Lopez Blogs: Eurovision Dance Contest

Showing posts with label Eurovision Dance Contest. Show all posts

Tuesday, April 20, 2010

The EuropeCrazy Eurovision 2010 Preview - Part 1

I'm planning to do this in 4 parts, although the next part probably won't appear on here until the weekend. So here is what I think of the first 10 songs in Semi-Final 1.

Moldova: "RUN AWAY" - SUNSTROKE PROJECT & OLIA TIRA: I’m never too thrilled about Moldova at ESC and don’t usually bother with their entries. This is a slice of 90s dance nostalgia, a genre which usually excites me greatly but this doesn’t really do it for me either. Still at least it’s an uptempo start and may grow on me with more listens.

Russia: "LOST AND FORGOTTEN" - PETER NALITCH BAND: Lord have mercy! This is probably one of the more unusual songs in this year’s contest and is therefore worthy of our attention for that reason alone. Well, that and Mr Nalitch’s bewitching brown eyes. Shallow? Moi? I remember reading on another website that this was a joke entry. Draw your own conclusions!

Estonia: "SIREN" - MALCOLM LINCOLN: A country which continues to confound and delight me. The country that brought one of my all-time favourite ESC songs ("Eighties Coming Back") and most recently the mesmerising "Randajad", now treats us to a totally credible indie delight which doesn’t really do it on first hearing, but listen another couple of times and you may possibly love it. As I think I love it a little bit now. As an ESC entry it will probably bomb, but three cheers for them for a daring and different choice.

Slovakia - "HOREHRONIE" - KRISTINA: I know zilch about Slovakian music so couldn’t possibly comment if this is a good example of it or not. What it is another example of is the thumping-drums-and-dance-routines trend which has, for me, dragged the contest down in recent years. Highly derivative, what with the costume change and she even gets lifted in the air, Paparizou-style. However this does have some charm which many of those other drums-and-dancing songs have not.

Finland - "TYOLKI ELLAA" - KUUNKUISKAAJAT: Well of course they should have sent Osmo Ikonen, so I hated this immediately. Still the one thing you can’t accuse the Finns of it predictability. This is completely bonkers, dancing-drunk-at-a-wedding music and I can’t even begin to predict where it will end up. However, a good time had by all.

Latvia - "WHAT FOR" - AISHA: At first I thought this was a tribute song to the French Popstars winners, but it’s a whole lot more philosophical than that. "Only Mr God knows why!" is the conclusion reached by Ms. Aisha. I think this could do quite well, although I said the same about "Hello From Mars". I’ve already come to the conclusion that this year, accordions are the new fiddles. A long way from the glory days of Brainstorm, but it seems to have stuck in my brain after one listen.

Serbia - "OVO JE BALKAN" - MILAN STANKOVIC: from a country which I can’t really stand at Eurovision, purely because of the dreary Zeljko-type songs and one of my most hated winners "Molitva" comes a nice cheerful little foot tapper from, let’s just say, one of the more visually interesting performers (!) With a haircut last seen on the Mike Flowers Pops.

Bosnia & Herzegovina: "THUNDER AND LIGHTNING" - VUKASIN BRAJIC: Inevitably this isn’t remotely as wonderful as last year’s Bosnian song "Bistra Voda" by Regina - however well done to them again for trying something different away from the usual dreary Balkan-ballads. This is a rock song sung in English by a guy who looks a little bit like Calogero (!) I think this could grow on me after a few listens but I’m not sure how it will go with the voters.

Poland: "LEGENDA" - MARCIN MROZINSKI: This song is a bit bizarre - the lyrics suggest it could be the theme tune for some kind of medieval fairytale. As the ‘fairytale’ them is sooooo 2009, I can’t really see this making it out of the semi-final. A bit too over-dramatic for my tastes.

Belgium: "ME AND MY GUITAR" - TOM DICE: I was a bit sad this year that we were denied Flemish-speaking Belgium’s ‘Eurosong’ contest which is always one of my favourites. It was shelved this year in favour of an internal selection - and oh look, here’s another young male singer with, appropriately a guitar. This is a different and daring choice for Belgium, even if it’s too subtle to qualify. This is nice, Mr Dice. But please lose the hat :)

Check back here at the weekend for the next part of my review.

Sunday, September 7, 2008

The Politics of Dancing: Eurovision Dance Contest 2008 review

0 comments Posted by ai at 9:24 AM

The second annual Eurovision Dance Contest took place at the SECC in Glasgow on Saturday night.

I've done a few rather blurry screencaps to illustrate this review, it's not the easiest thing in the world to photograph dancers !!

The hosts were Graham Norton (oh just go on and give him the Wogan Eurovision gig why don’t you, BBC) and Claudia Winkleman (one of the many annoying British TV-females who shamble along in a consistently embarrassing fashion.) Her dress was also shockingly wrong - we couldn’t decide if she was either a descendant of the hunchback of Notre Dame, or she was ready to go into labour. Thankfully she changed into a better dress later on for the voting.

The pre-song postcards were very good too, featuring a bit of background about each pro-celebrity dance couple. The rules this year had changed, as every couple had to have a professional dancer and a non-professional. Some non-professionals were very 'professional' indeed though - we were impressed by the standard tonight.

Firstly, Sweden, represented by Danny Saucedo and his partner Jeanette (pictured above). A good start, although in places Danny appeared curiously static in their dance to "Hung Up". First on is a poor draw position though, and this was maybe reflected in the holding-back score of 31 from the neutral international jury.

Incidentally, I wish the contestants’ names had been displayed on screen and not just their countries!

Austria next (pictured above) with a musical and dancing mixed bag ranging from The Third Man to You Can’t Touch This. They were good fun though, and he kept up that deadpan humour all night, even to those interviews in the green room. 21 points from the jury - no wonder he was deadpan.

On to Denmark, OMG it’s the Twin Peaks theme!! It’s those trousers and bare feet from the lyrical routines on "So You Think You Can Dance" but although that’s not my type of dancing, they were excellent. So fast that they're a blur! (see above) Best so far. The jury thought so too, awarding 48 points.

Britain’s TV commentators were Craig Revel Horwood and Len Goodman from the "Strictly Come Dancing" panel. At this point their commentary was irritating me as much as Ms Winkleman’s frock, but as the night went on I quite enjoyed some of their biting sarcasm.

Newcomers Azerbaijan - with the first professional male dancer of the night - made their mark with a routine to "Phantom of the Opera" and had the ultimate publicity stunt as he proposed to her following their dance which got 42 points from the jury.

Ireland gave us a Riverdance-fusion routine spoiled by awful music which didn’t go with the dancing. 29 points from the jury, which was about right I guess.

Last year’s inaugural winners Finland came back with that most Finnish of dances - the tango, which is a national speciality in that northern country. However, the actress/dancer combination performed well but it was a bit too clinical and lacking in passion. 34 points awarded.

The Netherlands provided a twist. He’s a singer, and he’s singing "Angels" instead. Or at least a bit of it. He was a little static though, and the jury wasn’t too impressed either - 28 points.

Lithuania - the female half of the duo was the first of many to go down the Bucks Fizz route (i.e. Taking off one garment to reveal another) This was a routine of two halves, with the second half being more rewarding. She was good though for a non-professional.

Revel Horwood: "I didn’t like it (the gimmick)" Goodman: "A lot of people don’t like you!"
The jury liked it though: 42 points.

And so to Royaume-Uni, represented by Louisa Lytton and Vincent Simone (pictured above). I’m not being patriotic but I thought they were excellent in their sharp, speedy and dramatic routine to Lee Mead’s version of "Paint It Black". They also went down the dress-ripping Bucks Fizz route. They were undermarked - no, make that robbed - by the jury, I thought. It deserved much more than 34 points.

Next, Russia. Just the mere presence of Russia would be enough of course to guarantee a high placing. Cynical, moi? They were very good though - she’s an ex-Olympic figure skating champion. However I didn’t like their music and the whole thing was a bit overloaded, all drama and throwing their arms around. Commentator "Uncle Len" didn’t like it, but the jury did - 42 points.

I’m not sure if the people of Greece would be too happy to have two Aussies representing them, although I suppose it doesn't really matter - half of the British couple was Italian after all! Like most of the acts it was a bit of a fusion of styles, and I thought it lacked cohesion however the jury liked them and gave them 44. Goodman: "Never trust a man with a sequinned tattoo".

The Portuguese couple looked very nice and danced a dramatic and skilful routine. She’s a fado singer incidentally. Horwood was grumpy about this, but I thought they were undermarked - only 30 - and there was the odd boo heard from the crowd in response to this low mark.

Poland were in with a good chance with their crowd-pleasing routine dancing to Michael Jackson’s "Black or White". Another dress-rip routine. They were very good and the jury thought so too - 40 marks - but best of the night? I didn’t think so. You couldn't write them off though - and dancing second from last was a dream draw.

Finally, Ukraine. She was a gymnast and it showed. Yet another crowd-pleasing routine - a mix of jive and folk (!) They both looked as if they were having fun. Revel Horwood: "too cheesy and open-gobbed".

Following all the dances there was a behind-the-scenes feature which showed Glasgow off very well, and there was another chance to see all of the dancers perform in a group number before the voting started.

The interval act was a good opporunity to go off and do something else. Was Lesley Garrett and the ensemble cast of "Carousel" the best that the Beeb could do? Definitely not my taste - I’d have preferred if, say, they’d got the Joseph and Maria finalists for a medley of musical theatre hits.

On with the voting. I had hoped that the combination of a professional jury system (awarding 25% of the final mark) combined with a reduced number of competitors (14 countries) would maybe help to avoid the neighbour/diaspora voting which has dragged the song contest down in recent years. Umm....no.

Despite Denmark’s top marks from the jury, they soon dropped from the top of the scoreboard once the public voting began, which brought some predictable scoring, e.g.:

Sweden: 12 to Finland.
Azerbaijan: 12 to Ukraine.
Ireland (wasn’t that Brian Ormond from Pop Idol 2 giving the votes?): 12 to Poland.
Finland: 12 to Russia. (Goodman: "I’ll never set foot in Finland again!")

And so on. By 10.00 pm Poland were running - or should I say dancing - away with it. Carol Smillie - herself an ex-Strictly Come Dancing contestant - delivered the UK vote which predictably threw 12 points at Poland, and subsequent votes from other juries delivered the Polish couple victory.

Yes they were good, but you can only wonder if their high votes across Europe could be attributed to the Polish migrant workers’ communities across the continent, who may just have realised the power of the diaspora vote. If that is indeed the case - everyone will have their own view on the matter - then, possibly, get ready for a Polish victory at next year’s ESC.

Don’t think this is sour grapes - I’m not in the business of sour grapes when it comes to any of these contests, and was watching Saturday's show as a determinedly neutral Eurocentric viewer - but it only leaves a bad taste when something as non-political as singing and now dancing becomes an international political barometer of who your friends and neighbours are. Have a look at the final scoreboard (above): the ‘Western’ countries are now firmly in the "no one likes us" camp.

Friday, September 5, 2008

Eurovision Dance Contest tomorrow

0 comments Posted by ai at 3:57 PM

For something on our own doorstep there has been virtually no coverage (at least none that I’m aware of) about the Eurovision Dance Contest which is taking place tomorrow at the SECC in Glasgow.

Two things I do know: 1) the UK will be represented by that little fireball Louisa Lytton (from the series before last of Strictly Come Dancing) and her dancing partner Vincent Simone, dancing a paso doble/tango to Lee Mead’s version of "Paint It Black": fingers crossed that they do it justice. They are drawn 9th out of 14 contestants.

2) Sweden will be represented by ex-Idol contestant and rather fab pop star Danny Saucedo, currently one-third of "Jennie Let Me Love You" hitmakers E.M.D., and dancing partner Jeanette Carlsson, dancing a cha-cha. And they’re on first, not a good draw.

Best of luck anyway to all the contestants and hope it’s a good show. I'll be watching tomorrow night and might even post a review on here (if I can be bothered!!)

Friday, July 4, 2008

It's Danny for Sweden at Eurovision...

0 comments Posted by ai at 11:10 AM

...but if all you Saucedo fans out there will be expecting him to sing then you'll be disappointed. That's because he'll be... dancing.

Yes, Danny and Jeanette Carlsson will be representing Sweden at the second Eurovision Dance Contest which takes place in Glasgow on 6th September.

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