..Well the last we saw of Lena she was all wet giving the votes for Malmo from Germany in Eurovision Song Contest Malmo 2013. As we know our luvly Lena got flustered and gave the odd score wrong..so when Lena signed up for doing the new ad for German technology Doosh'. They took no chances and over-dubed her? We simply loved the result, and check out the bang -a- boomerang at the end
it's actually 328 days.. to go until Eurovsion Song Contest 2014- how to survive the long break from all the Eurovis-icle fun? We throught during this time we could bring back to schlagertunes blog our Top 15 Playlist, we had it before on the blog.
It's simply what has been played regular on the schlagertunes Air port Express through out the Schlager Townhouse during Melbourne's cool winter months. As we just never stop playing Euro-tunes even in the off-season. It maybe often interesting to see which songs stand the test of time after Malmo and Melodifestivalen 13. So here is the first Playlist for the 2nd half of May.
TOP 15
1 Begging- Anton Ewald
2 L'essenziale- Marco Mengoni
3 Ljubav Je Svuda- Moje 3 NEW
4 Love Kills- Roberto Bellarosa
5 Alibi- Eddie Razaz
6 I feed you my Love- Margaret Berger
7 When You Really Loved Someone- Agnetha Fältskog
8 Believe in Me- Bonnie Tyler
9 Magnetic Heart- Marco Mengoni NEW
10 Something- Andrius Pojavis
11 Birds - Anouk
12 Geef Er Een Lap Op (Making Your mind up 2013) -SugarFree NEW
Sarah Dawn Finer is also singer known as the EBU personality Lynda Woodruff, during Malmo
The song "The winner takes it all" is as we know a best loved Abba song written by Björn Ulveus and Benny Andersson.
It has been released world wide on iTunes just after the performance in Malmo's Eurovision Grand Final. Just like the legendary four swedes she made us laugh with joy and also cry...
This may well be my final pick of favourites for Eurovision 2013 .. yet it certainly is'nt a case of last but least. Far from it, in fact I have only 2 picks from Eurovision's Big 5 finalists this year -with Italy's Marco and UK. I also like Germany's Cascade song 'Glorious' and while this tune is not a rip of 'Euphoria' it is very simular in style and production so I think may be a big disadvantage in the Grand Final.
I do like Cascada as a dance artist- but Malmo 2013 is all about one international name Bonnie Tyler.
The return of an 80's diva and a wonderful personality as well, I wonder why she never got involved in Eurovision before? it certainly sounds like the Beeb had no problems getting Bonnie on board for 2013.
The story goes they popped around said 'will you do it?' Yes- Ok just pick a track off that new album..and we have 'Believe in Me'
So the song it is a hit single, a grower of a tune. It certainly did'nt grab me on first hearing yet I have every faith that Bonnie Tyler will nail it on the Grand final night. A winning song? hmmm... I cannot be sure, Malmo is going to be a bit like Dusseldorf I think, we really have no clear favourite. Denmark maybe, but look what happened to France the favourite of 2011. I think Denmark may just make it this year. Maybe as 'Running scared' did for Azerbaijan back then the winner may win from the most scores instead of the most 12 pointers.
Who could give us a surpise winner? it could be our Bonnie or even Anouk with her 'Birds'
it's going to be a cliff hanger whatever happens...
Just how far can this 'Bird' fly in ESC 2013? Or will she fall from the sky?
Lituania a country that have always brought to us, some homegrown interesting Eurovision entries in the past few years.
As well as so often as is the case for Malmo 2013 a self penned tune by Andrius Pojavis. I actually like 'Something' -these pidgin engliska songs, with
with a stong melody. However following on from the fantastic 'Love is Blind'from 2012 I through this song was a bit of a downgrade for
Lituania, I like the artist, yet the song finished up in the 2013 pile I called
"Great tune, but it has'nt got a chance to qualify" ( ...and not a small pile for this years ESC)
If you took a look at Andrius Pojavis's National Final performance of 'Something'it was rather bad, the top-hat did not help at all
the eye-brows did.
Yet during the month's inbetween they re-vamped the song completely for Eurovision and did all the right things..So while I am happy
to see a singer-songwriter in the Grand Final as it's always good to have self-penned stuff. The question is just how do Lituania continue
to qualify each year in the Grand final with such ease and songs that are always good but borderline...
in the past seven years only twice with 'Nomads of the night'and who remembers Le Great 'East European Funk'by InCulto did
Lituania not make it into the Grand Final! A record that cannot be equaled by their baltic cousins Estonia or Latvia. I guess we can
Semi-final 1 has begun and what a show.
Also we get the chance to see Sweden's one woman host the wonderful Petra Medes, and that dress that was designed by Jean-Paul Gaultier. It even out turned out better than the rising dress effect of Moldova's song and performance of 'O'Mie' by Aliona Moon. What will Petra bring us next?
The schlager -master himself Ralph siegel has been responsible for the San Marino entry for the second year running and with an excellent
italian artist - Valentina. I have always been a big fan
of Herr Siegel and his tunes old and new. But 'the Facebook song' that Ralph did last year in Baku, was a rather strange choice
I liked the tune, however as 'The Social Network song'it became abit bland and meaningless and so did not qualify.
So for Malmo 2013 it looks like - 'Uh Ohh oh we make a small miss-take..." and it’s right back to a schlager style (hurrah with a tune called 'Crisallide'
and this has become rather quickly a fan favourite. I have a real good feeling this time Ralph & Valentine will do well.. as for a winning song
I think perhapes not. However a Top 15 placing for San Marino is going to be a vast improvement for them as a new country at Eurovision
Song Contest. Who knows they could end up being the modern day Monaco- or even Luxembourg ( a country Ralph Siegel also took under his wing in the 70s/80s)
Its so great to have schalger royalty at Eurovision again, and for that alone - San Martino gets my vote.
Krista Siegfrids 'Marry Me' for Finland, as we know Finland don't always get it right at Eurovision,
however the songs and artists are normally full of charm and interesting.. I normal like what Finland sends, and unlike the danes can never be accused of being predicible.
So on first hearing of 'Marry Me' I luved it right away certainly the wedding dress will have alot
of appeal and the sound even is abit 'I- I love it' by Icona Pop a big smash in europe recently.
Good luck to Krista from schlagertunes
We cannot fault the recent track record of Azerbaijan at Eurovision Song Contestand for Malmo they have kept up the momentum with Farid Mammadov and a simple power pop ballad called 'Hold me' On first hearing I was thinking hold on ..Johnny Logan in 1987, surely this song title is wearing thin. With further listens the ballad grew on me, and with a powerful performance
from the stunning iron man Farid- in Malmo Azerbaijan will not be running scared but high on the scoreboard I think.
The only drawback being- Baku again in 2014, surely not?
As Sarah Dawn Finer would put it..there will be alot of 'crash boom bang' in Malmo this year.. and I am only refering to the special effects, fire, men in class cubes and all the rest. So among all this it is refreshing to find some simplicity 'Kedvesem' has all this and more..
The moment I U-tubed this video, I got this track on i-tunes right away. It was love at first listen.
Hungary, as a country is one of the best team players at Eurovision Song Contest for me, they never bring to the contest the same sounds or song twice. Last year we had Compact Disco's 'Sound of our Hearts' and of course the wonderful Kati Wolf, this song is a another gamble for Hungary to make the final for sure. Yet it is a great song no less - I wanna see ByeAlex in the final.
Please note - there has been plenty stories going around that Malmo 2013- Is the Year for the 'mono-brow' although we can tell ByeAlex has infact not got a mono-brow eye-brow, that does not mean they have not been evidence earlier. If you need further proof of le mono-brow factor look no further than Armenia - Oh my Gor...
Since 2009 in Australia the hosts on SBS coverage have been Julia Zemiro & Sam Pang for me they do each year an awesome job, and the Eurovision artists interviews and flirts are a joy to watch. So imagine when I read this morning they have history together...
As we head for Le Eurovision week, the excitement is reaching fever- pitch in Malmo...
One of the fantastic highlights for 2013 is the fact that our host country is of course Sweden who are already famous for putting on a great music song contest annually with Melodifestivalen.
So what can we expect...when the three shows begin....
The running order of the songs sung in the contest will be choosen by SVT this year (expect the swedish entry) this is a new rule. I think this may add to the entertainment factor of the Grand Final night as planned lets see.
Eurovision 2013 will have one single host with Petra Mede. That's right- a one woman show
Petra' is a real funny lady who has actually lead a Melodifestivalen season before by herself, an interesting choice of representer for the Green Room is the fantastc singer 'Eric Saade' who has come a long way in Sweden since his 'popular'
entry for Sweden in 2011. However Eric Saade has not done presenting before, yet joining in the Green Room should not be too foreign to Eric. Who can forget his many hooded antics in Dusseldorf in 2011.
With the interval acts we are promised a performance from Darin and Agnes, who had a massive European hit with 'Release Me' and for grand final night we may see an appearence from the Eurovision Melodifestivalen Queen herself 'Carola'
Roberto's name rolls off the tongue, the first thing that I liked about Belguim's offering for 2013. Was really Roberto's voice - it has a quality that is very appealling so I understand how he won 'The Voice'
back home in Belguim. The song is a really a grower, the early version we heard was even rather dull..I believe it started out as a slow ballad.
The upbeat version was certainly a step in the right direction, and seemed to add a couple of extra hooks into the whole song, with the right performance on the night 'Love Kills' will stand out I am sure.
I hope we see Belguim in the Top 10 with Roberto Bellarosa, I get the feeling he is already a Euro Fan favourite. Here is some choosen words from Roberto after his rehearsal..
It's not always been the case in Eurovision Song contest history.. but in 2013, a winning song needs to make an impact! not a gummick or a loud drum. It can be a simple impact, which I think Margaret Berger has..As for the song 'Feed you my love' it's very different and will stand out - The electro beat and dramatic lyrics and the simple performance..
This entry is not for everyone we know, but it is instant and stays with you. It took a matter of seconds
for me to tell myself 'this is really different and something special'...let's see how Margaret Berger goes.
Is it too early to go back to Oslo in 2014? I think not.
For the past 6 weeks schlagertunes has been on a break, moving in fact and then for the past 3 weeks we have been without internet! can you imagine that? Ok better not it's too painful.
During this time it was back to basics in more ways than one, for once I played the new Eurovision 2013 CD in full and tried to judge my options on the song merits along, apart from a few National Final clips I had seen... it was like the old days. Let's not forget the Eurovision music of the 70's and even early 80's were nothing more than a song heard on the radio station, for me growing up in UK. The BBC radio stations rarely played the songs and singles that did'nt successed in winning the contest!
I even recall actually buying vinyl versions to just hear the music at all.
So here is my early impressions from the recorded music tracks only, in no particular order for starters:
Italy's Marco Mengoni with 'L'Essenziale' this song is fully sung in Italian. A trend stronger than any other Eurovision contest since the laugauge rule change back in the late 90s I am sure.
This tune is not a give-away Eurovision style, jam packed with emotion. Since their comeback to Eurovision -Italy have sent only orginal quality songs from their own San Remo competition. Only for Baku last year the italians in their wisdom choose a more Eurovision sounding choice for the San Remo winner Nina Zilli. It worded very well however for 2013 we get nothing more than this amazing
wonderful San Remo tune L'Essenziale' that won San Remo this year.
I found that 'goose-bumb factor' on my second hearing... a great sign.
I hope Marco will 'stand out' as this song and artist has winner or Top 3 -written all over it, oh and he loooks very cool as well
He did an eurovision.tv interview here too- very funny...he seems to have some of the same charm
we found from Germany's Lena back in 2010 - when she sang her version of Boyzone's 'No matter what' at the Oslo press-conference- What a Eurovis'moment that was..
