Introducing: Moldova 2013

Today, we shall take a look at the Moldovan entry to this year’s Eurovision Song Contest! Moldova is singing Aliona Moon to sing her

Aliona will represent Moldova in Eurovision

song “O Mie” in twelfth position in the first semi-final on the 14th of May, following Belarus and preceding Ireland.

Moldova’s national final wasn’t changed since last year, so this year, Moldova chose its entrant through O Melodie Pentru Europa. In January of this year, TRM revealed that over 120 songs that were sent to them to hopefully represent the county in Sweden, but by the end of the selection before the semi-finals, this number was slashed to 24. These 24 songs were allocated into two semi-finals, where seven songs from each semi-final would qualify for the grand final on the 16th of March. There, a 50/50 combination of the Moldovan public’s televotes and the jury would choose the representative of their country in May. Aliona was the winner, as she got the maximum points from the jury and was given 10 out of a possible 12 points giving her a 2 point margin between her and the second place. She will represent Moldova in Eurovision, but she is not a stranger to the Contest, as she was a backing vocalist of Pasha Parfeny, who represented the country the year before. Parfeny, curiously enough, composed the song itself!

“O Mie”, or “A Thousand” in English, is a power-ballad sung in Romanian. The song was in English

Reaction the song has been very positive

in the national final, but was changed to Romanian instead. The lyrics talk about a failed relationship and, in particular, the break-up. Aliona describes in the first verse all the things that they’d seen and done, when she and her partner were together. Then, as the chorus begins, Moon reveals that all that the pair could see in the sky were clouds and not the beautiful colours that the sun and rain made. In the second verse, Aliona admits that she’s still hurting from the split, but says that she wants to have a new beginning. The chorus is repeated and then she lets out her anger in the build up to the last repetition of the chorus, in the line Credeam în visele mari, dar ai ales sa dispari ( I believed in big dreams, but you chose to vanish). Then the chorus is repeated once more and the song is over. Here are fans’ opinions:

Amazing! 10/10 – Nijat from Azerbaijan

 

It’s SHAMAZING! 10/10 – Đorđe from Bosnia and Herzegovina

 

 Great voice, awesome song and she sings in a beautiful language, 9.5/10 – Seth from the Netherlands

 

Decent song, but that’s pretty much it, 6/10 – Paulo from Portugal

 

Introducing: Malta 2013

Today, we shall take a look at the Maltese entry in this year’s Eurovision Song Contest. Malta is sending Gianluca Bezzina to sing his song “Tomorrow” in sixth position in the second semi-final on the 16th of May, following Finland and preceding Bulgaria.

Gianluca is represent Malta in Sweden.

Malta decided to stick with their normal national final system, the Malta Eurovision Song Contest system. PBS opened the song submission in September and in November, PBS announced they had received over 180 songs, 69 of which were selected to go to the second phase of the selection. In December, the 24 candidate songs were released and were put into the semi-final. The semi-final was over 4 hours long and produced 16 finalists, who would proceed to the final which would be held the following day. There, the jury’s vote would account for 7/8 of the vote, an eight for each member on the jury, and the Maltese public’s vote would provide the missing 1/8. Gianluca received 82 of a possible 84 points from the jury and 10 out of a possible 12 from the public and this result meant that he had won the competition and he would represent Malta in Eurovision.

Reaction to the song is mixed.

“Tomorrow” is a pop/indie song that tells the story of a man whose name is Jeremy. His life is relatively not quite interesting until he meets a woman, who he falls in love with and, much to the surprise of others, forms a relationship with the woman and his life isn’t so dull anymore. Gianluca opens up the song describing Jeremy, a man who works in IT who is a little shy and sensitive. The second part of the first verse describes the woman will change Jeremy. According to Bezzina, she is “spontaneous, indeed” and “just a curious delight”. Then, as the comes in, Bezzina describes her as being “like tomorrow, oh so distant, she just wants to play/ Like tomorrow, she is always one day away.” As the second verse begins, we can see the progress of the relationship between Jeremy and this woman. Jeremy fell in love with her, but he knows that she’ll be his “tomorrow”. Then the chorus is repeated four more times and the song ends. Here’s fans’ opinions:

Good song, but I don’t admire it. 5/10 – Mikhail from Russia

Very average, 4/10 – Mateusz from Poland

Cheesy, awful song. 4/10 – Seth from the Netherlands

Old fashioned, 4/10 – Jon from Spain

Introducing: Lithuania 2013

In the twenty-fourth installment of the “Introducing” series, we shall take a look at the Lithuanian entry in this year’s Eurovision Song Contest. Lithuania is sending Andrius Pojavis to sing his song “Something” in tenth position in the first semi-final, following Montenegro and preceding Belarus.

Andrius will represent Lithuania in Eurovision.

Lithuania stuck with their normal national final system of “Lietuvos Dainų Daina”. LRT released the thirty-nine songs that would hopefully represent the country in Sweden. These 39 songs were allocated into 5 heats, where three songs would qualify from each heats to go to the two semi-finals, where there, four songs would qualify for the grand final. Sadly, one of the finalists, Monika Linkytė, had to withdraw due to a laryngitis infection, so seven songs were in the running to win the ticket to represent Lithuania. The winning song would be chosen by a 50/50 combination of the Lithuanian public and a jury. The top three songs after the combination would progress to the super-final, where the winning song would be announced. This was the fate of Pojavis, who received the top points from both the jury and the public and easily won the super-final and will represent Lithuania in Malmö.

The song has receive mixed views, most of which have been negative.

“Something” is a pop song with a little influence of rock, sung in English. The lyrics talk about a man who is shy of admitting his love to a girl he likes, but he is unsure if she like him back. Pojavis opens the song saying that he “has to tell her something”, that he has to “get it off his chest”. Then as chorus drops in, he blurts out the words: “If you don’t know, I’m in love with you.”, but the last lines in the chorus reveals a dark-ish side to love: “Because of the shoes I’m wearing today/One is called Love, the other is Pain”. As the second chorus begins, Andrius asks her if he’s “in her head” and “in her heart”, because he needs to know if his feeling are reciprocated by her. Then the chorus is repeated twice more and the song is over. Here are fan’s opinions:

I don’t like it that much because of his act on stage, 3/10 – Adrián from Spain

Harmless but forgettable. I don’t mind it, but it’s going nowhere. 4/10 – James from England

Boring, 1/10 – Davíð from Iceland

Introducing: Latvia 2013

Today, we shall take a look at the Latvian participant in this year’s Eurovision Song Contest. Latvia is sending the group PeR to sing their song “Here We Go” in Malmö.

PeR will represent Latvia in Malmö.

Latvia will be opening the second semi-final on the 16th of May, to be followed by Valentina Monetta of San Marino.

Latvia stayed with their typical national final system this year, the Eurodziesma system. On the 11th of December, LTV officially revealed the 24 songs that would compete in this year’s competition. These 24 songs were allocated into two semi-finals on the 15th of January. From these semi-finals, six songs would qualify to the grand final, where a combination of televoting by the Latvian public and a nine member jury would ultimately win the competition and go to Eurovision for Latvia. Some artists had two songs put through to the semi-finals, as was the case of PeR, whose two songs qualified for the grand final. Once in the final, one of their songs, “Sad Trumpet”, was not chosen to be a super-finalist, but their other song, “Here We Go”, qualified and eventually won the show, coming in first place while having the least amount of points (In the super-final, the song with the least amount of points would win the whole show).

reaction to the song has mostly been negative.

“Here We Go” is a pop song that is rapped by group member Ralfs Eilands, but the chorus is sung by the group. The lyrics talk about someone’s battle with themselves, but the singer shows his determination to beat the bad thoughts eventually triumphs. The song is opened with the chorus, then Eilands jumps in as the first verse begins. He raps that he needs “starlight” because he’s never “had a day without a fight” and he gives a description of some of the things that he does during this struggle. The chorus drops in again and then Eilands begins the second verse, referring to his thoughts as people in his “house”, that there’s too many of them in his mind, but he’s determined to get through them all in the end and that he’ll get through it. The chorus is repeated twice more and the song ends. Here’s fans’ opinions:

Not a very good song, they won’t make it to the final, 3/10 – Rory from Ireland

Cheap song, no originality, no idea. About nothing. Samanta, please!!! 4/10 – Honza from the Czech Republic

It’s different, it could be stronger. 8/10 – Jon from Spain

Introducing: Italy 2013

Today, we shall take a look at the third of the Big Six countries that are already qualified for the Grand Final; Italy. This year, Italy is sending Marco Mengoni so sing his

Marco is representing Italy in the final.

song “L’essenziale” on the 18th of May, but we are unaware of his starting position, but the position will be drawn at his first press conference after his first rehearsal in Malmö.

Since Italy came back to the Contest in 2011, they have been in the top 10 twice in a row, and this year, they decided to stick with their national final system; the Sanremo Festival. The festival is actually a completely different competition, but the singer or group that wins the festival is normally the act that will represent the country in the Eurovision Song Contest and this year was no exception. Marco Mengoni won the whole competition with the song “L’essenziale” and he will represent the country with this song. There were doubts that Mengoni would sing the song and would have to record a new song, but it was confirmed on the 18th of March that he would sing the song he won the Festival with.

L’essenziale has received mixed views.

“L’esssenziale”, or “The Essentials” in English, is a ballad sung in Italian. The lyrics talk about someone who escapes the problems of the world and creates places of paradise for him and his lover. Marco starts off the song saying: “Sostengono gli eroi / ‘Se il gioco si fa duro, è da giocare’ (Heroes say / “If the game is hard, you have to play it“)” continuing to say that like us, they too confuse insults with the good. Then as the chorus starts, Marco reveals that he has made a getaway land where they can go while the world is crumbling to pieces. In the second verse, Mengoni declares that won’t be accepting any more errors in love, because he’s been hurt too many times. The chorus is repeated four more times and the song is over. Here are fans opinions:

Very boring, I can’t describe it any better. 2/10 – Davíð from Iceland

It’s great! I love it! 10/10 – Xabier from Mexico

 It’s a bit boring but I think because it’s *Italy* people like it, 5/10 – Padraic from the UK

It’s not my type of song, I don’t like it. 4/10 – Can from Turkey

Introducing: Israel 2013

We are just over halfway in our journey through each of the countries that are participating in this year’s Eurovision Song Contest! Today, it’s the turn of the Israeli

Moran Mazor is going to Eurovision

participant to be “introduced”. Israel is sending Moran Mazor to sing her song “Rak bishvilo” in tenth position in the second semi-final, following Greek and preceding Armenia.

Israel decide to stay with their national final system, Kdam, but this year they had changed the format of the selection, which included the three semi-finals, a second chance round and the final. On the 29th of January, the 30 songs were disclosed. These 30 songs were allocated in three semi-finals, where three songs would directly qualify for the final. A fourth qualifier was sent to the second chance round, where they would compete for the last spot in the final. In the first semi-final, one of the singers that directly qualified for the final withdrew and so two songs from the second chance round were allowed to the final, instead of one. In the final, the winning song would be chosen by a 50/50 combination of SMS voting by the public and a five member jury. Moran received the top score from the SMS voting, along with another contestant, but she received the most amount of points from the jury and, therefore, she had won Kdam 2013.

“Rak Bishvilo” has received mostly positive reviews.

“Rak bishvilo”, or “Only for him” in English, is a power ballad in Hebrew. The lyrics talk of a woman who is in love with a man, and she would do absolutely anything for him. He is like the answer to all her problems and questions. Moran sings “The rain stops again at night/ Trying to steal a smile from his lips”. She then sings the lines that make the man sound very reclusive; “How much the silence says and how much it hides / How much truth left between all the wondering”.  Then, the chorus begins and Moran sings that “Only for him could the cold be forgotten […] Only for him will I cross the borders /Only for him will I know the answers to questions.” In the second verse, the theme of not knowing is continued “How many tears have fallen and how many are left? /How many hopes were promised and how many were broken?” The chorus is repeated three times after that, with a key change at the beginning of the second repetition of the chorus. Here are fan’s opinions:

yeah sure – I still wish Israel had picked Shany Zamir, but this is a decent enough ballad by an unbelievable singer, deserves to do well, 6/10  – James from England

Israel is very nice this year! I love the song, she has an amazing voice. 7/10 – Adrián from Spain

It’s good but pretty forgettable, I do enjoy when I listen to it, but I don’t ever actually have any urges to listen to it like I do with some of the other entries, 6/10 – Luke from the UK

Professionally produced, but I personally feel that it lacks some degree of depth to make it more connectable to the audience. 6/10 – Brandon from Northern Ireland

Introducing: Ireland 2013

Today, we shall take a look at this year’s Irish entry to the Eurovision Song Contest. Ireland is sending Ryan Dolan to sing his song

Ryan Dolan (right) celebrating with host Ryan Tubirdy

“Only Love Survives” in thirteenth position in the first semi-final, following Moldova preceding Cyprus.

This year, Ireland decided to stick with it’s national final system of “Eurosong”, where five songs would compete in the hope of being sent to Sweden for Eurovision. The national final took place on the 22nd of February in a special edition of the popular chat show “The Late Late Show”. The winning song would be chosen by a combination of the public’s televoting and juries that were all around the country. After the juries had given their points, Aimée was in the lead, with Ryan only two points behind, but the public thought that Ryan’s song was better than Aimée’s and gave him the maximum points and he won by only a margin of eight points. So, Strabane- born Dolan will represent Ireland in Eurovision.

Reaction to ‘Only Love Survives’ has been mostly positive.

“Only Love Survives” is, what Dolan described in an interview with WiwiBloggs, “a hardcore dance track”. The lyrics talk of rebirth, as the lyrics depict in the first verse; “But in our darkest hour, Right before the dawn / The old world dies, the new day is born”. Then the chorus drops in, the lyrics then talk about living life to the full; “We’re gonna live like it’s our last night alive /And we’re dancing till the morning light […] In the end, only love survives”. Then the main chorus starts and Ryan sings “Just be loved.. only loved, we are loved, only loved”. Here are some opinions:

I like the song. It will pass to grand final! 9/10 – Elnur from Azerbaijan

It’s a fine pop song, that doesn’t really stand out, even if the lyrics are amazing (be loved, be loved, so be loved, love) 7/10 – Rigmo from Estonia

I love it, I just listened to it on my iPod, 9/10 – Alexandru from Romania

Very happy and catchy song, finally NO Jedward. 8/10 – Honza from Czech Republic

Introducing: Iceland 2013

In the eighteenth installment of the “Introducing” series, we shall take a look at the Icelandic entry to this year’s Eurovision Song

Eythor is represent Iceland in Malmo

Contest. Iceland is sending Eyþór Ingi Gunnlaugsson to sing his song “Ég á líf” in eight position in the second semi-final, following Bulgaria and preceding Greece.

Iceland decided to stick with the “Söngvakeppnin” national final system and revealed the 12 potential songs that could represent the country on the 12th of November last year. These 12 songs were allocated into two semi-finals, where three songs from each semi-final would qualify to final. In the final, the top two songs would progress to the “super-final” where the winning song would be crowned. Eyþór was in the super-final with Unnur Eggertsdóttir, it was Eyþór that won the hearts of the Icelandic public and was the winner of Söngvakeppnin 2013.

“Ég á líf”, literally “I’m Alive” in English, is a ballad in Icelandic. The lyrics talk of a man who is telling their partner that they are the reason they are living. Eyþór opens the song saying he set off on “that” journey. He says that he thought nothing of it, not until the day afterwards, when he chose peace and tranquility. The chorus then begins and he sings that he has a life because of his partner and what he’d do to get to her (If winds blow hard, I’d climb the highest mountain). As the song progresses, Eyþór admits that he was too afraid

Reaction to “Ég á líf” has been mixed

to embrace the love that touches all, but he’s able now, thanks to his loved one. The chorus is repeated again and then a key change happens when the final chorus is sung. Here is the fans’ opinions:

It’s a nice song! I’d give it a 7/10 – Rachel from Ireland

 

It’s pretty bad, most boring song of this year, I find my mind just wandering off to other stuff when I’m listening to it, 2/10 – Luke from England

 

Boring song! The worst Scandinavian entry of this year, 4/10 – Syoma from Armenia

 

It’s GREAT! I love it. 9/10 – Wim from the Netherlands

 

Introducing: Hungary 2013

Today, we shall take a look at the Hungarian entry at this year’s Eurovision Song Contest. Hungary is sending ByeAlex to sing the song

ByeAlex is going to represent Hungary in Sweden.

“Kedvesem” in twelfth position in the second semi-final on the 16th of May, following Armenia and preceding Norway.

Hungary decided this year to stick with the “A Dal” national final system, presenting the top thirty songs on the 10th of January. The winning song was to be chosen by a 50/50 combination of both the public and a five member jury that included the lead singer of Compacrt Disco, the band that represented the country in Baku the year before. These songs were allocated into heats, where six would qualify from each heat to two semi-finals. There, four songs from each semi-final qualified for the final. The final produced the most unlikely winner; ByeAlex, who wasn’t the fans’ favourite, that was left to Gigi Radics. Anyway, ByeAlex will represent Hungary in Eurovision on the 16th of May.

Reaction to “Kedvesem” has been positive.

“Kedvesem”, which means “My Darling” in English, is a pop/indie song in Hungarian. The lyrics of the song is describing all the perfect things about his partner. According to Alex, his darling “was raised by wolves and dances with dandelions” and “embraces the seven continents; plunges into seas and dances up among the clouds”, and as the chorus begins, Alex says that she’s the only one for him and he knows that she’ll never get lost, she’ll always return to him. As the second verse goes on, Alex talks more of the perfect things his darling does and the final chorus is played until the song is over. Here are fans opinions:

It grew on me, but still not my qualifier, 6/10 – Seth from the Netherlands

If you searched “hipster” in the dictionary, this song should come up, but it’s rather cute 7/10 – Rigmo from Estonia

Oh my god, it’s just….. wow! 10/10 – Sami from Azerbaijan

I like the song, it’s very nice. 9/10 – Jacek from Poland

Introducing: Greece 2013

Today, we shall take a look at the Greek entry in this year’s Eurovision Song Contest. Greece is sending the band Koza Mostra along with tradition Greek singer Agathonas

Koza Mostra is going to represent Greece in Eurovision along with Agathonos

Iakovidis to sing their song “Alcohol Is Free” in ninth position in the second semi-final, following Iceland and preceding Israel.

 

This year, ERT decided to share broadcasting rights with another Greek TV channel, MADTV. ERT announced that MADTV would handle the selection of artists. On the 18th of February, the national final took place in Athens. There were four songs in the running; two in English and two in Greek. During the show, we saw performances by past winners, including the 2005 winner for the country, Helena Paparizou. As well as these, the Cypriot representative Despina Olympiou sang her song: “An Me Thimase”. But in the end, the night belonged to the band in kilts and the rebetiko singer. They will sing “Alcohol Is Free” in the second semi-final, on the 16th of May.

 

Greece is considered to be the joke entry here.

“Alcohol Is Free” is a pop song in Greek, apart from the chorus where the title of the song is repeated. The song’s lyrics describe a night out and the band having fun, but the song contains metaphors of the Greek and European debt crises, and the band try to get away from these problems, but they are unable to and find themselves lost in the “sea”. The song is being called this year’s joke entry, like Kreisiraadio in 2008 and the Teapacks in 2007. But who knows? Let’s hear people’s thoughts!

I can’t understand it, but it’s a good song and it sounds great! 8/10 – Aslihan from Turkey

 

Funny and catchy song, something different from last years. 7/10 – Honza from the Czech Republic

 

A secret favourite of mine, 7/10 – Michalis from Cyprus

 

I’m not a fan of the song – there were better songs in that NF! 4/10 – Jack from the UK