Direkt till Final!

Ok, here we go, onto the first songs which have qualified for the contest, and not just the contest, but the final itself! Yes, we are talking about the Big 6! In what is shaping up as a pretty great year for Eurovision, all six of these songs are pretty great, but in the interest of minimalism (somewhat anyway) we will be omitting the unmovable Germany and the hypothermic Azerbaijan and showing our top four of the big six!

In fourth position is a man who really needs no introduction, officially the oldest male / solo performer in Eurovision history – Engelbert Humperdinck is hoping to bring back the trophy for the UK for the first time since 1997! Engelbert is opening the final this year and interestingly, the last time the UK opened the song contest in 1976, they won! How fab! Engelbert’s “Love Will Set You Free”, is a little unassuming at first, but give it a few plays and let the key-change make your day!

In third place, is a fab pop song by a veteran of the French music scene, Anggun! Even better, her video clip features gorgeous men parading themselves all around Anggun, clearly she has her priorities right! We are yet to see her rehearsals, but if she brings her dancing boys to Baku, this will be a song the gayers are going to go nuts for! Here is Anggun with “Echo (You and Me)”:

Next up we have a country who rarely do it for me when it comes to Eurovision, but this year they have delivered an absolute belter of a schlager ballad, that’s right, its Spain! Representing them this year is Pastora Soler, whose song “Quedate Conmigo” is one which just grows, and grows on me with every listen. The film clip delivers THE key change of the contest, I wont ruin it, but make sure you watch from 2.07 – shit gets hectic. Here it is:

Finally is a song which has been touted as a potential winner of the contest, and with good reason too! It is of course, Italy with “L’Amore È Femmina” performed by the fabulous Nina Zilli. Italy almost sent a pretty stock standard boring ballad, but at the last minute decided to go all fabulous for us! Yay! Any song which begins with a saxophone solo and is quickly followed by a “boom, boom” is going to get douze points from me! Keep a watch out for this on the night…

Remember,if you are in Brisbane on the 27th of May come along to Schlagerfest Brisbane’s first official Eurovision party! All proceeds raised will go directly to Healthy Communities!

Next time we will have a look at our top songs of the first semi-final, which is only DAYS away!!! Happy Schlagering!!!

Italia, now in English + Happy Schlager Saturday!

Ok, Italy have decided to go all mainstream on us and translate the majority of their song into English (apart from the chorus). Now, as we were already pretty big fans of this song the translation isnt that big of a deal, we are sure it will help in the long term in appealing to a larger audience in May – similar to last year’s Italian entry. Anyways, theres probs a little too much English in there, but its still great and it means i can sing along in the car now, and be a little closer to the lyrics. How fab. Anyway, here is the new version of Nina Zilli’s “L’Amore E Femmina”:

And, just to add a little more Italian fab-ness on your saturday, here is a great song which I dont think was in Eurovision, but the Band did compete at some point, so YAY! Anywho, its a great little bop along song! yay! Here is Ricchi e Poveri with “Sarà perché ti amo”.

Annnnndddddd in a glorious day of internet finds here is the Dutch version from last year, with gloriously delicious Tim Douwsma (who competed in the Dutch semi-final this year!). Here is Monique Smit en Tim Douwsma with “Één zomeravond met jou” (A summer evening with you)

ANNNNDDDDDD! For ever MORE SCHLAGER AMAZINGNESSSSSS here is the German version from a few years back, complete with odd techno dance beat, oh to be in a beer hall again! Here is Diana Sorbello with “Das ist, weil ich dich liebe” (Thats why I love you).

Happy Schlager Saturday!!!!

❤ Tran-Ye.

Eurovision Catch-Up – Part 3 (THE BIG ONE!)

This is big, big, BIG! Not because it contains a lot of songs, but in our opinion the three best songs released in the past week! If you only read / listen to one of these posts, please LET IT BE THIS! I am confdent that two songs on here have very high chances of winning the contest so PAY ATTENTION.

First, HOERAH! Greece are back, back, BACK! And just like the Ukraine, having spent the last two years with boring odd songs, have gone back to good old fashioned pop fabulousness to bring us a corker of a tune which will get everyone dancing during the final! Thank you greece! Even though their final was performed in a shopping centre, the eventual winner Eleftheria Eleftheriou sang her song “Aphrodisiac” with a fabness we havent seen from Greece in a while! Here she is, Eleftheria Eleftheriou with, “Aphrodisiac”.

Next up is Italia! And again, another Hoerah for them, after returning successfully last year and coming second they are back with a fab entry by Nina Zilli. Originally Italy were going to send (ANOTHER) boring ballad but they went all Belarussian on us and changed at the last minute and YAY because in its place is the fab, fab, FAB! song L’Amore è Femmina – which we think has a great chance at taking the country back to Rome, and contains a sax solo, a fab chorus and even a Boom Boom moment! HOERAH!!!! Here is Nina Zilli with “L’Amore è Femmina”.

Ok, but really, that was all a bit of a warm-up to the SONG OF THE FUCKING YEAR! In case you have been hiding under an ESC blanket (like my mother) you would have noticed that Sweden’s Melodifestivalen has come and gone for another year, and all that is left is one helluva song to represent the schlager nation in Baku! The song is Euphoria, and the artist is Loreen who you may remember from our Scanditastic blog posts back in september last year, where we featured her song, “Sober”. Well, when it was announced that she would be singing in Melodifestivalen with a song written by Thomas G:Son called “Euphoria” we were well and truly on the bandwagon, and boy did that bandwagon take us to an extraordinary place!!! Here she is, the favourite for Eurovision 2012, Loreen, with “Euphoria”. Enjoy.

Until next time!

❤ Tran-Ye.