My Eurovision Countdown to Copenhagen Part 2

By ajmained on April 2, 2014 • ( 4 Comments )

Aarzemnieka
Respective Broadcasters/EBU

It’s Andrew James Main here again and in the build up towards Copenhagen I am going to publish my Eurovision Countdown of all of the songs. There will be 6 parts in all and the second part takes us through from position 31 to 25. This is something that I do every year and post to my Facebook wall so that some of my friends can saviour some of the delights and some of the horrors that we have to look forward to come May.

In all honesty this year is a fairly level playing field with no runaway stand out favourites and no absolute horrors. So continuing on from Part 1 which was published last week we start at position 31.

MY EUROVISION COUNTDOWN NO.31

Another song which I instantly disliked when it was chosen back in January was the one chosen by Latvia. Aarzemnieki bring us Cake to Bake to Copenhagen and its certainly a bold choice. Joke entry doesn’t even touch this as a description, it is clear the Latvian public do not care if an International audience like this. It is destined to stay in the Semi Finals. On the plus side the performance is so laid back it has grown on me a little and gives it a slightly endearing quality. But it would have to go some distance to persuade me to bring it up in my rankings come May.

MY EUROVISION COUNTDOWN NO.30

Continuing with my countdown to Copenhagen I am now moving into territory where all the songs within it are to my liking in growing capacity. Finland chose Softengine with the rock song Something Better and this turns out to be the only true rock/pop song in this year. This of course is a genre that Finland are used to giving us in varying degrees of success. I am mostly a fan of a lot of the rock inspired songs over the last few years and this one also does not disappoint. It is a decent composition with a gentle build up. Softengine are a young looking band who stand there and belt it out on their instruments.

My only negative point is the lead vocals are sometimes not on par with the power of the song and he struggles on the falsetto part. But overall it’s fresh and catchy and should appeal enough to see it through to the Final.

MY EUROVISION COUNTDOWN NO.29

Another song which I personally like but it also has to come in for some criticism at the same time. FYR Macedonia are sending Tijana Dapčević with To The Sky. It is probably one of their most contemporary entries perhaps ever, but is still based more in the 90’s rather than now. It is a slick pop song albeit sounding like a second hand AVICII throwaway. What let’s it down is the video itself which gives us the awful lip synching but I here an official video is on it’s way. Also Tijana not only looks like a man in drag but also has the voice of a man in drag. She has a lot to prove as yet as to whether she can pull this song off live in Copenhagen. If this was in the 1st Semi it would qualify but it’s in the 2nd one so I see it as a borderline case just now.

MY EUROVISION COUNTDOWN NO.28

The very last song that we all heard in this years countdown was the one from Russia. They have gone for an internal selection and chosen their Junior Eurovision winners from 2006, The Tolmachevy Sisters with a song that has been co written by Philip Kirkorov and Gerard James Borg. The song is entitled Shine and with such a Eurovision pedigree one would expect something special. But what we find is a song that is surprisingly safe and middle of the road and dare I say bland. The lyrics are also rather cringeworthy.

Onto the positives, these girls can certainly sing and being sisters I am sure their harmonies will be good. As to the performance I would expect them to come up with something spicy and memorable. Will Russia qualify with this? Of course. Will they do well in the Final?No I don’t think so as it will not appeal to the broad church of voters throughout Europe.

MY EUROVISION COUNTDOWN NO.27

By sheer coincidence the song that follows Russia in my countdown just happens to be from Ukraine. Maria Yaremchuck was chosen back in December to sing the song Tick Tock. However the original version was dull and uninspiring and did not bode well for Copenhagen. So in true Ukrainian style it has had a major makeover and is now a lot catchier and stylish. It’s not the best song this year by a long way but I think Maria has a good voice and combined with the expected usual staging makeover too I can see this sailing into the Final. Also given the current situation in Crimea its perfectly possible that Ukraine could pick up some sympathy votes, not that they will need them, which could even see this propelled into the top 10.

EUROVISION COUNTDOWN NO.26

Another coincidence in my countdown is the day I post this one on my Facebook wall is the day I fly off to The Netherlands to attend Eurovision in Concert in Amsterdam. An internal selection was used to select the song Calm After The Storm sung by The Common Linnets. A very strong country sound to this, not normally my genre of choice, but I find this particular song very easy on the ear. The harmonies and blends of Iilse and Waylon’s voices is very pleasing. The performance is simple and understated and I think this is where it has its charm, I feel it will get to the Final and I look forward to hearing it live in Amsterdam on Saturday night.

EUROVISION COUNTDOWN NO.25

Next up in my countdown for Eurovision is one particular song which I will be putting my full 100% support as it happens to be the one from Ireland. Having written for both EurovisionIreland and All Kinds Of Everything over the last 10 year I have always got a bit of a soft spot for all things Irish. After the farce that was the Irish National Final we saw Can-Linn featuring Kasey Smith chosen to go to Copenhagen with the song Hearbeat written by a musical team including Jonas Gladnikoff who has previously written the Irish entries in Oslo and Moscow. Now I like the song, the electro beat is good but then it fails to hit the spot when it reaches the chorus.

The Irish elements have been added with the instrumentation and the dancers. Instrumentation fair enough but the dancers, No! They are a total distraction and add nothing to the dimension of the song, I am hoping the staging gets a complete makeover to emphasise the song more. Kasey’s vocals are good and will certainly help it. As far as qualification I really hope so as I am officially on the Irish team this year, so fingers crossed all the elements are worked on and come together in May.

So I will be back next week with part 3 of the countdown from 24-19 which I will publish having returned from Amsterdam for Eurovision in Concert where I will have had the chance to see many of the artists performing their songs live.

Do you agree or disagree strongly with any of my position’s or comments then let us know?

Author/Andrew James Main

Source : Eurovision Ireland