Eurovision 2019: Abbreviated Song Reviews

Armenia  

Srbuk: Walking Out 

Strong chorus, weaker middle section. Srbuk gives a dynamic performance. Likely to be one of the casualties from semi-final 2, though.

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Austria

Pænda: Limits

Kate Bush meets Ellie Goulding. In any other environment, this would do well - but the Eurovision Song Contest doesn't feel like its natural home. Perhaps too delicate for the competition and another entry that could fail to qualify.

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Azerbaijan

Chingiz: Truth

Contemporary, catchy and radio-friendly. Combines ethnic flavours with modern Western sounds. Likely to qualify easily and, if there's any justice, climb high on the left-hand side of the scoreboard.

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Belarus

Zena: Like It

Typical Euro dance-pop delivered by a pretty young singer and which should bring the stadium to life in Tel Aviv. Whether that will translate to enough votes to allow it to qualify is debatable. Generic Eurovision fodder, though. Borderline qualifier.

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Belgium

Eliot: Wake Up

Another credible entry from Belgium although Eliot's vocal sounds rather laboured. It feels as if the song is about to take off but then suddenly stalls, the chorus somehow not rescuing it. It's good, just not spectacular. Likely to qualify, but could struggle at the Final.

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Croatia

Roko: The Dream

Roko sings The Dream well and the song possesses a stirring chorus. Nevertheless, it sounds like a failed national final entry from the 1980s. Got to hand it to Roko though, he has the balls to wear a pair of ridiculous wings. Sadly, they only add to the overall out-of-date whiff of stale cheese. Non-qualifier.

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Cyprus

Tamta: Replay

Cyprus continue the club theme already offered up by last year's Fuego. In some respects, it is a better example of the genre with its brass riffs and mesmerisingly catchy chorus. This should perform very, very well but it could hinge on the staging and Tamta's live vocal abilities. Easy qualifier and could finish in the Top 5.

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Denmark

Leonora: Love is Forever

One of the early front runners, Denmark has dipped back in the betting. Not surprising, really. The song is way too twee, formulaic and safe. Leonora is a little difficult to watch as well. Sitting on a oversized chair/platform high above the stage, I'm not sure if her fixed stare is from the fear of falling or the fear of failing. Very borderline.

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Finland

Darude ft Sebastian Rejman: Look Away

House music come to Eurovision courtesy of the highly successful DJ/record producer. If you've heard his Sandstorm then you kinda know what to expect. Unfortunately, this is way too repetitive but could still qualify from a weaker semi-final 1 (or from his credentials, alone). Can't see it doing too well in the Final, though.

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Georgia

Oto Nemsadze: Keep On Going

Already touted as the entry that will be stuck to the bottom of the scoreboard when all is sung and done. It goes without saying that Oto may have an uphill struggle to garner many votes - particularly from the public. The song is a dark, dramatic ballad sung at full tilt - there's no denying Oto has a set of lungs on him - but the song may suffer from being TOO ethnic as well as TOO difficult to love (and comprehend)! An easy non-qualifier, I feel.

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Greece

Katerine Duska: Better Love

Compelling voice, compelling vocal and compelling production. Co-written by Fame Academy winner David Sneddon, Better Love feels as if it has a Top 10 finish about it. As long as the ideas behind the video translate well to the Tel Aviv stage then Greece can expect a ton of votes. Compelling (of course!)

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Hungary

Joci Pápai: Az én apám (My Father)

Joci returns to Eurovision with a mid-tempo ballad that captures elements of Hungarian folk music. Enhanced by his plaintive vocal, the song relates the joy and sadness of his boyhood memories. It's one of the few entries to be sung in a native language, thus could accomplish a reasonable result. Joci achieved ninth in 2017 and this latest effort could do as well or better.

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Iceland

Hatari: Hatrið mun sigra (Hatred Will Prevail)

One of possibly two entries with its own USP (possibly Portugal as well). BDSM techno/punk comes to Eurovision and it has really divided listeners/viewers. Very much a Marmite song, Hatari try to deliver shock visuals - writhing women in chicken wire together with sex shop rubber gear - alongside snarling shouty vocals over an, admittedly, irresistible backing rhythm. Entries with bizarre USPs tend to do well these days, although how the more conservative voters in Eastern Europe will react is anyone's guess. Could do very, very well or fall flat on its face!

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Monsters / Saara Aalto / Finland | Review

The seventh airing of Uuden Musiikin Kilpailu - the music competition that selects Finland's entries for the Eurovision Song Contest - featured three songs performed by Saara Aalto. She was internally selected by the Finnish TV broadcaster YLE to represent the country this year with the winning song, Monsters, decided by public votes and the points from international juries.

In recent years, Finland has frequently found itself stuck in the semi finals - in fact the past three years have seen truly diverse offerings stumble at this stage. Nevertheless, the country certainly couldn’t be accused of not making the effort; despite their poor form they frequently send the most disparate recording artists – look at the contrast between Pertti Kurikan Nimipäivät in 2015 and Norma John last year.

This year they hope to buck this non-qualification trend with Saara Aalto, an established Finnish personality who is now well-known to European viewers through her participation on the UK's X-Factor. She also has previous history with Eurovision, appearing in Finland's national finals of 2011 and 2016, when she was runner-up on both occasions. Along with her X-Factor exploits, a case of always the bridesmaid...

As for Finland's earlier contributions, their entries have rarely been awful but often battle to hook enough viewers. The Finnish crew seem to be aware of this, as Monsters is a highly global-sounding production - co-written by the composers behind Sweden's winning Heroes in 2015 - the kind of uptempo contemporary recording that could be heard on radios and in clubs the length and breadth of Europe. Of the three bidding entries, this was probably the most prudent selection. It's an impressive tune that seems to have broad appeal. However, I do worry that it may join the list of ‘decent but mediocre’ entries which would see this presumably deserving song knocked out at the semi-final stage.

On the plus side, Saara is a strong vocalist and she’s an accomplished enough performer to sell the drama of Monsters in Lisbon. At the moment, however, Finland's biggest problem is with the staging. Her national final performances were way too busy and convoluted, sucking much of the life out of the songs and diverting the viewers' attention from less than satisfactory performances.

If the success of Monsters depended on the official music video, then it would win Eurovision hands down. Based on the national final presentation, I'm not so convinced. At the moment, the live version has all the hallmarks of a borderline qualifier.

Photo: Ville Paul Paasimaa [CC BY-SA 3.0], via Wikimedia Commons

Finland 

Artist: Saara Aalto

Song: Monsters 

Semi-Final 1 | Second Half

Official Music Video

Eurovision 2017: Review: Finland: Blackbird

Finland: Norma John - Blackbird

Ever since their famous win in 2006 - courtesy of Lordi - Finland's fortunes at the Eurovision Song Contest have proven to be problematic. The last ten years have witnessed four non-qualifications and a last place showing - so, can Norma John and their Blackbird improve the Nordic country's circumstances?

Quite possibly. Finland appear to have identified the potential of entering somewhat atypical songs into the Contest - even if the strategy has not always paid off.

This year could be different. Although Blackbird is as far away musically from Hard Rock Hallelujah as one can imagine, this wistful ballad has nevertheless installed itself as one of the early favourites.

It's not surprising. It's sung with impeccable vocals by Leena Tirronen who transports the listener on an emotive journey describing how the most mundane of things can be a painful reminder of lost love. Although emotional, her voice successfully supplants the usual melodramatic mood with a much darker yet delicate quality.

This extends to the song's clever piano arrangement which, on a musical level, manages to carry the emotion to just the right intensity, avoiding the pitfalls of some similarly selected ballads which have proven to be much too soporific.

Of course, the past shows that ballads have managed to keep us awake enough to secure a victory, but they are usually of the "power" variety. Blackbird is much more pensive, quiet and understated. It's unlikely to appeal to the party crowd, but then Calm After the Storm and Silent Storm probably didn't either, but it did those songs little harm.

Suffice to say then, you can bet on seeing Norma John somewhere in the mix. It's a quality entry after all and, with a good tail wind, should comfortably qualify from its semi-final. What happens to it after that is down to the draw, of course. With too many ballads around it, the song could struggle. What it really needs is a position among the overtly power-pop offerings where it is allowed to show how it stands out from the crowd.

Even then, it's unlikely to be this year's winner, but expect to see it gobble up some major points.

8.5/10.

Eurovision 2016: Review: Finland: Sandhja: Sing It Away

Sandhja will be singing away in Stockholm

When rockers Lordi won the Eurovision Song Contest for Finland for the first (and only) time in 2006, it finally felt as if the country had graduated to become one of the elite of the competition.

However, that promise has wilted somewhat over the past decade with only Softengine's 2014 effort making any kind of impression.

In the intervening years, Finland has tried pure pop, indie rock and even punk rock to try and win over voters, but all to no avail. This year their entry is provided by Sandhja who will take the funky dance-floor filler Sing It Away to Stockholm.

UMK was once again the local platform used to determine the country's finalist but, as it turned out, Sandhja was not the most convincing of winners. Scoring only enough votes with the public to secure third place, it was the ten juries  - composed of various sections of Finnish society - which elevated her to the winner's podium.

Could the Finnish public's unwillingness to vote for Sing It Away be the fact that this type of performance has been heard numerous times before without overwhelming success? After all, Finland is the land of the guitar and the rockers who wield them isn't it, not a country you immediately identify as clubland.

To give Sandhja her due, she knows how to use a stage - commanding it throughout the three minutes of the song. This professional approach gives a little more gravitas to a song that feels as if it has been dragged kicking and screaming out of the early 1990s - remember Ride on Time by Black Box?

It has exactly the same flavour as that song and should put Semi-Final 1 in a party mood when it kicks off the show in May. Whether it is memorable enough after seventeen more songs have followed is very questionable. Semi-Final 1 is tough enough anyway this year; Sandhja and her crew will really need to stand out if her retro dance tune has any hope of qualifying.

What do you think?

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Review: Finland: Eurovision 2015 | Pertti Kurikan Nimipäivät

Pertti Kurikan Nimipäivät to represent Finland

Finland's national Eurovision final came to its climax last weekend and it was with a foregone inevitability that the punk band Pertti Kurikan Nimipäivät was declared the victor and will progress to the semi-finals in Vienna.

A lot has already been said and written about PKN - the fact that the members suffer with developmental disabilities; that they will perform the first punk song in Eurovision; at 1:30, it's possibly the shortest entry at the Contest - but in the realms of a SONG contest, judgement should always be made about just that: the song.

Unfortunately, I feel that's not how it's going to be. As we've witnessed already, the focus will be the band's disabilities. In and of itself, that's not a bad thing - promoting equality and inclusiveness in all things is always a plus - but blatantly voting for an average song because of its performer(s) is reprehensible. Conchita Wurst, Russia's Buranovskiye Babushki (the grannies) and Dana International are obvious examples.

The difference with those three acts was their "accessibility". Punk rock in Finnish is not going to draw in your average Eurovision viewer and not many of us are going to be humming or singing along to Aina mun pitää (Always I Have to) after its performance. Unfortunately, unlike the Russian grannies, PKN do not have the 'cuteness factor' to help them along either.

The same could be said for the song. In my review of  Latvia's entry, I mentioned that the boundaries of the competition should be pushed further and Finland have certainly accomplished that. Punk rock has always been about rebellion - initially against the mediocre offerings of mid-70s pop - and PKN have achieved their own unique form of defiance and dissent. I applaud their commentary on the drabness of their regime within their daily routine, but that doesn't mean that it translates to a good song.

I'm not a lover of punk rock - never have been. Aina mun pitää hasn't changed my mind and neither have PKN. Personally, if I was able vote for it in the semi-final, I wouldn't. Connoisseurs of the genre may see it otherwise, but on the (lack of) strength of the song, I won't be joining any performer bandwagon.

All of that will be eagerly embraced by the media over the next couple of months. As a result, look for Finland in the Top 3.

Eurovision 2014: Finland: Something Better

Finland: Softengine

Eight acts lined up for the Finnish Eurovision national final in Espoo last Saturday evening and once the jury and public votes were combined, the five-member rock band Softengine triumphed with the song, Something Better.

Most years, you can depend on Finland to bring something a little different to Eurovision. Lordi instantly comes to mind, as well as last year's representative Krista Siegfrids and that kiss.

The 2014 entry looks set to continue this tradition, when some teenage Britpop will take to the stage during the second semi-final. Eurovision traditionalists will, no doubt, detest Softengine's thrashing rock song and dismiss it as nothing more than a gimmick. But, the competition has survived into the 21st century and Scandinavia now appear to be leading the way.

Something Better is just that. It brings some much needed credibility to Eurovision, even if it is offered up by a bunch of kids. It's catchy in the sense that it's memorable, but there is no sugar coating here. It's as far removed from your 'normal' Eurosong as you can get, though still commercial enough to capture the ear of a discerning Eurovision audience.

This one just may be this year's sleeper. It's fresh, energetic and enthusiastic. More importantly, it's performed in the second half of the second semi-final, which should give it a distinct advantage in qualifying for the Grand Final.

Eurovision 2013: Finland: Marry Me

Marry Me

Back in early February, a very close run national final in Finland chose Krista Siegfrids and the song Marry Me as its Eurovision representative in Malmö.

Ms. Siegfrids is a stunning blonde with a sassy attitude who came to public attention in her homeland through the television show, The Voice of Finland. Now signed to Universal Music, Eurovision is her big break and she will be hoping she can bring the trophy home for the first time since Lordi won for Finland in 2006.

A victory will obviously depend upon Eurovision viewers' reaction to Marry Me. A self-professed admirer of Lady Gaga, Krista Siegfrids rather delivers the song in a style that is very similar to Katy Perry. The fact that it is one of a very few uptempo, party numbers may help it and a strong, visual performance will do it no harm. I can't say it's a song that has bowled me over, but I suspect that it will qualify from its semi-final.

Finland is involved in the second semi-final on May 16 in which it will perform in fifth place.

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