead choose Alyona Lanskaya with her rather uninteresting and unremarkable song All My Life. Best of luck to her - if she makes it through the semi's [that'll be the day]. However there are rumours the song may be changed.
• Russia have moved their national final to March 7 (the more midweek selections the better at this stage).
• Georgia will hold their National Final on February 19 [next Sunday] and have narrowed their selection from 13 songs all the way down to nine. 
• San Remo in Italy is progressing this week and the first show should be over that this stage. I don't follow it because I'M NOT SUPERHUMAN.
• Germany holds a final on Thurday and we will hear the song then too. 
• Saturday is a mega national final day with 7 semi-finals/ song presentations and selections. Will talk about that closer to the date.
• And finally two Canadian twins, Patrick and Chris have made an excellent video for Jedward's Waterline Song. Follow them on Twitter @cpVoros.

So What To Look Forward To.

Scléip boy, things are getting busy. 


I not going into what scléip means but it seems the right thing to say at this point in time. I had planned out the articles required over the next 10 days in the run up to National Final. However looking at the calender we need to get moving now. I had intended to write this piece over the next few days and publish it in due course. However it has crashed forward into this week. Due to the National Finals this week you may find that

What to expect this year:

• Ireland - I think Jedward is definately going to be there for Ireland again this year. I'm not looking forward to the National Final/Late Late Show. I expect very few quality songs. In fact I don't know how RTÉ will scrabble together five songs for The Late Late Show. We should expect them to be together with Linda Martin as their mentor. They are currently staring in the Olympia Pantomime together.  
• UK - I'm not exactly sure what the UK will do this year, everything will be down to who they get to sing this year.
• France - Not expecting them to beat their placing last year.
• Spain - Expecting a strong song that is tipped to win but will come about 8th (Not scoring as well as expected with juries)
• Norway - Not sure if their plan to change MGP (dropping Andra Chansen) will have much impact. Norway usually have one of the best National Finals and I expect that they will deliver a strong song this year
• Sweden - For the love of God: Pick Timoteij. Really you just don't know what Sweden will do next. There are some returning faces to Melodifestivalen but there are also some strong new ones. It's something to look forward to.
• Denmark - I think Denmark are the most likely to win this year, but that is just my intuition (or those random feelings you get in the middle of the night after a few drinks). However Denmark really seem to be going for the victory this year and seem to keep mentioning that they came so close in the last two year.
• Italy - I really am unsure what will arrive out of San Remo this year but I think Italy (if they put their minds to it) have a selection process that could be good for picking a song that will clean of jury votes for the final.

Overall I am expecting one of the strongest line ups of songs given that the Swiss and Albania songs are well above average so far.

And The Winner Of Eurovision 2012 Is.....?: Part 14

Italy

Well, they came back with a bang. After one of the best comebacks in ESC history Italy are able to get points. This year The Madness of Love managed to take second place, even though it was written off by fans as soon as they heard it. However, it was very good jazz. At the moment it is not possible to make a graph from a dot, but Italy showed it could do well at Eurovision, even if they are the laziest of all ESC countries.

Rome 2013? It’s near impossible to discuss them as we only have one entry in many years but they have the ability to win.

Italy
= The Italian songs are not allowed to be shared !! =

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Raphael Gualazzi

Follia d'amore

Follia d'amore (Album version)

Madness of love (Bilingual version)

Madness of love (Final version)
Madness of love (Instrumental version)
Madness of love (Gilles Peterson RMX)
Follia d'amore (Live video at NF)

Follia d'amore (Videoclip)

Madness of love (Videoclip)
Madness of love (Live video at Final)

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Artisti Sanremo 2011:
Albano Carrisi - Amanda è libera

Anna Oxa - La mia anima d'uomo
Anna Tatangelo - Bastardo
Davide van de Sfroos - Yanez
Giusy Ferreri - Il mare immenso
La Crus - Io confesso
Luca Barbarossa & Raquel del Rosario - Fino in fondo
Luca Madonia & Franco Battiato - L'alieno
Max Pezzali - Il mio secondo tempo
Modà & Emma Marrone - Arriverà
Nathalie - Vivo sospesa
Patty Pravo - Il vento e le Rose
Roberto Vecchioni - Chiamami ancora amore
Tricarico - 3 Colori

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Sanremo Giovani 2011:

Anansi - Il sole dentro
Btwins - Mi rubi l'amore

Gabriella Ferrone - Un pezzo d'estate

Marco Menichini - Tra tegole e cielo

Micaela - Fuoco e cenere

Raphael Gualazzi - Follia d'amore

Roberto Amadè - Come pioggia

Serena Abrami - Lontano da tutto

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Eliminati:

Infrantimuri - Contro i giganti

Le Strisce - Vieni a vivere a Napoli

Neks - Occhi

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