With great pleasure I introduce you a new reviewer John Egan! He has written about the Eurovision for esctoday.com and The Advocate. He lives in Vancouver Canada, and feels a special responsibility to recruit as many Eurovision kweens™ as possible via his legendary annual ESC Final pot luck brunch extravaganza.
ESC 2010 Review part 1 – the “Big 5”
While the obvious thing to do would be to start with semi-final one and go in chronological order…that’s rather boring (and overdone). So let’s start with the five songs already qualified for the final: four which have ostensibly bought-and-paid for their spots (the “Big Four”: France, Germany, Spain and the UK), and last year’s winner, Norway.
Spain – Algo pequenito – Daniel Diges
Daniel’s background is musical theatre to a certain extent; it shows in his consistent, solid performances of this retro-schlager song. Don’t like it: too circus music-like, too many “wo wo wo”s, nothing remarkable or memorable. There’s also nothing wrong with it. TVE: whatever you do, please don’t do the “disappearing act” thing like last year: who came up with the utterly stoopid idea of having the singer go off-camera for 10 seconds? Rating 3/5: not bad, not great.
Germany – Satellite – Lena Meyer-Landrut
This is the fourth time Stefan Raab’s driven the German selection—and once again something memorable’s come out of it. The man who brought Guildo hat euch liebt, Wadde hadde dudde da, and Can’t Wait Until Tonight probably tortured his country with a never-ending selection process. But on the big night Germany had two good singers and nothing but good songs. And they picked the right combination: this is instantly memorable, has a great, positive vibe, and Lena’s “unique” accent (I think it’s a put-on of Björk-meets-Lily Allen) all should make it stand out in voters’ minds. Hmm…never been to Berlin myself… Rating: 5/5: top 10 for sure; top 5 likely; possible winner.
France – Allez! Olla! Olé! – Jessy Matador
When I found out France 2 had convinced Patricia Kaas to sing in ’09 I was in eurokween™ heaven. And at our annual ESC brunch (the show’s on at noon Vancouver time), the kweens present agreed: Kaas’ performance was head and shoulders above the rest.
While the obvious thing to do would be to start with semi-final one and go in chronological order…that’s rather boring (and overdone). So let’s start with the five songs already qualified for the final: four which have ostensibly bought-and-paid for their spots (the “Big Four”: France, Germany, Spain and the UK), and last year’s winner, Norway.
Spain – Algo pequenito – Daniel Diges
Daniel’s background is musical theatre to a certain extent; it shows in his consistent, solid performances of this retro-schlager song. Don’t like it: too circus music-like, too many “wo wo wo”s, nothing remarkable or memorable. There’s also nothing wrong with it. TVE: whatever you do, please don’t do the “disappearing act” thing like last year: who came up with the utterly stoopid idea of having the singer go off-camera for 10 seconds? Rating 3/5: not bad, not great.
Germany – Satellite – Lena Meyer-Landrut
This is the fourth time Stefan Raab’s driven the German selection—and once again something memorable’s come out of it. The man who brought Guildo hat euch liebt, Wadde hadde dudde da, and Can’t Wait Until Tonight probably tortured his country with a never-ending selection process. But on the big night Germany had two good singers and nothing but good songs. And they picked the right combination: this is instantly memorable, has a great, positive vibe, and Lena’s “unique” accent (I think it’s a put-on of Björk-meets-Lily Allen) all should make it stand out in voters’ minds. Hmm…never been to Berlin myself… Rating: 5/5: top 10 for sure; top 5 likely; possible winner.
France – Allez! Olla! Olé! – Jessy Matador
When I found out France 2 had convinced Patricia Kaas to sing in ’09 I was in eurokween™ heaven. And at our annual ESC brunch (the show’s on at noon Vancouver time), the kweens present agreed: Kaas’ performance was head and shoulders above the rest.
Hard act to follow. But when the song’s not ever been performed live, the singer’s unknown outside YouTube, and the preview clip is a recycled clip by the same unknown singer…all the World Cup tie-ins in the world probably can’t save it on the night. And it’s not exactly a memorable song to begin with. On the bright side, it couldn’t be as bad as Virginie Pouchain …could it? shudder. Rating: 1/5: Bottom 5, perhaps last.
Norway – My Heart is Yours – Didrik Solli-Tangen
This is very well performed; in fact, it’s (yet again from Norway) an example of something that can be ported directly from the national final to the Eurovision with only a few camera changes. Didi sings it well, hits all the camera angles, and does a great job with nearly all the notes (great lower range; last chorus a bit shrieky). He’s even kinda cute.
Norway – My Heart is Yours – Didrik Solli-Tangen
This is very well performed; in fact, it’s (yet again from Norway) an example of something that can be ported directly from the national final to the Eurovision with only a few camera changes. Didi sings it well, hits all the camera angles, and does a great job with nearly all the notes (great lower range; last chorus a bit shrieky). He’s even kinda cute.
But this is also a total rip-off of: 1.) You raise me up (which should’ve been Ireland’s 8th win, since Secret Garden had already won once for Norway), the Josh Groban version. Rip-off for sure…but an exceedingly good one. Norway won’t be cheering on 30 May, but they’ll still be happy. Excellent for what it is…which is not new or special. Rating: 4/5: top 10.
United Kingdom – That Sounds Good to Me – Josh
Like France, in ’09 the UK made a serious effort (Andrew Lloyd-Webber, primetime selection series, promotional tour, workshopped the heck out of Jade) and got a top 5 result. This year they…almost did that, screwed it up and ended up with this. Pete Waterman didn’t even give something Kylie- or Rick Astley-ish: this is a pedestrian, generic 80s knock-off. Josh can sing, but he’s not overflowing with charisma. The ESC version was debuted in NL recently: much improved, but not to a standard that will do well. Rating: 2/5: bottom 5…but perhaps 21st rather than 25th!
United Kingdom – That Sounds Good to Me – Josh
Like France, in ’09 the UK made a serious effort (Andrew Lloyd-Webber, primetime selection series, promotional tour, workshopped the heck out of Jade) and got a top 5 result. This year they…almost did that, screwed it up and ended up with this. Pete Waterman didn’t even give something Kylie- or Rick Astley-ish: this is a pedestrian, generic 80s knock-off. Josh can sing, but he’s not overflowing with charisma. The ESC version was debuted in NL recently: much improved, but not to a standard that will do well. Rating: 2/5: bottom 5…but perhaps 21st rather than 25th!
This was just a little appetizer, more to come so stay tuned, John will be back with the rest. He can be reached at john dot egan at gmail
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