Deadline Day Arrives, One To Go

The door slams shut on Eurovision for this year as today is the deadline to have your songs submitted for Eurovision 2015. To use American Football terminology, this is the fourth down and Montenegro has just run an on-side kick, having already told us we will have to wait until Saturday for public reveal of their song 'Adio' (and I wonder if Joksimovic is saving the best til last…).

However the last week has had a flurry of songs selected and I’m going to try and summate each one in just one sentence. Gulp.

Armenia are sending Geneology with ‘Don’t Deny.’ No matter the historical allusions, this is painful to watch and I’m not getting the essential emotional connection to make that it fulfilling.

Belgium have plumped everything on teenager Loic Nottet with ‘Rhythm Inside.’ I think I want to like this more than I actually do like it, interesting nevertheless but needs staging.

Israel created the song ‘Golden Boy’ for Nadav Guedj to sing. Listen beyond the first forty seconds, because it’s not a ballad and has lots of potential for great staging.

Poland are giving us Monika with ‘In The Name Of Love.’ I think we all expected so much more than this mildly sweet ballad.

Azerbaijan are bringing back Eldur (the angel one from 2008) with 'Hour Of The Wolf.' This demands a huge performance and the Swedish-but-oh-so-not-MF song makes Azerbaijan a dark horse again.

Russia have chosen Polina Gagarina with 'A Million Voices.' If you found 'What If' too intense and full of politically correct cheesiness then beware of this remake with some of the same songwriters.

Albania have released the new song for Elhaida which is called 'I'm Alive.' Acoustic influenced mid-tempo here which gets into a nice if unspectacular rhythm.

San Marino's JESC stars Michele and Anita will perform the song 'Chain Of Lights.' It's Ralph Siegel doing what Ralph Siegel does best (and let's leave it at that).

Sweden’s Melodifestivalen has given us the expected Måns Zelmerlöw number with the song ‘Heroes.’ Despite App-gate in the Final it was a landslide, and Ewan and Sharleen have asked if they can stay with me in Stockholm next May... #joinus.

Meanwhile neighbours Norway actually managed to send another ballad to Eurovision with Mörland and Debrah Scarlett with ‘A Monster Like Me.’ Melodi Grand Prix was fantastic as was the winner and the orchestra, watch the whole show again here.

Australia are playing this serious and over the weekend wrote a new song for Guy Sebastian called 'Tonight Again.' It's written specifically to be inoffensive, fun and easy to perform and there is a chance of it making tonight again for Australia by winning and then co-hosting 2016.

And hosts Austria ended up with the group called The Makemakes sending their entry ‘I Am Yours.’ It’s kind of like what you would expect we’d end up with if Jools Holland had to pick a Eurovision song and then it was cruelly cut short leaving all the exciting bits of this just-not-a-ballad left out.

The Best Around The Web

On top of all these new songs we have new videos and new productions to have a gander at. I’m excited by Iceland’s preview of ‘Unbroken’ featuring lots of pretty Maria but also news of Hera Björk giving the backing vocals a much needed boost. New videos also for Georgia, Cyprus, Switzerland, Belarus, Hungary and a very impressive new version from Malta. You may even want to record yourself performing the Serbian entry as then you may feature on their official clip.

One highlight we’ve spotted is that Wiwiblogger Bogdan was one of the members of the Romanian Eurovision jury last week, and he’s written in detail about his decisions and his experience. Worth a read. Keeping in that part of the world we have my Moldovan adventures finally published with the full details of the experience on the ground.

And I think you have to see what Alexander Rybak has been up to on Russian TV. His performance of Dima Bilan’s ‘Believe’ is karaoke perfection, which I can’t say for his attempt at ‘I Will Survive.’ Car crash at it’s best.

No More Finals, So Previews It Is

The Eurovision In Concert in Amsterdam may have sold out sadly, but at time of writing already ten artists have made it to the announcement list, including Australia. London’s Preview Party on April 26th still has tickets available and has eight acts taking part in the show so far including Conchita Wurst and Electro Velvet.

Extra fun news though comes from Latvia as Eurovision PreParty Riga bounces to an even higher level next year with this year’s edition on April 10th. I’ll be on the ground in Riga hoping to meet people like Alexander Rybak and Zlata Ognevich as well as few of this year’s entries too.

Robertson's Reflection

I’ve got the picture I wanted. The quality may be grainy and the focus all wrong, but this for me was always the biggest problem when the Melodifestivalen App was created. The drama in it not working is of course a big problem, but something else happened during the show that struck a nasty chord.

I’ve been critical of the App previously. It has been brought out far too late before the competition started and the advertisement of what it was and how it is to be used a bit of an embarrassment. Regardless of the truth, the implementation of the app has labelled Jessica Andersson all week as an undeserving finalist and forevermore Molly Pettersson Hammar will be remembered as 'The App Girl.' It’s had an impact which has undoubtedly changed the entire nature of the competition.

Since the App has been revealed and people have got more versed in how to use it to effectively, and especially in these later stages of the competition people have pre-determined how and when they will vote. The App needs people to vote during the song performances, and there is a lot of finger tapping needed to register your maximum five votes.

At home watching national finals I ‘second screen.’ I’ve started having a twitter account this year (@bensvision) and I’ll happily link up the laptop to a big screen while using the phone to check the social networks. In the Friends Arena for shows I did a little bit, but I’m trying to squeeze in unique snippets of info across to people who may be following on livestreams that would miss something. As soon as this app was announced and that you were going to get five free votes it was a big enough caveat to turn loads of Swedes to their phones while they are watching the show.

I’m going to make a big statement and say that the atmosphere in Friends was the worst I have experienced in the three years here during the first few performances. What my picture demonstrates is what my biggest fear with this app was. The man next to me had Dinah Nah as his favourite, but rather than clapping along as you would expect he spent a good one minute hammering his smart phone to register votes. 

This is not what people should need to do to pay nearly one thousand kronor (that’s nearly £100) for. That’s not the part of the Melodifestivalen culture of amazingness I have been writing about this week. That’s not the brilliance that was ‘Guld och Gröna Skogar’ where with App voting down the entire arena kicked off into a big dansband session with people filling up all the aisles to dance along to make one of my top five Eurovision moments of all time. That’s why Melodifestivalen is so fantastic and that needs to be more protected.

The App is undoubtedly going back to the drawing board this summer. The simple thing to do is going to be to make the App something that can be used for voting after songs have been performed as well. It should not be hard to formulate a five minute App voting window after the songs have performed while just a few simple taps could cast those five votes. The move to a second screen movement is a worthwhile attempt but if it degrades the experience inside the arena it will eventually lead to Melodifestivalen slipping further down the tree in terms of ratings and viewer experience. However, I have faith it will improve. Christer Björkman and the SVT team are tinkerers and look to tweak the rules each year. I hope they will look at this with plenty of time and education for the population and media next year so voting scandals are a thing of the past, and the fans in the arena can focus on the world class artistry in-front of them.