Eurovision 2012 Preview: Pot 6

We're in the home stretch, cats and kittens, with our last pot of semi-finalists.  Central and Eastern Europe ahoy!

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?

Eurovision 2011: Wrap-up and Analysis

Well, cats and kittens, another edition of the Eurovision Song Contest is behind us, and what a long strange trip it's been.  From boy bands from the UK to Irish twins to Greek rappers, this year's contest has truly memorable.  Here's your intrepid hero's recap, thoughts, comments, and lessons we've learned.  And as always, there's plenty of videos.

No story about Eurovision 2011 can start without talking about the surprise winner.  In the weeks leading up to the competition, betting odds favored France, with the UK and Estonia playing spoiler.  Then, suddenly, along came the Crayola Twins from Ireland, Jedward, rocketing up to second place just behind the UK.  As of the morning of the Grand Finale, at least according to the bookies, the competition was between Blue and Jedward. Then what happened?  Jedward came in at 8th, Blue dropped to 11th, France came in at 15th, and Estonia tumbled down to 24th.  And our winner...Azerbaijan!! (??)  Here's your winner:  Ell & Nikki performing "Running Scared":

So what happened?  First and foremost, I'll go on record to say that the first time I heard this song, I thought it was nice, but nothing super special.  But as I've listened to it more and more, it's grown on me, a lot.  It's catchy, it's pretty, and they staged it well. But a closer look at the points reveals something.


[A note on Eurovision voting for those not in the know:  Each country votes on their favorite act, although a country cannot vote for itself.  The votes are  combined with a score from a panel of jurists from each country, and the highest scorer receives 12 points ("douze pointe" in French).  The next highest scorer gets 10, 8, etc....]

Azerbaijan only got 12 pwah pointe from three countries.  Four other acts, including Jedward, got three douze pwahs, Italy took home four, and Bosnia took home five.  This certainly wasn't the runaway of "Fairytale" from 2009, but even Lena last year captured nine douze pwahs.  Russia in 2008 captured seven, and Serbia in 2007 also took nine.  So what gives? Azerbaijan captured four 10s and and ten 8s.  Comparatively, second place Italy took home five 10s and only one 8.  Bosnia only took two 10s and one 8, while third place Sweden complemented its two douze pwahs with seven 10s.  Jedward on the other hand, only took two 10s, and in fact, only scored points from 17 countries.  Azerbaijan scored points from 30 countries. So it may not necessarily be that Azerbaijan, as nice as the song was, was everyone's clear favorite.  It's just that enough people liked it enough to win.  And while Jedward has the same number of high scores as Azerbaijan, it seemed more of a love it or hate it thing.  And that was probably their downfall.

So what else did we learn from Eurovision 2011?

1.  Celine Dion has returned to the Eurovision stage again.  Oh wait, no, it's just Kati Wolf from Hungary.  Our mistake.

Seriously, it's kind of creepy.  The way she holds the mic, the hair, the voice, the lip quiver.  Kati Wolf to Vegas?

We also believe she was robbed.  She deserved higher than 22nd.  She at least deserved higher than Finland.

2.  Azerbaijan turned it out.  Blue didn't. Say what you will about Ell & Nikki.  They hit their performance.  Blue on the other hand...it was...actually kind of sad, really.

Maybe had the vocals been there, perhaps it could have done better.  Instead it just sounded like a mediocre song by a boy band that's gotten a little too old for that title.  Oh wait...

3.  Iceland perhaps had the best story that nobody knows If you watched Iceland's performance, you'd probably be thinking, "What is this on my screen?"  But the story behind the performance is perhaps one of the most sadly under-reported story of the competition.  In January, Sigurjon "Sjonni" Brink passed away mere days before he was to perform this song in the Iceland national selection finals.  So his friends did what any group would do.  They scrambled together and decided to perform the song in Sjonni's honor.  They won in Iceland and placed 20th overall in Germany.

4.  Lena's a badass.  Seriously. Lena won handily last year with "Satellite," in the second largest margin of victory ever.  She was 18 at the time.

She returned this year to compete again.  And pulled out one hell of a performance, placing 10th overall.  We look forward to seeing if she'll try to win again in the future, but even if she doesn't, "Taken By a Stranger" will remain one of the best songs from 2011.

5.  Dana International got a raw deal Finally, speaking of former winners and being robbed, Dana International at least deserved to make it out of the semi-final.  It's a shame really, that Jedward and Eric Saade made it through the second semi-final, leaving her behind.  Especially Jedward.

Seriously.  Here's the live version if there's any doubt left in your mind.

And really, that brings us to the end.  There's more videos to talk about, to be sure, but at some point we have to draw a line.  At least for now.  Who knows?  Perhaps there will be more commentary to come.  Feel free to drop a comment with your own favorite songs, thoughts, or comments.

But for now, I'll sign off from Eurovision 2011 in the only appropriate way.  With Moldova.