Showing posts with label Lena. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Lena. Show all posts
Monday, May 14, 2012
A year ago today, I was in Dusseldorf, Germany, for the final of the Eurovision Song Contest.
How frickin' excited was I to be there? I was FRICKIN' EXCITED.
But I had reason to be. Getting a ticket to the final was confirmation that going to Europe was what I was meant to do.
Before going, I'd had some doubts about whether I was running away from issues back home, namely finding a job since finishing my studies.
For me it was a weeknight about 10pm when tickets went on sale. My first Internet ticket-buying rush and I was nervous (I'm old-skool and line up for tickets when big names come to town). An hour later, I'm still hitting the same button thinking something's up. Checking on Twitter, I discovered the site had crashed. Thank God. Made a few friends there while we waited actually.
I remember thinking to myself 'If I get this ticket I'm meant to go overseas, no backing out', and when I got through it was exhilarating. Then it locked me out.
It was another half hour or so before I re-entered, went through it in German before realising I could switch to English. But I managed to pick a good ticket, mid-range, paid, all good.
It was packed.
I'd found a Greek flag in a mad rush, almost got lost as I tried a shortcut to the station, but I got there. And met Aussies, including fellow Greek Nick from Adelaide. We had no mutual friends, which in Adelaide Greek circles could be seen as peculiar.
The show was AMAZING. I had an awesome seat that allowed me to dance away in the aisles. Absolute faves were England's Blue with I Can and Germany's Lena with her attempt at defending the title Taken By A Stranger - both songs rank highly on my favourites list. Winners for Azerbaijan Ell and Nikki with Running Scared were good though too, I wasn't entirely disappointed with that result.
I was lucky because 2011 was a good year. The hosts were well--presented, the songs were actually of a fairly high calibre overall, and the Germans know how to throw a party. Hottest guy award went to Sweden's Eric Saade, worst song was from Italy's Raphael Gualazzi (how it came third we there still don't know, had to be the intrigue factor because Italy were back and in the Big Five), and brightest stage design went to Serbia's Nina with her 60s get-up. Very impressed with the night, especially as the only one for some time not to be in the last week of May.
I would spend the next day in Cologne with my new Adelaide friend avoiding pelting rain through visiting a Lindt museum and hiding out in a cafe. A relaxing Sunday.
Dusseldorf came to life with Eurovision. Their pride to host it was everywhere; Eurovision was all around. Take a look at what I found myself a part of.
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| In the film museum |
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| Aussie! Greek! From Adelaide! |
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| I DID make friends on Twitter amidst confusion, including Mark |
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| Early rain in Cologne made it so gloomy... |
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| But getting The Candy Man Can from Willy Wonka in my head made it better |
*This is also the fifth post in the series My decade of Eurovision. That started here.
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Wednesday, May 09, 2012
This is the third post in a series about the Eurovision Song Contest. If you don't know what that is I strongly suggest you follow my posts. You'll learn a lot.
I was originally under the impression that any artist could only enter Eurovision once, and took a while to realise this wasn't the case. In the nine contests I've seen, there have been a few repeat offenders which have proven to be some of my favourites overall. Plus my examples are all actual winners.
Helena Paparizou, who won in 2005, had entered as part of duo Antique for Greece four years before. I still hear My Number One and have it in my head for days. Come to think of it, Kalomira's 2008 offering of Secret Combination even more so.
Lena Meyer-Landrut won for Germany in 2010 with her strange drawling voice in Satellite before being chosen as the 2011 representative to attempt back-to-back victories. I actually liked Taken By A Stranger a bit better - more on that another time.
Then there was Dima Bilan. The Russian that could do no wrong. This guy sticks in my head more memorably than anyone else for reasons I cannot explain.
He came second in 2006 with Never Let You Go, and then returned in 2008 to take the Eurovision trophy with Believe. While his winning song was nice, it's Never Let You Go that I still seek out on my iPod. After the contest I listened to this song every day walking to and from school for pretty much the rest of my senior year.
It's my all-time favourite Eurovision song.
I don't know what draws me to it so much. I guess that I've always thought it seemed pretty epic for Eurovision; it could easily have crossed into cringy but it's just so sad, and catchy, and GOOD. I truly think part of the reason he won for Believe is that a lot thought he should've won two years before. To be fair, his winning performance did have support from Evgeni Plushenko as an on-stage performer.
You be the judge.
*If there's something you want me to write about within my Eurovision series, I would love any suggestions. Otherwise please share my stories or provide some feedback if you can :)
**Next Eurovision post is on Sunday night
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Tuesday, June 01, 2010
The biggest singing contest in the world has never been known (to those outside Europe) for having particularly high standards in performance, lyricism or hosts’ presentations. It’s known as a kitsch showcase of a different scene, but in retrospect even sans high standards there’s always some expectation of a real spectacle. But 2010 failed to deliver. While all the elements were there something was missing. Luckily, an unexpected component managed to somewhat fill the void.
The songs themselves were fairly lacklustre, in both the semis and the final itself. There weren’t any standout Euro-trash pop hits we’ve learnt to love (Bosnia & Herzegovina’s Deen’s In The Disco from 2004 will always have a place in my heart) and the ballads far outweighed anything else. Perhaps the European Union’s crisis with their currency mellowed the mood a bit. Certainly did with the hosts (three making one too many), whose zany nature only showed promise in the final – especially Erik Solbakken - although their outfits weren’t reflective of that nor changed nearly enough. No serious mood for Greece however, with Giorgos Alkaios & Friends shouting ‘OPA!’ like nothing had happened. One half of SBS Australia’s hosting team Julia Zemiro saw the irony and posed the burning question: ‘If Greece wins next year, can it afford to host it?’ Line of the night. No, actually, Giorgo’s reponse was… ‘I’ve been asked that question for the last three months.’ Poor poor bugger.
Not even a song from two-thirds of the Stock/Aitken/Waterman powerhouse trio could save teen Josh Dubovie and the UK from sinking to another wooden-spoon finish. With just two countries to go, Belarus scored an unprecedented 12 points (Unprecedented? Don’t be stupid, it was from an Eastern European country!), and left the poor darling to languish. Australia’s other hosting half Sam Pang anticipated this too, and we saw that even Dubovie was startled as the frank question was posed before the voting. The hosts were really on the ball all night, even when half the viewers missed serial pest Jimmy Jump crash the Spanish choreography.
The songs themselves were fairly lacklustre, in both the semis and the final itself. There weren’t any standout Euro-trash pop hits we’ve learnt to love (Bosnia & Herzegovina’s Deen’s In The Disco from 2004 will always have a place in my heart) and the ballads far outweighed anything else. Perhaps the European Union’s crisis with their currency mellowed the mood a bit. Certainly did with the hosts (three making one too many), whose zany nature only showed promise in the final – especially Erik Solbakken - although their outfits weren’t reflective of that nor changed nearly enough. No serious mood for Greece however, with Giorgos Alkaios & Friends shouting ‘OPA!’ like nothing had happened. One half of SBS Australia’s hosting team Julia Zemiro saw the irony and posed the burning question: ‘If Greece wins next year, can it afford to host it?’ Line of the night. No, actually, Giorgo’s reponse was… ‘I’ve been asked that question for the last three months.’ Poor poor bugger.
Not even a song from two-thirds of the Stock/Aitken/Waterman powerhouse trio could save teen Josh Dubovie and the UK from sinking to another wooden-spoon finish. With just two countries to go, Belarus scored an unprecedented 12 points (Unprecedented? Don’t be stupid, it was from an Eastern European country!), and left the poor darling to languish. Australia’s other hosting half Sam Pang anticipated this too, and we saw that even Dubovie was startled as the frank question was posed before the voting. The hosts were really on the ball all night, even when half the viewers missed serial pest Jimmy Jump crash the Spanish choreography.
The winning song came from a country to have only previously won once in the 55-year history. Germany’s Lena appealed with a Goth/Avril Lavigne look and the weirdest mix of accents to win with ‘Satellite’, which was undoubtedly one of the better songs of the night. Although having said that, it’d be interesting to listen to a different artist’s version. Greece, Iceland and Azerbaijan were also personal favourites. There’s no doubt that most of the time the voters get the overall winner right – but what they vote otherwise is often debatable. But in a year when the songs aren’t what they’re cracked up to be, what do you do – vote for looks?
If any year was one to vote for the hottest singer, 2010 was it. The calibre of genetically-lucky guys and girls was unlike anything previously seen in Eurovision before. However, voters still thought with their political heads over their hearts, which saw the UK’s Dubovie, Israel’s Harel Skaat, Norway’s Didrik Solli-Tangen and even Cyprus’ Welsh singer (say what?!) Jon Lilygreen fail. The ladies fared a bit better; Azerbaijan’s Safura, Georgia’s Sofia Nizharadze and Armenia’s Eva Rivas all with top-10 finishes. Regardless of their singing abilities (or lack of; some were actually quite shocking), it was a visual treat.
The prelude to the night’s climax was the biggest highlight - even bigger than Lena’s disgruntlement at last year’s winner Alexander Rybak’s cheeky lip kiss. Shock horror, the 15 minutes we had to wait was INTERESTING! Hip-hop duo Madcon stunned us with Glow (why weren’t they an entry?!) and cities all around Europe dong the Flash Mob Dance. With choreography like ‘bow-and-arrow, bow-and-arrow, click, click, click, click’ choreography, households across Australia were up and dancing with them. Well my friends’ was anyway. That managed to salvage the event from being anything less than a spectacle. And then it was over. For as soon as it crept up on us, Eurovision was gone for another year. I can only wait until May 2011 for Berlin with excited anticipation - for the spectacle and Australian Tweeters going crazy for it as a Trending Topic.
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