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Old 20-05-2005, 09:33 PM   #1
Timpsi
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So the Eurovision song contest semi-final was yesterday. Finland got kicked out as expected, and the show offered a lot of material for unfounded, unconstructive criticism.

First the ones that made it through to the final:

Switzerland is one of those with a whole lotta hype around them this year. They've got an Estonian girl band with a song that has been produced in Germany.. Very odd, but as the rules allow it, then fine. The song itself is actually almost okay; the girls play quite well, it has a catchy rhythm in it, and it keeps building momentum. However, the lyrics make absolutely no sense whatsoever, and the lead singer has a way too thin voice for such heavy music. The bass-player looks nice.

Norway has a glamrock band. The song is very generic, but the sense of self-humour works. However, I was annoyed by the band blatantly milking points from the Ukrainians by waving an orange flag, and the band lacks the charisma that is necessary for successful glamrock.

Croatia was semi-okay. The song was a typical one at Eurovision: a melancholic guy singing about loneliness. However, the it all grows towards the end, and the manic drummer - who doesn't go with the lead singer at all, actually - saves the day. Very regular.

Moldova had an alternative band with ethnic stuff blended in, and an old woman banging a drum (of whom the song is also about). The grandma is a gimmick, of course, but it probably works for younger audience. The song itself wasn't anything special, though.

Hungary had also ethnic music blended into pop, and it worked for a while. However, the lead singer wasn't all that good (although pretty, classy, and somehow friendly-looking), and her voice broke into false notes in several occasions. The song works quite well, though I've never been a fan of over-used lalalalala-bits. Glad to see some real dancing instead of generic disco, too.

Denmark did surprisingly well. Beforehand the song sounded very generic and dull, but the show on the stage worked, and it was quite nice to listen to. No gimmicks either, so they deserved their place in the final.

The fact that Macedonia made it to the final was a surprise to me. The song wasn't anything special, and the lead singer was an annoying poser (who apparently had even tried to cheat one of our commentators into believing that he had a Finnish grandma). Meh.

Israel had a pretty girl with big boobies. It worked. She sang well, though, and I don't mind watching her big... eyes again in the final.

The Romanian singer also had big boobies (that almost popped out from the costume). The show was energetic, though, and the drums worked fine. However, the voice of the singer was stuck depe in her throat, and it was as if she'd had to struggle to get it out of there.

Latvia.. Latvia.. what did they do? Oh! Right, the two boys. They were the first in the show to sing clearly (with the previous ones it was occasionally difficult to determine if they were actually singing in English or some other language), but it was such a typical performance that I pretty much fell asleep before the halfway. At least I don't remember most of it. Ireland won with this kind of stuff like 10 years ago, but enough is enough. And guys.. it's a love song. It looks really bad when you turn and sing to each other.


Then to those that got kicked out:

Iceland was awful. It was aerobics on stage: dancing to generic, mundane pop music in shorts and sleeveless tops. Bleargh. And what the hell was the figure swimming thing towards the end?

Austria - WHAT WERE YOU THINKING? An ethno-looking band wearing jogging suits and singing about a Cuban girl? Latin stuff with the singer wearing a traditional Austrian costume? Argh! The singer was cute, though.

Belarus.. if I were a Belarussian, I'd be really embarassed. The woman was unable to sing, her English was horrible, she was blatantly ugly, and the costume-changing thing was so tacky that it made me laugh. The shameless flirting felt rather disgusting, too. Ew.

And Portugal! They were so amazingly bad! The song gave me a headache, and the dancing wasn't in synch with the music, and it all looked like they were going to get a heart attack any moment. They were trying so damn hard that watching it wasn't fun for anyone.

The Dutch singer did all the moves and manners of Whitney Houston, but sang a dozen times worse. Long way to go.

Finland was god-awful, as usual. An old, tired guy with a boring song. Meh.

Estonia had an S Club 7 thing with 5 girls. Works with adolescents, not with anyone with taste.

Ireland was horrible. The singers couldn't sing (they were like damn chipmunks), and there's something very dubious about two siblings doing a song about love. And the Irish dance bit was a tacky attempt to add something ethnic into the completely shallow song.

Poland tried to have a show, but.. er.. no. Lots of wasted energy there. Replace the singer, the song, the costumes, and the crew, and maybe then there would be a chance.

Right. And now to wait for the finals tomorrow. It looks like there will be a whole lotta crap in there as well.
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Old 20-05-2005, 09:50 PM   #2
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Well...
I must agree to some extend about most of the statements you've made (although I was slightly disapointed you didn't mention Slovenia).
Not surprising at all - Slovenia didn't make it to the finals (although the song wasn't that awful - the performance was horrid).

I must say I was surprised Poland didn't make it in the final (the song was among my personal favourites).

And about Latvia being in the finals - that's just wrong! The song wasn't even half way descent.


When you commented on vioces that were stuck somwhere in the middle of the throat... that usually happens to singers that sing in a foregin language they don't really know, so that expected, although Rumania still did well.

Macedonia got the votes because of the druming part - otherwise they wouldn't be in the final.



There are quite a few songs I liked (although the performance wasn't necesarily the best), but I'm cheering for Moldavia (that reggae/rock mixture) was very enjoyable IMHO.
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Old 20-05-2005, 09:50 PM   #3
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what about the rest?
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Old 20-05-2005, 09:54 PM   #4
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I gotta say that that The Eurovision Song Contest is one of things in this world that I loathe and despise the most. It seems to me that the people participating are the ones who aren't good enough to actually make music for a living . I might be wrong since I dont know all that much about it, but that's the impression I have from the quality of th music. So the question is, as you said: who is the least bad of them? I don't know, since I never watch it, although I hope it's not Denmark. If Denmark wins, I'll have to listen to the winning song every time I turn on the radio for the next 3 months. If we lose I'll only have to bear a few days with newspaper headlines, claiming that all the other nations plotted against us.

I'll never forget when Denmark hosted the contest a few years back. Never in my life have I seen such a display of unfounded hype. People were acting as if we were hosting the olympics, when in fact we were hosting a crappy contest for a bunch of washed up, pathetic excuses for "musicians".

Just my opinion.
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Old 20-05-2005, 10:01 PM   #5
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Well the quality of the songs varries. The thing is, most of them wish to make a song that would become a hit in Europe. This means that it would apeal to the majority of listeners across the continent.

Usually there aren't so many big names, although some real giants in the European music industry apeared in the contest (like ABBA, Toto Cotugnio,...). The thing is, the songs for the contest don't get such strong promotions because they aren't meant to be sold, but for the contest primarily. To the promotion is completely different - and it's unfortunately the promotion of a song that makes most people like or dislike a song.
Also the songs aren't made in a studio - although for the past few years they are using a playback (which is really a shame) the performer still has to sing live. If you get the studio versions of the same songs they are ususally much more apealing.
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Old 20-05-2005, 10:11 PM   #6
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Sorry about not mentioning Slovenia, but I just couldn't remember what they did. I checked some pictures from the net and listened through the song from www.eurovision.tv, and now I have some memories from it.

So, Slovenia. First of all, the song is pretty dull, just regular, tiresome, slow pop. Builds up towards the end, luckily. The guy sings okay, at least in this video clip (can't remember how he did last night). By the way, is it just me or does he look like Robbie Williams jr? Anyhow, I barely noticed the song last night.

Monaco.. looking at the pictures from the show last night I actually do remember seeing her there. I think she's the one who did the Celine Dion performance. Well, Celine might have done fine years ago, but has since exploited this kind of music a millino times over. I'm fed up with it. Too bad for this chick, everyone else seems to be tired of it, too. She sang ok, though. Nothing horribly wrong, just dull.

Lithuania was horrible. The voice of the chick didn't carry very far as she touched the false notes all the time, and her English was barely distinguishable as a human language.

Belgium.. boring. That's all I remember from it. That, and the fact that the singer looked like sheriff of Nottingham from the Robin Hood TV series. Or like Black Adder.

Andorra was scary. The big-mouthed, loud woman forced me to turn on the lights, as I wanted to make sure nothing liek that was creeping around in my room. Really! She had bathed in makeup and the voice gave me the creeps!

Is that all now?
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Old 20-05-2005, 10:21 PM   #7
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Quote:
Originally posted by Timpsi@May 20 2005, 11:11 PM
Lithuania was horrible. The voice of the chick didn't carry very far as she touched the false notes all the time, and her English was barely distinguishable as a human language.
You got that 1000% right! Even more...

The "lead" voice... It sucked! :not_ok: What a piece of SH*T! :ranting:
It's humiliating! :angry: I hope the jury bans Lithuania for 10 whole years sraight. LOL
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Old 20-05-2005, 10:22 PM   #8
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Well there's still Ireland...
They had some dancers too (trying to imitate the Riverdance - but the music was all wrong for it). The song itself was trying to be catchy, but extremely repetitive (I never before realized that 3 minutes can take that long):
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Old 20-05-2005, 10:24 PM   #9
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I did Ireland in the first post, too. My thoughts are that the Irish dance bit was there to remind people that "hey, we're from Ireland! Give your vote to Riverdance!", or something similar.
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Old 20-05-2005, 10:25 PM   #10
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Maybe maybe... :whistle: But you guys should give credit to Latvia. :angry: After all theyre young, were nervous and the song I think was great. No need to be so criticizing... :whistle:

Me Latvia
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