american-eurovision-nerd

[american-eurovision-nerd]

Eurovision 2024 Song Reviews: Part 3

Here’s my third set of song reviews for Eurovision 2024!

Poland 🇵🇱, “The Tower” (Luna): I don’t hear a lot that makes it an instant contender, but I’m not completely writing it off, either. With memorable staging, I think this could be a surprise qualifier. For now, though, I’m considering it a “wildcard”. Rating: 6/10

Estonia 🇪🇪, “(Nendest) narkootikumidest ei tea me (küll) midagi” (5miinust & Puuluup): Ethnic bop? Check. Estonian rap? Check. An infectiously memorable dance routine? Check. With only the Netherlands to potentially split votes with in its semifinal (as far as similar songs), I’d be shocked if it doesn’t qualify. It’s my favorite Estonian entry to date. Rating: 7.5/10

Belgium 🇧🇪, “Before the Party’s Over” (Mustii): There are more songs being eliminated in this semifinal (six songs as opposed to five songs being eliminated in Semifinal 1), but I think this still has a good chance of qualifying. I think a lot will depend on staging and how deep in the running order it is if Belgium wants to pick up “casual voters” across the different countries. (It’s roughly halfway through the second half of the running order, which is a nice spot.) The song itself is good, but it doesn’t really hit its stride until the last minute or so, so I think staging will play a big factor in how well it does. Rating: 7/10

San Marino 🇸🇲, “11:11” (Megara): I think most Eurofans would usually write off San Marino, but I love the wildcard energy that The Most Serene Republic (or as I like to call it, “The Little Country That Could”) usually brings. With Megara’s native Spain voting in their semifinal and its spot in the second half of the running order, I think this has potential to be a wildcard qualifier. It’s got a fun rock sound to it and not in a cheesy way like Piqued Jacks had last year. Rating: 6/10

Croatia 🇭🇷, “Rim Tim Tagi Dim” (Baby Lasagna): Croatia is lucky they’re not in the same semifinal as the Netherlands, because they’d otherwise be splitting votes in the semifinal. This song’s got a lot of buzz (and Baby Lasagna himself has been getting a lot of praise from the Eurovision fan community as he’s been performing the song and steadily improving at the pre-parties), has a very groovy beat to it, and I think a lot of people will relate to the lyrics about leaving home. I think this is one of the few locks to qualify from Semifinal 1, and it’s my current pick to win Semifinal 1. What I worry about is how well juries will take to it in the Final. If the juries like it as much as the televoters do, though, this could very well be the winner of Eurovision 2024. But there are too many factors at play in what stands to be the most competitive Eurovision in recent history (even more so than in 2021) for me to crown it this early. So for now, it’s a contender to win, but not the only one (as you’re about to see). Rating: 8.5/10

Switzerland 🇨🇭, “The Code” (Nemo): After a couple of years of underwhelming entries that somehow still qualified, Switzerland sends a good song this year. If they’re able to hit those high notes at Eurovision, Nemo shouldn’t have too much of an issue with qualifying. I think they could even be a potential jury darling in the Final. I love the chaos of this song, which is about Nemo’s coming to terms with their nonbinary gender identity. It mixes elements of the masculine (the drum and bass beat, Nemo’s rap in the second verse) and the feminine (the operatic high notes, the strings in the backing track), and culminates in a bridge where they sing about being “somewhere between the 0s and 1s”. The rap verse reminds me of Eminem at points. This is another potential contender to win. Rating: 8.5/10

Netherlands 🇳🇱, “Europapa” (Joost Klein): I think this song has a really good chance of winning its semifinal. It’s been popular on YouTube. Despite the Dutch lyrics being really tricky to sing if you’re not a Dutch speaker, it’s an extremely catchy song! (And I do have a little bit of a grip on the hook ”Welkom in Europa, blijft hier tod ik doodga, Europapa, Europapa…”) But the message behind it is a beautiful one. He lost his parents at a young age, and while he may seemingly be wandering around Europe aimlessly, he’s in fact living up to the dreams his father had for him: “Explore the world. Make me proud.” The spoken outro really grounds what is for the most part a loud and chaotic song: ”Aan het einde van de dag / Zijn we allemaal mensen / Mijn vader zei me ooit / Het is een wereld zonder grenzen / Ik mis je elke dag / Is wat ik stiekempjes fluister / Zie je nou wel pa / Ik heb naar je geluisterd.”* This is a very easy qualifier in my book, and its spot at the end of the running order will only help its chances in the televote. And I would not be surprised if the Netherlands and Croatia had the top two spots in the Televote in the Final. This is also a contender to win, and if it did, it would be the first time since 1959 that the Netherlands won performing in Dutch and Joost would be the first man to win for the Netherlands performing in Dutch. Rating: 9/10

All right! The last two weeks will feature 8 reviews each, so the following countries will be reviewed next week: Cyprus 🇨🇾, the United Kingdom 🇬🇧, Austria 🇦🇹, Australia 🇦🇺, Serbia 🇷🇸, Greece 🇬🇷, Ireland 🇮🇪, and the host country Sweden 🇸🇪.

Stay tuned!

*: In English this translates to: “At the end of the day / we are all human beings. / My father told me once that / the world has no borders. / I miss you every day / is what I whisper to myself. / You see, dad, / I did listen to you.”

#eurovision 2024 #Eurovision 2024 song reviews

[american-eurovision-nerd]

✨ welkom in europa jongen ✨

#eurovision #esc #europapa #windows95man #henri piispanen #marcus & martinus #joost klein #mustii #megara #bambie thug

[american-eurovision-nerd]

Monaco is another step closer to a potential return to Eurovision after their new public broadcaster, TV Monaco, gained full EBU membership, seven months after the channel launched back in September 2023.

While there is no news of an official return to Eurovision for Monaco at this time, this does open the door for that to happen as soon as 2025.

#eurovision song contest #Monaco Eurovision

[american-eurovision-nerd]

Eurovision 2024 Song Reviews: Part 2

It’s time for Week 2 of my 2024 Song Reviews!

Finland 🇫🇮, “No Rules!” (Windows95Man): This song is totally a joke entry (and there’s nothing wrong with “joke” entries; they provide a little bit of a break from some of the more serious songs and sometimes even do well in the Contest if executed well enough), but it’s ridiculously catchy. I think the televoters will get the humor of the song and its staging. I don’t see this replicating Käärijä’s success, but I think the entertainment factor could prevail and allow it to qualify and get a decent result. Rating: 6.5/10

Latvia 🇱🇻, “Hollow” (Dons)”: It’s okay on the first listen, but I don’t get chills or anything from this song when I listen to it. It’s a nice power ballad. My initial gut feeling is that this song won’t qualify, but what may save it is that it’s in the more open race of Semifinal 2, where I think a few entries could be sneak qualifiers. So, this song isn’t completely dead in the water. Rating: 5.5/10

Germany 🇩🇪, “Always on the Run” (Isaak): This is another case of where the song isn’t bad, but seems to be missing something to elevate it. Isaak’s got a good voice, but the song itself is kind of bland. Germany has been dealing with this for the last few years, actually. It’s lucky that it doesn’t have to qualify from a semifinal, but I don’t think even the semifinal preview performance will help its chances this year. Rating: 5/10

Italy 🇮🇹, “La noia” (Angelina Mango): Italy hasn’t had a female artist finish in the Top 10 since 2012. I think this curse breaks this year. I don’t see this song winning, but I still think it has potential to do well. This is a “girl bop” (in a year of several “girl bops”) that gets it right and doesn’t sound bland at all. It should make for a fun performance. Rating: 8/10

Denmark 🇩🇰, “Sand” (Saba): It’s a nice song, but I’m a tossup on whether this could qualify. It is in semifinal 2, which could allow it to sneak through and qualify. Saba’s singing is good, but the song itself could be a little better. Rating: 5.5/10

Lithuania 🇱🇹, “Luktelk” (Silvester Belt): This is a thumping bop that will probably get people dancing in the arena. I wish there was a little more variation in Silvester’s vocals. In general I think the televoters might like this song, especially if the staging is memorable. The only major issue is that it’s in a bloodbath for a semifinal. Rating: 7/10

Moldova 🇲🇩, “In the Middle” (Natalia Barbu): The song itself is just…okay. Most of it doesn’t stick out for me with the exception of the coloratura vocal run she does at the very end. But that just may be from vocal envy because I (either a dark mezzo-soprano or a light contralto) lost the ability to sing that high when I hit puberty. I think this ends up being Moldova’s first non-qualifier post-COVID. Rating: 4.5/10

And that’s it for this week!

Next week, I’ll be reviewing the songs from: Poland 🇵🇱, Estonia 🇪🇪, Belgium 🇧🇪, San Marino 🇸🇲, Croatia 🇭🇷, Switzerland 🇨🇭, and the Netherlands 🇳🇱.

#eurovision 2024 #Eurovision 2024 song reviews

[american-eurovision-nerd]

Eurovision 2024 Song Reviews: Part 1

It’s April, and we have just a little over a month to go until Eurovision week begins on 7 May! I will attempt to post each Wednesday (or if not on Wednesday, then on Thursday) for the next five weeks. I’m going to be posting a handful of song reviews each week for each country taking part in Eurovision 2024. As there are 37 countries taking part, I’ll be posting 7 countries per week for the first three weeks, and then the last two weeks will have 8 countries. I will also be linking to each of these review posts in the Participating Countries post I have pinned at the top of this blog.

Before I get started, here is a quick review of how my Song Review posts work:

I review song quality, how I think those songs will fare in either the televote (for the semifinalists, as the two semifinals are once again 100% televote) or both the televote and jury vote (as the final will use the system first implemented in 2016: the televote and jury votes each award their own sets of points, with the highest total score being declared the winner), and their chances of qualifying or doing well.

I keep my own personal political opinions about countries out of the review process, although as we’re seeing this year, that won’t stop politics from potentially influencing the voters. My goal is to review the songs themselves, regardless of what I think of the country that sent it.

I assign ratings on a scale of 1-10. I’ve never assigned a 1 rating or a 10 rating, but here’s a quick rundown of what my ratings indicate: A score of or below 4.5 indicates that I don’t care much for the song and/or I think it almost certainly won’t qualify to the Final (if it’s a semifinalist) or it will do poorly in the Final (if it’s a host country, Big Five entry, or other automatic qualifier*). A score of 5 to 6.5 indicates I’m usually indifferent to a song or think its chances of qualifying or doing well is a toss-up; I may still like these songs to varying degrees, though. A rating between 7 and 8 indicates I generally like the song and I’m somewhat confident in its chances of qualifying or doing well. And a rating 8.5 or higher indicates I really like or love the song and I may even consider it a potential contender to win.

*: An example of “other automatic qualifier” would include both Australia 🇦🇺 being granted an automatic spot in the Final for its 2015 debut and Ukraine 🇺🇦 being granted an automatic spot in the 2023 Final as defending champion despite being unable to host that year.

With the formalities out of the way, here is my first set of song reviews for 2024!

France 🇫🇷, “Mon Amour” (Slimane): I think this song has two strengths going for it: it’s a a ballad in a sea of bops, and Slimane’s voice. I expect a more competitive jury vote compared to last year, and I think France will be in the mix to top the Jury vote. I do worry about its televote chances, but I think with simple yet strong staging it stands a chance. Rating: 8/10

Slovenia 🇸🇮, “Veronika” (Raiven): I think this is a wildcard as far as qualification chances go, especially in an extremely competitive semifinal being decided solely by televote. I think staging and its later spot in the running order will play in its favor. I think it has the elements to qualify, but it’s going to be in a tough fight. Rating: 7/10

Luxembourg 🇱🇺, “Fighter” (Tali): This is another wildcard in the first semifinal, which is being described as a “bloodbath”. It definitely needs different staging from the national final, which made her look too dated. The music video of the revamped song showed a much more promising look for Tali that more closely reflected her age of 23. This is another song that has the elements to qualify, but that semifinal is going to be a tough fight. I don’t see Eurovision 2025 taking place in Luxembourg, but if they get at least to the final in their big return, I think Luxembourg will be heading in the right direction as far as making the most out of their return after 30 years away. Rating: 6.5/10

Ukraine 🇺🇦, “Teresa & Maria” (alyona alyona & Jerry Heil): Another song from the first semifinal, aka the “Group of Death” (to borrow from soccer terminology). However, Ukraine usually sends quality songs and I’d be shocked if Ukraine’s perfect qualification streak falls this year. I like the vocals, the rap, and even the backing vocals. There are several contenders to win, and while Ukraine is up there to do very well, I don’t necessarily see them winning. They’ll definitely be a jury favorite if they qualify, though. Rating: 7.5/10

Spain 🇪🇸, “Zorra” (Nebulossa): The production is slick, and if the staging with the “cheeky” male backing dancers stays, they’ll definitely get some televote attention. (I think the EBU may make them cover up just a little bit, though, if the dancers do come to Eurovision.) The only major issue I have is with Mery’s vocals, which aren’t the strongest. But she still gives me “Spanish Debbie Harry” vibes and has quite a bit of charisma. Rating: 6/10

Malta 🇲🇹, “Loop” (Sarah Bonnici): It does sound like something you’d hear on pop radio, but I feel like it’s missing a little “something” to elevate it to Eurovision level. At this point, I think it doesn’t qualify, but it’s in Semifinal 2, which is a bit more of an open race this year. I think Malta might need to rethink its national final, as its current system places heavy weight on the jury vote (it’s around 78% jury, 22% televote), which just seems counter to the Semifinal that it’s being sent to compete in, which is 100% televote. This song didn’t even win Malta’s own televote, it placed second. (It won the national final because it won the jury vote by a margin of 25 points over second in that section of the vote.) Last year was a nice change of pace for Malta, but I think they’ve fallen back into old habits (send a generic girl bop or girl ballad and hope it sticks). Rating: 4/10

Norway 🇳🇴, “Ulveham” (Gåte): So this song tells the story of a woman cursed by her wicked stepmother to (among other things) wear skin like a wolf’s and to wander the forest alone. Sort of a “Cinderella” meets The Big Bad Wolf kind of story. I think this being a folk metal song will help it stand out. The chorus is supposed to sound like a wolf howling. I don’t quite feel this is as strong a contender as the fandom is making out to be, but I still think it will qualify. Rating: 7.5/10

And that is my first set of reviews for the songs of Eurovision 2024!

Next week I’ll be posting my reviews of the following seven countries: Finland 🇫🇮, Latvia 🇱🇻, Germany 🇩🇪, Italy 🇮🇹, Denmark 🇩🇰, Lithuania 🇱🇹, and Moldova 🇲🇩.

#eurovision 2024 #eurovision song reviews #Eurovision 2024 song reviews

[american-eurovision-nerd]

Eurovision 2024: Semifinal Running Orders Revealed

The running orders for both semifinals were released this afternoon Eastern Time (early this evening Central European Time), and it goes as follows:

Semifinal 1: Cyprus 🇨🇾 opens, Luxembourg 🇱🇺 closes.

Semifinal 2: Malta 🇲🇹 opens, Netherlands 🇳🇱 closes.

Serbia 🇷🇸 gets the “cursed” number 2 slot in Semifinal 1.

Albania 🇦🇱 gets the “cursed” number 2 slot in Semifinal 2.

You may have noticed there are also a few extra slots in each semifinal. This year, the finalists will be performing their entries — in full (so it’s no longer dress rehearsal footage) — in the semifinals they’re voting in as a special preview before the Final. The idea is to give all participating countries a level playing field and have each country’s performance be seen once in the semifinals. That way the finalists aren’t having to play catch-up and be at a disadvantage in the Final just because viewers haven’t seen their performances yet. These preview performances won’t be voted on during the Semifinals.

There are also some changes coming to how the televote will be conducted across all three shows:

While the televote process will remain the same in the semifinals where televoting opens up for participating countries after the last song is performed, the Rest of the World vote will open 24 hours before the beginning of each show and remain open until the end of the televote voting window. (Presumably viewers in the Rest of the World vote will be able to watch rehearsal footage before voting during those first 24 hours.)

In the Final, the Rest of the World Vote will also open 24 hours before the beginning of that show. Additionally, viewers in participating countries will be able to cast their votes once the performances begin, and the viewer voting window will close 25 minutes after the final song has been performed.

The Semifinals will be 100% televote (including the Rest of the World vote, which acts as a single country awarding its own set of points in the standings), and the Final will remain 50% Jury/50% televote with the juries and televote each awarding their own set of points (and of course highest total score wins).

#eurovision 2024

[american-eurovision-nerd]

I can do a lot of things as a crocheter, but amigurumi is not one of them.

That said, this Joost-gurumi doll is adorable!

(source)

és itt a gyártási folyamat

@lassukmiboolelunk úgy érzem ezt látnod kell (a szóviccel egyetemben)

#joost klein #hakken #haken #eurovision #netherlands #netherlands eurovision #yarnovision

[american-eurovision-nerd]

Eurovision 2024: “Scared of Heights” by Hera Björk for Iceland 🇮🇸

Hera Björk, full name Hera Björk Þórhallsdóttir, is a 51-year-old singer and real estate agent from Reykjavik, Iceland. Singing since childhood, Hera Björk made her first recordings before she was a teenager and her early work included commercials and a recording on a children’s album. She attended a music school for her education and took part in several talent and singing competitions. As an adult she acted in several musical theater productions in Iceland, performed with a few different bands, and worked as a session singer. She released her first album in 1999, and has released 12 different albums and singles, primarily in the Icelandic language. Her first international breakthrough came in 2010, when she won the Icelandic national final and represented Iceland at Eurovision with the song “Je ne sais quoi” (despite its French title, it was performed in English), which qualified to the Final and finished in 19th place overall. In addition to her music career she has also worked as a singing teacher and was for a time based in the Danish capital city of Copenhagen. Her first Eurovision entry reached number 1 in Iceland; it remains to be seen if her second entry will achieve the same feat.

Music Video/National Final Performance

#eurovision 2024 #eurovision 2024 artists #iceland eurovision #Youtube

[american-eurovision-nerd]

Eurovision 2024: “Hurricane” by Eden Golan for Israel 🇮🇱

NOTE: I will be covering Israel’s participation in Eurovision this year, but I have opted to turn off reblogs and will refrain from making personal comments about their participation apart from my review of their song as part of my annual song reviews, as my song reviews never allow political or foreign policy opinions to shape my opinion of a particular song, regardless of the country that submitted it.

Eden is a 20-year-old singer originally from Kfar Saba, Israel, raised in Moscow, and currently based in Tel Aviv. Eden, whose parents are of Latvian and Ukrainian Jewish descent, spent much of her formative years in Moscow, where her family had moved due to her father’s job. Initially taking dance lessons, Eden soon discovered her singing talent and competed at the Russian national final for Junior Eurovision 2015 at the age of 12, but finished in fifth place in a closely contested competition, finishing just 8 points behind the winner. The following year, she competed at New Wave 2016. In 2018, she competed on the Russian version of The Voice Kids, making it all the way to the Final (where there were 9 acts competing), but did not make it to the final round vote of 3 to determine the winner. She returned to Israel in the ensuing years, and released her first single in 2022. Eden won the show HaKhokav HaBa (known internationally as Rising Star) to represent Israel at Eurovision 2024.

Music Video

#eurovision 2024 #Eurovision 2024 artists #israel eurovision

[american-eurovision-nerd]

Eurovision 2024: “Grito” by Iolanda for Portugal 🇵🇹

Iolanda (pronounced approximately as “ee-oh-LAHN-dah”), full name Iolanda Costa, is a 29-year-old singer and songwriter born in Figuera da Foz, Portugal (which is located in the Coimbra* district, on Portugal’s northern coast) and raised in Pombal, Portugal (which is located a little further south in the Leiria** district). Showing musical talent from a young age, she eventually enrolled at a conservatory as a teenager. At the age of 14, she made her first public appearance as a singer, competing on a show called Uma canção para ti (“A Song for You”), which is the Portuguese version of the Italian series Ti lascio una canzone, a singing competition featuring child singers between the ages of 8 and 15 (although unlike the original Italian version, the Portuguese version has eliminations and a season winner). Iolanda was a contestant on the show’s first season in Portugal, but was eliminated in the second gala show of the season, missing out on the grand final and a chance to win. When she was 17, she moved to Lisbon to attend school and gain performing experience. The same year, she auditioned for the fifth season of Ídolos, the Portuguese version of the Idols format, but did not reach the voting rounds. She spent some time in England studying at the British and Irish Institute of Modern Music, but ultimately returned to Portugal. In 2014 she appeared in the second season of The Voice of Portugal, but did not progress past the Blind Auditions as she failed to get any of the coaches to turn their chairs.

During the pandemic lockdowns in 2020, she wrote the songs that would eventually become her first EP. In 2022 she made her debut at Festival da Canção, the Portuguese national selection for Eurovision, as a songwriter on the song “Mar no fim” (“Sea at the End”), performed by Blacci. The song placed 8th in its semifinal and did not advance to the final. In 2023 Iolanda released her debut EP, Cura (“Cure”), which consisted of the songs she had written during the pandemic. And in 2024 Iolanda finally won a televised music for the first time when she won Festival da Canção 2024, placing first in the jury vote and second in the televote. Her song’s title translates to “Shout”.

*: If you imagine Portugal as being the silhouette of a face on the Iberian peninsula, Coimbra is located roughly where the “eye” would be.

**: Using the same “face” metaphor, Leiria is located roughly where the “bridge of the nose” is.

National Final Performance

#eurovision 2024 #eurovision 2024 artists #portugal eurovision

[american-eurovision-nerd]

Eurovision 2024: “Unforgettable” by Marcus & Martinus for Sweden 🇸🇪

From left to right: Marcus Gunnarsen, Martinus Gunnarsen.

Marcus and Martinus Gunnarsen are 22-year old identical twin singers from Elverum, Norway, which is located in southeastern part of the country. (Yes, they’re Norwegian! More on how they got to Sweden in a moment.) They have been performing together since they were 10 years old. Their first major breakthrough came in 2012 when they won Norway’s Melodi Grand Prix Junior with the song “To dråper vann” (“Two Drops of Water”). It is worth noting, though, that Norway was not competing at Junior Eurovision at this point (only having made three appearances at JESC from the first Junior Eurovision in 2003 through 2005), but Melodi Grand Prix Junior continued on as a Norwegian song competition for performers ages 8-15, with its most recent edition being held in 2022. (Norway’s Eurovision 2016 entrant Agnete also won MGP Junior as a member of the group The BlackSheeps.) Their song became a Top 10 hit in Norway, and they released their debut album Hei (“Hello”) in 2015. This album charted at number 1 in Norway and number 2 in Sweden. They released two more albums over the next two years, Together in 2016 and Moments in 2017, and both albums reached number 1 in both Norway and Sweden. While their first album was recorded in Norwegian, their subsequent albums were recorded in English. They got their first number one single in Norway, “Girls”, in 2017. An extended play (EP), Soon, was released in 2019, and then the pandemic came in 2020.

After society started opening up again following the vaccination efforts to contain COVID, the twins decided to try and boost their career by relocating to Sweden, which has a much larger pop music industry than in Norway, and presumably where they could connect with higher profile songwriters and producers. They continued to release singles and then in 2023 they were selected to compete in Sweden’s Melodifestivalen 2023. They competed with the song ”Air”, which they co-wrote along with Swedish songwriters Jimmy “Joker” Thörnfeldt and Linnea & Joy Deb (the Debs are former spouses Joy and his ex-wife Linnea). Their popularity helped with their chances, but unfortunately for them they were up against Loreen and her song ”Tattoo”, which ended up defeating Marcus & Martinus in both the jury and public votes by double digits (winning the jury vote by 21 points and the public vote by 18 points). Loreen would, of course, go on to win Eurovision that May. The twins entered Melodifestivalen 2024 with same co-writers (along with themselves as credited songwriters) and were heavily favored to win. They ultimately won Melodifestivalen 2024 with a total of 177 points: 85 points from the juries (winning the jury vote by a 39-point margin over second) and 92 points from the public vote (a 31-point margin over second).

They make Melodifestivalen history by being only the third non-Swedish artist* (and second born outside of Sweden)** to win, and they’re also just the sixth non-solo act to win since 2000. Of the other five, three of them won consecutively from 2001 to 2003; and this will be the first time since 2007 that a non-solo act will compete for Sweden on the Eurovision stage. (Remember that The Mamas won Melodifestivalen in 2020 but didn’t get to compete at Eurovision due to the pandemic.) They’re also the first male vocal group (as opposed to a band) to represent Sweden since 1997 (when the vocal trio Blond won Melodifestivalen that year; they went on to finish in 14th place at Eurovision).

Finally, how do you tell the twins apart? Martinus has a mole above his upper lip and during this Melodifestivalen season has been wearing his hair straight and gelled, sometimes with a part in his hair. Marcus doesn’t have a mole above his lip and has been wearing his more curly and tousled.

*: Elisabeth Andreassen, who has competed at Eurovision four times (once for Sweden and three times for Norway, including her 1985 win as part of Bobbysocks!) was born in Sweden but is ethnically Norwegian as both of her parents were originally from Norway.

**: Anni-Frid “Frida” Lyngstad of ABBA is also of Norwegian descent. She was born in Norway to a Norwegian single mother, while her biological father was a German soldier. Anni-Frid was conceived during the final months of the German occupation of Norway and her biological father had returned to Germany with his unit before she was born. Anni-Frid, her mother, and her maternal grandmother fled their hometown in Norway when Anni-Frid was barely a year old due to fears of reprisals and persecution of people who had had dealings with the Germans during occupation. Anni-Frid’s grandmother brought her to Sweden (which had remained neutral in World War II), and her mother joined them a few months later, but sadly died in September 1947 of kidney disease at the age of just 21. Anni-Frid was raised by her grandmother in Torshälla, Sweden (about 70 miles west of Stockholm).

National Final Performance

#eurovision 2024 #eurovision 2024 artists #sweden eurovision #Youtube

[american-eurovision-nerd]

Eurovision 2024: “Jako” by Ladaniva for Armenia 🇦🇲

Jaklin Baghdasaryan in foreground, Louis Thomas in background.

Ladaniva is a duo from Lille, France (which is in northern France, near the border with Belgium) consisting of singer Jaklin Baghdasaryan and instrumentalist Louis Thomas. Baghdasaryan, who is about age 26, is originally from Yeghegnadzor, Armenia, grew up in Minsk, Belarus, and based in Tourcoing, France (a suburb of Lille). She is of Armenian and Belarusian descent. Louis Thomas, who is about age 36, is from Lille, France, where the duo formed. He plays guitar, flute, and trumpet.

Baghdasaryan came to France accompanied by her mother in 2014 (when she was 17) to study music at the Conservatoire de Lille, and she met Louis during a jam session at a bar in Lille in 2018. The following year they began their collaboration as Ladaniva, which is named after a model of SUV manufactured by Russian manufacturer AvtoVAZ (the SUV model is two words, Lada Niva, while the band name is one word, Ladaniva). They released their first music videos in 2020, during the pandemic lockdowns, and they became popular in the Armenian community. Their debut album, self-titled Ladaniva, was released in 2020.

Ladaniva’s music is primarily categorized as “world music”, which is a catch all term for music that does not fall within western conventions and draws from traditional and ethnic music from various parts of the world. Ladaniva’s sound incorporates traditional Armenian and Eastern European music as well as elements of Latin American music. From what I could see on YouTube, they primarily record in Armenian and French.

Music Video

#eurovision 2024 #eurovision 2024 artists #armenia eurovision #Youtube

[american-eurovision-nerd]

Eurovision 2024: “Özünlə Apar” by Fahree ft. Ilkin Dovlatov for Azerbaijan 🇦🇿

Left to right: Fahree, Ilkin Dovlatov

Fahree is the stage name of Fakhri Ismayilov, 28-year-old singer from the Azerbaijani capital city of Baku. He comes from an artistic family, including his father who worked as a jazz drummer and his grandfather who was an actor. Studying law while he was in university, the pandemic lockdowns led Fahree to begin pursuing music, which had been a dream of his since childhood. He released his first single in 2022, and has released two additional singles since then. As he is still in the early stages of his career, there aren’t a lot of details publicly available about him.

Ilkin Dovlatov is a 33-year-old singer from Baku, Azerbaijan. He has been singing since childhood and comes from a musical family. Specializing in the mugham style of singing (a form of classical singing that has its origins in Azerbaijan in the medieval period), he began his professional career last year when he competed on a spinoff of The Voice of Azerbaijan called The Voice of Azerbaijan: Native Songs, where he finished in second place. He originally attempted to represent Azerbaijan at Eurovision this year as part of a group performing a song called “İnsanlar” and made it to the shortlist of acts being considered. While Fahree was ultimately selected as lead artist, Ilkin was invited to accompany Fahree in his entry.

This year marks the first time that an Azerbaijani entry will feature any significant lyrics in the Azerbaijani language. While most of the song is in English, the chorus is sung in Azerbaijani and the title translates to “Take Me With You”.

Showcase Performance/Music Video

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[american-eurovision-nerd]

I’ve added music videos or national final performance videos to every entry so far that has one available. There are some countries that have selected songs that either have not yet released a video on the official Eurovision YouTube channel or are awaiting a revamp. The only countries that have not yet had artist profiles posted are ones that have not yet selected an entry or have not yet had an entry confirmed. Those countries are: Armenia 🇦🇲, Azerbaijan 🇦🇿, Iceland 🇮🇸, Portugal 🇵🇹, and Sweden 🇸🇪, and I was also awaiting news of the resolution of the situation involving Israel’s participation. Portugal and Sweden are due to select entries this week. Iceland is awaiting confirmation of its entry, and Armenia and Azerbaijan have thus far kept quiet about their entry reveal plans, although Azerbaijan did reveal its artist today, but not their song.

Now, for the elephant in the room.

As of this afternoon, the EBU has confirmed that Israel 🇮🇱 will be participating after submitting a song that was acceptable within the EBU’s guidelines. I have drafted an artist profile post for their artist, but had chosen not to post it until the situation regarding Israel’s status was resolved. As the goal of this blog is to cover the Contest as it happens, I will be posting the profile post which will include the video for the song, which is due to be released on Sunday.

However, I have decided that any posts about Israel’s participation this year will have reblogs turned off. Posts about Israel’s participation will not include any personal comments from me with the exception of the song review that will be part of my annual song reviews, and even then my reviews always leave out any political or social opinions of the countries participating (and this applies to every participating country), and my reviews always focus on song quality and how well I think those songs will do in the Contest.

#American Eurovision Nerd blog updates

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Eurovision 2024: “One Milkali (One Blood)” by Electric Fields for Australia 🇦🇺

Left to right: Michael Ross, Zaachariaha Fielding.

Electric Fields is a duo consisting of Zaachariaha Fielding (vocals) and Michael Ross (keyboards, production). They are both from the state of South Australia.

Michael Ross is in his early forties and is from Adelaide, South Australia (located on the southern coast of Australia). His primary influences include Mariah Carey, The Cranberries, Tracy Chapman, and Lauryn Hill.

Zaachariaha Fielding is in his early thirties and is from Mimili, South Australia (located in the northwestern part of South Australia in an area called the “Aṉangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara Lands” or “APY Lands”, named after the primary indigenous groups that inhabit the area). He is mostly of Aboriginal Australian* descent (although he does also have some Afghan ancestry through his paternal grandmother), and his father Robert Fielding is a well-known visual artist in the state of South Australia. Robert’s father Bruce (Zaachariaha’s grandfather) was a child of the “Stolen Generations”, a term referring to Aboriginal Australian and Torres Strait Islander children who were forcibly removed from their families due to government policies attempting to “assimilate” those children into white society. They were often sent to institutions that essentially taught them to reject their indigenous culture, or they were sent to foster families or adopted by white families without the consent of their birth families. This took place from around 1910 to the 1970s. (Similar practices occurred in the United States and Canada from at least the 19th century until well into the 20th century.)

Zaachariaha had ambitions of being a performer from a very young age, and his first public performance was at a primary school assembly where he performed “Blue Suede Shoes” by Elvis Presley. One of his favorite singers growing up was Whitney Houston, and he was also heavily influenced by the artists whose music videos played on the long-running Australian music video program Rage (which still airs on weekend nights in Australia and has been a mainstay of Australian television since its debut in 1987). After graduating high school, Zaachariaha attended the University of Adelaide and studied Indigenous Australian music. In 2011, he auditioned for the third season of The X Factor Australia, although he did not make it to the round of 24 semifinalists that would go to the judges’ houses. Three years later, he auditioned for The Voice Australia as part of a duo called ZK alongside Kristal West. The duo reached the Grand Final, but the season was ultimately won by Anja Nissen, who would later represent her parents’ home country of Denmark 🇩🇰 at Eurovision 2017. ZK split some time after that season ended, and Fielding would end up joining up with Michael Ross, who in 2013 had competed on The X Factor Australia as a soloist and made it to the Home Visits round, but had been cut from the competition at that point. (His category, the Overs, produced the season’s winner, future Eurovision 2016 runner-up Dami Im.) In addition to his music career, Zaachariaha has also had several paintings and visual art pieces exhibited in galleries and has also either won or been a finalist for some prestigious art awards in Australia.

Electric Fields formed in 2015 and from the very beginning their music has been a blend of electronic, pop, and soul music with elements of Zaachariaha’s Aboriginal culture. (It could be described as falling into the “ethnic electronica” subgenre.) Zaachariaha sings in the Pitjantjatjara and Yankunytjatjara dialects (both dialects of the Western Desert language, a group of closely related Aboriginal Australian dialects whose territory covers large parts of the states of Western Australia and South Australia as well as the Northern Territory) in addition to English. They released their debut EP Inma (which refers to a cultural ceremony performed by women of the Aṉangu group, which is a group within the Western Desert cultural bloc) in 2016 to critical acclaim both within and outside the Aboriginal Australian community. In February 2019, they competed at the Australian national final to select the country’s Eurovision entry that year, with the song “2000 and Whatever”. They ultimately finished in second place behind Kate Miller-Heidke and her song “Zero Gravity” (which finished in 9th place overall), but the duo were granted the honor of announcing Australia’s jury points during the Grand Final that May. They have continued to make a path for themselves even through the pandemic era, and are still accumulating a lot of acclaim for their music.

Both members of Electric Fields are openly queer and regard themselves as close friends with a sibling-like bond. Although they shared a kiss in the music video for “One Milkali (One Blood)”, the duo are not romantically involved. Their motto is “Bypass the barriers”, which is something they certainly strive to do in their music.

Their entry marks the first time an Aboriginal Australian language will appear in a Eurovision entry.

*: Aboriginal Australian is the term currently used to refer to most ethnic groups indigenous to Australia, and together with the Torres Strait Islanders (who are indigenous to the islands in the Torres Strait that runs between mainland Australia and the island of Tasmania) are collectively referred to as “Indigenous Australians”. There is no single “Aboriginal” ethnicity, but there are several hundred different groups denoted by the languages spoken by these groups. (The languages spoken by the various Aboriginal Australian groups are distinct, but related.) Prior to European colonization, there were over 250 of these groups with complex cultural societies and varying degrees of technological development and settlement. Even now, these groups are still incredibly diverse in culture, belief, and language.

Music Video

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[american-eurovision-nerd]

Eurovision 2024: “Ramonda” by Teya Dora for Serbia 🇷🇸

Teya Dora is the stage name of Teodora Pavlovska, a 31-year-old singer and songwriter originally from Bor, Serbia (located in the eastern part of Serbia, and whose district shares a border with Romania), but has lived in the capital city of Belgrade. Upon moving to Belgrade, she attended a music school there that ultimately helped her earn a scholarship to attend the prestigious Berklee College of Music in Boston, Massachusetts. One of her classmates at Berklee was the singer Charlie Puth, who graduated from there in 2013. Although she lived in New York for a while after graduating from Berklee to pursue a professional music career, she ultimately returned to Serbia in 2018 and started working as a songwriter for the Serbian pop market.

She released her first single, “Da na meni je” (“Yes It’s Up to Me”) in 2019. Her first charting single, “Džanum” (“Janum”), which was released as part of the soundtrack of a Serbian crime drama called Južni vetar (whose title translates to “South Wind”). The song became a viral hit on TikTok, generating a meme called “Moye Moye” (a mondegreen, or misheard lyric, of moje more, which means “my nightmares”). In May 2023, the song became a TikTok anthem for protests that broke out in Serbia following a school shooting that a 13-year-old male student committed that killed 10 and wounded 7, and a separate mass shooting that occurred near the cities of Mladenovac and Smederevo where a man killed a total of 12 people and wounded 9. The music video for “Džanum” has over 75 million views on YouTube and the song has over 100 million streams on Spotify. Her Spotify achievement has the distinction of being the first time a Serbian artist has gained that many streams with a song that wasn’t competing at Eurovision.

Teya’s Eurovision song, “Ramonda”, is about a flower called the “Natalie’s Ramonda”, a flower that has become a symbol in Serbia of the Serbian campaign and eventual victory in World War I. (If you remember your history lessons, World War I was sparked in the aftermath of a Bosnian Serb nationalist who assassinated the heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne, Archduke Franz Ferdinand, and his wife because he and the secret military society who backed him and his five co-conspirators felt that the Archduke was a threat to Serbian independence and the unification of the Southern Slavs.) The Serbians suffered the largest casualty rate in the war relative to its population. To commemorate Serbian soldiers who died in World War I, Serbians wear an artificial Natalie’s Ramonda (which is known for being incredibly adaptable to harsh environments) for Armistice Day in a manner similar to how Commonwealth countries commemorate the day by wearing a red poppy flower. The song doesn’t mention any conflict or anything like that, but is structured as a lullaby and the flower is a metaphor for rising up from even the worst and harshest times.

National Final Performance

Music Video

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Eurovision 2024: “The Code” by Nemo for Switzerland 🇨🇭

Nemo, full name Nemo Mettler, is a 24-year-old rapper and singer from Biel/Bienne, Switzerland. Biel/Bienne is a town located in the Canton of Bern in northwestern Switzerland, located less than 20 miles north of the federal city and de facto national capital of Bern. (Yes, the dual name is its official name, as it lies right on the boundary between the French and German speaking areas of Switzerland and is a bilingual community. Biel is the town’s German name, while Bienne is its French name.) Nemo came out as nonbinary last year and prefers to be referred by their name in their native German language (as German does not have gender-neutral pronouns used to refer to people) and “they/them” in English. (Nemo is the second openly nonbinary artist to compete at Eurovision 2024, following Ireland’s Bambie Thug). Nemo plays violin, piano, and drums in addition to singing. They released their debut album, Clownfisch (“Clownfish”) in 2015, and it remains their only album (of four released) to chart in Switzerland. While their early singles were recorded in Swiss German, their more recent singles have been in English, as is their Eurovision entry. They’ve had a handful of singles chart in Switzerland, with their song “Du” (“You”, released in 2017) being their highest-charting, peaking at number 4. Nemo additionally appeared in season 2 of The Masked Singer Switzerland as “Panda” in late 2021 and finished in 5th place out of eight competitors. (Coincidentally, last year’s Swiss representative, Remo Forrer, won the show’s fourth season held in late 2023, after his Eurovision appearance.)

Music Video

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