Sunday, 22 February 2015

Countdown to Vienna: The Eurosong 2015 Finalists

 So, it's time to have a listen to the five Eurosong 2015 finalists and have a punt as to who the Irish Eurovision 2015 entry may be.

 First up, Nikki Kavanagh with Memories.


 She's got a good voice, I'll give her that. She could stand to enunciate more, as I had problems making out what she was saying at times.

 Actually, when the song started I actually couldn't tell if she was singing in Irish or English.

 So yeah, enunciate, woman.

 The song itself is... Hmm. I'm not really sure what to say about it. There were parts of it that I really liked. The melody and the way it swelled, for example, but I didn't really care for the lyrics. Some of them were okay, but a lot of them were pretty hackneyed. This was not helped by the aforementioned enunciation issus.

 In the scheme of Eurovision, this would be a middle lower song. It's not good enough to get into the top ten, it's not novel enough to get into the top ten and it's not bad enough to end up in the top ten or at the bottom.

 It's okay.

 Next up,  Kat Mohan with Anybody Got a Shoulder?


 Gosh, this is repetitive.

 The chorus is probably more than half the song, and since it's repeated so much I can't ignore the first line's biggest problem. 'Anybody got a shoulder I could cry'.

 Okay, maybe there's supposed to be a question in there. Like, 'anybody got a shoulder? I could cry ;-;'.

 But that's not how she's singing it, so it just sounds like there's a word missing. I keep adding 'on' at the end in my head and it's really annoying.

 She sounds fine, she's got a nice voice and she enunciate's better than Kavanagh, it's really just the song.

 Which is cliche, and hackneyed and boring. If this wins Eurosong, she's just going to sit at a piano or stand behind a microphone stand looking sad as she performs.

 This would probably do slightly worse than Memories in Eurovision.

 Anyway, let's have a listen to Alex Saint and see what She's so Fine is like.


 I'm not super keen on this guy's flow.

 Aside from that, this is definitely the best one so far.

 It's got a strong premise and the lyrics and the music serve that really well. Sure, Saint hasn't got the best flow in the world, but it's passable.

 In a just world, this song would be middle field, heading to the top of Eurovision.

 However, this is not a just world and racists exist, so what can you do?

 Next up, Erika Selin with Break Me Up


  This one's about as repetitive as Anybody Got a Shoulder?, however, this one is a dance number.

 So it's okay.

 I actually really like this one, the lyrics are pretty cliche, but they're not as cliche as they could be, and the purpose of lyrics in dance music is to serve the music anyway. Selin has a good voice and it suits this song really well.

 I actually like this one more than She's So Fine, but this is probably a combination of not being super keen on Saint's flow and really liking dance music.

 Dance music tends to do pretty well in Eurovision, so I'd say this is probably their best shot at winning.

 Last, and possibly least (I don't know, I haven't listened to it yet) is Molly Sterling with Playing With Numbers.


 We have another sad woman behind a piano performance in the making here.

 Except this time the song is better.

 It's fine, really. There are no glaring flaws, although you can hear her 'sixteen year old'ness in the lyrics. She doesn't sound sixteen though, she sounds great.

 I guess my problem with this one is that I don't really care for this kind of music.

 I do think it would be on the left side of the score board, though. So there's that.

 Overall, I suppose that if they went with one of the last three, Ireland would do pretty well. I doubt that they'd win, but they wouldn't be in the bottom ten to be sure.

 Selin is my favourite, and I do think they'd do the best with her.

 As for who they do pick, we'll just have to wait and see. The winner will be announced on the 27th of February.

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