Well there wasn’t as many “gems” as I was hoping for. Of course there was Dustin from Ireland. I don’t think I’ll spoil it for anyone who hasn’t seen the semi yet by telling you he didn’t get through 🙁
Estonia was a stand-out. They were singing a song called “Leto Svet”, which by the English translations we were getting on the TV screen was all about having too much food and enjoying the summer light.
[youtube=http://youtu.be/2r2LrMaAquE]
Another stand-out was Bosnia and Herzegovina with a song called Pokusaj by a guy called Laka. Really WEIRD presentation of the song, but the song itself was catchy. I watched a clip of it in English, but it wasn’t as catchy as it was in the native tongue.
[youtube=http://youtu.be/FHlKhhNLo4w]
Belgium’s was a bit funny. The song was done in a “non-language” (IE: gibberish), but it was sort of catchy.
[youtube=http://youtu.be/X5F8ZNMCRB4]
Azerbaijan – I think they thought they were Linkin Park or something. Not my cup of tea. The presenter kept saying one of the guys singing looked like a TV presenter here in the UK, Jonathan Ross. I LOVE the guys window-shattering falsetto at the start of the number though. The presenter last night said something like “If you have pets around at the moment, you might want to watch out”. Amazingly – they got through to the final!
[youtube=http://youtu.be/eo0VrY5C-ow]
I don’t know what was going on with the Finnish entry. I think they were trying to recapture the win they had in 2006 with Lordi. Lordi were a heavy metal act in full masked costumes. They did a song called “Hard Rock Hallelujah” and it was brilliant. This year Finland went for heavy metal again, without make-up and singing in their native tongue. It didn’t really work.
Russia’s song was awful. The guy looked like one of our “pop idol” serial wannabe’s Darius Danesh. They got in the final, but only (I think) from the help of Evgeni Plushenko skating around the stage!
That’s it for now. More gems in the days to come I’m sure. Including the Spanish, Croatian and Latvian entries.