May 27
Song you won’t see in the Eurovision final…
Posted on Thursday, May 27, 2010 by Paul in Music
…because they got knocked out in the heats. From Slovenia, here’s Ansambel Zinel & Kalamari with “Narodnozabavni Rock.” It’s got something for everyone.
From Lithuania, InCulto’s “Eastern European Funk”. (Seriously, how did this not qualify?)
From Estonia, the intriguingly New Romantic influenced “Siren” by Malcolm Lincoln. (They’re apparently named after a wrong answer given on the local version of “Who Wants To Be A Millionaire” to the question “Which of these people was an American President?”) This is genuinely, real-world good.
And at the other end of the spectrum, from the “What were they thinking?” file, here’s the Netherlands, with “Ik Be Verliefd (Sha-La-Lie)” by Sieneke – a true throwback to Eurovision stereotype.
Sha-La-Lie is so brilliantly awful that it would have got my vote if I’d been watching.
Was that one of the performers of Lithuania’s legendary 2006 entry at about 2:02 in the InCulto video?
I had the same thought. Looks just like him.
There was a thing on the TV a little while ago that once again confronted me with the Netherlands’ fascination (if not obsession) for schlager-songs. Can’t really call that music, though, can you?
Having only been exposed to the Eurovision competition through this blog, I have to say the idea of it is kind of fun and intriguing, the execution (at least as sampled from the clips Paul posts) absolutely mortifies me.
Lithuania was robbed.
You’re right about Lithuania. That’s brilliant, although it does sort of remind me of the theme tune to Cannon Fodder on the Amiga; there’s a very Richard Joseph feel to it.
“Siren” is probably too good for Eurovision. What’s with the giant head thing though? That’s the third or fourth video using the concept I’ve seen this year.
As true Dutch, I can tell you only about a handful of people here in Holland like that song. Most think it’s an embarrasment to have sent it to the Eurovision. The fact that a German singer made an English version which sounds twice as good speaks volumes for itself.
Call me crazy, but I really liked Slovenia’s performance. The change of tones, the sincerity of the whole thing… loved it.
But I have a thing for silly acts, so I guess that explains it.
A consistent theme with the Dutch entries appears to be that the songs are always several decades behind the times. This one was written by a 75 year old man whose career highlight was singing a song alongside of the Smurfs in the early 80’s.