Bulgaria, Lithuania select in the lead-up to Eurovision’s biggest weekend!

By Jaz, February 25, 2011

 This week has been a busy one so far, as national finals go, and watch out, because it’s about to get a whole lot busier!

Every year, Eurovision has a weekend of selection madness, marked down on every fan’s calendar as the one to watch. In 2011, it’s the 25^th to the 27^th – a.k.a. tomorrow to Sunday! Tonight, the previously AWOL Austria, and the always reliable Turkey, choose/reveal their entries; Saturday will see Latvia, Estonia, Moldova, Serbia, Denmark and Ukraine finish up their finals; and Sunday it’s Slovenia and Macedonia’s turn. Will one of these countries produce the winner?

It’s a question I ask, because I’m confident in saying that the winner has not been heard yet. I’m 100% sure it won’t be Bulgaria or Lithuania, the two countries who have picked over the last couple of days:

There you have Poli Genova, a woman who has tried and failed to represent Bulgaria before, this time getting her chance with the rock-ish anthem Na Inat. The first thing I thought when I watched her performance was ‘isn’t that [Swedish superstar of awesomeness] Robyn?’ which doesn’t say much for the song. However, being a woman, I was multitasking at the time, listening to the song as well as comparing Poli to someone else (and brushing my teeth/painting my fingernails/whipping up a five-course buffet). And I actually do like the entry, not as much as Miro’s from 2010, but still enough to make me feel a little better about the lack of high-level songs floating around in the Düsseldorf stratosphere at this point. As I said before, it’s rock-ish, not strictly head-banging material, but still schlager-free (which could be good or bad considering your musical taste), and I think the chorus is quite catchy. It’s another one of those songs that doesn’t quite hit the heights – missing a certain je ne sais quoi, as Hera Bjork would say – but I’m going to say it has a decent chance of qualifying, particularly if it gets a good draw, Poli pulls off the live performance as she did Wednesday evening, and the Bulgarians figure out something interesting for the onstage aesthetics.

A song I feel has considerably less potential is Lithuania’s, C’est Ma Vie, by Evelina Sašenko:

It seems the opinions are seriously divided on this one – people love it and think it’s going all the way, or, like me, they wish they were deaf when they hear it. I just don’t like it – its screechiness, how dated it sounds….not my thing. No disrespect to the people who love it, of course. Evelina does have a powerful voice, so that’s a plus.

Speaking of division, here’s three categories I’d put the songs so far selected into. I suspect my opinions may not be common ones….

12 points (the good): Georgia, Norway, Poland, Iceland, Netherlands, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Ireland, Romania

5 points (the average): Albania, Finland, Switzerland, Malta, Spain, Italy

0 points (the just plain bad): Lithuania, Belgium, Germany 

As you can see, my favourites are the majority, something I didn’t expect as it seems I have been less than impressed more often that not. There’s a triple threat lurking in my category of worsts, which hopefully will still be a trio by the time Sunday’s finals are over and done with! There has to be some stellar songs that come out of the ten selections ahead of us over the next couple of days, right?

Cross your fingers, and enjoy the weekend!!! 

Jaz.

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