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While half of the world’s Eurovision Press Contingent are on flights to Amsterdam today to attend the sold out Eurovision in Concert, and for many our first chance to see half the acts sing live, there’s our weekly look over the songs for this year’s Song Contest in Juke Box Jury.
Welcoming back Donald and Andrew as our judges, another five songs taking to the stage in Baku are going to be rated Hit, Miss, or Maybe… and feel free to keep the conversation going in the comments!
Eurovision Insight Podcast: Juke Box Jury 2012 #5
with Donald McNaughton and Andrew Main.Slovakia: Don’t Close Your Eyes, by Max Jason Mai.
Belarus: We Are The Heroes, by Litesound.
Belgium: Would You?, by Iris.
Croatia: Nebo, by Nina Badric.
Russia: Party for Everyone, by Buranovskiye Babushki.
Don’t miss an episode of this year’s Juke Box Jury (or any of The Unofficial Eurovision Podcast episodes) 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.
As much as I think the babushki are cute and fun, I think the juries will crucify it, I’ve actually used my free online bet on them not qualifying at all (and even if they do I wouldn’t have lost any money, so I’ve got nothing to lose there *wink*)
The other song in Belgium’s NF was actually vastly superior (sigh…), never trust Flemish televoters… Still not that bad a song.
I’m a rocker at heart, but Slovakia’s song is too emo for my tastes, the kind of song you’d find on the Kerrang! channel
I like Croatia’s song, it’s nice and floaty and I like her husky voice
And yeah, I can’t add anything about Belarus that you guys haven’t already said.
See you in Amsterdam tomorrow hopefully!
Slovakia: A pretty well constructed and performed alloy of rock styles.
Unfortunately, the “YELL-One-Syll-A . BUL-Per-Cro-Tchet” verse intros feel horribly forced and clunky to me and I can’t enjoy it. The shouting is structurally correct, but it needs irregularity to work as meaningful expression rather than gimmick.
Belarus: The video is hilarious/embarassing. I wouldn’t have guessed this was a real band from watching their attempts to rock out and pump up the energy while the music putters along sedately. Clearly, a good anthemic song, the irony is that it could work either as rock or as disco, but they missed both.
Belgium: I actually think this is a (mostly) good song, and Iris has the right mix of vocal qualities for it. The song sets a distinctive tone with interesting melodic lines, and gears up for the change perfectly, but then has nowhere to go, and later it stumbles on a good ending only to continue rambling on a bit longer. The presentation has serious problems which I assume were simply outside the scope of initial preparations and not intentional. Fixing these could result in a much stronger entry.
Croatia: I adore this. There’s a real sense of intimacy and conviction in her voice, and the arrangement is both interesting and understated to maintain that connection. I really hope they can reproduce the same balance on stage.
Russia: Not the Trio Bulgarka. Still, I liked the choral intro well enough in all its homeliness, but I really have to put on my peasant head to put up with the subsequent hoedown.
I think in response to Andrew’s comments on juries, I’d say that last year there was a huge range of pop songs and none of them really stood out. I think that juries will give a certain number of votes to pop songs and a certain amount to ballads. If a song is good enough (Germany 2010, Norway 2009) the genre just doesn’t matter.
How posh is Donald?!