Eurovision liveblog 2012 part 1
An enjoyable opening from Azerbaijan - nice dancing, crazy flashing dancefloor. And the hosts are all dressed in white! Special. I cannot believe they purpose-built a venue for this shindig. Have they not heard of the Athens Olympics?
Now, having greeted viewers in Australia (G'day Oz!) it is time to BEGIN THE CONTEST. And first up is Engelbert for the UK. He's blowing a kiss to the camera - apparently he's been very popular in Azerbaijan. Here's a little video of an art gallery. Cultural!
I rather like this song - it's a gentle, strumming ballad, and Hump has an ideal voice for it - smooth but with a bit of edge. Will he make the high note? HE DOES, and there are FIREWORKS to celebrate! A good performance, But will it be remembered? Engelbert sang in English, of course.
Now we have HUNGARY with a song called Sound of Our Hearts by a group calling themselves Compact Disco. Extra points for the name. It sounds like Depeche Mode spliced with Maroon 5, in a bad way. Seamus likes it, which is the proof of what I say. Darien says it's not memorable, and I agree - there's a lot of synth violins and a performance full of sound and fury, but not a lot going on musically. Not offensive, but not a winner, says this viewer. They sang in English.
Now here's ALBANIA. She's singing in Albanian, so she gets a bonus point from me. It's sort of like a jazz ballad being sung by Bjork, in smoky torch-song mode. She's also wearing a mad vampire dress with coiled dreadlocks on her head. I kind of like this somewhat bonkers effort, but I doubt it will go down well with the Euro voters.
Now we have LITHUANIA, represented by a young man wearing a crystal-studded blindfold. Is it some kind of tribute to the Plastic Oko Band? Anyway, he's called Donny and he's singing about how love is blind. Donny sounds like a reasonable X-Factor contestant - not a bad voice, but nothing we haven't heard already a hundred times. Given that he is singing about blind love while wearing a blindfold, the sofa thinks that at the chorus where he sings "it's tearing me apart", he should be torn apart in a similarly literal way. Oh! Now the blindfold has come off and this has turned from a torch song into a bad disco number, with terrible backing dancers. This couldn't get much worse. I give him half a point for singing this terrible song generally in tune. In English.
Now, having greeted viewers in Australia (G'day Oz!) it is time to BEGIN THE CONTEST. And first up is Engelbert for the UK. He's blowing a kiss to the camera - apparently he's been very popular in Azerbaijan. Here's a little video of an art gallery. Cultural!
I rather like this song - it's a gentle, strumming ballad, and Hump has an ideal voice for it - smooth but with a bit of edge. Will he make the high note? HE DOES, and there are FIREWORKS to celebrate! A good performance, But will it be remembered? Engelbert sang in English, of course.
Now we have HUNGARY with a song called Sound of Our Hearts by a group calling themselves Compact Disco. Extra points for the name. It sounds like Depeche Mode spliced with Maroon 5, in a bad way. Seamus likes it, which is the proof of what I say. Darien says it's not memorable, and I agree - there's a lot of synth violins and a performance full of sound and fury, but not a lot going on musically. Not offensive, but not a winner, says this viewer. They sang in English.
Now here's ALBANIA. She's singing in Albanian, so she gets a bonus point from me. It's sort of like a jazz ballad being sung by Bjork, in smoky torch-song mode. She's also wearing a mad vampire dress with coiled dreadlocks on her head. I kind of like this somewhat bonkers effort, but I doubt it will go down well with the Euro voters.
Now we have LITHUANIA, represented by a young man wearing a crystal-studded blindfold. Is it some kind of tribute to the Plastic Oko Band? Anyway, he's called Donny and he's singing about how love is blind. Donny sounds like a reasonable X-Factor contestant - not a bad voice, but nothing we haven't heard already a hundred times. Given that he is singing about blind love while wearing a blindfold, the sofa thinks that at the chorus where he sings "it's tearing me apart", he should be torn apart in a similarly literal way. Oh! Now the blindfold has come off and this has turned from a torch song into a bad disco number, with terrible backing dancers. This couldn't get much worse. I give him half a point for singing this terrible song generally in tune. In English.