Here's the video to Teitur's latest single The Girl I Don't Know.Was a bit unexpected for me- it's not quite the image that forms in my mind when I listen to the song...
Teitur is on tour in the UK at the minute,so go and see him if you can.You won't regret it :)
Friday 22 May 2009
Thursday 21 May 2009
I don't know for sure where this is going
Nearly a week on and Mr Rybak is still on the front pages of VG.Not surprising I suppose.Fairytale is of course still number one in the VG Lista (Top 20),but at number 2 is another of Alexander's songs- Funny Little World.The jury is still out on it here at Europop Mansions Kent Branch.Once you get past the fact that it sounds like the theme tune to QI,it's quite pleasant I suppose.I guess I like it a bit more than I thought I would.There are rather large similarities to Espen Lind's Scared of Heights (which I possibly prefer),and it really is cheesier than a fondue,but it's quite a nice antidote to the manicness of Fairytale.
Monday 18 May 2009
365 days and counting....
Until the first semi final of Oslo (probably) 2010.Unfortunately I have the trifling matter of exams around that time,but whatever.Bring it on :)
Čestitke Regina!
Not only did Regina come 9th on Saturday,they also won the Marcel Bezençon award for Best Composition.Which is pretty cool.Here's the presentation.Who needs all the glitz of the Oscars when you can quickly shove a screen up in the green room of the Olimpiskiy?
Saturday 16 May 2009
Still happy :)
So the most boring entry of this year's final may have come second (seriously,I really don't understand its charm.Is bland lyrics and a static performance what people want from ESC these days?) it's all good,because Regina did so much better than I expected :) 9th or 10th,I can't remember where they finished,but they did very well.And rightly so.It was by no stretch the best song in the competition but I loved it and the performance was very aesthetically pleasing.Slightly miffed that Norway had to go and give France 1 point right at the end meaning Regina didn't finish with the same points as them,but still,it's good :)
More about the final tomorrow when my headache has gone.
Oh,apart from my favourite quote of the night from Graham Norton when Rybak was coming back on stage at the end:
"Oh,is he gonna squeeze a tear out now?"
Hehe :)
More about the final tomorrow when my headache has gone.
Oh,apart from my favourite quote of the night from Graham Norton when Rybak was coming back on stage at the end:
"Oh,is he gonna squeeze a tear out now?"
Hehe :)
I'm so proud :)
Thank the Lord for Moldova being on after BiH,providing me with time to come and blog and say how great Regina were.Davor sounded brilliant tonight,after the semi final on Tuesday I was a bit worried.But it couldn't have gone better tonight.This blogger is very happy indeed :) :) :)
Thursday 14 May 2009
SF2
De Toppers woz robbed!
Yay for Denmark though.I adopted them as my homeland back in January,so am glad to see they qualified.Niels is still a little bit too Ronan-like for me,but Believe Again is a really good song.Simple but effective.
Other musical highlights:
- Croatia,as mentioned at the start of the show.I always support Hrvatska from afar,no matter how bad their song is,but Lijepa Tena is very pleasant.Bit surprised they qualified,but they certainly deserved it more than some others did.
- Sakis surprised me.He was always a definite qualifier,but I never really gave the song a chance and assumed it would be rubbish,generic dance music.Which technically it is,but of the perennial favourites (Greece,Turkey and Armenia),it's the best.And definitely better than Shake It.I voted for Shake It :/ Oh,I loved his flat escalator...thing.And the ripped off Dima jumps.
- Alexander was good.Although I'd seen the rehearsals about 3000 times,so knew what to expect.Still seemed better tonight though.
- Poland seem to do a good line in ballads.Loved Isis last year,and this time around,Lidia was super and the whole thing gave me goosebumps.It was quite intense I thought,and although I wasn't really paying attention to the words or anything,I kind of felt it.Much better than Iceland's load of pap.Yes,yes Johanna has a good voice and all,but the song is soooo boring.
General highlights:
- Dimitry Shepelev
Other,unrelated highlights:
- I used my trusty system of eurovision.tv as well as Belarus TV.When I first put Belarus TV on about 5 minutes before the start of the show,the first thing I saw was Dima K (looking great as ever these days),and then Regina.God bless Belteleradiocompany and all who make these shows!They know how to please this blogger :)
General annoyances:
- Poland not qualifying
- Netherlands not qualifying
- Slovenia not qualifying
- Zoli not qualifying
- Moldova qualifying
Yay for Denmark though.I adopted them as my homeland back in January,so am glad to see they qualified.Niels is still a little bit too Ronan-like for me,but Believe Again is a really good song.Simple but effective.
Other musical highlights:
- Croatia,as mentioned at the start of the show.I always support Hrvatska from afar,no matter how bad their song is,but Lijepa Tena is very pleasant.Bit surprised they qualified,but they certainly deserved it more than some others did.
- Sakis surprised me.He was always a definite qualifier,but I never really gave the song a chance and assumed it would be rubbish,generic dance music.Which technically it is,but of the perennial favourites (Greece,Turkey and Armenia),it's the best.And definitely better than Shake It.I voted for Shake It :/ Oh,I loved his flat escalator...thing.And the ripped off Dima jumps.
- Alexander was good.Although I'd seen the rehearsals about 3000 times,so knew what to expect.Still seemed better tonight though.
- Poland seem to do a good line in ballads.Loved Isis last year,and this time around,Lidia was super and the whole thing gave me goosebumps.It was quite intense I thought,and although I wasn't really paying attention to the words or anything,I kind of felt it.Much better than Iceland's load of pap.Yes,yes Johanna has a good voice and all,but the song is soooo boring.
General highlights:
- Dimitry Shepelev
Other,unrelated highlights:
- I used my trusty system of eurovision.tv as well as Belarus TV.When I first put Belarus TV on about 5 minutes before the start of the show,the first thing I saw was Dima K (looking great as ever these days),and then Regina.God bless Belteleradiocompany and all who make these shows!They know how to please this blogger :)
General annoyances:
- Poland not qualifying
- Netherlands not qualifying
- Slovenia not qualifying
- Zoli not qualifying
- Moldova qualifying
Maybe I've changed my mind
OK so Croatia's song seems to have passed me by this year.Although it gets a bit noisy and messy towards the end,but it's nice on the whole.Very southern Italian with a bit of Balkan dramaticness.I like.I'll replace Serbia with this one on my Want To Qualify list.
And by the way- is it just me or does Sinead look to old to be singing a song with such stupid childish lyrics? If this qualifies while Hera's Someday didn't even get a look in,I'll be miffed.(Christina Schilling is partly responsible for them both.)
By the way,I'm twittering too (tweeting?) if you're remotely interested.It's partially filling the company-shaped void I have.
And by the way- is it just me or does Sinead look to old to be singing a song with such stupid childish lyrics? If this qualifies while Hera's Someday didn't even get a look in,I'll be miffed.(Christina Schilling is partly responsible for them both.)
By the way,I'm twittering too (tweeting?) if you're remotely interested.It's partially filling the company-shaped void I have.
WYM Offical ESC Predictions- Part 2
Not in the slightest bit excited about tonight's events,not least because of the lack of Regina,but will attempt to follow it all anyway.
Predictions for qualification.Originally I didn't have Hungary down,but seriously,this semi is so piss poor,it has to go through,surely?:
- Norway
- Azerbaijan
- Ukraine
- Denmark
- Greece
- Hungary
- Cyprus
- Serbia
- Estonia
- Slovenia
Who I want to see in final (with possible exception of last 2):
- Norway
- Hungary
- Denmark
- Slovenia
- Netherlands
- Azerbaijan
- Lithuania
- Estonia
- Albania
- Serbia
Been doing my bit to promote Regina today.Although here in France,the main obstacle seems to be persuading them to watch ESC in the first place.Anyway,I sent Bistra Voda to a colleague today,along with the words "this is my favourite,it's great".Although I did send him La Voix,Todas as Ruas do Amor and Dance With Me too,which might have counteracted it all.
Predictions for qualification.Originally I didn't have Hungary down,but seriously,this semi is so piss poor,it has to go through,surely?:
- Norway
- Azerbaijan
- Ukraine
- Denmark
- Greece
- Hungary
- Cyprus
- Serbia
- Estonia
- Slovenia
Who I want to see in final (with possible exception of last 2):
- Norway
- Hungary
- Denmark
- Slovenia
- Netherlands
- Azerbaijan
- Lithuania
- Estonia
- Albania
- Serbia
Been doing my bit to promote Regina today.Although here in France,the main obstacle seems to be persuading them to watch ESC in the first place.Anyway,I sent Bistra Voda to a colleague today,along with the words "this is my favourite,it's great".Although I did send him La Voix,Todas as Ruas do Amor and Dance With Me too,which might have counteracted it all.
Tuesday 12 May 2009
SF1
So,now I've calmed down a little bit after my double-sided excitement at getting all 10 qualifiers right AND my favourite boys from Bosnia getting through,I can write a bit about this evening.
Let's start with BiH though.It wasn't Davor's greatest vocal performance,but on the whole I thought it was great.I adore the military theme and they all looked fab in their outfits.And I still love the bit where they all stand together like revolutionaries about 2 and a half minutes in(well,they're "soldiers of love" according to Aleksander) with the flag and the wind machine.I hope the nerves don't get to Davor on Saturday.He's so confident in all the interviews I've seen,but they're one of the favourites (which still surprises me),so they must be feeling a bit of pressure.
Other musical highlights:
- La Voix was better than expected.After the rehearsals I'd written it off a bit,but it was OK.Malena seemed to enjoy it.
- Flor de Lis were great for Portugal.Now they really did enjoy it,that was obvious.And so they should have,it's a lovely song.The singer (can't remember her name :/) and the accordion player looked fabulous too.I want both of their outfits :)
- Andrea was super,it's a shame she didn't qualify.I loved her routine.So did my friend Emma back in Gillingham.So much so,she text me about it twice :)
- Waldo's People were good.Emphasis on the People rather than Waldo.But then you can't really have one without the other I suppose.Cool performance.
- Next Time from FYROM were better than I expected too.
General highlights:
- That stage is amazing.Elena from Romania's set was probably my favourite- the pink,flowery one.And Portugal's was cool too.
- Dimitry Shepelev
- Naff as it was,I loved the opening bit with the kids on the bird.The magic was kind of ruined though as soon as Andrey came on stage."HELLO EUROPE!!!!" That little girl will never hear again...
- Actually in some ways I did kind of like Andrey and Natalia.Mostly because they were so bad it was endearing I think.Especially the parking joke.
- The postcard bits.Although as Emma said- "why are they wearing countries on their heads?"
- The military band singing along to Tatu.It was so fabulous I have no more words to describe it :) Although I still prefer the Belarussian military band's version of Work Your Magic that they did at Eurofest last year.
- The Russian words/phrases before each song.Although it didn't go unnoticed that one of them was "skazka"- Fairytale.It's a fix- Norway will win!
General annoyances:
- Despite having the eurovision.tv stream on as well as the stream from a Belarussian TV channel on mute in the background in case of emergencies- the whole thing just stopped when Andorra came on and I didn't get either feed back until the end of Switzerland.Boo,they were one of my favourites too.
- Turkey qualifying because they're Turkey and it's written in the rules of ESC that they must qualify regardless of what pap they send.
- Armenia.Cool outfits,but that HAS to be the most annoying song in the world ever,surely?That chorus just gets me every time,I can't stand it.
- The fact that practically everything good was in tonight's show and we're left with all the chaff on Thursday.With the big exception of Zoli of course.Mmmm,Zoli...
Let's reconvene in 36-ish hours then shall we?
Let's start with BiH though.It wasn't Davor's greatest vocal performance,but on the whole I thought it was great.I adore the military theme and they all looked fab in their outfits.And I still love the bit where they all stand together like revolutionaries about 2 and a half minutes in(well,they're "soldiers of love" according to Aleksander) with the flag and the wind machine.I hope the nerves don't get to Davor on Saturday.He's so confident in all the interviews I've seen,but they're one of the favourites (which still surprises me),so they must be feeling a bit of pressure.
Other musical highlights:
- La Voix was better than expected.After the rehearsals I'd written it off a bit,but it was OK.Malena seemed to enjoy it.
- Flor de Lis were great for Portugal.Now they really did enjoy it,that was obvious.And so they should have,it's a lovely song.The singer (can't remember her name :/) and the accordion player looked fabulous too.I want both of their outfits :)
- Andrea was super,it's a shame she didn't qualify.I loved her routine.So did my friend Emma back in Gillingham.So much so,she text me about it twice :)
- Waldo's People were good.Emphasis on the People rather than Waldo.But then you can't really have one without the other I suppose.Cool performance.
- Next Time from FYROM were better than I expected too.
General highlights:
- That stage is amazing.Elena from Romania's set was probably my favourite- the pink,flowery one.And Portugal's was cool too.
- Dimitry Shepelev
- Naff as it was,I loved the opening bit with the kids on the bird.The magic was kind of ruined though as soon as Andrey came on stage."HELLO EUROPE!!!!" That little girl will never hear again...
- Actually in some ways I did kind of like Andrey and Natalia.Mostly because they were so bad it was endearing I think.Especially the parking joke.
- The postcard bits.Although as Emma said- "why are they wearing countries on their heads?"
- The military band singing along to Tatu.It was so fabulous I have no more words to describe it :) Although I still prefer the Belarussian military band's version of Work Your Magic that they did at Eurofest last year.
- The Russian words/phrases before each song.Although it didn't go unnoticed that one of them was "skazka"- Fairytale.It's a fix- Norway will win!
General annoyances:
- Despite having the eurovision.tv stream on as well as the stream from a Belarussian TV channel on mute in the background in case of emergencies- the whole thing just stopped when Andorra came on and I didn't get either feed back until the end of Switzerland.Boo,they were one of my favourites too.
- Turkey qualifying because they're Turkey and it's written in the rules of ESC that they must qualify regardless of what pap they send.
- Armenia.Cool outfits,but that HAS to be the most annoying song in the world ever,surely?That chorus just gets me every time,I can't stand it.
- The fact that practically everything good was in tonight's show and we're left with all the chaff on Thursday.With the big exception of Zoli of course.Mmmm,Zoli...
Let's reconvene in 36-ish hours then shall we?
Important question of the evening
Who is Dimitry Shepelev and does he want to come to my next birthday party?
WYM Offical ESC Predictions- Part 1
So,3 hours to go.I'm still not sure yet if my connection will hold out,or even if I'll be able to get the stream to work to start with,but I'm excited all the same.It's been a bit of an odd Eurovision year this year.My beloved Russia has disappointed me with its song,it's hosts and- from what I've read in various places- its attitude towards ESC at times.BUT,the stage is amazing and I'm sure there'll be some really good entertainment during the intervals and such.
It's taken forever for me to actually get enthusiastic about this years' contest too.As you can probably see from my lack of posting over the last few months.Maybe because it's the first year I've been working full-time and haven't been able to spend as much time as I would normally on ESC stuff,maybe because my ESC buddy isn't even in the same country as me this year,or maybe it is just a crap year compared to normal.But actually,although there aren't any completely brilliant entries this year,there are a lot more good ones than I originally thought,and I think I'll be happy with the result.
Anyway.These are my predictions for qualification tonight:
- BiH
- Sweden
- Armenia
- Turkey
- Israel
- Finland
- Iceland
- Malta
- Portugal
- Romania
And these are the ones I would like to see in the final (admittedly I don't really care about the last 3,I just needed to make up the numbers):
- BiH
- Portugal
- Sweden
- Montenegro
- Belgium
- Finland
- Switzerland
- FYROM
- Czech Republic
- Bulgaria
We will see...
It's taken forever for me to actually get enthusiastic about this years' contest too.As you can probably see from my lack of posting over the last few months.Maybe because it's the first year I've been working full-time and haven't been able to spend as much time as I would normally on ESC stuff,maybe because my ESC buddy isn't even in the same country as me this year,or maybe it is just a crap year compared to normal.But actually,although there aren't any completely brilliant entries this year,there are a lot more good ones than I originally thought,and I think I'll be happy with the result.
Anyway.These are my predictions for qualification tonight:
- BiH
- Sweden
- Armenia
- Turkey
- Israel
- Finland
- Iceland
- Malta
- Portugal
- Romania
And these are the ones I would like to see in the final (admittedly I don't really care about the last 3,I just needed to make up the numbers):
- BiH
- Portugal
- Sweden
- Montenegro
- Belgium
- Finland
- Switzerland
- FYROM
- Czech Republic
- Bulgaria
We will see...
Sunday 10 May 2009
Just play the f*****g note!
Having read the exciting news that my boys from Bosnia&Herzegovina are now 3rd favourite to win in Moscow on Saturday (8/1- they're ahead of perennial undeserving favourite Turkey!) and are red hot favourites to win the semi on Tuesday (the one that's not on telly in France,hmph),I'm now super excited about next week.
So as is tradition for me every year,it's time to watch the Father Ted Eurovision episode. Dick Byrne's The Miracle Is Mine makes me laugh even more now after last year.It's so over-the-top I just can't help but think of Dima and his ladder and everything :)
So as is tradition for me every year,it's time to watch the Father Ted Eurovision episode. Dick Byrne's The Miracle Is Mine makes me laugh even more now after last year.It's so over-the-top I just can't help but think of Dima and his ladder and everything :)
Saturday 9 May 2009
Ugh,von Teese? Really?
First Dima brought along his two famous buddies last year,now Germany have got Dita von Teese with them for Miss Kiss Kiss Bang...What's next- will Putin come on with Prihodka to blast the last chorus of Mamo? Seems ESC is turning into a "who has the most famous friends" contest,and it's a bit naff.I think Germany's song is great on its own really.Much better than stuff they'd normally send anyway.Especially as NDR chose it too- NDR who seem to think 24 hour Coldplay and Gabriela Cilmi is what listeners want.
Thursday 7 May 2009
ESC 2009- The excitement begins (at last)
After watching the rehearsals of all the songs that are actually any good in this year's ESC (count them on one hand...),I have concluded that Zoli Ádok is the hottest man on earth at this moment in time a very good singer indeed.Charismatic too.And possibly even more of a discotastic dancing genius than Sergey Lazarev.
According to ESCMalta
Hungarian package- is that what he's known as these days? I look forward to seeing the results.
Speaking of glamorous costumes,I'm loving Malena's dress.Even if La Voix itself has lost quite a lot of its charm with those backing singers,who sound bored stiff.Admittedly the second rehearsal was a bit better,but I really can't see it being Stockholm 2010.I still love Malena though- "the dancers look beautiful and I look like white trash...But this is how I usually dress".Classic :)
Denmark, Finland, Netherlands (Jeroem especially) and Slovenia (how cute are some of those violinists?) all sound great too.And well,actually so do quite a few others.Maybe this won't be quite the rubbish year we thought it would be?
The song I really can't get out of my head though,and have liked since the first time I heard it,is Regina's from Bosnia&Herzigovina.
OK,so some of Davor's moves are quite amusing,and it is a bit nothingy in places.But I think it's beautiful.Yes it's the kind of ethnic ballad that we've all got bored with in the last few years (even if this is doing pretty well at the bookies),but those military-style drums and the San Marinese-esque (remember them?) beepy bits make it stand out from previous ethnic Balkan songs I think.Also,top marks for group pose incorporating wind machine and red flag.
So I think it's time for WYM to swear its allegiance and declare,Jesse's Diets style:
This year,I will be mostly supporting Bosnia and Herzegovina.
It's offical.
According to ESCMalta
Tamas Naray promised to create glamorous costumes for the Hungarian package
Hungarian package- is that what he's known as these days? I look forward to seeing the results.
Speaking of glamorous costumes,I'm loving Malena's dress.Even if La Voix itself has lost quite a lot of its charm with those backing singers,who sound bored stiff.Admittedly the second rehearsal was a bit better,but I really can't see it being Stockholm 2010.I still love Malena though- "the dancers look beautiful and I look like white trash...But this is how I usually dress".Classic :)
Denmark, Finland, Netherlands (Jeroem especially) and Slovenia (how cute are some of those violinists?) all sound great too.And well,actually so do quite a few others.Maybe this won't be quite the rubbish year we thought it would be?
The song I really can't get out of my head though,and have liked since the first time I heard it,is Regina's from Bosnia&Herzigovina.
OK,so some of Davor's moves are quite amusing,and it is a bit nothingy in places.But I think it's beautiful.Yes it's the kind of ethnic ballad that we've all got bored with in the last few years (even if this is doing pretty well at the bookies),but those military-style drums and the San Marinese-esque (remember them?) beepy bits make it stand out from previous ethnic Balkan songs I think.Also,top marks for group pose incorporating wind machine and red flag.
So I think it's time for WYM to swear its allegiance and declare,Jesse's Diets style:
This year,I will be mostly supporting Bosnia and Herzegovina.
It's offical.
Monday 4 May 2009
You're hiding from yourself
Song of the day:
Been listening to Röyksopp's new album Junior this evening.As I expected,it's pretty damn good.More on that another time maybe.When I've finished listening to it.
Been listening to Röyksopp's new album Junior this evening.As I expected,it's pretty damn good.More on that another time maybe.When I've finished listening to it.
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