Hello! As you may have guessed from the name of this blog, my name is Liz and I am fascinated by song lyrics. I hope you enjoy my waxing lyrical about lyrics and about music generally. I also review albums and gigs and have interviewed several wonderful musicians. Enjoy!
1) Serbia - This was one that stuck in my head. It isn't amazing, but it's catchy in its own way. It has some cheesy lyrics - "High off the ground, I'm not coming down" - but is otherwise tolerable.
2) Austria - This was one of my stand-out songs from this semi. It is remarkable how through the lovely staging they managed to transform a fun folksy song with a mountain-y video into an epic Eurovision ballad. It reminds me of Frans's "If I Were Sorry" from last year: laid-back and adaptable.
3) F.Y.R Macedonia - This was another average song that managed to stick itself in my head. The singer looks a bit like Celine Dion but her voice and style are more like Madonna. A lot of techno-themed staging would get too much, but one song's worth is okay and makes for an interesting change.
4) Malta - This one actually does sound like Celine Dion! I feel like this could be a very standard ballad sung by another person, but this singer lifts it with her personality and with her obvious passion for being there and for the song.
5) Romania - I thought this was just okay at first, but I'm coming to really like it. It is a great hybrid of rap and yodelling, bringing the two together effortlessly. It is nice and cheerful and utterly Eurovision.
6) The Netherlands - This was the stand-out song for me. The harmonies were perfect; very Wilson-Phillips. The song is lovely. It is by far the Eurovision entry I've listened to most this year. I've been really impressed by The Netherlands' entries the last few years.
7) Hungary - This isn't one of my favourites, but isn't bad, and I was caught by surprise when he burst out rapping. I liked the simple but colourful presentation.
8) Denmark - I found the song very ordinary, but the performance quite enthusiastic and fun.
9) Ireland - His voice really surprised me. The song is quite nice and the staging is minimal but works. The balloon is unusual and it all seems to tie together neatly. However, it is missing some Eurovision pizazz.
10) San Marino - Valentina again! Is she really the only singer in San Marino? Jimmie is a good complement for her, though, and the song is pure Eurovision: upbeat and catchy, with a colourful background, disco theme and great outfits. This should have had a chance.
11) Croatia - This was even odder this time around than when I first heard it - I don't think I had realised one guy was singing everything. Switching between pop and opera literally every line is really remarkable. The song is quite pleasant but think it could be better staged, and he could have benefitted from making it more about the song and less about him.
12) Norway - I really didn't think much of this at first. My mother likes it, however, and it has grown on me slightly. Normally Norway turn out decent if not great songs, and this was a disappointment in comparison.
13) Switzerland - This reminds me a lot of the UK's song this year. It's passable. Some of the lyrics are cheesy to say the least. The yellow and purple theme is quirky and different but might get annoying after a while. This is another song my mother likes.
14) Belarus - I really enjoyed this at first. I still like it, but I think I'm losing my love for it. It is well-performed and I love hearing an own-language song. I just don't feel the song itself is as good as other folk songs we've heard on Eurovision recently.
15) Bulgaria - This was another surprising voice - it sounds older than a seventeen-year-old's. The song is an ear-worm and could easily be in the UK charts sung by Bieber or Mendes, though this guy's voice is perhaps superior to both. I could do without the strobing and weird jerky camera effects, but both song and performance are very good.
16) Lithuania - This is a funny one because I like the verses but the chorus feels rather run-of-the-mill Euro-ballad-y. The singer is very intense, but if you like her style then the song can be quite an interesting journey to take with her.
17) Estonia - Another male-female duet from Estonia, and this wasn't as good for me as 2015's "Goodbye to Yesterday". It really reminds me of another dance track. I can't think which. While it didn't live up to Estonia's track record, the song was pretty decent and well-performed. The guy's intense staring to the music was a bit much, however.
18) Israel - This was an average upbeat Eurovision song - he performed it okay, but the song itself wasn't very memorable.
My top ten (just in performance order): Austria, F.Y.R. Macedonia, Malta, Romania, The Netherlands, Ireland, San Marino, Croatia, Bulgaria, Estonia.
My top five (starting with the best): The Netherlands, Austria, Bulgaria, San Marino, Romania.
Look out for my views on the final, coming soon!
Feel free to check out my posts from last year's contest, too:
I was studying in Spain during Eurovision this year, which allowed for a different and novel viewing experience. As I was super-busy preparing for exams I didn't have time to blog on the contest at the time, though I did live-tweet it.
Now, back home in the UK, I have the luxury of watching the semi-finals in a more relaxed way and making notes of my thoughts on each song. I hope you enjoy them!
1) Sweden - I was never a fan of this song, but it is growing on me. They are a smooth outfit and seem very into what they're doing. It is an achievement to stay on the treadmills; I didn't notice them at first.
2) Georgia - A very standard Eurovision ballad, but a solid performance.
3) Australia - In Spain they were saying Isaiah looked like Rafa Nadal. I can see that, but he really reminds me of someone else too, and I can't think who. Musically, he is like Tom Odell. I like his voice and style and the song is okay, but the staging could be better and showcase him more effectively.
4) Albania - A shaky start; they could have got into the song faster rather than leaving the singer to manage alone. When it gets going it is pretty good. Staging-wise, I like the clocks, but the flashing lights are unnecessary.
5) Belgium - I'm rather sick of hearing this song. I would probably have liked it otherwise, but it has been overplayed in the Eurovision world, and I think I might have heard it on the radio in Spain, too. The staging is fine. Blanche's performance is good; she is clearly nervous but gets through it.
6) Montenegro - This was one of the more memorable performances when I first watched. I had been wondering if the braid was real until Scott Mills (commentating) declared that it is detachable.
The song is okay; the singer lifted it to much more than it would have been. The whole thing felt quite Robbie Williams: a very confident number.
7) Finland - People in Spain and online were very surprised when this failed to get to the final. I like it: the staging and performance are understated, in a good way. Funnily enough, just as I was listening to the song and she was singing "Blackbird, don't sing", I read someone on Facebook complaining about birds being noisy in their garden. Birds should sing when they want to! It's a good song.
8) Azerbaijan - At first I found this to be odd and shouty. Behind all the strangeness, however, it is a decent song and it is remarkable how she is able to keep singing, and singing very well, while doing all the actions, writing and climbing the ladder.
It was undoubtably one of the most iconic performances this year.
9) Portugal - I never disliked this song, but I felt it was overrated. It is beginning to grow on me, though, and I will always welcome new styles, own languages and stripped-back performances on Eurovision.
10) Greece - This was a song that struck me as a solid one the first time around. I like the water theme; it makes a change from endless fire- and lightning-themed stagings.
The singer is confident and looks like she is enjoying herself; my mother thinks she looks like Cobie Smulders.
11) Poland - The parade of sitcom stars continues with Penny from Big Bang representing Poland. This is one of the better ballads, though not amazing. Her voice is good and she is putting in a good performance. I like the constellation-y background.
12) Moldova - Is it just me or do the two non-sax guys look like Marcus Butler? The song is catchy and something a bit different. The set-up reminds me a lot of Bosnia and Herzegovina's legendary entry from 2008 by Laka.
13) Iceland - The singer's style, hair and the opening of the song made me think this would be an energetic, dance-y number. It turned out to be one of the best ballads of this year. She really owns the stage and is not overpowered by the song like many other ballad-singers; instead she controls it well.
14) Czech Republic - This stood out for me on my first viewing, and I was sad that it didn't get through. Her voice is not what I had expected to come out of her, and it is lovely.
She reminds me a lot of the Venezuelan singer Georgina, who I mentioned in my "Songs from Salamanca" article.
Overall, this was refreshingly different, and I liked it a lot.
15) Cyprus - This is actually a very good song musically and the staging is inventive, though all the white light can be a bit hard on the eyes. I just can't completely connect to it personally, and as I tweeted at the time, I can't see why being someone's gravity would be a good thing.
16) Armenia - This had some great arm-ology, as Craig Revel Horwood would say. Overall, it was okay; not a stand-out number for me.
17) Slovenia - This is a real grower and has an epic, musical-theatre feel while also maintaining the time-tested Euro-ballad structure and spirit. The staging was nice and simple and I like his sparkly suit! He handles the high parts well - it was an all-round solid song and performance.
18) Latvia - This isn't my style of music but they were certainly enthusiastic. I can't really bear all the trippy wannabe-trance stuff in the background - it is somewhat headache-inducing. My mother thinks this singer looks like Katy Perry.
My top ten (just in performance order): Australia, Belgium, Finland, Azerbaijan, Portugal, Greece, Iceland, Czech Republic, Cyprus, Slovenia.
My top five (starting with the best): Czech Republic, Iceland, Portugal, Slovenia, Greece.
Overall, it was a decent semi-final and I did have trouble picking out my top ten. Keep an eye out for my write-up of the second one. I'll also be doing a post on the songs from the Big Five and Ukraine, so watch this space!
I also blogged Eurovision last year, so check out my posts from then as well:
As you will know if you follow this blog or my Facebook page, I am a huge Eurovision fan. It is quite possibly the highlight of my year. I just love the sense of together-ness, of people all over Europe watching and enjoying the same spectacle.
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The host nation:
One thing I like about Eurovision is learning about the host nation, and in this way I felt slightly let down this year, as I found there wasn't much information about Denmark, or Copenhagen as a city.
The only thing that had anything to do with Danish culture was the performance of Hans Christian Anderson's The Ugly Duckling in one of the semi-finals. I would have liked more of that sort of thing, especially in the final.
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The hosts:
I thought the show was well-hosted, though I preferred Petra Mede last year. I think some of the hosts' humour was perhaps lost in translation, as I didn't find some things funny that I think I was supposed to.
I also didn't really get the continual China references - was that an in-joke of some kind? Overall, though, it was better hosted than a lot of past contests.
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The venue:
I was amazed when I saw pictures of the venue from the outside - it is a pair of former shipping containers, and looked so different from more glamourous past Eurovision venues. Yet inside, it looked wonderful; I liked the stage design and how it matched the gem theme of the contest.
When I first encountered the gem theme, I thought it too simple and ordinary. However, it really worked on the night and looked quite arty. The tagline, "#Join us," is too similar to Norway's 2010 slogan, "Share the moment," and I feel that Norway captured the sentiment better with their flashmob. But it is a nice sentiment to have in the first place.
I could have done without the hash tag, though. Not all of us use Twitter, and those of us who don't can still be part of Eurovision.
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The songs:
I thought the standard of songs this year was really good - probably the best overall quality across all the songs that I remember seeing at Eurovision. However, for me there were few really excellent songs. I voted for Malta and the Netherlands, my favourites by a long way.
I also quite liked Spain's song. But that was it. While many other songs were good, they just didn't blow my mind.
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The winner:
I like how Conchita's victory was a victory of sorts for equality. Also, Tom, the guy whose character she is, seems really nice in interview. However, I don't really like the song - it just seems to be about three other songs pasted together and generally dull.
The ideal situation for me would have been for Conchita to have come second, which would still have made a stir and a statement, and for the Netherlands to have won because they had the better song and it is a song contest at the end of the day.
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I hope you enjoyed reading my thoughts on the show. Congratulations to Conchita and to Austria, and thank you to everyone who was involved in making Eurovision 2014 such a great success.
Here's to Eurovision 2015 in Austria!
Thanks for reading! I have also written an article about Eurovision for my university's student newspaper, if you would like to check it out.
I'm just letting you know that I've had an article about the Eurovision Song Contest published in The Mancunion, the University of Manchester's student newspaper. Check it out if you love Eurovision - or if you hate Eurovision. Hopefully in the latter case I can change your mind.
It's two weeks until the grand finals of Eurovision 2012 in Baku, Azerbaijan and, as I have always been a huge Eurovision fan, I have decided to do a series of daily blogs in the run-up to the big event. I will highlight some of my favourite Eurovision songs past and present, and we can share some Eurovision nostalgia for classic acts such as ABBA, Johnny Logan and Katrina and the Waves, among others.
Eurovision is quite a big deal in my house; we always have a Eurovision party and vote for our favourites. I just think it is amazing how they manage to unite so many people in so many different countries with one event. When you watch the contest, you have this wonderful warm feeling knowing that so many other people all over the world are watching the same thing as you. I love Eurovision ♥
In the vein of uniting Europe, I thought the first thing I would share should be this, quite possibly my favourite Eurovision moment ever: the flashmob during Eurovision 2010 in Norway. It is simply breathtaking, and usually brings tears to my eyes. I think this is what people mean when they talk about the "numinous".
This is just sensational - certainly the best interval act I have ever seen and, as I said, possibly the best moment of Eurovision I have ever seen.
You can tell from the beginning that it is going to be something special - and when the host Haddy announces, "Europe, it's time to dance!" she looks so regal, like a queen... she commands respect. If she asked me to dance I would dance!
Madcon are brilliant and the whole seven and a half minutes of the song, and the dance, and the bringing together of all these people... just mesmerising. We should do this more often! I personally think they should do a flashmob like this one every year at Eurovision.
Eurovision 2012 is on its way, and I am greatly looking forward to it! Bring on Baku! I will be back tomorrow with more Eurovision moments.
