eurovision second semi

[jauntyalan.livejournal.com]

i didn't notice the hot fave sweden (ISTR someone saying they were favourites??). but iceland was proper eurobosh and now

BULGARIA!!!!

top one

Comments

[jauntyalan.livejournal.com]

wtf, malta's lyrics seem designed to offend the russian/baltic block votes.

[jauntyalan.livejournal.com]

oh now i remember sweden. pff. is ok. there was a steps-ish one in the first semi that i liked about as much

[koganbot]

Interestingly, knowing that I'd missed a couple of credoimprobus posts on poptimists from two weeks ago, I went back and checked and went "Hmmmm, Bulgaria, wasn't I just reading about this?" If you follow the link you'll see that credoimprobus is also strong on Armenia. They're both good but neither quite takes me over the top; Bulgaria's got sweets and the beats but the singer doesn't melt me and the tune doesn't quite catch me; the Armenian babe has fire and pipes, and violins to make us see sense, and I'd give it the slight edge, but the chorus should be a bigger blast of pain. And I've heard maybe only one or two others in the competition, so I can't say if there's better or not.

I feel this sort of music had its peak in the '80s and now is running a bit on memory. Good tracks, though.

[jauntyalan.livejournal.com]

a LOT of eurovision stuff does feels stuck in the 80s. common fashion across multiple cultures still lagging despite the hypermediated hyper etc global wossname.

[koganbot]

My problem isn't that it's stuck in the '80s but that it falls far short of the best of the '80s. Obviously, most of the stuff that came out in the '80s also fell short of the best of the '80s, but you'd think that something that wins Eurovision or competes strongly should come within range of the great stuff. (See those two videos I embedded for examples of what I consider great '80s dance pop; the examples are American freestyle, but there was a lot of interplay between freestyle and Europop and Italodisco (and I don't know how New Order and the Pet Shop Boys are classified, but take away their vocals and you're hearing variations on those genres)(might even want to check the melodic similarities between "It's A Sin" and "Come Into My Arms" which came out nearly simultaneously so I doubt were influenced by each other) (and each seems to owe something to "Wild World" and "Happy Together," though I think the PSBs have officially denied the obviously similarity).

[koganbot]

obviously similarity = obvious similarity

two videos I embedded = two videos I embedded in credoimprobus's thread