To set things right from the start, I have to say that...I have no ear for music, not at all, I am the worst singer and music-listener you could ever imagine in your worst dreams. However, as any decent Romanian, this does not stop me from commenting upon politics, football, movies, and, of course, music.
In my family, there's a tradition that goes back many years, since my "worry-less" childhood, to do things together. And this word "things" encompasses a lot of stuff, from playing rummy, scrabble, watching movies and, last but not least, watching song festivals (national or international) on TV, such as Mamaia, Callatis, Cerbul de Aur, San Remo and Eurovision. Years had passed and my list shranked until there's only one thing left, and that's the object of my post today: Eurovision.
The first Eurovision winner that I remember was 1998 Israeli Dana International, and since then, among the singers/bands who won the contest and deserve being mentioned here you can find Sertab Erener (Turkey), Ruslana (Ukraine), Helena Paparizou (Greece), Lordi (Finland) and Dima Bilan (Russia). I should also point to the 2000 winner-song, "Fly on the Wings of Love", of the Dane band called The Olsen Brothers, song that had a great success remixed in the European clubs.
Shortly we've made a short wrap-up of the recent history, but it's of vital importance to say that Eurovision created or discovered great voices, promoted great artists (one needn't be a genius to know Johnny Logan, Celine Dion or Toto Cutugno)...but not always. Very often we've come across that "One-hit-wonder" phenomenon, and it's useless for me to start writing here an endless list of singers/bands you have never (or maybe only once) heard of.
Sooo, after writing 4 introductory paragraphs, it's time to get down to business, and my business today is to write about the 2009 edition of the European song contest. In my "humble" opinion, there was a great number of very good songs this year, and my professional analisys said that this was going to be a very balanced edition, as to me, the majority of the songs had real chances of winning the Europeans' hearts. As you may or may not know, this year the trophy was won (in a kind of unanimous voice) by a sweet Norwegian boy, but as I'm not a spoiler, I will take every contry, singer/band and song in an aleatory (random) order and comment a little about their performance.
1. Turkey: Hadise - Dum Tek Tek (Boom Bang Bang - Crazy for you). This was a pure-blooded Turkish woman, wearing pure Turkish clothes, singing a pure Turkish vivacious and rhytmic song. It had a good on-stage representation: Turkish dancers and dances, fire and everything. It emanated a great power and could be easily remembered and hummed. At some point during the reading of the votes, it occupied the 2nd or the 3rd position, but it ended on the 4th. In my view, it was good, but not THAT good. Anyway, good job Tureky!
2. Suedia: Malena Ernman - La voix. This lady had the voice of an angel, probably she's an Opera singer or something. However, the melodic line sounded familiar (as in very very familiar). I was in the other room while she performed, so I can't say a word about her show on the stage, but the voice really impressed me, and only to listen to her again, I downloaded the whole Eurovision 2009 album on my PC. She ended on 21, which was too bad. She deserved more.
3. Israel: Noa & Mira Awad - Einaiych (There must be another way). Wait! Is this Noa..that Noa? Noa with Blue touches Blue? For what I've understood, the song was promoting world peace and tolerance. The 2 women have great voices, the song was nice, but I didn't remebered it afterwards, the melodic line (again) sounded familiar. They ended on 16, which is kinda in the middle of the chart, so...ok...
4. Portugal: Flor de Lis - Toda as Ruas do Amor. I must admit (although I'm ashamed) that I left the room when I saw the leading singer :( Indeed, the Portuguese is such a beautiful language, and all the love song make you cry when you hear them in this language, and this one...can make you dream and cry and love...It ended on 15.
5. Malta: Chiara - What if we? Hmm, this nice lady was at her second participation at Eurovision. When she heard her sing, my mum said she was going to win (but my mum is a Monica Anghel fan, so there's nothing left to say here). She has a great great great voice, really impressive and powerfull. Her slow song was among the best of this type (if it's not shaky, it must be slow), and the lady really is nice...like a mum - nice. She ended on 22, but she deserved more.
6. Finland: Waldo's People - Lose Control. Okie, so let's set this straight: Waldo's people did all the job, but Waldo himself cut all the chances with his stupid, not-fitted rap insertion. The song was very..how could I say that? I was humming the melody and the words even before they finished singing, but AGAIN: wipe off Waldo from Waldo's People!!! They were the last (on the 25). Everybody: say Thank you, Waldo!
7. Bosnia & Herzegovina: Regina - Bistra Voda. Nice show for the band, nice costumes, nice song and everything. I am not 100% sure, but I think it resembled a lot the 2007 winner Serbian song, only softer. The song is good to put as background on a powerpoint presentation if you want to make people cry. They ended on 9, which is appropriate for their performance.
8. Romania: Elena Gheorghe - The Balkan Girls. Elena's performance good, as expected. Good looks, short dress, high heels, powerfull and rhytmic song, she is a local Helena Paparizou. However, her song didn't impress, not even the Balkan people. Neighbour Bulgarian and, further South, Greek did not like the dedication Elena send their girls (the Balkan ones), and gave no points. Our salvation was Moldova (as expected), and we turned the favour (deserved). Elena finished on 19, although I placed her in my top 15 favourites.
9. Armenia: Inga & Anush - Jan jan (Nor par). Armenian costumes and instruments and that's about all. Not my type. The girls screamed a lot. Stunningly, they received 12 points, probably from a neighbour or something and finished on 10. Me not liking that!
10. Iceland: Yohanna - Is it true? Backstreet Boys kind of slow song, but the girl had an amazing voice and she was probably the most beatiful girl (angel style) in the contest...a little princess wearing a great blue dress, as if she had been taken from a fairytale. She finished on 2. Great job and may the force be with you, cause I hope to hear from you again!
11. Azerbaijan: Arash & Aysel - Always. Honestly, they were my favourites and I really thought they were going to win. Arash is...world-wide known, and the girl is the most beautiful one (devil style). They ended on 3. Surely one of the songs I'll listen to when I wanna fill with energy.
12. Croatia: Igor Cukrov & Andrea - Lijepa Tena. The boy was nice (so was the song), but sometimes the voice didn't help him and it seems as if the song was played on slow motion. I don't remember the girl singing, only screaming (in a very sharp, high voice)...you know that annoying scratching with the chalk on the blackboard? This girl took it to another level! They ended on 18.
13. Ukraine: Svetlana Loboda - Be my Valentine (Anti Crisis Girl). This girl was far from being anti-crisis, she WAS a crisis. A lot of scenery (probably to cover the lack of voice), some extra-bodyworked dancers wearing Spartan suits...or better said: Spartan suits wth muscles included. Not my favourite at all, but her neighbours did their part: she ended on 12.
14. Lithuania: Sasha Son - Love. Pff, I think he was the 1st to sing, bad luck, dude! He was the guy with a suit and a hat, playing the piano, but his song was not a Eurovision winning one. He fininshed on 23.
15. Albania: Kejsi Tola - Carry Me in Your Dreams. She was ok, as looks, voice and song. But please, someone explain what was it with the Spiderman and the 2 dwarves? Their show was ok, but I couldn't look at her during the whole performance because my eyes were attracted by the disco-globe suit of Spidey (pe romaneste, a belit globu' de la discoteca), and the dwarves had their faces painted as clowns, and they grimmed in a f**king scary way...Dude, that was spooky! She ended on 17, but she should have been higher in the final classification.
16. Moldova: Nelly Ciobanu - Hora din Moldova. Oh, yeah! This was the one I was waiting for. First of all, Nelly Ciobanu sang in Romanian (and a little bit of English, but mainly in Romanian). I heard Romanian on the stage in Russia. That's fun! And this girl made my day! Romanian (or Moldavian) dance, costumes, symbols, everything! She made me proud I was speaking the same language. And that boys were dancing like devils! If I had had money, I would have voted for her! She really deserved the Romanian 12 points, which helped her end on 14.
17. Denmark: Brinck - Believe Again. I liked the guy. He has Ronan Keating's voice. I liked the song too, with a bit of country rhythms. He finished on 13.
18. Estonia: Urban Symphony - Rändajad. Oh, the brunette with a fringe. She was in my top 5, but ended on 6. Good, good, good!
19. Norway: Alexander Rybak - Fairytale. The winner. Not my favourite. The boy was very young and screamed a lot. Actually, his whole song was a scream. But very cute indeed, like sweet - cute. They say he was half Norwegian - half Russian, that's why he got the votes of the Northerns and also those of the Easterns. It didn't seem right he won at such a great distance. I just can't imagine what mysterious movement made more than half of the voting countries to give him the 12 points. Anyway, congrats. I'm just curious to see him in the future. Will we hear of him again?
20. Greece: Sakis Rouvas - This is Our Night. This man was at his 2nd participation. After Helena Paparizou brought the trophy to Greece, he was the next year's host of the show. He exposed to much - physically speaking, he pulled his shirt as if his pectorals were his most beloved treasure. And he jumped a lot, so his performance was a very active and energetic one. The song was nice (again, I was humming). Overall, great representation, which took him on 7.
21. France: Patricia Kaas - Et s'il fallait le faire. Let's put our hands up fooooor....Patricia Kaas. That French R that makes you shiver...she was just simple and great, and she looked very good (I couldn't guess her age). However, the song was not appropriate for Eurovision, and this made her fall on 8 at the end.
22. Spain: Soraya - La noche es para mi. She was the last to enter the show and she was very close to finish it the same. Soraya (24), say: Thank you, Waldo (25)! Her performance wasn't that bad on stage, but the songs wasn't that extraodinary. I don't get it why Spain always gets the last places and doesn't do a thing about this. Where are Bisbal, Chenoa, Bustamante and the others? Oh, and now that I remembered: Spain always gave 12 points to Romania, but this year they gave us only 7. Where are the Romanian strawberry-workers?
23. United Kingdon: Jade Ewen - It's My Time. Yes, a mulatto with a nice voice and a nice song, helped by live violin and piano interpretations. Although she was on 2 and then on 3, at the start of the voting, she ended on 5. Too bad!
24. Germany: Alex Swings Oscar Sings - Miss Kiss Kiss Bang. Old pop kind of song. They copied the last year idea of Eurovision winner Dima Bilan to invite famous people on stage (Evgeni Plushenko and Edvin Marton), so they called as their special guest the burlesque persona of Dita von Teese. What else: the leading singer must have been gay, else I can't imagine why would anyone wear that kind of pants, made of dico-globe (altul care a belit globu'). They ended on 20.
25. Russia: Anastasia Prikhodko - Mamo. Good interpretation of the host country representative. I suppose she was singing something about her mother, and what I really enjoyed was that behind the singer there were those huge panels where we could see her aging and transforming, probably, into a "mother". She finished on 11.
Well, folks, that was all for today. Now I leave you with the Eurovision 2009 winner. Enjoy!
