ESC 2009: Bulgaria, Germany, Hungary, Norway, and the UK

Quite an odd quintet here. First off, there is the Bulgarian entry Illusion performed by Krassimir Avramov. Whatever prejudices or preconceptions one might have a Bulgarian entry are surely going to be met with this one. Krazy Krassy is a male soprano and shrieks his way through a song while the backing singers sing in some of the most heavily accented English this side of the Danube.

All that said, I think this will do well, especially since they throw everything including the kitchen sink onstage.




Germany decided to do an internal selection and the end result was the duo Alex Swings Oscar Sings with the song Miss Kiss Kiss Bang. It's an ambitious effort, but honestly I think Roger Cicero was the better version of German swing. This is just kind of daft, especially with a poor homage to Cab Calloway at the end.


And now we have the first new male eye candy (Sakis has been around this block before) of this year's contest. Some background first: This is the 3rd song selected by Hungary to go to Moscow. The first choice was found out to be a copy of a song originally performed by the Swedish Big Brother contestants, the second choice performer was too busy for Eurovision duty, and now the honour falls upon Adok Zoli with Dance with me. Personally, I hope this one sticks because well: a) He's good looking, and b) the song is pretty good (even though it will need some serious cutting).



It's a folk year in Norway (for some reason Norway always seems to follow a pop song entry with a folk entry the year after), and instead of elves, we have elfin young men playing fiddle with dancers doing Russian cossack inspired dancing. The song is entitled Fairytale and the performer (and composer) is Alexander Rybak. Despite his somewhat cutesy singing, Rybak is no fool. He made sure he has the rights to the song and now stands to get quite a windfall with the song topping the Norwegian charts. Even though I find the song (and Rybak's performance) too cute, it should hold its own in Moscow.



With much fanfare the UK selected Andrew Lloyd Webber (with Diane Warren's help) to compose this year's entry It's My Time. The search for a singer occupied much of January with Jade winning the lot at the end. It's overwrought and bombastic (what a surprise), but Jade and her pageant hair do a decent job with it. I think it'll be a dark horse for a high placing. Win? I don't think so.