Austria
First Appearance: 1957
Highest Place: 1st (1966)
Trackshittaz - "Woki mit deim Popo"
Definitely one of the most original songs in this year's field (translation available here). Much like a glow-in-the-dark badunkadunk, you just can't stop watching. I'm really looking forward to see the performance, and perhaps a little bit of humor will take them a long way.
Bulgaria
First Appearance: 2005
Highest Place: 5th (2007)
Sofi Marinova - "Love Unlimited"
This Romani singer is known for her five octave range, which is on display. Although it's probably closest to the pop dance numbers of the younger contestants, it might just be original enough to score a few points. Bulgaria hasn't had much success lately, but this could finally turn things around. Final note: Although the song is primarily sung in Bulgarian, it contains "I love you" in 10 languages (translation available here).
Hungary
First Appearance: 1994
Highest Place: 4th (1994)
Compact Disco - "Sound of Our Hearts"
An underrated performance by an MTV Europe award winning band. The electronic rock is certainly a welcome change, but it's almost overshadowed by the music video. Hungary has frequently not placed as high as it deserves (Magdi Ruzsa being the prime example), but this should at least make its way out of the semi-finals.
San Marino
First Appearance: 2008
Highest Place: 16th in the semifinals (2011)
Valentina Monetta - "Facebook Uh, Oh, Oh (A Satirical Song)"*
This is what happens when parody viral video becomes an art form (200,000 views within the first 5 days, and to compare, Jedward only has about 130,000 in total)! It's gotten horrible negative reviews, including in Forbes, but in my humble opinion, it's absolutely brilliant (and really Eurovision, are you now trying to take yourself far too seriously?) Love it or hate it, you can't stop watching it, and if the Russian babushkas can have a little fun, so can San Marino! And to explain the asterisk: That is the original title and video. However, a few days after it's release, the EBU ruled that the song violated contest rules for having a commercial message about Facebook (although, really, I'm not sure it's all that commercial, given that Facebook is free). In response, San Marino basically just replaced "Facebook" with more "Oh oh ohs" and took out that great reference to Mark Zuckerberg. The not-as-awesome version is available here.
Slovenia
First Appearance: 1993
Highest Place: 7th (1995, 2001)
Eva Boto - "Vergamem"
Taking things in the complete opposite direction than San Marino, we have our youngest competitor (she's only 16, folks!) The song is pretty enough, and she certainly has stage presence, but the voting hasn't been kind to Slovenia in recent years, but look for things to possibly change this year (translation available here).
Slovakia
First Appearance: 1994
Highest Place: 18th (1996)
Max Jason Mai - "Don't Close Your Eyes"
The only real rock song of the competition (which is a shame) but this one is pretty cool. It will probably draw heavily on the over 25 crowd, especially those who have a soft spot for acts like 30 Seconds to Mars. Slovakia has never done well in the competition, but with any luck, this will be distinct enough from the dance and pop to place pretty high.
Final thoughts? With all due respect to everyone else...SAN MARINO! SAN MARINO! SAN MARINO!
What is your favorite act from Pot 6?
Bulgaria
First Appearance: 2005
Highest Place: 5th (2007)
Sofi Marinova - "Love Unlimited"
This Romani singer is known for her five octave range, which is on display. Although it's probably closest to the pop dance numbers of the younger contestants, it might just be original enough to score a few points. Bulgaria hasn't had much success lately, but this could finally turn things around. Final note: Although the song is primarily sung in Bulgarian, it contains "I love you" in 10 languages (translation available here).
Hungary
First Appearance: 1994
Highest Place: 4th (1994)
Compact Disco - "Sound of Our Hearts"
An underrated performance by an MTV Europe award winning band. The electronic rock is certainly a welcome change, but it's almost overshadowed by the music video. Hungary has frequently not placed as high as it deserves (Magdi Ruzsa being the prime example), but this should at least make its way out of the semi-finals.
San Marino
First Appearance: 2008
Highest Place: 16th in the semifinals (2011)
Valentina Monetta - "Facebook Uh, Oh, Oh (A Satirical Song)"*
This is what happens when parody viral video becomes an art form (200,000 views within the first 5 days, and to compare, Jedward only has about 130,000 in total)! It's gotten horrible negative reviews, including in Forbes, but in my humble opinion, it's absolutely brilliant (and really Eurovision, are you now trying to take yourself far too seriously?) Love it or hate it, you can't stop watching it, and if the Russian babushkas can have a little fun, so can San Marino! And to explain the asterisk: That is the original title and video. However, a few days after it's release, the EBU ruled that the song violated contest rules for having a commercial message about Facebook (although, really, I'm not sure it's all that commercial, given that Facebook is free). In response, San Marino basically just replaced "Facebook" with more "Oh oh ohs" and took out that great reference to Mark Zuckerberg. The not-as-awesome version is available here.
Slovenia
First Appearance: 1993
Highest Place: 7th (1995, 2001)
Eva Boto - "Vergamem"
Taking things in the complete opposite direction than San Marino, we have our youngest competitor (she's only 16, folks!) The song is pretty enough, and she certainly has stage presence, but the voting hasn't been kind to Slovenia in recent years, but look for things to possibly change this year (translation available here).
Slovakia
First Appearance: 1994
Highest Place: 18th (1996)
Max Jason Mai - "Don't Close Your Eyes"
The only real rock song of the competition (which is a shame) but this one is pretty cool. It will probably draw heavily on the over 25 crowd, especially those who have a soft spot for acts like 30 Seconds to Mars. Slovakia has never done well in the competition, but with any luck, this will be distinct enough from the dance and pop to place pretty high.
Final thoughts? With all due respect to everyone else...SAN MARINO! SAN MARINO! SAN MARINO!
What is your favorite act from Pot 6?
No comments:
Post a Comment