Today, the song of the day is fairly unknown still, but definitely up and coming. I am talking about some fresh talent from Finland. Katéa, who is already being compared to the greats like Lana Del Rey and Florence + the Machine, just released her debut single ‘That Ain’t Love’ and it is a convincing piece of in your face pop music, but not without a soulful twist. Her voice is strong, raw and full of emotion and the production is bombastic with handclaps and choirs and most of all. Most important of this all, the melody of the chorus is undeniably strong and hits you right in the face when you first hear it. If this single proves one thing, it is that Katéa is one to watch closely.
Since last night, all Eurovision finalists of this year are known. In the second semi final, once again ten countries qualified. Where the first show on tuesday had a few surprises, but no big mistakes, the results in the second show were a bit less fortunate. Let’s be real here, Israel absolutely deserved a spot in that final with Mei Finegold’s excellent performance of the strong song ‘Same Heart’. It is unbelievable and not deserved that they are out. Other than that, I predicted the finalists right and can’t wait to see what happens on saturday, but first, a few words on every performance in this second semi.
01. Malta: Firelight – Coming Home Malta had the honour of kicking off the show on thursday. Their ‘Coming Home’ is a pleasant song with a charming and warm quality about it. Firelight’s lead singer has a good voice and comes across well on screen. The parts that feature the female vocalist, are pretty good as well. I am not sure if this will bring them to the higher regions of the scoreboard on saturday, but this was definitely good enough to qualify in this semi final.
02. Israel: Mei Finegold – Same Heart This was the biggest shock for me when it comes to this year’s semi final results. How on earth could this not qualify when only 5 songs did not go through and at least half of the 15 performances were absolutely not even close to the same league as Israel’s performance. Mei Finegold looked like a star, sounded very powerful and the staging of the performance overall came across very well. ‘Same Heart’ has a strong chorus and is a very modern pop track with a slight twist of dance. Maybe the aggressive style of performing this angry song put Europe off it. I will definitely miss Mei in the final and I would not be surprised of Israel pulls out of the contest after they missed the final twice in a row while they deserved so much better.
03. Norway: Carl Espen – Silent Storm After the powerhouse performance of Israel, Norway brings a very pure and emotional moment to the contest. Carl Espen gives a touching performance of his ballad ‘Silent Storm’. The verses are performed very understated with soft vocals and piano as only instrumentation, but during the chorus, his voice gains more power and strength and a full orchestra joins in. For me, this is absolutely one of the best songs of the year and his performance does it justice. I expect to see him in the top 10 on saturday.
04. Georgia: The Shin & Mariko – Three Minutes To Earth And after a sure fire qualifier comes a song that sure as hell did not stand a chance. I am not saying these people have no musical ability or talent, because they obviously have, but in this song it just did not work. It seems like they tried to put as many ideas, styles and what not in 3 minutes, which makes a mess of both the song and the performance. There was absolutely nothing that made me want to listen to this again, so I am not sad that Georgia did not make it to the final this year.
05. Poland: Donatan & Cleo – My Slowianie Poland is giving their best this year for Eurovision, as they send the biggest hit of the year in their country to the contest. Donatan & Cleo’s ‘My Slowianie’ already has over 40 million views on YouTube. I really like the mix of folk music and hip hop which sounds cool, but the shouty singing and not so strong English lyrics are not my cup of tea. The act with the big breasted ladies from the music video is funny, but does not add anything to the song really. I would not have missed them if they did not qualify, but for Poland in Eurovision, it is a good thing they made it to the final which such a big national hit.
06. Austria: Conchita Wurst – Rise Like A Phoenix I guess we all knew this night would be all about Conchita Wurst. The Austrian drag act did get a lot of attention before the song contest even started, but with her perfromance, she showed she is not a gimmick. Conchita has an amazing and powerful voice and her song ‘Rise Like A Phoenix’ is absolutely one of the best of this year. It is dramatic, it has a James Bond flavour, the climax is impressive and of course the message of the lyrics and her appearance should be heard. Conchita Wurst shows you can be anything you want to be, which is important taking into consideration the recent political situations for the gay community in some countries. It is good to see all the love she received during the results. This might well be a big contender for saturday night now that she is in top 3 of the bookmakers as well!
07. Lithuania – Vilija – Attention Lithuania had the hard job to perform after Austria and to be honest, their show just did not make any impression after Conchita. Vilija tried her best to get the attention in a quite literal way, but the screamy vocals and somewhat strange choreography did not really help her. Somewhere in ‘Attention’ a nice pop melody is hidden, but because of the noisy production and loud vocals, this does not really come across very well. I was quite sure she would not make it.
08. Finland: Softengine – Something Better This was the suprise of the evening for me in terms of performances. I really liked this pop-rock song from the first time I heard it, but I was impressed even more by the performance. The young singer of the band sounded quite good and all members came across very well on screen. Another great thing about the performance was the light show that looked really good. When the explosive chorus of the song started, blue lights were visible all over the stage which was a great visual. If they can pull off another performance like this, they might get a decent result on saturday, especially because ‘Something Better’ is the only pop rock song in the final and in it’s genre, it is pretty good!
09. Ireland: Can-Linn feat. Kasey Smith – Heartbeat
Although I think Ireland’s song this year was quite good, I knew it would be hard for them to qualify as ‘Heartbeat’ does not really stand out. When you listen to it, it is definitely pleasant, but just after the song is finished, you already forgot you ever heard it. The song misses something memorable and this could have been solved with an amazing performance, but that did not really happen. Kasey is a talented singer, but she did not manage to perform the song faultless and although she looked stunning, the visuals on stage were one of the weaker moments this year. I saw it coming that they would not go through, but this song was nothing to be ashamed of.
10. Belarus: TEO – Cheesecake To be brutally honest, I could really have done without Belarus in the final this year. To me, he is like a poor man’s Robin Thicke and I don’t even like Robin Thicke! Although TEO’s vocals are alright, his English is just not good enough to perform a song in that language. I can’t really listen past the silly lyrics of the song, but I still kind of understand why people might like the laidback vibe of the song. This was translated well into the performance with some lazy moves that even looked quite cool in some weird way. I expected him to make it to the final, but definitely not instead of Israel. How is this better than poor Mei Finegold?
11. FYR Macedonia: Tijana – To The Sky Oh Tijana, where should I start? She seems like such a nice and enthusiastic person, but that performance was like a train wreck. Just like Ireland, this decent but not so special track needed an awesome performance to stand out, but this performance stood out for all the wrong reasons. The dancer looked out of place, the camera positions where not so strong, her own little choreography looked awkward and even her vocals were not as strong as they needed to be. Tijana sounded shaky and looked like she was scared, especially in the first part. Although the melody of the song is quite catchy, the lazy use of the word ‘beautiful’ in the chorus just does not do it for me. I’m sorry, but this just was not good enough.
12. Switzerland: Sebalter – Hunter Of Stars Now this is cute! The song is so catchy because of the whistling. I am sure large parts of Europe could not get ‘Hunter Of Stars’ out of their head for the rest of the night. It is not one of the best or impressive tracks you will hear on saturday, but it is cute and very charming. Talking about charming, Switzerland got themselves a charismatic and likeable performer that will definitely melt some hearts across Europe. I don’t think it does stand any chance of a top 10 result on saturday, but in terms of diversity of styles, it is great they will be there. Deserved spot in the final if you ask me. (Not as good as Israel though obviously)
13. Greece: Freaky Fortune feat. Riskykidd – Rise Up Catchy summer tune from Greece with some dance and rap influences. Not really my thing, but I can definitely understand why they qualified. They gave an enthousiastic performance, although the singer really needs to up his game if they want to stand any chance of winning on Saturday. I don’t really think or hope they will go as far as that, but of course they stand a chance at a place in the top 10, like Greece does basically every year. I am not a big fan of the trampoline at the end as it does not really make any sense to me, but oh well. Curious to see though if they will get any 12 points on saturday now that Cyprus does not participate anymore.
14. Slovenia: Tinkara Kovac – Round and Round This was the one and only finalist that I did not predict right. I do like Tinkara’s song, but like what I said about Ireland, it is quite forgettable. I thought it needed an epic performance to qualify, but that performance never came. Her vocals were ok, but there was not much more to it. I am happy for Slovenia though, as they send good songs almost every year, but never really get the high results they deserve. Still this performance leaves me wondering, as it is an ok song with a mediocre performance. Israel had a good song with a great performance. I know I can’t stop talking about Israel, but why Europe? Why?
15. Romania: Paula Seling & Ovi – Miracle Romania was one of the favourites in this semi final so no surprise there that they qualified. Their performance looked and sounded good and especially the high note Paula did was impressive. Other than that, the song is kind of disappointing to me. Their ‘Playing With Fire’ from 2010 was way better and more original. I don’t expect them to come anywhere near that 3rd spot they reached with that song. Although the track is catchy, the rhyming of ‘Miracle’ and ‘beautiful’ is a little cringy and there are a lot of better songs in this genre. Still, they deserved to qualify and will definitely get a decent result on saturday.
Now that every finalist is known, I think it will be a very exciting final. I, myself am really looking forward to the performances of Spain’s Ruth Lorenzo, Molly from the UK and Emma from Italy that we did not see before. Based on what I have seen so far, I hope Austria, the Netherlands, Sweden, Spain, United Kingdom, Azerbaijan, Norway, Hungary and maybe Armenia and Italy are going to battle for the places in the top 10 tomorrow.
February just started and that means that many European countries are about to decide which song and artist they will send to the Eurovision Song Contest. In the next few weeks I will pay attention to some of the national finals that will take place and write some reviews on the songs that will represent their country in Copenhagen in May. This weekend Sweden started off with their huge national final Melodifestivalen, Spain premiered their five songs and both Finland and Switzerland chose an entry.
Sweden: Melodifestivalen heat 1
The first heat of Melodifestivalen 2014 was always going to be a big event as last year’s runner up Yohio and former Eurovision winner Helena Paparizou both participated. Yohio performed his song ‘To The End’, which is in the same style as last year’s ‘Heartbreak Hotel’, but slightly better. No surprise that he made it to the final, although his vocals weren’t all that. I would have preferred to see Helena Paparizou in his spot in the final, but her power pop track ‘Survivor’ only made it to the second chance round. ‘Survivor’ is nowhere near Paparizou’s best songs, but it is a nice enough, catchy track and her performance, although a bit too stripped back, was powerful. Accompanying her to Andra Chansen, is Linus Svenning with his decent ballad and performance for his brother who passed away.
Sylvester Schlegel deserved to end up in the last place with a song that did not go anywhere, accompanied by a poor performance. Mahan Moin’s ‘Aleo’ was not a bad track, although totally cliché Eurovision, but her visually and vocally weak performance killed all hope that was left for that track. Elisa Lindström’s song and performance were just outdated and Alvaro Estrella actually had a modern and funky song, but his weak vocals kind of ruined the potential. There was one young girl that did steal the show and that was Ellen Benediktson who managed to go directly to the final. Her ‘Songbird’ is a sweet little song with a captivating chorus. Her delivery is fragile, beautiful and endearing. My favourite in this year’s Melodifestivalen so far!
Spain: The songs
The Spanish broadcaster RTVE decided to put their five songs online that will compete in the national final. To be fair, all five songs are at least of a decent quality. Raúl’s ‘Seguir Sin Ti’ is an alright traditional ballad and Jorge González will try to win the Spanish votes with a slightly outdated, but still catchy slice of Spanish Eurovision pop. La Dama also tries to impress with a dancey up tempo track and although it is not a bad song, Spain has not been lucky with this type of music in Eurovision recently. If the Spanish people choose wisely, either Brequette or Ruth Lorenzo will go to Copenhagen. Ruth, who gained fame in the UK for participating in X Factor, sings the beautiful and current ballad ‘Dancing In The Rain’. The classy bilingual track showcases her vocals nicely. Brequette also sings in both English and Spanish on her power ballad ‘Run (Más)’. In comparison to Ruth’s track, Brequette’s song is a little more powerful and makes more of an impact on first listen. The chorus hits hard and is very memorable. Still I believe, both Ruth and Brequette could give Spain a nice result in the next Eurovision Song Contest.
Finland: Softengine to Copenhagen
While Sweden and Spain just started their national selections, Finland already chose their representative in a show on Saturday night. Pop/rock band Softengine managed to win the show with their track ‘Something Better’. It could be described as a big guitar pop song with a powerful chorus. The singer of the band manages to convince in a live setting as well. Still I cannot help but feel that this track misses an edge to really stand out between all the other countries in Denmark. In my honest opinion, Mikko Pohjola’s ‘Sängyn Reunalla’ that finished in second position, does have a little more personality and stands out a little better. The cute little song would definitely have done well with the juries. At the moment of writing this, Mikko’s song was at the first spot in the Finnish iTunes chart, while Softengine only placed at the sixth position.
Switzerland: Sebalter wins
Switzerland decided to send Sebalter to Eurovision with his song ‘Hunter Of Stars’. The song is catchy but the whistling is border on annoying and the performance at the national final looks quite amateurish. I kind of get the feeling that the song is going nowhere and the performance just does not come across well on screen. It could well be that Switzerland makes the same mistake as last year, when the catchy but clumsy ‘You And Me’ by Takasa did not make it to the final.
