dimanche 25 mai 2008

Final results for Eurovision 2008

Yesterday's night was the Eurovision night and Dima Bilan, who tried hard in the past years (he came 2nd behind Lordi in 2006 with Never let you go and didn't qualify in 2007 with Lady Flame), won the victory so next year the Eurovision Song Contest should be hosted in Moscow, but sure you know that already...
Here comes the time for final results for finale and both semi-finales to get public and like every year there are some little surprises. I can't help but add my mixed reviews on euro performances to the official figures too. Here I go !
From the very start of the voting, Russia & Greece, along Turkey at the beginning, then Ukraine & Armenia looked like they had stole the whole show in every countries' heart. In truth, Russia, Greece & Armenia scored all three together 21 twelve points, but that ain't Russia that got the maximum as they respectively got 7, 6 & 8 maximum points. Ukraine, who finished at the second place only got 12 points from Portugal so the impressive 230 points mean they appeal to a wider range of televoters. Way before the end of the show though, it became very clear that Russia had taken a further advance in points that would not allow any follower to get back to him and sure Dima's crazy face in front of cameras in green room showed us all that he, before others and commentators, had understood it !
So here is now my song by song (in final order of winning points) review of this year entries. Are included between [...] the semi-finale results too.
01 Dima Bilan Believe (Russia [SF1 n°3 135 Pt] 272 Pt)
Dima understood it all. He is a big star in eastern countries and is awaiting to get international with a whole album recorded with R&B superstar Timbaland in the wings. The Eurovision song contest was the perfect way to launch his new career so he chose an anthemic R&B ballad, got some romantic violin arrangement, invited a figure skating star to feature on ice and dance around him, wore an immaculate fitting trouser and jacket he opened up to reveal his nice torso for the ladies at the end of the show, and sang his heart out in a really good vocal performance. All in all, his victory is well deserved. The song is not the one I liked best but sure is mainstream pop to appeal to the masses and collect the maximum points from the maximum televoters.

02 Ani Lorak Shady Lady (Ukraine [SF2 n°1 152 Pt] 230 Pt)
I didn't really noticed this song when I listened to this year's entries. I naturally listed it as the ones I liked but it wasn't my favourites as you can all recall from previously posted here on my blog. The performance of the really beautiful sexy lady Karolina (or Ani Lorak in reverse) on the second semi-finale (she won!) won my heart and took the place of swedish nip'n'tucked Charlotte Botoxi right behind Icelanders. The song had a dance vibe with some tribal beats to appeal to south eastern too, the diva has an incredible voice, the choregraphy was inventive, the arrangement gimmick that made her and her dancers nod their heads in the verses got me crazy, the dress was moulded straight outta hell for sure for the sexiness it revealed... I wanted it to win when I saw the five/six songs that got in the highest positions ! It didn't but she deserved better than Dima I think. The difference, for me, is that he performed in order to win while she performed for the show and hoped to win...

03 Kalomoira Secret Combination (Greece [SF1 n°1 156 Pt] 218 Pt)
Now comes the time for the cute cutie greek girl named Kalomoira with her Britney Spears inspired Secret combination. Cute melody, cute face, pink dress and dancers half stripping her... What to say? She won her semi-final with more points than Russia and at some moments could have won the finale, battling with Dima bilan to score more 12 Points. I don't like. The song is deja vu or a mix of different elements that don't melt well in my ears. Sorry. Her runner-up in the greek pre-selections, Kostas Martakis, had a better song in his hands with Always and forever and I wish he had won to challenge Russia with a better combination...

04 Sirusho Qele, Qele (Armenia [SF1 n°2 139 Pt] 199 Pt)
Armenia finished second in the first semi-finale, behind Kalomoira and just before Dima Bilan. Her song Qele Qele is perfectly fitted to appeal to south eastern europeans with tribal bellydance beats and some greek/arabian folklore sounds, with modern dance arrangements. All deja vu number two if you want to know the truth. But it works! The show was entertaining, the lady is sexy, the dress was ultra short, the hair were moving. Call L'Oreal to get her some publicity contract because she's worth it... Boring!

05 Maria Haukaas Storeng Hold On Be Strong (Norway [SF1 n°4 106 Pt] 182 Pt)
Old school euro pop ballad, old school blond & blue themed nordic entry with some nice blond diva backed by three blond sirens all in blue dresses singing with passion an anthemic epic ballad... Nice performance but boring number two!

06 Jelena Tomasevic feat. Bora Dugic Oro (Serbia 160 Pt)
Intemporal ballad sung by a more beautiful woman (and sexier dressed) than their winning entry of last year, Oro wasn't there to win a second time around for sure but it did collect 12 Points four times ! Incredible to my ears... Zzzzzzzzz Zzzzzzzz Boring number three.

07 Mor Ve Otesi Deki (Turkey [SF2 n°7 85 Pt] 137 Pt)
Forget the folklore, forget the ballads, BRING ON THE GUITARS !!!!! Turkey has popped his cherry this year bringing out a rather nice bloke with a guitar backed by a whole rock band to sing an anthemic guitar song well. It started well collecting the points then faded a little but I'm still impressed it finished at number 7... Not my cup of tea but for sure a good performance & entry and not one you would think you could hear at the Eurovision Song Contest.

08 Elnur & Samir Day After Day (Azerbaijan [SF1 n°6 96 Pt] 132 Pt)
Another shouting entry but with much more Euro cheese than previous turkish. Half performers were angels with wings and eyes lenses for white singer while the other half were in black and stood for diabolic devils. Both vocals though sounded satanic and there wasn't only blood on the dancer's body. In my ears too! They did the show for sure but the song was TOO much and sung TOO loud :)

09 Bo'az Ma'uda Kei'lo kan (Israel [SF1 n°5 104 Pt] 124 Pt)
Written by Israel 1998 winner Dana International, the song meant nothing to me. The guy though has a very powerful & high pinched voice as well as more biceps than his five backing singers united. From his short hairs I bet he is just out of the Israel army :) The song appealed to a wide audience, collecting 124 points but not from me... Sorry Muscle G.I. Boy.

10 Elvir Lakovic Laka Pokusaj (Bosnia & Herzegovina [SF1 n°9 72 Pt] 110 Pt)
Now's the time for some freaks to invide the euro show. Their odd show, the freaky costumes, the strange moving of the man acting as if he had strings attached moving his arms or the red appled white dress of the lady as well as the four brides knitting while the washing hung out. Everything was from planet Mars here, even the song but it worked! Despite the chaotic rhythm, the melody stayed stuck in your head and I must admit I wouldn't have been that bothered if they would have won... for a change.

11 Pirates Of The Sea Wolves Of The Sea (Latvia [SF2 n°6 86 Pt] 83 Pt)
Aqua-sounding Pirates Of The Caraibes have invaded the euro show and it didn't sound that ridiculous. Euro beats, Disney costumes, entertaining performance. Nice entry! The lead singer/pirate was already part of last year's group, Bonaparti.tv, the Il Divo lookalikes.

12 Diana Gurtskaya Peace Will Come (Georgia [SF2 n°5 107 Pt] 83 Pt)
Blind diva singing another some old school ballad with dancers all around us with a black to white choregraphy. Uninspired entry... and rather bland!

13 Vania Fernandes Senhore Do Mar (Portugal [SF2 n°2 120 Pt] 69 Pt)
Another old school ballad sung this time by some over weighted real TV diva. Still not my cup of tea but a better song to win votes, although not mine.

14 Eurobandið This Is My Life (Iceland [SF2 n°8 68 Pt] 64 Pt)
THAT ONE GOT MY VOTES ! But I didn't make a mystery of it. Icelandic Euroband duo were my favourites and they didn't deceived, although their score did. They were too cheesy & euroflavoured for sure but I still had hopes for them. Their performance was incredibly good. Sure they both can sing and the song is so anthemic. You can't help but sing its chorus all along with them. This song is gonna compete for my song of the year... They've just released a full album titled after this song including cover versions of eurovisions songs like Celine Dion's Ne partez pas sans moi in english Don't leave without me now ; A must-have for every eurofan in the world !

15 Simon Mathew All Night Long (Denmark [SF2 n°3 112 Pt] 60 Pt)
Now come another good surprise of the show, like Ani Lorak before him. I didn't notice Denmark's entry till I saw his performance on the second semi-finale. The guy is cute, latin good-looking man backed by musicians and sure he knows how to perform on a scene and occupy the space. And he knows how to sing too. The song is good but the chorus is instant pop, sticking in your head till the end of the night, way way long after the Tv is shut down. He is gonna release a full album and I want to find some music shop online to get me this from Denmark for sure ! Too good to forget after this night... I sant to see him get international very soon. He has the potential and it's a shame he didn't score higher!

16 Olta Boka Zemrën E Lamë Peng (Albania [SF2 n°9 67 Pt] 55 Pt)
The complete opposite can be said of the following entry. The youngest contestant of this year was another cute girl singing an instantly forgettable song. I don't even understand she got that much points !

17 Rodolfo Chikilicuatre Baila El Chiki Chiki (Spain 55 Pt)
Another un-understandable points harvest for Spain and their 3rd degree entry of this year. He was chosen by internet poll if I remember well and the act as well as the song is a pastiche of summer hits with dance routine a la Macarena or Las Ketchup. The performance hit its goal : RIDICULOUS ! But it gained 55 Points (including 12 from Andorra, 10 by Portugal & 5 by France, which si to say by Spain's neighbours). Get him back in asylum please...

18 Charlotte Perrelli Hero (Sweden [SF2 n°12 JuryJoker 54 Pt] 47 Pt)
Another BIG time for ridiculous entry. Not musically this time as Hero is the perfect fitting post Abba Euro song and when I HEAR it, I LOVE it ! But when I SAW it, I thought "What the hell is THIS goin' on?" From official reports, Miss Charlotte Perrelli, (who won Sweden the Euro price in 1999 as Charlotte Nielssen with Take me to your heaven) is only 33 year old and she looks like a crossing human-like being between aliens & dummies. The 1999 woman is unrecognizable in her 2008 impersonation. So sure she had long legs (and short dress), sure she could sing her song beautifully, sure the song itself was moving, poppy, all the more appealing but for sure the televoters couldn't believe their eyes and didn't want THAT to win ! Or else how could you understand that the beautiful song underperformed that way? Her face is stretched out like it is gonna break if she smile a little too much for sure. Or is it botox surgery addiction? She must not be only 33 year old to look like that or else she's got every thing in her life wrong. More controversy... She even shouldn't have showed up on the finale this year as she finished at the twelth position of her semi-finale with 54 Points behind Macedonian Let me love you (65 points) and Bulgarian DJ take me away (56 points) but it seems that she got the internal jury's wildcard and got to the finale with that second-hand ticket. Shame on you miss Botoxi! When I only knew the song by hearing it, I was happy with the winner of this year's Melodifestivalen but now I think her runner-up Sanna Nielsen or other contestants like BWO, Velvet, Ola or Daniel Mitsogiannis would have done better...

19 Sebastien Tellier Divine (France 47 Pt)
Another controversy entry (in France) with french guy singing mostly in english this year for the first time ever... I din't like it from the start. This chabadabada 70's electro-housed number didn't fit to the euro show for me and the votes work along with me though France gained more points than the previous 4 or 5 years... The post-romantic dandy's performance with full entrance with golf-car and gospel backing lookalike singers with wigs and high-pinched voice with earth-balloon's helium granted him freaks' points... Pathetic though.

20 Nico & Vlad Pe-O Margine De Lume (Romania [SF1 n°7 94 Pt] 45 Pt)
Old school romantic duet between some divo in jeans and older woman... How can they have got twelve points from Spain & Moldova ? I can't understand...

21 Kraljevi Ulice & 75 Cents Romanca (Croatia [SF2 n°4 112 Pt] 44 Pt)
Bring on some old grand-pa talking in intro and some latin gypsy/bossa rhythm for -not an old school but- an old fashioned entry. BORING, AWFUL, SKIP, SILENCE MODE are words that are coming to my mind recalling yesterday's night croatian time.

22 Teräsbetoni Missä Miehet Ratsastaa (Finland [SF1 n°8 79 Pt] 35 Pt)
I didn't put the sound back on my TV when it was time for the Finland's entry to come in the speakers. I heard them all very well in the semi-finale and didn't want to get hurt again. Unhearable, unbearable hard-rock music at its worst !

23 No Angels Disappear (Germany 14 Pt)
Ex popstars and reunited-since-last-year german stars didn't have to qualify to the finale for being (like France, Spain & UK) in the big four (most paying countries for the ESC show) and seeing how they started with nul points in the first half of the televoting results, it was better for them. Their song is rather good to me though but their vocal performance started badly I think. Their vocals didn't melt nicely in harmony in first verse & chorus. And the song in itself lacked the anthemic melody or appealing rhythm that could have given them a higher placing. That will be a bad note in their whole career. Thou shall not forget they're the biggest selling girlsband in the whole world just after the Spice Girls...

24 Isis Gee For Life (Poland [SF1 n°10 42 Pt] 14 Pt)
Another underperforming diva, although her performance, vocal and all were perfect... The vocal was belting, The melody was nice, the tanning orange, the teeth bright white, the hair blond, the dress beautiful and the boobs apparent. The entry must have been too middle-of-the-road and old school ballad for the televoters... That doesn't take anything away from the lady's talents for me.

25 Andy Abraham Even If (United Kingdom 14 Pt)
Coming once more -remember Jemini?) bottom last this year is the english entry and I don't understand it at all ! Andy sure is a performer, taking the stage like the man from Denmark with his musicians behind him. The song, penned by the Spice Girls hits writing/producing team Absolute, was pop-soul at its best, melodic, poppy, and sticked in the head... Despite the fact Andy Abraham collected the same amount of points as Germany & Poland, he is the one who has scored the less highest points so his classement leads him to the end. We'll see how he is scoring in the UK Charts by the end of the week...
Now is the time for the nonqualified for the finale entries of the year, classified by the amount of points they got on their own pre-finale, melted all together regardless of which show they entered :
26 Tamara, Vrak & Adrijan Let Me Love You (FYR Macedonia) [SF2 n°10 65 Pt]
The macedonian entry was the one who should have qualified in the finale instead of the Swedish one, if not by the internal Jury's wildcard... I don't regret it as, despite its awful-looking performer, the swedish song was way better. Let me love you was a boring rap/R&B number with forgettable vocal performance.

27 Deep Zone & Balthazar DJ, Take Me Away (Bulgaria) [SF2 n°11 56 Pt]
Another song that finished with higher points than Sweden, Bulgaria's entry was inventive, with DJ sampling/beats alternative to a reggae influenced chorus sung beautifully by a female singer and some record tables on fire on the euro scene.

28 Paolo Meneguzzi Era Stupendo (Switzerland) [SF2 n°13 45 Pt]
Now comes the one that I thought would better fit the mainstream winning place than Dima Bilan ...and he didn't even qualify for the finale :( Paolo Meneguzzi's Era stupendo was a perfect anthemic ballad melting into a power pop song after first half of the song and the guy sure can sing too but maybe his performance was vocally not what people expected from the recording. Or maybe they woudl have loved to see him open up his shirt more and show his chest too... Maybe too stress was on his shoulders either. He didn't do better than DJ Bobo last year and stayed englued in the semi-finales losers. The songs stays though one of my cherished ones and I only hope someone will remix it a little in a dance/house kinda way !

29 Morena Vodka (Malta) [SF2 n°14 38 Pt]
Rockdance on speed by a lady that has a voice a la Cher, deep & low but I can't stand this repetitive piece of work with some russian shoutings.

30 Evdokia Kadi Femme Fatale (Cyprus) [SF2 n°15 36 Pt]
More unbearable old fashioned folklore on this one. I won't even spend much time on this!

31 Rebeka Dremelj Vrag Na Vzame (Slovenia)[SF2 n°11 36 Pt]
Starting slowly, this song builds up to a tribal dancepop song not that different to Ruslana or Ani Lorak hits If only she had sing the english version, maybe she could have made it to the final? Or is it the girlpower performance with chains & salvation's dressing strip that didn't appeal to machos... I liked it all though.

32 Geta Burlacu A Century Of Love (Moldova) [ SF1 n°12 36 Pt]
Laying on a sofa with some trumpetist near her, Moldavian jazzy diva sure had swing & soul and that was enough to make me like her performance a lot. But it wasn't aimed at eurofans if we look at the points she got. A shame 'coz she got more talent than lots of finale's participants.

33 Jeronimas Milius Nomads In The Night (Lithuania) [SF2 n°16 30 Pt]
Singing his hardrock ballad nearly out of tune halfway through, this longhaired man was really freaky to me. I'm glad people didn't choose that mess much ; only 3 countries gave him points : 12 from Latvia !, 10 by Georgia & 8 by UK !

34 Ruslan Alehno Hasta La Vista (Belarus) [SF2 n°17 27 Pt]
Good-looking dark haired singer with pleasant pop/rock song and choregraphy with balls enlightened with stars, I fell under the spell myself but must have been the one or nearly... I still think the song was good enough to get into the finale.

35 Hind Your Heart Belongs To Me (Netherlands) [SF1 n°13 27 Pt]
Dutch entry of the year tried to get points from the east with some arabian flavoured tribal dance song but they didn't succeed it all... The woman, some ex dutch Idol, can sing and looks good but maybe the performance in all was too polished and although the chorus was memorable, it wasn't of the syle of song that stay englued in your head till the time of televotes start.

36 Stefan Filipovic Zauvijek Volim Te (Montenegro) [SF1 n°14 23 Pt]
The big guy with long hairs & red hands on his dark shirt had the difficult task to start up the competition this year with the first performance of the first semi-finale. He did it well but his pop/rock anthem and his deep warm voice weren't enough.

37 Gisela Casanova (Andorra) [SF1 n°16 22 Pt]
Sweden calling? This song could have been selected to compete in the swedish Melodifestivalen. It's pure pop like only Sweden still produces with nice dance beats, good vocal, perfect chorus. The lady had stunning curly hairs and nice costume, so did her female dancers/backing singers. It was one of those I had high hopes for and she gained really poor votes... Perfect eurovision pop songs must not be what eurovision is for nowadays... :(

38 Dustin The Turkey Irelande Douze Pointe (Ireland) [ SF1 n°15 22 Pt]
Now comes a time for a joke. Instead of sending some irish redhead bloke or diva singing a bland ballad on the eurovision show, Ireland tried the pastiche route by sending a socket puppet shouting with an unbearing voice and calling every nation in the show to vote for him and give him the "douze points", backed with two wonderful background vocalists. The trick could have been a winning one if only there hadn't been the puppet's voice in itself... The song, eurodance cheese with great female voices, could have repeated last year's odd success of Ukraine's Verka but the lead singing was just too terrible (and you don't get fooled twice by the same trick) !

39 Ishtar O Julissi (Belgium) [SF1 n°17 16 Pt]
Another awful entry. Sung once more in a new language (that makes all Belgium find a path between french & dutch I guess), this song is so bright, sweet and so old fashionly memorable that, instead of loving it instantly, you HATE IT with force ! You can't help but whistle its melody after hearing 10 seconds of it and you don't like it at all so you don't vote for it as you feel you've been trapped in a dangerous sticky candy cell.

40 Tereza Kerndlova Have Some Fun (Czech Republic) [SF2 n°18 9 Pt]
Have some fun was, like Charlotte's Hero, a song I loved when I just had heard it. After seeing it performed live on the show, I thought it was real BAD ! I checked it once again with the studio version and it sounded good back and I understood well. The lead singer CAN'T SING A SINGLE NOTE LIVE ! AutoTune must have been used and re-used to death in studios to make her sound good on the record because on the show, she had a poor voice and sang out of tune all through the song... It seems she is a model (how could she be that successful in this other career when she let people do her hair so that everybody could saw her sharped ears a la Spock ? I still wonder!) so she should stick to this modelling career. Singing ain't for her...

41 Kreisiraadio Leto Svet (Estonia) [SF1 n°18 8 Pt]
Repetitive eurodance/reggae beats and three overweighted blokes in ridiculous blue, yellow & red costumes awfully singing some improbable song with one single sentence repeated chorus... If it was for that, Estonia shouldn't even have sent an entry this year. It would have been better for eurofans !

42 Csezy Candlelight (Hungary) [SF2 n°19 6 Pt]
A nice piano intro, candles all over the scene and a beautifully sung intemporal & anthemic ballad, the hungarian entry was destined to get high in the euro finale... It didn't even qualify for it and finished second last. I don't understand... It must have been too classic for everyone. Didn't anybody listen to 80's Whitney Houston's ballads anymore ?

43 Miodio Complice (San Marino) [SF1 n°19 5 Pt]
Finally, only one song saved Hungary to finish last and it's by a margin of only one point. San Marino's pop/rock mid-tempo entry didn't get much votes and I'd say the singing was way too dramatic. Maybe that was the cause. I don't even care...
So that's all folks!
Here below are both semi-finale's voting crosstables.




See you in a year time in Moscow ...or could it be in Saint Petersbourg ?
Till then I'll be singing along this year's best tunes This is my life, All night long, Shady lady, Era stupendo, Even if, Believe, Disappear, Wolves of the sea, and Casanova.

mercredi 21 mai 2008

Nouvelle Star 2008

Ce soir, les jeunes filles en fleur sont au désespoir, Jules, le clône funky de Raphael quitte l'aventure Nouvelle Star sur M6, cru 2008 de l'adaptation francophone du concept décliné mondialement POP Idol.
Et c'était logique !
Jules a souffert comme Thomas il y a deux semaines du mal étrange infiltré cette année parmi les 10 finalistes de l'émission par le jury composé d'André Manoukian, Lio, Sinclair & Philippe Manoeuvre. Je m'explique :
Sachant que chaque candidat recueille les suffrages d'une portion du public et que c'est celui qui récole le moins de vote qui est éliminé, tant que certains candidats cristallisent le non-vote, bref tant qu'il est des candidats (Kristov?) qui, certes ont du talent, mais n'ont pas le charisme qui emporte les foules jusqu'à son téléphone portable pour inonder le standard de M6 de sms ou de votes téléphoniques à en crever le plafond du forfait illimité M6 Mobile (qui avait besoin d'un nouvel Roy Orbison en 2008 à part le Dédé ?), le partant ne fait pas hurler les foules.
Par contre, bien sûr, à mesure que l'étau se resserre et que les émissions s'enchaînent, emportant chaque semaine son condamné à l'oubli cathodique probable, le candidat recueillant le moins de votes est de plus un plus un objet de fan-attitude d'une portion du public, à Baltard comme devant son téléviseur ou au sein du jury. Mais le public votant, lui se partage en plusieurs niches de consommateurs bien connues des instituts de sondages et des responsables marketing, les ménagères de + de 50 ans, allez, disons 40 ans pour ce type d'émissions, les midinettes de - de 20 ans, les rockeurs rebelles bobo (parce qu'on en peut être rockeur et regarder Nouvelel Star sur M6 à moins d'être pseudo rockeur ou bobo pseudo gauchiste, etc. Et le problème pour certains chouchous du jury c'est que cette années, ils ont begayé dans leur choix : Benjamin, Jules, Thomas et le grand frisé éliminé dès les départ dont j'ai déjà oublié le nom (ah si, c'était Julien!) étaient tous les quatre à ranger à peu de chose près dans la même case musicale : soul-funk with rock attitude avec tendance prononcée à prendre un accent bizarre en chantant en anglais et à arrondir la bouche comme pour avaler le micro en faisant des "Ho Ho" pouvant varier du "Oh Oh" jusqu'au "HAowWO HAowWO" avec, dans le cas de Benjamin, un sautement léger des genous qui le fait tressauter sur lui même devant la caméra... Bref, le public de ce genre de chanteur avait l'embarras du choix pour voter mais heureusement pour eux dans un premier temps, 1/ Julien avait moins de charisme que les 3 autres et 2/ ce style étant à la mode, le nombre de votants était plus important par exemple que les adeptes de schlager pop eurovisionnesque passant dans Nouvelle Star...
Mais une fois que les choix se limitent, le premier à tomber fut Thomas. Il faut reconnaître que malgré ses déhanchements sexy sur le titre de M, comparé aux gueules d'anges de Benjamin et Jules, son charisme auprès du public principal des SMS-euses souffrait d'un déficit de sex appeal non rattrapé par la longueur de ses mèches ou l'ovale de sa bouche (encore que pour ce dernier point, il a peut-être récupéré quelques voix auprès des beaufs myopes en manque d'une bonne pipe).
La semaine suivante, ce fut la malheureuse Lucile, qui face aux autres candidats n'a pu recueillir suffisamment de suffrages. Comment douter en effet que ce pur talent que je qualifierais volontiers de Cyndi Lauper française au look réglissé & étoilé étudié et à la voix tour à tour cristalline ou de magma rock brut se faisait plus d'ennemies dans les SMS-euses principales votantes énervées de voir autant de bonnes idées et de charisme voler la vedette à leurs chouchous mâles. J'espère sincèrement que la belle nordiste étoilée tirera son épingle du jeu et que l'on pourra la retrouver mener son bonhomme de chemin dans le nouvel univers parallèle musical digital très vite.
Cette semaine, par contre, 5 candidats, en dernière ligne droite avant les quarts de finale comme Virginie Efira nous l'a répété tout du long de l'émission, ça laisse peu de place entre les uns et les autres. Et les niches de télévotants se recentrent sur leur chouchou principal :
A Benjamin, pour ses HAouwWO et son air de chien battu, sa gueule d'ange déchu sur les écrans de cinéma justement et sa musicalité soul-jazzy sincère sans effets de manche, le public des - de 20 ans (allez, je veux bien aller jusqu'à 25!) en pamoison devant leur télé ou téléchargeant ses extraits de l'émission pour se les écouter en boucle à la récréation et le soir avant de s'endormir, le portable niché en mode vibreur entre leurs cuisses.
A Cédric, pour sa virile stature et sa grosse voix basse à faire frémir toute femme en manque de tendre lover, ses yeux azur et son talent pour chantonner de douces loveries comme pour rocker mieux qu'un Johnny, les ménagères de + de 35/40 ans.
A Amandine les quelques mecs votant et les jeunes femmes de 25/35 ans en manque d'identification et rêvant de pouvoir chanter/feuler comme elle, passer du mode chandail/plante verte qui s'aime pas dans le miroir à celui de bombe sexy soul-rock qui hérisse les poils des avant-bras de tous les mâles aux alentours et plus loin encore, qu'elle chante du Beyoncé, Amy Winehouse ou du Johnny (AAAAAHHHHHHH! ce soir, ses AAh, ses OOh et WWWWWWWWWWWWWRRRRAAAAh n'auraient sans doute pas manquer d'éveiller chez Gainsbourg il y a quelques années des désirs de collaboration musicale avancée, encore que la belle jouit d'un volume vocale plus élevé que la somme de toutes les chanteuses qui sont passées par le micro du Serge).
A Ycare, pour son regard de braise, ses cheveux hirsutes et ses joues scotch-britt, sa délicatesse vocale sur le fil du rasoir ou ses envolées lyrico-fantasmagoriques en voix de tête, les doux dingues et les gays aux votes.
A Jules, ...à Jules, bin, y reste plus grand chose... Ses midinettes satisfaites par les sonneries téléchargées à la gloire de Benjamin n'avaient plus de forfait pour voter pour lui et puis à part son regard Dutronc-esque de faux dandy prépubère j'm'en-foutiste et sa mèche à la Hervé Vilard (de toute façon, ça rime avec ringard!), y'avait pas grand chose... Du sous Benjamin et le jury l'a dit à chaque émission. Benji, lui ne joue pas, ni avec sa voix, ni avec la caméra ou son physique ou son attitude ; il vit, il est chacune de ses chansons. Jules, lui saupoudrait chaque interprétation de son zeste de nonchalance funky et hop, emballé, c'est pesé! Ca l'a fait longtemps mais ça ne pouvait plus l'emmener plus loin... Bye Bye Baby Boy.
C'est Ycare qui paraissait étonné à l'annonce de son nom... p'tit chou :) Il avait chanté "bang bang", alors il pouvait quitter l'aventure. Non, non, pas encore!
La semaine prochaine sûrement... A moins que ce ne soit Cédric. Enfin, dans quinze jours, seule certitude, nous auront droit à une finale Benjamin vs Amandine et nul doute que les filles en fleurs l'emporteront sur les autres filles à moins que les ménagères préfèrent la rebelle au gendre idéal... pas sûr. Les gays peut-être préfèreront les feulements de la diva aux vocalises maniérées du gentil garçon fils de papa critique de jazz... On verra mais la Nouvelle star annuelle rime souvent avec masculin. Seule Myriam Abel fut sacrée gagnante et où est-elle ? Il vaut mieux pour Amandine finir seconde finalement. Amel Bent, accroche-toi !
Rendez-vous bientôt sur M6.
En attendant, demain, c'est la deuxième semi-finale de l'Eurovision 2008. Ma semaine de télévision est décidément musicale :)

samedi 17 mai 2008

Eurovision Time : 20, 22 & 24 May 2008 in Belgrade


Once a year, there is a special time for me for love of songs in foreign languages, kitsch costumes, universal schlager pop a la ABBA and disappointment on final results.

It's been some time now that that special time was doubled because of a pre-selection show before the final Eurovision show and this year for the first time, there is gonna be two pre-selection shows, first on tuesday 20 May (not broadcasted in France), a second on TNT France4 thursday 22 May and the final consisting of selected countries from two pre-selection shows with the Big 4 (those who give the more money to organize the annual show, France, UK, Germany & Spain) and last year's winning country who organizes it this year (on France3 saturday 24 May).

In fact, my first eurovision time per year is way before this special event, when Sweden is electing their entry. MelodiFestivalen is always my favourite pre-selecting songs/acts each year and the Eurovision show could nearly be better in my heart if it was the MelodiFestivalen show... Swedish pop is so good, still in love with real pop music with great key changes and full on melodic dancepop songs, all swedish pop stars try to compete to this selection with their greatest new songs and the show is taken real seriously in this country (not like France no more).
Just to prove this, here is a list of recent Melodifestivalen entries : BWO, Carola, Caracola, Charlotte, E-Type, Ola Svensson, Sanna Nielsen, Velvet, Therese, the Attic, Andreas Johnson, Magnus Carlsson, The Ark, Evan, Alcazar, Bosson, Baccara, Friends, Fame... all big stars in their country and even sometimes internationally !

This year, Swedish entry is a former eurovision winner coming back, just like Carola did in 2006 with Invincible to finish N°5 after her 1991 N°1 with Captured by a lovestorm. Except, Charlotte is now known as Perrelli with her song Hero while she was known as Nilsson in 1999 with her winning Take me to your heaven.

I can't wait to see who's gonna win the Eurovision musical crown this year in Belgrade next saturday and sure my evening is booked for the show in my agenda for at least 3 months :) but after hearing all of this year's entries, I feel there have been some better year and like for wine, 2008 ain't my favourite one.
I do, though, have personal contenders for N°1, as well as songs I love and I'm gonna list them now so that you can wait for them to show up and be attentive to them next saturday (if they succeed in being selected from the pre-selection nights) :
1/ First, there is my winner for this year, the entry I love the most, a song that is a perfect pop dance song, a duet with good voices and are said to be eurovision fans for years. The country is Iceland, the band is named Euroband (or Eurobandið) and consists of Friðrik Ómar & Regína Ósk, a perfect male/female duo for a perfect energetic song This is my life whose english lyrics have been written by icelandic gay icon & previous eurovision contender Paul Oscar.

2/ Second, and my favourite before I heard Euroband, swiss contender Paolo Meneguzzi with his epic ballad anthem sung in italian Era Stupendo could make a storm in eurovision voting persons' hearts. The song starts slowly and keeps on building till a final vocal explosion where the cute boy shows his skills. Maybe a better universal entry to appeal to everybody's tastes than my personal N°1.

3/ Then comes songs I love but that I don't see good enough to win, Sweden's Hero by Charlotte Perrelli and UK's Even if by ex X-Factor show (aka Nouvelle Star) soulman Andy Abraham.

4/ And then there are several songs that appeal to my pop tastes in music but that seem rather bland to win the contest :
- Gisela Casanova (Andorra)
- Ani Lorak Shady Lady (Ukraine)
- Isis Gee For Life (Poland)
- No Angels Disappear (Germany)
- Tereza Kerndlova Have Some Fun (Czech Republic)
- Deep Zone & Balthazar DJ, Take Me Away (Bulgaria)
All in all, my selection shows that I'm keener on english songs than those sung in the original language of the country so my 2nd contender for N°1, sung in Italian, which I don't speak nor understand a single word with the exception of Ciao and bello maybe, proves to be universal enough, even for me, to have great chances to win I think.

Most of other entries are mid-tempo ballads or middle-of-the-road pop/rock numbers that show no sign of winning chance for me with the exception of the following that are truly out of place, unhearable at all, even in the eurovision kitsch-show !

First, France's selection (by France TV bigheads and sure there was some ethilic voting this year) for hairy Sebastian Tellier's frenchtouched badabada 70's rendition called Divine (even sung in english and it has caused a storm here in France) is ridiculous and I feel France is gonna be laughed at A LOT next saturday night !

Equally ridiculous but with self derision this time is the irish entry, a country that have always chosen a ballad song to represent them, with great success in the 90's (Ireland won 3 times in between 1993 & 1996) and with boring appeal in the 00's. So this year, they've chosen someone with an irritating voice as if he doesn't know how to sing in tune, Dustin The Turkey with a song called Irelande Douze Pointe calling every single nation to vote for him. If not for the awful vocal performance, the song in itself, the dance beats and the smile-bringing lyrics could have put this one on the list for number one but they should at least have chosen someone who could sing (or just have chosen the backing vocalists alone) ! [in fact, Dustin is a puppet so I guess a voice like Roland Rat was all it could be]

Finally, there is one song that will get everybody rushing to his TV telecommande and push on the silence mode button in no time and it's Belgium's entry, O Julissi by Ishtar (not the Alabina blonde star). I can't even think of a name to put on the style of the song because it's painfully AWFUL to listen to. If you try, your ears will start bleeding way before the end of the 3'00'' legal time... Your only salvation could be that the song competes in the first pre-selection so it shouldn't get enough votes to go to the final !
To close this post (for now), here is the complete list of 2008 participants, the number of whom explains there happens to be two pre-selections now :

1 Montenegro Stefan Filipovic Zauvijek volim te


2 Israel Bo'az Ma'uda Ke'ilo kan


3 Estonia Kreisiraadio Leto svet


4 Moldova Geta Burlacu A century of love


5 San Marino Miodio Complice


6 Belgium Ishtar O julissi na jalini


7 Azerbaijan Elnur Hüseynov and Samir Javadzadeh Day after day


8 Slovenia Rebeka Dremelj Vrag naj vzame


9 Norway Maria Haukaas Storeng Hold on, be strong


10 Poland Isis Gee For life


11 Ireland Dustin the Turkey Irlande, douze pointe


12 Andorra Gisela Casanova


13 Bosnia & Herzegovina Elvir Lakovic Laka Pokusaj


14 Armenia Sirusho Qele Qele


15 The Netherlands Hind Your heart belongs to me


16 Finland Teräsbetoni Missä miehet ratsastaa


17 Romania Nico & Vlad Mirita Pe-o margine de lume


18 Russia Dima Bilan Believe


19 Greece Kalomoira Secret combination



1 Iceland Eurobandið This is my life


2 Sweden Charlotte Perrelli Hero


3 Turkey Mor ve Otesi Deli


4 Ukraine Ani Lorak Shady lady


5 Lithuania Jeronimas Milius Nomads in the night


6 Albania Olta Boka Zemren e lame peng


7 Switzerland Paolo Meneguzzi Era stupendo


8 Czech Republic Tereza Kerndlová Have some fun


9 Belarus Ruslan Alekhno Hasta la vista


10 Latvia Pirates of the Sea Wolves of the sea


11 Croatia Kraljevi Ulice and 75 cents Romanca


12 Bulgaria Deep Zone and Balthazar DJ, take me away


13 Denmark Simon Mathew All night long


14 Georgia Diana Gurtskaya Peace will come


15 Hungary Csezy Candlelight


16 Malta Morena Vodka


17 Cyprus Evdokia Kadi Femme fatale


18 FYR Macedonia Tamara, Vrcak and Adrian Gadz Vo ime na ljubovta


19 Portugal Vânia Fernandes Senhora do mar



1 United Kingdom Andy Abraham Even if


2 Germany No Angels Disappear


3 France Sebastien Tellier Divine


4 Spain Rodolfo Chikilicuatre Baila el chiki chiki


5 Serbia Jelena Tomasevic Oro