So tell me you're not just another heartache passing by...

Saturday saw semi final 2 of Melodi Grand Prix in Larvik. I'm not sure how they decided on which songs were in each semi, but it seemed rather strange that we had three rather similar electropop entries competing against each other. Surely they would cancel each other out? Oh, and we also had the BIG favourite, Plumbo. Basically everyone else was making up the numbers then?

Up first were Cocktail Slippers, a rather interesting bunch of girls singing "Keeps On Dancing". I quite liked this in studio but it never really worked live. Little was I to know that this would be a recurring theme of the evening. Still an OK opener, but I didn't think it had much chance to qualify.

Next was Isabel Ødegård singing a country-ish ballad called "I've Got You". It was quite a nice song, but unfortunately, Isabel was as wooden as a park bench and sang flat the whole way through. She was a total no-hoper.

Third was Tommy Fredvang who had taken part in Norwegian X Factor. His song "Make It Better" was written by the lovely Hanne Sørvaag who I have a bit of a soft spot for. Tommy is a good looking guy, but something was up as soon as he started singing. Well I say "singing" as it looked as if he was miming! He was obviously singing very quietly to a backing track, but I felt this was really unfair, and I think that they really should ban recorded backing vocals in these selections. They really don't give you a proper impression of the song. Still despite this, it was a pretty catchy pop track but nothing really outstanding. HE had a good chance of qualifying though being the only good looking guy in this week's heat.

My pre-contest favourite was next. Rikke Lie is yet another X Factor contestant and I loved her ballad "Another Heartache" and the performance was staged well, with Rikke at the piano and some mad violinists behind her with crazy moves!

Rikke herself was very engaging and I really enjoyed the performance! However the song was rather understated, and I wasn't sure if it was too "calm" to capture the televoters...

Malin was next, and she had represented Norway in the Junior Eurovision Song Contest in 2004, so she'd clearly had some experience before. Not that it really showed. Her vocals were rather atrocious and the whole thing was just flat.

Even Amy Diamond could teach her a thing or two! However, I'd heard that Malin was quite popular with young kids, so I couldn't rule her out.

Onto the BIG favourite. Plumbo. I am NOT a fan of this at ALL so I won;t waste too much of my time on this. Needless to say I concede that it was performed well, and will probably be the Norwegian entry in Baku unless something drastic happens. Oh well, you can't win them all...

Minnie Oh (No not Mimi Oh, she's in Melodifestivalen) was next with a belter of an electropop song "You and I" which was written by herself! She was wearing something that could only be described as a homage to Verka Seduchka. The backing dancers were amazing though, wearing almost gimp like outfits showing their abs, and it all came together in the instrumental bit in the middle with the cheesy arm moves which really worked! Check this out at 2 min 20!

The only negative I have of this is that I wished Minnie had moved a little more around the stage as it was a bit too static. Nevertheless the song itself was really great, however, that type of music is not really a vote grabber, and I wasn't sure if the Norwegians would get it...

Last up was Rikke Normann, who had taken part last year along with her friend Åste singing "Not That Easy (Ah-Åh-Ah-Åh)", and they had sailed through to the final. This time though, Rikke changed track and sang a really credible piece of pop called "Shapeshifter". Rikke too had some dancers with a extravagant routine including back flips and tumbles. I really liked their nerdy look with bow-ties and glasses!

Rikke's vocal performance was pretty good, with one slight faltering note, and she got an amazing reception from the audience. I thought she had a good chance of qualifying, but I knew only one of Malin, Minnie Oh and Rikke would make it...

Results time came, and Malin was announced in THIRD place, rather undeservedly, if you ask me, I knew then it was all over...Tommy came SECOND, as I had expected, and to no-ones surprise, Plumbo were the winners of the semi.

Poor Minnie, and the 2 Rikke's went home empty handed. I was rather gutted by this result and switched off in anger. I thought for once the Norwegians might have voted a bit differently from the norm but I guess I was wrong...

I've been dreaming, there's a place, where the colours blow you away...

OK, so I'm a little bit behind schedule from Norway, and we've now had 2 semi finals, with one left to go this coming Saturday. I'll begin with my thoughts on semi 1 which took place in Ørland last week...

First up were girlband Irresistible with their pop/R'n'B track "Elevator". This type of music generally hasn't gone down too well with the Norwegians in the past so I wasn't very hopeful. However, the girls put on a rather impressive performance with great vocals and some good choreography from the backing dancers. While the song is nothing amazing and has lyrics which I can't quite make out, (apart from the CLASSIC line "When I get tipsy, I'm gonna steal clothes like a gypsy" - don't we all do that?) it's still catchy and rather current, especially with the rapper part, which I quite liked, considering rap really isn't my thing.

Kim Andre gave a rather poor performance of a non-descript ballad, and then it was time for my favourite track of the evening. "High On Love" by Reidun Saether had been compared to both "Hero" and "I'm In Love" from Melodifestivalen, and even MF stalwart Tomas G:son had a hand in writing the song. It's a typical schlager-pop song that doesn't really bring anything new to the table, but it's that type of song you can't help but tap your feet and sing along to! It had been all over the Norwegian tabloids that poor Reidun had been suffering from a very bad virus and couldn't even perform properly in the rehearsals, and this was worrying, as the song requires quite a lot of vocal dexterity! Would she be able to pull it off?

Reidun did the best she could, however it was obvious that she wasn't at her best. A few of the notes were a bit off but some of the power notes she hits were amazing. Could the Norwegians see past this and give her a place in the final?

Rudi Myntevik was next with a rather disappointing performance with "You Break it, You Own It", and I couldn't really see this going anywhere. Next was Lisa Stokke, who was in the original cast of Mamma Mia, with her Disneyesque song "With Love". It was cheesy and schmalzy, but I still rather liked it, and Lisa's experience definitely showed as she completely sold the song on stage. As for her outfit, however....Oh Lisa. (!)..

What...On...Earth.???

Next was United, which featured Benedicte Adrian, who was one half of Norway's 1984 entrants, Dollie de Luxe. This was AMAZING for ALL the wrong reasons. It seemed like a bit of a boring R'n'B song until towards the end when Benedicte appears on stage and starts SCREAMING for no apparent reason whatsoever. I didn't know where to look! Check out her AMAZING entrance at 1 min 27 seconds of this video...

Despite being a complete MESS, I did like this song a little, but I knew it had next to no chance of qualifying...

Nora Foss Al-Jabri (now there's a mouthful!) was next up with her ballad "Somewhere Beautiful" which was even more Disney than Lisa's song earlier. This could easily be in the soundtrack for the latest Disney epic. Nora's not even 16 yet but sang everyone off the stage in Orland with her impressive performance. I thought she was pretty much guaranteed a spot in the Spektrum, but stranger things have happened...

Last up were The Carburetors with "Don't Touch The Flame" and this is pretty much as far removed from the kind of song I like as you can get. Despite this it was compeltely different from anything else tonight and would probably pick up it's share of votes...

After watching the performances, it seems like they've made quite a few changes to MGP this year, and to me it resembles it's big sister Melodifestivalen even more! Like SVT, NRK have also abandoned the "six people on stage" and "no vocals on backing tracks" rules that they have at the actual Eurovision itself. The jury is out whether this is a good thing or not. It does mean for more spectacular performances in the National Final, but this can mean that performances would have to be drastically changed for Eurovision itself...

After a break of half an hour, we were back with the results. This year, they have abandoned the Siste Sjansen and instead, the top 3 songs go DTS (Direkt Til Spektrum), and 1 song from the non-qualifiers will join the lucky nine in the final.

For some reason, they decided to announce the top 3 in order of 3rd to 1st. Quite why this decision was made is a bit baffling, as it takes away a lot of the suspense. My predictions for DTS were Nora, The Carburettors, and Irresistible...

Reidun was announced in THIRD place to her delight and my pleasant surprise The viewers obviously overlooked her vocal problems, and she'll have another chance in a few weeks, let's hope she's better by then. The Carburetors were announced in SECOND place, which I wasn't surprised about, as these type of songs generally do well in MGP. And finally, Nora was announced in FIRST place, which was well deserved after her performance.

So overall, I was fairly pleased with the result, though more than a bit gutted for Irresistible. However, according to iTunes, it looked like they may have finished fourth in the semi, so that Wild Card ticket could still be theirs. That all depends on how NRK choose this though. Still I don't think we've seen the winner in this heat, I think the fight for the top spot is still to come.

On se perd, on s’espère, quelque part on s’égare...

Today was a BIG day for me, as they finally revealed the full version of the French entry "Echo (You and I)" sung by Anggun. I was over the moon when they announced Anggun as the French representative, as I've been a MASSIVE fan of her since I discovered her in 1999 with her amazing song "Snow On The Sahara", and I have been following her career ever since.

Some of the reviews of the song have not been very favourable, although it's had it's fair share of positive comments too, so it was on tenterhooks that I pressed PLAY on You Tube....

AND....well I wasn't disappointed! It starts off mid-tempo before changing tempo, and becoming rather frantic towards the end! It's uplifting and catchy without being too in your face. Some people have commented that it doesn't have a chorus, but I completely disagree. It might not be a chorus that slaps you in the face but it's definitely there, and I think the switch from French to English in the chorus really works!

Check out the song here, complete with lyrics, so you can sing along!

As for it's chances at Eurovision? I'm not entirely sure. I think this one could go either way. Despite being an uptempo song, I think the juries could go for this one. I'm confident that with her experience, Anggun will be able to pull off a great performance, I just hope it's not just her standing there on stage! So this goes straight to number 1 on my chart so far, and I think this will be difficult to be beaten...

Oh oh oh, I feel the energy between you and me, baby it’s so right...

Tonight saw the selection of the fourth entry for this year's Eurovision in Baku (we can now officially call it the host city after today's announcement!)

18 year oldIvi Adamou, who came 6th in the second series of Greek X-Factor, competed competed against, well herself, for the chance to represent Cyprus at Eurovision. Three songs took part in the selection, all of which had Scandinavian connections. Perhaps Cyprus were taking a leaf out of Azerbaijan's book from last year? I liked all of the songs, as they are typically the kind of music I listen to outside of the Eurovision bubble.

The show itself was a pretty low-key affair and featured a special appearance from a friend and fellow Scot, Andrew James Main, as one of the jury members, who did himself proud. I'm not sure the same could be said for the host of the show who seemed to ramble on incessantly! Despite featuring only a handful of songs, the show went on for over 2 hours, which is more than the Melodifestivalen final. Although not quite the length of a Maltese final, so I suppose I should be thankful!

Anyway eventually, it was down to business! Someone at CyBC decided that Ivi would mime the songs. I'm not sure I really agree with this decision, as after all, the public are voting on the performance as well as the song in Eurovision itself. Anyhow, all 3 songs were performed in roughly the same simple manner, just Ivi on the stage with no dancers or gimmicks.

My ranking of the three songs have changed a lot over the past few weeks. The overwhelming fan favourite was "La La Love", a rather catchy song with slight Greek touches but still very modern. I was leaning more towards "Call The Police" in the past few days - any song with the line "I'm turning you in, for turning me on" is a classic in my book!

It did remind me a little of Kelly Rowland's "Down For Whatever" though, but I could just imagine it being performed on stage with hunky shirtless dancers in police outfits, cages and handcuffs(!)...ahem...anyway...

The other song, "You Don't Belong Here, was a little bit different from the others. More mid-tempo, it was another worthy song, reminiscent of early Kelly Clarkson. On the downside, it wasn't perhaps not as instant as the others, and possibly could have struggled for votes in the semi-final.

After all the songs were performed, we had a rather embarrassing moment when the "host" of the show tried to rap something. Not sure if Ivi looked too impressed! I'm not sure how tall she is but she looked rather giant compared to the male host, however Eva Rivas will take some beating as the tallest woman in Eurovision ever. (The girl on stilts in France 2004's entry doesn't count.)

Not soon enough, the results came through and both the judges and televoters agreed that "La La Love" was the best song, and was duly performed again! See what you think here...

I think in hindsight, the best song was chosen. It's rather catchy and summery and I think could do rather well for Cyprus. I definitely think it has a great chance of qualifying, and should hopefully give Cyprus it's best result in Eurovision since Lisa Andreas in 2004! I do think Ivi needs some dancers and a new outfit though, but the song goes straight to the top of my chart of 2012 so far!

Now I miss you, like Sahara miss the rain...

Ok...so I'm a little bit late with starting the round up for this year's Eurovision. "On season" as we fans like to call it, officially started in December with the selection of the entries from Switzerland and Albania, but it really started to kick off with steam last weekend with the Dansk Melodi Grand Prix, the Danish final, and first semi of the similarly named Melodi Grand Prix, the Norwegian selection!

First - Denmark. Coming off the back of two top 5 finishes in a row, DR presented nine entries in Aalborg on Saturday night. I say nine, as there was a 10th entry, "Nowhere" by "Valen:Tine, which was disqualified after having been published online in July 2011, breaking the rules of the contest. You'd think DR would have checked each song to make sure of this, but it was down to eagle-eyed fans to spot this. Somewhat confusingly, they decided to keep the original running order and numbers, meaning we jumped straight from song 1 to song 3!

The pre-favourites with the bookies were 12 year old Jesper Nohrstedt singing "Take Our Hearts", an uptempo track which sadly doesn't go anywhere and Danish/Swedish duo Christian Brøns & Patrik Isaksson with their tribute to U2's "With Or Without You", otherwise known as "Venter".

My favourite was "Overflow" by Le Freak lead singer, Ditte Marie, which was kind of a electroschlager track, if such a thing exists! ( Well it does now...) It even had a glorious keychange!

I also quite liked the song by Aya "Best Thing That I Got" - though her voice reminded me a bit of Germany's 2001 singer Michelle. And as for that outfit...

Eurovision is known for classic outfits, and tonight was no exception. There were many delights on offer! We had a dress made of multi-coloured straws from Aya, a white outfit with tassels that Kylie would be proud of from Ditte Marie, a black monstrosity with giant shoulderpads from Karen Viuff (not to mention her interesting hair-do), and the amazingly named Soluna Samay was no exception either - she had a sailors outfit on complete with hat and giant epaulettes!

We also had a CLASSIC moment with the entry by Suriya, called "Forever I B Young" which we've never quite seen anything like it before on a Eurovision stage! I'm not sure how to describe this song, but take a look for yourself...

HOT MESS is the best I can come up with. Her vocals left a lot to be desired, and she looked as if she'd just come straight from the local club! There's not much of a song there either, but maybe I should commend DR for actually daring to choose something like this in their selection. Most of the other tracks were rather MOR and safe, like Kenneth Potempa's "Reach The Sky" which was rather Coldplay lite, and Karen Viuff's "Universe" whic was ruined by her nervous and shaky performance.

However, the HIGHLIGHT of the show came towards the end of song by the favourites, the aforementioned duo Christian and Patrik when Christian fluffed the money note! They even kept this part in the recap of the songs. Maybe DR didn't want them to win after all. Sadly all trace of the song has been deleted from YouTube so I'm unable to share this with you...

The top 3 were Jesper, Christian/Patrik and Soluna. None of which came as a surprise. After all three performed, the juries voted, putting Jesper just ahead of Soluna. A Friend In London, last year's Danish entrants performed with a rather bizarre special guest appearance from Howie D of the Backstreet Boys who came on stage for the last 30 seconds of the song. Unfortunately for him, his microphone seemed to fail and we couldn't hear him! All that way for nothing...

It was then down to the reveal of the SMS voting. Venter was announced in third place. In a bit of a shock, Soluna was then announced as the winner, and won a trip to Baku!

While I wasn't a massive fan of the song on first listen, the performance won me over, as Soluna gave a rather polished performance. Many have compared her to Anna Bergendahl - Sweden's entrant in 2010, but the only similarity I can see is that she brandishes a guitar. The chorus does remind me a little of Seal's "Crazy", but then when have Eurovision songs been completely original? The lyrics of the song though, are more than a bit dodgy... As for chances in Baku? Well it's a bit early to make a prediction as so far we've only heard three entries. I'd say she has a good chance of qualifying though...

Quand je te rêve, y a plus d'heure, plus de distance...

To get the blog rolling, I'll start with posting my FAVOURITE Eurovision song EVER!

It's a bit of a random one this. It's hardly one of the more common tracks, but there's something about it I love.

Quand Je Te Rêve was the entry from Luxembourg in 1990. Sung by Céline Carzo, who, like most singers who represented Luxembourg, didn't actually come from there. (She hailed from Nice.)

The song hardly set the scoreboard on fire, finishing mid-table in 13th place, with 38 points, including 12 points from neighbours France. In fact, surprisingly, this was only the second and last time Luxembourg would get douze points from France, after their winning entry by Corinne Hermès in 1983.

The disappointing result was probably largely due to Céline's shaky vocals and rather static performance, where she seemed to stand rooted to the spot with her left arm superglued to her side! She also looked a bit like a deer in headlights. I guess the whole thing was a bit too much for her, poor thing. Looking back, it's hard to believe Céline was just 17 years old at the time of the contest, as she looks much older, I'd have said she was in her mid 20s!

Despite the lacklusture performance, what I love about the track so much are the 80s style synths, and the way the song builds to a dramatic finish. This is particularly evident in the full single version of the track which includes a cheesy 80s guitar solo, which cruelly had to be cut for the Eurovision performance to bring the track down to 3 minutes, but really adds to the whole drama of the song!

The song also had an English version "Looking For Love", which appeared on the B-side of the single, and the CD single, which I'm told exists but is VERY rare. (How I'd love to get my hands on a copy of that!)

After the contest, Céline disappeared into that black hole that many other performers who have graced the Eurovosion stage have gone. I wonder where she is now...

Welcome! Välkomna! Gəlmisiniz!

Hello everyone! Welcome to my brand NEW Eurovision blog! For many Eurovision fans like myself, the Eurovision Song Contest is more than just three hours of camp fun on a Saturday night. It lasts the whole year round!

Here at Eurovisionkaos, I'll be posting all my ramblings about all things Eurovision related. We already have lots of great Eurovision sites posting news, so there's no point covering that here. My blog will concentrate more on the fun side of Eurovision things, including my reviews of National Finals and some of the ridiculousness that goes hand in hand with this, (and there is a LOT of that!) as well as reports about my visits to some of the said National Finals and Eurovision itself.

As I said before, for many fans, Eurovision doesn't end at 11pm BST on a Saturday in May, but carries on all year round, so during the off season I will post some of my favourite National Final and Eurovision performances, and some that need to be seen to be believed!

Anyway, I hope you enjoy what lies ahead over the coming months, which is sure to be an exciting time as songs are selected for the contest in Baku in May. It's sure to be a crazy few months, that's for sure...