Selection Season Day 1: Allocation, theme art and NMGP randomness!
I think everyone has a draw or cupboard in their house where all the random stuff goes – the stuff that doesn’t seem to belong anywhere else. This post is a bit like that, so I hope you’re not in the mood for order and specificity and other fancy words. The fact is, not only does the NF season officially start tonight (for me anyway, since Norway’s is the first I’m covering in detail) but quite a few other momentous but unrelated events have happened in the world of Eurovision in the last week or so. So let’s get on with discussing all of that, shall we?
The allocation draw
As irritated as I still am by the whole ‘orchestrated running order’ situation, it was exciting to tune in to the semi allocation draw on Thursday, live from Malmö. For once I got to watch something ESC-related at a reasonable hour (9pm) and that was satisfying. Also satisfying was the draw starting a) precisely on time and b) without the technical difficulties that plagued the running order draw from Baku. With a brief intro from hostess Pernilla and some explanations from Jon Ola Sand, the pulling of little rolls of paper from fishbowls began.
And then ended a short while later. Here are the results you’ve probably already seen a bunch of times.
Semi-Final 1
Denmark, Croatia, Ukraine, The Netherlands, Austria, Slovenia, Estonia, Russia
Lithuania, Serbia, Ireland, Belarus, Cyprus, Montenegro, Belgium, Moldova
– The UK, Sweden and Italy will vote in this semi. This should please Ireland and Denmark.
– The majority of entries already known were drawn in this semi, meaning it’s Zlata vs. Andrius vs. Alyona vs. Roberto for a place in the final…sort of.
– Both Serbia and Montenegro were drawn in the second half, which means the producers can’t possibly make either of them go first (again) or dreaded second.
Semi-Final 2
Latvia, Azerbaijan, Malta, Iceland, San Marino, FYR Macedonia, Finland, Bulgaria
Israel, Norway, Albania, Hungary, Switzerland, Georgia, Greece, Armenia, Romania
– France, Germany and Spain will vote in this semi.
– As always, one FYR will be left without any others to support them when it comes to the votes. Last year, it was Montenegro, but this time around it’s poor old Macedonia, who has enough trouble qualifying as it is. Hopefully the promising duo representing them will make that irrelevant.
– Semi 2 is usually the stronger semi, and with the uneven number of semi-finalists in 2013 it will be that little bit harder to get out of.
What are your thoughts on the draw?
Malmö 2013: We Are One
And apparently, also butterflies (‘…flying to the suuun, the sun will never let us look insiiiiiide’ #spontaneouskaraoke). No, I do get the butterfly concept now. At first I was sitting at my desk musing over all the things it could possibly signify like any literature student would be compelled to, until I read the official explanation. It’s all about the butterfly effect – one event making big waves across the world, and presumably uniting us all, which is where the slogan comes in.
My thoughts on that? Well, it’s a bit cliché, and reminds me of a certain song every time I see it or say it, but it does go along with the Eurovision ethos. And let’s face it; there are only so many decent slogans for an event like this you can come up with anyway. I reckon they’ll all have been used up by about 2020.
To get back to the logo for a minute…I do like it. It’s something different, it’s colourful, and it has the potential to be transformed into some awesome visuals. Will it go down as one of my all-time favourite themes? Probably not. Those colours and patterns are quite random. But it certainly won’t be shoved to the back of my mind where all the hideous logos end up (such as Serbia’s thankfully rejected monstrosity of ’08, discussed in the past here at EBJ). What do you think – is it a triumph or is it trash?
Norway’s Melodi Grand Prix begins
And I would be more excited if it didn’t seem like such a non-event. NRK have been strangely protective of MGP info this year, including the process (how many songs are supposed to qualify?) and the entries themselves, which were revealed last week for this semi but haven’t been uploaded slap bang in the middle of the internet where a dunce like me can find and listen to them. You can attempt to listen to tonight’s seven competitors here: http://www.nrk.no/multimedia/1.10869294 but if your luck is anything like mine, all you’ll get is a 30-second iTunes snippet to make judgments on. A few of the songs have been put up on Youtube by random people, so seek those out if you can.
Anyway, I have managed to hear the entirety or part of all seven songs, the performers of which will (I assume) be desperate to win a ticket to the February final. This is the role call:
- Paid My Way by Vidar Busk
- Sleepwalking by Carina Dahl
- Det Er Du by Tom Hugo
- Alone by Gromth feat. Emil Solli-Tangen
- Give A Little Something Back by Julie Bergan
- Catch Me by Mimi Blix & Doc M.C.
- The Underground by Datarock
There are a few familiar names in there, from past MGP-ers Carina and Mimi to Didrik Solli-Tangen’s little brother Emil, who by total coincidence also sings opera. Unfortunately, there aren’t a lot of promising songs in there, unlike in the semis of MGP 2012. There are a few I like, namely…
Sleepwalking – I didn’t really like Carina’s last entry, but this is a huge improvement. It’s nothing groundbreaking, but it’s good, catchy top-40 pop with an excellent key change. I really like the rawness in her voice, too.
Give A Little Something Back – Again, this is middle-of-the-road, radio-friendly pop music, but that just happens to be right up my street. Both this and Sleepwalking were co-written by Ben Adams, who was a member of A1 (one of the many boy bands I loved in my girlhood and runners-up in MGP 2010). I guess he has a specialty.
Catch Me – We were bound to get flooded with dance music during NF season in the wake of Euphoria. This is no Euphoria, but it’s infectious enough in a weak field, and infinitely better than the Catch Me from the Swiss final. I could be coaxed into doing the sprinkler to it.
So, if it turns out there’s to be three qualifiers (like last year) the trio above are the ones I’d like to see make it. But I think it will be a good night for Vidar, Gromth & Emil and Datarock. Vidar is peddling the IMO yawn-worthy rockabilly music that always seems to get through in Scandinavia. Gromth and Emil are going for an unsettling combo of metal and opera, unsettling because the metal parts are hideous (I just can’t stand that screaming) but Emil’s are quite pleasant. And Datarock are going a bit retro disco, which should get the audience out of their seats.
That’s about all the randomness I wanted to ramble on about tonight, so now you and I both can get back to being excited about all of the stuff going on at the moment. There are heats happening all over the place, upcoming final decisions, and sudden internal selections on the way. Plus, with the theme art out and the draw done and dusted, you know Malmö’s not that far away anymore. To be (almost) precise, it’s a mere sixteen weeks from now. That’s only four months!
Hmm…let’s leave it at ‘sixteen weeks’.
8 Responses to “Selection Season Day 1: Allocation, theme art and NMGP randomness!”
The Swedes ran a very efficient draw, didn’t they? Everything was done in fewer than 30 minutes!
As for the logo, I absolutely LOVE it. I love the look, the texture, everything. I even really like the slogan, as authoritarian as it might sound. I remember that conversation about the crappy ’08 logo.
Honestly, I’m going to keep myself in the dark about MGP. I remember you saying something about that and, honestly, I think it’s a good idea!
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Yes, very pro! A few little mistakes to show they’re human, but otherwise perfect (kind of like my favourite hosts, Mikko and Jaana).
I’m glad this logo is getting love from somewhere. I honestly haven’t read that many verdicts, but I think people can be harsh sometimes – like, ‘you give it a try, it’d be harder than you think!’. I can’t wait to see what they do with it in terms of vignettes and stuff.
Can I just say (even though you’re keeping yourself in the dark, because I have yet to brag about this) that I correctly predicted the three NMGP qualifiers on the weekend?? That NEVER happens to me!! I’m gonna try and do a double.
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I wonder if one of them will end up hosting the whole thing (in a duet with the universally acclaimed SDF) come May, like Leyla and that creeper dude from last year?
I can’t wait to see! I feel like it’ll be something like Moscow since that was sort of an abstract logo like this one. Honestly, I just think that some people are SO enamored with Moscow and all of 2009, they sort of shutdown anything that could be construed as similar.
Consider me your blind sounding board. 🙂 Congrats! Maybe that’ll happen to me sometime (yeah right). Good luck! Tell me, please, at least this, are the songs good? Were the three qualifiers miles above the rest or somewhat equal?
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It’s got to be SDF and SDF alone!! We shall find out Monday, so fingers crossed.
I’m definitely enamoured with the Moscow theme, but I welcome anything that resembles it. Not that a rip-off is a good thing, but…you know what I mean.
So re: Norway…well, I agree with Wiwi Bloggs and Scandipop who reckoned the three best songs in semi 1 got left behind and the worst three qualified. Two of those were boring and the other was plain horrendous, so if any of them eventually win I will not be waving a Norwegian flag. Harumph. But I can say the second semi is a LOT better, so we should get at least one decent song in the final from it. And there’s always the wildcard place.
I just don’t get the voters sometimes. It’s like in Sweden, where there’s always a middle-of-the-road rockabilly song that gets to the final. In Norway, there’s always a yawn-worthy soft-rock song and/or something terrible that qualifies. Maybe you have to be Norwegian to get it?? If anyone from Norway reads this, please help me understand!!
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As we know now, no! No it’s not. It’s MF 2009’s host! I woke up early to watch the press conference and followed it on Twitter. When she came out, I was like “Who?” However, there was a tweet that so efficiently summed up the collective non-Swedish thought… “who the f*ck is she?” 😉
I couldn’t take it anymore and watched the first semi of MGP. And I was so annoyed at the end! They really did send the worst three songs (worst lot of the whole season) and left behind the only good songs! My top was, in order, Tom, Julie and Carina. Mimi would’ve been better, but the composition wasn’t strong enough. Now to catch up to semi 2.
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AaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaagggghhhhauuuuuuuGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!! That is how I am still feeling re: The Lack of SDF. I was so sure it was gonna be here…devastated. Still, we should give Petra a chance to prove herself. Apparently she was quite funny when she hosted Melfest, so she could be Anke 2.0.
Did you watch semi 2?? Please tell me you love Margaret as much as I do, and would rather she win a million times more than the horrendous Gromth. At least tell me the second part!
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I’m excited to see how Petra does! I do hope that she is the new Anke. 🙂
I have not watched the second semi fully, but I’ve seen Margaret, Martin, Annsofi and part of Fjellfolk (it was late at night and a lullaby like this wouldn’t have been a good idea). With that said, I am disappointed that Martin, even with his somewhat lackluster performance, didn’t pass, because that is only the second song all year to earn above 90/100! Hopefully it gets the wildcard. I did like Margaret, though. She was really strong. And ANYTHING in the NF is better than that “song.”
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So have you moved on from SDF?? The pain has definitely receded at my end, but her face will haunt my dreams for months to come. #melodramaticmuch
YES!! Martin’s song is amazing. It just didn’t work well live. But in studio, it’s a total douze. The Norwegian wildcard always seems to go to someone random you’ve forgotten about (I still haven’t gotten over it not going to Rikke Normann last year) so I doubt it will be him.
Yay for Margaret. And anyone else who can take Gromth down.
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