The Best of the 2010 Preselection (Part One)

I don't know about all of you, but all of this talk recently about the 2011 ESC season has really kicked my Eurovision appetite into high gear.  It's sort of like how a person might say that they're not hungry when dinnertime is coming up, but once they walk past a kitchen and detect the tiniest wafting scents of meals cooking, they realize that they're absolutely famished.

Yep, that's me.  Now that we know where Eurovision 2011 will be held, and we're getting a better picture of which nations will be participating and how their entries will be chosen, I'm getting really excited to see how Düsseldorf will compare to Oslo (and Moscow, Belgrade, Helsinki, etcetera, before it).  But since it will be another few months before we get to hear the lion's share of candidate songs, I thought I'd give you all a blast from the not-so-distant past, and serve up a list of a few of my favorite Preselection songs from last year.  These are the ones who didn't quite make it to Oslo, but they made a bit of an impression on me, at the very least.  (By the way, I'm specifically skipping mention of the fantastic Albanian and Estonian preselections, as I had made pretty heavy mention of them in their nation's individual postings...but feel free to backtrack and check them out!  Estonia, in particular, put on a fabulous National Selection this year, and there are about a half-dozen songs from Eestilaul 2010 on my iTunes right now.)

Anyway, in no particular order:

From Greece: "Enjoy the Day" by Katherine Avgoustakis.
Katherine, who is actually a Belgian citizen born to a Greek father, was strongly favored to go to Oslo with this danceable summer song, but a clause in the national preselection banned any of the candidate songs from being released to the public before a specified date, or else risk disqualification.  A remix of "Enjoy the Day" was leaked to YouTube early, and Katherine was left out in the cold.  There are rumors that she's going to try to represent Greece again, and if she can duplicate the popularity of her 2010 song, I wouldn't count her out of the running to go to Düsseldorf.


Fom Denmark: "Breathing" by Bryan Rice.

Coming in second place in this year's Dansk Melodi Grand Prix was this modern ballad, which always seems to remind me a bit of Leona Lewis's "Bleeding Love".  I personally preferred this entry over Denmark's eventual winner, Chanée and N'evergreen's "In a Moment Like This", but since I can't vote, I can't complain!  In a way, it's almost a good thing that Bryan missed out in 2010, as Denmark's 2008 and 2009 entry, Simon Mathew's "All Night Long" and Brinck's "Believe Again", respectively were both male-driven, mid-tempo numbers, and maybe it was time to switch things up a bit.

From Malta: "Save a Life" by Wayne Micallef.

Although I know that Malta is more or less obsessed with Eurovision, I am generally not a massive fan of many of the songs that the island nation submits (Sorry!  Nothing personal, I promise!).  However, I really liked Micallef's entry this year.  It has the hopeful, positive message that many Maltese ESC songs tend to have, without sounding like a track ripped from a 1995 Disney film.  His voice is strong, and "Save a Life" kind of reminds me of something that Snow Patrol or The Fray would come out with, and it might have stacked up pretty well against Tom Dice or Jon Lilygreen this year.  He also gets points from me for performing his own song, as only three self-penned tunes made it to the Maltese final this year, out of 20 songs.  Wayne came in 6th place in the 2010 preselection, and 7th the year before that.  If he keeps writing songs like this one, we might see him on the big stage sometime soon.

From Moldova: "Amintirele Dor (The Memories Hurt)" by Leylla
When I first introduce Eurovision to my friends who aren't quite familiar with the contest, many imagine imagine a contest full of ethno-techno-disco pop like this.  The Moldovan preselection this past year was packed, with over 80 songs vying for a shot at Oslo.  Those 80-some-odd songs were all released to the public, but only 30 made it to the semifinal level (25 picked by a jury, and 5 by local SMS voting).  When the dust settled, Eurofans from all over were stunned to see that Leylla had missed out, especially considering that crap like this went through.
But, on the bright side, if Leylla had gone to Oslo, the would never would have gotten to know the glory of the saxroll.  Brings a tear to your eye, doesn't it?

From the Ukraine: "Emotional Lady" by Dazzle Dreams.

Ok, this one is a total guilty pleasure.  I love it when songs in other languages randomly slip in a line or two in English, and combining that with Depeche Mode-inspired synthpop makes me a happy Samantha.  Granted, though..."Dazzle Dreams"?  The band name sounds a bit like something that a five-year-old girl would come up with while trying to name her pink My Little Pony.  Great song, though...


From Russia: "Dlinnaya-dlinnaya beresta i kak sdelat' iz nee aishon (Long-Long Birch Bark and How to Make a Headdress From It)" by Buranovskiye Babushki  (whew!)

This song is an obvious departure from any other tune in this year's contest (or almost any year's contest, for that matter).  It's sung in Udmurt, which is a minority language more closely related to Finnish and Estonian than Russian, and was performed by the Buranovskiye Babushki (literally, "The Grannies from Buranovo).  Believe it or not, this was a serious contender to go to Oslo, coming in third place in the Russian national final!
And I don't care what anybody says.  This song makes me happy.  Just try to listen to it and not smile!  I dare you!
...Yeah, that's what I thought.

(More coming up in the next entry!)