eurovision 2012 news: Slovenia

Showing posts with label Slovenia. Show all posts

Wednesday, May 16, 2012

Rehearsals: Day 4: Part 1

Today is the last major day of first rehearsals - tomorrow it moves over to seconds rehearsals which are usually don't tell us all that much extra, but anyhow today there are 10 songs taking to the stage, so we have to keep moving forward. First up was Slovenia

Slovenia - Rehearsal Video
Slovenia are definitely a strong contender but looking at this today all I can think of is Croatia and Feminmen who were considered a shoe in to the final. One stage the white is looking very effective, and the general tone of the song is coming across well. Apparently they are trying out a lot of different backgrounds in today's rehearsal. There are Molitva comparisons going on but I think that that might be overrating the song.

Croatia - Rehearsal Video
Croatia are very unfortunately just after Slovenia, the song is rather like Slovenia's but it does lack something. The performance is certainly interesting to watch, given all of the dancing with lots of moody lighting in the background. This is unfortunately not as accessible as Slovenia and could struggle. I'm also hoping that she intends to change her dress and that that one will not be worn at live show.

Sweden - Rehearsal Video
Sweden have been the most anticipated rehearsal. I didn't review Sweden but along with Denmark, Iceland and Italy it is among my favourites. The performance has not changed hugely since the national final but at the end the background does light up with snow. In the rehearsal video that I saw the was no actually snow falling but they do run that prop sometimes. Overall I think that this was an extremely solid rehearsal and this probably is the start of Sweden's march to victory. There has been a general movement against Sweden in the press center and this is very noteworthy as these factors do influence media a lot. Sometimes it is good to be here is Dublin away from all that.

Georgia - Rehearsal Video
As I have previously discussed I feel that this is one of the weakest songs in this years contest. No doubt though that the performance will be able to lift it a little and today showed that Anri is a very strong performer. There are a lot of props involved in this entry. There is also the addition of backing singers also helps this entry. The overall presentation is a bit camp and I am really unconvinced on this as a qualifier. Apparently he has a drum and some pyros as well.

Turkey - Rehearsal Video
This is going to go down a storm in Baku, obviously because of the close links between Azerbaijan and Turkey. For Can this really will help to get him to stand out just a little more. Can has decided to keep this performance in line with the ship theme. However the backdrop starts with a sea and lighthouse but then develops into something different which might just be a boring, personally I'd keep the lighthouse all the way through. Vocally this was fine, with no major hiccups, so at the moment it should bring Turkey back into the final after last year. Strangely this reminds me of a Greek entry more than a Turkish one but I don't know why that is.

Estonia - Rehearsal Video
Estonia have a very divisive entry, I think that it is a possible qualifier though. I think that based on today's rehearsal this is a real contender, vocally it was spot on and the backing singer really helps the song. The intense colour really adds to the song. This is not a definite qualifier in my books but it is getting very close.

Slovakia - Rehearsal Video
I do like this entry but the performance is doing nothing for it. In short: Soften the band image, improve the harsh vocals [i.e. with Lemsip], lose the sunglasses and lose the hat. More eye contact with the camera is required. The song does seem to end very suddenly though which is a little concerning. Eldrine slipped into the final last year and ended up 9th which was a big surprise so there clearly is a market for this out there and these people do actually watch Eurovision.

Norway - Rehearsal Video
~~Eric Saade Mark II~~ I mean em, Tooji, stepped up for rehearsals today. Visually and in terms of dance moves this is excellent and a very strong visual close to the end. Vocally though it is quite off the mark. I will be waiting for the second rehearsal before I cast aspirations over how this will do. I expect it to qualify but not with ease. Many are suggesting that this could be the surprise non-qualifier of this semi-final but I suspect that the combination of a great draw and the dance show will mean it will go down a storm with the female televoters.

Bosnia + Herzegovina - Rehearsal Video
As expected Maya Saar has delivered a fairly understated performance of her song. The most outstanding thing about this song is the very strange choice of backdrop. Looking at the large number of steady cams on stage this will definitely be an up close and personal performance. Vocally this was good, but that doesn't take from the dull song. While some in the press center are suggesting that this might be the first non-qualifier from Bosnia + Herzegovina. I'm unconvinced, I think it is going through but I'm very hesitant to say that. I'll wait and see what further rehearsals bring.

Lithuania - Rehearsal Video
As usual I cannot understand the logic behind using a blindfold. The performance starts similarly to the one in the national final. Vocally this was spot on, but I still am unconvinced by the song. I think the last 90 seconds work really well on stage. The last 90 seconds backdrop is really interesting, again with the dancing figures in the back ground. This would normally be a non-qualifier but coming at the end of a fairly dull [for the non-Eurovision public] semi-final this might slip through.

Wednesday, April 11, 2012

OGAE Slovenia Presents Mad Set Of Results

I was somewhat surprised today to see that OGAE Slovenia announced a rather odd set of results.

They awarded Spain 12 points, Iceland 10 points and Serbia 8 points. The big surprise here is that Sweden only got 7 points. This surprised me as I expect that Euphoria would have a landslide score in the OGAE votes. Their votes did contrast a lot from Bulgaria but this is to be expected as Eastern European OGAE clubs often return more contrasting votes compared to western fan clubs. I think this is often very true when the club might not be a very big one.

The other noticeable difference was that many countries that received smaller votes were very different. Countries like Italy, UK and Russia all got their first points. It might to early to say but I think that there are very few songs that will receive a broad consensus from fans this year.

Anyhow this results keep Loreen in front on 19 points with Serbia just behind on 18. Cyprus and Spain are both on 12 points and are currently joint third. Full results are on escXtra.com.

Thursday, April 5, 2012

Slovenia Proves That Simple Is More

This year Slovenia opted for the overly long and dragged out national final format. I didn't watch anything except for the results as they came in. Therefore I have very little to write in this part, the introduction.

Anyone who read our article on early fan favourites this year will remember that Slovenia came out very highly on the scoring. This was not because it slipped through on the back of confusingly simple mathematical models. No, it actually had a great score. So what is it about this seemingly understated song that fans are going crazy for, well let's take a deeper look.

Eva Boto will sing Verjamem in Baku next month [I love being able to say that]. Her song is an anthemic Balkan Ballad, very much of a similar style to what the Balkans were producing around the time Serbia won in 2007. The song has great vocals backing it, both Eva and her backing singers are well suited to the song. Verjamem is wonderfully anthemic and is sung with great passion and purpose. I'm not entirely sure that this will come across fully at Eurovision, but you never know. I love the changing music that backs the song particularly the drums that are constant in the background of the song. What I just love about this song though, is it is simple, but retains your interest, while at the same time it is very accessible.

The performance is pretty much what you would expect from a ballad, the singer stands there and sings with dancers in the back ground. If the national final performance is anything to go by the stage will hopefully remain rather brightly lit, which I like, as it is not this dark moody style of ballad we are used to. The dress of the backing singers is also strangely distracting. I would change it before ESC if I was Slovenia.

The biggest threats for this song is that there are so many Balkan ballads in semi-final 2. There is going to be a couple of surprises coming from this semi-final but I actually think that this could really do well. The simplicity of the song will help to make it more attractive to western music tastes and it will surely do well with juries in general. The song is not helped by being ninth in the running order particularly on account of being just before Croatia. Even though Croatia has a weaker song I think they might steal a couple of votes from Slovenia.

Verdict: I think that Slovenia have a really great song and will build on their success of last year. However their biggest challenge is to get out of the second semi-final and this will be no easy task. On balance I think that they will qualify. Personally I think this is the best Balkan entry this year.

Grade: B

Wednesday, February 29, 2012

The Balkan Problem

I meant to publish this last night but was so tired I could not judge my writing. The idea here is purely hypothetical but has been on my mind since the semi-final draw.

Since the running order draw many fans have pointed out that the toughest semi-final by far this year is semi-final 2. This is largely caused by the presence of FYR Macedonia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Serbia and Slovenia all being together in the one semi-final. This has lead fans to believe that anything up to all five of these countries could make it through to the final.

But is that a true assumption? Let's just think about it and cast the critical eye over the Balkans so far in 2012. Serbia has successfully managed to convince Zeljko Joksimovic to go to Eurovision for them. Looking at the block of countries this will be one to beat, it's sure to be strong and will take a good chunk of the Balkan 12 points. So let's say that they take 46 of 48 points [i.e. 3 12's; 1 10]. This leaves them with in easy reach of the 62 points which is about what is needed to get you into the final. It is also very likely that Serbia will soak up a huge amount of Jury votes for Balkan songs.

But what about the next four songs. Well to start we have not heard B+H's song yet but I would bet we are dealing with a fairly normal Balkan ballad again sung by a female [Maya Saar]. The issue here is that far to many of these songs are being sung by females. The three picked so far are all sung by females. All of the are roughly of the same style and standard. This is where we hit the problems. This semi-final looks set to have a vast number of Balkan songs which is largely unprecedented in terms of the less than 20 songs semi-finals.

So within the Balkan block you will have some disagreement about which country to vote for. Serbia will soak up a huge amount of televotes. This in turn leaves very few to play with. There may not be very many people willing to back a balkan ballad. Which could lead to a disarray in the semi-final. So the result may not be very predictable. Combine this with jury votes which may further and scatter Balkan block votes [at least it cannot strengthen this] which could see countries not getting neighbourly votes.

So what if Balkan's don't win in the Balkan's? Well for the four other songs this is very likely. Assuming that Serbia soak up the amount described earlier and say one song picking up most of the higher places then we have another Balkan on 40 [a 12, two 10's and an 8] this leaves only about 62 points swirling around for the remaining three. On a Europe wide basis it is difficult though not impossible for to believe that with few points they could make it in. The trouble once again is that they will only have some jury and public voters who will vote for Balkan music. These votes will be split that it will be difficult for these rather difficult songs to make it through to ESC final. If the public and jury do not agree then the problems faced do not get smaller. The jury has considerable power to reduce the impact of neighbourly voting. So with two components it is likely that the number of points may fall. And if less points stay within the Balkans then we could be about to see a very interesting semi-final.

Sunday, February 26, 2012

An American Indian And A Balkan Ballad For Baku

Tonight saw Netherlands and Slovenia both select their songs for Baku.

Netherlands selected a bouncy song for Baku sung by a Joan Franka called You and Me. It is rather cheesey. What was interesting was the consistent disagreement by the dutch with the results of the international jury. Given that it contained 100 members they represented a wide fan base so should have been listened to more. Joan won the televote with 53.8%. Netherlands are in a tough semi-final so their qualification is unlikely.

Slovenia have decided to not send a rather controversial act to Baku. (You'd know I wrote this while I was watching EMA). Eva Boto will sing a pretty Balkan ballad. I think it is better than Croatia alright, not sure how it fares out against non balkan songs. Anyhow here it is:

Two Shows Tonight - And It's Sunday

Tonight sees Netherlands and Slovenia pick their two songs and, believe it or not this is the first Sunday with two shows. Personally I am watching Netherlands [and I really love the song Chocolatte]. Their show is quite confusing with a combination of Dutch and International Juries with a televote.

I somehow forgot that Slovenia were picking their ESC song tonight. I am not paying any attention to it as I never liked the X Factor styled competition for picking an ESC singer - anyways I see what Slovenia come up with.

Brain Kennedy, who represented Ireland in 2006 with a song that would have done well in the 90s has hit out at Jedward and their Eurovision song saying that it is forgetable and he fears a Eurovision catastrophe. In my opinion this comment might have held water but really an 8th place last year it is really difficult to say how the twins will do. However even on my most pessimistic projections they should reach the final.