News Blaze
May 30 2010

Eurovision Song Contest – Testing Our Musical Limits Again!

By Ian Brockwell

Once again the Eurovision Song Contest provided a mixture of mediocre
musical talents, ranging from not too bad to simply awful!

The special effects were somewhat limited, but included a shower of
lights that reminded me of the recent ash cloud seen over Europe.

Azerbaijan, the bookies favourite, kicked off the show, and whilst the
song was reasonable, there were a few flat notes to consider.

Spain had to contend with a member of the audience joining the
dancers, although many may have thought it was part of the act?
Unfortunately, it made no difference to the quality of the song, which
was pretty poor. Because of the unexpected visitor on stage Spain got
a second chance to perform. However, it didn’t help!

The entry from host’s Norway was only average, as was the song from Moldova.

The offering from Cyprus was likeable and the lead singer Jon
Lilygreen has a good future in the music.

Bosnia and Herzegovina, like many Eastern European countries, chose a
“heavy metal” number, whilst Belgium moved away from the traditional
Eurovision type song which got a good response from the audience.

Serbia’s effort could best be described as awful, with a singer that
looked more like a woman than a man.

The song from Belarus contained more flat notes and the butterfly
costumes were the only positive aspects.

Ireland has a good Eurovision history and their song was well received
by the audience (although not by voters).

“OPA” was the song from Greece, which had a very Greek flavour about
it, but not really much else.

Sadly, the United Kingdom entry was very weak sounding and Josh
Dubovie’s voice was a bit shaky at times. A nice enough song, but not
really good enough to win.

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Georgia will need to make improvements on their effort and Turkey
overdid the strobe lighting. Maybe the strobes had a hypnotic effect,
because they still received a lot of votes.

The Albanian singers voice reminded me a little of Bette Midler, but not bad.

Iceland’s singer created an image of a volcano (at least her dress
did), but the song was good and the audience liked it.

Ukraine’s singer did more shouting than singing, and France provided a
more typical Euro dance song.

The only thing I can say about Romania’s song is “TOO MANY HIGH NOTES!”

I would like to say nicer things about Russia’s entry (as I lived
there for many years), but I must be honest and say I found it very
heavy going. Russia has many talented artists, but the best are
handicapped by a system called “It’s not what you know, but who you
know”. There was a lot of booing for votes given to Russia, but it
isn’t clear why.

Armenia’s singer was beautiful (and wore a nice dress), and the song
contained a mixture of modern and traditional sounds. A good effort
from Armenia.

Germany’s entry was certainly unusual, but very likeable and catchy,
and one of the favourites.

The singer from Portugal was pretty, as was the song. A very powerful entry.

Israel, the only European country not actually in Europe (the last
time I looked), produced a fairly boring song and the singer struggled
with some of the higher notes.

The final song came from Denmark, which seemed to be trying to copy
songs from Sting and Abba…..unsuccessfully! But despite this, they
still collected quite a few votes.

As usual there was a lot of voting for neighbouring countries (but
what’s new), even a change in the voting system couldn’t change that.
However, Germany managed to win this year and was one of the better
songs.

The United Kingdom entry was certainly not the worst on offer, but
sadly finished last. With so much talent available in the UK it makes
you wonder how we fail to find them.

Anyway, we have another year to recover from this contest, but can be
sure of more of the same in 12 months time.

From: A. Papazian