ESC 2013 - Rehearsals Day 4

DAY 4

Greece - Koza Mostra ft Agathonas Iakovidis - "Alcohol Is Free" (1st rehearsal) 
I don't like what I hear. The vocals are really bad and I hope Ilias drops that "savage" voice. It's annoying. The performance looks identical to the NF one but they added some lights to their musical instruments.

Israel - Moran Mazor - "Rak Bishvilo" (1st rehearsal)
Why oh why are you wearing the NF dress Moran? Don't they read the negative comments about the styling? What are they thinking? Really! I'll try to overlook that even though it's impossible. Her vocals were great as always. Fix the styling PLEASE!

Armenia - Dorians - "Lonely Planet" (1st rehearsal)
Yeah definitely in my bottom 5. Why is he jumping like that? The outfits (if these are the stage ones) are ok. Nothing else to say here. Really.

Hungary - ByeAlex - "Kedvesem (Zoohacker Remix)" (1st rehearsal)
I like that they're using the music video of the song as backdrop. The performance is really simple but they sound really good. I like it!

Norway - Margaret Berger - "I Feed You My Love" (1st rehearsal)
I love that she kept the dress from MGP. However there are some minor changes on it. I have to say I don't really like the cut below the knee. I wanted the "caterpillar" dress! Hahaha Anyway this is great. I also don't like the backing vocalists. Sure they need them but I hope they hide them somehow. The focus should be Margaret and only Margaret! And I don't like that the backing vocalists are doing the same gestures as Margaret... Her vocals were ok-ish... At least that's what I heard but I'm not worried about that. I'm sure she'll sound great during the live performance.

Albania - Adrian Lulgjuraj & Bledar Sejko - "Identitet" (1st rehearsal)
Another staging similar to the NF one. I don't like what I see and hear. Well probably because I don't like the song. Next!

Georgia - Nodi Tatishvili & Sophie Gelovani - "Waterfall" (1st rehearsal)
I don't like the song but I like the stage effects. And their outfits. But that's all...

Switzerland - Takasa - "You And Me" (1st rehearsal)
Simple outfits but for some reason I really like them! The staging is the one I was expecting. What else could they do? Yeah, I like it!

Romania - Cezar - "It's My Life" (1st rehearsal)
That was painful. Sorry but that's how it is. I don't like it. I will never like this one no matter how they present it. And Cezar's outfit is horrible.

ESC 2013 - Reviewing the countries beginning with "A"

It's April and it's time for the annual review.

Albania sends Adrian Lulgjuraj & Bledar Sejko with the song "Identitet" written by Bledar Sejko and Eda Sejko.
I like the intro and the music in general. But that's all. It's not a song that will make it to my playlist. Albania had the chance to enter my top 5 this year but they totally blew it. Kejsi would have got my 12 points! But not Adrian and Bledar...
Albania competes in the 2nd semi-final with running order #14.

3pts from me and good luck to Albania! 

Armenia sends Dorians with the song "Lonely Planet" written by  Tony Iommi and Vardan Zadoyan.
First impression when I listened to this, boring! Second time, "oh my God! he's singing in english?". I thought the only english words in the song were "lonely" and "planet". But the language won't save it. I don't like it. At all! Bad comeback for Armenia!
Armenia competes in the 2nd semi-final with running order #11.

0pts from me and good luck to Armenia!

Austria sends Natália Kelly with the song "Shine" written by Andreas Grass, Nikola Paryla, Alexander Kahr and Natália Kelly.
Austria... Weird thing happened with Austria this year. I followed their NF (well, not so difficult since they only had 5 songs). 4 of the songs were pretty bad. I liked only "Shine" so I was really happy when it won. On escunited.com's poll I gave it a 6 or a 7 right after it won. A few weeks later this 6 (or 7) became 8. I made my preliminary top 10 at some point and Austria was 7th. For the first time....EVER. A few weeks ago that 8 became 10. That 10 is now a 12 and Austria is currently in my top 3! Totally love it!
Austria competes in the 1st semi-final with running order #1.

12pts from me and good luck to Austria!

Azerbaijan sends Farid Mammadov with the song "Hold Me" written by Dimitrios Kontopoulos, John Ballard and Ralph Charlie Al Fahel.
A Greek composer there but yeah. I'm not a fan of the song. I only like the chorus. Not his accent though. It won't be a bad moment in the semi but yeah, it won't make it to any of my playlists.
Azerbaijan competes in the 2nd semi-final with running order #4.

4pts from me and good luck to Azerbaijan!