Suisse/Schweiz/Svizzera-Mania!

Switzerland has already kicked off their 2012 National Selection Process, and will be picking their official Eurovision entrant on December 10th (only a week or so after Junior Eurovision wraps up in Yerevan, so there's no time for withdrawal).  The country, however, being a land of four official languages, isn't making their selection process a simple one.  There are four official pre-Preselections representing German-language radio station DRS3 (who picked three songs via an internal jury), German-language television SF (who will pick six finalists via a 50/50 jury/web vote), French-based station RTS (who will pick 3 songs via an online/jury split vote), and Italian-speaking RSI (who is currently holding a Pre-Pre-Preselection...the public can vote on the two songs that will join five others already selected by an internal jury; only two of those seven will advance to the united Swiss Preselection).  Many of these voting windows will be closing over the next few days, so feel free to check them out soon!  (Non-Swiss votes are accepted, but the Italian and German polls require registration.)

Nearly 250 songs have been submitted to the four pre-preselections, and it's quite a lot to slog through!  Plus, some of the songs have been submitted to more than one selection in the hopes of making it through to the nationwide-rounds.  Adding to the confusion is the fact that Switzerland is one of the few places where non-Swiss singers can submit entries, regardless of citizenship, residency, or family history.  This year, singers from South Africa, the United States, Canada, the UK, Ireland, Malta, and other nations have submitted entries, hoping to be 2012's answer to Céline Dion.

Are you confused yet?  Yeah, me too.  In the hopes of clarifying the process, let me point out a few standouts, with a special eye on artists coming from abroad:

Eurovision 2011: The Best of the Rest (Part 8)

Ok, we're winding down to the end of our country-by-country list of 2011's also-rans: the songs that should-have/would-have/could-have gone to Germany if the people had voted differently/if the juries had taken their bathroom breaks at a different time/if the networks had been bribed by a different record company (just kidding!  I think...).

Sweden: As almost any self-respecting Eurovision Fan would know, Sweden's Melodifestivalen is considered one of the biggest events of the National Final calendar.  Its position in recent years as the last of the national selections means that it's basically the final stop before the big event in May.  It tends to get higher viewership numbers in its homeland than Eurovision itself does, and ESC fans the world over flock to the Globen each year in order to watch the final firsthand.  This year's Melodifestivalen certainly did not disappoint, with 32 songs competing over four semifinals and an "Andra Chansen (Second Chance)" round for the chance to redeem Sweden's Eurovision hopes after a tough crash-and-burn last year.  As we all know, Eric Saade not only came out on top this year with "Popular", but he gave the Swedes their highest placement on the ESC scoreboard since their victory back in 1999. 

Eric faced some stiff competition, however.  Danny Saucedo's runner-up "In the Club" got quite a bit of attention.  The track ended up as #2 on the Swedish Singles Chart, and Danny even got to read out Sweden's votes this year at Eurovision.  (Eric had that honor last year; maybe it's an omen of good things to come for Danny?):


In third place was the impossibly sunny "Oh My God!" by The Moniker (real name: Daniel Karlsson).  It's like Daniel stepped off of the Magical Mystery Tour, into a Hare Krishna robe, and started hanging out with the backup singers from "Čaroban".  I'll admit, I thought this song was absolutely ridiculous the first time I heard it, but it became an complete earworm, and I'd often randomly sing it with my friends in the Press Center, choreography and all.  (I feel incredibly fortunate that no video footage of those moments exist, as far as I can tell...):

We Have a Winner!

...And, it starts!

The first official Preselection of the year has just finished in Switzerland, and so the first official entry for Eurovision 2011 has been hammered down.  Out of twelve songs, sung in English, French, Italian, Swiss-German, and even Albanian, with genres ranging from teen-pop to country to rock to acapella and back again, one winner reigned supreme:

Congratulations  go out to Anna Rossinelli and her song "In Love for a While"!


Following my hypothesis that last year's winner creates next year's trend, Anna's sweet, youthful brand of pop isn't a far cry from Lena Meyer-Landrut's carefree style from last year (and, come to think of it, this year, as well!).  "In Love for a While" reminds me of Colbie Caillat's monster hit "Bubbly" (which, incidentally, hit #11 on the Swiss charts).  Honestly, this might be a bit of a strike against her; whenever I try to think of this song, "Bubbly" pops into my head instead.  This 23-year old native of Basel seems to be unsigned at the moment (which I doubt will stay the case for much longer).  Let's see if she can finally crack back into the Finals, a goal that the Swiss have missed since 2006 (when they automatically qualified for it).

Best of luck, Anna!

ESC 2010 Reviews: Switzerland

Switzerland, like Belgium, Germany, France, and Spain, is another one of those Eurovision veterans who haven't been able to catch a decent break over the last few years.  In one of my first entries on ESC Insider, I spoke a bit about the first Eurovision winner, "Refrain" by Lys Assia.  Since then, the Swiss have only won once (although it was one of Eurovision's most legendary performances...more on that in a moment), and they haven't scored in the Top Five since 1993.  Furthermore, the Swiss have the tendency to recruit singers from outside their country, and they haven't placed in the Top Ten with a Swiss-born singer since 1991.

One of the classic performances out of Switzerland was 1963's "T'en Va Pas (Don't Go)", sung by Israeli singer Esther Ofarim.  Barely beaten by the Danish entry that year (and some conspiracy theorists insist that there was some sort of foul play with that year's voting, but nothing has even been proven), Esther's pristine voice and emotional delivery really carried this beautiful chanson, and it's one of my favorites from that decade.

It was in 1988, however, that Switzerland finally made it back to the top of the Eurovision podium.  They had drafted a little-known young singer from Quebec to do their heavy lifting, and what followed was one of the earliest international performances for a future legend:

Celine Dion not only defeated 20 other contestants that night, but she also vanquished the horrors of "Bad Eighties Hair and Wardrobe" to win in Dublin with "Ne Partez Pas Sans Moi (Don't Leave Without Me)".  She has gone on to sell over 200 million albums worldwide, win five Grammies, 21 Junos, and have a wildly successful standing gig at Caesar's Palace in Las Vegas.  Nothing to sneeze at, by any stretch of the imagination!

Over the past few years, Switzerland has been sorely lacking when it comes to translating interesting and original songs to success on the scoreboard.  Before the last three contests, bookmakers and fans had favored Swiss songs, but they failed to reach the finals.  In 2007, there was the off-the-wall DJ BoBo with "Vampires are Alive", which scored in 20th place out of 28 in that semifinal (note the creative use of mannequins, as only six people are allowed on stage).  The next year, Italian-Swiss singer Paolo Meneguzzi didn't live up to the potential of "Era Stupendo (It was Amazing)", and his slightly off-key performance kept him out of the finals.  Sadly, the same thing happened with last year's song, "The Highest Heights" by Lovebugs, one of my favorites before the competition.


This year, veteran performer Michael von der Haide is trying to undo the pattern that Switzerland's been falling into recently with "Il Pleut de l'Or (It's Raining Gold)".  Michael's no Celine, but the song is a lot of fun, and I can easily imagine it playing on the video screens at the gay bar near my home that my friends occasionally drag me to.  (What?  The drinks are good and they play "Project Runway" on big projector screens...what could be bad?)  The second semifinal's going to be extremely competitive, but von der Haide's a veteran performer, so I doubt that falling out of tune like Meneguzzi or Adrian Sieber of Lovebugs both did, but it might be a tough sell to get into the finals.