#be angry at the EBU instead <_<

[windfighter]

I guess one thing I learned this year is do NOT check the eurovision-tag on tumblr

I mean yeah it's nice getting an explanation for the deeper meaning of some of the songs but after seeing 20 posts saying my country deserve to be colonized because other countries voted for us it's definitely lost its appeal

[sylphmacabre]

Somewhere Deep Inside Of These Bones

Fandom: Nightmare Dork University, an AU of RISE OF THE GUARDIANS that has become its own subfandom

'Verse - Collegeverse

Characters: NDU Piki Black, NDU Jack Sickle, NDU Brunhilde, EBU Jack Frost [mentioned]

Pairings: StageFright [Piki/Jack]

Rating: General

Summary: Piki cluelessly does the right thing for Jack for ENTIRELY the wrong reasons.

Notes: Based on a prompt from @bowlingforgerbils If you are wondering what the devil Nightmare Dork University is, and what it has to do with either the movie RISE OF THE GUARDIANS or the GUARDIANS books by William Joyce, please visit the NDU 101 page on Tumblr and its accompanying tags. It's a wild and woolly ride involving four different versions of Pitch Black and a very different version of Jack Frost, all of whom either room together or "fraternize" in a college / university AU. And let's not forget a taxidermied ferret named Mr. Pickles.

Originally posted on Archive Of Our Own on November 2, 2016.

The front door buzzer sounded at 3pm over the intercom in Piki’s flat; he nearly tripped over his own feet in his rush to buzz Jack in.  He cast a quick glance behind him, to make sure Brunhilde was still asleep in her sunny spot on the window seat, before opening the apartment door and waiting for Jack to round the curve of the staircase to the second floor.  

Now *that* was an unfamiliar expression to see on Jack’s face; Piki thought he knew all Jack’s reactions intimately.  Shy, sweet, nervous, enthused, sleepy… but this… smouldering rage?  It did not sit well with the playwright, and he was mentally cataloguing the ways he could commit justified mayhem on the person who had made his dear one angry.

But, he reflected, justified mayhem could be VERY time-consuming, and that would mean time spent away from Jack.  So, with a silent sigh of regret, Piki turned his attention towards getting to the root cause of his beloved’s distress.

“Jack?” he inquired softly as he waved the young blond man into his living room.  “What’s wrong?”

The angry look faded into an almost sheepish smile.  “It’s n-n-nothing, really, Piki.  My cousin was supposed to have met me after class to help me with a project, but he never… he never showed up.”  Jack sat down gingerly next to Brunhilde, buried his chin in his chest, and started to run his hand over the recumbent Siamese cat’s back, The stroking action seemed to require all his attention, almost as if he did not want to look his boyfriend in the eye.

Piki tried not to visibly shudder at the mention of the Anti-Jack, and instead concentrated on the rest of what Jack had said.   He lowered himself into the armchair across from the window seat… near enough to be supportive but not so near as to be intimidating.  He queried gently, “What kind of project, if I may ask?”

A few moments passed before Jack blurted out, words tumbling over one another too quickly for his stutter to catch up, “We-used-to-act-out-Nightmare-Before-Christmas-when-we-were-kids-and-I-wanted-to-do-it-as-a-skit-for-my-education-class…”

Piki nodded in what he hoped was a reassuring manner, his own mind racing again towards thoughts of revenge against the one who’d let his darling down.  He snapped back to attention as he heard the desperation and, yes, actual anger in Jack’s voice, words coming out more slowly and softly, but still rushed.

“…but now he’s always hanging out with that p-professor and the project is due next week and I still have my Zero costume and I need someone to be the Pumpkin King - “

Realization dawned.  In one fluid sequence of motions, Piki bounded off his chair, knelt before the startled young man on the window seat and enfolded him in his bony arms.  He murmured soothingly, “Stop, Jack, hush, of course I’ll help you, of course I’ll be your Pumpkin King…”

Brunhilde lazily lifted her head at the interruption to her petting, and flopped resignedly back into sleep.

And that was how Piki found himself, five days later, dressed in a snazzy pinstriped black suit with a bow tie shaped like a bat, his head encased in a mask, in a brightly lit classroom in front of twenty-five small humans who were fascinated by his long spidery hands and the way he could throw his voice as he sang “Jack’s Lament” for them..

He did not want to even CONTEMPLATE what Proto would demand as recompense for helping with his costume, nor did he want to remember Proto’s silent smile when Piki was foolish enough to ask where the costume had come from at such short notice.

The sweet timid smiles that Jack-dressed-as-Zero kept shooting at him during the skit were reward enough.

[ads-for-nothing]

sO

today is the day and I have to talk about some things (nobody will care but I have to, I will start with the least important thing)

1) I wrote a math class test and it's math so it's easy, usually my attention span is shit but today it was okay and I remembered the 3rd binomical (?) thingy and I remembered another rule so yay! I actually used the rules this time instead of just doing anything! Yes it's nothing but it's a huge step for me because I have a huge problem with focusing.

I also wrote a Ancient Greek vocabulary test and although I started learning the vocabs YESTERDAY, I remembered all of them! Maybe not a 2 this time, but a 1-2.

2) So the first half of Tix' album is out, and I have to talk about that too because ..?

So the first song is hiphop-ish and the lyrics are REALLY direct and personal, I have the privilege to actually only judge a song by music before I learn what the lyrics mean lol (but my Norwegian got better over the last year so I understand a bit), so as far as I know I like it a bit but it's more a neutral view than a real "I love this shit" but it's Tix so that's kinda normal lol. Will grow on me like the rest of his stuff. One of my past least favourite songs of his newer ones is Jeg Vil Ikke Leve, now it's like my second favourite of his ever lol. Also I've had the album on repeat for half an hour now and I already see it growing on me.

The second song is way more sad than angry and way more melodic, yet still hiphop-ish. I like it, it's really spheric (Ikke Han my beloved), but still has a main theme and verses that come back. And the end part is just pure beauty.

The third one is back with even more melodic stuff and has less of hiphop vibes. I've seen people comparing it to Tusen Tårer but honestly? Nah. Yes, the melody is comparable but if you look at everything else I don't even think you could put them in the same genre.

Then there's Hvis Jeg Forlot Verden, which we already knew, but all of them after another really give this slide of genre from hiphop to a more familiar elektronic pop style. When I first heard the song I was like "Did he write something more generic now?" but then the guitar solo hit and I was like "nO, he didn't". Also this song is my second most listened of all time, after Jente I Oslo. Yeah. As you can tell I like it.

I'm really excited how the "genre slide" will continue in the second part, also I like how the album makes the most sense in that order, because I like it when art takes many little pieces and puts them together to a bigger picture, while you can still enjoy the pieces without problems. Yeah, this album is supposed to be one thing.

Also I like how the dude just continues parkouring music genres, I mean have you looked at his discography? Lmao love it, gives always a bit of fresh air with everything he does. Stuff rarely feels like it was already there before. I also love how although it's completely different genres that he's producing, you can still somehow hear his handwriting. I love the stuff he wrote alone the most actually, it's just amazing to look at shit like Engel Ikke Dra (my second favourite of his , together with Jeg Vil Ikke Leve) or Ut Av Mørket (my all time favourite of his songs) and think that this was made by one single person. In the times of worldhits being written, produced and sung by in total about six people or more.

Okay I stop ranting about Tix and go on with point three.

3) This.

Sometimes I love the EBU.

[dunne-ias]

Surviving Eurovision Song Contest Finale without going crazy

Look. Every year it’s the same thing. I know people get their hopes up, and every year they get disappointed, and angry, and I see the same kind of reactions. So let’s just go over a few things to keep in mind so you can check your expectations.

First of all. There are almost forty countries competing every year these days, and tonight’s finale will have 26 songs. The competition is over 60 years old, but still. It’s a lot to ask to get to win often. In fact, if your country has won even twice over the years, then there’s no statistical reason why you should expect to win again soon when there are countries who have only won once, or never. So let’s just lower our expectations on your own country’s song winning right at the getgo and realize that the odds are against everyone.

Secondly. There are 26 songs, which is a lot. If your country, or even your favourite song, has made it this far, that’s already a good thing. Getting on the left side of the result board is an even better thing. And if your song makes it to the top ten, then that’s awesome. It’s really, really awesome and it’s something to be proud of. Of course you want your song to win! But getting in the top ten at a Eurovision finale is huge! Don’t forget what a win that is! I’ll explain why:

Third. The participating EBU members (aka, the countries who compete) have an enormous population combined. There are soooo many people watching this thing (it’s in the Guiness World Records!) and they have a great variety of tastes and traditions between them. In each country, and between the different countries. What this means is simple: The song that wins, is never going to the one that is the “best” because there is no way to measure that. Think of it instead as the top ten usually consists of the best in different genres and subgenres. If you’re in third place but have the highest placed pop song, then that’s actually a win in itself. This competition is, and always will be, a competition within genres as well as between genres, more than it is between 26 individual songs. Sometimes it’s a pop year. Sometimes it’s a ballad year. Sometimes it’s - you know what, I still don’t quite understand how Lordi won but I’m glad they did and maybe this year will be the year of hard rock.

Fourth. Block voting is a thing. It’s not a part of a nefarious plan to ruin things for everyone else. It’s a combination of implicit bias (this person is my friend, so I will notice the good things about their song. that person I don’t know so well, so I might notice the bad things about their song more), and shared history and culture. I bet I’ve listened to more Finnish hard rock than a random person from Spain for example, even if our general music tastes were otherwise similar. But no country ever got by on JUST relying on their neighbours, and block voting can mess things up if there are too many great songs within the same block, as it splits the votes in ways that no one can foresee.

Fifth. What’s popular on the internet is not the same thing as what’s popular among all televoters. Just because tumblr is all over certain countries, doesn’t mean the rest of the EBU is. And the odds pages are very much depending on things like internet searches and youtube statistics and things like that, but that really only hints at what eurovision fans like. And most people just watch the shows and then vote without listening to the songs beforehand, or after.

Sixth. There are too many unknown factors determining the winner. Your song can be freaking awesome, but this year there might be others that are similar, there might be three other acts with an upbeat song sung by a single woman in a sparkling bathing suit. There might be so many songs that “stand out” that yours might not even though you sent something great and original. People might not be in the mood for what you sent. And that’s one of the most important points: the top ten is not random, but the winner might very well be partly up to chance. And the closer the results are, the more that’s true.

The winner is determined by the televotes AND the jury. The winner is the one who can appeal to BOTH. You might not like it, but these are the rules, and they were implemented for a reason. These are the rules of the game, and your song needs to appeal to both enough. If your song only appealed to the Jury, you won’t win. If your song only appealed to the televotes, you won’t win. And if the winner was number one with the televoters, but didn’t win the contest, that doesn’t mean they were robbed, or that the game is unfair, or rigged (that last one is just conspiracy theories and please just stop those. Just... just stop.). Block voting was worse before they added back the juries. Learn your history if you don’t believe me.

And lastly. Eurovision song contest is fun. Don’t make it about your anger because your favorite didn’t win.

okay, so a last comment about tonight’s finale: my prediction is that neither Italy, Finland, Iceland or Ukraine will win because they’re pulling on too many of the same fans, the vote will be split, and something much more boring will actually win on account of being the most interesting boring song. That’s not what I want to happen, but I think that’s realistic. We’ll see in about 9-10 hours.

[sole-cuore-amore-e-droga]

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

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! ^^

• 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.

• 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.

• 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 ^_^

• 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!

[betweenthetimeandsound]

Three Minutes to Eternity: My ESC 250 (Bonus Round--what could have been?)

No, this is not for national final songs that lost out on the way to Eurovision, nor is it for withdrawn songs (that said, I'd imagine Polina's Wagon-Lit from 1986 would be in the 90-110 range; and La vie à 25 ans from 1974 in the 220-250 range. Also, if you want me to mention some NF songs I liked, just ask me!)

Instead, this is the category for songs that would've made it to Eurovision, but a qualification round or a pandemic (or giving too many votes to a rival) prevented them from doing so. The actual ESC250 on songfestival.be actually puts them in the pool come voting time, and I did vote for a song amongst them for the ESC250 last year, but I didn't include them in this pool because I wasn't sure which ones to pick against songs that had competed. Maybe if they grow on me a bit more, then I would include them on version 2.0 of this list.

This is actually in chronological order--I'll comment on the songs like usual, and then decide on where they would've placed on my personal list had I decided to include them.

--Elán - Amnestia na neveru (Slovakia 1993)

“Láska je kukla, ktorá sa na motýľa zmení Až keď mu krídla zhoria vie pravdu o plameni”

“Love is a chrysalis, which is turning into a butterfly But only when its wings get burned it knows the truth about the flame”

If you're ever having a bad day in life, just remember that Slovakia had all but punched their ticket to Millstreet when it got to them, the final jury. They ended up giving their eight points to Croatia, ten to Slovenia, and twelve to Bosnia-Herzegovina (the latter which I truly agree with), and ended up missing out by one point. Had they given seven points to Croatia instead, then they would've tied, but Slovakia would've won on countback.

That aside, Amnestia Na Neveru has an enigmatic title, translated to “Amnesty for Infidelity” from Slovak. Something put me off of this from first listening; maybe it was Jozo's nasal vocals or the hollow backing track. I was more interested in Estonia's entry from the pre-qualifying round, because it was sweeter and Jaanika had a pretty voice.

However, it’s quite the grower--an intriguing pop-rock song, with tormented lyrics and an overall atmosphere of angst. The narrator doesn't know what to do with romance, so he pleas for mercy should he make a mistake. The orchestral arrangement was definitely strong (especially with the line above), which makes it an even bigger loss from Kvalificacija za Millstreet.

While it would spell a bad beginning for Slovakia's Eurovision journey, Amnestia na Neveru is still one of Elan's biggest hits. And it got me hooked on their discography: I recommend the equally angsty Modlitba pre dva hlasy, the heartwrenching Laska Moja, and the charming yet underrated Anna Maria.

Where would it place in my top 250: 177th/250 -- Amnestia na Neveru, like Horehronie, is challenging Modlitba to be my favorite Slovak entry (then again, there's not much to choose from both in quantity and quality). It has become a legitimate favorite of mine, though I don't think it would have challenged my top 5 of 1993 on that front.

--Leon - Blauer Planet (Planet of Blue) (Germany 1996)

“Heute düse ich ab ins All Beam mich hoch mit ‘nem grossen Knall Und der Countdown läuft Der Countdown läuft”

“Today I’m dashing up to space Beam me up with a big bang And the countdown’s on The countdown’s on”

At the end of 1995's voting, Germany came in last; by the relegation rules back then, they would be forced to sit out. Either coincidentally, or because NDF got angry at potentially not participating, the EBU decided on an audio-only pre-qualifier round in 1996. Twenty-nine countries (excluding hosts Norway) would submit songs, and a set of juries would cull it down to a final twenty-two to go to Oslo.

Since karma is at play, "Planet of Blue" was one of the seven that missed out. Thus, Germany's perfect attendance record was snapped, and we missed out on a total bop.

As seen here, the lyrics are a bit silly, talking about a journey to space (though that may figure in with the new millennium with the technology involved), but they are accompanied by a pulsating beat and great synthesizers. I always find myself dancing to this one, and the chorus is especially infectious, albeit driving nails into the language rule which hovered at the time.

Had it made into the contest in Oslo, I’m not sure how it would compete in contrast to “Ooh, Aah, Just a Little Bit” (#119), because the latter was that hit with that dress with all the acclaim possible. Especially if they were too close together, one of them would've canceled the each other out, with Planet of Blue potentially losing out. But it would’ve pushed Eurovision further towards modernity, adding sparks of Eurodance in a mostly New-Age contest (though that said, I still enjoy that, and you'll see my top two quite soon for 1996).

Where it would place in my top 250: 214th/250 -- While I do enjoy Planet of Blue, how it would hold up on the greatest songs ever? Not by much. Like mentioned before, Ooh, Aah, Just a Little Bit was the superior one of the two, and there were a number of stronger songs not only in 1996, but also throughout the rest of time. It's quite enjoyable for me, but that's as far it goes, really.

--Go_A: Solovey (Ukraine 2020)

"Якби я того не знала Я б з тобою не гуляла Не ходила долину Не ламала б калину"

"If I didn’t know that I wouldn’t be walking with you I wouldn’t walk through the valleys I wouldn’t be breaking the guelder roses"

Honestly, I'm not as attached to the class of 2020 as most other fans were--I didn't have a favorite for a while and found most of the songs quite dull throughout. And even though some grew on me (especially Voda), I still don't think they stood out in comparison to other strong songs in other years.

Solovey, on the other hand, intrigued my interest when it was first released as one of the Vidbir entrants. It was intriguing in the mix of electronic and folkloric legends, from the siplika in the background to the thumping beats throughout. While a mid-tempo song, it still maintains interest throughout the three minutes and leads to a pretty neat conclusion. Even through the two revamps it went through, it still has some good production throughout.

What makes its case for being my favorite that year were the lyrics, which are taken out of a folk legend and tell a simple yet rooted story of a girl falling in love with a boy she shouldn't, and telling the nightingale to not sing so that they would not get caught. I feel like stepping into said legend, and I love it for that!

Kateryna's white-voice vocals are a bit of an acquired taste (this was before everyone fell in love with Shum--another spoiler, it's in my top 50), because of how piercingly sharp they were. But they add to the folkloric parts of the song, along with how well-acclimated to the track they are. For what would've been the first Ukrainian song in the contest, it was something definitely special!

Where it would place in my top 250: 95th/250 -- I definitely see Solovey as part of my top 100 ever; it has style and substance as it introduces a way to blend old and new together. It also piqued some interest in Ukrainian culture; Solovey was based on the folk poem "Kateryna" by Taras Shevchenko (which I still haven't read, haha). That said, it still doesn't have the same impact on me as the rest of the higher echelons of the list, so it wouldn't end up at the tippy top.

[usstatesofsong]

2018 Eurovision Song Reviews - France

Automatic Qualifiers #6: FRANCE - Madame Monsieur, Mercy

We’ve come to the last review of 2018! Huzzah! I had to rush toward the end, but it feels good to not be still writing with minutes to spare before the first show. I saved one of my favorites for last - at least, the one I felt would be easiest to write for me.

I’m a bit biased; I love French things. I took French as my second language in school, and although I’m not fluent, I’d be able to survive. J’écrirais en français dans cette journal, s’il était absolument nécessaire. These days, English is the dominant online language - but I don’t walk trendy lines.

So I took special attention to Destination Eurovision - the first French national selection since 2014. It had some really good songs, and people praised the selection for its overall quality. At the time, I was crazier about Lisandro Cuxi’s “Eva,” thinking it had the x-factor necessary to score well at Eurovision. Vloggers were hyper-focused on the ‘she’s just a single mother’ lyric as being creepy, and instead, there was bigger hype around Madame Monseiur’s song, “Mercy.” I didn’t quite get it. It was good, but it wasn’t amazing.

But then I read the lyrics and found out the song’s purpose. At that moment - I was All. Aboard.

There’s a double-entendre in the title, it being “Merci” - the way to say ‘Thank you’ in French - and “Mercy,” the name given to a newborn baby of a Nigerian refugee. Mercy was born in 2017 on a small boat in the Mediterranean Sea. Upon seeing her story of survival in the news, a symbol of triumph amidst the chaos, the married duo that comprises Madame Monsieur (Emilie Satt, and Jean-Karl Lucas) were inspired to write and self-produce the song.

The lyrics are, more or less, the story of this baby being born: “Je suis née ce matin - je m’appelle Mercy - au milieu de la mer - entre deux pays.” In this way, the song avoids being too political for acceptance to the contest per EBU standards. However, the divisiveness lives on. The like/dislike ratio on YouTube is… interesting, and there are apparently radio stations in the north of France that refuse to play the song. Sorry, what decade is it again? The 1960′s? I understand that this humanitarian issue is extremely political… ah, well, let’s save it for a different time.

In my opinion, this song fails if the message doesn’t get across. I can’t say there’s anything miraculous about the musical arrangement - although I love those ‘poppy’ electro sounds sprinkled in the chorus segments. That first reaction I had is an important caveat: the production of the last chorus (“Merci, merci, je vais bien, merci”) suffers from a lack of energy, but the duo does this arm movement on stage - kind of like reaching out for hope - which makes up for some of it.

Overall, it’s strong. This goes beyond Eurovision boundaries. It’s probably the song I’ve played the most this season. All this said with some bias, I don’t think it’s a winner, given how much depends on interpretation and staging. But I’ll take a Top 5 finish. And in the event that France wins, you will be seeing me next year at Eurovision, having the time of my life (and landing a job there? Someone take me in SVP :)

---

There you have it. I’ve reviewed all 43 entries. Let’s enjoy this week of music and hope for the best! Something tells me I’ll be going to bed angry, though… that first semifinal is bonkers. At least this song automatically qualifies.

My Rating: 8.5/10 Ranking: 2nd of 43

[ovojebalkan-story-collectio-blog]

Lisja Esenski (Pokemon AU)

Leaves blew around the city as the lights on the stadium lit up. It was the night of Skopje Fest 2014. Already, Macedonia were going to be deciding their entrant for next year's Eurovision Pokemon Contest. This year, they were going to be the first country to choose their competitor for the big event. Macedonia was not typically good at Pokemon battling, they were a shiny collecting nation, an entire country of shiny hunters. Battling just wasn't their speciality. But still, every year they would show up at the grand tournament of the Eurovision Pokemon Contest. Typically they would get knocked out at the semi-final stage, but they were always back the next year to try again. It was nearly time, and the Skopje Fest competitors were hanging around the green room. All the entrants were there, except for one, who was mysteriously absent, X Factor Adria winner Daniel Kajmakoski. He was one of the favourites to win Skopje Fest, he had already won the great Pokemon battle at X Factor, shocking everyone, as no one had expected a Macedonian to win the contest. "Where is he?" Tamara asked, "He should be here by now, the show is starting soon." "I don't know," Dimitar said, "Should we go and ask someone? We can't really start without him, can we?" The contestants thought it over, but at that moment, the door opened. Daniel Kajmakoski walked in, along with his mentor, Željko Joksimović. Željko was one of the best Pokemon trainers in Serbia, and one of the best in the entire Balkans too. He had helped many Eurovision entrants in the past, and if Daniel won Skopje Fest, then he would be helping Team Macedonia. "Hey everyone," Daniel said, "Hope I'm not late!" "Nah," Vlatko Ilievski replied, "It hasn't started yet. You're right on time!" Vlatko looked down at his PokeDex. It was coming along quite nicely. He was hoping to get into the Eurovision contest again. He had been before, so this wasn't new to him. Vlatko had won Skopje Fest in 2011 and so won the right to compete at the Eurovision Pokemon Contest back then. He had tried very hard but got knocked out at the semi-final stage. But Macedonia would never give up on the dream, even though they were not the best at Pokemon battling, they would continue to compete at Eurovision. This time, Vlatko had brought another trainer with him, his friend Risto Samardžiev, to be a part of his team. Risto had more experience with Pokemon training, and so he hoped that would give him a better chance. Vlatko looked up from his PokeDex and at the clock on the wall. The show still hadn't started yet. "What was it like?" Egi asked, "To go to Eurovision and compete at the contest?" "Oh, it was an experience, that's for sure," Vlatko grinned, "And much harder than Skopje Fest, ya know. Well, I tried my best, and that's all I can do." Back in 2011, Azerbaijan had been the winners. Ell and Nikki had used the legendary Pokemon Moltres to secure victory. It started a huge debate on whether or not legendary Pokemon should even be allowed in the tournament, but the head of the EBU, Jon Ola Sand, decided to allow legendaries in. His logic was, if a trainer was good enough to catch a legendary Pokemon, then they should be allowed to use it. But no one at Skopje Fest had any legendary Pokemon, even Risto, who had been a Pokemon trainer for longer than the others. Vlatko told the story of Eurovision 2011 to the other entrants. "And now you want to go again..." Tamara said, "Just like me." "Yup," Vlatko grinned, "But this time, if I win this, Risto will be with me." "Haha, yeah," Risto laughed, "Well let's not get too ahead of ourselves, ok? Let the best Pokemon trainer win, whoever that is. The best trainer should represent Macedonia, after all." "That's true," Tamara said, "But I just loved the whole Eurovision experience. I would love to go again." Tamara had been in the Eurovision Pokemon Contest back in 2008. Tamara, Vrčak & Adrian had all gone together as Team Macedonia. Even though they had come 10th in the semi-final, there had been a jury wildcard rule back then. The jury got to decide who the 10th country to qualify would be. They chose Sweden instead. Charlotte Perrelli had made some crucial mistakes in her semi-final battles, but Sweden was always a popular country with the juries. Macedonia didn't stand a chance at being chosen against them. Still, they weren't bitter about it. Macedonia would always come back next year to try again. And the next. And the next. They weren't a country to give up easily. They looked over to see Kaliopi walking over to them. "Hey guys," she said, "Long time no see." Kaliopi was a strong Pokemon trainer, but even more than that, she was the greatest shiny hunter in all of Macedonia, all of the Balkans, and perhaps even all of Europe. Her collection of shiny Pokemon was the largest in the entire continent. Kaliopi was one of the interval acts tonight, she wasn't going to be a competitor. The Skopje Fest contestants were glad at that, because Kaliopi would be a hard one to beat. "Well," Željko said, "Are we ready?" The entrants looked around the green room. Some of them certainly didn't feel ready, especially since they would have a battle against Daniel Kajmakoski, one of the best Pokemon battlers in all of Macedonia, but it was already time for the start of the show. They would have to be ready. "Sure," Tamara said, "We're ready. Let's begin." And so the Skopje Fest 2014 began. The Pokemon battles were fierce, but it was obvious that Daniel had the upper hand. His Pokemon were more trained than the others, and he was pretty consistently winning against everyone else. However, winning wasn't everything. The results from the juries and the televoters would also be taken into account towards the final score. One thing was for sure though, everyone expected Daniel to win this. The entrants recalled their Pokemon back into their Pokeballs and they returned to the green room to wait for the results. Joce Panov looked outside the green room and then walked back over to the others. He seemed very excited about something. "Guys!" he said, "A golden Pokeball is being brought into the arena!" "A golden... Pokeball?" Vlatko asked, surprised. Golden Pokeballs were rare, most people had never seen one. They usually contained an amazing Pokemon, like a legendary, or even better for Macedonians, a shiny Pokemon. And sure enough, there it was, the host of Skopje Fest, Vasil Zafircev, walked into the room carrying a golden Pokeball. "Hey everyone," Vasil said, "Just to let you know, whoever wins Skopje Fest tonight will also win the prize that is inside this Pokeball!" But something happened, Vasil tripped on a prop on the ground, and he dropped the Pokeball. A flash of light appeared and the Pokeball opened, revealing the Pokemon inside. There it was, a shiny Groudon. A shiny legendary Pokemon. People gasped in amazement. No one had expected this. A legendary AND a shiny? "That..." Vlatko said, "That... it's beautiful. Wow." The Skopje Fest entrants gathered around the dinosaur Pokemon. "Remember guys," Risto said, "It's also a legendary Pokemon. It's very strong. Keep your distance. We need to treat this Pokemon with respect." "Don't worry you guys," Daniel grinned, "I'll handle this. I'll catch it again and then we can get on with the show!" Daniel stepped forward and took out a Pokeball, throwing it at the Groudon. The Pokemon immeadiately broke out. This seemed to anger the Pokemon, and it flicked its tail, knocking some empty chairs over. "Sorry, sorry," Daniel apologised, unsure if the Pokemon could understand him or not. The Pokemon knocked a table over. "This isn't great, is it?" Dimitar sighed, "Whose bright idea was this?" "It's not my fault," Vasil said, "Who left that prop on the floor that I tripped on?" "Guys, guys," Risto said, "Let's not blame each other, I'm sure we can fix this." "Exactly, Risto," Daniel said, as he picked up another Pokeball and threw it again. The Pokemon popped out of the Pokeball again and this time it was even more angry. "Daniel!" Tamara yelled, "Please stop throwing Pokeballs!" "Sorry," Daniel said, "I thought I could catch it. Anyone else got any ideas?" "Yes, anyone, please," Vasil said, "Before this Pokemon gets out of the green room and into the audience area. It'd be a real shame to have to evacuate the arena or even cancel the end of the show because of this." Kaliopi stepped forward. "I have an idea," she said, pulling an Ultra Ball out of her pocket. These were stronger than regular Pokeballs. She threw it as hard as she could at the Pokemon, which went inside the ball. The ball rolled and shook a few times, then clicked. She had done it, she had caught the Pokemon. "Kaliopi!" Daniel said, "You did it!" "Thank you, Kaliopi," Vasil said, "Great work catching that Pokemon. Now we can finally get on with the show!" The entrants sat in the green room as the results were read out. Skopje Fest had certainly been eventful so far, but that was enough excitement for one day. Now, they were going to find out who was going to represent Macedonia in the Eurovision Song Contest. Daniel was leading the scoreboard, which didn't surprise anyone, since he was one of the most popular Pokemon trainers in Macedonia. Tamara was in second place. The final results rolled in. "And the winner," Vasil said, "Of Skopje Fest 2014... is Daniel Kajmakoski!" "Wow..." Daniel said, as he took the Skopje Fest trophy from Vasil, "I don't know what to say. Thank you, everyone." "And, as the winner of Skopje Fest," Vasil said, "You get to represent Macedonia in the Eurovision Pokemon Contest. Also, Kaliopi, the Pokemon you caught was Daniel's prize. You really should hand it over to him." Kaliopi took the Pokeball out. Daniel thought it over, but he couldn't take it. After all, he had failed to catch it, multiple times. Kaliopi had been the one trainer who was able to capture it. "No," Daniel said, "I can't accept it. Kaliopi, you caught it, it's your Pokemon." "Really?" Kaliopi said, "Daniel, thank you so much." "No, Kaliopi, thank you. I hope one day I can be as worthy a Pokemon trainer as you and have a shiny legendary of my own. I almost feel like I'm not the real winner, and that you're the real winner." "Nonsense, Daniel," Kaliopi grinned, "You are the winner of Skopje Fest, that's why you'll be going to Eurovision next May. Good luck at ESC!" "Thank you," Daniel said, "Hopefully nothing like that happens at the actual contest." And so, Macedonia had their Eurovision entrant, Daniel Kajmakoski. Macedonia had been the first country to choose their contestant for the 2015 contest, so Skopje Fest signalled the beginning of Eurovision 2015. Everyone was excited for the big event. Macedonia hoped that Daniel would do well at the contest, but one thing was for sure, they would be proud of him no matter what.