A very merry Eurovision playlist + three more songs for Malmö!
In case you hadn’t noticed, it’s totally Christmas Eve (unless you don’t celebrate the holiday/are currently in a time zone in which it is not yet Christmas Eve) and I’ve got an early present for you. Don’t worry, you didn’t have to get me anything. Mainly because my gift is less than impressive. Anyway, if you’ve been shopping, or to the supermarket, or on a bus, or pretty much anywhere over the last few months you’ll no doubt be sick to death of hearing Christmas carols. But what is Christmas without music? (Just say ‘no Christmas at all, Jaz, no Christmas at all.’ Humour me). So I’ve put together a playlist of the most festive Eurovision songs I could find, to get you into the yuletide spirit without having to hear ‘…and a partridge in a pear treeeeeeee!’ for the gajillionth time. You’re welcome.
DISCLAIMER: Jedward aren’t actually in the playlist, but this was too good to resist.
The playlist
Nel Blu Dipinto Di Blu by Domenico Modugno (Italy 1958)
Een Beetje by Teddy Scholten (Netherlands 1959)
Non Ho L’Eta by Gigliola Cinquetti (Italy 1964)
All Kinds of Everything by Dana (Ireland 1970)
Waterloo by ABBA (Sweden 1974)
Ein Bisschen Frieden by Nicole (Germany 1982)
La Det Swinge by Bobbysocks (Norway 1985)
Love Shine A Light by Katrina and the Waves (UK 1997)
Take Me To Your Heaven by Charlotte Nilsson (Sweden 1999)
Diamond of Night by Evelin Samuel & Camille (Estonia 1999)
Listen To Your Heartbeat by Friends (Sweden 2001)
Call Me by Feminnem (Bosnia & Herzegovina 2005)
Coisas De Nada by Nonstop (Portugal 2006)
Shine by The Toppers (Netherlands 2009)
Ik Ben Verliefd (Shalalie Shalala) by Sieneke (Netherlands 2010)
My Heart Is Yours by Didrik Solli-Tangen (Norway 2010)
Tid Att Andas by Simon Forsberg (Sweden NF 2011)
Mēness Suns by Amanda Bašmakova (Latvia JESC 2011)
I Din Himmel by Sonja Aldén (Sweden NF 2012)
Party For Everybody by Buranovskiye Babushki (Russia 2012)
My favourites are Take Me To Your Heaven and Mēness Suns, the most festive of them all. What are yours? Did I forget any particularly Christmassy tunes?
And now, for those three songs…
Albania: from Rona to rock
There’ll be no dreadlock beehives, no sharp plastic earpieces and probably no 5th place for Albania in May. On Saturday night, the Festivali I Kënges 51 final saw the middle-aged duo of Adrian Lulgjuraj and Bledar Sejko (who might want to consider a portmanteau for Eurovision) and their dramatic, ethnically-tinged rock number Identitet win the ticket to Malmö. Given the fact that this time last year I was busy detesting Rona Nishliu only to find myself adoring her a few months later, I don’t know how to feel about thinking this entry is just okay, if that makes sense. Will I learn to love it, end up hating it or remain indifferent? Which of those best describes your attitude towards Albania at the moment?
A little Something from Lithuania
Everyone’s said it already, but I’m going to say it again. Lithuania is sending their version of Killers frontman Brandon Flowers to Sweden, with a very Killers-eque song. To clarify, that’s Andrius Pojavis with Something. This entry did grow on me in between my first and second listens, but it doesn’t exactly float my boat. The lyrics are awkward, and the general air is kind of dull. The chorus is quite strong though, and Lithuania’s tendency to qualify against the odds in recent years could be a good sign for Andrius. Maybe not for the rest of us…
Ukraine’s Zlata gets her chance
After blowing us away with her vocal talents and amazing song in the 2011 Ukrainian final (and then getting caught up in all the Mika Newton controversy alongside Jamala) Zlata Ognevich has finally come out on top, winning yesterday’s NF with a very different entry called Gravity. It’s both very different to her last, The Kukushka, and very different to what Ukraine sent to Baku – i.e. a class-A booty-shaker. I didn’t draw any comparisons between Gravity and something from The Lion King soundtrack until other people started to, but I can see it. It’s definitely more ‘Rafiki lifting Simba to the heavens on Pride Rock’ than ‘super-saccharine, diabetes-inducing Disney ballad’ though, which is good. Plus, as aforementioned Zlata is an incredible singer who is more than capable of delivering a Pastora Soler moment in Malmö (especially if she sticks with the white dress). With a few tweaks here and there, the right lighting and background imagery, and the prompt firing of that iffy backup guy, this could do very well. For me, it’s the best pick of December.
Speaking of which, I think it’s time for a mini-ranking: my personal top 6. Don’t expect this to look the same in a month or so (with or without all the countries holding NFs over that period) because I am nothing if not fickle.
- Ukraine
- Belarus
- Belgium
- Switzerland
- Lithuania
- Albania
How does yours stack up?
So that’s about it for today. I’m sorry for all the questions, and if you happen to be a fan of hearing Christmas carols and I’ve offended you with my offer of an escape, I’m sorry for that too.
I hope you all have a Merry Xmas!
eurovisionbyjaz.com 
12 Responses to “A very merry Eurovision playlist + three more songs for Malmö!”
Well, I haven’t done that, but I did pose for a family photo while pretending to kiss a rubber duck. And I DO have those pics. 😉 Also, I now have an idea of what to do when coming home from college at Christmas as I finally got accepted!!! 😀
Honestly, I’ll probably never come around to Mika Newton but Rona has shot up on my 2012 list to 26th place. Considering that I like about 38 of the 42 songs from this year and that se was previously sitting at 37th, it’s no small feat.
Oh, that’s just great! *sarcasm* If you’re getting that message, I’m not, because it plays fine on my side of the Pacific… I hope the same thing doesn’t happen to the top 42 of 2012 video I’m making (I have lots of spare time). I’ll post it on Vimeo instead. 😦
About Heilsarmee I’m actually a bit sad. They had the best performance in the Swiss NF and I’ve kind of fallen in love with the song. I wouldn’t be totally gutted if Carrousel ended up going, but they’d really need to work on their live, because it would only have about a 65 on my scale, which is still good, but not the 80 that Heilsarmee has now. Ugh, fate is conspiring to make this year mediocre! *crycrycry*
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Here’s the new link. http://vimeo.com/56442697
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Those photos would be a magnificent sight to behold, no doubt. And holy crap, what is that I see next to nprovenghi271???!?
Congrats on your college acceptance!!!!!!!!!!!!!! You get extra exclamation marks for that. In case you hadn’t noticed. Do you know what you’ll be studying yet?? I’m not entirely sure how the tertiary system works in the States. You guys don’t have to choose your major straight away, right? Which I think is a really good idea…
Everything is so upside down with Eurovision at the moment. We all thought Cyprus and Greece were going to pull out, which turned out to be speculation, and then Turkey and B & H suddenly withdraw (still not over that). And then Switzerland turns out to be the uncertain NF, instead of Belarus or Ukraine. Please let there be a miracle so that Heilsarmee will go to Sweden!! I wouldn’t mind so much if Jesse had come second and he could’ve gone instead, but I really feel like there’s a big gap between Carrousel and Heilsarmee in terms of who could qualify and who could not. Sigh.
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I guess you saw it…
Yay!!!!! Thanks so much! I want to study International Affairs, but I don’t have to declare (formally choose) a major until the end of my second of four years.
This is only my third Eurovision, but it’s certainly the craziest by far. At least last year, Poland came up with a somewhat believable excuse and everyone expected Armenia to take a one-year break. However, I never expected the countries that withdrew to actually do it, even though there was always that air around Slovakia.
Honestly, I think that I want Heilsarmee to go, even if I find Carrousel more my taste. I’ve just come to like “You and Me” more than “J’Avais Rendez-Vous” at this point. And then don’t even get me started on Lithuania or Ukraine, where I thought the screaming grandma who went first would’ve been best. Ugh… 😦
P.S. Here’s my top 42 that hasn’t been blocked… yet.
P.P.S. At the risk of sounding stupid and rude, if you want to see the duck photo, just hover over my photo now. The WordPress grey bar at the top of the screen is showing the right photo but the one that I’m seeing next to my comment is wrong. Just FYI.
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Merry Christmas!! First off, I’ve actually tried to pull off the Jedward look, as I got lazy after straightening my hair one night. It actually turned out well! I almost wore it to be honored at City Council the next day. 😉
Anyway, “Take Me to Your Heaven” is PERFECT. The one addition I’d make is Danny’s bridesmaid song, “Amazing,” just because I think that song can fit anywhere you want to put it.
As for the picks of 2013 so far, I stand by my previous comment of a “festival of mediocrity.” I am ÜBER pissed at the Lithuanian jury for picking boring Andrius over Gerai Gerai and Miss Sheep, who might end up at the very top of my all songs of 2013 list. Gah! Malta could save me if they send Davinia Pace, who has the best song by miles.
However, back to the topic of top six. I disagree with you on everything! But, instead of boring text, I spent most of the 24th making a YouTube video outlining my list! And here is the crappy result that looks like it should’ve taken 30 minutes. Enjoy! 🙂
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Omg, when you said you tried to pull off the Jedward look, I thought you meant you had at one time wrapped yourself in festive paper and put yourself under an Xmas tree. To that I would have said ‘pics or it didn’t happen!!!’
I’m so used to people disagreeing with me on everything, the fact that you do doesn’t phase me at all. And I was disagreed with on the awesomeness of Ukraine 2011 and Albania 2012, and look what happened to those!! #jazFTW
I couldn’t watch your video =( Apparently it’s been blocked??
BTW, I bet you’re pleased that Carrousel could be going to Sweden instead of Heilsarmee. That makes one of us.
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ooh I just read that the Albanian entry has been accused of plagiarism. I guess that might mean Anjeza Shahini gets the Albanian ticket?
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Mmm, no more on that so far. I love Anjeza, but her song this time around is not the best, so I’m not sure how I’d feel about her stepping up. Either way, I think we can safely say there’ll be no 5th place for Albania next year.
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With you on that one.
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Actually I havent been fussed by any of the songs chosen so far which has left me feeling a bit dejected 😦
I was surprised at the Albanian entry choice as I thought Kejsi’s song was pretty good and for some reason they have incredible female vocalists in Albania so it would seem a good recipe to get a better placing than their best placing they got last yr. I also liked Rezarta Smaja. Seems to me either one of them would have offered Albania a better chance.
I agree the Ukraine song is the best on offer at the moment.
Merry Christmas!
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I’m sure at least one of the remaining 33 will get a douze from you. I hope so, anyway!
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One can only hope!
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