Eurovision 2008
So, Anime North this year happened to be at the same time as the Eurovision finals, so I didn't get to watch the finals live, but that's what youtube is for. Rather liked most of the winners this year, though I wasn't overly impressed with Armenia's entry. "Deli", the entry for Turkey, is definitely my favorite overall, though the entries for Azerbaijan and Bosnia get bonus points for cracked out performances. For anyone who's interested here's videos for the top ten finalists.
Winner - Russia - "Believe" by Dima Bilan (in English) Video
2nd place - Ukraine - "Shady Lady" by Ani Lorak (in English) Video
3rd place - Greece - "Secret Combination" by Kalomira (also in English) Video
4th place - Armenia - "Qele, Qele" by Sirusho (in English and Armenia) Video
5th place - Norway - "Hold on Be Strong" by Maria Haukaas Storeng (in English) Video
6th place - Serbia - "Oro" by Jelena Tomasevic featuring Bora Dugic (in Serbian) Video
7th place - Turkey - "Deli" by Mor ve Otesi (in Turkish) Video
8th place - Azerbaijan - "Day after Day" by Elnur and Samir (in English) Video
9th place - Israel - "The Fire in Your Eyes" by Boaz (in English and Hebrew) Video
10th place - Bosnia and Herzegovina - "Pokusaj" by Laka (in Bosnian) Video
Other honorable mentions (or at least ones I liked):
12th place - Latvia - "Wolves of the Sea" by Pirates of the Sea (in English) Video
14th place - Iceland - "This is My Life" by Euroband (in English) Video
17th place - Albania - "Zemren E Lame Peng" by Olta Boka (in Albanian) Video
18th place - Sweden - "Hero" by Charlotte Perrelli (in English) Video
23rd place - Germany - "Disappear" by No Angels Video
And, because it's very awesome, the actual music video for "Deli" (insane) is here.
For those of you who may not have heard of Eurovision before, think American Idol where instead of individuals competing, you have bands nominated by each (or at least most) of the countries in Europe. So, within each country there's a country there's a competition to choose their one song/band. Then those bands or singers compete in one of two Semi-finals. The winners of the Semi-finals then go on to the finals, which is (usually) hosted by the winning country from the previous year and has five 'seeds', the previous year's winner, France, Germany, Spain, and the United Kingdom. This year they started with a live video feed of the semifinals and finals, but as they were on at 3pm our time, I couldn't really catch them this week...
Winner - Russia - "Believe" by Dima Bilan (in English) Video
2nd place - Ukraine - "Shady Lady" by Ani Lorak (in English) Video
3rd place - Greece - "Secret Combination" by Kalomira (also in English) Video
4th place - Armenia - "Qele, Qele" by Sirusho (in English and Armenia) Video
5th place - Norway - "Hold on Be Strong" by Maria Haukaas Storeng (in English) Video
6th place - Serbia - "Oro" by Jelena Tomasevic featuring Bora Dugic (in Serbian) Video
7th place - Turkey - "Deli" by Mor ve Otesi (in Turkish) Video
8th place - Azerbaijan - "Day after Day" by Elnur and Samir (in English) Video
9th place - Israel - "The Fire in Your Eyes" by Boaz (in English and Hebrew) Video
10th place - Bosnia and Herzegovina - "Pokusaj" by Laka (in Bosnian) Video
Other honorable mentions (or at least ones I liked):
12th place - Latvia - "Wolves of the Sea" by Pirates of the Sea (in English) Video
14th place - Iceland - "This is My Life" by Euroband (in English) Video
17th place - Albania - "Zemren E Lame Peng" by Olta Boka (in Albanian) Video
18th place - Sweden - "Hero" by Charlotte Perrelli (in English) Video
23rd place - Germany - "Disappear" by No Angels Video
And, because it's very awesome, the actual music video for "Deli" (insane) is here.
For those of you who may not have heard of Eurovision before, think American Idol where instead of individuals competing, you have bands nominated by each (or at least most) of the countries in Europe. So, within each country there's a country there's a competition to choose their one song/band. Then those bands or singers compete in one of two Semi-finals. The winners of the Semi-finals then go on to the finals, which is (usually) hosted by the winning country from the previous year and has five 'seeds', the previous year's winner, France, Germany, Spain, and the United Kingdom. This year they started with a live video feed of the semifinals and finals, but as they were on at 3pm our time, I couldn't really catch them this week...