Life after Helsinki 2007 Eurovision

So here we are again, another year, another Eurovision. After listening to all the songs a couple of times, trying to imagine the live performance and taking into account the style etc., I have come up with my top 40 in reverse order below. It’s great to see Australia compete, I’m really looking forward to being in the hall when Guy comes on stage, it will be a great moment. While I have rarely managed to predict the winner, I think I’ll have the top 5 more or less right this year. Time will tell, only a couple of weeks to go:

It's already a tradition of this blog that Peter Clancy comes up with a review of the season's offering and this year's no exception. Enjoy! Well, we’re back to Eurovision time again and to be honest this year’s crop of entries is quite disappointing which is not so bad because it is likely to make the voting very erratic and with votes going everywhere we could have an unexpected winner...  My prediction is that the initial voting will have all kinds of changes in the leader board. This year I am reviewing the songs in order of my ranking – from the worst to the best in my opinion. the Q is that they will qualify; nq is they will not qualify and F is they're already in the final  Moldova (Wild Soul; Christina Scarlat) : Trying to be a better song than it is, though it has a nice build up ... still a boring song. (will not qualify (nq); rank-37) Belarus Cheescake; Teo) : Boring, an excuse to enter a song - won't do well ! Too jazzy (nq; rank-36)   ...

Irish Peter, who lives in Belgium and is a member of OGAE Sweden is at it again. Here is what he thinks about the 2012 edition of the Eurovision song contest and who will win. ... Well, the Eurovision circus has managed to find its way to Azerbaijan and it looks like they are pulling out the stops to make this one of the best ever. Unfortunately I don't think the quality of the songs is great this year which could lead to a few surprises. Here is an overview of my thoughts on the selection.  In my overview an "(F)" indicates that I think they will get to the final. Montenegro - It was hard to know if I was listening to the opening of a new version of "phantom of the opera" ... I have only two words for Amadeus - "why bother?" - It’s not even worth more comment. [Score: 0/10] Iceland - Good dramatic opening, great drumbeat, the only difficulty with this is twofold - a lot of ballads and it's a bit repetitive - but a definite for the ...

Here we have it, the first and hopefully not the last review of this year's songs. Rafael de Alba has kindly reviewed the songs once again for my blog. As a long time Eurovision fan and songwriter (remember this ? Or this ? And what about this  / that ?) he shares his thoughts and predictions of the Eurovision song contest 2012 edition. Here you go: Dear readers, it gives me great pleasure to share my appreciation of this year’s songs with you all. The chances are, I will probably get it all wrong again! Semifinal 1 Albania – Its melancholic build-up works for me. Her voice is sublime: torn like Björk’s, capable like Yma Sumac’s. It won’t win because it has to grow on the listener, but it is about time Albania’s sweet eccentricity gets recognized this time around. 5 Austria – I really don’t mind rap, really! but I find this performance incredibly vulgar. I do hope it doesn’t get through. 1 Belgium – I suspect it will take a better song for Belgium to br...

It's time of the year when I feature guest reviews and here comes the first one, already a tradition in this blog: Peter Clancy!Here goes: Well it looks like the the Finninsh lineup is pretty decent this year - there are some quite nice songs, and I'm really interested to see what song will actually represent Finland in Düsseldorf.... Automatic Eye - I'm not the one who's sorry o Nice quick opening, not sure about the lyrics, but a good beat and could appeal a lot to a younger generation (which had a major impact on the voting last year). My only concern here is sometimes there seems to be a missing beat ... and seems to go on and on... a bit repetitive ... not my favourite, but will probably progress beyond round 1. Points: 8/10 Johanna Iivanainen - Luojani mun o Ah, a lovely ballad, nice voice and a bit anthemy - but with a twist. Don't know what it means but I like it ... not sure it will win Eurovision, but is certainly a very nice song and would do...

Here comes another review. This time by Peter Clancy who has already done that last year. He should fly the flag for Belgium, Ireland and Sweden. Does he do that? Read here : First SF Moldova After their failure of luring the Euroivision voters by Grandma and her drum a few years ago, they seem to be going for the failed approach of Belgium .. this type of beat and song hasn't worked for Belgium, Finaland or Iceland in the past, it probably won't work this year either. It may scrape to the final, but even if it does it won't be in the top 10. 4/10 Russia Its hard to see russia even get to the final with this - low quality by comparison to some of their previous entries. The singer swallows his voice and the song is more fitted for a 1950s wedding than a Eurovision of the 21st century. 4/10 Estonia This is a risky song and may push the boundaries of point gathering - however, it will get a few neighbourly points which may push it to the final, but it will n...

John Egan's review of the songs of Eurovision 2010 in Oslo continues. Read about him and his thoughts about the Big4 and Norway here . This time he digs into the songs in the Semi-final One : Although a few participants have dropped out over the last couple of years (hopefully 50/50 jury and televoting in the semi-finals will bring some back), there’s still a queue for the Eurovision. As in previous years we’ll have two semi-finals; this time with 19 songs in each. Ten from each advance to join the give pre-qualified finalists. Overall semi-final one looks like a somewhat easier one: there are probably a dozen songs with a chance of qualifying. Moldova Run away (English) Sunstroke Project & Olia Tira If you follow the national finals at all you’ll recognize our Olia’s name—but not her look. She’s a great singer, who’s previously sung lovely songs for lovely girls. And never quite got the ticket for the big show…until now. Here she’s teamed up with one of those great Eastern...

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 ...

The third review this year comes from a newcomer: Italian Marco Mosca! He is a member of both OGAE Italy and Slovenia, big fan of Italian music of the 50's, 60's and 70's as well as Slovenian music and Balcan music in general. Add some Portuguese, African, country and a lot of Eurovision, that's Marco! He also organizes Union song contest and Grand Prix delle Regioni within OGAE Italy. Ok, here are Marco's comments and thoughts: About Eurovision 2010. Unlike many Eurovision fans I prefer ballads therefor I am very happy we have plenty of them again, even if this year there isn't anything extraordinary amongst them and edition 2010 in general is rather average and none of the songs is spectacular. On the other hand that might make the contest and voting more interesting. Last year I was rooting for Rybak and his victory was quite clear from the beginning, this year the voting should be more even. Let's wait and see! The most significant changes this year i...

Marcello Medici reviews and gives votes to this year's entries. Marcello is an active Eurovision fan, member of OGAE Italy and also has his own blog filled with European music, check it out here . Marcello has an admirable habit of not following the national finals and listens to the songs only when all or most of them have been chosen so his judgement is based on that; hearing the songs all together for the first time. Here goes: The votes based on hearing the songs on video, some of them studio versions and some of them live performances puts them in an uneven situation and my opinions might change once I hear them all in CD. What strikes me the most in the first hearing is the difference in quality of the songs in the first and the second semifinal. In the second one there are better songs that risk to be left out in favour to the weaker ones in the first semifinal. Switzerland gains points because sung in French, and Croatia is my favourite of all the ballads this year. I woul...