Does that make schwarz-rot-grün the Tigerente-Plus-Günter-Koalition?
Sunday, 13 September 2009
Off-topic: Tigerentenkoalition
Seriously, WTF? Totally Wort des Jahres. Merkel was right to challenge the host on how ridiculous a term it is.
Does that make schwarz-rot-grün the Tigerente-Plus-Günter-Koalition?
Does that make schwarz-rot-grün the Tigerente-Plus-Günter-Koalition?
Sunday, 16 August 2009
I'm Not Dead, Just Floating
Don't worry folks, I'm not dead. So why has this blog been abandoned since April? That's a really good question.
For one thing, I was travelling in central Europe some of the time. But the real answer: attempting to cover every national final was simply too big a task. In both 2007 and 2008, I only managed to review about half the songs and performances. I have a full-time job and a life to manage, and as it turned out, trying to cover around 650 songs from over 40 countries was more than was feasible. I stopped enjoying it - it became a task, not a pleasure.
Of course I enjoyed discovering great artists like Hera Björk, Janni Santillan and sevdahBABY, to name a few, as well as watching comic horrors like Anri Jokhadze - but in future, I'm just going to listen to the MP3s. Like everyone else does. After all, at the end of the day, this blog is about great music - not about costume changes, ribbon dances or campy Stalin mini-musicals (yes, Anzi, I'm looking at you again). Well, it's about those too, but the music comes first. And I simply no longer have either the time or the energy to plough through several hundred YouTube videos of wildly varying quality each year.
So what did I think of Eurovision this year? In a word: not impressed. OK, so that's two words, but you get the gist. Though I didn't cover them here, I live-twittered both semis and the final on a private account. Semifinal 1 was enjoyable but middling, and in my opinion, the wrong songs qualified; of my 10 favourite songs, only 3 made it through. Semifinal 2 was fabulous - an outstanding, entertaining, quirky, musically diverse show from start to finish, possibly better even than the second semifinal in 2008. And yet, when the results came through, it was once again a huge disappointment - only 3 of my 10 personal choices made it into the final. By the time the final came around, I'd already tuned out. And when Norway developed a huge lead within the first 10 minutes of voting, I stopped being a Eurovision fan - at least not in its present form.
What we witnessed in 2009 was a "mainstream-ization" of the contest. All of the most original, daring, off-the-wall, unconventional, musically inspired entries failed to make it through the semis. In general, the better I thought a song was, the worse it fared. By and large, the songs which qualified - and which went on to take the top 3 spots in the final - were bland, mainstream, middle-of-the-road, radio-friendly, musically uninspired numbers - inoffensively pleasant musical wallpaper, suitable for an unsophisticated mass audience with no real appreciation of popular music or even an interest in music at all. In short, this year's soporific Eurovision final was music for people who don't like music. No wonder, then, that non-fans are proclaiming it as the highest quality final ever. The real fan community knows that's hogwash. The 2005 and 2007 finals, both classics, were far, far stronger than this year, as was the underrated 2008. The 2009 final was on a low with 2006 as one of the dullest Eurovision finals in memory. And, as in 2006, something rubbish from Scandinavia won with a record margin.
In my entirely biased opinion, "Fairytale" is one of the weakest songs to ever win Eurovision. I'd take Viktor, erm, I mean Dima Bilan or even Lordi over Rybak anyday, and that's really saying something. In terms of saccharine obnoxiousness, it's beaten only by "Fly On The Wings Of Love" from 2000. Yet it does have some musical value. I'll give it its due. Was it the best song of the contest? Absolutely not. Was it even one of the best 20 songs? Again, no. Because it's uninspired drivel. But it was well performed, and what it did, it did well. It knew its target audience, aimed itself cunningly and mercilessly at them, and reaped the rewards. And anyway, in terms of sheer wretchedness, no winner - no matter how bad - will probably ever be able to match 2003's "Everyway That I Can" (sic), almost undoubtedly set to remain Eurovision's rubbishest winner.
I know a fair number of Eurovision fans ranging from casual to diehard, and none of them particularly liked "Fairytale". Without wishing to sound like a snob, the few people I know who did like it are all the type of people who own about 10 CDs. Or in some cases, LPs. The "massive passive", the casual viewing lumpenproletariat, whose critical opinion ranges from "it's nice" at one end of the scale to "it's weird" or "I don't like it" at the other. And by being the absolute epitome of "nice", "Fairytale" and Rybak mobilised the power of the "massive passive", tapping into the "oh, that's nice" vote from bourgeouis, non-musical audiences across the continent to ensure a record victory.
I'm starting to realise that as a self-appointed expert in European pop with highly diverse tastes, my preferences are the opposite of the mainstream voting public. Not only that, they only partially overlap with those of the average Eurovision fan.
Anyway, next topic: the relaunch. Like Charlotte Perrelli did last year, Never Stop The Europop will be returning in January 2010 with a facelift and a mission. I'll probably continue to post occasional "daily picks" over the coming months. But in terms of Eurovision and the European pop scene, it all kicks off next year. Watch this space. Or better still, don't - go and play outside! I love you all, darlings ;-)
For one thing, I was travelling in central Europe some of the time. But the real answer: attempting to cover every national final was simply too big a task. In both 2007 and 2008, I only managed to review about half the songs and performances. I have a full-time job and a life to manage, and as it turned out, trying to cover around 650 songs from over 40 countries was more than was feasible. I stopped enjoying it - it became a task, not a pleasure.
Of course I enjoyed discovering great artists like Hera Björk, Janni Santillan and sevdahBABY, to name a few, as well as watching comic horrors like Anri Jokhadze - but in future, I'm just going to listen to the MP3s. Like everyone else does. After all, at the end of the day, this blog is about great music - not about costume changes, ribbon dances or campy Stalin mini-musicals (yes, Anzi, I'm looking at you again). Well, it's about those too, but the music comes first. And I simply no longer have either the time or the energy to plough through several hundred YouTube videos of wildly varying quality each year.
So what did I think of Eurovision this year? In a word: not impressed. OK, so that's two words, but you get the gist. Though I didn't cover them here, I live-twittered both semis and the final on a private account. Semifinal 1 was enjoyable but middling, and in my opinion, the wrong songs qualified; of my 10 favourite songs, only 3 made it through. Semifinal 2 was fabulous - an outstanding, entertaining, quirky, musically diverse show from start to finish, possibly better even than the second semifinal in 2008. And yet, when the results came through, it was once again a huge disappointment - only 3 of my 10 personal choices made it into the final. By the time the final came around, I'd already tuned out. And when Norway developed a huge lead within the first 10 minutes of voting, I stopped being a Eurovision fan - at least not in its present form.
What we witnessed in 2009 was a "mainstream-ization" of the contest. All of the most original, daring, off-the-wall, unconventional, musically inspired entries failed to make it through the semis. In general, the better I thought a song was, the worse it fared. By and large, the songs which qualified - and which went on to take the top 3 spots in the final - were bland, mainstream, middle-of-the-road, radio-friendly, musically uninspired numbers - inoffensively pleasant musical wallpaper, suitable for an unsophisticated mass audience with no real appreciation of popular music or even an interest in music at all. In short, this year's soporific Eurovision final was music for people who don't like music. No wonder, then, that non-fans are proclaiming it as the highest quality final ever. The real fan community knows that's hogwash. The 2005 and 2007 finals, both classics, were far, far stronger than this year, as was the underrated 2008. The 2009 final was on a low with 2006 as one of the dullest Eurovision finals in memory. And, as in 2006, something rubbish from Scandinavia won with a record margin.
In my entirely biased opinion, "Fairytale" is one of the weakest songs to ever win Eurovision. I'd take Viktor, erm, I mean Dima Bilan or even Lordi over Rybak anyday, and that's really saying something. In terms of saccharine obnoxiousness, it's beaten only by "Fly On The Wings Of Love" from 2000. Yet it does have some musical value. I'll give it its due. Was it the best song of the contest? Absolutely not. Was it even one of the best 20 songs? Again, no. Because it's uninspired drivel. But it was well performed, and what it did, it did well. It knew its target audience, aimed itself cunningly and mercilessly at them, and reaped the rewards. And anyway, in terms of sheer wretchedness, no winner - no matter how bad - will probably ever be able to match 2003's "Everyway That I Can" (sic), almost undoubtedly set to remain Eurovision's rubbishest winner.
I know a fair number of Eurovision fans ranging from casual to diehard, and none of them particularly liked "Fairytale". Without wishing to sound like a snob, the few people I know who did like it are all the type of people who own about 10 CDs. Or in some cases, LPs. The "massive passive", the casual viewing lumpenproletariat, whose critical opinion ranges from "it's nice" at one end of the scale to "it's weird" or "I don't like it" at the other. And by being the absolute epitome of "nice", "Fairytale" and Rybak mobilised the power of the "massive passive", tapping into the "oh, that's nice" vote from bourgeouis, non-musical audiences across the continent to ensure a record victory.
I'm starting to realise that as a self-appointed expert in European pop with highly diverse tastes, my preferences are the opposite of the mainstream voting public. Not only that, they only partially overlap with those of the average Eurovision fan.
Anyway, next topic: the relaunch. Like Charlotte Perrelli did last year, Never Stop The Europop will be returning in January 2010 with a facelift and a mission. I'll probably continue to post occasional "daily picks" over the coming months. But in terms of Eurovision and the European pop scene, it all kicks off next year. Watch this space. Or better still, don't - go and play outside! I love you all, darlings ;-)
Sunday, 19 April 2009
Spain 2009: El Retorno Semifinal 3
Won:
1st: Santa Fe - Samba House (24 points)
2nd: Mirela - Nada es comparable a ti (18 points)
3rd: Isi - Ahora no (17 points)
4th: Julia Bermejo - Ya no estás (14 points)
Lost:
5th: El Secreto de Álex - Por esta vez (13 points)
Really good pop-rock, with joyous guitars and a real 60s summer feeling. The lead singer gives a great performance - strong vocals, but lots of acting and camera interaction too - it's a proper performance which more than does the song justice. By far the best thing we've seen in Spain in so far - the melody and guitar line are just fantastic. A shame this didn't go further.
6th: Dulce - Bésame (8 points)
Sounds like a 2002 Eurovision entry from some anonymous Mediterranean country. It's a good piece of summery pop, complete with WHITE OUTFITS and random BIG DRUMS. How many more 21st century Eurovision cliches can we pack in? A lesbian dance, perhaps? Some of the vocals are slightly painful towards the end, but I'll give it a pass - good song, good performance.
=7th: Remembrances - Espejismo (7 points)
And it's the Spanish Evanescence. The song is good, but it's not the most confident vocal performance I've heard - she's mostly in tune, but it could do with a bit more strength; her vocals sound a little wobbly in places. The woman flailing around behind her dressed as a shuttlecock is entirely unnecessary.
=7th: Biquini - Una chica normal (7 points)
More full-on 60s flower-power stuff. In Spanish. Natch. And entirely out of tune. Natch. In fact, I can't even tell what melody they're trying to sing, or what this is even supposed to sound like. Without doubt, this is the most atrociously out-of-tune performance I've ever witnessed. No amount of mindlessly gleeful hand jiving can rescue it. Someone should warn Macedonia's "XXL" that they have competition. The song ends; as Biquini leave the stage, there is a mixture of cheering and booing. Some people are saying "Boo-erns". That says it all. "Una chica normal"? "Una chica atonal" would be more like it.
9th: Beatriz - ¿Dónde te metes? (5 points)
And it's the return of the upside-down question mark! How we've missed you, ¿.
Upbeat country music, complete with a bunch of guys and gals in cowboy hats, line-dancing. The song is alright, and Beatriz certainly gives an animated performance. Apart from the fact it's in Spanish, this is one of the more authentic country songs I've heard in this year's selections. It's genuinely fun.
10th: Solydo - Tú (3 points)
TECHNO!!!!!!!!!!!!
Seriously, who cares about the vocals? It's just nice to hear a great beat like that. The tune's not bad, and there's a nice dark vibe to the whole thing. With a proper presentation and stronger vocals, this wouldn't have embarassed Spain at Eurovision - unlike many of their recent entries. Probably shouldn't have been last, although this does seem to have been a stronger semifinal.
1st: Santa Fe - Samba House (24 points)
2nd: Mirela - Nada es comparable a ti (18 points)
3rd: Isi - Ahora no (17 points)
4th: Julia Bermejo - Ya no estás (14 points)
Lost:
5th: El Secreto de Álex - Por esta vez (13 points)
Really good pop-rock, with joyous guitars and a real 60s summer feeling. The lead singer gives a great performance - strong vocals, but lots of acting and camera interaction too - it's a proper performance which more than does the song justice. By far the best thing we've seen in Spain in so far - the melody and guitar line are just fantastic. A shame this didn't go further.
6th: Dulce - Bésame (8 points)
Sounds like a 2002 Eurovision entry from some anonymous Mediterranean country. It's a good piece of summery pop, complete with WHITE OUTFITS and random BIG DRUMS. How many more 21st century Eurovision cliches can we pack in? A lesbian dance, perhaps? Some of the vocals are slightly painful towards the end, but I'll give it a pass - good song, good performance.
=7th: Remembrances - Espejismo (7 points)
And it's the Spanish Evanescence. The song is good, but it's not the most confident vocal performance I've heard - she's mostly in tune, but it could do with a bit more strength; her vocals sound a little wobbly in places. The woman flailing around behind her dressed as a shuttlecock is entirely unnecessary.
=7th: Biquini - Una chica normal (7 points)
More full-on 60s flower-power stuff. In Spanish. Natch. And entirely out of tune. Natch. In fact, I can't even tell what melody they're trying to sing, or what this is even supposed to sound like. Without doubt, this is the most atrociously out-of-tune performance I've ever witnessed. No amount of mindlessly gleeful hand jiving can rescue it. Someone should warn Macedonia's "XXL" that they have competition. The song ends; as Biquini leave the stage, there is a mixture of cheering and booing. Some people are saying "Boo-erns". That says it all. "Una chica normal"? "Una chica atonal" would be more like it.
9th: Beatriz - ¿Dónde te metes? (5 points)
And it's the return of the upside-down question mark! How we've missed you, ¿.
Upbeat country music, complete with a bunch of guys and gals in cowboy hats, line-dancing. The song is alright, and Beatriz certainly gives an animated performance. Apart from the fact it's in Spanish, this is one of the more authentic country songs I've heard in this year's selections. It's genuinely fun.
10th: Solydo - Tú (3 points)
TECHNO!!!!!!!!!!!!
Seriously, who cares about the vocals? It's just nice to hear a great beat like that. The tune's not bad, and there's a nice dark vibe to the whole thing. With a proper presentation and stronger vocals, this wouldn't have embarassed Spain at Eurovision - unlike many of their recent entries. Probably shouldn't have been last, although this does seem to have been a stronger semifinal.
Spain 2009: El Retorno Semifinal 2
Won:
1st: Soraya - La noche es para mí (24 points)
2nd: Virginia - True Love (20 points)
3rd: Jorge González - Si yo vengo a enamorarte (16 points)
4th: Salva Ortega - Lujuria (14 points)
Lost:
=5th: Diqesi - Subiré (9 points)
A young band made up of twenty-something girls - performing proper Latin music. It's excellent. Strong vocals, an engaging song and performance, and great use of acoustic guitar and percussion. There's even a bit of traditional dance in the middle. Finally some quality! Good for them - a real quality act, who I hope go on to every future success. Best of all, you can really tell this comes from Spain.
=5th: Roel - Y ahora dices (9 points)
Midtempo Spanish pop from an Enrique-a-like. It sounds like a Spanish or Greek Eurovision entry circa 2002, except slightly more downbeat and without the leather trousers. It's fine - unremarkable but vaguely competent, and at least passively pleasant. A female singer appears from nowhere and joins in for the final minute - did she spontaneously generate?
=5th: Ángeles Vela - Vístete de primavera (9 points)
Midtempo pop-rock. Angeles has a strong and versatile voice and gives a fun performance. The song is also fairly good. This is a good effort - all the best to her.
=5th: Leather Boys - We're Livin' In A Bar (9 points)
Abominable "rock". It's weak and embarassing. If "The Young Ones" formed a band and entered the Spanish Eurovision selection, it'd probably sound something like this, except far more entertaining.
9th: Calipop - Burbuja (4 points)
Summery electropop which harks back to the 80s. It's vaguely fun and studenty in a laid-back sort of way.
10th: Electronikboy - Mon petit oiseau (2 points)
A manic-limbed fruitcake with rocky electropop. He's really treating the performance like performance art - he can barely keep still. The vocals are barely there; it's Shatneresque sprechgesang rather than actual singing, which is probably just as well. Why there's a trapeze artist hanging from the ceiling, I have no idea. As a song, it's backgroundy, forgettable, a piece of incidental music or a song between songs in a nightclub - nice enough, chilled, professionally produced, but not moving or engaging.
1st: Soraya - La noche es para mí (24 points)
2nd: Virginia - True Love (20 points)
3rd: Jorge González - Si yo vengo a enamorarte (16 points)
4th: Salva Ortega - Lujuria (14 points)
Lost:
=5th: Diqesi - Subiré (9 points)
A young band made up of twenty-something girls - performing proper Latin music. It's excellent. Strong vocals, an engaging song and performance, and great use of acoustic guitar and percussion. There's even a bit of traditional dance in the middle. Finally some quality! Good for them - a real quality act, who I hope go on to every future success. Best of all, you can really tell this comes from Spain.
=5th: Roel - Y ahora dices (9 points)
Midtempo Spanish pop from an Enrique-a-like. It sounds like a Spanish or Greek Eurovision entry circa 2002, except slightly more downbeat and without the leather trousers. It's fine - unremarkable but vaguely competent, and at least passively pleasant. A female singer appears from nowhere and joins in for the final minute - did she spontaneously generate?
=5th: Ángeles Vela - Vístete de primavera (9 points)
Midtempo pop-rock. Angeles has a strong and versatile voice and gives a fun performance. The song is also fairly good. This is a good effort - all the best to her.
=5th: Leather Boys - We're Livin' In A Bar (9 points)
Abominable "rock". It's weak and embarassing. If "The Young Ones" formed a band and entered the Spanish Eurovision selection, it'd probably sound something like this, except far more entertaining.
9th: Calipop - Burbuja (4 points)
Summery electropop which harks back to the 80s. It's vaguely fun and studenty in a laid-back sort of way.
10th: Electronikboy - Mon petit oiseau (2 points)
A manic-limbed fruitcake with rocky electropop. He's really treating the performance like performance art - he can barely keep still. The vocals are barely there; it's Shatneresque sprechgesang rather than actual singing, which is probably just as well. Why there's a trapeze artist hanging from the ceiling, I have no idea. As a song, it's backgroundy, forgettable, a piece of incidental music or a song between songs in a nightclub - nice enough, chilled, professionally produced, but not moving or engaging.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Posts
