[LMBTO] Eurovision 2017 wks 15/16 - Irish Youth, Austrian R&B (maybe)...

Estonia got to know what the Eesti Laul entries sounded like on 8th and 15th December (SF1 and SF2 respectively).  There is quite a mix of genres for entertainment purposes but as far as the actual competition is concerned, I would say that there are really only six entries that I could see winning on March 4th 2017.  SF1 holds four of these entries, SF2 the other two - here are my tips for the win in Estonia:



Elina Born still does it for me with her swing/jazz style entry (for some reason the YouTube vid of this has gone).  There is no question about her vocal ability, the song itself has the necessary bounce and hook to make this very memorable and there are some interesting lyrics in play.  Not far behind are Janno Reim & Kosmos, taking me back to the 1980s with a nod to Echo & The Bunnymen musically and almost a nod to the 1960s in the way this sounded like going on a psychedelic trip!  I loved the vocals and it didn't bother me at all that it was all in Estonian, so this was a surprise hit for me.  Behind these two acts were the other four which I could see winning Eesti Laul for different reasons - Koit Toome & Laura had great interaction on their song "Verona" and the lyrics tell a great story; Lenna Kuurmaa has everything you'd expect from a seasoned professional who has been to Eurovision before, with a great voice singing thoughtful lyrics in a pleasant ballad; Kerli, apparently a huge favourite in her home nation, with a song that seemingly gives more than a nod to Björk and that has fascinating lyrics that connect the artist to nature, together with voice and music that cannot be separated, and the promise of an amazing stage show; and Karl-Kristjan & Whogaux feat. Maian with an alternative love song spliced between bass and electronica, sung with nice harmonies once you get used to the quirky childlike voice of the female lead.  Having heard them all, I'm looking forward to this NF, especially as I still plan to be there...


The EBU big up Kyiv...

Not much to say really - was there any doubt that anywhere other than Kyiv in Ukraine was going to host Eurovision in 2017?

Depi Evratesil gets down to four, then two...

We are almost at the end of the Armenian artist selection process - two SFs, the first to reduce six to four, the second from four to two finalists, were staged on the last two Saturdays:



Always a bit unusual to call mini-elimination shows SFs but still, Depi Evratesil is on the home stretch and SF1 lost two of the final six acts, including the last man left in the competition.  It was a long show with the first seven minutes being a recap of the whole series to date which meant that a bit of fast forwarding was needed for a 'veteran' like me!  The main difference with these live shows (okay, that was one big one in itself) was that the six previous Eurovision coaches were not involved in the selection anymore - the vote was now 50% jury and 50% televote.  Like most reality singing shows at this point, we got to see the families/teachers/friends etc talk about all the semi-finalists - I'm sure the show could have been a lot shorter!  All artists had one song to impress this SF - some experimented, some stuck with their tried and tested formula...
Marta went for "Naughty Girl" and showed us what we already knew - this lady exudes on-stage attitude and sassiness in abundance and gives a superb show.  Together with great vocals, this was a solid performance although the dancers with her did tend to distract and the hip hop section wasn't her finest hour.  I felt that it was more than enough to allow her to pass through to SF2 though...
Not the most flattering of dresses for Artsvik but her strength has alway been her superlative vocals with every single song that she has performed on Depi Evratesil to date.  She never needs the movement and staging that most of the others have done, as her voice carries her through, everything being so controlled and an easy passage through to SF2 guaranteed...
The most surprising thing about Egine's section in this show was during her vox pop, where she came across so down to earth and unassuming, nothing like her on-stage persona!  "A Little Party Never Killed Nobody" really summed up her passage through the competition to this point - she was dressed in not a lot, performed lots of intricate dance moves and portrayed the height of 'party'.  It is obvious that her vocals were the weakest of everyone left so going all out for the visual experience was the way to go, especially as there wasn't much in the way of words to judge on.  I had her down as leaving in SF1 but this dance show was spectacle enough to keep her in for one more week...
Putting forward your own composition at this stage of any contest is always risky - it will suit you better than any cover you might attempt but the lack of knowledge of the lyrics, music and acting might lead the public to going elsewhere when they hear a song they recognise.  Lucy was bold and "Turn Around" suited her but it was all quite basic and there wasn't much substance to it.  She gave a good performance but she was overlooked at times by the backdrop video, never a good thing.  The downbeat nature of the song also contributed to one of my original four favourites not making past this stage...
Syuzanna seemed to be getting better and better as the competition went on - she showed her versatility in SF1 by singing in French, almost taking us back to chanson territory.  No OTT gimmicks, just pure singing power and an amazing vocal range provided a totally transfixing show, with this lady appearing to actually feel every single note and emotion in this song.  As far as pure singing was concerned, the battle was between Syuzanna and Artsvik...
Unfortunately for Vahe, "Writing's On The Wall" was amazingly prophetic as he gave a good performance but lost out to the ladies due to him not being the best singer nor having the best stagecraft.  If he had managed to at least match Egine with a visual show, he might have obtained more televotes but the ballet dancer added very little to his act.  I would have personally had him through (just)...

My order would have been Artsvik - Syuzanna - Marta - Vahe, with Lucy and Egine leaving, although of all the coach/artist duos that occured whilst the voting continued, Egine came out the best with Hayko, forming a real connection and chemistry that the other pairs lacked.  The actual order after Jury and Public had voted?

It was interesting that the votes were revealed so openly as it showed how popular Marta was - could she continue that popularity into SF2 last Saturday (17th December)?



Again it has to be said that Depi Evratesil does chose the most unfortunate stills for their YouTube clips!  Spoiler Alert!  Before we go any further, I have to say that not many women can pull off any sort of classy look whilst wearing a bowler hat but our gorgeous host, Gohar Gasparyan, did:
Straight into the show this time as each artist had to sing two songs, one of which would be a Eurovision cover.  To be honest, the Eurovision section was no-one's finest hour but it did give us some nice 'good luck' segments of those artists whose songs were being covered.  This time it was a Marta - Syuzanna - Artsvik - Egine ordered SF...
For me, this wasn't Marta's finest hour and the professional jurors agreed with me, polling her right at the bottom of the four singers still left in Depi.  I admire her ability to try anything and push the boundaries but I felt it almost cost her being in the Final.  She gave us some sort of otherworldly, ethereal princess to watch during her first song - the composition was slow and methodical and did show that she can do something other than full on 'woman with attitude' but it did fall rather flat with the crowd in the studio.  Lovely though it was, it just wasn't Marta!  She then went totally out there and really gambled on the Eurovision choice - "Rhythm Inside" was her selection.  She was always going to be up against it by covering such a unique song and staging - it did all look 'cut price' with the guys and their spray masks but she looked sensational with her grey lips and blue knee high boots.  Some of her pronunciation was a bit strange and stilted but Marta was back as far as her presentation was concerned and visually it was superbly entertaining.  It was the vocals that disappointed here and I did feel that she might have blown it...
Of the four ladies singing in SF2, Syuzanna brought her 'A' game to the table.  She was superb, providing her best vocals to the show for both "It's A Man's World" and "Sweet People", although she did go OTT with the visual presentation of both and that might have been the reason for her not making it into the Final.  To be honest, she always looked delighted to be at this stage at all but whereas Marta gave the right amount of show for her performances, I always felt that Syuzanna went too overboard and this did sometimes spoil the look of her songs.  Her first song did appear as though it was an effort for her to hit all the notes whilst her Eurovision cover lacked the subtlety of the original and therefore did not look as good because of that.  The juries obviously loved the power and tone of her voice but that wasn't enough in the end to convince the public to put her in the final two...
Back on safe ground, we saw Artsvik doing what she (and only she) does best in Depi Evratesil and that is singing perfectly with minimal stagecraft or movement.  I say perfectly but even she didn't have the best of Eurovision rounds, covering "A Million Voices" by Polina Gagarina, which was slightly shaky in parts and even had a duff note!  Her first song, "Crazy", provided the best vocals of the whole show and she even tried to give some emotional connection and acting, admittedly literal.  Artsvik does what she does extremely well but I am now wondering if that is enough...
SF2 was the end of the road for the lovely Egine.  Her "Crazy In Love" was a very bizarre version, very slow paced and sedate that did not work at all.  Judging by her previous performances, covering Beyonce should have set Egine up for another hi-tempo dancefest but she was all chic and the slowness exposed her poor vocals.  Covering Nina Sublatti's "Warrior" was always going to be tricky for her but I suppose we got to see Egine in a corset!  By this stage, her vocals had totally gone and were at the level she had in the audition process.  Lots of attitude and the drum solo was great but this was her swansong and getting to the final four was probably exceeding even her expectations...

Of the four, I expected Egine to go home (which she did in fourth place), Artsvik to go through to the Final (first but only just) and the remaining place to only be determined by the popularity of Marta and Syuzanna with the Armenian public.  In the end, one of the two has a public persona that seems to be off the scale compared to the others:
Just one point between them in the end (Artsvik 62 - Marta 61) with Marta totally swapping her last with the jurors to a clear first with the public.

So we are now down to the Final next Saturday (24th December) to determine who will represent Armenia in Kyiv.  Will it be the vocal power and purity of Artsvik or the attitude and willingness to be different of Marta?  All things being equal, if Marta gets back to the quality of her pre-SF2 performances and convinces the jurors that she can provide superb vocals as well as the show, I think that a certain Miss Kirakosyan will be strutting her stuff in Ukraine...

Georgia reveal their 25...



Twenty-five songs are in the hunt to succeed "Midnight Gold" as Georgia's song for Eurovision.  Five songs stood out for me - my favourite was "Stranger" by Sabina Chantouria, an uptempo C&W song where everything worked - the lyrics, the music, Sabina's voice.  Following close behind was "Fly" by Mariam Chachkhiani, who provided a lot of light and shade within the song along with a purity of voice, topped off with a very memorable chorus.  The other three all had their merits - Maliibu's "We Live Once" that buried the lyrics and melody deep inside my mind alongside loads of passion in its delivery; Nino Basharuli's “Simgera Sikvarulisa (The Song of Love)" had some lovely Spanish acoustic infleunces and a nice story told; and Trio Mandili provided possibly the sleeper hit of the list with “Me da Shen” (You and Me), a very bouncy, catchy folk song with unusual singing voices that aren't unpleasant but the pace and the beat of the music carries you along and the end result is a big smile!  I am looking forward to seeing if any of these makes it to Kyiv...


Romania show off Paula again (and Ovi)...



Romania are back and are starting the process of selecting their 2017 entry and who better than to have Paula Seling in the trailer...dressed like that...afraid I didn't really take in the dates, they're on the web somewhere...


I'm not totally out of step with Spain's Eurocasting...

As Meatloaf once eloquently said: "Two Out Of Three Ain't Bad"...two of my ten Eurocasting choices have actually made it to the top three.  They will now go to a final audition stage in January, from which one of them will take one of the spots in "Objectivo Eurovision".  Of the three left, this is my favourite:



Not sure that most of the video matches the song or the band's look but it is a very catchy folky-rock entry, lots of chanting and clapping makes this light hearted, fun and fast moving.  I have to say that it wasn't one of my top four but I could see this getting to the NF...


And there is no change for us in the UK...hooray!
Ten days ago, we in the UK found out that, like last year:

• We are having a televised National Final;
• The method of selecting the six acts appears to be the same;
• The logo is the same;
• The host is the same;
• The format of the NF and even the reveal of the songs pre-NF is the same (Ken Bruce on BBC Radio R2 the days before).

There will be one other matter that will be the same as last year though...