[LMBTO] A New Year for Eurovision - Three More For Kyiv...

2017 is finally here and after a few week's physical and mental break, my brain and body are back in a place where I want to take 'The Path To Kyiv' head on!  The Spanish have chosen their logo for Objetivo Eurovisión - not the one I went for but not a bad choice, it's got the Eurovision heart and has a nice touch with the letters O and E in there too.  Not long until Eurocasting is here - will one of my favourites win the wildcard slot?

We found out three more artists for Ukraine since my last post on December 20th - one I have got to know quite well over the previous weeks, one who wowed me in her NF in the 2015 season and someone who I have no idea about, something that seems to be a recurring factor this season...

Given that she won Depi Evratesil on Christmas Eve, there really is no point kidding anyone that Marta might have won the Armenian selection process - this really was the Artsvik show, from beginning to end.  Marta's zenith during SF1 might have woken up the voters as far as backing the vocal powerhouse over the sassy stage queen was concerned, as Ms.Harutyunyan took this Final quite convincingly, outscoring her rival 71% to 29% in the end.  Marta tried her performance speciality of 'in your face' moves but "Please Don't Stop The Music" only highlighted her sometimes poor English pronunciation when dealing with fast paced music.  Her Armenian entry, Tsov, showed that she can sing beautifully but she was never going to beat Artsvik in a straight vocal fight...

Unfortunately for Marta, the whole show seemed staged for Artsvik to race off into the sunset with the win.  Or should that be 'into the mist'?  "I Have Nothing" and "Aprelu April" showed off her amazing vocal abilities that have been present throughout this process, all bar her rendition of "A Million Voices", and it became obvious that she was the one to beat, especially as most of the studio audience were continually chanting her name.  Even the song between the two as a finale highlighted the difference in their singing ability and not much else, slightly unfair to Marta as her on stage charisma was always her trump card:

The Final show for me was a bit of a damp squib though, after the excitement that the series had generated - it seemed a little bit biased towards Artsvik's strengths and there was a lot of filler.  Perhaps having a final four, rather than two, might have been a better idea to keep the tension higher.  I am not sure if Marta's choices of songs were hers or Inga's but it all played into the hands of Artsvik and Essaï, whose rapid button pressing all that time ago to beat every other judge to this outstanding voice appeared to be the most important moment of the series.  The only 'filler' of any note was Hovig from Cyprus giving a rendition of "Stone In A River", the song that I felt should have gone to Vienna - at least he showed he can sing live, speak Armenian and therefore probably secure 'douze point' for Cyprus from Greece AND Armenia!

So this nation is sending yet another female soloist to Eurovision - more power ballad style than avant garde, what could be considered a safe pair of hands if given the right song to show off her voice and her emotional delivery on stage, even if that is a bit minimal at times.  As for where she might end up, I feel that Artsvik will give Armenia safe passage through to the Eurovision Final and probably secure a top half finish there.  Even if we are overwhelmed with female ballads as we were in Vienna, her voice is almost always on top form and she commands attention from the viewer as she produces a sound that is always second to none.  We don't have much of a back story yet from her but it is still only January!

I rather enjoyed Depi Evratesil as a series and a format, surprisingly for me as I am not a great fan of X Factor or The Voice - it was well presented, the judges came across brilliantly and the artists on the whole were watchable.  Even though I didn't understand a word being spoken, it was great entertainment and Armenia effectively stole a march on the rest of Eurovision by scheduling this during the quiet time of the season, before even Albania had got going (although they still managed to pick their winner first).  The Armenian delegation has requested suitable songs to be sung in Kyiv by January 30th - we shall see if the whole package works well for them and for Artsvik...

Could this scene be repeated in Kyiv this year?  The guy will definitely be there...as for the lady, that's up to the Swedish public!  Slavko Kalezić is the Montenegrin representative in Ukraine this year, singing an entry called 'Space' - the title is all we know.  He is yet another X Factor Adria contestant who used his acting background to the full during the show:

So we might in for a decent stage show in Kyiv from Montenegro - as for how Slavko sounded, this was a decent vocal on X Factor but I always find it difficult to judge on those shows, seeing that Autotune becomes everyone's friend.  We'll have to wait and hear what 'Space' sounds like - visually he might appeal to women and men alike...

All shiny and bright during the FiK 55 SF, Lindita Halimi has finally turned her bronze in 2015 to gold in 2017!  I really wanted her to make it two years ago with her amazing electropop entry "S'të fal" but in a way she went with the FiK flow this year and won with the song "Botë".  Now I'm not going to say much more here as I am going to post a summary of this year's contest, seeing I have done so for the last three contests - it'll be coming along soon but here is her title clinching performance:

A brief aside - if the brunette backing singer closest to camera is reading this, give FiK 56 a go...I'd be watching! 

Apart from the three new artists to go to Kyiv, there was one bit of news that grabbed my attention and in my mind it linked in with another of my interests...

Are San Marino accepting Eurovision "pay drivers"?
Bet you won't see too many F1 pictures in a Eurovision blog!  The above spectacular scene is of Pedro Diniz at the  1996 Argentinian GP, driving a very hot Ligier.  Pedro Diniz was debatably the most successful 'pay driver' in F1 history, a term given to a driver who drives for free and brings either personal sponsorship or personal/family wealth to fund his drives.  Pedro gained ten points over 98 races - not an amazing record really.  But how does this relate to Eurovision?  Stick with me...

San Marino had its own Grand Prix up to 2006 (admittedly raced at Imola, 100km north-west of the microstate) - it then started appearing at Eurovision since then with limited success (one Final placing out of seven).  This one time Final showing was with the talented Valentina Monetta and her Ralph Siegel produced number "Maybe":



Now Ralph has been involved quite a few times with the tiny country and many have wondered if he was invited to do so by the San Marino delegation or perhaps he got the gig as he could provide a lot of financial backing for production, promotion and Eurovision fortnight expenses.  This thought bounced around a year or so ago amongst a few Facebook friends of mine, so much so that we were joking about setting up a Crowdfunding page to get the funds to represent San Marino at Eurovision!  Maybe laugh no more - it appeared that an male Italian singer-songwriter (Tony Maiello) and a female Italian singer  (Arisa) were both approached about representing the country in Kyiv with the suggestion of providing funding between €300-500k.  Tony went to town and showed how indignant he was on all forms of social media, whereas Arisa was more dignified in her response, merely stating that she nor her record label had that sort of funding.  SMRTV, the San Marinese broadcaster has publically denied anything like this taking place - at the very least, the PR fallout isn't the best for San Marino nor for Tony Maiello, who didn't look that great with his response.  The big question is, in my mind:


San Marino is a small nation - we all know the factoid about how its entire population could fit inside the 2001 Eurovision venue in Copenhagen, The Parken, and still have some seats to spare.  Its broadcaster is obviously not going to have the funds of the big guns of Eurovision (the 'Big Five', Sweden etc) to throw at one or possibly two television shows each year so it has to rely on artists and/or their record labels helping out, at least with transporting them and their entourages to the Eurovision venue, PR and recording.  How much this all costs might appear steep to the uninitiated - after all, you could produce your own song for limited amounts, although professionally this is more likely to run into thousands of pounds but not the amounts quoted in the articles.  To me, it would be fair for a broadcaster to ask for financial assistance during a Eurovision process as the artist themselves will be getting a great deal out of it too - 200 million viewers watching them sing their song, if nothing else.  As for the quality of the performer, it is unlikely that a very rich total amateur would be able to financially 'muscle' their way onto a Eurovision stage and then leave a broadcaster with the stigma of a horrendous performance as a result - isn't it?  I suppose that history has shown us that those with money, like the pay drivers, can 'live the dream' but can end up 'getting burned':



Apologies for not giving you any warning - the legend that was Florence Foster Jenkins needed to be heard at least once so that your appreciation for any professional's singing can be heightened!  I am certain that even the most desperately poor broadcaster around Eurovision would not allow someone like Florence to sully their name but maybe a 'Pedro Diniz' could find their way onto the ESC stage.  Maybe, just maybe, they already have and we are just unaware of it...