Two more for Rotterdam...
One that wasn't originally the Eurovision song...
and the other was never in doubt for May!
You know you are getting closer to Eurovision proper when the entries start to appear and we got two from Ukraine and Lithuania, starting off this week's show as track 1 & 2. So let's have more of a chat about them...
UKRAINE : Go_A - "Шум" (Shum)
Now UA:PBC have led us a bit of a merry dance, haven't they? To be fair, the continued coronavirus pandemic has led a lot of delegations to change their plans and Ukraine is no exception. The intended National Final with Go_A presenting several songs was scraped and a jury-led selection took place, as mentioned last week on show 129, with Jamala the recognisable face. I had played this track on show 128 as a new release by the band, with the statement by them that this was not going to be their Eurovision entry:
We all thought, "Fair enough, it is a minute too long" and the official decision was meant to be made early March. Everything then moved at the speed of light - "Shum" was included in a selection of three tracks (including "Рано" (Rano) and "Церковка" (Tserkovka)) and the Jury's choice had already been made by last Wednesday (3rd February)! Having only Instagram snippets to guide us as far as the other two tracks were concerned, I have to say that "Shum" was the least like "Solovey", the 'white voice terror' that tormented my ears in 2020, and so that got my choice - fortunately the jury agreed with me and "Shum" is Ukraine's entry for May. Yes, it needs to lose almost a minute and Go_A need to be more Eugent Bushpepa ('Mall') than Francesco Gabbiani ('Occidentali's Karma') when editing this track, and they might need to be careful with using lyrics from old Ukrainian folk music verbatim, but this is far more palatable to me than their last entry. The white voice technique of Kateryna Pavlenko is not as continuous as in "Solovey", more like the vocal pitch of Tulia's "Fire of Love (Pali się)" from 2019 and having more audible breaks during the song helps too! Placing this at the moment out of the five entries that we have is relatively straight forward for me but there are some provisos - there is not as yet a live version and the official video above will change. That means that we don't have live vocals for this yet (although I cannot imagine it will sound much different, given that Kateryna has a perfect voice for this style of singing) and no idea of the staging. Having said that, the composition and originality of this song is excellent and I have this well ahead of Israel's "Set Me Free" and Albania's "Karma". Whether my thoughts on this will change with the 'new' version, we will have to wait and see - the video was extremely entertaining, plus the music was the main reason that I went for this track out of the three and hopefully those aspects will not change much. Of course, I talk about this being 3rd out of 5 - I better talk about entry 5...
LITHUANIA : THE ROOP - "Discoteque"
'Predictable' was an understatement at "Pabandom iš Naujo!" - the inevitable happened and THE ROOP won Lithuania's ticket (again) to Rotterdam. What was probably unexpected was the size of the victory but before that, let's remind ourselves of the sheer brilliance of their performance:
What more can be said that you can't see with your own two eyes? Bright, fun, slick, energetic, thoughtful, catchy - there was always the worry that we would have an entry that was not as good as "On Fire" that should have been the Lithuanian entry in 2020 and that was my third favourite of last year's 41, but THE ROOP have managed to trump that song IMHO. From the moment I saw the official video and then their initial live performance in Heat 2 of the Lithuanian process, it was obvious that they were on course for an easy win and all the other artists were looking at runner-up at best (Gebrasy was the deserved 2nd place this year). I have this as a better performance than 2020 - the other two members are involved more with the staging, the dancers go up yet another level with the routine and the yellow outfits cannot help but make you smile! The song is simple in its lyrical content but it still spot on with its message - this entry would have won last year's Lithuanian National Final, to be honest. As for 2021's process, THE ROOP won by a landslide:
And here is who was on the show...
"Шум" - Go_A
"Discoteque" - THE ROOP
"Dibdibidi" - Jendrik
"Ding-A-Dong" - Teach-In
"Hvala, ne!" - Lea Sirk
"Alcohol Is Free" - Koza Mostra ft Agathon Iakovidis
"Parte Din Tine" - DJ Project x ROXEN
"Still Breathing" - Samanta Tīna
"Si te vas" - Blas Cantó
"Det gör ont" - Lena Philipsson
"Viszlát Nyár" - AWS
"Fingerprints" - Nathalie Brydolf
"One Touch" - Kadiatou
"Horizon" - Jessica Andersson
"My Lonely Voice" - KiiM
"Circus" - Royane
"Pages" - Marianne Pentha & Mikkel Gaup
"Alt det der" - Landeveiens Helter & Staysman & Rune Rudberg
"World on Fire" - Atle Pettersen
"Kiss Me" - Karl Killing
"Nii kõrgele" - Helen
"Let Me Be The One" - The Shadows
No new releases on their own this week, every track had a purpose and a reason from where they were played - lots of national final tracks from Sweden, Norway and Estonia too, more to come next week! Talking of Sweden...
She still looks amazing even now, 17 years on...
I can't imagine that there will be many more of these, as Senhit's entry for San Marino is to be revealed on Tuesday 23rd February but who knows? We could potentially have another three before she ends up on the Rotterdam Ahoy stage...maybe?
As of today (11th February), the chances of anyone from the UK leaving for Rotterdam up to and including the whole of May, for anything other than extreme need, is NIL.
Scenario B is still very, VERY optimistic but if all or most (no idea of that number but I suspect that we will need at least 30+) of the artists can make it, that can still happen. As far as audience numbers go, I think that best case is that a limited number of local Dutch fans/residents/families might attend, all tested/temperature checked/bubbled and kept apart in a way that we have seen on programmes like The Masked Singer UK. That could bring a level of audience numbers easily organised with a few weeks to go.
There will be no Euroclub/Eurocafe and it is unlikely that there will be much of a Eurovillage - if there is anything, it is likely to be around the Ahoy and just merchandise/refreshment stands.
Even with a Scenario B, I would be surprised if there is any press at all at the Ahoy, except for those from the EBU/Ahoy/Broadcasters. Those who would have tried for accreditation normally will have to try out for remote places - that 500 on site is very likely to be massively reduced (I'd imagine a tenth of that). Scenario C seems very strange - it is almost like being in the Green Room in Tel Aviv, where you watched proceedings on a screen but were still in the venue! Again, I am certain that only locals would do that and I suppose where the alternative is going to cinemas or staying at home, it might have an appeal for Rotterdam residents. I hope that we aren't still all in lockdown by May but at least Scenario D, the 'JESC 2020 option', would work, although some scaling-up for bigger numbers of artists waiting to chat via satellite is needed. Expect more tweaks over the coming weeks...
Incredible, eh? The security people had no idea what to do but that was absolutely amazing - Örs and the other guys in AWS just treated it like every other gig, performing full on and giving an entertaining show. Lisbon might have been more stage managed for tv purposes (crowd surfing has to be timed, and health & safety abided by) but the stage show and his vocals were enough to get Hungary to the Final. The moments that I will always remember about Örs were those away from the main event in Portugal - the first one at A Dal 2018:
RIP Örs Siklósi
there is now a screaming angel in heaven
Show 131 is shaping up to be as busy as this one was - Melodifestivalen, Melodi Grand Prix and Eesti Laul will provide a fair proportion of the songs next week, plus we will have at least one more entry for Rotterdam...
Can Nina Kraljić/Alkonost of Balkan
take the crown and the place for Rotterdam this year?
Whoever it is, the winner in Croatia will be kicking off next week's show - join me next Tuesday to find out more...