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.

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smokinscientist

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.

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smokinscientist

Eurovision (ESC) Thursday - ESC22 Then & Now - Part 2

I figured that I would do a comparison of what I thought about the songs when they were first released and what I think about the songs now since we are about 1.5 weeks away from the big day. Keep in mind for my “now”, I’m factoring in several things – preparty performances, general personality, and of course the song.

Since there are 40 countries competing in this year’s Eurovision Song Contest, I’m breaking this topic down into two parts. Here’s the second half of the list in alphabetical order by country.

LATVIA – CITI ZENI – “EAT YOUR SALAD”

The guys from Citi Zeni pretty much have stayed the same for me throughout this crazy ESC2022 season.

LITHUANIA – MONIKA LIU – “SENTIMENTAI”

I gotta say that Monika is an entire vibe, and I’m such a huge fan of her song and her personality.

MALTA – EMMA MUSCAT – “OUT OF SIGHT” “I AM WHAT I AM”

Malta did a little switcheroo on us. They released one song but decided to change its entry later in the national selection season. While that’s not against the rules, it did rub some folks the wrong way. If it is part of the rules, I cannot fault Malta for taking advantage of this loophole. Although this song isn’t a huge improvement compared to the first one originally submitted, I do like this song a bit more than the first one.

MOLDOVA – ZDOB ȘI ZDUB & FRAȚII ADVAHOV – “TRENULEŢUL”

Looking back, I may have given Moldova too low of a score – that’s why this entry is Then and Now. While I’m not a huge fan of the revamp, this song still puts a smile on my face. Oh, I’m not too huge of a fan of the revamp because I think they made it too “rocky” at the expense of the folk sound.

MONTENEGRO – VLADANA – “BREATHE”

Throughout this season, Vladana has been delivering the fashions. Seeing what she was going to wear to the preparties was one of the reasons why I followed the preparties. Unfortunately, the vocal did not really match all of the fashions that she was delivering.

NETHERLANDS – S10 – “DE DIEPTE”

I will be honest that I pretty much skipped this song early in the season, but it really grew on me. For instance, as I type this, I’m singing “OOOOOHHHH oOOOHHHH AAAAH AAAHH something, something, something in Dutch” in my head. The unexpected is one of the things that I like about Eurovision. A song in a language besides English or Spanish that I would normally ignore has become one of my top songs for the year. In addition to a strong song, I have to give S10 so many props (or as the kids say her flowers) for overcoming so many obstacles just to get this to this point.

NORTH MACEDONIA – ANDREA – “CIRCLES”

Andrea’s song started off really strong for me, but it lost that spark over the season. Compared to other artists this year, I feel that she lacks a certain stage presence when performing this particular song. However, I am a bit conflicted because I LOVE the personality that she has displayed during interviews.

NORWAY – SUBWOOLFER – “GIVE THAT WOLF A BANANA”

The jump from three stars to five stars is primarily based on the group’s personality. For example, the group has made parodies (in a good, friendly way) of most of the other songs/videos for this year’s contest. Honestly, I look forward to seeing what randomness they are going to post on Instagram. They seem like the type of folks whom you want on your party’s or brunch’s guest list. While the group has not revealed their identities, I (as well as others in the fandom) think they are Ylvis. The duo that had that somewhat popular “Fox” song from a few years ago. A few reasons for this assumption:

• They are both from Norway and on the same record label

• The costumes imitating animals

• Dancers wearing ties

• Special choreography

• Since Subwoolfer is from the Moon (for ESC2022 at least), they do not speak and have a “translator” do their interviews. I think this is clearly a decoy to throw off folks who might recognize their speaking voices.

POLAND – KRYSTIAN OCHMAN – “RIVER”

This song pretty much has stayed in my top 5 through this Eurovision season.

PORTUGAL – MARO – “SAUDADE SAUDADE”

I really tried, but I just could not get into this song even after multiple listens. My one-star does not mean the song is bad; it just means (for whatever reason) the song just doesn’t resonate with me.

ROMANIA – WRS – “LLÁMAME”

Boy oh boy. This song is such an earworm. Like I’m actually singing Hola, mi be-bé-bé. {HEY} Hola, mi be-bé-bé. {HEY} Llámame, llámame. I dunno why, but this song always seems to put a smile or a smirk on my face. For me, the huge jump in stars is less about the song and more about the artist, Wrs. While he seems quite eccentric, he also seems to be quite down to earth with a super chill vibe. If Eurovision gave out a Mr. Congeniality award, Wrs would be my top candidate for ESC2022. Although Wrs is going to be in a tough semifinal round, I really hope that he qualifies to the grand final.

SAN MARINO – ACHILLE LAURO – “STRIPPER”

I might have unfairly judged this one. No, I take that back. I think that I judged it fairly based on Achille’s performance during San Marino’s national selection. However, over time the artist and the song really grew on me. Also, I kind of like the mystery behind Achille. With his too cool-for-school demeanor, I’m like does he even want to be in Eurovision. I guess that’s the mystery behind him. You know, do not give them too much so they will always want more. Oh, I do think he wants to participate in Eurovision because he would not have competed in two separate national selections for the contest. After placing in the bottom half of Italy’s Sanremo festival, he decided to compete in San Marino’s national selection.

SERBIA – KONSTRAKTA – “IN CORPORE SANO”

This has been one of my favorite songs and performers throughout ESC2022 season. No one had better say anything bad about Konstrakta.

SLOVENIA – LPS – “DISKO”

Last Pizza Slice (or LPS) gained a little power with me. While I am a fan of disco music, the song never resonated with me. However, there is one part of the song when the lead singer (I think his name is Philip) and the band really slows down the groove. I don’t know why but I absolutely love that part of the song. In fact, I mainly listen to the song because of that transition. Random LOL. Doesn’t the group look like bunch of high schoolers set up a band with their music teacher?

Photo courtesy of RTV SLOVENIA

SPAIN – CHANEL – “SLOMO”

What an amazing talent. While Chanel does not have the strongest vocals of the female performers in this year’s contest, her dancing and stage presence are undeniable. If she plays her cards right and has a good team, I’m sure that we will hear a lot from her in the future.

SWEDEN – CORNELIA JAKOBS – “HOLD ME CLOSER”

I have no words that reflect how much I enjoy listening to this song.

SWITZERLAND – MARIUS BEAR – “BOYS DO CRY”

Sorry Switzerland, but I just could not get into the singer or the song.

UKRAINE – KALUSH ORCHESTRA – “STEFANIA”

This is complicated because Ukraine originally was sending Alina Pash as its representative. However, she had to withdraw after it was discovered that she illegally traveled to Crimea, which is a no no for Ukrainian citizens. Since Kalush Orchestra came in second place for the national selection, they became the Ukrainian candidates for ESC2022. I’m sorry but the song does not really work for me. Actually, I take that back. The rapper does not really work for me. Since anything related to Ukraine is clearly a touchy subject, I’ll just leave my comments there.

THE UK – SAM RYDER – “SPACE MAN”

While Poland is my favorite to win, I think Sam is going to bring the Eurovision microphone trophy back to the UK after many, Many, MANY years. My only concern with his song during my original review was with hitting those high notes live. At the time of the review, I only commented on the music video. I gotta say that he delivered those high notes at every single preparty. Also, I have seen some clips of his rehearsals for Eurovision and the staging is probably one of the best stagings that I have seen in the few years of watching Eurovision. The BBC really invested quite a bit of pounds in this artist, and I think the UK will be extremely pleased with his results. I’m going to say this right now, but you know there is some geopolitical crap going on if Sam does not finish in the top 10 overall and in the top five for the national juries vote.

My Complete Rankings