It's The Russian Grannies!

After three years of trying, fans finally had the delight of being able to say that Russia had sent Buranovskiye Babushki to Eurovision, aka The Russian Grannies. I was delighted to see them win – especially when they beat Dima Bilan. But what is so great about a couple of over-60’s getting up on stage and singing, well like every entry in this year’s Eurovision Song Contest it must be dissected by my good self, so hopefully through this review I will try and find out.

Buranovskiye Babushki will represent Russia in Baku next month. They won the Russia national final by a considerable distance and their selection has been broadly welcomed by fans [except maybe Dima Bilan fan’s –but there are very few of them. Their song “Party For Everybody” is a mixture of ethnic music and dance pop. As a song it has a reasonable melody, not an amazing one though. Lyrically it is very funny however as much of Europe does not understand the language they are singing in it will most likely be lost on them. While the song may not have limitations and not be the strongest Buranovskiye Babushki’s performance will most likely be well flagged and highly anticipated. I think the performance will make people sit up.

While I may have a huge amount of praise for this song it is difficult to imagine that it is good enough to win Eurovision. Eurovision is ever changing, as is entertainment in general. Since the “Susan Boyle effect” took place back in 2009 it has become more acceptable for older people to sing pop music. Buranovskiye Babushki rose to fame on YouTube, which probably means that they are well liked by a younger generation. The problem arises here. Semi-final 1 is wall to wall entertainment acts with very little room for ballads and midtempo songs. Buranovskiye Babushki will be competing against acts such as Trackshittaz and Jedward. I am not convinced that any of these countries are going to steam ahead, collecting all of the votes, I think that the votes will be evenly spread.

I also am concerned about how the juries will react to Buranovskiye Babushki. Juries tend to be very conservate by nature with little room for anything without talent. While I consider Buranovskiye Babushki to be very talented I am not convinced that the juries will see it that way.

Verdict: I think that this is going to be one of the strongest entries and performances in this year’s contest. I think that Buranovskiye Babushki have a large enough fan base to push them into the final but how they do there will be largely dependent on the reactions of juries to their song. Their song is not overly strong so it is conceivable that juries may overlook what is a fantastic entry.

Grade: A-

Belgium Opts For A Simpler Song.

By the time you read this I will be gone..........to rural Ireland. So by one o'clock tomorrow I will hopefully have enough reviewing done that I have the blog backed up into next week but we shall see how it goes. So today I turn my attention to Belgium, who will be represented by Iris. In a very short, two song national final Belgium decided that Iris should go to Baku with the song Would You?

This is definitely an interesting song. While at times it might seem like a fairly boring and predictable song it is performed very well. The song unfortunately doesn't really build up to much but instead stays fairly static with a bridge in the middle where it goes all soft. Performance wise, Iris is actually able to do most things that you want in a song like this. However I really think that the dress makes her look like a 1950's school girl and I think if she wants to go for a final qualification she will have to be a little more edgy about the performance. This may mean that she has to add a couple of extra people to the stage, but that may not be a bad thing.

The song Would You? has received a mixed reaction from fans. I think that even though it is a simple [and I really mean simple] midtempo song, it does offer the listener a huge amount. Lyrically this may not be the most out there but as was pointed out by Miss Disco over on Eurotrash Freaks; Iris is only 16 yet she is singing about a very complex relationship. I think unless people were very nitpicky they would not pick up on that but  you never know.

While this might not be out standing when you put it up alongside the likes of Nadine Beiler last year, it still is a reasonable song. More importantly it is in a semi-final of very up tempo songs with no one covering the conservative jury types. That's where a song like this is going to pick up votes from. However Belgium are in an unfortunate position of having very few neighbours in this semi-final so I think more likely than not they will not qualify.

Verdict: Personally I think that this is quite a good song but it has limitations and probably will not make the final. The biggest problem I found while writing this review was that there was nothing to write about, which for me means that it is boring - Anyhow I still think that it is a good song, simple yes, but in a way that doesn't always show up at Eurovision anymore.

Grade: B-

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

West End Eurovision Returns

As you may/may not be aware West End Eurovision returns, to the Dominion Theatre. On Thursday 26th April a variety of west end shows will battle it out performing a variety of Eurovision songs and will be judged by a jury. It's all in aid of the Make A Difference Trust. Here's the full details:

This late night show pays tribute to the Eurovision Song Contest and sees West End shows competing against each other singing past Eurovision songs, aiming to win the votes of the audience, the competing Entries judging panels and the celebrity judging panel.

Each participating Show must produce a fully costumed performance of a past Eurovision Song Contest song, which has not previously been performed in West End Eurovision, and an accompanying Video Ident. Film.

Previous celebrity judges have included: Graham Norton, Cheryl Baker (Bucks Fizz), Sally Ann Triplett (Bardo), Katrina Leskanich (Katrina & The Waves), Arlene Phillips, Frances Ruffelle, Sheridan Smith, Justin Lee Collins, Heart 106.2’s Toby Anstis, and producer, David Ian.

The show also features a special guest appearance by a past original Eurovision Song Contest entrant. Previous performances have included: Scooch, Nicki French, Bardo & The Original Bucks Fizz. 

Full details are here

P.S. I am really sorry about the background colours, I cannot get them to work right.

Beautiful Song, Dire Lyrics: Latvia - The Review.

Because of the earliness of their National Final Latvia actually generated quite a lot of interest in their song. After two semi-finals in January and a final in Feburary Latvia decided to send Anmary to Eurovision with her song “Beautiful Song”. The song tells of a singer who wants to write a song that will be a big hit and everyone knows it and hums it.

Really this is a shocking song. I didn’t expect this to win the national, and when it did, it was more disappointing than surprising. The song is fairly unremarkable, with a fair melody, but the lyrics are just dire. “I was born in a distant 1980, the year the Irish Johnny Logan won”. Does she really think that this lyric actually has anything to do with the rest of the song? Does she think that Irish people are so gullible to vote for a song just because it mentions Johnny Logan? The answer to both is that she is sadly, very mistaken. I think the lyrics of this song were best described by Ewan Spence over on the ESCInsight Podcast this is as close to My Lovely Horse as we’re going to get.

So if there is so much wrong with it why not just declare that I cannot stand it and put an NG at the bottom. Well, the truth is while I am not alone in saying that this is a pretty awful song there are many fans of this out there. This differentiates it from songs like Montenegro or Georgia while are practically fan-less [if you are a fan do leave a comment below]. Latvia has been praised in some quarters of fandom for sending a great song, while I completely disagree with most things these people say; it’s got a great melody etc. The song might have a great melody, but that’s all that going for it.

Latvia are in the first semi-final which is a rather entertaining one so I really think that it could struggle, especially in the face of very polished performances such as Ireland. I’m not convinced that the juries will give it enough support to bring it through to the final either.

Verdict: This is a really poor entry from Latvia regardless of what the fans might say. Personally I really dislike this song but I don’t hate it so I will pass the song with some qualifications [that’s what and E grade means, for your information.]

Grade: E-

A Swedish Song From Finland

After rather average results Finland decided to completely overhaul their selection process, they had indicated that they would do this at the end of UMK 2011. However what they replaced it with, an X-Factor style competition has had very mixed results as a national final selection process, so what have they sent?

Finland decided to send a song in Swedish this year, meaning that we will hear Swedish sung in the contest for the first time since 1998. The song "Nar Jag Blunder" by Pernilla Karlsson is a gentle piano ballad and is a great gentle song, rising and falling in wonderful musical arcs. It is subtle and is performed in a wonderfully understated way. Pernilla has a wonderful voice that is really suited to the song.

"This all songs well and good really" you might say. Well sadly as much as I do like this song I think that it has many limitations. It is not the most entertaining of songs, which is made clearly evident by need for a dancer to perform on stage. The song has no real end either, it just sort of grinds to a halt (no crescendo). It offers little in terms of a hook. Being in Swedish doesn't help that though. I fully respect Finland's choice to leave the song in Swedish.

This song has really is going to be under pressure to qualify in semi-final 1. Sandwiched between Belgium, who have another straight forward and uncomplicated ballad. Really it is difficult to see how Finland might qualify for the final when the public televote might be so against it. Why would they be against it? Well, I think being a dry ballad it might not exactly set the place on fire on Tuesday night half way through all of the songs. On the other hand it may stand out to more conservative voters, however I think they will drift towards Belgium.

Verdict: This might not drive the fans or the public crazy in the semi-final but in spite of its many failures it triggers something happy inside of me when I hear it. I'm not convinced it is a qualifier though.


Grade: A-

Standing Out In Glorious Black and White

Now that we are well past National Final season most Eurovision fans have made a decision to either leave Eurovision land completely [cowards] or carry on despite a huge lack of news clawing your nails into a desk. I am fortunate to have a very busy college schedule [no seriously, we actually do exams too] so that will keep me occupied until about three weeks before the contest. Anyhow in the mean time there is reviews to be written so here goes Bosnia & Herzegovina...

This year Bosnia & Herzegovina went with the usual internal selection announcing the artist way, way back then coming up with a song at the last minute [that's a bit of a head scratcher for me]. Maya Saar was selected for Baku. If you're not sure who she was, she was the girl playing the piano in Dino Merlin's song last year. Without looking to closely at her music I had assumed that it would be a rather bouncy song reflecting her performance last year.  But no, I was wrong. Instead Bosnia & Herzegovina decided to send a piano ballad. 

The song is definitely a subtle one. While there is nothing wrong with a subtle song, it may not be thing that people want to hear 17 songs into the semi-finals. However I think that the juries might like this. The black and white will play well if they opt for that at Eurovision. It sort of reflects like something out of "The Artist". The problem with this song is it looks to be building to a crescendo but then lets you down. But, on a personal  level I do thing it is a nice, relaxed song but it might stick out like a sore thumb in the semi-final, I'm not sure. The song is rather introverted and to stand out Maya will have to work to make a connection with the audience. I really think they should go with the black and white effects.

Semi-Final 2 is a very unpredictable one, and while history would suggest that Bosnia should qualify but strange events have happened before like Croatia not qualifying in 2010. In a semi full of different songs but a huge number of balkan countries I don't think that this is a definite qualifier, but it does have a great chance thanks to a good draw. 

Verdict: More than likely will qualify but still this is by no means a guaranteed qualifier, but it is a good song.

Grade: B-