The Eurovision National Finals always leaves a few classics on the floor, but do they find the best songs to send to the Song Contest? It’s time for our annual tradition of looking back with a lot of hindsight to point out who got it right for this year’s Eurovision (and if you want the wrong choices, we’ve written those up as well).
Poland Was Right To Send ‘Color Of Your Life’
Let’s talk about Margaret for a second.
The debate about Poland’s choice to send Michał Szpak and ‘Colour Of Your Life‘ is going to be a point of eternal debate within the National Final community. There’s no doubt that Margaret’s ‘Cool Me Down‘ was one of the best ‘studio bangers’ of the season and if there is justice it will be the hit of the summer. Yet Margaret’s live performance during ‘Krajowe Eliminacje 2016‘ left a lot to be desired. Smiling would have been a nice start.
If you had asked TVP at the start of the season if the delegation would be happy with 8th place on Saturday night, I’m sure they would have said yes very quickly. Szpak was the best singer on the night in the National Final, he connected massively with the televoting audience in Stockholm, and while some fans might prefer the style of music from Margaret, Szpak delivered the goods every time it counted. You can’t ask for more in a performer.
Ukraine Was Right To Send ‘1944’
Putting aside the issue of politics and metaphors, Jamala won the Eurovision Song Contest and you can’t get much more right than that. So congratulations Ukraine, you made the right choice. Or at least the person who decided that in the event of a tie the public vote would decide the winner of the Ukrainian selection. Most, but not all, National Finals with two voting components will bias to the televote side, but not always. With eleven points each, The Hardkiss missed taking the ticket by the narrowest of margins.
I hope they get the chance to fly the flag in the near future. If Jamala does not do a title defence, then the progressive-pop band should be in pole position for 2017’s selection
Belgium Was Right To Send ‘What’s The Pressure’
Of the five songs in the National Final, there was only one that was ‘Eurovision ready’ (which makes it curious that the jury was asked to think about ‘the song they liked the best’ not ‘the song they thought would do well at Eurovision’). Pretty much everything that Laura Tesero was capable of was on show in the National Final and it was more than enough for that night, and for Stockholm. Polish the diamond as much as possible, don’t change what worked, and send it into musical combat.
A top ten result for VRT, after last year’s fourth place by RTBF is welcome news. The two Belgian broadcasters take turns to select a song so its good to see the odd years and the even years working.
Israel Was Right To Send ‘Made Of Stars’
‘HaKokhav HaBa L’Eirovizion‘ is one of the hardest National Finals out there, and puts each singer through a huge amount of stress and competition before it finds a winner. This year Hovi Star proved that he had the steely determination during the selection which would stand him in good stead in Stockholm. He’s won hearts all over Europe, and while the song might have been the weakest part of the package he worked every single emotion (and then a few more) out of the re-arrangement used for Eurovision.
Malta Was Right To Send Ira Losco
Specifically the singer here and not the song, because it says a lot about the delegation.
Malta has shown a ruthlessness at Eurovision this year, starting with the rule change that the Malta Eurovision Song Contest that allowed the winning performer to change the song. ‘Chameleon’ was solid, but the team wanted to be sure of the right song – after internal debate and external voting ‘Walk On Water‘ offered the better chance. So it was selected.
The investment in projection dresses, staging, and design? Thrown out once it was clear it wasn’t going to deliver one hundred percent. Even during the ‘all-up’ dress rehearsal of the Grand Final the Maltese delegation was experimenting with CGI overlays to find that little bit extra.
But at the heart of it was an experienced singer, with a lot of one from the fans, who made it easy for voters to connect with Malta. Much as Maxine’s ‘Young Love‘ got the foot tapping. PBS focused on finding the right combination of every element to benefit the whole entry.
Austria Were Right To Send ‘Loin D’ici’
This fan favourite shows the power of the online community to drive PR story lines forward. From an early rush on betting to standing ovations at the preview events, ‘Loin D’ici‘ was the perfect example of how to use PR to maximise the fan involvement and vote during the Semi Finals. Once it reached the Grand Final and the audience was much wider and less connected to the artists’ journey it became a little bit harder, but no matter. Austria made it to Saturday, and that was victory in itself.
Of course the Austrian delegation are convinced that if I predict (just once in the season) that one of its songs will not qualify, it will qualify. Therefore I’m under orders to say “the 2017 song is rubbish and is nowhere close to getting to Saturday night” once we get to Kyiv.
France Were Right To Send ‘J’ai Cherche’
A new Head of Delegation, a new approach to bring in a more ‘French Pop’ sound to the Contest, and a hope that a strong result will lead to more involvement from the French music industry. The pressure was on Edoardo Grassi, and going for an internal selection meant that there would be no place for the HoD to hide if Amir delivered a poor result.
Instead Grassi can take France’s best result since 2002’s ‘Il Faut Du Temps‘ back to the industry and show that the Song Contest is a global platform for popular French music. This is a foundation that can be easily built on.
Latvia Were Right To Send ‘Heartbeat’
Latvia were so close to getting it wrong. The format of Supernova may have brought Justs to the attention of the world, but it also told everyone voting who to vote for if they wanted to stop Aminata’s padawan. Doom-goth band Catalepsia was the only other song in Supernova’s Final that was there on the strength of the televote, and actually beat Justs in Latvia’s public televote. If it wasn’t for the international online vote, Justs would have been lost to Eurovision thanks to a poorly thought out National Final structure (Ben Robertson has more on this here on ESC Insight).
Yet Justs did go to Stockholm and made it to Saturday. Even thought the fifteenth place meant a right-hand side finish, it was still a Saturday night appearance with a song that took artistic risks and trusted the performer to not go over the top.
Bulgaria Were Right To Send ‘If Love Was A Crime’
Sometimes you just need a perfect storm to get a great results, and it should be obvious to anyone that Poli Genova’s fourth place is a great result not just for Bulgaria (scoring its highest ever placing as it returns to the Contest), but it’s also a great result for the Contest as a whole. A small country, with little diaspora, and a sensible budget, rocks up to the Contest and takes a fourth place.
Yes it was an internal selection, and yes Genova was a known quantity in the community after heartache in 2011 and the hosting of Junior Eurovision 2015, but the point is simple. Get all the right elements in place, and you have a winner – even if the official video is a bit underwhelming!
That’s it for National Finals (and the odd internal selection) which got it right. Now comes the flip side. Who got it wrong? You can read our suggestions here on ESC Insight…
Gday Ewan, I love the article and you were on the mark with each one, bar just one small oversight.
Bulgaria’s 4th place is its best ever result in the senior contest and that’s not the oversight. The oversight in question was the claim that this is Bulgaria’s highest placing as it returns to the contest. That is technically incorect, as the best ever placing as it returns to the contest (overall), would its 2nd placing at juniors in 2014 in Malta.
Everything else you have said about Bulgaria in this article is spot on, as well as each of the entry’s in this list.
I can’t wait to see who really screwed up this year..?
Matt, Eurovision is not Junior Eurovision. Otherwise we’d have a song about 74 Contests, not 61, Malta would be a two time winner, and then you could argue the above with a straight face 😉
My thoughts…
Poland really wants to win the OGAE Second Chance Contest – let’s see if Margaret beats Anja or Simone from Denmark…
Ira Losco won MESC because of who she was, not the song. She could have stood centre stage singing ‘blah, blah, blah, blah’ and the crowd would have still been chanting her name…the song choice was secondary this year. The artist to put the most into PR this year, it sort of fizzled out due to her joyous pregnancy news limiting what she could do on the Stockholm stage.
And I have read possibly the most LOL moment of any of your pieces this year, when you are discussing Justs – “trusted the performer to not go over the top”. An artist whose face contorted with the emphasis he put into his singing and doubled over as he pushed the words out? Most other singers with powerful voices use their lungs and diaphragm, keep upright and open their eyes to connect with the audience! If that wasn’t OTT, what is? Amaryllis with her spiders webs and flying lamps in Eurosong? 😉
Nice review though – I’m sure that you’ll have a Welshman and a guy from the Potteries down as artists that shouldn’t have been sent though…
I miss the spiderweb from Eurosong…
I’m glad Urkaine didn’t send the Hardkiss. From the clip, the singer was constantly out of tune and her costume was something that would have been more in keeping with the contest 10 years ago. I really couldn’t see that song troubling the left hand side of the board. Whatever one’s personal views on 1944, it is amazing that a song as dark and as difficult as this can actually win widespread enough support from jurors and televoters to win the contest. Hopefully, 1944’s success and Georgia’s qualification for the final will encourage others to send challenging songs next year.
Poland – I would much rather they took a risk with a modern song like Margaret’s than what they sent. The jurors gave Color of Your Life what it deserved. I’m assuming the strength of the televote was indicative that support came from beyond the diaspora. I’m hoping so. Otherwise, under the new voting rules, Poland could turn up with any old rubbish and still make top 10.
Malta – From the outset I thought this was a cracking song but it never quite fulfilled the potential of the video. There was some small element missing – not in Ira’s vocal or performance which was spot on – she looked great – but probably in the staging. Malta will be pleased with top 4 with juries (I’m assuming all was above board!) but the televote didn’t go for this at all. Malta are one a number of countries with little diaspora (UK included) where if the package is not almost perfect it won’t pick up any top 10 televote points and will plummet down the leader board.
Belgium – Interestingly, they changed the national final backing singers from all black to a mixture of races. I’m not suggesting this made the song more voter friendly. Hopefully the modern Eurovision voter, East or West has got over this. If Europe will vote for a bearded guy in a dress they’ll vote for anything. However, the change in backing singers meant the song appeared less ‘dated’ (1970s, disco-soul) and more ‘retro’ (Fluer East).
Latvia – This was a great modern song. I loved Just’s spirited performance. It mystifies me why this got less jury support than, say, Lithuania. In fact, for me the biggest surprises of the entire contest were why Latvia and Serbia did so badly with the juries.
Lithuania where without a doubt right to send Donny, any of the other songs sent would probably have stayed in the semi’s ( and for Lithuania thats saying a lot!) Second best placing ever which to be honest I NEVER saw coming!
Finland got it astonishingly wrong by not sending the stunning “On It Goes”! I really hope that when you come to do the alternate counterpart to this article that Mikael is the one that gets highlighted as “the one that got away” and not the weak “No Fear”.
This was a great article, I agreed with everything in it. I would like to see some discussion on Hungary and Spain, perhaps in the comment section? In my opinion, both sent two of the strongest songs this year. They both had that complete package, with a great song, good back-story and talented singer. I was quite disappointed at their poor placings and would really like to see Barei and Freddie return to the contest. Why do you think they did quite poorly?