Sunday 27 January 2013

Can't get enough of that Nordi-pop stuff

So I expect we're all a little punch-drunk after the various bashes taking place in northern Europe over the last few days.  The Nordic countries seem to have cornered the market lately.

Those Finns were first again, with another little semi-final type affair on Thursday night.  Compact and bijou again, I actually found this show very pleasant.  The songs were all pretty good.  Krista Siegfrids' song didn't surprise me in getting straight through to the final, but I was expecting the Great Wide North to join it, especially as it features a banjo!  The Finns have their second chance thing on Thursday when we'll get to see the delight that is Rautakoura.

Iceland then had a discreet semi-final on Friday night.  No joy this year for former pin-up Yohanna.  Birgit Haukdal came through with a slightly insipid and formulaic song written by Eurovision fans.  So what could possibly go wrong.

The Saturday night we had the unholy trinity of another Icelandic semi-final, a Norwegian semi-final and a Danish final.  What a treat for the ears - not.

Iceland's second set of semi-finalists were also a little ordinary for me.  But thank the Great Pixie above that Magni for getting a wild card.  A song with a bit of bite is what the contest will need.

Norway next, and I've only heard the three qualifiers for the next stage - whatever stage that is.  I have to say I am quite impressed with all three.  The song by Fjellfolk is sublime and I could listen to it all day.  I have no beef with Margaret Berger's excellent gutsy song which would also look good in Malmö.  She's easy on the eye too.  Even Annsofi's song, even though it's written by monkey boy Rybak, is not without its charm.  Norway could be a country to watch if one of these three gets the golden ticket.

Finally, Denmark, what have you done?  If this were a school report I'd be awarding the very liberal Danes a 'Could do better'.  The three songs in the, ahem, 'super-final' were all decidedly ordinary.  Mohamed Ali was this year's vintage from the Eric Saade/Tooji memorial clone factory, and it looks like they need a new mould.  Simone was slightly forgettable, and Emmelie De Forest seems to have a composite song of everything second-rate from the last five years.  It might shock some people and just scrape it through to the final, but on the other hand might just shock some other people and sink with out trace.  But I don't think DR has anything to worry about in 2014.

I can't wait for the next lot of fun and games.  Can you?

R x

1 comment:

  1. Denmark seem to have polarized opinion, with talk ranging from disaster to landslide victory. I personally am sat on the fence. The songs okay, and in my view is an improvement on Denmarks recent attempts. That said i cant see it breaking the top ten, and at this point i could see it at the very bottom of the left, or top of the right, of the scoreboard. But they do need to sort out staging - it was a complete dogs dinner.

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