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It’s that time of the year again. Eurovision Song Contest 2009 participants are ready to go. Generally, ESC favors the music genres that I don’t prefer to listen/ don’t like. So, Eurovision is not something that is much interesting to me; boring songs, unoriginal music, clone stage performances with some hot boys/girls, cheap lyrics… But every now and then, there are some good stuff. Though , the entries that catch my attention tend to do not so bright in the contest 
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What positively attracts my attention when I first hear ESC entries are mainly three things:
Language of the Song: +1 points for the songs in their native language. Because, some songs in English honestly make me wish to forget all the English I know, so that I won’t be hearing the terrible, cheesy lyrics. Besides, while the increasing trend is English lyrics, songs in native language sacrifices the lyrics’ chance to be understood and relies on the universality of music to convey feelings and atmosphere of the song is some challenge to be rewarded.
Stage Shows: Participants discovered the power of the flashy stage shows in the last years. This still causes poor entries (with cheesy lyrics and overall lack of originality) accompanied by a pack of dancers on the stage. So, another +1 point for the songs that doesn’t rely on dancing hot girls/boys on the stage as its sole strength.
Originality: “I feel like I heard it somewhere before” is a sentence I don’t want to utter for an entry. This year, some entries I will define as “Disney movie music” are plenty and despite my good intentions to give them a chance, I feel like I’m hearing the same song. I’ll leave that group of entries to fans of the genre to evaluate.
I have two favourites this year. One is Bistra Voda by Regina from Bosnia, and the other is Fairytale by Alexander Rybak from Norway.
Regina’s entry is in their native language and although you don’t understand the lyrics, expressive vocal draws you into the melancholic mood of the song. They definitely don’t need a flashy show for this song, just go there and sing. It reminds me of last year’s Turkey entry Deli quality-wise. So I expect Bistra Voda will be overlooked while some boring song gets all the points.
Rybak’s song on the other hand tells a light-hearted story and is supported with a show where Rybak dances around playing his violin accompanied by a group of dancers . His performance reminded me of a wandering bard performing his song at an inn tavern. Ok, I admit I read too much fantasy novels 
but title of the song’s itself is fairytale, so I’m not the one to blame for my winding imagination…hehe.
And there are some amusing entries, too. Serbia for one I can remember and enjoy. Czech’s gypsy themed entry is another one, fast paced and catchy. And Belgium’s Copycat gets all sorts of negative comments as a weak and repetitive song, but I really like the humour of the song (minus the cartoon character on the video).
I gotta mention Israel‘s entry. Not one of my personal favourites, yet noteworthy. Seems like song has some sort of mission, considering the everlasting conflict on the land that it was born, a reminder of agonizing struggle over years and a call for peace and harmony. It contains Hebrew, Arabic and English lyrics mixed. I don’t think song with a message will bring them much points but I appreciate their peace seeking efforts through music.
Some other notes of my first impressions on other entries:
Turkey: To my great suprise, this year’s entry appears on people’s top 5/top 10 lists. I really don’t like the song, lousy and Shakira-like, nothing interesting (likewise Greece entry). I loved last year’s entry very much.
Macedonia: Finally, it is time for some rock’ish sound in the competition, since Finland betrayed my hopes for some good metal song this year, this one have to do. But wrong side of the rock for me.
Now to mention it, after Lordi’s improbable-but-true victory with a very metal song and heavy make-up, Finland sent another one last year with no such success. Therefore this year they decided to try one with electro-rap hybrid (which is catchy). Since I tend to favor rock/metal sounds, I kept my expectations high for such song considering Finland is like a homeland to metal genre.
Russia: If they make Plushenko skate at the background this year too, they may have a chance 
Estonia and Slovakia: tries symphony idea this year. Among two, Estonia is better at it.
Consequently, I’m rooting for Bosnia and Norway this year.
I wanted to write about new album of Nightwish (and Tarja Turunen) after their break-up but wasn’t able to do that. After seeing new video of the Nightwish I felt the urge to write. “The Islander” is one of the two songs that I particularly like (The other is “Last of The Wilds” which is instrumental) in the Dark Passion Play. That’s why I rushed to watch the video. Video perfectly fits the mood of the song and the lyrics. All that surreal and dreamy atmosphere completes the song. Anette’s voice is pretty good in this one, blends well with Marco.
Dark Passion Play is overall a good album, much better to my taste actually. Yes, Nightwish has changed, for the better. They are closer to the mainstream than ever in this album probably. But all the elements are much more harmonious. My picks (in addition to the above) are “Sahara” and “Bye Bye Beautiful” (and “The Escapist” I might add).
To watch the video, just click on the image.
As you might follow, Tarja of the Nightwish was fired from the band by receiving an open letter from the fellow band members in 2005. It was a very (very) brave move, I thought, when I first read the news, I even shocked. Like most people, I was thinking Tarja, as a lead vocal and precious female member of the band, is an element inseparable from band’s image. For the most of the average listeners (and fans) Tarja equaled Nightwish and vice versa. I wasn’t particularly upset, though. As for me (and maybe it’s just me, but) I felt lack of enough expression of the emotions that lyrics intended to convey (from time to time); her beautiful opera-trained voice conceals them.
Actually I was totally impressed the way Nightwish members explained what was wrong between them and Tarja. They stated that they value the mental satisfaction the most when they are doing their job. ( We don’t see this around much, right? As for me, whenever I say something similar, I’m blamed for being a dreamer.) Apparently, they had began to feel in different ways for some time on this matter. Maybe Tarja had became realistic while other members still running after Neverland. ( I’m on the side of running after Neverland myself, so I sympathize more with remaining members of Nightwish. Be able to keep that enthusiasm toward their job worth appreciating. ) . Also, it seems that Tarja was already set her mind on leaving the group, so she did not really “fired” anyway. It sure must be hard on her, the way she had to leave was not the easiest way. But one cannot gain anything without loosing something else.
After the break-up, both sides went on their separate ways. First thing Nightwish did was to look for a female vocal as they stated their open letter. They didn’t specify any qualities that their former singer had for their new vocal. On the other hand, Tarja focused on her solo career. At this point I quit following the development of the events.
Here is the harvests of the break-up; Nightwish, with their new pretty vocal says “Bye Bye Beautiful” to Tarja (awesome song by the way) and Tarja answers; “I Walk Alone” (another awesome song). I will be talking on their new album, hopefully, on next post. For now, I need to digest both albums more.
