Want to see these? Go to Eurovision.tv.
Iceland: Iceland is pretty...very pretty (in a bleak David Lynch way). The same can not be said of Eirikur who drives around rural Iceland in his vintage car, wailing about some sort of lost love amongst a whole bunch of other cliched notions that were best left behind in the Eighties. As rock ballads go, it's quite good, until you get to the visual part of it. Fortunately, the director chose to feature the landscape more than the singer. (Let's be honest here, he's not aged well.) Adequate job.
Ireland: The one saving grace of the dire Irish entries was that their preview videos if not bleak per se, were very darkly cynical interpretations. The current spate of Irish entries, however, have been so syrupy sweet that they make you want to check your mouth for tooth decay. This year is no different: happy multicultural children paint a portrait, while the Dervish drone on in the background in yet another round of cliched weather-related metaphors about perseverance. By the way, the woman singing is nearly incomprehensible to my ears.
Israel: Finally something cynical and funny! I'm guessing this is mostly the "Kdam" performance on display here, but since IBA's financial woes have been well-publicised, I don't blame them for being cheap. Gets the message (nuclear armageddon) across effectively, but no great shakes video-wise.
Latvia: National final performance (CHEAP!). Blah blah blah men in top hats. Blah blah blah singing in Italian. Blah Blah blah come back Arnis Mednis, all is forgiven.
Lithuania: LRT had a bit more money to spare so 4Fun has a bit of an original video, if not that much of an original song. (Sade would knock this out of the ballpark, the lead singer of 4Fun...not so much.) Interestingly, the relative anonymity of the rest of 4Fun is rather fascinating...for about 30 seconds. By the way, how short is this song?! It seemed like it was over right after starting.
Malta: Since I'm a cynical person, I would say that the video is a near ripoff of Tornero (Romania 2006) and Life Is (Macedonia 2004) with the whole "bizarre bazaar" chic, but at least we're not getting a tourist board advert for Malta. Anyway, Olivia runs away from or stalks a very swarthy good-looking man. It's all very hard to figure out, yet given the lyrics, I'd say that's the intended effect. Fair effort.
Moldova: Now we all know that Moldovan television was so hard up that they basically said that whoever represented them would basically be paying their own way. So I guess that either Natalia or her management company is flush with cash, since she has an original video. It starts out with bleak (boy, does that word apply a lot to this year's previews) shots of what I'm guessing is Chisnau while Natalia plays the violin. Then there's fire! A running mob of mid-level businessmen in ties! It seems to suggest that that Natalia is singing about fighting "the man," however this possible ode to worker's rights is interrupted by glamour shots of Natalia. Quite a misfire there, as I was actually beginning to change my opinion about this knock off of La Podolskaya's 2005 effort for Russia.
Montenegro: So you're a newly independent country and you have your first (legitimate) entry at Eurovision, what do you do for your preview video? You borrow heavily from Van Halen's I can't drive 55, Easy Rider, The Graduate, and practically all of Robert Palmer's solo efforts. Stevan & Co. motorcycle around Montenegro (which I will say is a great backdrop) like it's 1988. This is interspersed with shots of a woman in white (is she wearing a very trashy wedding dress or just hooker gear?) pouting. If Stevan looked like Robert Palmer, I'd forgive him somewhat, but he doesn't (think Constantine Maroulis if you're prurient, Jeff Palmer if you're not). Adequate but unbelievably dated for 2007.
Next time: N is for Nicer than you, P is for Playing it Safe, and R is for Ridiculous.
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