Either some parents will get a chocking inoice to pay for the cleaning of their kids practicing their artistic side, or this is the premonition of digging up my street and make my life hell for a long time. Noise and excavated street and side walks. Or the city of Paris actually finally found out where I live and will now offer me a house with a moa, so I am safe. And no, I do not have exaggerated image of my own importance to the world 2021.
But let us go back in time, today, 12 years ago the site Gylleneskor.se (re named Poplight before it died) invited that years Eurovision artists to Stockholm and I was interviewing the ones signed by Warner.
Unlikely 29th of April 2021, this was a sunny & extremely hot day, so running around in Stockholm between venues, resulted in a really shiny face (shiny a nice way to say I sweated like a waterfall).
So welcome to a walk down Memory lane:
Alexander Rybak (Norway)& Björn Nordlund
Soraya (Spain) and Björn Nordlund
Svetlana Loboda (Ukraine) & Alexander Rybak (Norway)
So now its time to finalize this week of most played blogging, as you know the entries in 2020 Eurovision comes from:
Albania, Armenia, Australia, Austria, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Georgia, Germany, Greece, Iceland, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Moldova, North Macedonia, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Russia, San Marino, Serbia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland,The Netherlands, Ukraine and United Kingdom
Albania
Not a country usually on my radar so there are not many of their entries making my private playlists.
“Carry me in your dreams” Kejsi Tola
“Its all about you” Juliana Pasha
“The image of you” Anjeza Shahini
Kejsi Tola “Carry me in your dreams
Belgium
Up and down like a roller coaster, and often when they have really good entries they end up on the wrong side of the score board. No one votes even if the song is good. Belgium is a mystery that way.
“EuroVision” Telex
“1 Life” Xandee
“Love kills” Roberto Bellarosa
Telex “Euro-Vision”
France
Oh, my old love in Eurovision, France. Still going strong and has a stream of lovely songs throughout the years.
“J’ai Cherché” Amir
“L’oiseau et l’enfant” Marie Myriam
“Il faut du temps” Sandrine Francois
Amir “J´ai cherchez”
Germany
Big in Germany, a phrase in the music world that is looked upon a bit like someone look at Mona Lisa, famous but isn’t it more than that. But in Eurovision they have some good times.
Still the Kingdom of Eurovision with their wins in the 90s, kind of they won all of the 90s, but not often on my top 10 in Eurovision.
“Cross your heart” Tina Reynolds
“Why me” Linda Martin
“In your eyes” Niamh Kavanagh
Tina Reynolds “Cross your heart”
Italy
Wow, it is amazing that Italy don’t win every year. Yer after year they present amazing songs climbing the charts outside Italy and many of the artists actually become famous in Europe after the contest.
“No degree of separation” Francesca Michielin
“I Treni de Tozeur” Alice e Battiato
“Grande amore” Il Volo
Portugal
Sadly forgotten in the Eurovision history, but finally won 2017, and well deserved.
“Amar pelos dois” Salvador Sobral
“Danca comigo” Sabrina
“Um grande, grande amor” Jose Cid
Salvador Sobral “Amar pelos dois”
Spain
From Portugal to their neighbors Spain, also a country sadly forgotten today. But so many fantastic entries coming from Spain. At their best when they sound 100% Spanish.
“Bandido” Azucar Moreno
“Quien maneja mi barca” Remedios Amaya
“Dile que la quiero” David Civera
Azúcar Moreno “Bandido”
Switzerland
Not a favorite country for me in Eurovision, and their 2020 entry will be heavily discussed in tomorrows blog post on the 2020 contest entries. But they have had their good times as well.
“Ne partez pas sand moi” Celine Dion
“Mikado” Simone Drexel
“Era stupendo” Paolo Meneguzzi
Celine Dion “Ne partez pas sans moi”
The Netherlands
It feels like Netherlands and Sweden had a lot of the same vibes in the Eurovision in the 80s and 90s, a kind of Swedish Schlager over many of their entries (or if you are Dutch the opposite). But they did not manage to win until 2019 with one of the more , for me, uninteresting winners in Eurovision, “Arcade”.
“I see a star” Mouth and Macneal
“Ding dinge dong” Teach In
“De eerste keer” Franklin Brown and Maxine
Mouth & Macneal “I see a star”
United Kingdom
One of the biggest music markets in the world and still not able to score better in Eurovision, UK is a sad story lately and it seems like whatever path they take its a fail. A it unfair really cause they often better then their placing.
“Ooh Aah Just a little bit” Gina G
“Where are you” Imaani
“Cry Baby” Jemini
Gina G “Just a little bit” “Ooh Aah Just a little bit”
So, that was the most played songs from each country in the Eurovision Song Contest history, all to try to keep some Eurovision feeling in 2020 when the Eurovision Song Contest been cancelled caused by the Corona Pandemic.
Tomorrow I will discuss my ranking of the 2020 entries and wrap this Eurovision week up on Sunday with my personal points on the development of Eurovision. Whats good and what can EBU change to make it more interesting for me. Not everyone will agree but as said, it’s my own opinions.
The former blog post on the most played can be found:
It took a while from the announcement that France won’t have a selection in 2020 (a bad idea if you ask me) and go back to an internal selection and find a song for the singer of their choice Tom Leeb.
I will write abut the French entry in sections, and first of all the singer Tom Leeb. There is actually nothing wrong with Tom Leeb, he is for sure not a Pavarotti but in the crowd of male solo artists, popular today, his voice turns out to be above so many of them. And no one can call him ugly or out of shape which is proven by Google and that three questions about Tom Leeb turn out on top: “Is Tom Leeb married”, “Is Tom Leeb gay” and “Is Tom Leeb married”. Queries usually used for good looking singers. So let’s agree he is not a bad choice for Eurovision.
The song, “The best in me”, what can you say? A formula A1 for a Eurovision ballad from 2015 and forward. Nothing wrong with it but please… We have heard this so many times in Eurovision and to get televotes France need a really special show in Rotterdam otherwise the result will be as for Sweden lately. Jury points and tele voting nada. And mentioning Sweden we get to the next block, “Why not use French song writers”?
Note that the original was in English and penned by the Swedes G:son, Boström and Lundvik and to French it up they decided to add some lines in French and Tom Leeb, Amir Haddad and Lea Ivanne been added to the mix. Seriously 3 people to add 10 lines of French? And with Amir in the mix why don’t look for a song written by him and Nazim instead of using the same Swedes whom fertilize Eurovision with songs every year. With the result that everything sound the same and ends up in a sea of music mainly made to be heard on radio for 12 months and then forgotten.
I hope, deep in my soul, that France for once take notice of Eurovision and people get a bit upset. The French language Academy, if not go Yellow west angry, at least point out that this years song is not French enough and French composers get together and write about all the fact that there are French composers out there.
It won’t happen cause Eurovision is till look on as a strange thing in France, something that the two last years selections almost started to chance. So to go back to internal selection is a pity.
So where will France end up on May? As said the song isn’t bad but since we heard it before, over and over, it actually will depend on other things.
How many songs will composed by the same composers in the same style
The “show”
How many ballads will be in the “Grand finale” in May
So now, before all countries made their selections, I don’t think Paris will host Eurovision in 2021.
Note that I guess Malta, Cyprus, Austria, Bulgaria, Azerbaijan, Russia, UK, Ireland and Estonia most likely will enter with songs written by Swedish composers, and at least 50% of them by G:son.
Way back I posted a blog post on the fact that I think that people reading (or at least visiting) my blog comes from strange places to visit my website.
There is, let us say, no connection what so ever…
And again, a few months later we have a new scenario
USA? Ukraine? I can say I can see a connection between myself and Sweden and France but China?
SuRie nailed it and a stupid guy (sounded to be English) run up on the stage and steal the microphone. Just to destroy it for a singer who most likely experience her biggest moment.
I can´t write what I really want to say cause I do not have a “only +18 year old rule on my site, but it is a dreadful.
