Once every year we Europeans - as we love to compete - love to get together in one city for a big event we call Eurovision Song Contest. We arrive with cameras, weird costumes, crazy dancers, journalists, critics and singers in order to perform in a music-competition. For the one country collecting the most votes from their competitors this event ends in a glorious way. Others leave the place in shame. We laugh, we clap and in the end we stay friends but since this is still a contest, ones aim should be to WIN.
Every year I try to stay away from this circus but I tend to fail. Same this year. Yet once more I got soaked into this crazy world. Got even more enthusiastic by reading the blog of a friend (Elin Synnøve Bråthen - a talented and ambitioned musician from Norway) who has been reviewing all the entries and making good predictions. And I saw them all, I watched both semi-finals and I have my favourites. And in less than 6 hours we'll know in which country ESC 2012 is going to take place. Personally I want to wish all the best of luck to Switzerland, Ireland, Finland, Serbia, Aserbaijan, Denmark and Sweden. But away from personal preferences, while looking through the entries I asked myself if it would be possible to write the perfect song for ESC. Is there smth like a recipe one could follow? In a way of: Take a lot of talent and mix it with a voluminous voice. Add a flavour of charm and pour some sparkles over it. To finish, make it enter the ESC for about 3:30 minutes. Or is it all just a matter of luck and good timing? Well, I came to the following conclusions for those planning to participate the next year...
Starting with the song. The basis for everything should be a song with a good melody and suiting lyrics. More than three chords or different notes could be an advantage and everything that can be composed within 5 minutes and a computer programme should not be the chosen. On the other hand, this doesn't mean the song has to be complicated and arranged with thousand different instruments. The right mix of complicated and simple will do. Think of a song you would wanna listen to on the radio and which you can't get out of your head after hearing once.
It's the same with lyrics. If they are too complicated - for example about politics or the situation in your country, no one else in Europe has a clue off - or too simple - like singing about blue skies, white clouds, green fields or about tiny rabbits having tiny noses and tiny kittens having soft paws - won't get you further in the competition. If people remember some of the lyrics they will also remember the country or artist.
Of course it costs an effort to sing in your own language because many won't be able to understand them. But by doing that you clearly represent the country you're from and a lot of people have a favour for that.
Pick something different. Something that Europe didn't hear before on ESC. Over the past years we had many ballads, pop, folk and syth-pop songs. Nowadays it seems that Europe is craving for new stuff. Rock, hip-hop or even influences of metal were sent out and shown the last couple of years. Just think of Lordi who won in 2006!!
Entering the ESC with something new like a fancy song, extraordinary costumes or funny hairstyles will make people talking about you even before they heard your song. Being media's favourite is ALWAYS good - whether you get good or bad critiques. I remember well seing reports about Lordi, Lena Meyer-Landrut or Jedward long before the actual show. So if you see journalists with cameras you gotta jump right in front of them for an interview or performance. Promotion is half the battle.
But don't be different at any cost!!! And don't rely on previous trends - just because it was a boy with a violin who won in 2009 doesn't mean we'd love to see artists using violins on stage in the following years.
A lot of good impressions can be gained with a good performance on stage. Every year we have pretty chicks wearing only a tiny glittering piece of cothing, guys in white and partly unbuttoned shirts and females in long, because of a wind-machine, flowing dress. As contrast to these you will also find groups of people in weird, colourful clothing jumping from one end of the stage to the other. And aren't we a bit tired of these? Again it is about to figure out the right mix (and that should also be some kind of clothing/choreography suiting to the song)!! And just because you can only have six people on stage doesn't mean you need them. Sometimes it looks quite stupid if you have a singer on stage, four dancers and one person doing background vocals standing somewhere offside without being included in the choreography, right?!
It is said that Eastern countries tend to vote for Eastern countries of similar language or heritage. This is true to a certain extent. So you might be advantaged if you come, for example, from Norway and you were born in Belarus. ;)
Now if you're lucky, after getting to the final, your country will perform in the last third of the show. While the die-hard ESC-fans will know weeks ahead whom they are voting for the average ESC-viewer will decide in the last couple of minutes. And they might vote for an artist they can recall easily. Recency effect in other words!!
Okay, all these tips might not guarantee you the first place but at least you won't embarrass your country. Try it - see you next year on stage then.
And now - let the show begin!! :)
Already some months ago it was announced that Austria would come back to the Eurovision Song Contest and, being Austrian, from that moment on this thought made me rack my brain.
Austria's history in ESC is after all not that glorious: once winner, several places in the last third of the ranks, sometimes we were last or didn't even get into the finals. And the songs we were represented with?! Yeah, better not talk about that.
But after three years of not participating we're back. And could this have something to do with the fact that Germany won last year?!?! Well, that was my first thought - we love to compete with the Germans. And when it comes to sports, this works out fine for us - but music?! Okay, we're known for good music and great composings - no, wait, that was a couple of centuries ago.
Anyway - of course I would have wished for a good song that might have a chance to win to represent our country. But taking a look at our competiors in recent years I just wished for the least embarrassing one.
After a while, when the possible acts were announced I was surprised to find some good and solid artists and musicians among 30 songs/bands/musicians who were chosen by a jury. People could then vote via SMS for their favourites.
Of course one of my favorites were Excuse Me Moses which is a grounded and quite popular rock band from Vienna. Their song "Way Out" is a very nice rock tune and shows that it definitely is possible for Austrians to make good music on a professional level that you could bring abroad.
But I also took a listen on the other participants (some where completely unknown) and then I found this gentlemen here, a real jewel as it turned out: Axel Wolph (and The Feeltank Orchestra) with the song "My Little Reminder". A nice song, one could be proud of being Austrian.
But in first place I'm so stunned by Axel Wolph's voice and talent - he's a multi-instrumentalist, producer, singer- and songwriter. One of Austria's best and budding, probably.
Check out his cover of Johnny & Mary, which is, if you ask me, better than the original, or one of his own songs, like this one: Gravity. (BTW: Besides of his abilities as musician he's also looking smoking hot, I think!!! ;D )
But neither Excuse Me Moses nor Axel Wolph got into the TV-final which was held yesterday. Ten artists could proof themselves live in front of an audience and people in front of their TV-screens. Again, people could vote for their favourites and those ten artists were yet downsized to three: Trackshittaz, Klimmstein feat. Joe Sumner and Nadine Beiler.
I think in case of the Eurovison Song Contest, people should vote for something that could actually win this huge competition. It should be about personal preferences rather about something the whole Europe could like. And, honestly, it's not that hard to predict which song is going to win in this year's ESC: It's going to be something new, something pushing, something innovative, something fresh, something we haven't heard before.
And a perfect match to that would have been "Paris, Paris" by Klimmstein feat. Joe Sumner!! A funny song, easily to sing along, making you wanna move, sounding fresh and new and sung in English, Austrian dialect (which sounds actually quite charming) and partly in French. THE PERFECT song to represent Austria because of its connection to the country (due to the language the song is sung in) and its chances to win.
But have a listen for yourself and watch its official video:
When the host announced yesterday that they made the 3rd place in the pre-selection "Guten Morgen Düsseldorf" I was first of all deeply disappointed and started to send prayers to heaven so the Trackshittaz wouldn't make it!! About this constellation I can only say: They seriously make me wanna drown them in the Danube!!!!
And not sure if my prayers would help I started to think of a clever way to overwrite the nationality in my passport. Trackshittaz made the second place - so Nadine Beiler won and will represent Austria in the Eurovision Song Contest 2011! This is indeed better than Trackshittaz but her song "The Secret Is Love" is a ballad - one like we heard it many, many times before in ESC. So even if we make it to the final in Düsseldorf (we of course have to pass the semi-finals first) we will probably stick to our somewhere-in-the-last-third-rank.
Why, Austria, why?!?!?!
