And Now We Know...(Day 1)

So as the sun sets over Paris [Only place I could think of where the sun might be setting right now]. But the day has come to an end and having looked at at least 100 photos of Eurovision Taxis as well as hours of rehearsal videos, we now know a lot more about Eurovision 2012. But in a nutshell what have we learned?

• Based on everyone's blog posts we now know it is not very easy to get to Baku, especially if you travel through Istanbul.
• Montenegro is as bad on stage as we first thought, however no one knew quite what to expect all the same.
• Iceland and Romania are the big winners from today, they are now much more favoured to win in the betting odds and reports from Baku about them are impressive.
• Greece has a very typical Eurovision entry. She is not able to sing it well enough live.
• Latvia continues to divide people between lovers who think it is a marginal qualifier and haters who think it is still a very bad song still and she is a good vocalist.
• Albania was as impressive as ever but I think it might be something that the ney sayers have to see live to believe. I really like this though.
• According to my friend the ESCInsider Switzerland far better looking in real life. As a hetrosexual I have no opinion but as they say - know your target market. Their diction as also improved.
• Iris from Belgium has a great pair of lungs. She really came up to the mark in rehearsals today.
• Finally Finland have dropped the dancer which is a great move on their part in my opinion.

Up until now I have avoided making predictions but I think at this stage that Iceland and Romania are the definite qualifiers and Albania is a very likely qualifier. My guess is that there will be one qualifier from either Switzerland, Belgium or Finland and since the rehearsal I am inclined towards Belgium, but that's very difficult to call. I think that Greece is the only other possible contender but if the vocals don't improve it could go the way of Turkey last year.

If you missed our earlier posts they are here:
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3

Rehearsals: Day 1: Part 1 Montenegro-Greece

Rehearsals today are running about an hour and a half late, and based on previous ESC's this is unlikely to change. As I am not actually in Baku I will be blogging here as videos and opinions come through. I will be updating this page as the day goes on. I don't embed videos onto the blog as I find it slows it down but if you click on the link you should get a video of the rehearsal. I'll try to use eurovision.tv videos but they take a while to appear so you may notice some videos from escXtra who look to be shaping up to have the best coverage so far this year.

Montenegro - Video of rehearsal
No one really knew what to expect from Montenegro as it was never on live TV. This is one of the few songs where vocals really don't matter. I would say though that the overall staging of the song looks very messy and this seems to be the general view.No expects this to qualify and that is my view also but there is a little voice in my head asking me if I'm right in saying that.

Iceland - Video of rehearsal
I had forgotten just how amazing the Icelandic entry was. The rehearsal was really strong and seems to have cleared up any doubts about the song. It is just a pleasure to listen to it live. The back drop is Icelandic mountains which really impressive and keeps in tune with the Icelandicness of it all. The backing singers really lift this and it all looks like the usually excellently produced Icelandic entry. Most people seem to be identifying  this as a definite qualifier.

Greece - Video of rehearsal
Well at least it's not in a shopping center. When I first saw the video of the rehearsal I have to say that I though it now fits so much into the standard Greek entry. Yes this does remind me a lot of other Greek entries. But it still lacks anything tangible that will push it on. In my opinion My Number One would not do very well in this day and age. Lead vocals are fairly poor. This was a problem which I had flagged earlier but the general consensus is that Greece needs more backing singers. But then again remember the shock we all got when we saw Greece won last years semi-final?

Latvia's rehearsal is running a bit later than expected and I have to pop out for a while. More reaction later this afternoon.

Montenergo, *sighs* The Review

After a minor amount of excitement about Montenegro’s return to Eurovision their choice of their song Euro Neuro by Rambo Amadeus was probably far more shocking. Broadly speaking the medley of this song is dire but we shall strive on to get make 300 words out of this.

The song starts with a rather interesting sudden start which leads into what might be described as a fairly boring and incomprehensible rap. My problem with this song is despite a rather promising start it bursts into this really boring verses. Lyrically this was by no means a success. It is difficult to understand the lyrics largely due to strange pronunciation and the fact that they don’t seem to have any real linear thought or anything. This really annoys me.

We do not know enough about the performance to say what could turn up but I would not be surprised to see Alf Poiner’s animal cut outs or something similar. If Montenegro actually cared about qualifying they might just take into account that by running first in semi 1 i.e. opening Eurovision they may need to be careful to stop people ignoring it as another crazy ESC entry.

As regards qualification it has little chance. Realistically even if it did qualify with the public juries will most likely award this a zero, with no real neighbours in the semi-final (maybe Albania) they probably haven’t much of a chance.

Personally I think this is one of the worst songs sent to the contest in recent years.

Verdict: A dire song but we don’t know enough about the performance to gauge where it might come on the night.

Grade: No Grade – this is because I cannot actually listen to the whole song right through.

More and More News

So as the National Final season 2012 draws to a close everyone is rushing to get news out before the HOD meeting in four days time. At this point all songs must be finalised. So for those of you who feel you need a machete to get through all the news here's our less sharp machete - bulletpoints.

• Montenegro were first to release their Eurovision song today, sung by Rambo Amadeus the song is Euro-Nuero. To be honest I think this is the worst so far. You can watch it here. 
• Bosnia and Herzegovina were the other song revealed today. To be honest I am disappointed by it. I had hoped that she would be a bit more lively. Instead - it's another piano ballad. You can listen to it here.
• Zeljko Joksimimovic has confirmed that he will sing in Serbian. This is not surprising when you consider how lyrically poor the English Version was. Nina Badric also has confirmed she will not sing in English.
• Tickets for the final went on sale today interestingly they did not sell out which is surprising. This may be caused by Eurovision being so far away this year. I wouldn't be surprised if many fans (like myself) choose not to go.
• San Marino have confirmed that Valentina Montetta will be going to Baku for them. We will wait to hear song before we make a verdict.
• Lots of videos are appearing online for this years Eurovision. I am not going to link to them but most major fan sites will have them.
• We now know that in Belgium they will have the delight of picking between to ballads.
• And finally - there is a multitude of fan videos out there but sometimes the actually catch your eye so much that you actually care about the content. I spotted this excellent video for Jedward that was really impressive. If this doesn't light your fire - why are you reading this blog? [Created by @ed_witha_zzz]
  
  

So that's the round up for the moment. I might not be posting over the weekend as it is St. Patrick's Weekend and that means returning to internet free rural Ireland. So until next time, Ciao.

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.

News Flash (Again)

Our usual news flash which involves bullet points, condensing the news into bite-sized chunks. Here we go....

• Rambo Amadeus will sing "Euro Neuro" at ESC for Montenegro.....that should give something to laugh about.
• If your looking to laugh at something now, Georiga only recieved 13 songs for their selection. Last year they had 50 and sent Elderine....imagine what crap they will send this year.
• Ireland will announce their candidates for Eurosong shortly (I expect by Monday) and the songs will be revealed on the Mooney Show on RTÉ Radio 1 on Thursday 9th February - More information as it comes.
• According to nicerodds.co.uk Denmark are the early favourites to win ESC 2012.