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queeranarchist · 3 years

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Dear Creator

General Likes: Trans characters, queer themes, queer solidarity, character development, strong gen. relationships and interactions with characters outside of a relationship, dialogue-driven story, non-linear narrative, animals, angst, hurt/comfort, character introspection

DNW: underage, a/b/o, past S10 for SPN

Realm of the Elderlings

Well if this reads as though I haven't finished the books it's because I haven't, but I will have by reveals so don't worry about spoilers.

Fitz/Fool

1. Set in the Golden Fool Trilogy before the Fool being Amber and him being in love with Fitz is revealed they have the head out on a sea voyage for whatever reason. They come across the Paragon, Fitz freaks because why does that ship have my face and also it's ALIVE? The Fool has to then awkwardly explain what happened.

2. At the end of the Golden Fool Trilogy they venture back to the Fool's homeland together.

3. After the Red Ships are vanquished Fool seeks out Fitz. They travel the world together with Night Eyes.

Brashen/Althea

1. I would love a bit more detail about their life after their series! We see them with a kid in the Dragon series so I would adore a look into that family.

2. I would love to see how these guys relationship works with their families, does Brashen ever really speak to his family again? Does Malta have the Trell's over and Brashen and his family awkwardly sit at the table together.

3. Generic ship adventure! I would love to see these guys travelling around with the Paragon and what they get up to.

Supernatural

DNW: Anything past Season 10

Likes: boy king arc, Sam centric fic, queer Sam (I literally head canon him as anything with whatever pronouns), Bobby, trans Dean, religious iconography/themes, Sam being a lore nerd

Dislikes: Sidelining Sam 

Sam/Ruby

1. Ruby lives, I’d love to see how this plays out in Season Five. Whether she sticks with Lucifer or chooses Sam.

2. Sam goes dark side after freeing Lucifer

3. Earlier on Sam starts trusting her and fulfilling his role as the boy king. If this stops Dean from going to hell, changes the way the demons work etc

Sam/Jess or Sam/Jess & Dean

1. Jess lives au! My personal head canon is that Jess is pre-med and being very intent on saving people. When she finds out about hunting, she realises that she can’t just go back to being “normal” knowing people are dying. Maybe Sam decides to go back to law school and they have a semi long-distance relationship where she asks him for advice, maybe they hunt together every now and again. Maybe she joins Dean and Sam and they become a hunting trio.

2. Jess gets brought back to life – place this in any season you want! Go wild.

Dean & Sam

1. Dean keeps in touch with Sam during Stanford! Maybe from the get-go, maybe after a couple of years, maybe seeing each other, maybe just through postcards

2. I’d love to see them during S4 where their relationship starts to fall apart, but like also see them still loving each other

3. John gets a year to live instead of instantly going to hell AU – how do they react? Do they try to save him? Does John tell them?

4. I’d love a sort of non-linear story of them (especially Sam because it’s been so long) trying to integrate John into his adult life also looking at his life as a child/teen. You know the general angst about how he’d done it, he’d gotten away and he’s right back at square one. Also, Dean starting to realise that he isn’t a kid anymore, and he’s got his own thoughts etc

Sam

1. Licherally anything in the boy king arc! I’d love to see him fulfilling his role as the boy king. This stops Dean from going to hell, changes the way the demons work etc

2. His time at Stanford! I’d love to see him adjusting to his new life.

3. I would love to see a bit more of him in Season Four! How he feels about Dean being chosen by the angels, how this affects his view on religion, how he feels about himself and the demon. Blood etc

4. Just some introspection anytime in the series tbh, love to see this boy struggle with wanting to be good, with wanting to be normal, and then um not being those things

5. I’d love a sort of non-linear story of Sam trying to integrate John into his adult life also looking at his life as a child/teen. You know the general angst about how he’d done it, he’d gotten away and he’s right back at square one.

Final Fantasy XV

Likes: fics that include the whole gang, trans Gladio, anything with Prompto, angst about destiny, angst about royal linage, character introspection

Noctis/Prompto

1. I really like angsty fics about destiny with this lot - I would love to see how the way in which they’ve been raised effects their relationship, be it being groomed to be king or shield or advisor. I would love a getting together fic, with whichever ship you wish to write, with a lot of internal angst.

2. I would also love a post cannon fic where Noctis is alive (magic, never died, skip over it entirely it’s up to you) where they all settle down, maybe Noctis lets the world think he has died so he can live a peaceful life?

3. I would like to see a fic of Prompto integrating himself into Noctis’ life, Gladio and Ignis have been around his entire life, so how does Prompto feel about them? How do they feel about him? Honestly I’m 100% here for awkward insecure bby Prompto

4. Set between game cannon and Brotherhood, I‘d be down to see what these guys got up to in the years between high school and the road trip. Did Prompto and Noctis study after high school? Do they travel?

5. Less of a prompt and more a vague feeling but like *slaps prompto* this bad boy can fit so much angst in it. Honestly, he’s childhood is depressing af, with the lack of parents and friends combined with a shit body image/relationship with food I wld rlly love some emotional hurt/comfort with him and the squad

Naruto

Likes: the summons, Rock Lee, the squads and how they operate, Naruto getting to eat the ramen he deserves, Sakura being an actual bad arse fleshed out character, trans Naruto

Sasuke/Naruto

1. Naruto leaves and joins Sasuke on his mission to destroy to Leaf, talks him out of y’know murdering everyone but agrees that the Shinobi system is deeply fucked and needs to be fixed

2. I’d like a fic of Sasuke thinking about Naruto while doing all his plotting, be it set when he’s with Orochimaru or the Akatsuki, it would be nice to see him thinking about Naruto, wanting to stop doing so, wondering how strong he could have been if he had managed to kill him and gain the mangekyou earlier

Gai/Kakashi

1. I’d like a fic set just before Kakashi gets his genin, really love to see Gai trying to talk up how cool having a squad is! Dragging Kakashi to see his kids and being like aren’t my team great! And then Team Gai getting into some crazy hijinks that make Kakashi a lil scared about the future but also maybe a bit endeared towards them

2. a fic of Gai watching Kakashi slowly lose himself while in ANBU, of him trying to make things right and not being able to and then eventually asking him to be removed from the forces

#letter #fffe

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sytycdinternational · 3 years

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Eurovision 2021 Semi-final #1 Review

Strongest Semi-Final ever since I started watching this show. I’m fully prepared to lose faves.

1. The Roop - Discoteque - Lithuania 🇱🇹: Singing “There’ noone here, I feel safe to dance alone” in front of millions of viewers perfectly illustrates our current state of mass surveillance, change my mind. There were no major changes to their performance at the national final (why would there be when the underlying concept got them a record win at Pabandom iš naujo!), but the bigger stage definitely added another (violet/pinkish) dimension to it. I wouldn’t mind at all if the checkered flag background image forshadowed their win this year.

2. Ana Soklič - Amen - Slovenia 🇸🇮: Ana’s performance sucked me in like the black hole on the background screen at the start. Great gestures to enhance a rather static show and the staging, just wow. One half of planet earth on screen reflected on the floor, the big bang bursting beneath her feet at the climax, it was simply a presentation of galactic dimensions. I do wish her pronounciation was clearer, since every time I was tempted to sing along her words seemed to devolve into gibberish in my ears.

3. Manizha - Russian Woman - Russia 🇷🇺: DON’T BE AFRAID, DON’T BE AFRAID, DON’T BE AFRAID! OF MANIZHA TAKING THE WIN!!! Cause that’s where she’s headed for! That. Was. So. MINDBLOWING. It truly exceeded all my expectations. The charisma, the drive, the vocals, holy shit. I was close to bursting out in tears during the folklorish chanting segment. Like, there was just something swelling up in me that’s hard to describe. All while I’m head-banging like crazy. Perfect execution starting with the patchwork fabrics and clay art in the postcard melting my heart. Ana really had bad luck being stuck between two crazy (good) entries lol.

4. Tusse - Voices - Sweden 🇸🇪: It seemed like Tusse was caught in a permanent state of crouching. Tbh I was warming up to the song, but then the key change happened and I just went nope. I think the song would have benefitted from incorporating the harmonica element at the start more.

5. Montaigne - Technicolour - Australia 🇦🇺: The dancing condoms from Lena’s 2011 entry for Germany made an unexpected comeback. I feel so bad for Montaigne, especially now that it’s become apparent what a drawback not being able to perform on the real stage really is. Also, that “technicolor” effect every few moments did nothing but harm the entry.

6. Vasil - Here I Stand - North Macedonia 🇲🇰: Vasil seems to like rock-climbing, that interesting to know. It could not, however, prepare me for the disarmingly sincere performance that Vasil gave us. Nothing he’s singing is ground-breaking at all, but it’s the sum of its parts that makes it so special for me. How could I not fall for someone who’s dedicating a song to his lover in front of all of Europe.

OMG I first thought Nikkie told Montaigne to stay away, instead of awake lmao.

7. Lesley Roy - Maps - Ireland 🇮🇪: I thought Jendrik’s entry was the most kindergarten-y entry this year, but clearly I was wrong. I think Lesley bit off more than she could chew. Poor thing was so visibly nervous I was almost having a nervous breakdown from all the anxious energy she was giving off. Also, was she crying at the end??

8. Elena Tsagrinou - El Diablo - Cyprus 🇨🇾: Tomboy Elena is not what I expected from the postcard. Hmm, some of the more questionable lyrics (taco, tamale...) suddenly became a lot more difficult to ignore. Still, surprisingly strong vocals for how much Elena is moving around, so major props for that6. Elena Tsagrinou - El Diablo - Cyprus 🇨🇾: Tomboy Elena is not what I expected from the postcard. Hmm, some of the more questionable lyrics (taco, tamale...) suddenly became a lot more difficult to ignore. Still, surprisingly strong vocals for how much Elena is moving around, so major props for that.

9. TIX - Fallen Angel - Norway 🇳🇴: The song gains another dimension when taking Efentix into account, doesn’t it... For some reason I don’t think this song got elevated by the new stage at all.

10. Albina - Tick-Tock - Croatia 🇭🇷: I feel like accidently stumbled into a showing of the Starlight Express musical. I think I know what they were going for with the outfits but they made me go more aww than oof. Still fierce. In an endearing way. Which works btw. Also, some nice ideas like turning Albina into a quintuplet and her dancers raising her up above their heads. Damn, her being all excited to be on stage at the end was super cute.

11. Hooverphonic - The Wrong Place - Belgium 🇧🇪: I think I’d have preferred an even darker song if that’s the attire they wanted to go for. In the end I really think they were in the wrong place.

12. Eden Alene - Set Me Free - Israel 🇮🇱: I don’t think I’ve ever seen such an unnecessary outfit change. I really like how Eden went for a warmer tone for the beginning before turning up the sass. I love what she did with her hair. Queen vibes. Also, my favorite dance choreography so far, the guys can get it.

13. ROXEN - Amnesia - Romania 🇷🇴: It really feels like she’s lost herself, including her voice. Okay, that was mean. Dancing while executing such an intricate stage choreography can’t be easy. Still, I think Finland got upstaged when it comes to edge factor. I was not sure, but then the font on screen last-minute basically confirmed it.

14. Efendi - Mata Hari - Azerbaijan 🇦🇿: It’s official, the true successor of “Fuego” has emerged. Elena who? Albina who? Efendi slays them all. All hail the snake goddess from the orient who ensnared millions of men in her pit this very night. Whoever came up with the ring-around-the-rosy circle dance is a god damn genius. So many circle elemnts too like the revolving flower pattern on the floor, the golden pear and the revolving fireball of doom turning into an all-seeing eye at the end. I’m positively hypnotized.

15. Go_A - SHUM - Ukraine 🇺🇦: Kateryna’s piercing eyes stare right into my soul. Not sure if I’m in the mood for some winter vibes but interesting cyber-druid look. Is that what people mean by technopagans?

16. Destiny - Je Me Casse - Malta 🇲🇹: I’ll definitely add this catchphrase to my dictionary.

Ranking: Obsessing over #1-2, adore #3-6, really like #6-10

Manizha - Russian Woman - Russia 🇷🇺

Efendi - Mata Hari - Azerbaijan 🇦🇿

The Roop - Discoteque - Lithuania 🇱🇹

Go_A - SHUM - Ukraine 🇺🇦

Vasil - Here I Stand - North Macedonia 🇲🇰

Albina - Tick-Tock - Croatia 🇭🇷

Eden Alene - Set Me Free - Israel 🇮🇱

Destiny - Je Me Casse - Malta 🇲🇹

Elena Tsagrinou - El Diablo - Cyprus 🇨🇾

Ana Soklič - Amen - Slovenia 🇸🇮

Montaigne - Technicolour - Australia 🇦🇺:

Tusse - Voices - Sweden 🇸🇪

ROXEN - Amnesia - Romania 🇷🇴:

Hooverphonic - The Wrong Place - Belgium 🇧🇪:

TIX - Fallen Angel - Norway 🇳🇴

Lesley Roy - Maps - Ireland 🇮🇪

Prediction of who’s not going to the finale:

Australia

Belgium

North Macedonia

Romania

Ireland

Slovenia

Nikkie dragging past Eurovision entires lmaoooo. The audacity. And of course they had to put Duncan’s ass shot into the promotion video I’m diiiieing. I don’t know what a double platinum disc is but I didn’t think someone would get it randomly handed to without pre-announcement.

Aaaand I was right except for Croatia instead of Belgium. Damn, that kinda hurts. But in terms of staging it had the least effective staging among the many bops in this semi-final so it makes sense in retrospect.

#Eurovision #ESC2021 #Eurovision 2021 #Efendi #Manizha #The Roop #Go_A #Vasil #rankings #text

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eurosong · 4 years

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Undo my ESC 2020 (SF1)

Good evening, folks! “Undo my ESC”, my look at how I would have changed this year’s contest, is back! Even though the EBU, well, indeed sadly and very literally did undo the ESC this year, there is still room for changing about my personal ideal Eurovision 2020. Let’s have a look at the first semi-final! 🇦🇺 Australia: I continue to be mightily impressed with the quality of Australia Decides, an NF putting forward a number of credible options to represent Oz. I felt the juries helped dodge a bullet this year, because the televote winning song was a rather cliché and dated choice, out of step with the relatively vibrant and contemporary feel of the field. The actual winner was pretty decent albeit with dubious live vocals and an even odder stage concept. It could be improved by working on those two factors, though even better would be to send instead the dramatic Rabbit Hole, truly a title for our season, or even better, the searingly emotional Raw stuff which knocked me off my feet upon first listen and still packs that punch 🇦🇿 Azerbaijan: Once again, Azerbaijan went down the “buy in a song from elsewhere and attempt to put on a thin gloss of local instrumentation onto a generic pop song in lieu of some actual authenticity. I can’t say I even hate the song this time, though I do dislike how they reportedly nabbed it off non-oil-rich San Marino in a bidding war. I would have brought back Dihaj or... anyone who could produce something halfway Azeri? Also, something that doesn’t make me do a full-body cringe as much as the country ranked the worst in the ESC-sphere for LGBT rights sending a song about “gay or straight or in between.”

🇧🇾 Belarus: Belarus made the right choice - I can really rarely say those words. For only the second time ever, we got a song in Belarusian, and whilst it isn’t up there with the gorgeous Historyja majho žyccia for me, Da widna is still a pleasant listen that soars above many of the hyped pre-contest fan favourites and was a nice surprise from a bad NF. The only thing that I would change? That the unhinged comic brilliance of Pavloni be in the final. Watch from about halfway through to the end for an absolute mood whiplash odyssey.

🇧🇪 Belgium: A lot of people had plenty of hope when they heard that the veteran Hooverphonic were set to represent Belgium in 2020, and I was amongst them. My reäction to what they ended up bringing though was tepid. It’s got the quality rich instrumentation that I expected from this band, pleasant vox, but as a song, it goes nowhere for me, in part because of how repetitive it is and lacking in a hook I find it. I would have picked a more immediate song for Eurovision, because this felt like another DNQ for Belgium, following the same mistakes as 2018 and 2019. They will be back in 2021, and I will be interested to see if they take a slightly different tack.

🇭🇷 Croatia: Following up on Belarus, Croatia was another example of a selection in which I had no hope providing something excellent to recompense for usually reliable countries going off the rails. I finally have from Croatia something to fit in with the likes of Adio from Montenegro and Nije ljubav stvar from Serbia as an epic Balkan ballad. Few people were expecting Divlji vjetre would win; I was over the moon that it did and would change nothing. I hope Croatia re-send the gentleman Damir next year with an equally strong song.

🇨🇾 Cyprus: After giving us a literal replay of Fuego last year, this year they’ve gone a slightly different route, but no less generic (even coming with one of the several duplicately named titles of this year), no less uninspiring, no less completely detached from Cypriot music. I’m longing for Cyprus to send something like Eimai anthropos kai ego again.

🇮🇪 Ireland: So RTÉ came into Eurovision all guns blazing this year, promising “an almighty bop” that will be “remembered in 10 years’ time like Euphoria.” I had feared that their frame of reference for their song would be 10 years’ stale, but instead they cast their net even further back to the mid-2000s. It properly sent me into hysterics when I heard this being compared to EVERY major female singer of that period, depending on whom you asked, before this came into general release. You know what, though? I hold my hands up and admit that I adore the anthemic Story of my life. It’s just so drenched in colour that I feel uplifted every time I listen to it, which is often! Lesley has such a likeable, authentic charisma that adds to the song too. I am so gutted we’ll never see the staging because I feel this would have been a memorable party moment. This is just 3 minutes of happy nostalgia and I live for it.

🇮🇱 Israel: You know, usually, I am not a fan of single-artist national finals, because if you are not a fan of the artist, your choice is very limited indeed. However - I don’t know how one can nót be a fan of Eden to some degree. Her music is not up my street, but she sells it to me through sheer force of personality, positivity and presence. She had four songs and she put her heart and soul into them all. The winner was the vibrant Feker libi, which I would only change by altering the chorus a bit, as its odd 90s dance vibe doesn’t sit so well with the rest of the song. As for Eden, she cried when she reälised she couldn’t go to ESC 2020 and again when she found out she’d been picked for 2021. I wish all artists had this amount of passion.

🇱🇹 Lithuania: There was a sea change in Lithuania this year. I don’t know what happened, but they went from punchline to packing a punch. Their national final had been one that pretty much no one watched, dragging on for several weeks and almost always to choose a mediocre, anticlimactic choice after all that effort. This year, it was one of the most entertaining and diverse NFs of the bunch. My early favourite to win was the powerhouse Monika Marija’s return with If I leave, very much up my street with its country stylings. However, by the time the final came, I had been won over also by the eventual winner, the offbeat and infectious On fire, whose victory I would not alter because it serves as a more dramatic turn of the page for Lithuania’s Eurovision presence. It was such a relief to see this prevailing, with a huge lead in the televote, over the awful, imported Unbreakable or the respectable but pedestrian Make me human. I hope the broadcasters will respect the support this has in Lithuania and allow the Roop to come back in 2021. 🇲🇰 Macedonia: Just no. No. No. Scrap everything about this, bring back Kaliopi and let her get her revenge for the juries screwing her out of qualification with the beautiful “Dona.” 🇲🇹 Malta: Malta have done the unthinkable and sent two songs in a row that I really like for the first time since 1997-8. As Ian would have put it, I was expecting a mere “vocal exercise” from Malta to show off the impressive range of Destiny. Instead, they came out with something so soulful that I have no choice but to enjoy. I hope they go a similar route in 21.

🇳🇴 Norway: So, finally Norway saw some sense and reverted to making the most of having a talented composer, Kjetil Mørland, who is so enthusiastic about Eurovision that he has come back since his success with A monster like me a few times. He should have won with En livredd mann; I wouldn’t have been unhappy at all had he won with Who we are, and indeed, Attention was another song that I had to consider as being amongst the best of its (bizarrely organised) selection. The one thing I’d change? The lyrics. It sounds like an infatuated 12 year old with low self-esteem singing, not a grown woman.

🇷🇴 Romania: It’s not up there with Goodbye or On a Sunday, but Romania have returned with a third song I really enjoy. Alcohol you was head and shoulders above the others in the single-artist selection, and I am still sent by the way she sabotaged the bop that was predicted to win the final so that she could send this more meditative, confessional effort. What would I change? The unnecessary revamp that abruptly shifts the direction of the song in the last third.🇷🇺 Russia: When this first came out, I thought “well done, Russia. Kept us waiting on you until way past the deadline, and all for this bizarre Aquaësque troll entry.” Despite myself, “Uno” has grown on me to some degree. Maybe it’s because of the death stare of the female backing singer who’s giving me some strong Rosa from Brooklyn 99 vibes, and I live for that. Maybe it’s because it’s serving a flourescent lime green in a year when there is so much beige that even an ugly odd colour seems pleasing. I wouldn’t change this, and I hope they get sent again next year because it’s delightful seeing Russia unpaired from Kirkorov.

🇸🇮 Slovenia: Again, I am going to find myself in a small minority, but Slovenia was, like Belarus and Croatia, an unappetising selection that nonetheless yielded a gem for me. They really said screw you to underlying trends and went for a song that moves at a glacial pace fitting of the title, Voda. This was constantly in last place on the Eurovision scoreboard app, which just speaks to the limited taste tolerance of many of its users. There is so much here to enjoy: Slovenia sticking with its language yet again; the ethereal vibes; the deep, rich voice of the singer; the melancholic and poëtic lyrics; and the fact that it was perhaps the only good “revamp” of the season, going in the opposite direction of Albania and inserting an orchestra to make it that much richer in sound. Wonderful stuff and hope she returns in 2021.

🇸🇪 Sweden: So, for the first time since 2014, Sweden has sent a female artist - 3 in fact - and with them, left the cookie cutter niche they’d occupied since then behind. They sent my favourite of their songs since 2013, Move, a joyous gospel-infused effort where the love and positivity of the Mamas gave me tingles to watch. And yet, it wasn’t my ideal choice. My personal winner would have been my favourite entry from Sweden since... possibly as far back as I morgon är en annan dag in 1992. I’m talking ‘bout Dotter of course. The artist whose beautiful Melodifestivalen début with Cry got bizarrely ignored had a superb redemptive arc this year, becoming the huge favourite with Bulletproof. I watched her performance of this over 200 times so far and still watch often. I find the song so poignant, the performance and her presence so bewitching. It’s a rarity for songwriters who also perform their songs to get this far in MF these days, and Dotter lost out by the narrowest of margins, but would have been a great encouragement to others like her had she won. It was widely said that Sweden had the potential for a record-equalling seventh win if they had sent Bulletproof. As much as I cherish Ireland’s record, had it been Dotter to equal it, I wouldn’t have been mad at all. 🇺🇦 Ukraine: Widbir got over their Maruw drama in great style, once again being one of the coolest and most alternative national finals out there. Well done, Ukraine! There were a number of propositions that I would have been happy to see represent the country. My initial favourite was Vegan, one of my most streamed songs of the season and one which always puts a smile on my face with Jerry’s facial expressions and puns like “‘cause I’m vegan, I can’t even call you honey.” And honestly, I would have loved to have seen it in Rotterdam. I also loved, amongst others, Tam kudy ja jdu and Picz, which were both the victims of being in a semi-final with all the good songs whilst the second semi-final was nowhere near as competitive. Having said all that, I am not sure that I would change the eventual winner, Solowej, because it’s its own brand of delightfully authentic. I would undo their unnecessary revamp and keep it as the live version linked to above, though. And the automatic qualifiers: 🇩🇪 Germany: As you would expect from one of the musical monoliths of Europe, Germany once had some of the best and most diverse national finals of the continent, but something went wrong - they kept inviting wild cards, whose scrappiness endeared them to the public even when their songs were mediocre, and so we saw complete no-marks getting the Teutonic nod despite star-studded competition. Nonetheless, “Unser Lied für” was always worth tuning in for, an annual dose of getting mesmer-eyes’d by Barbara Schöneberger too. This year, they threw it all away for one of the most repetitive songs of the year, with a young, confused looking Slovenian being the god knows how many’th contestant to channel his inner Justin Timberlake with another knockoff that sounds as German as fajitas. I would have kept the national final - or, if they’re really going to start doing internal selections, go daring with Lily among clouds, whose Surprise was one of the crown jewels of the previous NF season. 🇮🇹 Italy: Sanremo, which actually predates Eurovision, is so much more than an NF, but its own cultural institution, and the quality is such that a song can be your fifth or sixth in Sanremo but still rank really highly in your ESC rankings. Performing with, and composing for, the orchestra, seems to give its entries a timeless quality that few others compare with. My initial favourites were Tosca’s Ho amato tutto, which from its first strains to the final, saudadic “eh” that serves as an unofficial coda, breaks my heart still sublimely; Viceversa, a heartwarming effort by the unbelievably charming Gabbani and Tikibombom, a slice of Sicilian excellence with trenchant lyrics. My most streamed has been Sincero, remembered more for the hugely memetic moment of one of its representatives changing the lyrics and the other walking out disgusted, but which I adore for its synthy vibes and its brilliant lyrics. The eventual winner was Fai rumore, which I also love too much to propose that it be changed. The lines about “an unnatural silence between us” are all the more poignant now. Lowkey think this could have won Italy its long-awaited third victory. 🇳🇱 Netherlands: Now, this is what I call a host nation song. The way I see it, if you’re hosting, you have a direct ticket to the final that you may not enjoy again for a long time, so why not go for a risk? And a risk NL indeed took. Grow is a very atypical song. It builds in a way we do not expect it to. It is mostly minimalist, focusing most of our attention to Jeangu’s voice, making this an intimate, almost confessional track. The crescendo is cathartic. After Albania destroyed itself with an unnecessary revamp, this became my #1 and I would change nothing about it. It really sucks that a song so personal to its writer and performer won’t be allowed on the stage in 2021 - that’s what I would change. A ridiculous decision on the EBU’s part.

#eurovision #opinion #esc 2020 #eurovision song contest #eurovision 2020

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sole-cuore-amore-e-droga · 5 years

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Tel Aviv 2019: Straight outta Lithuania to Eurovision with a rampaging mess that gave a lukewarm conclusion

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Oh dear.

When it comes to my country to choose, they’re often chosen to be overlooked by the Eurofan community, especially because of our insanely long procedure of choosing, that would often cause everyone to hear the songs live more times than they’re supposed to. And it seemed to be a similar case this year because while not as long as usual, we still had 7 shows + an additional week break (that allowed me to watch some more Destination Eurovision! Woo!), and a big pile to songs to swim through, usually submitted by all ranges of songwriters who’re willing just to get their names known to the world creditswise (looking at you Ashley Hicklin and co.) and often are paired with our talent show rejects that fade away as soon as they come in if their song and their chances crash out before the final (see Germantė Kinderytė - she didn’t make it to the lives of The Voice Lithuania, had a killer song though that didn’t make it to the semis thanks for the jury annihilating her pointswise TWICE and only ended up lucky the televoters’ 10 was enough to get her through. Another example: Benas Malakauskas, who got lucky to be on the selection for two years in a row, but did not go beyond the AUDITIONS in said talent show! Yet progressed to the second round at farthest both of his years). And even then, you’re never sure if these songs ARE even on the lineup. Last year we had angry Erica Jennings pulling her song out of the comp just because of having to hear the juries critique others so abrasively (at least abrasively I guess?) one show in, but then it suddenly re-emerged back, but instead sung by Monika Marija - fresh off her The Voice Lithuania victory. This year we had some names pulling off for no reason, some names pulling for A reason (like Sasha Song who couldn’t turn up for the live recording of Heat 4 because of his song not sounding the best way possible, and was fined for it lol), and some names being added last minute or even changed unexpectedly (Tomas Sinickis, you heard of him? Now he underwent by Tommy Modric... yes the footballer Modric). Which is as crazy as MIIIIHAAAAIIIII deciding not to compete in the Romanian NF because “it’s all rigged and me a tryhard won’t feel too safe enough to finally win on this one” oh boo-hoo, think of the kids who never liked your sorry ass anyway. And think of the kids in general before showcasing your half-naked or mostly-naked body in front of them.

Excuse me for my long ass paragraph number 1, BUT we were actually so dang dramatic this year that I cannot contain myself without letting y'all know why this NF deserved a much better winner to come out of it rather than THAT that actually came to be. I'm a native so I know every single detail. So if ya wanna know why exactly I'm underwhelmed, read 'em up. If you wanna know that I'm just underwhelmed, just skip ahead to the review, idc. Did you make your choice? Well then. Let's delve into the details:

• The first clear competitor, Monika Marija, releases a song that people really want to see in the selection but she assures everyone it’s not THE song. Then she shows her other one, and people honestly want the first one back, but grow to adapt to it.

• Lineup reveal happens with her in it, wbk. Along with some other interesting names like Jurgis Didžiulis (off InCulto), Jurgis Brūzga and etc.

• First show is filmed and broadcasted as normal. But, after the broadcast, a pissed-off parent is mad at his son’s result on Facebook (and the result seemed fair enough to me actually despite liking the song because it’s such a second-hand NF tier entry that isn’t meant to last that I’d even see fizzle out in... A Dal for example).

• Also a minor lulz related to one contestant’s song lyrics sounding like Russian swearwords (you know the ones the kids are yelling on CS:GO) but that was fixed

• Lineup changes that include Sasha Song, the second-most-recent X Factor Lithuania season winners at the time 120 (yep that’s the band’s name) and some other guy who came and went last minute without a word from him back as to why lol. (As well as one of the lost starlets of 2018, Emilija Valiukevičiūtė, was initially announced in the first lineup reveal but fizzled out by Heat 4 as well.)

• And it turns out Monika Marija chose both of her latest releases (including the first one she said she won’t enter) to participate because her fans want it so and she felt like it, although fans were more attached to the 1st one she entered.

• Jurgis Didžiulis brings Erica Jennings with him - yep, the same lady who withdrew because of the jury has grew some thick skin over a year and joined the lineup too. Among other things.

• Second show had a major televoting issue that affected the scores massively (basically only a few hundred votes were missing lol), and had the issue affected any of the nonqualifiers enough for them to qualify, they’d be added to the semis as a wildcard. So naturally, someone of the NQs complained about it BUT it turned out it did not affect anyone anyway. Another act got pissed for being mistreated by juries too by the way.

• Sasha Song withdraws last minute for reasons above, and his fine is 2000 euros. Well, now you have to know that if you, fellow Lithuanian, want into Eurovizijos, you need to be a bit rich to accept circumstances like these, otherwise you’re totally fucked.

• Heat 3 happens as normal BUT Heat 4 brings in some fire as it turns out that one of the contestants’ stepfather was offering his company’s services (like, those outside children play parks’ assets) for televotes to her dear stepdaughter’s song, with her EVEN NOT SEEING ANYTHING WRONG WITH IT. LRT, as clever as they are, decide to null her televotes in protest. Shame tho as the song was good, and way better Laurell Barker submission than the ones she got on ESC this year.

• One contestant, Alen Chicco (also from X Factor Lithuania, may or may not even be from the same season that was won by 120), causes a bit of controversy by having a black man on his performance

• During the semi stage, Monika Marija asks her fans not to vote for the 1st song she submitted to the selection, but rather support her 2nd song that won the semi comfortably, way after the folks were attached to her 1st song already and claiming it’s better for Eurovision (no it’s not), but it backfires spectacularly when the jury has enough guts to make her qualify with it, even if the televote for it was rather low.

• But before semi 2 happened and Monika Marija sang her weaker song, a contestant with the name of Migloko resorts to middle-finger the audience during her performance for no reason in semi 1.

• Monika Marija succesfully goes on to withdraw one of her songs (the one from semi 2) just to not split her fanbase even further when it comes to the final, therefore not lose. Also has to pay a fine of 2000 perhaps.

• Jurijus Veklenko, which was one of the front-runners along Monika Marija, was accused of having his song published on Soundcloud a year too early, but as a demo version, therefore not commercially viable enough for ESC rules. Later he was let off easy by LRT, but decided that EBU should investigate and report if they think it’s not fine, but if he was allowed to compete with that, he was possibly not in danger afterall.

• And since Monika Marija has got only 1 song, her final spot she got with that other song was given up for the aforementioned Alen Chicco.

• Finally, Monika Marija was still THE front runner of all this, having a sizeable amount of a fanbase enough to support her, even more so than the eventual winner... yes, she did happen not to win in the end. U mad?

And even if Monika Marija would have honestly been an anticlimactic winner, this next guy is even more so, because although shocking, his song is pretty much by-the-numbers Eurovision NF pop you’re gonna get, although not as cheap as the one written by constant NF failures that submit their stuff for countries like Moldova, Belarus, Romania and Malta (that until Malta ditched their NF). And the one that ended up winning is the said person whose song was uploaded a year too early as a demo - Jurijus Veklenko, but for now, he’s pretty much needed to be addressed as Jurijus. No wait, he’s back to being Jurijus Veklenko, but he dropped the “us” from his name, that’s odd. (By the way, he’s the only ounce of Ukraine you’ll ever have this year - his father is of that nationality, hence why the ever-so-Slavic Veklenko surname)

“Run with the Lions” is the song name, and for a title as anthemic as this, the song... not so much. Like I said, it’s pop, and it’s good that it’s pop, but it’s just pop. I doubt that Jurijus’s songwriter team did anything to distinguish the demo from its final product, hence why it was so easily autodetected somehow. Like, the structure is there, the lyrics are there (but what even ARE they? “if you wanna see, just open your eyes”?? “if you want a voice, just open your mouth”????), but where’s the depth, man? I really felt like I needed more of this song, especially in the choruses. Like, some additional background instruments like strings wouldn’t have hurt? In fact, this song has a slight revamp (I’m saying “slight” because no marginal changes had been done) that adds up some acoustics in the background of the 2nd verse and only changes one line (”there’s no need to be afraid” now is “you don’t have to be afraid”. Wow, revolutionary. What about “You don’t got to hide away”?? Why repeating “You don’t” twice in the prechorus???!!!... ooh I’ll be here all day if I only talked about nitpicks)... and it yet still feels too little. Thankfully the choruses have someone shouting something like “huh huh hoo” synthetically to liven it up somehow.

Yet somehow, out of nowhere, I admit liking this? Our boi is capable of singing live - both high and low; his voice and the song fit in delightfully with each other; and while basic, the melody is pleasant, non-offensive, non-ear-grating... perhaps the problem of it all is that it’s too inoffensive? Something that flows away in the wind and passes you by without you knowing. Something that you’re told that it’s not background filler and you were just not paying attention to the actual music that was playing. Something so algorithmic, you’re easily able to make your ears cancel it out as it were just some sort of white noise!

Yeah, I don't think I want to describe us all that much. It's a pretty okay pop song, it's nothing groundbreaking (bar the message of being free to do all you can do), I enjoy the sound of it, it doesn't annoy me, I can fully be down to supporting Jurijus and his voice. Too bad it's in a year AND a semi where MoR pop songs DON'T dominate - we're way past those ages. To stand out, it needs to be anthemic, it needs to have a stage presence, it truly needs some X factor, and our staging nor our song offers it. And guess what, various other people are still mourning over the loss of Monika Marija, which I find perfectly reasonable, but who would have to lend us their final spot instead if she won? Armenia? Romania? Denmark? So many questions, so little time left to answer them all.

Right now I will just conclude with me saying that I like this. It's inoffensiveness is pleasant, and in any other year we'd be the perfect filler songs for the final, like we were in the past. Cool cool.

Approval factor: Anything that will make me forget how much of my nerves did I waste over stanning someone in our selection while knowing that Ieva will win is a good noodle in my book. Jurijus wasn’t exactly one of my favourites (you’ll see why when you hit the unfortunately long NF corner section), but that’s perfectly fine, seeing that I can finally be a proud supporter of my own country’s song.

Follow-up factor: we're a completely and utterly random nation, sending anything our juries found amusing the most at the time. So don't bother about follow up consistency every being good or bad. We're just going with our own flow and... that's basically it. Though we could, on an occasion, do better with picking songs, that's for sure. And maybe finally we will not have a song that's littered with "oh oh oh, yeah yeah yeah" kind of sounds... like seriously, "Run with the Lions" has a bridge that mostly consists of "ooooooohhhhhhh" and then one actually non-interjective line at the end. (At least in Tel Aviv you'll be hearing the backings murmuring "run with the, run with the, run with the lions" during it, and that's something.) I love it that we never change in our random tactics, I'd just love it more to see some actual change in the song quality, y'know? THEN will it be a good follow-up.

Qualification factor: I’m so devastated at saying this, but foreigners say that we’re probably going down to deat meat levels this year. But I still have hope in us qualifying. Believe it or not, the people out there still don’t buy into the Lithuanian diaspora power, and genuinely believe that our harmless tune is chanceless. I only understand that it cannot work its magic when we send something risqué and incredibly opinion dividing (but most people dislike it anyway), but just look at our results on the years when we were generally received bad when we were just boring. “C’est ma vie” qualified. “Something” qualified. Back when Donny Montell was such an unknown in the Eurovision lore because 2012 was his first year and his song was considered “dated”, he still qualified. See something here? We still can, and WILL, be able to pull through possibly, and I don’t doubt it that diaspora will lap up our mediocre song because Lithuania. Patriotism strong! (Oh and a handful of votes for Jurijus for being so hot.)

NATIONAL FINAL BONUS

I already discussed the Eurovizijos drama in lenghty detail, so expect me not to re-iterate everything down here shortly, but what you need to know off it is that it had every single drama aspect you’d ever want - faulty line-ups, voting frauds, televoting malfunctions, forced plagiarism accusations, too-early-published-song accusations, late entry withdrawals, qualifier replacements, technical difficulties allowing to repeat a performance and some contestants being visibly pissed off by the jury (and to some extent, the overall) results. A total jumble <3 Never change, Lithuania. (except for the godawfully smug-ass HoD, I started to get tired of him AND his bald head doing this to us. It's been 10 years, retire already.)

So it’s better to talk about all the non-dramatic things I liked about our NF this year! From songs to performances, from shits and giggles to something serious - I’m taking you for a hefty ride.

• First and foremost, I actually didn’t mind one of the Monika Marija’s songs? Yeah, “Light On” was a good and polished pop track that has THAT power to get you good, with them strong sublime female vocals. Even if it kind of sounded like an Ikea store version of "Stay with Me" by Sam Smith. Not that there's anything bad with it, but any kind of plagiarism cases have and will always be barred from Eurovision if noticed by the organizers. This is not 100% dead-on ripoff, but there are shades of knock-offery here and there. And it's even a better "Stay with Me", and with a better message - Monika Marija reminisces of that one time she was almost dying herself, but she's here, she's survived, and you musn't hang her off the lifeline. At least it's "Light On" that got all the love in the NF in the end and not the painfully mediocre "Undo" ripoff wailfest "Criminal". It was so slow and plodding and I never got why so many people loved it. If "Undo" was a product, "Criminal" would have been its "made in China" counterpart. Anyway, here's "Light On". And please don't spam me messages with how much this would have been a contender for top 10 over Jurijus. :P In Eurovision it's an added bonus if your faves do well - the fact that they were in Eurovision is the most important thing, and I perfectly understand why do you miss it here on ESC grounds. Just... I'm tired of "MM top 10, Jurijus bottom 3 in semi", okay? Monika Marija can try our NF again. She’s very talented, and there’s a possibility that we’ll see her in ESC in the end anyway. Pave the way for our Polyglot Queen, Eurovision 20xx! ^^

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• Now here's for once a cool Lithuanian artist that didn't come from a TV talent show! Antikvariniai Kašpirovskio Dantys ("antiquarian teeth of Kashpirovsky") is probably one of the coolest Lithuanian bands that I know - doing absolutely any kind of genre they're pleased with - from folk to rock to ska to acoustic pieces - I admire them for being so diversive! Too bad they entered with one of my lesser favourite tracks in their entire discography - "Mažulė" (one of the many ways to say "baby", as in, trying to call your lover cute, female gender case. Can also mean "baby girl" in this context). I have nothing against this kind of track they thrown in the selection, ska music and Eastern musical elements are gooooooood, plus I finally got to know what is a "forró" that doesn't mean "hot" in Hungarian - it's a music style popular in Brazil! However, the chorus could have at least sounded more "party"-ier. It doesn't really excite me to dance the window-cleaning dance to it. (Oh yeah and do you remember that this song is about a car, not an actual lover? They're basically confessing their love to an automobile. How they're protecting it from vandals, how did they dream of getting the car since young age, how wouldn't they change their car for any other. Romantic, I'd say.) However I am happy for the over 30 year olds that find this song completely and totally amusing when I can't quite seem to. I do say that I like those elements, the brass and all that. It was the only Lithuanian song in the sea of English ones in the final (just like A Dal was, but inverse - almost all songs in Hungarian but one English (and a bit Russian), and that's an achievement. AKD should be proud of themselves for impacting both our nation AND the international viewers which found fun in this! Respect. Maybe they'll win our NF soon if they keep on winning the audiences, or they'll probably GTFO forever. IDK, the latter is more plausible, sadly. They're so unique that they cannot be just a thing for more editions - just one for a try out, and that's enough.

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• So, Alen Chicco. What’s so special to have him in the final instead of Monika Marija's weaker entry? Well, he's just a fantabulous persona, unique in every step he takes. And surely I was excited to see him preparing something for Eurovizijos after I read his name on the participants list. And then his entry did come. I wasn't quite sure what to think of "Your Cure" at first but the chorus is a pop beauty I hold up to myself somehow <3 now I find the song nice as a whole, the theatrical-like verses peak my curiousity though the prechoruses feel too drawn out a bit and could have had some big pauses be shortened or removed... yeah. But the most interesting thing is HIS LOOKS <33 his wardrobe and level of expressiveness is vast, I love it how eveything here was different each and every time he performed, and it all was always presented incredibly differently. I admire ONE (1) chameleon

which Alen Chicco are you today? ✨

• And that's almost basically it I have to show you concerning my faves? Yeah, I definitely had enough of our NF having this many songs too, I almost had no good favourites that made it to the semis and people would care about slightly if they'd be willing to. Nothing I could be excited over, nothing I could be passionate about as I was last year about my fave. Well I did like some qualifiers to semis but I don’t think they are THAT worth y’all’s attention all THAT much... However, I will definitely let you in on two of my personal non-finalist faves. Allow me to introduce the first band whose song is a guilty pleasure of mine only - it's Laimingu Būti Lengva ("it's easy being happy") with "Pasaulio vidury" ("in the middle of the world"). Now, it's not very competitive or anything, in fact the guys looked like hobos on their live performance and one of them was randomly shouting "heeeeyyyyy" a LOT of times, like a random heckler that's supposedly livening(??? is that a word???) up the performance, and they sang disappointingly... but the studio version, man. I dare you to not get hypnotized by the slow electric guitar feel. (You probably won't but idc.) I love it, I love the beats and how trappy but cool they sound on those verses, I love the slow soft rhythm, I definitely love the whole melodic execution, and the vocals actually sound alright on there (mainly thanks to autotune but yeah whatever). I have problems though - with a band like this, I barely see how can I get genuine enjoyment out of this song myself without having to slap myself in the back for admitting to actually like this. So I call it my "guilty pleasure" quite a lot of times. The song's structure is quite interesting, but it's mainly the repetitive verses and choruses smeared across the whole song at random. I get the song's point so much that I hate the band for hammering it into my head all this whole time - the song's protagonist met a red-haired and blue-eyed girl named Isabel in Portugal (the supposed "middle of the world"), they fell in love, that's it. But they emphasize it a lot that the girl was blue-eyed... not even I would if I had to write this song, and *I* have a blue-eyed people bias. The whole package was completely unappealing and with how they showed it it didn’t really look like something that even needs a staging or Eurovision at all, but I still keep this song to myself, and will definitely replay it a lot this summer. Just as much as the song that you'll actually get to watch the performance of down below - it's "Song of My Life" by Soliaris & ForeignSouls. It's cool, funky, catchy, vibey, laidback and summer-fun-infested. I cannot really describe separate parts all that much because all flows in so well. It's a good song to chill out and have a cocktail too. And it features a rap part that doesn't bother me at all! Good one, Soliaris. I didn't like your music back when you did mediocre 00s R'n'B, but you positively surprised me, both by returning to our NFs after like 9 years of absence AND bringing this gem. It didn't need an extreme staging - just some dudes having fun and that's it. And they brought it. It saddens me that these kind of songs don't stand a chance to qualify to the very final in our NF anymore, as they kind of would have in 2012 or so, but I'm still happy they exist. I only have had some issues with the lyrics laying out the words in sentences ("spend with me this beautiful night" bothered me a bit because if you translate it to Lithuanian in the exact same sentencing way, it'd make even more sense than it does to me now), but other than that, I fucking loved "Song of My Life". It might as well be my overall NF winner, haha.

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• Oh and how could I forget Tiramisu??? That's perhaps my biggest discovery of this year. They moved on from utter unknowns to... still unknowns, but more known for the Eurovision fandom that does care about Lithuanian NFs. Here you have an oddly titled song, "The Smell of Your Eyes" (and you thought Safura smelling lipstick was extreme - but to her credit, lipstick DOES have a faint odor, doesn't it?), which is both insane AND original, and insane original is obviously encouraged. And the whole song sounds pretty damn good for a band that no one heard of and that used to do jazzy-ish and inoffensive musical flairs before. Here we have slight influences of folk even! And the violins, too. A generally charming piece that draws you into a pagan forest. Too bad the staging was completely misunderstood - they definitely had to put on some guy with a cheap Iron Man mask to pretend to give the band some intensity... lousy move. It could've looked way better if it were more mysterious and forest-like and had a more enchanting camerawork. And a little more colors than emerald and forest greens, too. The video clip looked way better and more high-budget than the staging came to be. Observe:

Felt like everything beautiful was stripped of it because the music video could not be repeated on stage. Ah well. The televoters gave them love but the jury did not let them to improve, and down the Bermuda triangle of fallen female violinists from the 2019 season went a lady of the name Rima Tamo, together with Gabriella Laberge and Tilla Török (who did not even appear on stage at that time of need!). Here's a spooky fact for all these 3: female violinists that all featured on songs in E minor, performed 1st in their respective heats/semis, were really loved by televote but hated by the juries, missed out on the next stage of the NF by 1 place. Coincidence? A curse? Tiramisu were obviously disgusted by the jury trashing their staging so they talked about hating them on Facebook. What's worse that they could have actually qualified if they've gotten at least 9 more telepoints that could've pushed them to get 10 televote points in general rather than 8, all thanks to a televote count error that removed large portions of votes. And that way they could have been wildcard qualifiers instead because they would have still gotten 8 televote points with the actual televote numbers, but the organizers of the NF said that if the televote failure would have hurt anyone's place in the final, they would have wildcard-qualified instead. No one did not, so screw it. At least "The Smell of Your Eyes" remains THAT song - lots of folk, lots of violins, lots of effort put into it, and the people actually loved it for that. Just that it's so sad that the jury didn't let them improve overtime... just like Hungarian jury didn't let Leander Kills go further... a shame, really.

• And now, onto the non-entry-events and stuff that happened, besides some actual good jury shade (like the one time at least one juror says that “you wouldn’t win even if all the contestants got sick”, technical errors in the production (thanks to one of them, one of the semifinal acts actually got to perform again... but the televote didn’t give her votes anyway lmao) and the constant reminder of one of our charities which gives tickets to Eurovision for the best disabled person story.. I don’t know where that is but our NF somehow acquired a skit from an Austrian man that’s been exploring stuff in Israel (I think) because of Eurovision this year... and man did I think that this skit was rather... hmmm... middle-ground funny? Slightly too annoying but still kind of alright to look at? It was fun, but certainly odd to find out about that it even exists.

• After feeling so disappointed with Hungarian juries's decisions on the night of February 22nd, I left my room to watch our NF's final on our living room TV, hoping for everything just to end already because I did not expect anything good happening on this final. I haven't even decided to go back to watch A Dal and see AWS reprise their song a little less louder than when they competed last year. And then our NF gave me a complete and utter surprise - The Roop reprising THEIR Eurovizijos 2018 entry. If you've been long enough here on Tumblr to know me, you would probably guess that I'm a big fan of "Yes, I Do" by The Roop, which I wanted to see winning our NF so badly last year, but in the end... you finish the quote so I don't have to. And it's odd because this year I felt the exact similar way with Hungary as with Lithuania last year - I have clear favourites I root for in both of those but deep inside I knew there was gonna be a different winner I only find okay and nothing else. (The difference is that "Az én apám" has grown on me since, "When We're Old" did not at all.) So back to discussing the interval act instead. For this one guest number of the NF's, the song began on a piano, "pretend" played by The Roop's lead singer, and then he got his butt off from the piano chair (unlike Duncan in Tel Aviv), to the microphone stand, and the song continued off sounding like its original version that was sung in last year's NF. I still love this song and even loved that version with piano at the beginning, but why did it not take over the whole song though? Just to not let the audience fall asleep before the Carousel would've? (Yes by the way, we got guest acts from other countries performing on our NF as well! But Carousel were the only ones to have a guest appearance, the other acts were either unchosen or perhaps busy doing Tel Aviv preparations, lol.) Well, good for them. I may or may not still would love The Roop entering and winning our selection someday, if they ever decide to participate again. They could've this year but they did not return, so maybe in 2021? Let this girl dare to dream for once, Lithuania ^_^

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• I love when our NF has postcards, no matter at which stage of introduction they are on. In 2016 the postcards were present in every show (the ones for the final were the best), in 2017 they were only introduced in the round 3 of heats (sometime before the semis), in 2018 - from the 2nd round of heats onwards, in 2019 though they were only for the final... what’s the punchline for this paragraph? Oh, there IS none. I just confessed my love for our NF postcards. Just keep scrolling :)

• Okay so I know no one really pays attention to our heats because we have too many of them AND we have too many songs in them, and the eliminated ones always stop mattering to everyone right away. But I'm here to bring you a favourite meme of mine that hailed just from the heats alone: miss RÙTA, who could have done much better during her performance if she didn't constantly look like she's incredibly constipated. I don't know what makes her look like that - the lipstick? the grin? her over-dramatic entry about wordly disasters, "Paradox"? I may never know, but I will let you have a good look at it if you don't want to watch the whole video I linked. Personally, I liked the red staging this song had, and the song wasn't bad, but the singer felt agonizingly nervous and never got the chance to do better, sadly. Oh and look at that sleek tattoo, mmm.

• Oh and our NF featured a metal song but it’s so formulaic and by the numbers dad metal that I didn’t even support it all that much.... however I’ll let you listen to it if you’d really like. And there's this best alternative song of this year's NF that I've heard that also ended in the semis, and it's way better than Fusedmarc's alternative (despite having some ugly beatboxing skills). Check it out too if you will.

And thankfully, that’s that for another year. I’m getting so awfully tired to compress my own NF even further more, especially with my enthusiasm for the actual quality of this NF going down the shithole with every single heat show coming after each other just like that, with more mediocre songs after more mediocre songs. I’m also openly declaring that I have barely any energy left with continuting these writeups, seeing that there’s too many to go and most of them are STILL undercooked drafts. But I’m tryna pull through. I have another completely completed review underway afterwards - just a few edits here and there on it and I’m done with it, m8s! And then I’m piling up new paragraphs after new paragraphs on other reviews.

So I hope I let you know why do I think that the end result of ours is lukewarm - from a dramatic NF there should have been a slightly dramatic winner tbh, but in the end we got a pop song that only a few people like. Brutal. And with the biggest hopes in my eyes for our success I’d like to finish this off with two words. Sėkmės, Jurijau!

#eurovision 2019 #tel aviv 2019 reviews #lithuania 2019 #jurij veklenko #run with the lions #lithuania

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singtheskyandfightlikehell · 5 years

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Eurovision 2019 Opinions

Well, the 26 countries that will be participating in the final are official now, so here’s my in depth thoughts about each entry, ranked from least favorite to favorite along with explanations and a 10 pt rating system. honestly i thought this year was solidly mediocre. a few i really like, about 3 i can’t stand, and the rest are all smack dab in the middle of “decent”. of course, these are just my opinions and I totally get that people will disagree with them. i don’t really care. yeah there’s a few i’ll judge you for, but frankly my opinion shouldn’t matter to you. i’m just posting it for my own record and for anyone who might be curious

26. Slovenia (0/10) I know a lot of people like this entry, but frankly, I cannot stand it. It’s boring. It’s awkward. It’s uncomfortable. If I wanted to watch an m/f couple - or, you know what, any couple - stand really close to each other and mumble for three minutes, I - I don’t actually know where I’d go, because I can’t conceptualize myself ever wanting to see that.

25. Denmark (0/10) Again, why? This entry annoys me a lot, and the only reason I didn’t put it last was because I appreciate the use of more than one language. It’s my least favorite parts of all kids shows combined coupled with a message that honestly I disagree with. It feels a bit like she’s judging me for being upset at injustice in the world when I should just shut up and be happy about what I have. I’m sorry, but I don’t believe it’s acceptable to ignore atrocities just because my life is filled with good things. I could imagine this song being the welcoming number in a musical staged in one of those “everything is perfect on the outside but inside it’s the creepiest shit you’ve ever seen” towns that’s used to hypnotize the protagonist into not noticing the creepy shit

24. Estonia (1/10) I don’t honestly dislike this song, but it does bore me. He’s a mediocre singer with a mediocre song. Also I can’t get past the fact that he rhymes “this” with “this”. It distracts me and ruins the whole thing.

23. Czech Republic (2/10) I really didn’t like this one at first. It was irritating and the lyrics were weird. However, I surprisingly enjoyed the live performance. The lead singer has some charisma on stage. Good for him.

22. San Marino (3/10) No idea how he got to the final (I know it’s bc he’s a meme, but still), but I don’t hate the song. I don’t think it should win, but honestly, I think it’s fun. His voice is ridiculous, but I can stand it for three minutes.

21. UK (4/10) I definitely feel like this is the kind of generic song I’ve heard many times before, but he does a good job with it, and ultimately it’s alright. His hair makes me think of Finn Shelby from Peaky Blinders, but that’s neither here nor there.

20. North Macedonia (4/10) Honestly, I feel like I should like this song more than I do. She has a good voice, and the song has a good message. Unfortunately, it’s just never clicked with me, and I often find myself tuning out while listening to it.

19. Israel (5/10) I like his voice. He sells the emotion. Not a gripping song, by any means, but not bad. Some of the rhymes feel a little forced, like the lyrics were written specifically so that they would rhyme, rather than because they have meaning.

18. Germany (5/10) This one gets stuck in my head sometimes, but I’m okay with that. Tbh, I quite like it. Plus, the whole “sisters (but I’d say girls in general) are taught to tear each other down but need to build each other up instead” theme is one I wholeheartedly support. I spent too many years hating everything associated with girls because society told me to.

17. Malta (5/10) I go back and forth on this one a lot. Parts of it I like, parts of it I don’t. It feels a bit different to me, but not like, in a revolutionary way. The singer is strong, and it definitely gets the award for most colorful performance, literally!

16. Serbia (5/10) I feel like I’ve heard this entry before, too, but specifically at Eurovision. Still, she does a good job with it, and I like her armor-inspired jewelry. Plus, it’s not in English!

15. Belarus (5/10) Another one I go back and forth on. I find this is very good study music - energetic and repetitive enough not to be distracting. I don’t love it (I’m even hesitant to say I like it lmao), but people really ought to stop hating on her so much. She’s sixteen. Let her have her fun.

14. Albania (6/10) I really liked Albania’s entry this year tbh. I didn’t feel she sang as strong in the semi-final as she did in the music video, but otherwise I thought it was a very powerful song. The staging was pretty cool, too!

13. Azerbaijan (6/10) I loved everything about this except the refrain. The “shut up about it” bit starts to get on my nerves by about the second refrain. But the verses sounded cool and the staging was awesome!

12. Sweden (6/10) Not the most exciting song in the world, but he sounds good, the ladies sound great, and there’s nothing I dislike about the song or staging.

11. Cyprus (6/10) Not as good as the music video, sadly, but still catchy and fun. I didn’t really like it the first time I heard it, but it’s grown on me since. I felt bad for her being put on the spot with that one “are you mad about Cyprus losing last year” question.

10. Greece (6/10) Definitely grew on me. I tuned out of it the first time I heard it. Prior to the semi finals I thought it was alright. But she really gave us the lesbian dream, huh? Ladies with neat clothes and swords, plus a garden? What more can you ask for lmao

9. France (7/10) Feels kinda standard to me, but not in the worst way possible. Sometimes I get really into it, other times it’s just a nice song. I’ve been liking it a little bit more each time I hear it, though.

8. Netherlands (7/10) The favorite to win, and I’d be okay if it did. Not my favorite this year, but a solidly good song. I have to be in the right mood to want to listen to it, but when I am? Fucking amazing. Also, considering he never left the piano (and didn’t light it on fire), he gave a pretty good performance.

7. Spain (8/10) This song is so much fun, and it’s definitely going to end the competition on a high note. I’m also really curious to see the full version to know more about the life-size dollhouse and animatronic thing they’ve got going

6. Switzerland (8/10) I loved the music video more than the live performance, but regardless I thought this song was also really fun and, idk, snazzy? Love dancing to it while I fold laundry.

5. Australia (9/10) Australia’s staging was everything! I had them in the upper middle rankings until the semi-final, but honestly that looked cool as all fuck!! Her song is weird, but in a way that I can dig. Plus seeing her soar around like Glinda in space with two fellow witches is one of the highlights of Eurovision this year

4. Russia (10/10) Sergey is back and just like in 2016, I absolutely love him and his performance. I’ll admit, the shower thing was a bit weird, but the song sounded great live! Plus, he had a leg-up for me by going with fairy tale imagery in the music video.

3. Norway (10/10) Initially, I only liked the joiking. The other two singers have grown on me, though. This song is fun, the staging is cool, the singers are great, and then it gets quiet and the joik part comes in, and it’s so fucking cool!! Love it, love it, love it!

2. Italy (10/10) My favorite for a long time, only bumped out because I made the fortuitous mistake of watching Iceland’s interviews. I love the song. I love the message. The thing that impressed me most, though, was that this song is about something that isn’t even remotely close to anything that’s happened in my life. I do not relate to it at all. But despite having no personal connection to the topic, I could feel the emotion in it. For a brief three minutes, I could feel something that isn’t my reality but is the reality of many other people. And an artist who can do that is powerful indeed.

1. Iceland (10/10) If you couldn’t tell from the everything about my blog, I have firmly joined the camp of Hatari stans. It may surprise you, but I didn’t really like this song the first time I heard it. Then, I found out the meaning behind it and gave it another chance. Lo and behold, I liked it! It rose in my rankings from lower-middle to the number one spot between listening to it multiple times and watching all the Hatari content I could get my hands on. I totally understand the music being too far for some people, but as a metalhead during the not-Eurovision parts of the year, Hatari isn’t too far of a leap for me. I love the song. I love the staging. I love the costumes. I love the message. I love the band. I love how they interact with each other and everyone else. I love the bits on Iceland Music News. I love their trolling and sarcasm in the interviews. I love the anti-capitalism. I love their websites (seriously, check them out. they put a lot of effort into them). I love the way they approach issues that are important to them. I love the fact that they aren’t afraid of the tough subjects. I especially love that they aren’t trying to walk the popularity line (you see it all the time - for example, queerbaiting, where a tv show wants to appeal to all sides of an issue, so they make characters nearly lgbtqia+ but then throw in enough straightness to please conservatives). Hatari picks their side in each issue instead of trying to cater to everyone, and I respect that a lot. My reactions and emotions aren’t usually prominent or even necessarily visible, but there’s a chance I might actually cheer if they win.

Finally, the honorable mentions, aka countries that didn’t make it to the final but that I would’ve loved to see:

Hungary (in my original top 10) - loved him last time, loved him this time. Beautiful song, beautiful voice, beautiful staging

Georgia - my hopes weren’t high but that doesn’t mean I didn’t love it. There’s nothing quite like a good dramatic song, and this was as dramatic as they come

Portugal/Poland - the two most people were really miffed about in the first semi-final; I think they’d’ve been alright in the semi-final, but both depend entirely on my mood. sometimes I love, sometimes I hate

Croatia - the song was ‘meh’, the singer was fantastic, and the staging was Eurovision in all the right ways

Armenia - one of my early favorites. could’ve used some other people on stage, but otherwise I thought she did wonderfully

Romania - what can I say that hasn’t been said already? she brought everything! that was an experience and an amazing one at that. so disappointed she didn’t make it

and of course,

Ukraine - catchy, badass, wacky, and wlw? sign me the fuck up. So sad to hear what happened to her. I know people are saying this is why politics should be kept out of music, but that’s ridiculous. The real issue is when the issue/message isn’t coming from the artist. It should always be up to the artist’s discretion what they do or do not promote. Propaganda and censorship go hand in hand, which is why I am so bothered by the blanket statements I hear thrown around about Ukraine’s fiasco this year

And that’s all! I think I’ll be happy with anyone scoring a 7 or higher for me winning on Saturday. I wouldn’t be upset about a 6 winning either, I suppose.

Anyways, off to bed so I can make my snacks tomorrow lmao!

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whenitsdarkweilluminate · 2 years

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Vienna 2015 – Semi Final 2

Host: Austria Slogan: “Building Bridges” Participants: 40 Voting method: 12-point system (50/50 system - combined) Format: 2 Semi-Finals / Grand Final = the top 10 of semi 1 & 2 + the Big 5 + host + AUSTRALIA General Overview: It's official; I have now heard every Eurovision non-qualifier at least once in my lifetime. It was actually one of the reasons why I started this project in the first place. 2016 was the year I became a dedicated Eurofan. I spent that spring binge watching all the previous Grand Finals. But I had skipped over the semi-finals, and I hadn't revisited the entries that weren't my immediate favourites until now. Those favourites have definitely shifted 6 years later. So I'm glad I'm familiarizing myself with the ones I overlooked. Anyways, the second semi-final of 2015 begins similarly to the first one. The opening sequence includes the rainbow-blobbed infrastructure; followed by a montage recapping SF1, the Parade of Nations, and another flash mob. Adding the Parade of Nations to the semi-finals seems unnecessary though. There is no artist performance in the opening, as the show cuts straight to the hosts. Sweden is the winner of this semi-final; topping both the jury and televote in the process. Not only that, “Heroes” is actually the biggest semi-final winner in ESC history – with 90.4% of maximum possible points. Only 6 countries didn't give Måns a “douze points”. Elsewhere, the juries saved Azerbaijan in exchange for Czechia. Ironic since Azerbaijan is usually a televote favourite. Meanwhile, the televote saved Montenegro and Poland – the latter of which ranked 16th with the juries. Malta and Ireland were in the jury top 10 instead. Also of note, Malta would've qualified under 2016 rules. The interval segment honours notable Austrian people again, by showcasing how their achievements impacted Eurovision. Later, there's another segment covering the mishaps and funny moments from the voting sequences of past contests. The theme of SF1 was serious message songs, and the theme of SF2 is mixed gender duets!

✓ Lithuania: Monika Linkytė and Vaidas Baumila - This Time “This Time” is textbook Eurovision camp. But of the fun and cute variety, not the cringe kind. The live performance makes a splash: the duo closes their eyes and holds hands during the “every time I close my eyes” line. They spin each other around during the “round and round” part. They separate to join their respective friend groups. They exchange a kiss after the “ONE KISS” shout, while the song halts for dramatic effect. They pull each other's hand across stage. And they get intimately close during the bridge. Moreover, Monika and Vaidas have great (although hammy) chemistry, and they sound excited. The LED screen, meanwhile, depicts rotating sunbeam shapes with bright colours. The song itself channels the folk-pop trend of the mid 2010s, a la Mumford & Sons. It begins with a jumpy, ejecting acoustic guitar. Then the chorus becomes a jamboree, featuring forceful percussion bangs. The second verse then unleashes an eager banjo. While the final chorus transition uses twinkle bells and a “HEY” shout. There's some “wah ah oh”'s and hand claps sprinkled throughout as well. Overall, the song has an excitable, “can't sit still” rhythm to it. With a smitten, feelgood, innocent, joyous vibe. Also, the “IM FEEEEELING LOOOVE” hook is easily catchy. × Ireland: Molly Sterling - Playing with Numbers It's funny how I started rating Ireland higher once they stopped qualifying. “Playing with Numbers” is a piano-led confession ballad. In the song, Molly takes ownership for why the relationship failed. She started with the best intentions, but ended up telling “white lies” and “playing the victim”. She hid away when the truth was exposed. And now she feels “a debt to be paid”. The “playing with numbers” metaphor surmises the situation – which I assume means that she recklessly gambled and risked everything. Molly then claims she was unaware at the time, but has since gained perspective. I suppose admitting it is the first step to growing. It's a reflective and guilt-ridden song. And Molly gives a heartfelt performance. On stage, she sits at an upright piano, next to backing singers that look sad. There's autumnal, sunset orange colours and a hazy camera filter used as well. It creates a calm and cozy setting. The instrumental, meanwhile, has a soft texture. While the melody is enhanced by echoes from the backing, particularly on the “And I made...” and the “give a little love...” parts. The verses have a reflective atmosphere that kind of floats in the breeze. And the chorus inserts some swelling orchestral booms. × San Marino: Anita Simoncini and Michele Perniola - Chain of Lights Uh... bring back Valentina please. This is so messy. The instrumental goes in confusing directions, and the vocal melody is completely mismatched. As is the lyrical theme. I'm shocked Ralph Siegel composed it. The vocals are mediocre as well. The song starts with Michele greeting the audience with a “no!” While the first verse is filled with sawing strings, alongside inserts of a drum machine and piano pings. A heartbeat also pounds when Anita arrives. The second verse later introduces a trip-hop beat that seems out of place. And then it feels like a different song when the chorus lyrics alter. The chorus attempts to be an encompassing, inspirational anthem. However, the troubled atmosphere isn't suited for the positive approach. The production undercuts any power it could have. The bridge then dials back to allow a clap-along breakdown while Anita responds in a talking voice. It's all so incoherent. Moreover, the chorus is cheesy and meaningless. The song is a call for togetherness to illuminate the world in a “chain of light” of candles. The stage even illuminates during that line. The duo believes in making world peace a reality, but the message falls flat. They're all smiles on stage, but it feels forced. And the globe on screen has been done before. ✓ Montenegro: Knez - Adio Željko Joksimović helps Montenegro attain their best placement to date at 13th. It's also the most recent time this country has qualified (as of 2022). “Adio” is a Balkan ballad that builds in intensity. The intro establishes an outdoorsy feel; via a harp and a violin tracing the song's melody, followed by pattering hand drums. Meanwhile the backing singers are frozen in place; kneeling on a floor that resembles water. The first verse remains graceful, as the accordion sneaks in. Then the first chorus restrains itself. The atmosphere becomes fuller in the second verse, as the lights turn from blue to red. Then the second chorus adds the forceful, sloshing, bouncing percussion stomps midway through. They persist for the rest of the song; only pausing for the transition. It's a commanding drum beat. The bridge holds the tension with the “oh oh oh” chant and everyone spinning with their arms spread apart. Finally, the backing vocalists intensify the last chorus. They look rather serious too. In the lyrics, Knez's lover asks him to let go, but he can't move on. Even though he didn't do them wrong (assuming that's what “mists of the mountains” and “depths of the waters” refers to). Certain lyrics use repetition well too. And Knez is a confident performer. The song isn't anything new, but Željko has perfected the Balkan ballad formula with “epic” build-ups. The melody gets stuck in my head too. × Malta: Amber - Warrior The other “Warrior” from 2015. And the unlucky 11th placer of this semi-final. The juries tried though! The song is a piece of advice that aims to inspire courage. It's directed towards those who choose to suffer in silence; since fear of failure holds them back. Amber refutes this way of thinking, however. She promises that being a “warrior” is a more rewarding path. You have to fail to succeed. She presents this message in a reasonable and encouraging manner. She's on our side. Musically, the song begins muted and shy. The second verse recoils as well. But the rest is mainly driven by a dense, stumbling, dubstep-ish drum beat. They convey a sense of standing strong. While the orchestral strings expand the soundscape. The song actually has a moody and misty atmosphere. And the ending is an affirmation. Towards the end, there's pyro eruptions that match the flames on screen, which is a neat visual. Amber is a good vocalist too – the “break” and “create” exclamations power the chorus. Although that chorus is too clunky to be catchy. The melody isn't memorable enough. And inevitably, I can't help comparing Malta's “Warrior” to Georgia's “Warrior”, and this is the weaker one. ✓ Norway: Mørland and Debrah Scarlett - A Monster Like Me Norway matches their 8th place finish from last year. This time it's with a personal duet ballad. The song starts with Mørland opening up and confessing to a dark secret – he did something terrible when he was a kid, although he never mentions what that transgression is. It's so bad it's unspeakable! So he decides to end the relationship, believing it's the right thing to do. He isn't the idealized “prince” he lead to her to believe. He sounds ashamed of himself and undeserving of her love, even using the term “monster”. Debrah then chimes in with a mournful voice. She pulled the truth out of him and she's in shock. I doesn't sound forgiving though. As for the instrumental, it's pretty bare at the start. The song is guided by a sparse piano, alongside strings and frequent orchestral swells. The bridge later adds some unsettled humming. While the final chorus bursts open in a climactic moment, as the drums and big vocals take over. Overall, the song moves at a slow and careful pace. Normally I would find this dull. But it's a beautiful song. And the pace accentuates the heartbreaking, fragile, vulnerable, sensitive performance from the two singers. Their body language shows emotion too. As does the “I better let you go” line. Plus the camera work is decent. The simple staging makes sense. × Portugal: Leonor Andrade - Há um mar que nos separa Yeah... this is pretty forgettable. The background “HEY AHH OOH”s are nice though. They're repeated after each chorus line. Plus the production has some quirky moments. The first verse inserts a light electric guitar and a springy synth. While the second verse contains a buzzing guitar and a synth that bounces like a ping-pong ball. It also slows down on the last line with a fuzzy shimmering sound. The song also has a clappy rhythm. Otherwise, Leonor is quite animated on stage. She stands against a wind machine and grips that mic stand by the end. Her hairstyle and long black cloak reminds me of Loreen. Lyrically, the song is about how Leonor's longing and yearning will vanquish the “sea that separates” her from this person. The tone isn't depressing, however; it's actually more pleasant, hopeful and assured. That said, the melody passively floats along too much, even with the key change. Despite her elongating the start of the chorus lines, that chorus goes nowhere. And the pop-rock instrumentation is pretty mild throughout. It's a nice enough song, but it doesn't leave enough of an impression. × Czech Republic: Marta Jandová and Václav Noid Bárta - Hope Never Dies It's another interactive duet! Czechia returns after an extended break, but they haven't found their footing just yet. Maybe Václav's raspy voice was off-putting. Or maybe the song is too intense and over dramatic. Indeed, the vocals become shout-y by the end of it. And the song is tedious at times. But the melody is strong – the back-and-forth exchange helps it stick. The “IN YOUR EYES...I CAN SEE...” part is a great hook too. In the song, Václav asks Marta to wait for her, but the “ravens” (which are bad omen) are taking her away. On stage, the pair stands distanced from each other, with Marta avoiding eye contact. The break-up is implied to be inevitable and deterministic. That is until Marta changes her mind. She declares “Or we can rise and fight”, as she tosses her high heels across the stage, which is camp. They then hold each other at the end. They also bring expressive body language, as the camera cuts between them often. While the screen depicts rows of spinning vertical mirrors. The atmosphere is pretty bleak, grim and hopeless throughout. Like they're singing from the darkest depths. The harpsichord(?) on the first chorus adds to that. As does Václav's raspy voice. The song is a mainly a piano ballad, with the orchestral backing arriving later. The instrumental is a bit old-fashioned though. ✓ Israel: Nadav Guedj - Golden Boy Israel breaks a 4-year NQ streak with a bang! The song begins as a guitar ballad, where Nadav cries to his “mama” about his broken heart. But the tempo soon jumps into an “Ethno-pop” party song. He goes out dancing to forget her. He also personifies male bravado; calling himself a “golden boy” in a mocking tone. He acts like a show-off that can charm the ladies. It's a ridiculous and cringy, entry; but it doesn't take itself too seriously. Nadav even wears golden shoes on stage. Also, the “gotta go three minutes” sign-off (referring to the ESC time limit) and the snapshot is a camp ending. Otherwise, the song is incredibly catchy (“let me show you Tel Aviv!”). The verses zigzag and strut around (“take. me. out.”) And the second one further breaks down for a drink-pouring sound effect and a trap-y beat. The pre-chorus then escalates things, culminating in the “3-2-1 [pyro blast] HEY” countdown. Plus a squiggly sound. The chorus, meanwhile, unleashes the traditional instrumentation and the rattling drums. It's a dance-able rhythm. Those drums hold through the bridge, which leads to some bangs and a key change. The ending involves sparklers and a “dance dance dance” bit. It's a dynamic song and it injects energy into the arena. The choreography is lively as well – with the jumping, hip thrusting, and the leaning/wiggling move. Israel really threw everything at this entry. But there's maybe too much going on here. ✓ Latvia: Aminata - Love Injected My winner of 2015, as predictable as that is. And a contender for Latvia's best entry. Forget “Not Alone”, this is the best dubstep entry. Although “Love Injected” is the brooding variety of that genre, not the menacing kind. Anyways, this song is all about the verse/chorus contrast. They have differing vocal styles and production. The former is more subtle – Aminata uses a high-pitched coo; alongside some clinks, claps and quivers. They're all light sounds and it's a very mystical atmosphere. On the flip side, the chorus strikes hard – she projects her voice across the arena (“YOUR LOVE...”), as the bass-line grinds, revs and shivers. There's a sturdiness to it. The backing and the stretched percussion boosts it as well. This part is when the injection kicks in; when she's overcome with the intensity of love. The bridge then sees the dubstep warp, alongside raindrop-like drums and a different quiver. While the outro contains a series of goosebumps-inducing “OH-OH OHHHH OH”s. The lyrics seem straightforward – they describe the power that this person's love has over Aminata. She feels secure in this connection. On stage, she stands still in a red dress, while the screen flashes between windows and some red and white spikes “growing” from her body. It's a cool aesthetic. She is a natural performer as well. ✓ Azerbaijan: Elnur Hüseynov - Hour of the Wolf Elnur returns from 2008; where he was a part of Azerbaijan's screaming debut entry. He still showcases his classical vocals here, even sounding operatic at times. But it's much less polarizing than “Day After Day” was. Both songs are thematic too, with this one embracing a “wolf” metaphor. It refers to Elnur declaring his undying determination to fight; and thereby quit wallowing in hurt. He mentions being anxious for tomorrow, and the ravenous nature of wolves. The title itself signifies his moment to strike. Elnur also howls at the start. Plus there's a moon and a dark forest on screen. And there's two interpretive dancers on “all fours”. They also “physically attack” each other, while Elnur mediates in the middle. He seems like an actor on that stage. Otherwise, the song starts as a piano ballad; followed by strings and faint marching drums. The verses have a windy woods atmosphere, while the chorus becomes more theatrical. The melody gets stretched out, as it's set to the pace of courageous orchestral stomps. It has a “summoning strength” vibe. Elnur's vocals amplify as well (ie. “NO I... WON'T SLEEP... TONIGHT”). And he becomes more bombastic on the second (and final) chorus, which also involves a key change. But this entry is “mid tier” for me. × Iceland: Maria Olafs - Unbroken Thus begins a 4-year NQ streak for Iceland. Maria's shaky live vocals probably didn't help. But the song is also way too repetitive. The melody just follows the same 3-line structure over and over again. It's basically one long never-ending chorus. The lyrics offer little variety as well, as they flip between the same 2 stanzas. Each one starts with the phrase “one step at a time”... which is said 15 times in total. The elongated “Unbroooooken” hooks are the only reprieve. The words are a generalized message of letting go and heading towards a new and better path. That said, Maria delivers it with an innocent and likable charm. There's a pure and wholesome positive atmosphere to this. And her ballerina dress matches that. She brings confident stage presence in her smiles and dance moves. The studio version sounds better as well. Other staging moments include the footsteps on the floor; Maria shoving the camera away; and the glitter release. Also, the production has more structure. It's a percussion-dominant song. The “verses” patter, the “pre-chorus” tugs, the “chorus” bops along, and the “bridge” gets amped up. The chorus also ends with dramatic bangs, matched with camera cuts and light flashes. But this is one of those songs I want to like more than I actually do. ✓ Sweden: Måns Zelmerlöw - Heroes (winner review in Grand Final post) × Switzerland: Mélanie René - Time to Shine This is an odd choice for last place. The message isn't the most original, but Mélanie communicates it in a convincing way. And the production has an ominous atmosphere, which stops it from sounding cheesy. In the song, Mélanie decides to not hide herself anymore. She once felt afraid and alone with low self-esteem. But now it's her “time to shine”! For her to stand up. And her life is better because of it. She represents this transformation by removing her black cloak (which she wears whilst detailing her dark times) to reveal a white dress. This happens right when the first chorus hits... and again for the final chorus. Otherwise, the verses have a woodsy vibe; featuring claps (accompanied by lightning flashes), a wooden instrument, and an ominous bass-line. The dark blue stage and the forest imagery on screen complement this vibe. The chorus is more crowded and strong-willed, as it's boosted by guitars, emphatic drums and prominent backing vocalists. The backing also strikes those drums on stage dramatically. There's an electric guitar moment later on as well. And the final chorus sees Mélanie go for the ad libs amongst some smoke puffs. The atmosphere captures the “rising from the darkness” theme. ✓ Cyprus: John Karayiannis - One Thing I Should Have Done And this is an odd choice for a qualifier. The chorus melody reminds me of “Save the Best for Last” by Vanessa Williams. The song itself is a minimalist, acoustic, coffeehouse ballad with a modest approach. The performance also begins with a vintage black-and-white filter. The lyrics start as a typical sad break-up song. John claims he “always did everything for you”. But then he later corrects himself to say he failed at that. He repeats the line “I should have been there for you” four times, as the guitar pauses for tension. The orchestra swells and the strings quiver each time he says that line. He wasn't there in their “hour of need”, and that's why it ended. All it took was one blunder. There's some twinkles leading into the final chorus as well; and the orchestra remains. John performs this with a calm voice for the most part. But he sounds too “matter of fact”. Moreover, the instrumental is too bare, the song is basically a lullaby, and the lyrical concept is uninteresting to me. The song is kind of basic. ✓ Slovenia: Maraaya - Here for You Once again I am a sucker for Slovenia. Firstly, the bizarre staging is both novel and oddly charming. Marjetka wears headphones and the backing dancer does the air violin (as opposed to air guitar). She moves her “bow” quite exaggeratedly too. The camera cuts to her and the pianist often. But besides that, “Here for You” has a very entrancing production. The song begins and ends as a daydream-y piano ballad. The beat kicks in after that intro. The verses are driven by these intrusively pounding drums, like a ball being slammed at the floor. This part is more confrontational with a suspended atmosphere. There's also stray violin moments throughout the song. Following this, a series of rouge, meandering piano notes transition to the chorus. Said chorus sees the drums ease as Marjetka offers a reassurance. The second verse adds a bonus “Everybody else sees in black and white...” part. The lyrics describe the imbalance in her relationship – when they first met, her lover helped open her heart. But now the roles are reversed, and they're closing themselves off from her. Marjetka isn't annoyed or anything though. Instead, she offers support, which is a mature stance. She sings with a sweet and reassuring voice too. Also, the “When you're down, down low” hook is pretty catchy. And the piano and violin bits get lodged in my head pretty easily. ✓ Poland: Monika Kuszyńska - In the Name of Love Forget about Cyprus, this might be the snooze-fest of 2015. The melody is as flat as a pancake and I always forget how it goes. Monika seems compassionate, but the chorus is too lifeless to really carry the mood. And the way the contest's slogan is inserted into the lyrics feels too deliberate (ie. “let's build the bridge”). The song does pick up during the bridge though, where the instrumental builds up. And there's a loveliness and prettiness to the verses. They sound poetic. And they're like taking a deep breath or reaching a point of acceptance. The way the piano “tickles” every now and again is nice too. In the song, Monika lifts someone up who is feeling despondent. And she pushes for building a bridge of connections. The stage, meanwhile, has a pink setting – including the piano and the tree blossoms on screen. While Monika wears a glowing white dress, as she extends her arm outwards with the train attached to her finger. I guess this symbolizes openness. The side screens also show black-and-white videos of Monika before she was paralyzed. But yeah, this is a pretty dry ballad. My Ranking: 01. Latvia: Aminata - Love Injected ✓ 02. Slovenia: Maraaya - Here for You ✓ 03. Norway: Mørland and Debrah Scarlett - A Monster Like Me ✓ 04. Montenegro: Knez - Adio ✓ 05. Ireland: Molly Sterling - Playing with Numbers 06. Sweden: Måns Zelmerlöw - Heroes ✓ 07. Switzerland: Mélanie René - Time to Shine 08. Azerbaijan: Elnur Hüseynov - Hour of the Wolf ✓ 09. Czech Republic: Marta Jandová and Václav Noid Bárta - Hope Never Dies 10. Lithuania: Monika Linkytė and Vaidas Baumila - This Time ✓ 11. Israel: Nadav Guedj - Golden Boy ✓ 12. Malta: Amber - Warrior 13. Iceland: Maria Olafs - Unbroken 14. Portugal: Leonor Andrade - Há um mar que nos separa 15. Poland: Monika Kuszyńska - In the Name of Love ✓ 16. Cyprus: John Karayiannis - One Thing I Should Have Done ✓ 17. San Marino: Anita Simoncini and Michele Perniola - Chain of Lights This is actually a pretty strong semi-final.

#eurovision review #eurovision song contest #eurovision 2015

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