One of the most loved acts in Sweden and the fandom are back!
Arvingarna will sing at Melodifestivalen 2021
Sweden (Melodifestivalen), Estonia (Eesti Laul) and Israel (HaShir Shelanu L'Eurovision) have all revealed either their artists and titles, their songs or their demo tracks during the past week. I went into enough detail on the show but here is a summary of all of them - Sweden first (thank you Wiki):
You'll know when you are at the right place when you see this beautiful face:
Of course the playlist is here too:
"I Do" - Arvingarna
"Mitt-liv" - Charlotte Perrelli
"Sommarminnen" - Clara Klingenström
"Why" - Maléna
"Same Heart" - Mei Finegold
"Medo De Sentir" - Elisa
"Amar Pelos Dois" - Salvador Sobral
"Heal" - The Starlings
"Magus melanhoolia" - Jüri Pootsmann
"Lost In A Dance" - Gram-Of-Fun
"6" - Heleza
"Hypnotized" - Kéa
"Dors, mon amour" - André Claveau
"Dan ljubezni" - Pepel in kri
"La Forza" - Elina Nechayeva
"Hold On" - Douwe Bob
"No M'ho Esperava" - Miki Núñez
"My Heart" - PAENDA
"Let Me Be The One" - The Shadows
So where were we? Oh yes, Israel - nine songs, all demo tracks, all covered by a geo-block. There are ways around that, so if you have the technology to do that plus a translator, click below:
I always aim to please and be as helpful as popular - you'll have heard my preferences on the show ('Shoulders' and 'Ue La La') but we'll have to wait and see which the Israeli public and production team pick for Eden to sing in their Final.
There was so much going on this week - Eurovision even got a new logo:
It is no longer about the flags of the participating nation but about the distance of the capitals of the 40 other nations away from Rotterdam (sort of). There is trigonometry involved too...
It is obviously not to scale as Australia would be miles away and it is only cynics like me who wonder if this is only being done to justify another round of merchandise that we will all buy! The video for that by the EBU was quite short, fairly generic and yet informative - another video I talked about on the show was absolutely incredible and truly something to behold. I am of course talking about the next stage of Senhit's #freakytriptorotterdam:
Luca Tommassini is a creative genius and this version has turned "Amar Pelos Dois" into a Christmas staple. It is a beautiful piece and I defy anyone to sit watching this and not be truly amazed, jaw to the floor! What on earth can the Senhit/Luca collaboration come up with on New Year's Day? I'll be looking forward to that, a matter of minutes after we hear who has won the ESC Top 250...
For the last time this season (I think), I am going to flip back to JESC 2020 for two reasons. First, I played "Why" by Maléna, which would have been Armenia's entry for the Contest if they hadn't had to withdraw due to the conflict that was going on between her nation and Azerbaijan. Personally, I think that it is a track that could have found its way easily into Depi Evratesil and the adult version of Eurovision, doing a great job there, let alone at JESC. I am pretty sure it would have been my #1 this year but without a performance to go alongside it, we will never know. The other aspect of the Contest that has raised its ugly head again is accusations that one artist was not singing live. I discussed this in the last article but a new video of Valentina singing live on a French tv show has got the conspiracy theorists going again. Here is the video:
Putting it bluntly, all this shows is that Valentina is an excellent live singer, sounding almost like the studio AND Contest version. If anything, I think it actually hardens the case that ValentinaWAS singing live at JESC, rather than the opposite. I do believe that the live play version shown at JESC was polished and recorded to within an inch of its life however and that sort of 'perfection' doesn't seem real to some listeners - a sound engineer I know confirmed the performance did sound live (if polished) and that is good enough for me. She won fair and square and as a total neutral (from the UK) with no 'axe to grind', I am very happy with the result. I also enjoyed the performance enough that I am now looking forward to JESC 2021! That will be in France, something confirmed after this week's show - it is also where their NF “Eurovision: C’est vous qui décidez!” will be - we now know who the twelve artists are that will participate in that NF...
Barbara Pravi above was one of those names and I will be playing her new track "Voilà" in show 122...
Let's see if we can make next week's show a National Final bonanza between Estonia and France!