Better late than never, here are the next round of Eurovision previews, courtesy of Eurovision.tv.
Belarus: Probably one of the most lavishly done videos (I'm not saying a word about the irony of this being the Belorussian entry...not one) this year. Were it not for the slight singing accent of Dima Not Bilan (my god, you can actually understand what the Belorussians are saying), this could pass as the UK entry with all the James Bond-esque cinematography and a queen looking suspiciously like Elizabeth I (with kabuki maidens for some odd reason. It's Belarus, who said logic applies?). Not Bilan's handlers must've got the memo that he was looking too much like the real Bilan, because he now is trying to look like Sakis Rouvas--not a good idea as a certain Cypriot entrant in 2005 would attest to. Anyway, the storyline seems to be a retread of Snow White with a woman in a red dress trying to stay safe from Queen Bess/Maleficent. (Who cares if Maleficent is from Sleeping Beauty?) Not Bilan appears to have nothing to do with the storyline except look pretty while Red Dress runs across the set like a buxom blonde in a horror movie.
Belgium: Live performance, which makes some sense. Even though there is an actual video, the song is so "funkadelic" (an aspect that really isn't captured in the real video), that the myriad of colours used during the RTBF live performance is the better option. That said, I like the song and I would've liked it if they went for an acid-freakout video. Slightly related: At this corner of the internet, the lead singer of the KMGs is a candidate for sexiest man of this year's contest, Not Bilan isn't even close.
Bosnia-Herzegovina: Marija's a chorine. Marija's a longshoreman in a lacy cap. Violinists on a rusty ship, while the crew plays volleyball? Is there some sort of veiled drug reference in this song that I'm not getting? Meditative, I get, but this is verging on absurd.
Bulgaria: Girl (not in the gender specific sense in this case), you'd better beat those drums! So Elitsa has black wings and apparently causes thunderstorms. She then flies as the song goes all techno. Sistem for 2007? I think so. Although I'm certain members of both sexes and most sexual orientations will miss the old softcore porn that made up the previous two Bulgarian previews.
Croatia: Dora performance. Excuse me, Bulgaria and Belarus have proper videos and Croatia doesn't? Is HRT trying to plead poverty this year or is it just lack of faith in the entry? Might very well be a mix of both frankly. This song is dull, dull, dull and I actually like a soul song with a strong bass line. The woman singing lead kicks ass, but then Daddy Topic just has to get his lines in and the whole vibe goes screwy. Give him a severance package, make it all Dragonfly and then get back to me.
Cyprus: Ok, I'll get it over with right now. WHO DRESSED THE DIKI? She looks like she's taking a break from being a Japanese idol singer...in 1986. Oh well, it works with this very synthclash song (which I like very much, and would be happy if it won). The rest of the video seems to be a unisex mascara commercial....which is why The Diki and Co. are singing in an abandoned ballroom?
Czech Republic: National final performance (after all that CT has been through, I don't blame them, unlike HRT). Even though the Slovaks sent a "rock" band as their debut entry as well, there's a metaphorical ocean of differences here. Main one being that at least Martin Durinda was singing and not doing some vocally enhanced version of growling. Actually, this is not a bad song at all, it's just that I wish it was an instrumental. O Lordi, what have you wrought? (By the way, I hope those dazed go-go "Eurosong" girls are not included at the ESC performance. They looked like they were going into sugar shock instead of dancing.)
Denmark: DR are you pleading poverty too? All the creative talent working in Danish film and television and the only idea you come up with is to have DQ dressed in various monocolour outfits in different colours while 2 men and 2 women fail their arms in various black & white getups. The song is called Drama Queen and you have a drag queen singing it FOR EUROVISION, one of the most camp television events in the world. I'm sorry, but you have to step up your game here people, because you dropped the ball video-wise.
Estonia: Eurolaul performance (I think it is, since that would be par for course with ETV). Gerli "Not Pink, Not Sharon Osbourne" Padar is carried in on a chair by some male dancers would then fail themselves about in modern dance. Gerli joins them for a bit and it looks...matronly, which is at odds with both her voice and the tone of the song. The choreography is also at odds with the song as well, since it would be more at home as an 11 o'clock number in a musical than in a rock ode to co-dependency. If I'm not mistaken, I do believe Gerli & The Boys are doing jazz hands towards the end of the chorus. Oddly enough this makes the song more livilier than the previous (if more plausible) version I saw which just featured Gerli and a backing band.
Next time: F is for Fun Times, G is for Go On With Your Bad Self, and H is for Hell.
2 comments:
Belarus is really putting some budget and effort behind ESC like previous years, but why oh why do they have to ruin an ok song by singing clichés in broken English? Arrgh..
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But really cool song from Bulgaria, finally some heavytech in Eurovision but that kind of Safri Duo style drumming is maybe already passé, we'll see.
And daring for Cyprus to sing in French, seems to be a bit of a theme this year?
I'm still reeling from the shock of being able to understand the Belorussian entry.
Are they finally getting diction lessons?
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