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Over the last
seven
years "All Kinds Of Everything" has given fans a
chance to hear the songs competing for a place on the
Eurovision stage, months in advance of the contest. For 2012,
we once again look forward to the contest by providing some information on the songs vying for
places in the contest in Baku in May. With
over forty countries competing in May
and few making internal selections, the vast
majority of the entrants will be chosen through open
national selections of various types. Between now and
March, we will be looking at and and listening to the
songs in contention for Eurovision 2012.
To
start 2012's Sneak Peeks we are having a bumper double sized
edition, looking at potential Eurovision entries from twelve
national selections.
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BULGARIA "Prosto Lyubov" (Simply Love) - Sofi Marinova
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Following the
disappointing results of the last two years, when they sent
two of the country's biggest music stars to the Eurovision
Song Contest, but failed to make it out of the semi-finals,
there was specualation that Bulgarian broadcaster BNT might
not compete in Baku. However they were one of the first
countries to confirm their participation for 2012 and in
October they
announced an open call for potential entries. Ater dropping
the idea of two semi-finals, in favour of one larger
qualifier, 22 songs competd for 12 final places on January
14th and a 50/50 mix of a jury and
a public televote selected the finalists.
36 year old Sofi
Marinova (left) is one of the most experienced singers
competing in this year's Bulgarian final. She has already
released eleven albums and had many hits on national radio.
Sofi will be hoping that it's "third time lucky",
having come 2nd in the 2005 Bulgarian Final and 3rd in 2007.
This year she has opted for an uptempo dance song "Prosto
Lyubov" (Simply Love) which reminds many of Alexandra
Stan's
international hit "Mr.Saxobeat" from last summer. The 2012 Bulgarian
entry will be chosen by a televote and a jury on February
29th.
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LATVIA "Disco Superstar" - PeR
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Latvia is another
country that will be looking to reverse a series of recent
disappointing Eurovision results in Baku. This year LTV has
again chosen to use two semi-finals and a final in its
national selection and a total of 20 songs were in
competition. The first semi-final took place on January 7th
and five songs made it to the final with the support of a jury
and televote. The standard in the semi-final left a lot of people
unimpressed, but a couple of songs stood out and few will
forgot the group PeR and their song "Disco
Superfly".
The duo of Ralph Eilande
and Edmund Rasmanis make up PeR. The group started out as a trio in
2007 and have already represented Latvia at music festivals in
Moscow and Belarus In 2009 they teamed up with singer Sabine
Berezina to finish 9th in the Latvia national final. This year they
have jumped on the disco revival trend with zany 1970s style clothes
and three backing singers all bedecked in disco era outfits. It
certainly makes their entry "Disco Superfly" unforgettably
from a visual point of view and on February 18th we'll see if they
have what it takes to win Latvia's ticket to Baku. You can find the
LTV website here.
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ICELAND "Mundu Eftir
Mér" (Remember Me) - Gréta Salóme & Jonsi
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Iceland is one
country that has had little problem qualifying for the
Eurovision final in recent years and since the contest was
expanded to include two semi-finals, back in 2008, the Iceland
ic entry has made it through to the final. However despite
finishing as runner-up on two occasions, Iceland is still
waiting for its first victory in the competition. The 2012
Icelandic final will be held on February 11th and before that
final there are three semi-finals held on January 14th,
21st and 28th. Five songs will compete in each semi and the
top two chosen by televoting and a jury will qualify for the
final.
The most familar face
in the first semi-final `was that of Jonsi, who
represented Iceland at the Eurovision Song Contest in 2004 with "Heaven". He also
competed in the 2007 Icelandic final. This year he has teamed
up with 25 year old Greta Salóme Stefánsdóttir who also
write the song. Grata Salóme has a bachelor's egree an music
and is an accomplished violinist. Their song "Mundu Eftir
Mér" (Remember Me) is a dramatic ballad with some very
striking percussion and string backing and is seen as one of
the favourites to make it to Baku. RUV's offical website is here.
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CYPRUS
"Call The Police" - Ivi Adamou
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One country that knows who
will be representing them in Baku is Cyprus. As far back as August,
Cypriot broadcaster CyBC decided to choose their artist internally
and selected 18 year old Ivi Adamou to go to Azerbaijan. An open
call was made for songs and in December the three successful entries
were announced and released to the public on YouTube and the Cypriot
website. The winning entry will be selected on January 25th at the
RIK Studios in Nicosia. There weill be a 50/50 mix betwween a
national televote and a jury, which will include "All Kinds Of
Everything" blogger Andrew Main. We've promised not to
influence Andrew, but our favourite song is contemporary uptempo
song "Call The Police".
Ivi Adamou first came to
attention in Greece and Cyprus following her participation in the
second series of the Greek version of "X Factor", where
she was under the mentorship of Giorgos Theofanous. Ivi won a
recording contract with Greek Sony Music and released her debut EP
"Kalokairi Stin Kardia" in 2010 which was certified gold.
She also released a collection of Christmas music later that year
and has since gone on to have several successful singles in the
Greek and Cypriot charts. You can find CyBC's website here.br
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UUKRAINE "Dance"
- Max Baksih
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Following
the failures of Tukey and Armenia to make it through to the final in
Dusseldorf, there are now only a handful of countries with a 100%
qualification record from the semi-finals and one of those countries
is Ukraine. Ukrainian broadcaster NTU has a somewhat unconventional
way of selecting its Eurovision entries, but as of now the plans are
that 22 potential entries will compete in a national final in March.
The exact date of the show and the method of selection have
still to be confirmed and if history is anything to go by and could
well change.
One
of the songs that will be competing in the Ukrainian final is
"Dance" performed by 21 year old Max Barsih (Nicholas
Bortnik). A graduate of Kyiv's school for the performing arts, Max
first came to fame through a national talent show, in 2008. His rise
was nothing short of meteoric and within two years he won "Best
Ukrainian Artist" at the MTV Awards and has starred in a film,
opposite Lara Fabien. He has gone on to have a string of hits in
Ukraine, won many awards as the biggest star on Ukraine's music
scene and is now the hot favourite to represent his cvountry at
Eurovision, with his song "Dance", which may be light on
lyrics but is certainly open to a memorable stage performance.
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MALTA
"Whoop
It Up" - Annalise Ellul
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Considering that Malta is
one of Eurovision's smallest countries, it has a remarkable record
in the contest, with three Top 3 results. Unfortunatly, recent
results haven't been so good and for the last two years the Maltese
have just missed out on making the Eurovision final. Nevertheless
Maltese broadcaster PBS sticks to the same formula to choose its
entry for Baku. There was a call to songwriters from all over Europe
to work with local composers and a couple of entries with Irish
songwriters made this year's long list. However they fell by the
wayside when the list was shortened to 24 songs in December.
The Maltese final will be
held on February 4th at the Malta Fairs & Convention Centre in
Ta' Qali. Before the final there will be a semi-final on February
3rd. 16 songs will qualify for the final where the winner will be
chosen by a jury and televoting. One song that's already getting a
lot of attention is "Whoop It Up" suung by 27 year old
singer and television presenter Annalise Ellul. Annalse who also
competed in the 2002 Maltese selection is also a modern dancing
choreographer after previously specialising in Latin American and
tap dancing. Annalise is clearly using these skills to help her
efforts to get to Baku.
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FINLAND "Aamuyön Ikuisuus" (After The Eternal
Early Morning) - Jari & Taika
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While
some countries are sticking with the previous selection process for
2012, Finnish broadcaster YLE is using some new innovations to pick
their entry for Baku. There are no semi-finals before the Finnish
national final which will have only six entries. The show will be
held on February 25th and has moved back to Helsinki and it will be
staged in the city's Ice Hall. The finalists will be chosen through
an online vote, which is currently in progress and will close on
January 27th. To build up to the final, there will be five preview
shows on January 27th, February 3rd, 10th, 17th and 24th. These will
track the progress of the finalists.
The
current somewhat surprise leader of the online vote is quirky
"Aamuyön Ikuisuus" (After The Eternal Early Morning) by
the group Jari & Taika. The group which doesn't exactly consist
of yougsters was only formed in 2004 and are led by accordianist
Jari Mustajärvi, who also wrote their Eurovision entry. Javi quotes
The Beatles as his greatest musical influence and the simple melodic
elements the "Aamuyön Ikuisuus" wouldn't be out of place
in the 1960s. This would certainly be a very unusual Eurovision
entry if it made it all the way to Baku.
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AUSTRIA
"Woki
Mit Deim Popo" - Trackshittaz
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After a three year hiatus
Austria returned to the Eurovision Song Contest in Dusseldorf and
celebrated by qualifying for the final for the first time. Austrian
broadcaster ORF has once again opted for an open selection to choose
their entry for Baku. The Austrian final will be held on February
24th at the ORF TV Studios in Vienna and the winner will be chosen
by televoting. The twelve songs in competition were presented to the
public on January 11th and there are few finals that will have the
variety of he Austrian selection.
One of the finalists is the
familar duo, Trackshittaz, who finished second in last year's
Austrian selection. The duo, consisting of Lukas Plöchl (stage name
G-Neila) and Manuel Hoffelner (Manix) hail from the town of
Mühlviertel in Upper Austria. They came together in the spring of
2010 anmd quickly gather a large local following. They made their
national breakthrough later in the year with "Oida Taunz!"
which topped the Austrian charts in October and was submitted to
ORF's Eurovision selection. This year they have repeated the formula
of a rap and chant on "Woki Mit Deim Popo" which
namechecks several Austrian clichés.
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ESTONIA
"The
Destination" - Mimicry
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After
several years of failure, Estonia reached the Eurovision final in
Dusseldorf, but "Rockefeller Street" did not challenge for
victory in the way that many people expected before the contest. ETV
is again opting for an expended selection for 2012, with two
semi-finals before the climax of Eesti Laul on March 3rd.
Twenty songs will compete in two semi-finals to be held on February
18th and 25th. The top five songs from each semi-final, chosen by a
jury and the public, will progress to the final. While all the
entries have yet to be made public, once again there is a wide
variety of musical style on display and it is very hard to call a
favourite.
While
there are a couple of former Eurovision entrants looking to make a
comeback, our ear is drawn to the duo Mimicry and their electro-pop
song "The Destination". The duo which is made up of former
Idols contestant Kene Vernik (vocals, keyboards, percussion) and
Paul Lepasson (programming, guitar, vocals) have qualified for the
last two Estonian finals but came nowhere near getting to
Eurovision, however this year's entry is their best to date. You can
find more information about Mimicry on the group's website
and you can find the official ETV Eurovision website
here.
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HUNGARY
"Sound Of Our Hearts" -
Compact
Disco
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You have to go all the way
back to 2005 for the last Hungarian national final, when NOX won the
ticket to Eurovision in Kyiv.
Since then, Hungary's entries have been chosen through an internal
selection. This year MTV has not only decided to return to an open
final, but they are organising the biggest selection since entering
Eurovision.
A total of twenty songs will
compete in two semi-finals, on January 28th and February 4th and a jury and televote will select a total of eight
finalists to compete for the Hungarian ticket to Baku in
the final to be staged in Budapest on February 11th.
When the semi-finalists
were announced earlier this week a lot of attention was placed on
the four man group Compact Disco and their peace anthem "Sound
Of Our Hearts". The group who were formed in 2008 have already
released two albums and several singles. In 2010, their debut album
"Stereoid" won "Best Album of the Year" at the
Hungarian music awards. "Sound Of Our Hearts" was not
written with Eurovision in mind and has be re-arranaged to meet the
three minute rule, but if selected, this could well be Hungary's
strongest Eurovision entry for many years. The group's website
is here.
Since entering the
contest for the first time in 2004, Belarus's recent in the
competition can best be described as "patchy", having
qualified for the final on only two occasions and only madking the
Top 10 in the final once, back in 2007 with Koldun's "Work Your
Magic". This year the Belarussian entry is being chosen over
two phases. A semi-final with 15 potential entries competed in a
semi-final, which was held on December 21st and the Top 5, chosen by
televoting and a jury qualified for the final.
In
theory the five songs will compete in the final on January 31st, but
already a couple of the acts chosen have announced that they are
likely to change the song that they will sing in the final. This
rather unusual process is allowed in Belarus. The singer that is
unlikely to change her entry is the current favourite Victoria
Alesko. The Minsk born singer is well known on the local music
scene, but she is competing in her first Belarussian selection. Her
impressive song "Dream" was apparently the clear winner of
the semi-final and with its dramatic stage performance, it's no
surprise that her fellow finalist feel a need to change their songs
to be in with a chance of getting the ticket to Baku.
o
ad.
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