My thoughts before the voting starts:
- Vote for Belarus
- Serbia will win
- Armenia to get null points
Where oh where are Israel?
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Watching the Eurovision 2007 semi-final, the influence of Lordi, last year’s winner, is clear. No one dressed up as monsters or dabbled in the dark side (bar Switzerland perhaps, although they smiled too much), there are:
There were a couple of other curious themes: fans (as in paper and feather fans for dancing with), opera, and the that thing where people stand behind eachother and wave their arms (or fans) in such a manner that it looks as though the front person has lots of arms. That kind of thing. My thoughts so far are Israel to win for audacious wierdness, catchiness, alleged political controversy, and the singer’s attempt at auto-dj’ing. Ace. I would like to see the four guitars of Iceland go through in the hope that they’ll add some more in the final. Finally, the Belarussian dance routine was easily the best. Update: Belarus through: Yay; FYR Macedonia, so so classic Eurovision; Slovenia, “opera wierdness” my notes say; Hungary, not bad bluesy thing; Georgia, swordsmen, can’t remember the song; Latvia, more opera: the Il Divo nonsense; Serbia, like, whatever; Bulgaria, bizarre drumming thing, only a drumkit though a humdinger of a drumkit; Turkey, a Turkish song [one place left and still no Israel!]; Moldova: I can’t even remember it and made no notes about it. No Denmark (poor version of Dana International), Israel, nor Switzerland (one of the favourites). Ah well. Oh dear, we’re not going to win Eurovision again. Of course, given the geopolitical situation and all that, we’re probably not going to win for years anyway: the Finns were particularly blessed last year in straddling the Scandinavian and East European blocs. However, what I mean is that we’ve chosen the wrong song again. The sub-Steps cabin-crew-themed slightly-pretending-to-be-Bucks-Fizz campness of Scooch might have done passably well five years ago but is essentially an updated but still out of date boom-bang-a-bang entry. Look what won last year. Look at Dana International even. Politics aside, it isn’t simply novelty that wins Eurovision any more; it’s that something Xtra (LOL), and Flying the Flag (for You) doesn’t have it. On the bright side, it wasn’t (though nearly was) Cyndi, who sang a faintly Celtic (i.e. Irish-sounding) dull ballad. She is actually French and said in an interview that nationality doesn’t matter at Eurovision. I think you’ll find it does, otherwise it would be an individual competition and not nearly so much fun. The national element of Eurovision is part of Europe’s safety valve that helps the nations of Europe from engaging in world wars when they get bored. This is why it is important to keep the Middle Eastern countries involved (although Israel are seemingly sailing close to the wind this year). Maybe we should get Iran, Iraq, and the US involved, although I can’t imagine what the Americans would come up with: I suppose it would give Britney Spears something to do when the kids have gone to school. You can listen to the other entries on the BBC website. The only reason to vote for Brian Harvey was pity. My hopes were with Hawkins and Brown who I thought might bring some of the absurd metallish spirit of Lordi with them, but which was merely high-pitched and disappointing. By far the best act in my opinion was, not typically for me and despite the spelling of their name, Big Brovaz. It still wouldn’t have won, but it would have picked up points for having at least some quality, which Scooch just doesn’t. Scooch just aims to entertain. Fair enough, Lordi did that, but their song was good too: it even had a good tune as well and was entertaining even if you were blind. That said, I really do hope Scooch win. Although a good song is important if someone else wins, it matters nought if we win. The BBC reports that Morrissey may be singing the British entry at this year’s Eurovision Song Contest in Helsinki, although his possible involvement might possibly be limited to possible writing of a potential song. Anyway, I’m sure Tim will be overjoyed that there is another reason for him to watch the contest this year over and above the usual excellent entertainment and Greco-Slavic politics. In addition, something I didn’t know:
Good stuff. After Lordi’s appearance and triumphant win last year, it will be fascinating to see how it develops this year. More metal, perhaps? Is the Morrissey touch too late? It’s Eurovision this weekend, and the highlight this year seems to be Finland, who have entered a death metal band called Lordi (the Lord). As the BBC reports, there are five band members whose real names are apparently a mystery but “are known as Amen the unstoppable mummy, Enary the manipulative valkyrie, Kalma the biker-zombie and Kita the alien manbeast”; vocals are by Lordi, whose real name Wikipedia actually gives as Tomi Putaansuu. And these are not just here for Eurovision: the Wikipedia entry for the group Lordi also reveals that they have four albums (one a compilation for the UK market) under their belt and have already shed three members, two of them apparently still in the line up according to the BBC. Who knows? Sadly, Finland do not have an automatic bye to the final like the UK, so they have to get through the semi final on Thursday. As a BBC licence-payer I won’t be able to see it as it’s on BBC3. But never mind. May the predictions of Monty Python not come true this year:
In addition, Acid for Blood has some pictures drawn from flickr and a video from YouTube. The BBC of course also has audio of the song (Hard Rock Hallelujah) which I have still not actually heard. |
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