The Memes of Production: A cultural studies weblog

Just a reminder to head over to Circulating Library for live blogging of the Eurovision Semifinals on Friday and Saturday nights, Australian time (yes, I know we are three days behind Europe).

And for what it’s worth: Greece, douze points!

Here is the ill-informed speculation I promised about what I see as the narrow and
unadventurous entries in this year’s Eurovision Song Contest.

Let me first assure you that I do not actually think that Eurovision is the place to find interesting and innovative music. But within the context of the competition there have been—especially in recent years—entries that stretch the boundaries of what is acceptable.

While Dana International (Sharon Cohen) may have been the first transgendered person to win Eurovision (Israel, 1998), much to the consternation of conservatives in Israel at the time, her performance had nothing of the flamboyance of more recent cross-dressing acts such as Verka Serduchka (Ukraine, 2007), which came second (watch it here), or Denmark’s 2007 entry, Drama Queen which failed to inspire the voters (19th). Watch it here.

For a few years there was a preference for chains, leather, and ethnic music, started perhaps by Ruslana’s winning entry for Ukraine in 2004 (still a personal favourite), and including Bulgaria 2007, the camp, gothic stylings of Switzerland’s Vampires are Alive (2007), and Azerbaijan’s 2008 entry, Day after day. The move possibly
culminated in Ukraine’s (again! gotta love those Ukranians) entry last year that included the “hell machine” and dancing centurions! Relive the magic.

And of course, that isn’t to mention the entries that were novelty at best: Dustin the Turkey for Ireland in 2008, or the sadly incorrect We are the Winners of Eurovision entry for Lithuania in 2006. And another personal favourite, “Pokušaj” by Laka for Bosnia & Herzegovina in 2008. Watch it here in all its glory, but don’t let the knitting brides freak you out. And I haven’t even started on Lordi!

There are always a few complaints that four countries get automatic qualification into the final without having to compete in the semifinals. Eurovision is quite open that this is a reward for the four main broadcasters who effectively bankroll the competition. The fifth automatic finalist is the host country.

Before the final these five entries will be randomly assigned a position in the programme, and then the ten highest placed performances from each of the semifinals will be randomly placed in the remaining positions.

Again, everything this year seems very safe and conservative. I’ll have more about that in a day or two.

France: Jessy Matador — Alllez Olla Olé
Heavy beat dance number of the type you’d hear in any club in Paris, London, Sydney, or Mooloolaba for that matter. Slick and catchy, as you’d expect, but nothing to grab the voter. Sung in English. (Only kidding! But wouldn’t that be a sensation. Sung in French, obviously).

Germany: Lena — Satellite
Inoffensive dance pop with a slight funk feel. Sung in English with a weird twang that makes Lena’s accent sound almost Australian.

Norway: Didrik Solli-Tangen — My Heart Is Yours
And now to the host entry. This is a string-heavy ballad with more than a hint of the Lloyd Webbers about it. Typical over-blown Eurovision by the numbers, but man, that last note goes on for weeks! Sung in English.

Spain: Daniel Diges — Algo Pequeñito (Something Tiny)
Starts as a Gypsy folk waltz, and jumps to production number halfway through. I’m not sure that it didn’t have two key changes. Little more personality than most of the rest. In Spanish.

United Kingdom: Josh — That Sounds Good To Me
After wheeling out Lord Andrew himself last year to no avail, this year the UK are bringing on the big guns in the form of Pete Waterman and Mike Stock. You might remember them from a little production company in the 1980s called Stock Aitken Waterman? This song could only be more terrible if they got Rick Astley to do a cameo on the night (and wouldn’t that be awesome!). Actually, that’s slightly unfair: this is the sort of slick, polished, and instantly forgettable song you’d expect from the writers. I’d guess that Josh Dubovie was chosen more for his sweet smile and boyish charm than for his voice. Sung in French (I wish. English, obviously).

OK, here’s part two of my Eurovision rundown. These are the artists performing in the second semifinal, in performance order.

I must say, there is nothing so far that really grabs me—seems like everyone is playing it really safe this year. I may enter into some uninformed speculation about that in a little while.

Tomorrow I’ll bring you descriptions of the five acts that go straight into the final: the “big four” countries (England, France, Germany, Spain) who basically bankroll the competition, and the host, Norway. In the meantime, enjoy my increasingly cynical observations.

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Gosh! It’s nearly Eurovision and I haven’t posted the contestants yet. I’m a bit rushed, but really, what is there to say about a Eurovision song? So you’ll please excuse the very brief descriptions.

You can listen to the clips on the Eurovision website, or wait until the telecast and enjoy the surprise! (The schedule isn’t on the SBS website as yet, but I assume they will be showing the semifinals on either Wednesday, Thursday, or Friday, 26 – 29 May, and the final on Sunday 30 May).

For my money, the leader so far is Greece—not only full of folky goodness, but a boy band to boot! Quick, pass the ouzo.

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Azerbaijan: AySel & Arash – Always

Croatia: Igor Cukrov featuring Andrea – Liepa Tena

Ukraine: Svetlana Loboda – Be My Valentine!

Lithuania: Sasha Son – Love

Albania: Kejsi Tola – Carry Me In Your Dreams

Moldova: Nelly Ciobanu – Hora Din Moldova

Denmark: Brinck – Believe Again

Estonia: Urban Symphony – Rändajad

Norway: Alexander Rybak – Fairytale

Greece: Sakis Rouvas – This Is Our Night

Turkey: Hadise – Düm Tek Tek

Sweden: Malena Ernman – La Voix

Israel: Noa & Mira Awad – There Must Be Another Way

Portugal: Flor-de-lis – Todas As Ruas Do Amor

Malta: Chiara – What If We

Finland: Waldo’s People – Lose Control

Bosnia & Herzegovina: Regina – Bistra Voda

Romania: Elena – The Balkan Girls

Armenia: Inga & Anush – Jan Jan

Iceland: Yohanna – Is It True

OK, here are the final entries in this year’s Eurovision: the “big four” (so called because they pretty much bankroll the event and therefore gain automatic entry to the final) and the host, Russia.

Eurovision will be shown over three nights on the 12th, 14th, and 16th May, but at different times around the world. In Australia it will be shown on SBS on the 15th, 16th, and 17th May, so beware of spoilers (must remember to unfollow the Eurovision Twitter feed). I have it on good authority that the two semifinals will be live blogged at Circulating Library, and I expect that there will be a fair bit of Twitter action as well. For the final I suspect that we’ll all be a bit too, um, tired and emotional to blog coherently.

Update (because my slightly ambiguous title seems to be attracting a lot of people looking the final results)

Full details, as always, on Wikipedia

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Sorry, took longer to get back to this than I planned. Semifinal two is looking better than number one (unless I just getting inured to it all), although there is still a lot of rubbish. Of course, wouldn’t be Eurovision without it…

Serbia and Estonia are doing it for me, especially Estonia: and not just because she’s gorgeous. I can see Serbia and The Netherlands getting the biggest laughs of the night: Serbia because it is genuinely humorous, and the other because it is so clichéd it has to be a parody. Except that, as far as I can see, it’s not…

I’ll come back with the big four in the next day or so.

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So Eurovision 2009 is nearly on us, and all the entries are now available on the website. With a record 42 entries there will again be two semifinals with the top ten placed entries in each semifinal joining the “big four” in the final.

Here are the entrants for semifinal one (in performance order), with my totally ill-informed opinion of each, based on a single (and frequently distracted) listening. I’m hoping that semifinal two will produce some gems, because all we’ve got here is the dross.

I’ll do semifinal two when I can bring myself to listen to more of this stuff…

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