Eurovision 2024 - 2nd Batch 🇳🇴🇲🇹🇪🇸🇺🇦🇮🇹🇫🇮

We are back for another season of Eurovision, and this year we are heading to Malmö, Sweden 🇸🇪. As countries begin to select their songs, I'm going to do a brief recap of what I think of the 'current' songs.

For this recap, I'm going to chat about (in no particular order): Norway 🇳🇴, Malta 🇲🇹, Spain 🇪🇸, Ukraine 🇺🇦, Italy 🇮🇹, and Finland 🇫🇮.

Like last year, I'm gonna do follow this mode of attack:

  1. Review songs in batches of 5 or 6 rather than doing a country-by-country recap.

  2. Watch the national selection final (or internal selection) once or twice.

  3. Not constantly listen to the songs until we get into semifinal week.

Reasons 1-2: For this edition, I don't have time to write 35+ posts (one per country) before getting into the actual contest. Also, what's the point of doing an in-depth or half-assed review (depending on how much free time I have) before the delegations either revamp the song and/or the performance? Reason 3: I don't want to get tired of the songs before the contest. A couple of Eurovisions ago, I noticed that I was pretty much over the songs that were released early in the national final (January/February) season by April.

Kwame's Current Rankings:

Like always, I'll use my cheezy Eurovision meter to rate the songs.

 

Alright let's get started:

Norway 🇳🇴: Gåte -- Ulveham (Wolf skin)

National Selection Performance - Melodi Grand Prix (link: ***)

Songwriters: Gunnhild Sundli, Jon Even Schärer, Magnus Børmark, Marit Jensen Lillebuen, Ronny Graff Janssen & Sveinung Eklo Sundli

Key: B; BPM: 130

 
 

Ohh. The lighting and the general aesthetic of the staging are kind of cool. Ohhh (again) a song that is in Norwegian YAY! So far, I'm really enjoying the staging. Wow! The lead singer is an AMAZING vocalist, and I could listen to her all day. Although I'm getting a little vertigo with the rotating camera work, I'm living for this. Overall, I like the song, but I wish there was another verse because it seems like she is pretty much doing vocal runs for 1-1.5 minutes. Then again, I do like a nice vocal run. ;)

Ok on to the next.

Malta 🇲🇹: Sarah Bonnici -- Loop

National Selection Performance - MESC 2024 (link: ***)

Songwriters: Kevin Lee, Leire Gotxi Angel, Michael Joe Cini, Sarah Bonnici, and Sebastian Pritchard-James

 
 

Ok, I don't like it, but I don't hate it. Actually, let me clarify. I think this song and performance has GREAT potential, but Sarah has to work on her vocals and dancing because I heard a few vocal cracks during this performance. To be perfectly honest, I'm drawn more to her backup dancers than to her, because they are on point. Also, I think Malta needs to switch up the choreography a bit because there are quite a few similarities to Chanel's (Spain 2022) and Noa Kirel's (Israel 2023) performances and costumes. While there are similarities, Sarah is not as good in terms of singing AND dancing as Chanel and Noa. Originally, this started out with 3, but I think I'm gonna have to drop it down to a 2. Unless, DRASTIC changes are made, I don't see this qualifying to the grand final especially since Malta already has a rough time qualifying with limited voting partnering countries in this contest.

Speaking of Spain...

Spain 🇪🇸: Nebulossa -- Zorra (Slut or Fox)

National Selection Performance - Benidorm Fest 2024 (***)

Songwriters: María Bas and Mark Dasousa

Key: A minor; BPM: 130

 
 

Um, I'm very conflicted about this one. Ok, for one, I'm digging the 80s sound because I'm always down for a synthesizer. Also, I love how she starts the song off by telling us she's a bitch: ya sé que soy solo una zorra (I know that I'm only a bitch). These something empowering about an older woman singing/calling herself a bitch/slut. That said, the song ends with the following: Y esa zorra que tanto temías se fue empoderando. Y ahora es una zorra de poѕtаl (And that bitch/slut that you greatly feared was powerful and is now a perfect bitch/slut). I have a feeling that this song will grow on my over the next couple of months. Mainly because the Spanish husband has been singing it multiple times a day. Performance wise, I think there is some potential; however, the lead singer's vocals are VERY weak, and she really doesn't do much in the performance. However (again), judging by the crowd singing loudly along with the song, I guess the vocals do not not matter very much. I have a feeling that this song going to be divisive because folks will either LOVE it or HATE it. Since the song has landed in Spotify's Top 50 Global Viral Tracks list, clearly there is something there that I'm missing. Maybe I'll find out what it is over the next few months.

Ukraine 🇺🇦: alyona alyona & Jerry Heil -- Teresa & Maria

National Selection Performance - Vidbir 2024 (link ***)

Songwriters: alyona alyona, Anton Chilibi, Ivan Klymenko, and Jerry Heil

Key: G minor; BPM: 114

 
 

Ok, I'm bopping my head. The beat is nice, and Jerry's vocals are so soothie. Ugh, I already know that i'm not a fan of Aloyna's rap. Isn't this the 3rd year in a row that Ukraine has sent a song with rap/spoken word? Eh, I guess if it ain't broke then you don't need to fix it. While the spoken word/rap part is not my cup of tea, I think it does elevate the song by giving it a bit of contrast with Jerry Heil's amazing vocals. Although the song doesn't 100% work for me, it definitely will qualify and probably land in the top 10. At his point in ESC history, Ukraine is definitely is a top dog in this contest.

On to another strong contender in ESC.

Italy 🇮🇹: Angelina Mango -- La Noia (The Boredom)

National Selection Performance -Sanremo 2024 (link: ***)

Songwriters: Angelia Mango, Dario Faini, and Francesca Calearo

Key: D minor; BPM: 114 (hmm, it seemed little faster)

 
 

What?!!! Italy is sending a woman to Eurovision.The last time Italy sent a woman to Eurovision was back in 2016. Ok, the song is kinda meh for me. I'm can groove to the song because of the Latin-esque vibes, but nothing is really making press the repeat button. For me, I think the Italian delegation will have to add more (e.g., a few dancers) to this performance for a little more umph. Song aside, the Sanremo's stage and lighting are beautiful. Vocally, I think Angelia is fine (although she was a bit breathy). Then again, maybe Angelia was going for the breathy effect. Even as is, this song will do pretty well in ESC because Italy is one of those countries that can do not do wrong in the contest.

Finland 🇫🇮 : Windows95man -- No Rules

National Selection Performance - Uuden Musiikin Kilpailu (link: ***)

Songwriters: Henri Piispanen, Jussi Roine, Teemu Keisteri

Key: B; BPM: 160

What the hell? It has a nice groovy beat and an uplifting message. Although my first impression is a bit negative, I can kinda see the song (not the performance) growing on me. For me, the performance is a bit too erratic. Also, I think the song is kind of mid, so they are upping the shock value with their costumes and staging. But hey, if you cannot do this sort of stuff at Eurovision, where can you do it? Question: Since Eurovision does not allow product placement in its performances, will Windows95man be able to wear his Windows 95 T-shirt on stage.

Up Next:

That's it for now, let's see what the next batch of songs will bring. Looking at the national selection final calendar, it looks like the next batch of songs will include: Germany 🇩🇪, Moldova 🇲🇩, Estonia 🇪🇪, Denmark 🇩🇰, and Lithuania 🇱🇹.

 

Eurovision 2024 playlist:

 

Social Media Plug:

 
 
 

Eurovision 2023 - 3rd Batch 🇫🇮, 🇵🇱, 🇫🇷, 🇦🇺, 🇱🇹

As I mentioned in a previous post, we are back for another season of Eurovision. As countries begin to select their songs, I’m going to do a brief recap of what I think about the ‘current’ songs. You can see my reason for this mode of attack in an earlier post (

For this recap, I’m going to chat about (in no particular order): Finland 🇫🇮, Poland 🇵🇱, France 🇫🇷, Australia 🇦🇺, and Lithuania 🇱🇹.

Current ranking:

 

FINLAND 🇫🇮: KÄÄRIJÄ — CHA CHA CHA

National Selection Performance – Uuden Musiikin Kipailu (***)

 
 

Nine times out of ten, we can say that Finland will bring something interesting and unique to the contest. Whether you like it is a completely different question. To be frank, I had to listen to this song a couple of times to get it . . . and I still don’t think that I get it. That said, it definitely sounds like a party anthem. Since I ‘cheated’ by reading the Finish to English translation and saw the national final performance, my original assessment was correct. Hey, I managed to figure out that he was talking about pina coladas in the song without looking at the lyrics. Random thought: this song seems it should be driven by a tequila- and/or whiskey-inspired beverage rather than a pina colada. While I gave this one 3 hearts, I have a feeling that it will grow on me, and I will enjoy the updated staging come ESC2023 week.

AUSTRALIA 🇦🇺: VOYAGER — PROMISE

Music video (***)

 
 

Let’s take a voyage to the 80s. While I don’t like to give one-heart ratings for the first listen. At this point, the song really doesn’t do anything for me. I’m not saying that it’s a bad song, but there was nothing in it that made me want to hit the ‘play again’ button. Austrailia’s selection for this year is a bit interesting because I normally like its ESC songs . . . even the ones that are disliked by the fandom. Perhaps, Voyager will have some AMAZING staging, but as of now. I don’t see this bad boy qualifying.

FRANCE 🇫🇷: LA ZARRA — EVIDEMMENT

Music Video (***)

 
 

Lol, I’m going to be E-vi-de-mment’ing for the next three hours. I’m really feeling this song, and think it will be a great hit in this contest. I just really hope that her vocals are in line with the studio version. For instance, I really loved Andromache’s Ela from last year’s contest, but we all know how it sounded in real life. There’s something with the low-key vibe, with the 70s/80s bassline sound that really hits me in a fun place. The only small thing: I wish she had a more powerful note at the song’s climax about three-fourths into the song. Perhaps, La Zarra is saving that for the actual contest. You know, you don’t want to give the people too much before the contest.

POLAND 🇵🇱: BLANKA — SOLO

National Selection Performance – Tu bije serce Europy! Wybieramy hit na Eurowizję (*** – unfortunately, this isn’t available to view in the States)

 
 

Hmmmm. I wonder why Eurovision World does not have Blanka’s picture with the Eurovision heart design. Perhaps, there is some drama around Poland’s selection process in which Blanka won (of course, that depends on whom you ask). I’m sorry, but this song doesn’t do a whole lot for me. The song does not have any great lyrics, which is not a huge deal breaker for me. However, if the lyrical content is a bit weak, I expect strong vocals or a certain uniqueness that will make me wanna hit play again. Actually, on the 1st listen, I gave it two hearts, now I’m going to move down a notch. Hopefully, the staging will be amazing so the song will grow on me. After Poland took a decent song and ruined it with the staging in last year’s contest, I’m not 100% optimistic about this year’s staging or placement.

LITHUANIA 🇱🇹: MONIKA LINKYTE — STAY

National Selection Performance – Pabandom Is Naujo (***)

 
 

LOL didn’t Lithuania send a Monika to the contest last year? 😉 First, I love the mix of English and Lithuanian in the song, so that already scored a few extra points for me. I wish more countries that send songs in English would incorporate some of their official language(s) into the songs. Overall, I love Monika’s powerful yet fragile voice because you really get a sense that she is going through something. Ok, so the lyrics pretty much say that. However, it’s one thing to sing words and another to EMOTE. I think she does a great job in emoting the meaning of the song. Also, the song’s lyrics really resonate with me, especially this part: I took it all on myself. I asked for nobody’s help. I had to taste it and embrace it. All the bitterness of failure to find myself within me. Just stay with me. My heart is bleeding. I need your healing, and wait for me. Well, it ain’t easy to love someone like me.

After this quick review, I decided to cheat and check out her performance - I love the song even more. I’m quite surprised (in a good way) that three out of her four backup singers are Black. I wasn’t expecting this from a country such as Lithuania since the African/African-decent population is around 0.01% (according to Wikipedia). If she keeps the same backup singers (which I hope she does), I really want the delegation to change the lighting a bit. Since the song is a bit melancholic, I can understand why there is minimal lighting. However, you cannot really see the Black backup singers, but one can see the sole White backup singer quite clearly. Other than that, I love every aspect of the song and hope it does well in the contest. I have a feeling this one will stay (pun intended) in my top 10.

 

Social Media Plug:

 
 
 

kosjrphd

(deactivated until Easter)

 

Eurovision 2023 - 2nd Batch 🇮🇹, 🇪🇪, 🇷🇴, 🇭🇷, 🇩🇰, & 🇱🇻

As I mentioned in a previous post, we are back for another season of Eurovision. As countries begin to select their songs, I’m going to do a brief recap of what I think about the ‘current’ songs.

For this recap, I’m going to chat about (in no particular order): Italy🇮🇹, Estonia🇪🇪, Romania🇷🇴, Croatia🇭🇷, Denmark🇩🇰, and Latvia🇱🇻.

This year, I’m going to do things a bit differently as we move through the national selection season:

  1. Review songs in batches of 7 or 8 rather than doing a country-by-country recap.

  2. These reviews primarily are going to be about the song rather than the complete package.

  3. I’m only going to watch the national selection final (or internal selection) once or twice.

  4. I’m not going to constantly listen to the songs until we get into semifinal week.

Reasons 1-2: For this edition, I don’t have time to write 35+ posts (one per country) before getting into the actual contest. Also, what’s the point of doing an in-depth or half-assed review (depending on how much free time I have) before the delegations either revamp the song and/or the performance (I guess this would fall under the Reason 3 category)? Reason 4: I don’t want to get tired of the songs before the contest. Last year, I noticed that I was pretty much over the songs that were released early in the national final (January/February) season by April.

Like always, I’ll use my cheezy Eurovision meter to describe the songs.

In last week’s post, I did mention my rankings with the ‘current’ songs. I have to say that I’m getting a little worried because I don’t think there are many songs that will move from my Eurovision playlist to my general and running playlists. I’m keeping hope alive because we still have quite a few songs that are going to be released in March.

 
 

ITALY 🇮🇹: MARCO MENGONI — DUE VITE

National Selection Performance – Sanremo (***)

 
 

LOL. It’s the 10-Year Challenge: Eurovision edition because Marco competed in Eurovision 2013 and came in 7th place. What do you think, with or without the beard?

 
 

Overall, I really enjoy this song and think that it will do very well in the contest . . . even though we are still waiting for the release of 17 or so more songs. 😉 While Italy tends to send songs that are well-received by the public, his voice really kept me engaged with the song from start to finish. In most cases, I think Italy does well in the contest because Italian sounds so melodic (if that’s the correct term).

ESTONIA 🇪🇪: ALIKA — BRIDGES

National Selection Performance – EESTI LAUL (***)

 
 

OMG, I’m really feeling this song. Right off the bat, I love when women sing in a lower register, which she nails, and her vocal range is impressive. I think this will be a grower for me because I do like the message of the song and her vocal prowess is the icing on the cake. I could see myself liking it more with additional listens especially once the song picks up the pace at 1:40.

Romania 🇷🇴: Theodor andrei -- D.G.T. (off and on)

National Selection Performance – Selectiva Nationala (***)

 
 

I think I can rock with this based purely on the song and his vocal even if it’s a little different than my typical type of song.

CROATIA 🇭🇷: LET 3 MAMA ŠČ!

National Selection Performance – Dora (***)

 
 

My graphic doesn’t accurately reflect my feeling about the song, because you definitely will not fall asleep while listening to the song. In general, I kind of like the song, BUT there is WAAAAYYYY too much going on in the song – it’s like five or six songs in one. Even though there is a lot going on in the song musically, the song is very repetitive structurally (not necessarily a bad thing). Hey, I guess the group really wants to drive home the song’s message. However, I’m sure there are a lot of Croatian cultural references embedded in the song that I’m unaware of. While I have seen the national selection performance, I’m quite sure that it’s gonna be a unique experience on the ESC stage that will either make me want to watch it again and again or will make me want to give myself a lobotomy with a corkscrew.

DENMARK🇩🇰: REILEY -- BREAKING MY HEART

National Selection Performance – Melodi Grand Prix (***)

 
 

Soapbox moment: I really think the contest should go back to one where all vocals must be 100% live. Since 2021, Eurovision has allowed performers to use pre-recorded tracks, which was understandable because of the pandemic. Now, we are getting to a point where some artists might use these pre-recorded vocals to artificially enhance their vocals. *Maybe artificially and enhance are the wrong words.* While I’m sure Reily is singing in his natural voice during the verses, I don’t know what the hell is going on with the chorus – is it a vocoder, autotune, or something else? Eh, it is what it is. Yes, I get that it’s a song, not a vocal contest. In my opinion, the use of 100% live vocals was one of the things that it unique. Oh, back to this song. I’ll have to wait to see how this is performed on the Eurovision stage, before really commenting.

LATVIA 🇱🇻: AIJĀ -- SUDDEN LIGHTS

National Selection Performance – Supernova (***)

 
 

Only basing this brief review on the song, I’m sorry but this one does absolutely nothing for me. I guess I kinda like it when the song ramps/speeds up and ends on a slow note.

 

Social Media Plug:

 

kosjrphd (deactivated until Easter)