EPTSemi-final 1
Semi-final 2
(Most of the songs in here are also covered separately in one of those, sometimes at greater length.)
Note: this sat around as a draft for a year and a half. I decided to dig it out and post it, but it's been so long since I listened to these songs that I didn't want to start tinkering with my ranking. I kept the top 8 that I had already ranked and sorted the others that I liked into a few categories.
Some of the videos linked below might be offline by now.
Although only 5 songs were new to the final: those of the 4 biggest contributors to the EUB: UK, Germany, France, and Spain, as well as that of the host country/last year's winner, Russia, I listened to all the songs, anyway, to see what their final performance was like. Well, all the songs that would have been in my final anyway--I don't care about the others.
All 25 songs that made my "final", with descriptions and links:
+ Show Spoiler [My top 25] +
Since either way some of the songs on this list are different from the songs that actually made it to the final, I am just putting them in the random order in which I listened to them, rather than order of appearance.
Country. Singer. Title. Language. Style
1. Malta. Chiara. What if We. English.
Chiara changed the song up a little between her original version and the version she performed at Eurovision. I hadn't heard the latter version yet; now that I have, I prefer the previous version by quite a bit: both the softer way she sang it, and the "straighter" way that the melody went. (I'm sorry, I have no high-level musical terminology at my command, but in the second version, she "fancied it up", departing from the main path of the melody. Eh, just listen: you'll know what I mean.)
I think the first version I heard was a studio version, so there is that to take into account. Anyway, the version she sang was still very nice, but I didn't love it as much.
+ Show Spoiler [original version] ++ Show Spoiler [final version] +
2. Greece. Sakis Rouvas. "This is our Night". English.
What can I say? I don't love this, but it was a solid all-around performance: catchy tune, good dancing by my low standards (although they didn't seem as into it this time around--or maybe it was just me who wasn't as into it), and some nifty tricks with their giant prop, which I kind of liked.
I still think the tune is rather darker than the tritely upbeat lyrics.
+ Show Spoiler [video] +
3. Montenegro. Andrea Demirović. Just get out of my life.
One of the best songs not to make the finals. It's not winning material, but it's very good, as long as you take it for what it is--a pop song. Which basically means, ignore everything but the tune. In this case, the tune was almost insanely catchy. The rest of it wasn't too bad, either--the performance was pretty good, and the lyrics had a little bit to them (granted, not all that much)--which is just gravy.
The song is already wearing off on me: alas, the usual fate of pop songs. I no longer have the desire to listen to it over and over, or even to listen to it once. Still, I can recognize a good pop song when I hear it (I may not have taste, but I'm one of the populus, dammit!)
+ Show Spoiler [video] +
4. Ukraine. Svetlana Loboda. Be My Valentine! (Anti-crisis Girl). English.
OK, I am no longer going to make excuses for liking this song. Yes, it's eurotrash, but what of it? Of all the songs in the final, this one probably most typifies what the average person thinks of when he thinks Eurovision. If all of the others were in this vein, I probably would long since have given up watching ESC 2009, but every Eurovision needs one song like this.
+ Show Spoiler [video] +Seriously, watch this one. It's hilarious.
5. Iceland. Yohanna. Is it true? English.
A pretty ballad. One of the best of the "typical" songs, but it just didn't have the zest to push it to the top, for me. Yohanna seemed a little stiff on stage, but her singing was spot on.
+ Show Spoiler [video] +
6. Andorra. Susanne Georgi. La teva decisió (Get a life). Catalan/English. (PS- did you know that Catalan is not a dialect of Spanish? I didn't.
Hmm. I liked this one a lot better when I saw this earlier version. Now that I actually saw the version that Susanne Georgi performed in the semi-finals (it didn't make it to the finals), I like it a lot less. Maybe part of it is that she looks cuter with blonde hair/dimmer lighting. Definitely part of it is that her voice is a lot worse when she's not singing in a studio (here the contrast with Yohanna really stood out to me--Yohanna sounded just as good live as in the studio version. Not everyone can do that). Also, I can hear the English words more clearly in this version, which is not really a good thing. And the giggle at the end of the song was grating.
I still like the tune, but everything else is meh. In fact, had I seen this version originally, I probably would not have sent it along to the finals. Oh well.
+ Show Spoiler [video] +
7. Ireland. Sinéad Mulvey and Black Daisy. Et Cetera. English.
Another solid Irish entry.
+ Show Spoiler [video] +
8. Croatia. Igor Cukrov w/ Andrea. Lijepa Tena. Croatian.
Very good tune, especially the powerful chorus. Performance was spotty: The singer started off shaky—maybe because of nerves—he was slightly off pitch, and he didn’t pause long enough on the rests. It got better, though, except for the duet in the middle, which I still don’t think is working.
+ Show Spoiler [video] +
9. Serbia. Marko Kon and Milaan. Cipela. Serbian.
A pleasant folk-style tune featuring an accordion and some quirky staging. Maybe too quirky, if truth be told, but still--songs with accordions in them will always have a special place in my heart.
Did I mention that it features an accordion?
+ Show Spoiler [video] +
10. Germany. Alex Swings Oscar Sings! Miss Kiss Kiss Bang. English.
Well, this was certainly...different. It's hard to even describe it, other than, I guess, burlesque. Yes, think burlesque. The stage was adorned with women dressed in what you might call '40s sexy. The song had something to do with one particular of these women (the eponymous Miss Kiss) to whom the singer plans to "give you my heart tonight". The blatantly homosexual singer doesn't manage to sell the whole "in love with a woman" thing, but then, how can you take a song seriously when it's about a lady named Kiss Kiss Bang?
In fact, this song is the sort of camp that has a definite tradition at Eurovision, continued this year by Ukraine and the Netherlands. But I don't recommend it. It's deceptively hard to hit the "so bad that it's good" spot, and this one misses. If you like camp, go watch Ukraine's entry.
+ Show Spoiler [video] +
11. Lithuania. Sasha Son. Love. English/Russian.
I enjoyed this unique little song. I don't know that it's for everyone, but in my opinion it's well worth listening to.
+ Show Spoiler [video] +
12. Albania. Kejsi Tola. Carry Me in Your Dreams. English.
Watching this again one month later, it remains hands down my favorite performance of Eurovision 2009, and I remain unable to clearly articulate way. By all rules of logical reasoning, a singer in a tutu, break-dancing mimes, a man dressed from head to crown (including face) in a vivid shade of teal, and lyrics that talk about "wonder of love, magical glow" ought to make for the worst Eurovision cheese. They don't. This song transcends logical reasoning and I love it.+ Show Spoiler [video] +
13. Slovakia. Kamil Mikulčík and Nela Pocisková. Leť tmou. Slovak.
In style, this song reminds me very much of the Croatian entry. Both are somewhat slow duets between a man and a woman with strings in the background. Both start slowly but build to a powerful chorus. Both are good songs that, like both female singers, come close to hitting a very high note, but miss by just a little.
+ Show Spoiler [video] +
14. Romania. Elena Gheorghe. The Balkan Girls. English.
Despite the genericness of its style, I pronounce this to be a very good tune. The lyrics are a serious weakness, though. I mean, after watching so many Eurovision songs, I am used to the idea of singers who can't speak English singing in it, and really, it usually comes out fine (I guess singing tends to obscure an accent). But surely the lyricists should be able to speak English, if not as a first language, then with some degree of fluency. In absolutely no English-speaking country in the world is "my hips are ready to glow" an acceptable idiom, to cite just one of the song's abuses.
The costumes were also unfortunate: they looked like they had been put together as a Kindergarten arts-and-crafts project.
But again, the tune was good, and Elena is a good singer. I kept thinking that with good lyrics, this would be a very good song. (Yet another reason why countries should sing in their native languages: at least then many people would not know the difference, lyrics-wise. A good number of pop songs are improved by not knowing the words.)
+ Show Spoiler [video] +
15. United Kingdom. Jade Ewen. It's My Time. English.
Stick to musicals, Mr. Webber.
To be fair, in a sense Andrew Lloyd Webber was sticking to the genre he knows best, because this song sounded like nothing other than a solo from a musical, ripped out of context and leaving us to wonder, "Who is this girl, and why is it her time now? And why are we supposed to care?" The only other thing this reminded me of a little was that Dr. Seuss book "Oh the Places You'll Go", which similarly strings together cliches about self-esteem in trite rhyme. The music was bland; the lyrics not particularly clever. In short, an eminently forgettable, and best-forgotten entry from Britain.
+ Show Spoiler +
6a. On second thought, in light of Andorra's poor semi-final performance, I am making an executive decision to replace her with my Honorable Mention for semi-final 1:
Switzerland. Lovebugs. The Highest Heights. English.
A soft rock song from Switzerland. Solid song, solid performance.
+ Show Spoiler [video] +
16. Sweden. Malena Ernman. La Voix. English/French.
A marvelous fusion of of opera and pop sung by the captivating Malena Ernman. Definitely the most vocally impressive song of the contest (especially the bit starting at 2:18 of the video below). One of my favorites.
+ Show Spoiler [video] +
17. France. Patricia Kaas. Et s'il fallait le faire. French.
This song was greatly enhanced by its subdued and elegant presentation. The singer stood alone in a simple black dress on the sparely furnished stage. The lyrics, unlike many others, were actually lyrical. The slow and simple tune complemented the mood. A very good and very French entry from France.
+ Show Spoiler [video] +
18. Russia. Anastasiya Prikhodko. Mamo. Russian/Ukrainian.
This song, in Russian and Ukrainian, sounded very Russian--the tune as well as the words. Also, it was a great tune. These are both good things. However, a few things detracted from its effectiveness, to my mind.
The first is that the singer was slightly off key at times, especially in the beginning. The second is the arrangement. I didn't love the echo effect, and I felt it was too heavy on percussion and electric guitar. In the midst of the final chorus, which should have been soulful, the crashing beat in the background was just distracting. The third is the staging, which though creative was also distracting, and didn't really convey what I think it was meant to, anyway. I didn't see images of her mother--I saw images of her with startling, almost fluorescent gray hair.
Nonetheless, a good song.
+ Show Spoiler [video] +
19. Belgium. Patrick Ouchène. Copycat. English.
This underrated song is fun if you don't take it seriously--as you aren't supposed to. The tune, in the style of classic rock and roll, is pretty decent as well.
+ Show Spoiler [video] +
20. Norway. Alexander Rybak. Fairytale. English.
Blah.
+ Show Spoiler [video] +
21. Estonia. Urban Symphony. Rändajad. Estonian.
An excellent song and an excellent performance overall, down to the staging. That's not usually true, you know: usually the way the performers use the set is irrelevant and frequently it's ridiculous. Here it really helped to heighten the impact of the song.
+ Show Spoiler [video] +
22. Finland. Waldo's People. Lose Control. English.
Good dance-club song.
+ Show Spoiler [video] +
23. Bosnia & Herzegovina. Regina. Bistra Voda. Bosnian.
One of the best this year. Very individual. Good performance.
+ Show Spoiler [video] +
24. Portugal. Flor-de-Lis. Todas as ruas do amor. Portuguese.
An enjoyable, relaxing tune featuring a nice eclectic array of instruments. I’ll take acoustic guitar/ ukulele/conga drum/accordion/flute/maracas over bass guitar/electric guitar/synthesizer/drums any day.
+ Show Spoiler [video] +
25. Spain. Soraya Arnelas. La noche es para mí. Spanish/English.
Wow. Just wow. The more I watch this, the more appalled I am that it placed 23rd of 25 in the final. The song/performance grabs you by the hand and pulls you in with its breathless energy and doesn’t let go until it’s over. If I have any quibble with it at all, it is that I would have preferred it without the English, but this is trifling. How did this entry not place in the top 5 at the very outside? How??
In fact, Spain’s entry suddenly makes me doubt my hitherto unquestioned winner Albania. I am going to have to rewatch both now.
+ Show Spoiler [video] +
Country. Singer. Title. Language. Style
1. Malta. Chiara. What if We. English.
Chiara changed the song up a little between her original version and the version she performed at Eurovision. I hadn't heard the latter version yet; now that I have, I prefer the previous version by quite a bit: both the softer way she sang it, and the "straighter" way that the melody went. (I'm sorry, I have no high-level musical terminology at my command, but in the second version, she "fancied it up", departing from the main path of the melody. Eh, just listen: you'll know what I mean.)
I think the first version I heard was a studio version, so there is that to take into account. Anyway, the version she sang was still very nice, but I didn't love it as much.
+ Show Spoiler [original version] +
2. Greece. Sakis Rouvas. "This is our Night". English.
What can I say? I don't love this, but it was a solid all-around performance: catchy tune, good dancing by my low standards (although they didn't seem as into it this time around--or maybe it was just me who wasn't as into it), and some nifty tricks with their giant prop, which I kind of liked.
I still think the tune is rather darker than the tritely upbeat lyrics.
+ Show Spoiler [video] +
3. Montenegro. Andrea Demirović. Just get out of my life.
One of the best songs not to make the finals. It's not winning material, but it's very good, as long as you take it for what it is--a pop song. Which basically means, ignore everything but the tune. In this case, the tune was almost insanely catchy. The rest of it wasn't too bad, either--the performance was pretty good, and the lyrics had a little bit to them (granted, not all that much)--which is just gravy.
The song is already wearing off on me: alas, the usual fate of pop songs. I no longer have the desire to listen to it over and over, or even to listen to it once. Still, I can recognize a good pop song when I hear it (I may not have taste, but I'm one of the populus, dammit!)
+ Show Spoiler [video] +
4. Ukraine. Svetlana Loboda. Be My Valentine! (Anti-crisis Girl). English.
OK, I am no longer going to make excuses for liking this song. Yes, it's eurotrash, but what of it? Of all the songs in the final, this one probably most typifies what the average person thinks of when he thinks Eurovision. If all of the others were in this vein, I probably would long since have given up watching ESC 2009, but every Eurovision needs one song like this.
+ Show Spoiler [video] +
5. Iceland. Yohanna. Is it true? English.
A pretty ballad. One of the best of the "typical" songs, but it just didn't have the zest to push it to the top, for me. Yohanna seemed a little stiff on stage, but her singing was spot on.
+ Show Spoiler [video] +
6. Andorra. Susanne Georgi. La teva decisió (Get a life). Catalan/English. (PS- did you know that Catalan is not a dialect of Spanish? I didn't.
Hmm. I liked this one a lot better when I saw this earlier version. Now that I actually saw the version that Susanne Georgi performed in the semi-finals (it didn't make it to the finals), I like it a lot less. Maybe part of it is that she looks cuter with blonde hair/dimmer lighting. Definitely part of it is that her voice is a lot worse when she's not singing in a studio (here the contrast with Yohanna really stood out to me--Yohanna sounded just as good live as in the studio version. Not everyone can do that). Also, I can hear the English words more clearly in this version, which is not really a good thing. And the giggle at the end of the song was grating.
I still like the tune, but everything else is meh. In fact, had I seen this version originally, I probably would not have sent it along to the finals. Oh well.
+ Show Spoiler [video] +
7. Ireland. Sinéad Mulvey and Black Daisy. Et Cetera. English.
Another solid Irish entry.
+ Show Spoiler [video] +
8. Croatia. Igor Cukrov w/ Andrea. Lijepa Tena. Croatian.
Very good tune, especially the powerful chorus. Performance was spotty: The singer started off shaky—maybe because of nerves—he was slightly off pitch, and he didn’t pause long enough on the rests. It got better, though, except for the duet in the middle, which I still don’t think is working.
+ Show Spoiler [video] +
9. Serbia. Marko Kon and Milaan. Cipela. Serbian.
A pleasant folk-style tune featuring an accordion and some quirky staging. Maybe too quirky, if truth be told, but still--songs with accordions in them will always have a special place in my heart.
Did I mention that it features an accordion?
+ Show Spoiler [video] +
10. Germany. Alex Swings Oscar Sings! Miss Kiss Kiss Bang. English.
Well, this was certainly...different. It's hard to even describe it, other than, I guess, burlesque. Yes, think burlesque. The stage was adorned with women dressed in what you might call '40s sexy. The song had something to do with one particular of these women (the eponymous Miss Kiss) to whom the singer plans to "give you my heart tonight". The blatantly homosexual singer doesn't manage to sell the whole "in love with a woman" thing, but then, how can you take a song seriously when it's about a lady named Kiss Kiss Bang?
In fact, this song is the sort of camp that has a definite tradition at Eurovision, continued this year by Ukraine and the Netherlands. But I don't recommend it. It's deceptively hard to hit the "so bad that it's good" spot, and this one misses. If you like camp, go watch Ukraine's entry.
+ Show Spoiler [video] +
11. Lithuania. Sasha Son. Love. English/Russian.
I enjoyed this unique little song. I don't know that it's for everyone, but in my opinion it's well worth listening to.
+ Show Spoiler [video] +
12. Albania. Kejsi Tola. Carry Me in Your Dreams. English.
Watching this again one month later, it remains hands down my favorite performance of Eurovision 2009, and I remain unable to clearly articulate way. By all rules of logical reasoning, a singer in a tutu, break-dancing mimes, a man dressed from head to crown (including face) in a vivid shade of teal, and lyrics that talk about "wonder of love, magical glow" ought to make for the worst Eurovision cheese. They don't. This song transcends logical reasoning and I love it.+ Show Spoiler [video] +
Videos posted on the internet of the Albanian Eurovision performance tend to get taken down in short order. Here’s an HD version from rutube that may or may not last: http://rutube.ru/tracks/1928309.html?v=eb9ffd37baf9613708466b4e92f1abfa
13. Slovakia. Kamil Mikulčík and Nela Pocisková. Leť tmou. Slovak.
In style, this song reminds me very much of the Croatian entry. Both are somewhat slow duets between a man and a woman with strings in the background. Both start slowly but build to a powerful chorus. Both are good songs that, like both female singers, come close to hitting a very high note, but miss by just a little.
+ Show Spoiler [video] +
14. Romania. Elena Gheorghe. The Balkan Girls. English.
Despite the genericness of its style, I pronounce this to be a very good tune. The lyrics are a serious weakness, though. I mean, after watching so many Eurovision songs, I am used to the idea of singers who can't speak English singing in it, and really, it usually comes out fine (I guess singing tends to obscure an accent). But surely the lyricists should be able to speak English, if not as a first language, then with some degree of fluency. In absolutely no English-speaking country in the world is "my hips are ready to glow" an acceptable idiom, to cite just one of the song's abuses.
The costumes were also unfortunate: they looked like they had been put together as a Kindergarten arts-and-crafts project.
But again, the tune was good, and Elena is a good singer. I kept thinking that with good lyrics, this would be a very good song. (Yet another reason why countries should sing in their native languages: at least then many people would not know the difference, lyrics-wise. A good number of pop songs are improved by not knowing the words.)
+ Show Spoiler [video] +
15. United Kingdom. Jade Ewen. It's My Time. English.
Stick to musicals, Mr. Webber.
To be fair, in a sense Andrew Lloyd Webber was sticking to the genre he knows best, because this song sounded like nothing other than a solo from a musical, ripped out of context and leaving us to wonder, "Who is this girl, and why is it her time now? And why are we supposed to care?" The only other thing this reminded me of a little was that Dr. Seuss book "Oh the Places You'll Go", which similarly strings together cliches about self-esteem in trite rhyme. The music was bland; the lyrics not particularly clever. In short, an eminently forgettable, and best-forgotten entry from Britain.
+ Show Spoiler +
6a. On second thought, in light of Andorra's poor semi-final performance, I am making an executive decision to replace her with my Honorable Mention for semi-final 1:
Switzerland. Lovebugs. The Highest Heights. English.
A soft rock song from Switzerland. Solid song, solid performance.
+ Show Spoiler [video] +
16. Sweden. Malena Ernman. La Voix. English/French.
A marvelous fusion of of opera and pop sung by the captivating Malena Ernman. Definitely the most vocally impressive song of the contest (especially the bit starting at 2:18 of the video below). One of my favorites.
+ Show Spoiler [video] +
17. France. Patricia Kaas. Et s'il fallait le faire. French.
This song was greatly enhanced by its subdued and elegant presentation. The singer stood alone in a simple black dress on the sparely furnished stage. The lyrics, unlike many others, were actually lyrical. The slow and simple tune complemented the mood. A very good and very French entry from France.
+ Show Spoiler [video] +
18. Russia. Anastasiya Prikhodko. Mamo. Russian/Ukrainian.
This song, in Russian and Ukrainian, sounded very Russian--the tune as well as the words. Also, it was a great tune. These are both good things. However, a few things detracted from its effectiveness, to my mind.
The first is that the singer was slightly off key at times, especially in the beginning. The second is the arrangement. I didn't love the echo effect, and I felt it was too heavy on percussion and electric guitar. In the midst of the final chorus, which should have been soulful, the crashing beat in the background was just distracting. The third is the staging, which though creative was also distracting, and didn't really convey what I think it was meant to, anyway. I didn't see images of her mother--I saw images of her with startling, almost fluorescent gray hair.
Nonetheless, a good song.
+ Show Spoiler [video] +
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c0Z4-lG3SCk
19. Belgium. Patrick Ouchène. Copycat. English.
This underrated song is fun if you don't take it seriously--as you aren't supposed to. The tune, in the style of classic rock and roll, is pretty decent as well.
+ Show Spoiler [video] +
20. Norway. Alexander Rybak. Fairytale. English.
Blah.
+ Show Spoiler [video] +
21. Estonia. Urban Symphony. Rändajad. Estonian.
An excellent song and an excellent performance overall, down to the staging. That's not usually true, you know: usually the way the performers use the set is irrelevant and frequently it's ridiculous. Here it really helped to heighten the impact of the song.
+ Show Spoiler [video] +
22. Finland. Waldo's People. Lose Control. English.
Good dance-club song.
+ Show Spoiler [video] +
23. Bosnia & Herzegovina. Regina. Bistra Voda. Bosnian.
One of the best this year. Very individual. Good performance.
+ Show Spoiler [video] +
24. Portugal. Flor-de-Lis. Todas as ruas do amor. Portuguese.
An enjoyable, relaxing tune featuring a nice eclectic array of instruments. I’ll take acoustic guitar/ ukulele/conga drum/accordion/flute/maracas over bass guitar/electric guitar/synthesizer/drums any day.
+ Show Spoiler [video] +
25. Spain. Soraya Arnelas. La noche es para mí. Spanish/English.
Wow. Just wow. The more I watch this, the more appalled I am that it placed 23rd of 25 in the final. The song/performance grabs you by the hand and pulls you in with its breathless energy and doesn’t let go until it’s over. If I have any quibble with it at all, it is that I would have preferred it without the English, but this is trifling. How did this entry not place in the top 5 at the very outside? How??
In fact, Spain’s entry suddenly makes me doubt my hitherto unquestioned winner Albania. I am going to have to rewatch both now.
+ Show Spoiler [video] +
+ Show Spoiler [My top 8] +
1/2. Albania/Spain. I tried choosing between these, I really did.
3. Estonia.
4. Sweden.
5. Malta.
6. Bosnia and Herzogevina.
7. Portugal
8. Lithuania
3. Estonia.
4. Sweden.
5. Malta.
6. Bosnia and Herzogevina.
7. Portugal
8. Lithuania
Also worth listening to:
Songs with character:
+ Show Spoiler [in alphabetical order] +
Belgium
France
Ireland
Russia
Serbia
France
Ireland
Russia
Serbia
+ Show Spoiler [in alphabetical order] +
Finland
Iceland
Montenegro
Romania
Switzerland
Iceland
Montenegro
Romania
Switzerland
+ Show Spoiler +
Ukraine--watch this!!
Also, actual top 8:
+ Show Spoiler +
Norway
Iceland
Azerbaijan
Turkey
United Kingdom
Estonia
Greece
France
Iceland
Azerbaijan
Turkey
United Kingdom
Estonia
Greece
France
+ Show Spoiler +
Only Estonia (my 3rd favorite; actually placed 6th).
I hope that at least one person reads this blog and clicks on a song and enjoys it. Despite the contest's awful reputation, Eurovision 2009 produced a surprising number of songs that were, well, pretty good.
See you in 2010!
