(Disclaimer: I tend to refer to the nation referred to in this post as "Macedonia", and not "FYROM". I don't mean to cause any offense, nor am I trying to make any sort of political statement. The two nations where I have lived, the United States and Chile, both maintain the general policy of calling this nation either "Macedonia" or the "Republic of Macedonia". I hope that you, my readers, will not turn the comments section of this article into a flame war...we're all civil and intelligent people here! Thanks! -Samantha)
Ok, now that I got that out of the way, I can get to the real meat of this article...sadly, of which there is little. After the Slovene National Final wrapped up on Sunday, I switched over to Macedonia's Skopjefest. My hopes were high, considering that Macedonia was the nation that brought the world the incomparable Toše Proeski, as well as stars like Karolina Gočeva and Elena Risteska, all ESC alumni. Well, after a seemingly endless selection, lasting a full four hours, including an interval act that would rival watching paint dry in terms of excitement, a winner was finally selected: Vlatko Ilievski with "Rusinka (Russian Girl)".
I'm not sure if it was the poor sound quality, the headache I was fighting off while watching Skopjefest for four hours, or the actual song itself, but I'm not incredibly impressed by "Rusinka". Vlatko is an enthusiastic performer, and supposedly quite popular in Macedonia, but his voice just isn't quite on the same level as some of his competitors this year. Furthermore, he's singing about his love for a Russian girl, yet he won't be able to count on Russia's support in the semifinals, as they'll be performing and voting on different nights. Maybe with a significant amount of revamping, this might be redeemed, but in its current state, this one might be doomed to languish in the semifinals, with only Belarus to keep it from the bottom of the pack.
(You see, my dear readers? I can give negative reviews!)
Monday, February 28, 2011
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I am Macedonian, and I think the song is ok at best. The main problem I have with it though is the content and title of the song. I mean, Eurovision is supposed to be about representing your own country! How can Macedonia achieve that by singing about a Russian girl?!
ReplyDeleteIt is pretty odd...but it actually wouldn't be the first time! Back in 1990, the absolutely beautiful Belgian entry was called "Macédomienne (My Macedonian Woman)", and singer Philippe Lafontaine performed it in honor of his wife.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=urgbPWbA5zE
http://www.diggiloo.net/?1990be
You embedded a higher-quality video, I see! Not that I noticed by listening, just by looking.
ReplyDeleteI see no way around it; this is just... bad. What is there to complement? Melody? Mixing? Vocals? Topic? Lyrics? Was Narodnozabavni Rock not better than this?
Forget about trying to reach the Final; he should hope he does not get a last place for Fyrom.
To be fair, it sounded like it could be something decent at the very beginning, but it just fell apart beyond that point.
Also, if it sounds OK at best to some people, that does not mean those people will vote for it, yet. To me, though, it sounds unremarkable at best, and that might be what people really mean in this context when they say it is merely OK.
It took much effort for me to come up with a fair review, and I still am not sure if I did it justice, since I think this is just plain bad; I only tried to play up positive points, which were scarce.
-Finland
Vardarskian Music Skopjanski :)
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