Potential ESC entrants for Liechtenstein Part 1: Rääs

Yesterday I wondered aloud on this blog about the existence of the Liechtenstein music industry.Well it turns out there is one after all,and rather interesting it is too from what I've seen so far.So welcome to the first in a (probably very short) series of Potential ESC entrants for Liechtenstein.

Meet Rääs.



(from their website www.mundart.li)

How very reminiscent of Revolverheld's latest album cover (released a year after the picture of Rääs was taken).Who's copying who I wonder? :)



Anyway,Rääs are interesting because not only do they sing in German,they sing in the Liechtenstein dialect of German,which has more umlaut a's than you can shake a stick at.This alone would make them great candidates for ESC next year- there's not nearly enough dialects in the contest.

This is Bis du sälb (something like Be Yourself),and from what I can glean from the lyrics it's just about being responsible for sorting out your own problems.It contains good drums.



I take it that video is where the picture I posted comes from.Unless they were two separate occasions and there's just a lot more paint-flinging done in the Germanic countries than I ever realised.

Rock of course never does well at Eurovision,unless you're Turkish,in which case any old tat you send does well.So we wouldn't want Rääs to send something like that and end up doing a San Marino and bombing in their debut year.

So how about a good old ballad?



It's the paint again! Good Lord... Anyway,I think that song is lovely.But ballads are divisive at Eurovision.Maybe we want something a bit more mad?



Now I understand most of the words to this one.Balzers is the village in Liechtenstein where Rääs come from,and they're saying that they've been all round the world,but there's only one place they want to be.That being Balzers of course.This has Eurovision written all over it surely? It's a bit Ovo je Balkan but without the weird subplot about kissing,it's a better tune than Mama Corsica (a song that was also in a dialect AND finished 4th in 1993),and it isn't bland ethnopop like Hohrehronie.Sadly though,it is 3 years old so they wouldn't be able to use it next year.Maybe they can quickly knock one up about how great a capital city Vaduz is though and cobble together a Zauvijek Volim Te type video with lots of gratuitous shots of castles and flags waving in the breeze.

Come on 1FLTV,let me be your Eurovision consultant!