[LMBTO] "Let Me Be The One" Eurovision Show 179 - Ronela and Vladana make it to Turin...

To be fair to Ronela, she skilfully utilised the new rule for the 2021 Festival that each entry could use any other language than Albanian and any extent (none through to all) and "Sekret" had the right balance on the night.  As for the staging, we all know that it will be a maximum of an extra five to her in Turin but assuming that screens and backdrops come into play in May, something approximating her 'Rhythm Nation' choreography could be mimicked then.

I hope that the good work of this nation's stage director will continue, seeing that Albania have been successful in reaching the Eurovision Final for three Contests in a row, and that is partly to do with the staging each time, drawing on the strengths of the performers.  However, until that revamp appears, we won't know if the earworm appeal of the song itself will still be there.  On the night, Ronela deserved her victory and if everything comes together with the shorter version, this could be one of the up-tempo standouts that every Contest director dreams of, probably acting as an opener or closer in one of the SFs in Turin.  When that revamp comes, I will give you a rating of that which will draw on the live performance in Tirana in December.

Vladana Vučinić is a singer/songwriter but more recently a journalist and fashionista in her nation.  She has had experience of participating in National Finals, solo in 2005 with "Samo moj nikad njen" and then with Bojana Nenezić in 2006 with "Željna", but with no great success.  The song of hers that I played on the show, "Sinner City", was the title track of her first English language album of the same name, which did bring her some success locally in the Balkans.  That was eleven years ago so it will be interesting to see what she can bring to Montenegro's Eurovision record, which isn't the greatest with only two Final qualifications in twelve attempts.  We do know that her song will be called "Breathe", that it is a romantic piano ballad and that there is a chance that we hear a bit of it in her introductory video...

It is great that Montenegro have returned after last being at the Contest in 2019 and in a way Vladana has nothing to lose.  She will be a hero if "Breathe" makes the Eurovision Final and conversely one of the many Montenegrin artists to fall by the wayside if she doesn't - a ballad in 2021 might be in the minority too, given that uptempo pop and rock are likely to be the order of the day after Måneskin's win in 2021.  Another entry to await in interest for...

Remember him?  Of course you do but perhaps not too much without his trademark glasses on - TIX was the clear winner of MGP 2021 and the 2022 version begins this weekend.  The four semi-finalists and the direct finalist being sung each week will feature on LET ME BE THE ONE, as Norway's process has done for the past couple of seasons.  I'll actually get around to completing Spain's 14 and give you some background for the numerous other National Finals that are gearing up over the next eight weeks.  In particluar, I will be talking about this yet to be unreleased track from Poland: