Eurovision can end up being a mix of ballads and pops songs...
We are 25 entries in and there is so much variety already!
Case in point - enter Montaigne!
Yep, ELEVEN new songs for Rotterdam were on this week's show - an incredible number in one edition but totally understandable, given the circumstances under which these entries are being revealed. Fewer National Finals, lockdowns around Eurovision still restricting what delegations can do and probably less 'money in the coffers' will lead to late decision making about their songs and artists. Australia were one of the first nations in 2020 to stick with their artist, something I didn't think that they would do at the time. And didn't that decision turn up trumps! No more "Don't Break Me" - it is now all about "Technicolour"...
Forget the lady who played a clown at the 2020 National Final, we now have the real Montaigne, the art pop queen who brings texture to her music and vocals, a dynamic power and mix of styles that WILL stand out a mile in Rotterdam. There is nothing else like it so far (and I can't imagine there will be) and she even brought it in the vast open space of the iconic Sydney Cricket Ground at the Sydney Gay & Lesbian Mardi Gras:
A solid performance that will hopefully have some tweaks to allow Montaigne to stay a bit more steady and get the full power of her voice - she looked nervous but if we get anything like this in May, Australia will be keeping up their 100% Final qualification record with ease. Who knows from then on? As you can tell, I am totally back on board with the Aussie Eurovision train - as you all know, I rate all entries as much as possible on first listen, ideally with a live show as well. That led me to give these marks during my SECHUK Jury rankings:
Vocal Capability 3.5/5
Stage Performance 3.5/5
Composition/Originality 5.0/5
Overall Impression 4.5/5
Score 17.0/20 (8.5)
This was based on the live performance in Sydney, as that is my preference - live vocals and what the artist might look like on stage always takes priority for me. Montaigne's nerves, the limited stage and the incredibly bright lighting in a dark stadium pulled the scores down from 9.0 for the studio version - her vocals are still an acquired taste and that routine did make getting all the notes pitch perfect difficult. Having said that, the staging for Rotterdam will have more room to play with, the lighting will be better and everything is indoors, which in turn will improve the acoustics - I have no doubt that the only way is up for this entry as far as vocals are concerned. Composition and lyrical content is off the scale - I love the mix of the synth, the audio special effects and the switch into what I can only describe as an "Australian guitar segue", a section that just sounds so Antipodean! Montaigne is a big AD&D fan and that might be why some of the lyrics are pleasantly geeky in their construction:
Ooh-ooh (ha, ha, ha), ooh-ooh (ha, ha, ha)
I wanna be close to my mother
I wanna belong to the world
A mirror that shows technicolour
I'll be a magnificent girl
But everything is frustrating
Everything moves along faster than I can relate to
But I got power, yeah
Midnight is the hour, yeah
Time to take off your cloaks
Techni-technicolour, techni-technicolour
If we stand together we can do whatever
Techni-technicolour, techni-technicolour
If we care for one another, we can
Ooh-ooh (hey!)
I wanna know that there's a futurе
That I can move myself towards
And yet, I promisе you, yes, all you nasty dudes
I don't need certainty to get my pot of gold, no
Everything is frustrating
Everything moves along faster than I can relate to
But we got grace, yeah
We got style and lasers, yeah
Time to take off your cloaks
Techni-technicolour, techni-technicolour
If we stand together we can do whatever
Techni-technicolour, techni-technicolour
If we care for one another, we can
Shine, shine, shine, shine
Techni-technicolour (technicolour), techni-technicolour (technicolour)
If we stand together we can do whatever (we can do whatever)
Techni-technicolour, techni-technicolour
If we care for one another, we can shine (hey!)
"Technicolour" is one of the most instant entries we have had at Eurovision for quite a while, and it is, as only a Brit could say, a 'Marmite' song (do Aussies have the same with "Vegemite"?). I absolutely love this track and yet I know many others can't stand it, including quite a few Australian fans, to the extent that I felt I was reading the comments of UK fans about our entries of the past! Loving a song is half the battle to gaining lots of points for a Final qualification - Montaigne is likely to have that in abundance. As long as her vocals are spot on, this may well be an unexpected jury hit, as the complexity of the song itself does stand it out from the crowd - well done Montaigne, I'm delighted you were talked out of the song about CIA brainwashing in the 1970s! She was one of the highlights of this week's LET ME BE THE ONE - if you didn't catch it on Tuesday and Thursday, here you go...
Now regular listeners will know that there was a technical hiccup on Tuesday evening - hour one (which had Montaigne in it) played perfectly and you got to hear nine new entries for 2021. Hour two was where the issues started, as last week's second hour started playing again! In case you are not aware, I have to pre-record my show due to our not being able to go into the studio and play live - the recorded show is split into two separate hours that normally are uploaded onto the Bradley Stoke Radio system. Unfortunately my beautifully prepared hour two for show 134 did not load properly and so you got to hear Mustasch from Sweden sing "Contagious" all over again. I immediately informed the tech people concerned as soon as I realised what had happened but it was too late for Tuesday's broadcast - I decided to upload the Mixcloud version straight away and some of you did manage to listen to it with only about ten minutes delay! Well done to you and it does reinforce my belief that there are fans of the show listening every week! Apologies for the mess - hopefully normal service will be in place next week. Here is the playlist...
"Chains On You" (Eurovision edition) - Athena Manoukian
"Amnesia" - ROXEN
"The Wrong Place" - Hooverphonic
"Birth Of A New Age" - Jeangu Macrooy
"Sugar" - Natalia Gordienko
"Technicolour" - Montaigne
"LOCO LOCO" - Hurricane
"The Lucky One" - Uku Suviste
"Love Is On My Side" - The Black Mamba
"Øve Os På Hinanden" - Fyr & Flamme
"Iron Heart" - BEN & TAN
"ZITTI E BUONI" (censored) - Måneskin
"Adrenalina" - Senhit
"Golden Boy" - Nadav Guedj
"Toy" - Netta
"Nova Deca" - Sanja Ilić & Balkanika
"Amanecer" (Versión Sinfónico-Coral) - Edurne
"Pretender" - Lillasyster
"The Missing Piece" - Paul Rey
"Behöver inte dig idag" - Clara Klingenström
"Beat Of Broken Hearts" - Klara Hammarström
"New Religion" - Anton Ewald
"Tänker inte alls gå hem" - Arvingarna
"Let Me Be The One" - The Shadows
It was all about those ELEVEN entries and also about getting more Melodifestivalen tracks onto the show before the Final itself this Saturday. The main thing to note was the track that kicked off show 134 - Armenia's Athena Manoukian will not get the opportunity to perform at Eurovision in May because of her nation's withdrawal from Rotterdam 2021. It is a huge disappointment to add to that I felt by not being able to see "Chains On You" staged live in the Ahoy:
Yes, I know that the Eurovision version differed lyrically but Athena did show us how she could move her stuff during Depi Evratesil - hopefully one day we will see her perform for Armenia, or maybe Greece, or perhaps the UK...
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Up to now, I have been able to review all the entries as they have appeared on the show but doing the same for TEN more entries would make this article incredibly long and unwieldy. I featured Montaigne here due to my previous links to Australia via Kate Miller-Heidke in Tel Aviv, plus the excellence that is "Technicolour" but I have decided to feature all the entries now coming up in articles away from the radio shows. I am not sure how many per future blog post but the first one will be starting with the lady above from Romania, the incredible ROXEN with this year's entry "Amnesia". Chances are that they will appear after next week's show 135, as there could be up to 15 songs to play that will appear in Rotterdam (Belarus changing their song permitting plus all the nations revealing their songs prior to next Tuesday). There will be one entry that will get the 'Martin focus' next week though...
James Newman will be singing "Embers" in Rotterdam...
That plus (maybe) the rest of the 40 (39 if Belarus pull out)
will be on next week's LET ME BE THE ONE!