There’s now exactly one month to go until the grand final of the Eurovision Song Contest 2013.
39 songs are competing this year, and it’s fair to say that it’s not exactly the strongest of years. Some real gems of course (which we’ll get to!), but a hell of a lot of tripe also. Ballads seem to be the flavour of the moment this year. Not good ballads though. Dull ballads. There are gonna be sections of each of the three shows next month, that are gonna be very difficult to sit through. But then that’s always been the case really. And thankfully, the good moments are good enough to make up for it.
For the last month or so, we’ve been grappling with the 39 songs. Getting familiar with them. Discovering which ones were the keepers and which ones were most certainly not to be kept in any way, shape, or form. And then revisiting all of them again, just to be sure.
From that, we can conclude that there are precisely 14 songs out of this year’s 39 that we could class as being somewhere between very very good, and amazing. And below we present those 14 songs to you.
If you’ve not yet checked out any of the entries, we’d suggest that this is a very good place to start. And if you’re already familiar with all 39 songs, we’d be interested to hear whether you agree or disagree with our selection, in the comments section below.
Here though, are The Tunes of Eurovision 2013 (in no particular order);
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GERMANY
Cascada: ‘Glorious’
(Yann Peifer, Manuel Reuter, Andres Ballinas, Tony Cornelissen)
Cascada have Eurovisionified their sound for this song. So of course we were always gonna love it. They’ve made Eurodance sound even more Euro. And in the process, they’ve come up with one of their best tracks to date. And no, that’s not supposed to be faint praise (although admittedly, we did enjoy ‘Pyromania’, so perhaps that negates our argument here). ‘Glorious’ is gonna be one of the big highlights of the final night. It’s so much fun.
“Tonight we can be……glooooorrrrioooouuuussss“!
THE NETHERLANDS
Anouk: ‘Birds’
(Tore Johansson, Martin Gjerstad, Anouk Teeuwe)
One of the many ballads on offer this year, but this one is totally within a league of its own. Retro flavoured, it’s like the theme song to a particularly dramatic film noir about a chain smoking, red wine guzzling, femme fatale. Comparisons to Lana Del Rey are both inevitable and inescapable here. But we don’t think Anouk would mind.
Who knows if Eurovision in 2013 is supposed to be current or relevant. But if it is, then ‘Birds’ ticks all of the boxes, more than pretty much anything else on offer in the contest this year. We can’t wait to see what she’s gonna do with the performance of it.
NORWAY
Margaret Berger: ‘I Feed You My Love’
(Karin Park, Robin Lynch, Niklas Olovson)
Regular readers should already be quite familiar with this one. A relentless, chugging, powerhouse of electropop, with an epic melody placed over the top of it, and with a lyric that makes you listen. It’s near impossible to predict how this is gonna do, results wise. But whatever happens, Norway should be extremely proud that they sent this to Eurovision. It’s a risk. But it’s them showcasing exactly what kind of music they’re producing so well these days, and what Norwegians are actually listening to. Which is really what Eurovision is supposed to be about. Not Bonnie Tyler.
SERBIA
Moje 3: ‘Ljubav Je Svuda’
(Saša Miloševi? Mare, Marina Tucakovi?)
This is sort of uncategorisable. If you’re a Eurovision fan, you’ll have heard the likes of this before. Whereas if you’re not so familiar with the great ESC, then this is very much a WTF. In short though, it’s a Balkan take on a big gay dance diva track. Fronted by three mismatched members somehow forming a girlband of sorts. But it’s absolutely marvellous. And quite possibly, maybe, our favourite song of the lot.
GEORGIA
Nodi Tatishvili & Sophie Gelovani: ‘Waterfall’
(Thomas G:son, Erik Bernholm)
The cheesiest, schmaltziest, corniest kind of ballad. You could even imagine Disney themselves rejecting this because it’s just “too much”. But they’d be fools. ‘Waterfall’ is incredible. In every sense of the word. Suspend any idea or notion you have of what’s right, and just enjoy this for what it is – a gargantuan slice of maudlin balladry. It goes without saying that the key change is almighty too. And the VOX are RIDIX.
How could you listen to this and not be all like, “in a moment like deees, I’m in a state of bleeees“.
IRELAND
Ryan Dolan: ‘Only Love Survives’
(Wez Devine, Ryan Dolan)
A dancepop track that sorta sounds like a cross between David Guetta and David Lindgren, with ever so subtle Celtic influences. But better than that description might read. If pulled off correctly, this song is gonna look and sound amazing on the arena stage. Handled right, it should blow the roof off. So let’s all hope they do indeed handle it right. And it’s been given a late performance slot, so it’s pretty much been handed the aforementioned blowing off of the roof, on a silver platter.
Ryan, though unknown before this contest, seems like a capable frontman and a competent vocalist too. And he’s not averse to posting pictures of himself in his underwear on Twitter either, which always helps in these circumstances.
SWEDEN
Robin Stjernberg: ‘You’
(Robin Stjernberg, Joy Deb, Linnea Deb, Joakim Harestad Haukaas)
You’ll all know this one by now. Deserved winner of the biggest national final of them all, and a song that’s graced these pages on more than a few occasions. There’s not much more to say about this one, that what we’ve already said in the past. Other than that we think it’s going to do very well for Sweden next month. And rightly so.
SAN MARINO
Valentina Monetta: ‘Crisalide (Vola)’
(Ralph Siegel, Mauro Balestri)
This is the kind of ballad that could perhaps only exist at Eurovision. With the kind of twist that could definitely only exist at Eurovision. Utterly ridiculous. We all love a song that turns from ballad to dance track by the first chorus. But what about one that doesn’t announce its transformation until after the second chorus – with only 60 seconds to go? Well as it turns out, we love that too. She’d better milk those final 60 seconds for all they’re worth while she’s on that stage. Just fucking go for it.
AZERBAIJAN
Farid Mammadov: ‘Hold Me’
(Dimitrios Kontopoulos, John Ballard, Ralph Charlie Al Fahel)
Of the traditional ballads (so, not the likes of the Netherlands or Georgia) that exist in such a high volume in this year’s contest, ‘Hold Me’ manages to stand up head and shoulders above the rest. It’s just of a much higher quality. That little bit more epic and with a stronger melody than the others. It’s also got a James Bond theme-esque post-chorus. And a key change. That’s the best bit.
An obvious qualifier. And it puts its lessers to shame. That’s Farid’s pic you can see at the top of this post.
DENMARK
Emmelie de Forest: ‘Only Teardrops’
(Lise Cabble, Julia Fabrin Jakobsen, Thomas Stengaard)
This song is by far the favourite to win the whole thing next month. Although we’re not really seeing it. Not because we don’t like it (we love it!), but more because we really do think that the contest is wide open this year. This was always gonna be a big fan favourite though. A Timoteij-esque mixture of pop and folk, it’s got the ethnic schlager thing down to a tee. It’s a big tune. With a big production. And it would be a worthy winner too, if it does actually go and do what everyone is predicting it will.
BELGIUM
Roberto Bellarosa: ‘Love Kills’
(Iain James, Jukka Immonen)
This was a bit MEH on first listen. But after a few more listens, we’ve become much more enamored with it. And in fact, over the last couple of days in particular – we’ve become pretty much obsessed with it. Best played loud, it’s a dancepop track with a strong melody (once it beds in) and a striking production – with bells on. Ever so slightly camp, while at the same time housing some stadium rock sensibilities. But camp stadium rock, at that.
Somehow, this is considered the rank outsider with betting agencies. We really hope it makes the final though. And if it does, then that second listen it would be afforded could turn things around even further.
BELARUS
Alyona Lanskaya: ‘Solayoh’
(Marc Paelinck, Martin King)
You’ve heard this song before. It’s essentially a rethread of so many great Turkish or Greek entries you remember from the last decade or so at Eurovision. It’s all been done to death, but we’ve enjoyed every minute of it. So of course we welcome with open arms and ears, the latest incarnation of this well worn type of song. Eurovision wouldn’t be Eurovision without one of these in the line-up each year. And ‘Solayoh’, while not exactly a new high standard of quality within the genre, is still an enjoyable romp of a number. And catchy too of course. It has to be catchy.
ICELAND
Eythor Ingi: ‘Ég Á Líf’
(Örlygur Smári & Pétur Örn Gudmundsson)
Another of the ballads that offers something a little bit different. A Nordic folk ballad with a nursery rhyme melody. And probably a nursery rhyme lyric too, to anyone who doesn’t speak the language. It’s all so very simple and uncomplicated – which could mean that this manages to sneak through under the radar against everyone’s expectations, and does quite well in the contest. Iceland is one of those countries we always like to see do well at Eurovision.
SWITZERLAND
Takasa: ‘You & Me’
(Georg Schlunegger, Roman Camenzind, Fred Herrmann)
We’ve saved this one until last because it’s the one we understand the least. On paper, we shouldn’t really be liking this one. And on the first few listens we didn’t. But there’s something about it that soon latches on to you. The jovial beat. The simplistic and catchy melody. The fact that it sounds like something you’ve heard before despite the fact that you don’t ever listen to anything that sounds like this. Yeah, that. Very odd. But very enjoyable.
