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Eurovision Insight Podcast: Juke Box Jury #5 Written by on April 19, 2013 | 15 Comments

Half way through our eight episode run of Juke Box Jury shows for 2013 means the Eurovision Grand Final is just four weeks (and a day) away. Will any of our five songs in this week’s show be the one left standing in the Malmo Arena?

Who knows, but before they perform in front of a European audience, they need to find out if our judges – this week David Elder and Elaine Dove – will rate them Hit, Miss, or Maybe.

Eurovision Insight Podcast: Juke Box Jury #5
with David Elder and Elaine Dove

Serbia: Ljubav Je Svuda, by Moje 3.
Israel: Rak Bishvilo, by Moran Mazor.
Iceland: Eg A Lif, by Eythor Ingi.
San Marino: Crisalide (Vola), by Valentine Monetta.
Greece: Alcohol is Free, by Koza Mostra, ft. Agathon Iakovidis.

Don’t miss an episode of the Eurovision Insight podcast by subscribing to the RSS feed dedicated to the podcasts. iTunes users can find us in the iTunes Store and get the show automatically downloaded to your computer. Looking for the Eurovision MP3′s?  and help the ESC Insight team buy their return tickets over the Oresund Bridge

About The Author: Ewan Spence

British Academy (BAFTA) nominated broadcaster and writer Ewan Spence is the voice behind The Unofficial Eurovision Song Contest Podcast and one of the driving forces behind ESC Insight. Having had an online presence since 1994, he is a noted commentator around the intersection of the media, internet, technology, mobility and how it affects us all. Based in Edinburgh, Scotland, his work has appeared on the BBC, The Stage, STV, and The Times. You can follow Ewan on Twitter (@ewan) and Facebook (facebook.com/ewanspence).

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Have Your Say

15 responses to “Eurovision Insight Podcast: Juke Box Jury #5”

  1. Mag says:

    My allegorical thoughts about Greece’s entry – too cheap and unfortunately will qualify in the final. Hope stays on 26 in the final.

    Serbia – I don’t like it and like Greece it will qualify…

    Iceland – super boring…Loved 2012 entry…

    Israel – Moran has nothing in common with Bernadette…Bernadette is sweet and with a great fashion sense! Moran needs a stylist other than shed some pounds…Nevertheless I love her voice and even her song. Hope she qualifies and does well in the final.

    San Marino – as most people I hated the Facebook song last year…I think this year it is a hit and I think she will easily qualify in the final and even be in top 10 in the final.

  2. Stephen Colville says:

    Serbia – Horrendous song that robbed Dusan Svilar of a deserved place. MISS

    Israel – Amazing voice and an intense power ballad. What’s not to like? HIT

    Iceland – Solid, but a little boring. The live version is better than the studio. MAYBE

    San Marino – Spectacular, one of the very best entries this year. Both the slow and quick bits are brilliant. HIT

    Greece – Greece’s worst entry in years. MISS

  3. Kevin says:

    I still find it hard to believe you think semi 1 is the bad one. There are only 6 songs I’d give a 7/10 in semi 2. An alltime low for me.

    SERBIA – I really like it and I expect it to qualify, but as you all said I can’t see it finishing higher than somewhere around 15.

    ISRAEL – Usually I’m not a fan of ballads from Israel, but I think this one is great. I think it will qualify easily and finish just outside of the top 10.

    ICELAND – At first I thought it was really boring, but I’m starting to like it. It’s such a lovely song. I hope it qualifies, but I’m not sure.

    SAN MARINO – One of my favourites this year, but I expect a result similar to previous fan favourites like Je Ne Sais Quoi, Hero and What About My Dreams.

    GREECE – Not really for me. It will probably qualify and do slightly better than last year.

  4. togravus says:

    1. Israel – classy (and yes, that verdict includes Moran’s styling in Kdam … feel free to call me an oddball) – deserves a top 10 result in the final

    2. Greece – witty fun – deserves a top 10 result in the final too

    3. San Marino – I like the first two minutes and find the last minute rather dull and generic – Still enough to deserve a place in the final imo

    4. Iceland – dull and dated – I hope that he flies back to Iceland on Friday

    5. Serbia – tacky, dated and totally embarrassing. 37th place on my list for my favourite ESC country.

  5. John says:

    Serbia: Tacky and the girls have no charisma, but the song is catchy and in a semi filled with Balkan neighbours this is sailing through to the final with ease. Probably a mid-table result at best there though.

    Israel: I actually quite like the song, although not Moran’s choice of dress. I think this is a borderline qualifier

    Iceland: This really grew on me over the past few months and I now think it could well do a “Kuula”. This should make it to the final thanks to votes from the various Scandinavian countries in their semi-final.

    San Marino: I don’t rate the song at all, and think that the song is only rated so highly by fans because it is such an improvement upon last years’ song. They could just make the final, but I think it will be harder for them to do so than fans are expecting

    Greece: This will be certainly popular with televoters, but there’s no way this will win the semi-final – I can see juries killing this song.

  6. Shevek says:

    Israel – somebody in the jury want Moran to sing a power ballad? What the heck? Isn’t she singing one? Or must it be one written by the son person with the long hair from Sweden? I really do not understand that comment. The Israeli ballad is simply one of the best songs available in 2013. And what was that about her hips? I guess Moran must come back with a Swedish ballad and narrower hips; that’s what I get from what was said.

    Serbia – messy and vaguely annoying.

    Greece – great and joyful song.

    Iceland – endearing and quite effective. This will probably do better than most seem to think.

    San Marino – there is nothing brill and fab about that last minute. Valentina sings very well. San Marino is a microstate; in today’s ESC that is fatal. She may reach the final, but she will not go anywhere. The first two minutes deserve to be in the final.

  7. Kylie says:

    I totally agree with Shevek re: Israel. That whole review of the song was just absolutely pathetic. I’d love for her to prove you guys wrong *this year* by getting the top 10 result she deserves.

  8. togravus says:

    I totally agree with Shevek and Kylie re: Israel too. That review was not of the quality and class we are normally used to when reading or listening to contents published on ESCInsight.

  9. Metze says:

    I also agree with what Togravus, Shevek and Kylie said, lol.

    It seems that a song is only considered a “power ballad” if it is some generic saccharine monstrosity composed by Thomas G:son…

  10. Chris says:

    Serbia: Maybe – indifferent.
    Israel: Maybe – I like the song a lot.
    Iceland: Maybe – Very beautiful song
    San Marino: Hit – a really beauty of a song
    Greece: Hit – because you can jump up and down to; cannot perform a Greek dance to.

  11. Peter says:

    I also agree with everyone else re: Israel, it’s a very classy song, that is performed well.

    And what makes the reviews so poor is that everything they listed as a negative for Moran was suddenly a positive for Iceland? David even said that Egg was an “old fashioned power ballad that I really enjoy, like Israel” at one point, despite saying earlier that he hated Israel and she should have done a power ballad??? And as for the comments about Israel failing because Moran has big hips!!!

    Either Ewan played the wrong tracks during the recording, or they were too busy voting for the performer instead of the performance.

    Israel: Hit
    Iceland: Hit
    David and Elaine: Big Fat Miss 🙁

  12. Ricardo says:

    It seems the only sensible and reliable reviews on this website can be found within the comments under the podcast!

    Israel: Forget the “Russian” entry, THIS is the power-ballad of the year
    Serbia: This is fine until it gets to the chorus, then it’s hideous
    Iceland: Sounds like the melody could have been written by a 5 year old
    Greece: vaguely amusing title, but quickly irritates
    San Marino: Any other year I think this would flop, but with such poor offerings this year it actually seems capable of winning.

    Israel and San Marino HIT
    All others massive MISS

  13. Harriet Krohn says:

    First things first, Ewan: Ralph Siegel’s last name has the stress on the first syllable, so it’s ZEEgl (I’m not trying to put phonetics here because I don’t know if they’ll be displayed properly or if you can read them).

    Then: Finally someone agreeing with me about Isreal! I don’t know about power ballad or not, but I think it’s very, very dull. I needed like ten listens to start thinking ‘okay, that’s not so bad’ and to get the chorus into my head, and that’s not good enough for the ESC. That said, I’m not too big on ballads anyway, so Israel might just qualify anyway.

    Serbia is one annoying song, it’s not even mediocre. It’s just plastic and bad and not even sung well. Doesn’t deserve a place in the final, and I hope that the juries will agree.

    Iceland is lovely. I do speak a bit of Icelandic, but you don’t need that for the song to touch you. Yes, it’s quite simple, but it doesn’t try to be something it’s not, and that makes it a winner in my book. But I do think it will have a hard time qualifying, it’s not a show-off song and Eyþór doesn’t have the looks of Ott Lepland.

    San Marino … I kind of like the first two minutes, but then it goes bland and typically Siegel – totally kills the song for me. I almost (!) liked the Facebook thing better because that was so ridiculously bad it was endearing again. It’d still be nice to see San Marino qualify, and if all the hype on blogs and fansites is saying something, it will.

    Greece, Greece … I usually don’t rate Greek songs too highly, but this year is a different story (and a very different song). It’s fun, it’s a great relief from all the ballads, and the guys in the kilts are just awesome. It’s the only song of these five that I’m actually sure will qualify, although it might suffer from the juries.

  14. Alex says:

    Am I the only one who thinks San Marino is total fanwank?

  15. Matthias says:

    Israel – my Favorit Song this Year
    Iceland – boring
    Greece – seems like Greece Wanne know how far they can go and still qualify. Horrible
    San Marino – overhyped, and the Song is like two different Songs for me
    Serbia – okay, but nothing special

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