Skip to main content

THIS IS ESC 2013: ICELAND, CROATIA, ITALY

Iceland - Eythor Ingi - Ég Á Líf
One of the most underrated songs this year. I admit this wasn't my favorite in the Icelandic national final but it was a good runner up for me. The song has a quiet beauty about it and luckily it also stays in Icelandic that sounds especially soft and delicate in this particular song. Eyþór himself comes across rough and sweet at the same time. Like a heavyrocker daddy singing a lullaby to his kid, and the song is indeed a lullabylike one that works also well live. Hard to say how the televoters react to this, and will the jury overlook it as well. This said, one of the better songs this year, and one of the best singers, too. No matter what happens, Iceland should be proud!
Croatia - Klapa s Mora - Mižerja
Croatia surprised us all with their choice (anticipated by last year's Nina Badric exclusively to Blogilkar here) but like Iceland, whatever happens they can be proud of it. The song is similar to the Icelandic one in the way that I like it a lot when I hear it, but otherwise I don't quite remember it. But I like it. The guys sing very well, the melody is nostalgic and full of Slavic melancholy and misery i. The good, beautiful misery. This one is one of the hardest to predict and can go either way. There's also the English version, Hard times used for tourist promotion and I want to go to Croatia. Immediately!
Italy - Marco Mengoni - L'Essenziale
Italy is sending the biggest thing in the country at the moment. Mengoni is topping the single, album, download, iTunes... all possible charts and half the nation's teenager girls are suffering from Mengonimania, shame they can't vote for him! But he has also a lot of fans abroad and like in those two previous cases, no matter what happens,  Italy can be proud. It's the number one song in the country this spring, if Europe won't get it, it's Europe's fault, they will think. This said, he shouldn't worry. I think the juries will like this, and so will the televoters as this is exactly what we have been waiting from Italy; a real Italian Sanremo ballad with hint of drama thrown in, sung entirely in Italian by someone who looks and acts like we expect Italian stars to look and act. As there won't be a runaway winner this year (most likely), Italy might be closer to the victory than we think scoring high points from most every country and climbing the scoreboards steadily and end up.... How high? On top of it?

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

ESC 2016 WISH LIST: MARGARET FOR POLAND

Małgorzata Jamroży aka Margaret has also been tipped for Eurovision and apparently she did turn it down but she'd be perfect. She's got a look and persona you can't unnotice nor forget, she's got hit songs, she has been voted or nominated for everything from Trendy artist to the Hope of the Year, Fashion Icon and Glamour Woman of the year besides the usual best video, song, album, debut..... Oh she's also a fashion designer! She's very clever with social medias and would surely use it to her advantage if selected for Stockholm 2016. Her debut album is titled Add the blonde , do we need to say more? Except it includes mostly Swedish written pop tunes like Tell me how are ya , Wasted , Start a fire and Heartbeat . And of course her debut single and internationally noticed Thank you very much that you can enjoy below with all its anti-textil feel. I think she's Eurovision perfection, she's cheeky and fun, can we have her?

SONGS OF THE YEAR 2015: #5 KRISTA SIEGFRIDS - ON & OFF

Krista Siegfrids is delivering nice pop tunes one after another and this one is particularly catchy and soon you will be singing along..... Hopefully her Melodifestivalen entry will be equally good!

MALTA: THE QUEEN OF L-GHANJA TAL-POPLU - CORAZÓN MIZZI!

If The Travellers have proven recently one can do great singing in Maltese there's also someone else doing great stuff: Corazón Mizzi. While in Malta I was looking for some Maltese CDs only to find out they pretty much don't exist, and the most helpful staff in legendary D'Amato - probably the world's oldest record store today - suggested me Corazón's Hawn jien (2014 album). Having nothing else really to bring home I decided to go or it without even realizing it is the Corazón from Maltese Eurovision selections. And what a find it was! Thank you D'Amato! But let's start from the obvious: Eurovision. Corazón has been offering us songs in the Maltese Eurovision selection since 2009, actually making her best result this year with Falling glass , one of my favorites btw. I also liked last year's Secretly but that failed even the final. But Corazón's true calling is singer-songwriter in Maltese as this excellent album clearly shows. We have al

ESC 2016 BELARUS: NAKED WITH WOLVES?

Today's funniest Eurovision related story comes from Belarus. Some sources claim Ivan wants to perform on stage naked and with live wolf or wolves. It surely would be a first on Eurovision stage! We have seen some forgotten underwear over the years, and some cardbox animals though..... Is it time to take things a bit further?  No, according the rules live animals are not allowed, and Eurovision being a family show nudity won't do either. (It seems to be ok to be half naked if you are a dancer though..... )

EUROVISION 2024.... COMING UP!

 

GREECE: HELENA PAPARIZOU HITS AGAIN WITH HAIDE

Eurovision song contest 2005 winner Helena Paparizou has been enjoying Top-5 hits every year since 2003 with the exception of 2010 and 2014, this latest one being already her 27th! And Haide is charting also in Bulgaria and Finland, of all places. The catchiness of her hits has changed less over the years than her face....  Here's the English version , below the Greek version. 

EUROVISION TWEETS REVEAL DETAILS....

Brandwatch, one the world's leading providers of analytics of social medias has summed up the Twitter buzz during the Eurovision 2013 final on May 18, 2013. Over 1,8 million tweets have been analyzed and it's rather fascinating stuff. On top you can see the figure showing topics. Romania and Ireland got the tweeting go wild as did Greece, Belarus, Malta and Armenia. And you can see political tweets took over during the voting..... The figure above is for the emotions. Once again Romania and Greece got it going wild. A lot of love and joy was spread all over during the show while hate & anger increased during the voting. Is someone surprised? But have a look and analize yourself here . And here you can access to country by country details. Did Ukraine's giant get people's attention? or Moldova's outfit? Did Ireland have sex factor? Or Azerbaijan? And what about Belgium's dance routine?

FINLAND: CONGRATS HANNA PAKARINEN - BABY IS COMING!

No more leave me alones as Eurovision 2007 veteran Hanna Pakarinen has published in her Youtube channel a video unboxing the Finnish state's maternity box aka layette set thus announcing she's due to have a baby later this spring. Congratulations!

ESC 2016 ARMENIA: IT'S IVETA MUKUCHYAN!

Armenian tv has revealed tonight the name of their artist for the 2016 Eurovision song contest in Stockholm. It's 29-year-old Iveta Mukuchyan. Born in Yerevan she moved with her family to Germany when she was 6. At 23 she moved back to Armenia and continued her music studies. She has taken part in the Armenian Pop Idol finishing 5th in 2010 and she also did The Voice of Germany . In 2012 she was voted the Sexiest Armenian.  Armenian tv has made a call for songwriters all over the world to submit a song for her by November 13, 2015.  Let's see which direction the final choice will go, Freak or her latest release that you can hear below.... Whatever it is it will be an improvement from last year's fiasco.....