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!
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