ESC 2009 ranking: Semifinal 1
Wohoo! Only a bit over week for ESC! Here is the first part of my eurovision ranking, the first semifinal. The points are the Finnish school numbers 4-10. Roughly it means: 9 - goodness area, 8 - liking-limit, 7 - boredom area, 6 - headache area. Best are mentioned first, worst are mentioned last. Best ones with links. Enjoy! :)
SEMIFINAL 1 (Tuesday 12.5.2009)
Portugal - I love this for its joy, nice melody and words, it makes me smile: 9 1/2 Video
Israel - this captures my heart, even though I think I sense some arrogance in the first singer, their voices and languages are very pretty, they should have left English out: 9+ Video
Switzerland - this is like a ridiculously well targeted plan to knock me down, and it almost works, but I guess it would work much better in a club than on ESC: 9 Video
Bosnia-Herzegovina - somewhere between very good and boring, traditional B-H entry combined to last year’s San Marino, and why on earth there are guitars on video when you can’t hear them?: 9- Video
Romania - very simple basic pop, but I like singer’s girl power, she’s way more alive than the Turkish singer: 8 1/2 Video
Turkey - this is worse than the recent Turkish entries even though Turks know how to create a package (with nothing inside), not my favourite, it’s too well planned, but people at the official eurodisco will dance to this: 8 1/2
Finland - nothing special, but there’s some dance potential and I somehow like it, I might be non-objective even though I tried to imagine this is Norwegian entry: 8++
Iceland - pretty song, not special enough to succeed very high, but I like it: 8++
Belarus - the singer makes me laugh so I kind of like this, even though it’s lame (even though it’s like combined Dima Bilan, Nightwish and Danny): 8+
Armenia - a bit irritating Ruslana-copy but still kind of nice: 8
Montenegro - basic, not special: 8-
Bulgaria - this is actually one of my favourites because it has crossed the line where ultimate badness becomes entertaining, had to give 2 additional points for the many great laughs: 7 1/2 My favourite performance
Belgium - as an Elvis fan I find it really difficult to decide what to think of this, but it doesn’t make me smile: 7 1/2
Malta - only good thing in this boredom is the voice: 7+
Andorra - nice voice, but forgettable simple pop: 7+
Macedonia - cuteness and guitars don’t save these bros from being very boring: 7-
Sweden - gives me headache, hopefully doesn’t get to final with her voice: 6+
Czech Republic - movie-soundtrack-like, quite a bad mixture for ESC: 6
Semifinal 2 ranking is under construction... And I have a few ideas who might win the whole thing... ;)
PS. It was fun to watch Swedes give points to these songs. Makes me suspect that Swedes have their very own ESC-taste. For example Portugal and Israel were boring in their opinion. Their own song got the highest points, Finland came second.
SEMIFINAL 1 (Tuesday 12.5.2009)
Portugal - I love this for its joy, nice melody and words, it makes me smile: 9 1/2 Video
Israel - this captures my heart, even though I think I sense some arrogance in the first singer, their voices and languages are very pretty, they should have left English out: 9+ Video
Switzerland - this is like a ridiculously well targeted plan to knock me down, and it almost works, but I guess it would work much better in a club than on ESC: 9 Video
Bosnia-Herzegovina - somewhere between very good and boring, traditional B-H entry combined to last year’s San Marino, and why on earth there are guitars on video when you can’t hear them?: 9- Video
Romania - very simple basic pop, but I like singer’s girl power, she’s way more alive than the Turkish singer: 8 1/2 Video
Turkey - this is worse than the recent Turkish entries even though Turks know how to create a package (with nothing inside), not my favourite, it’s too well planned, but people at the official eurodisco will dance to this: 8 1/2
Finland - nothing special, but there’s some dance potential and I somehow like it, I might be non-objective even though I tried to imagine this is Norwegian entry: 8++
Iceland - pretty song, not special enough to succeed very high, but I like it: 8++
Belarus - the singer makes me laugh so I kind of like this, even though it’s lame (even though it’s like combined Dima Bilan, Nightwish and Danny): 8+
Armenia - a bit irritating Ruslana-copy but still kind of nice: 8
Montenegro - basic, not special: 8-
Bulgaria - this is actually one of my favourites because it has crossed the line where ultimate badness becomes entertaining, had to give 2 additional points for the many great laughs: 7 1/2 My favourite performance
Belgium - as an Elvis fan I find it really difficult to decide what to think of this, but it doesn’t make me smile: 7 1/2
Malta - only good thing in this boredom is the voice: 7+
Andorra - nice voice, but forgettable simple pop: 7+
Macedonia - cuteness and guitars don’t save these bros from being very boring: 7-
Sweden - gives me headache, hopefully doesn’t get to final with her voice: 6+
Czech Republic - movie-soundtrack-like, quite a bad mixture for ESC: 6
Semifinal 2 ranking is under construction... And I have a few ideas who might win the whole thing... ;)
PS. It was fun to watch Swedes give points to these songs. Makes me suspect that Swedes have their very own ESC-taste. For example Portugal and Israel were boring in their opinion. Their own song got the highest points, Finland came second.