Finland is the first country in 2013 to continue their selection as today at 13 CET the final versions of the 12 songs will be played on Radio Suomi (click "kuuntele lähetystä" on right hand side) along with presentation of the singers. As you may remember the snippets we have heard so far are the demo versions....
Arion - Lost in the woods ***
Standard pop heavy this blogger would say. Considering the guys are only 17-18 years old it's pretty strong effort. They took advice from the jurors ideas and end the song with only human "lost". Effective indeed.
Atlético Kumpula - Paperilyhty ****
Retro schlager with a lot of nostalgy, nice lyrics. Finns will surely like this kind of stuff but Europeans? A feel good song!
Diandra Flores - Colliding into you****
Beautiful, melodic, a bit dramatic and excellent vocals by Diandra. But does it take a bit too long before the song gets going? Besides being the number one favorite to win this, I'm having doubts even if I'd love to see her in Eurovision....
Elina Orkoneva - He's not my man ***
Motown vibe in this song that's jazzy and groovy and Elina sings it well, after all she wrote it. Songs of this type have had a mixed results in Eurovision, usually not setting the scoreboard on fire.... The final version is way better than the demo though.
Great Wide North - Flags ***
Anthemic pop-rock from the Kiviniemi brothers that reminds us of U2 and similar. The song grows and develops and will surely work fine on a big stage and if they get the audience along... Yet, I think something is missing but I don't know what it is?! By the snippet I expected more.
Iina Salin - Last night ****
From rock anthem to disco anthem. The beat is now heavier and this sounds fantastic. Makes me think of those 1990's disco hit compilations and this would surely fit in nicely into some endless mix tape and wouldn't differ from the most amazing black voices there belting out their songs. Now I'm very curious how this will transfer to the stage! And does it have what it takes to stand out in 3 minutes?
Ilari Hämäläinen - Sytytä mut vaan **
Heavy pop in Finnish. Something Kirka could have recorded in his period of pseudorockpop. Fun when you listen to it but do I want to listen this on purpose? Maybe not. As show stopper in some musical this would work better than Eurovision I think. This needs a big show and all sort of things going on stage me thinks...
Krista Siegfrids - Marry me ****
This surely won't pass unnoticed, that's for sure and that's not only for the coming stage show. Like the jurors said this is so "in your face" filled with church bells and ding dongs that you love to hate this. Is it too early to declare this is my favorite for Malmö yet?
Last Panda - Saturday Night Forever ****
In Eurovision world this would be closest to Andorra's Anonymous in Helsinki 2007. Catchy rock pop punk whatever. If they have the same energy on stage live that in the recorded version this is also one to watch out and possible surprise that takes the ticket to Malmö. By the midway of the song you are singing along and in the party mood... go pandas!
Lucy was driving - Dancing all around the universe ***
The intro is great even if it goes on forever... I think the verses are way too long and the song takes too long to get going and the results is rather boring I'm afraid. Shame, I expected more from this one, too. But it has a sing-a-long part with the big arena and surely will work fine on a big stage. Hmm... I'm a bit confused. Am I missing something here? Maybe this is better after all than I understand now?
Mikael Saari - We should be through ****
The piano is beautifully arranged, that has been said before. Actually the whole arrangement is very well done and beautiful, and maybe the best part of the song. I'm not so convinced about the vocals by Mikael and I'm wondering how this would sound if sung by some tenor or something? Or someone like Kate Bush? Interesting to see this on stage as well how it looks like there. Could go either way really. If he plays his cards right he might end up even winning this....
Rautakoura - Ilmalaivalla **
And this is supposed to be the finalized version and not the demo? Sounds as bad as that one really. Anyways, closest to Atlético Kumpula here but I think those middle class hippies will collect all the votes instead of these street musicians. The singer has a rather annoying way of singing and that banjo sound isn't exactly my cup of tea....
So, there they are. In general a pretty good selection of songs, more solid than last year. It will be very interesting to see what people favor! I think there are several songs that could win only by the merits of the music but how much the artists will matter (Diandra?) and will Finns ignore the ones that could possible do well internationally (Krista) just because they might find her annoying? Or will they choose something that could become a local hit (Atlético Kumpula)? And what will they think about Last panda, or Lucy was driving, or Mikael Saari. And where shall we put Iina? Hmm... very interesting year!
What do you think? Please comment in the comments box!
Arion - Lost in the woods ***
Standard pop heavy this blogger would say. Considering the guys are only 17-18 years old it's pretty strong effort. They took advice from the jurors ideas and end the song with only human "lost". Effective indeed.
Atlético Kumpula - Paperilyhty ****
Retro schlager with a lot of nostalgy, nice lyrics. Finns will surely like this kind of stuff but Europeans? A feel good song!
Diandra Flores - Colliding into you****
Beautiful, melodic, a bit dramatic and excellent vocals by Diandra. But does it take a bit too long before the song gets going? Besides being the number one favorite to win this, I'm having doubts even if I'd love to see her in Eurovision....
Elina Orkoneva - He's not my man ***
Motown vibe in this song that's jazzy and groovy and Elina sings it well, after all she wrote it. Songs of this type have had a mixed results in Eurovision, usually not setting the scoreboard on fire.... The final version is way better than the demo though.
Great Wide North - Flags ***
Anthemic pop-rock from the Kiviniemi brothers that reminds us of U2 and similar. The song grows and develops and will surely work fine on a big stage and if they get the audience along... Yet, I think something is missing but I don't know what it is?! By the snippet I expected more.
Iina Salin - Last night ****
From rock anthem to disco anthem. The beat is now heavier and this sounds fantastic. Makes me think of those 1990's disco hit compilations and this would surely fit in nicely into some endless mix tape and wouldn't differ from the most amazing black voices there belting out their songs. Now I'm very curious how this will transfer to the stage! And does it have what it takes to stand out in 3 minutes?
Ilari Hämäläinen - Sytytä mut vaan **
Heavy pop in Finnish. Something Kirka could have recorded in his period of pseudorockpop. Fun when you listen to it but do I want to listen this on purpose? Maybe not. As show stopper in some musical this would work better than Eurovision I think. This needs a big show and all sort of things going on stage me thinks...
Krista Siegfrids - Marry me ****
This surely won't pass unnoticed, that's for sure and that's not only for the coming stage show. Like the jurors said this is so "in your face" filled with church bells and ding dongs that you love to hate this. Is it too early to declare this is my favorite for Malmö yet?
Last Panda - Saturday Night Forever ****
In Eurovision world this would be closest to Andorra's Anonymous in Helsinki 2007. Catchy rock pop punk whatever. If they have the same energy on stage live that in the recorded version this is also one to watch out and possible surprise that takes the ticket to Malmö. By the midway of the song you are singing along and in the party mood... go pandas!
Lucy was driving - Dancing all around the universe ***
The intro is great even if it goes on forever... I think the verses are way too long and the song takes too long to get going and the results is rather boring I'm afraid. Shame, I expected more from this one, too. But it has a sing-a-long part with the big arena and surely will work fine on a big stage. Hmm... I'm a bit confused. Am I missing something here? Maybe this is better after all than I understand now?
Mikael Saari - We should be through ****
The piano is beautifully arranged, that has been said before. Actually the whole arrangement is very well done and beautiful, and maybe the best part of the song. I'm not so convinced about the vocals by Mikael and I'm wondering how this would sound if sung by some tenor or something? Or someone like Kate Bush? Interesting to see this on stage as well how it looks like there. Could go either way really. If he plays his cards right he might end up even winning this....
Rautakoura - Ilmalaivalla **
And this is supposed to be the finalized version and not the demo? Sounds as bad as that one really. Anyways, closest to Atlético Kumpula here but I think those middle class hippies will collect all the votes instead of these street musicians. The singer has a rather annoying way of singing and that banjo sound isn't exactly my cup of tea....
So, there they are. In general a pretty good selection of songs, more solid than last year. It will be very interesting to see what people favor! I think there are several songs that could win only by the merits of the music but how much the artists will matter (Diandra?) and will Finns ignore the ones that could possible do well internationally (Krista) just because they might find her annoying? Or will they choose something that could become a local hit (Atlético Kumpula)? And what will they think about Last panda, or Lucy was driving, or Mikael Saari. And where shall we put Iina? Hmm... very interesting year!
What do you think? Please comment in the comments box!
Comments