Liverpool are getting another band but one with a difference!
Lord Of The Lost are Germany's choice for May!
Going into the German selection show "Unser Lied für Liverpool", I was totally Team Patty Gurdy but unfortunately her live vocals were the weakest of the night by a long way. Realising that my personal favourite was out of the running, watching the rest of the Final was a fun and relaxing event, leading to the band above taking the crown. Yes, it is yet another band at this year's Eurovision but nobody there will match the volume, the colour and the glam of Lord Of The Lost with "Blood & Glitter". The possibility of Germany sending what many saw as a troll entry was thwarted by all the international juries and Will Church's wonderful vocals got his reward from his peers - overall though, it was a clear win for the guys from Hamburg. If Iron Maiden were happy to have them as support throughout their most recent tour then that is good enough for me! And they were good enough to kick off this week's show:
And the rest of the playlist has the other six entries for Eurovision there too...
"Blood & Glitter" - Lord Of The Lost
"Burning Daylight" - Mia Nicholai & Dion Cooper
"Break A Broken Heart" - Andrew Lambrou
"Soarele și luna" - Pasha Parfeni
"Power" - Diljá
"Samo mi se spava" - Luke Black
"Novi plan drugi san" - Filip Baloš
"Watergun" - Remo Forrer
"Proud" - Tamara Todevska
"Out Of The Dark" - Wig Wam
"Заплуталась" - Jamala
"Love Is" - Vikki
"Suveööde unetus" - Jüri Pootsmann
"Summer Moon" - Jeangu Macrooy
"Sunrise" - Manu
"Without You" - STEFAN
"Delayed Reaction" - Viki Gabor
"Prière pour s'ouvrir, Open Up" - Barbara Pravi & Yael Naim
"ghetto perfetto" - Francesca Michielin
"Happy Again" - ISA
So let's look at everyone who joined the Eurovision 2023 party before Show 239 aired, starting with the Netherlands:
We have known for months that Mia Nicholai and Dion Cooper were the Dutch artists but it was only last week that we found out that "Burning Daylight" was the song they'd be singing in Liverpool. The video shows off their individual personas well but duets live or die on the chemistry between the two singers and how they are staged. Fortunately we will get an early taste of that during the promo parties, but it will only be in May that we find out if we have another successful Dutch pairing - duets do seem to be a forte of this nation. As it is at the moment, the song on its own does not grab me but I think we will get a spark going at Eurovision.Cyprus send man to Eurovision shocker! Okay, so it's not like it is decades ago (Hovig in 2017 and Sandro would have gone in 2020) but it is a break from the 'attractive female soloist with dancers' scenario we have had recently. We only have the studio version and video to work with and this is totally different to the banger we had from Andrew Lambrou in Australia. "Break A Broken Heart" is a decent song but we need to hear him sing it live, plus see how this is staged to get any idea of whether Cyprus can get back to Final qualifying ways. We might not know that for certain until Monday 8th May and the first show in the Liverpool Arena, given that Cyprus don't tend to go to promo parties and we haven't got the press reviews from the week before. Maybe CyBC will treat us in the weeks to come with a live show from Andrew...
No issues with waiting for a live performance from Moldova! We had the battle of the former ESC artists - Sunstroke Project and Aliona Moon completed the top three but Pasha Parfeni won the day with "Soarele și luna". He was in Baku with "Lăutar" with a superb fun routine and he proved to be the master of staging at Etapa Națională 2023. You can almost see everything there in the picture - apart from Pasha's dancing, there were his two backing singers majestically striding around wearing antlers, two drummers and just to appear there was a gentleman of limited stature playing a recorder who musically sparred with Pasha. Maybe my joke about Spinal Tap on the show was a little dated but I could picture an 18 inch tall Stonehenge being dropped down onto the stage! Great performance by all concerned and I can see Moldova having yet another solid year with the televote. Diljá winning Söngvakeppnin 2023 with "POWER" - really the only choice in Iceland in my opinion. The best song, the best performance and the winner of each jury and televote poll this year - she has the backing of everyone in her nation but will she get that same support in the SF2 in Liverpool? At least that is the quieter one of the two and how this looks at the moment will make Diljá stand out from the crowd in May. This wasn't the strongest field in Iceland though and Final qualification could go either way - perhaps some promo parties might get the fandom onside... Serbia - now this is a nation that is expanding musical and performance boundaries with their selection process. Last year Konstrakta (admittedly I only joined that train in Turin) with her social commentary on healthcare provision in her nation via the medium of handwashing and towel waving, this year Luke Black and his avant-garde industrial pop "Samo mi se spava". I absolutely love this one - the performance overall is incredible, with Luke starting off in what can only be described as an oyster shaped bed, dancing with his uniformed quartet masked with a tube into their backs, plus that video backdrop with the game theme, ticking down to the end. Have a watch if you haven't already seen it:
This will split opinion as much as 2022's entry but it is not as gimmicky, so I'm predicting more of a Hatari placing (the last exponents of industrial music at the contest). Fingers crossed it becomes one of 2023's talking points...
You thinking that Remo Forrer looks in the dark there? Most of his music video for "Watergun" is like that, only bursting into the outdoor light at the end - whether that will be the them for Liverpool is anyone's guess. This entry for Switzerland just made it onto this week's show, it being revealed an hour before tickets went on sale at midday on Tuesday show day (I won't say much about that, as all shows sold out by 1330 GMT). Remo is carrying on the ballad route trodden by Gjon's Tears and Marius Bear, but I am not sure whether we will hear this more than once at Liverpool, given the 100% televote route this year in the SFs. Undoubtedly a great vocalist, perhaps we will get more idea of its chances when we hear a live version. So that was another SEVEN entries to add to the list - my top ten at that point?
Still nine more to add to that, including Sweden and Portugal who are the last selection processes to finish, plus some internals - I'll mention one a bit later... A couple of links to things I mentioned on the show next - first is the lady above who has an intimate gig in London in April. If it wasn't for the fact that I will be in Amsterdam the Friday/Saturday/Sunday beforehand for Amsterdam Calling/Eurovision In Concert, I would attend this, especially as Bojan and Marija from Eye Cue will be there too (in the crowd, I assume). If you are interested in going, here is the link to the tickets:
The other link is for the informative article by ESC Insight as what to do in Liverpool if you don't have a ticket for one of the Eurovision shows:
One thing to mention about tickets - keep your eyes open on Ticketmaster's Resale page, as returns will appear over time. There tends to be a second sale of tickets when camera angles and other technical aspects are sorted, so watch out for those too. More OGAE packages will be distributed for Jury and Family shows soon, so that will free up some tickets as well. Good luck!
Show 240 - the first show after the reveal for the UK! Mae Muller is our artist, "I Wrote A Song" our entry - I'll talk more about it next week after playing it for the first time on LET ME BE THE ONE on Tuesday 14th, along with the winner in Sweden and Portugal, plus some other internal selections. One of those has a literary connection:Closest we got in 2022 was "Jezebel"...
This year we have Edgar Allan Poe...
Austria will tell us all about him on next week's show!
