[LMBTO] A Eurovision Tidy Up - Armenia & The Netherlands finalise...

So here is a novelty - Armenia are sending a song that is 100% sung in Armenian!  And it was an entry that didn't even register on my radar when I listened to all twenty acts prior to the live shows.  "Qami" (translated as "Wind") is the song, Sevak Khanagyan is the artist:

Looking back on my initial first listen of the audio only, his amazing voice was a given, the whole song was beautifully sung and it sounded a 'nice' power ballad.  I did feel though that he was better than the song, that "Qami" was an entry that had a superb first verse and chorus but didn't really kick on from that point onwards.  I then realised why it didn't figure in my initial list of potential winners - there were far better studio productions in amongst all of the entries available to listen to on the Depi Evratesil YouTube page.  So how did this become a winner of the Armenian ticket to Lisbon?


Combine that with one of the supposed favourites being knocked out at the SF stage (Tamar Kaprielian) and another in the Final not producing a decent vocal (Asmik Shiroyan) and it ended up being anyone's game - it boiled down to being between Sevak and Nemra, who were the winners of their respective SFs, and the man above won out:
Did my opinion on this entry change after watching the live performance of "Qami" in the Final?  Yes, in a very positive way - not on the vocals or the song itself though, as it was still an amazing listen but still didn't have that audible wow moment that took this to the next level for me.


Not sure what the breastplate over the black chain effect top was all about but as a bulk standard power ballad in its native tongue, this song ticked all the boxes on the night and I could see why Armenia went for this entry.  Sevak has already said that he will keep this entry in Armenian - when you translate it all into English, I can possibly see why as there isn't that  clean a translation:

It's not bad but there is something lost there in translation - Sevak obviously knew what he was doing there and it is good to see that history will be made with a 100% Armenian song.  So what we have from Armenia is a solid (at best) song, sung brilliantly by a singer with a superb voice, conveyed on tv live as a raw and passionate delivery.  Now that we have half of the entries for Lisbon (Sevak is artist number 33), I could now see this as a Final qualifier but not really touching the top ten there without some major improvement of the song itself, although unusually we have not many ballads this year...

And so we move onto the nation that revealed their artist in mid-November, the fourth one for Lisbon.  Waylon provided five songs across a week of evening tv in The Netherlands for the public to listen to on 'De Wereld Draait Door'.  This was in the knowledge though that he had already chosen which one he was singing at Eurovision and that the tv appearances was just a brilliant way to promote material from his new album "The World Can Wait".  A bit like him inviting his friends around to watch him be in 'Bullseye', knowing that he had already won that speedboat:

And the one that he had already chosen?  This piece of rockabilly played out on his steel guitar, the second of the five:


"Outlaw In 'Em" is hard-edged country-rock that sounds musically and lyrically as though it could be fitted nicely into a modern Western film, something that might make people tuning into the public shows that aren't Eurovision fans feel that this song is a more recognisable piece than some of the other Eurovision entries.  He has a superb voice for this genre, one that fits in with the Nashville vibe that you need to succeed in that business and the music for this track is a perfect fit, giving this a 'cowboy feel'.  That does raise the question:


I assume that he'll have one in Lisbon - unless he wants to hand the title of 'best headwear' to Zibbz...
No question about Waylon's whiskery look, his charismatic persona or his no-nonsense attitude - what about the lyrics for "Outlaw In 'Em"?


As musical genres go, Country & Western's strength IS with the words sung, the prose on the page and how that is conveyed to the listener.  On all scores "Outlaw" works - it could be a tale of standing up to oppression at one end of the scale, through to plucking up the courage to stand up against a bully.  Superbly written and a great example of the genre, I can see why Waylon went with this one out of the five.  In this year of a huge diversity of musical styles, this entry will still stand out but perhaps not so much as a traditional year of bulk standard pop and ballads.


Something to watch out for - we won't get many clues in London (hopefully) and Amsterdam, as they will just be on stage affairs but there won't be any need for vocal fine tuning or any PR work, as this guy will have those all sewn up.  A definite qualifier for me and a likely top ten, which should please the Dutch but maybe not Waylon, seeing that he treats Eurovision as 'the Olympics' - he came out with a philosophical statement during the show where "Outlaw" was first played:


Realistically though, he'll be after that gold medal...


So Armenia have their first 100% native language song and The Netherlands have their hard-nosed C&W song and (whisper it) artist.  Based on the vocal prowess of both artists and their connectability with the audience, I would be very surprised if either nation was not singing on Final night.  Armenia will possibly be looking for a better placing than Artsvik's 18th place in Kyiv but that might all be dependant on running order and what staging could possibly be utilised to make "Qami" look 'bigger'.  As for Waylon, his confidence on and off stage would suggest that his delegation and RTP's producers will be worked very hard to get the staging and the look of "Outlaw In 'Em" spot on - demanding and of a set mind he definitely is.  The big question set by Waylon will be...