ESC 2012 - Reviewing the countries beginning with "C", "D", "E"

Croatia sends Nina Badrić with the song "Nebo" written by Nina Badrić.
Beautiful ballad from Croatia and Nina! I really like the instrumentation! There's a part around 2:09-2:14 that reminds me of this. I'm not talking about plagiarism or anything like that just to be clear. Anyway with a good presentation this can do well. Good job Croatia!
Croatia competes in the 2nd semi-final with running order #10.

7pts from me and good luck to Croatia!

Cyprus sends Ivi Adamou with the song "La La Love" written by Alex Papaconstantinou, Björn Djupström, Alexandra Zakka and Viktor Svensson.

Probably the best cypriot entry! I have to admit it though. I don't like Ivi. At all. But I love the song! It's so catchy! They need to find a good choreographer for Ivi and please don't let her improvise when it comes to dancing! I think it's gonna be a good year for Cyprus but then again, they were a favourite to win the whole contest in 2007...

Cyprus competes in the 1st semi-final with running order #12.

10pts from me and good luck to Cyprus!

Denmark sends Soluna Samay with the song "Should've Known Better" written by Isam Bachiri, Remee and Chief 1.

Love Denmark's song this year! More than their last year's entry! It wasn't my favourite in DMGP but it has grown on me a lot since then! Soluna is a good live singer but I really hope she gets rid of those "captain" clothes or whatever...

Denmark competes in the 1st semi-final with running order #13.

10pts from me and good luck to Denmark!

Estonia sends Ott Lepland with the song "Kuula" written by Ott Lepland and Aapo Ilves.
This is way too boring! I don't like it! Can't find a positive thing about this song. And I can't say I like Ott's voice. Sorry Estonia. Better luck next year! I think the last time I liked an estonian entry was in 2006!
Estonia competes in the 2nd semi-final with running order #14.

0pts from me and good luck to Estonia!

ESC 2012 - Reviewing the countries beginning with "B"

Belarus sends Litesound with the song "We Are The Heroes" written by Dmitry Karyakin and Vladimir Karyakin.
What did you do Belarus?! :( The first version was fantastic and now you ruined it!!! :( You are supposed to make a song sound better not worse! I don't like the final version! On the plus side Dimitry sounds like a combination of Chad Kroeger (Nickelback) and Tyler Connolly (Theory of a Deadman) and he's quite handsome. But that's not the point! The song is what matters! And it doesn't sound good. Sorry Belarus! I will keep listening to the original version which for the record, I was planning to give 10pts to...
Belarus competes in the 2nd semi-final with running order #5.

5pts from me and good luck to Belarus!

 

 

Belgium sends Iris with the song "Would You" written by Jean Bosco Safari, Walter Mannaerts and Nina Sampermans.

Ballad...snoozefest! I didn't like it from the first listening so no way it's gonna grow on me. I like Iris' voice but I don't like the song. I find it boring. It can be a good jury bait but it doesn't work for me and I don't know what else to say about it.

Belgium competes in the 1st semi-final with running order #8.

1pt from me and good luck to Belgium!

 

 

 

 

Bosnia & Herzegovina sends Maya Sar with the song "Korake Ti Znam" written by Maja Sarihodžić.

I listened to this for the first time and I sang along in the end "Korake ti znam"! Hahaha Quite obvious! I kinda like it. It belongs to a strange category for me. It's a ballad I like but a ballad that I'm not crazy about and that means that I will enjoy it in the semi (and in the final too if they make it) but it won't be in my ESC playlist. And because of that it's hard for me to give my points...

Bosnia & Herzegovina competes in the 2nd semi-final with running order #17.

5pts from me and good luck to Bosnia & Herzegovina!

 

 

Bulgaria sends Sofi Marinova with the song "Love Unlimited" written by Krum Georgiev, Yasen Kozev and Doni Vasileva.

Bulgaria did it again! 3rd time in a row that they're in my top 5! Even though last year I think they dropped to my no6 but it doesn't matter! Love love love the song! When I first listened to the song I laughed a bit with Sofi's high notes in the chorus but now it's totally fine. She will definitely need a good stylist! They need to find one or they can be screwed by this! Details are important in ESC! 

Bulgaria competes in the 2nd semi-final with running order #8.

10pts from me and good luck to Bulgaria!

 

 

ESC 2012 - Reviewing the countries beginning with "A"

Ok back to work! Sooo busy with uni stuff but I have to do this. I want to do this! And finally I need to make my official top 10! I know my top 4 so far haha. 'Kay! Let's do this!

Albania sends Rona Nishliu with the song "Suus" written by Florent Boshnjaku and Rona Nishliu.
I couldn't listen to the entire song (I'm talking about the NF version). Now the final version sounds better. She has a nice voice, quite screamy for my taste (please no comparisons to Pastora Soler!). As far as I can remember she didn't quite perform it in the NF. I remember several forum members saying she was out of tune. As I said I didn't watch the entire performance. Anyway the song has a nice melody but I'm not a big fan. Nice video by the way.
Albania competes in the 1st semi-final with running order #5.

3pts from me and good luck to Albania!

Austria sends Trackshittaz with the song "Woki Mit Deim Popo" written by Lukas Plöchl and Manuel Hoffelner.

I've listened to this 3 times in a row. Still forgettable and totally not my cup of tea! For some reason I don't think this is the worst song of this year's edition. But I don't like it. About their NF performance, ehm rappers with suits? Really? Aah. No.

Austria competes in the 1st semi-final with running order #16.

1pt from me and good luck to Austria!

Azerbaijan sends Sabina Babayeva with the song "When The Music Dies" written by Anders Bagge, Stefan Örn, Johan Kronlund and Sandra Bjurman.

Another swedish entry for Azerbaijan hehe. Hm...average song for me. Don't like it, don't dislike it. It's not something I will hear over and over again. It will be a nice moment in the final and that's all. I also don't see it as a grower (for me!) coz you know I'm not a ballad lover. Ballads don't grow on me. If I don't like it from then first listening then that's it! Another nice video though.

Azerbaijan competes in the final with running order #13.

5pts from me and good luck to Azerbaijan!

Ok that didn't take a lot of time which means I will try to blog about the "B" countries in the afternoon. Don't worry I'm not taking them one letter at a time. 3 to 5 countries per post. But the "S" countries are 7 so I will review them all in one post. Anyway, that's it for now. :)

ESC 2012 - Iceland: Let's bitch!

Some title right? Great way to come back to blogging after two weeks! Well sorry guys, got caught up with uni stuff and Helena Paparizou in the swedish Let's Dance and since I'm the only one in her official fan club that speaks swedish (and lives in Sweden), I have a lot of work to do! Anyway enough with the off topic introduction.

Back to the title and the actual blog post! As you can see the post is about Iceland 2012. Well not the country itself. More about their entry. Well more about the singers and not the song. Well more about one of the singers. Well more about Greta! (that "well more about" got really annoying right? *oops*)

Well the regular readers (hope there are some out there!) of this blog know how much I wanted "Mundu Eftir Mér" to be performed in icelandic! If not check this out. As you can see from these blog posts me and Greta exchanged some comments on facebook regarding the language. You know what happened. They're gonna send it in english. Even after the final decision was made me and Katy (check her blog out!) kept supporting the icelandic version and arguing about it. A couple of days ago I wondered why I don't see any activity from Greta's profile so I checked it out and surprise surprise! She deleted me! And Katy! Now I guess this is the definition of accepting other people's opinions right? Because we never fought with anyone. We were expressing our opinion in the best possible way without insulting anyone! And all we got was a "delete friend" from Greta! What a great and mature attitude don't you think? I guess she doesn't want us around to say "we told you so" when this will all be over... ;) xD

Honestly, I wasn't planning to blog about this but hey! I have the right to talk about whatever I want! Especially since I'm not insulting anyone. I'm just telling you what happened. Hard feelings for Greta? Well not really. Honest. I actually don't care. She did get some "minus points" for that attitude but other than that I don't care. I wasn't gonna vote for Iceland the moment they decided to send their entry in english so me not voting for them isn't because of Greta. (well to a greater extend it is since she decided to go for the english version but still...)

The fun part? I still love "Mundu Eftir Mér"! Even though it's no longer in my top 3 and perhaps not even in my top 5. Aah I really need to make my top 10! I keep saying "tomorrow", "tomorrow", "definitely tomorrow"...

ESC 2012 - Running order of semi-finals and final

One step closer! We know the running order of the semis and the final! I'm a bit like this --> -.- because the show was supposed to begin at 11:00 CET but due to technical issues they began at 11:40... anyway.

Semi-final 1

1. Montenegro
2. Iceland
3. Greece
4. Latvia
5. Albania
6. Romania
7. Switzerland
8. Belgium
9. Finland (WILDCARD)
10. Israel
11. San Marino
12. Cyprus
13. Denmark
14. Russia
15. Hungary
16. Austria
17. Moldova
18. Ireland (WILDCARD)

Hm... Iceland is #2... Doesn't look good and english won't help. I stop right there though! Greece #3 and right after Iceland... ok... I guess... Cyprus #12. Good draw, right after San Marino and before Denmark... Ah nothing to say here. Let's go to semi 2!



Semi-final 2

1. Serbia
2. FYR Macedonia
3. Netherlands
4. Malta
5. Belarus
6. Portugal
7. Ukraine (WILDCARD)
8. Bulgaria
9. Slovenia
10. Croatia
11. Sweden
12. Georgia
13. Turkey
14. Estonia
15. Slovakia
16. Norway
17. Bosnia & Herzegovina
18. Lithuania (WILDCARD)

 Serbia opens the second semi! Nice! Sweden got a great draw! Not because of the number but the songs before Sweden are ballads and even though I haven't heard Georgia's song, I don't hear the best about it so go Loreen! Can't really comment the rest of the countries. I haven't heard all the songs yet.



Final

01. United Kingdom

02.
03.
04.
05.
06.
07.
08.
09. France
10. Italy
11.
12.
13. Azerbaijan
14.
15.
16.
17.
18.
19. Spain (WILDCARD)
20. Germany
21.
22.
23.
24.
25.
26.

When Spain got the wildcard I literally jumped off my seat (thank God no one's around! xD) and then they pick #19 because last year Azerbaijan performed at the same number and won! What are you doing Spain???!!! But now that I think about it, Greece performed 19th in 2005 and we won! xD Naah really. But ok, it's not like they picked #1! Poor UK! Hahahahahahaha

ESC 2012 - Iceland: with "Never Forget" to Baku

You know I'm so tired of defending the icelandic version because nobody listens! Today they released the music video with the revamped version of "Mundu Eftir Mér" but with the new title "Never Forget". Yup, they're going for the english version in Baku! :( I watched the video, I listened to the english version. I love the video (again it doesn't matter if the video is good or not) but I can't say I like the english version more. I can't even say I like it as much as the icelandic! Wrong move Iceland. Wrong move Greta! I just wish you gave us the chance to vote between these two because if you "take a walk" in youtube you'll see that the majority wants the icelandic version! Even in the poll on this blog the icelandic version has more votes. And ok, I posted the poll before we heard the english version but still...

You should really follow the footsteps of Slovenia, Croatia and Serbia. They were ready to enter Eurovision with english versions of the songs but they won't! Because of the fans. 

All the arguments we posted all these weeks regarding the icelandic version were stronger than the ones posted about the english version. And I won't argue any more. Apparently you guys made up your minds a long time ago! It's a shame...

And here's a question from a friend on esctodayforum.com: Why did you only revamp the english version? Why don't we have the icelandic version with the new arrangement? 

His guess (and I agree with him)? You wanted us to think "hey the english version sounds better!". Well it won't work on us at least.

And by the way, I've been waiting to see if the final version would be in icelandic or in english before I vote in the forum. I was going to give 12pts to the icelandic one but now you guys got a 7. I was also going to actually vote during the ESC but now I won't. And not as a punishment. I just don't feel like the english version deserves votes... That's all. Good luck Iceland!

ESC 2012 - Spain: Music video and final version of "Quédate Conmigo" released

And we have the final version and the video clip of "Quédate Conmigo"! Watch it here. The video is really nice but I won't focus on that.

So in the final version there's instrumentation added to the verses. Especially to the second one. I was excited at the beginning about these changes but I listened to the new version a few times and I think I miss the first one. Or at least the one she performed in the final. Yes, I think I prefer the one in the spanish final. But that won't stop me from giving 12 points to Spain.

Moreover I noticed a more dramatic performance by Pastora in this version. The only thing I don't like on this version is the part at 2:23. That "ooooh". But ok. It's nothing big. And because I know Pastora, her live performance will be much better. I always watch her live performances on youtube. They are epic!

So that's all about Spain! Now we wait until May. Unless of course something else comes up.

ESC 2012 - The greek entry

I was too tired to blog about this on Monday and I forgot to blog about it yesterday! Wow, I really don't care that much about Greece this year! And our song is nice! lol

Well I didn't watch the entire final. I watched the songs and then I turned it off coz I found it extremely boring! Not to mention the fact that they sang playback! Seriously? Now we don't know how it's gonna sound live! We have to wait until the rehearsals!

Anyway! Our representative this year is Eleftheria Eleftheriou with "Aphrodisiac" written by Dimitri Stassos, Mikaela Stenström and Dajana Lööf.

And as I said when I first listened to the songs, this was my winner so I'm glad about it! Good luck to us!