ESC 2010 Review Part 3

Albania: Juliana Pasha- Nuk Mundem pa Ty (It’s All About You)

Not normally a fan of Albania, but this is pretty good. It’s catchy without being annoying. The chorus is repetitive but doesn’t get on my nerves, which is always a good sign. Juliana is a bit of a diva, and I do like her voice, but the whole thing is just a bit dated. I’d like it to get to the final but I don’t think it’s quite good enough. The Albanian lyrics don’t seem to be a million miles from the English version, and I don’t know which version she’ll perform on the night (a mixture, probably), but I think English is the way forward on this one.

Lyrics- “It’s all in the way you look at me, you’re driving me crazy”

Verdict- LIKE

***

Belarus: 3+2- Far Away

Insert “Far Away” based joke here. The Belarussian selection seemed to go on forever this year, limping towards this sorry result. No that’s not fair, listening to it for the second time now, it’s not as bad as I thought before. At least there’s a drop and surge, even if it isn’t followed by a key change. And one of the guys is quite cute. I think the main problem is something with the girls. The voices just don’t go together at all. It just feels like it should be a boyband song, like something Premier Minister would have done. But, the chorus IS very catchy.

Lyrics- “I’ll see a happy day, it’s far away but I will find it”

Verdict- LIKE? Not much, but maybe a bit

***

Belgium: Tom Dice- Me and My Guitar

Albania’s entry is called It’s All About You, this should really be called It’s All About Me. I don’t think Eurovision is the place for an autobiographical song, so I really don’t like the lyrics. They’re not even interesting autobiographical lyrics. But as far as the music is concerned, I’m loving it. It’s simple but effective, and although Eurovision purists wouldn’t agree, I love the idea of just a man with a guitar on stage. No gimmicks, no wind machine, no key change (!). Tom looks great too, he doesn’t look like a typical Eurovision singer, and I really like that. A whole contest of 42 singer/songwriters with a guitar or piano would be very tedious of course, but the odd entry like this is very refreshing, and I think it will work in Tom’s favour. I hope so anyway. The excellent Eurovision Windmachine doesn't agree though: [translation] "This dice has an extra side- one with a big fat zero on it". Harsh,but funny :)

Lyrics- “When darkness falls, then all of the stars will see just me and my guitar”

Verdict- LIKE. Would be Love if it wasn’t for the lyrics

***

Greece: Giorgios Alkeos and Friends- Opa

Ooh it’s like a big advert for Jamster. Seriously, how (and more importantly, why) do they make that ringtone sound? There are parts of this that I like, such as the singing, and the whole ethnic sound. At least it isn’t boring ethno-pop like Greece usually send, but still, I can’t say I’m a fan. Raquelita-Greek relations have been strained to the point of snapping in the past 6 months, so the less I say about Greek music, the better :)

Lyrics- Erm...”OPA!”

Verdict- MOSTLY DISLIKE