A Surprisingly Good National Final: Romania

Romania has a reasonably strong national final this year so let’s take a more in depth look at the songs.

Catalin Josan - It may be a little old fashioned but it is a great happy go lucky song. I really like this. Catalin actually looks like he has some music experience also. Grade: A-

Ana Mardane - The opening of this song sounds like a big Broadway musical number. However does develop away from this but really it is Broadway at heart. Grade: B

Vicky Red - By the looks of it this song has been on the go for some time and has racked up a reasonable number of views on YouTube. This is a really high quality song. Then comes the Disco. But so far the Romania seem to have a good selection so I don't know how outstanding this will seem on the night. Grade: A-

RPK - The band name could easily be confused as a broadcaster but aside from that this seems to be a little poorer than the songs that went before it. Grade: E+

Lucian Oros - Despite sharing a song title with a razor slogan this is an interesting song. However this song is a little predictable and boring. It's far from awful but could be better. Grade: D+

Raluca Ocneanu - It's got very artist and orginal sound to it but I'm not sure that this will bring in a vast number of votes. Grade: C-

Electric Fence - That's a strange band name. The music certainly starts off as strangely as the name would suggest. The very different sound might suggest something different but in reality it would come across as a little messy. Grade: D-.

Ovidiu Anton - It starts like it is going to burst into a massive disco remix. But oh no - here comes the self pitying guitar pop. It's is a reasonable song but you know – depressing. Grade: C

Miss Mary - This is a pretty good quality song which has huge potential but kinda falls a little flat at the times when you want it to push on it doesn’t. Grade: D

Mandinga - What is the back ground music? 15 seconds in it was answered. This is a piece of messy ethino pop music which has a great hook and actually though messy it's the best song so far. Grade: A

T&L - This may be Irish and I do subscribe to the whole "support Irish" concept, but this goes nowhere. The speaking/supposed rap is not very good. Yeah this is boring. Grade: E+

Ioana Anuta - Usual pop/rock song that turns up at many ESC national finals. Girls Don't Cry is an interesting title and some of the lyrics provoke ideas to caustic to publish on this blog. However I can be a sucker for this kind of music. Grade: B

Tasha - Seriously club music here. However it is just a small bit boring. It just doesn't seem to go anywhere. Grade: D+

Bianca Purcarea - Starts as a relaxed and gentle ballad, and in fact it begs you to hear some more. So quiet. So gentle. So bueatiful. As I write this I am also keeping an eye on the primary results in the US. But really when you have great ballads like this who needs politics. Grade: A+

Ana Mardane - So she has two songs in the national final? That's a little strange. It is very different to her earlier song. I would perfer this one personally. Grade: B+

So if I have time after Melodifestivalen I will be dropping over to Romania to support Bianca Purcarea and her amazing song. 

At Least There's Only Four Songs

So Greece usually a revered country at Eurovision, it never has been out of the Top 10 since 2003 - has finally given us all of the information about their national final so it is time to review the four songs one of which represent them in Baku! [Thank god there's only four - I'll get to bed early]

Dora - Here is a standard Greek ethic pop song. As with all the artists in this years Greek selection, is new to the music scene. This does not exactly fill me with confidence in her vocal abilities however this concern does run in all of the songs in the selection. Overall this does not seem to go very far and with so many similar songs in the selection this doesn't seem strong enough. Grade: C-

Cassiopeia - Oh god, a three piece girl band with no experience - that's going to be some vocal performance. No that's just a bit mean. The song Killer Bee is sort of the generic pop that appears a lot National Finals. Grade: D

Velvet Fire - My guess is that this sort of pop/rock song by the weird looking people will win. This song seems to be a bit poorer than Ireland 2009 and that was a bit of a low point. At least parking wardens worldwide might have this blasting out of their headphones. Grade: C-

Eleftheria Eleftherou - This probably is their best chance this year but I still am by no means convinced. It lacks, well anything to make it sound like it was made on this side of 2003.

This year Greece has presented what really could be best described as a rather poor bunch of songs. However if Greece at good at one thing it is getting a good staging at the contest when it really counts. But if this was any country other than Greece I would be putting this down as an unlikely qualifier. Then again I said the same thing last year.

A Rough Guide To Melodifestivalen Final

So, as any reader should have noticed by now Melodifestivalen, The Final takes place in Globen this week. So what is in store. Well after four semi-finals and Andra Chansen we have ten songs to go before eleven international juries and the Swedish televoting public.

The Contestants

1. David Lindgren - Shout It Out 
2. Thorsten Flinck Och Revolutionsorkestern - Jag Reser Mig Igen 
3. Dead By April - Mystery
4. Lisa Miskovsky - Why Start A Fire
5. Top Cats - Baby Doll
6. Loreen - Euphoria
7. Ulrik Munther - Soldiers
8. Bjorn Ranelid ft. Sara Li - Mirakel
9. Molly Sandén - Why Am I Crying
10. Danny Saucedo - Amazing

The Scene

In spite of what some fans have said this is shaping up to be a better Melodifestivalen final than the last two years. Nevertheless if your a Eurovision, Melodifestivalen or just someone with nothing to do between 8pm and 10pm CET you should be watching the Melodifestivalen Final. It is always exciting, particularly with the advent of the international juries (I don't have a clue who sits on them or how their picked and would love to know do get in touch if you know).

The Deciders

The winner is decided on by international juries in: Belgium, Bosnia & Herzegovia, UK, Estonia, France Cyprus, Ireland, Malta, Norway, Germany and Ukraine. They award 1, 2, 4, 6, 8, 10 and 12 points to their favourite songs. according to Christer Bjorkman, Melodifestivalen producer, the international juries understand how seriously Swedes take Melodifestivalen. 

In terms of trivia France, Ireland and Norway have had juries in the voting for the last two years. Of these Ireland is the most accurate having given the eventual winner 10 points on both occasions. Norway averages 4 and France 6. Of the countries this year UK and Malta were the only ones to award 12 points to Popular last year.

473 points are then distributed to the 10 songs as a percentage proportionate to their percentage in the public televote. The winner is the song with the most points. Since 1999 televoting has been used continuously in Melodifestivalen. With the exception of 2005 and 2008, the winner of the televote has won the overall competition.

The Odds and the Polls

Every year a countless number of polls and odds come out. Eurovision fan poll results are broadly consistent with the results of Melodifestivalen (With the noteable exception of 2010). The leader of the polls (both Eurovision fan polls and internal Swedish polls) would suggest Loreen will win. Most people suggest that this is a straight two way fight between Loreen and Danny but Melodifestivalen is never that clear cut. I think that Molly Sandén or Thorsten Flinck could emerge as a dark horse. Bookies are largely in line with this view point.

So we will have more on Melodifestivalen this week, but in the mean time we have a little surprise for you which we will unveil during the week. We don't know if you will like it but hopefully you will.

P.S. Vote on our poll for Melodifestivalen on the top left of the blog.

News Wrap-Up: Saturday 3rd March

Firstly Spain, Estonia and Lithuania have selected their songs for this years Eurovision. Spain have selected Quédate Conmigo which is a very good song. I am a tiny, tiny bit uneasy about it I think there is a small bit of depth missing from the performance but we will have to wait until May to see whether it works on the Eurovision Stage.

Estonia selected Ott Lepland to represent them in Baku. His song for Baku "Kuula" is very deep and is fairly strong.  I do still maintain this was a poor choice and there was better in the competition. I really hope they keep it in Estonian. 

Lithuania have decided to send Donny Montel with his song Love is Blind to Baku. This was the favourite, though certainly not mine. Anyway we'll talk about these things later.

Anyhow in other news:

• In Melodifestivalen to most fans disappointment - including my own, Top Cats got through to the final with Thorsten Flinck. 
• Keeping with Melodifestivalen 2012 early odds and polls would suggest that Loreen should win. We will have full coverage of Melodifestivalen this week and will have a big post tomorrow night.
• A snippet of the Azeri song has appeared online. You can listen to it here, though from the snippet it does not exactly fill me with confidence of an amazing Azeri song at Eurovision. 
• Sean Banan did an excellent parody of Danny Saucedo's Melodifestivalen song which you can watch here.

I'll have a piece up on Melodifestivalen Final sometime tonight.

Despite rather controversial semi-finals Estonia have quite an excellent final lined up but hopefully some of these songs won't be at Eurovision.


Traffic - On the plus side to start at least the band's  name is easy to spell. The song however has a good accessible sound to it. Kind of the old style rock which should go down reasonably well. Grade: C+

Tenfold Rabbit - First prize for the group who could think of a more bonkers name than Malcolm Lincoln. This reminds me of the Gibert O'Sullivan classic "Nothing Rhymed". There was nothing wrong with that song and there is little wrong with this one.  It actually builds quite well. Grade: B

Birgit Oigemeel & Violina - For the first time since I started writing these reviews I think we actually could have the Estonian song for Eurovision on our hands. This is by no means perfect but in a sea of techno where each song sounds like the last one this stands out. Grade: A+

Lenna Kuurmaa - This is an innocent but fairly dull song and performance. But it really does go nowhere. If I heard this in the lift I'd be bored. Grade: E-

Teele Viira - Once again techno music, but this is a little better. While it is nice to know I still think that this is too much of the same again. Grade: C

Liis Lemsalu - Modern Jazz? Well this is interesting and pretty entertaining. The chorus is a little more straight forward that other songs in the semi-final but could do well. Grade: A-

Loss Paranoias - Starts off by sound a little the same as the song in the earlier part of this semi. The chorus is very good and that is a missing theme of the night here. Grade: B

Ott Lepland - A delicate and simple Estonian song, just for once I'd like to see them send this sort of song. His voice is good and clearly this will be good to hear live. It builds well to a nice cresendo. Grade: B+

August Hunt - That is what you'd call a sudden start but is the song actually going anywhere? No, unfortuately. It stays at the same pace the whole way through and that may not be the smartest idea as it makes the song a little boring. Grade: D+

POP Maniacs - Very odd starting song, but my instinct tells me that it is good but it does not give me a vast number of reasons to love it but I can live with it. Grade: C

I'm not sure what I'll be watching tonight so I shall have so reaction later tonight.

Andra Chansen: Football For Eurofans

Those of you who are not huge fans of Melodifestivalen will be glad to know that in eight days or so this wave of excitement will end. However also, very sadly as Melodifestivalen comes to an end so does the National Final season and with that comes a strange silence over the world of Eurovision fandom.

But enough pessimism on with Andra Chansen. If you have never been through Andra Chansen before Scandipop have an explaination of it here.

The first duel is between Dynasty and Top Cats. Dynasty have a fairly average sounding rock song helped by a lack of rock in Melodifestivalen this year. Top Cats have something that sounds like The Playtones last year but it is not anything monumental. My guess is that Dynasty should win this duel. However rock is often screened out of Andra Chansen.

The second duel is probably the most high profile for Eurovision/Melodifestivalen fans. Timoteij with their rather good song and Andreas Johnsson. Those who remember his MF 2006/2007 entries will see some parallels between Lovelight and those. However I think his song is just a little below those greats. I would love to say that Timoteij will get through but this is just to close to call.

The third duel contains Lotta Engberg and Christer Sjogren up against Thorsten Flinck once again this could go their way. I reckon that Lotta and Christer will do it their chessy but sweet song could appeal to a more wider vote. Nevertheless there is a certain "Caroline Af Ugglas" feel to this song. That has proven in the past as being a vote getter.

Finally duel four will consist of Sean Banan and Youngblood. Here you have a rather poorish song and another rather poorish song. However Youngblood probably will get through from here as there is little to take the young teen girl vote.

I'm not going to go into depth about the second round but it certainly looks like we will have an exciting and heartbreaking contest.

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.]