UK The Vampire Players

So the UK branch of OGAE voted this week and once again the Swiss entry received top support. Vampires Are Alive by DJ Bobo came top in the UK OGAE poll. Coming 2nd was Slovenia. Now here's a song that has grown and grown in support over the last few weeks. The dance-opera song Cvet Z Juga by Alenka Gotar has gathered a lot of fans, including me, of late and it is performing well in the OGAE polls. In third place was Russia's Song #1 by Serebro, Molitva for Serbia came 4th, and Latvia's Questta Note completed the top 5, doubling its cumulative score so far in the process.

Sad to see some of my favourites dwindling though! Armenia came last and Lithania, Finland and Ireland didn't do all that well either, all in my top half! And as my support for Bosnia & Herzegovina grows (currently placed 4th in my personal poll), it seems that the UK OGAE weren't all that fussed coming just 18th. Booooo.

If the UK were allowed to vote for their own country, then Scooch would have scored 1 point from us! Sadly, of course, Eurovision doesn't work like this and the UK remains one of 15 countries yet to score from the OGAE juries.

Oh well. At least the Scooch promo video came out today. It's absolutely fantastic. They even played it on BBC Breakfast. Things must be looking up after all!

Scooch Motivation

So it seems that Scooch are eyeing up victory for the UK (hooray!!) and have decided to have some sessions with a life coach. His name is Steve Miller, but I'm not sure if it's the same one who sang such great songs as Abracadabra and The Joker. Either way, he's quite good at motivational speaking, is rather unforgiving, and is very good on getting people to lose weight. Whether he can bring the UK victory though is quite another kettle of fish.

It's nice that they're putting in the effort though, as Scooch's potential chance of victory isn't looking particularly high with most bookies quoting about 20/1, 25/1 for taking the title. Likewise, the UK are yet to score from the OGAE juries. Basically, each Eurovision country has an official fanclub, the OGAE, and they all vote on the songs every year. So far, France, Spain, Portugal and Turkey have voted and the UK are yet to score. Belarus lead with 31, Slovenia follow with 30, then Switzerland, Cyprus, Greece and Serbia.

It's quite a surprise not to see any points yet for FYR Macedonia who seem to be rather bizarrely finishing top on some internet polls. This all seems to have occurred after it was initially announced that Karolina was being made to sing Mojot Svet in English resulting in the fans causing a stir after hearing the English version. Indeed it seems their cries may have been heard as the Macedonian delegation are now possibly letting Karolina sing in Macedonian and English. Democracy rules again!

But I do prefer the Macedonian version I must say. And if Bosnia & Herzegovina go English, well... I might just need some life coaching myself.

Mmm, fishy

What inspires a Eurovision stage? In 1994, it was very obviously an evening Irish skyline. 1996 may have been inspired by an oil rig. Last year, Greece went for the amphitheatre look. However, YLE have now revealed that this year's Eurovision stage has been inspired by the jaw of a fish.

It sounds unbelievable, but apparantly the jawbone of the 'hauki', or pike fish, is what the stage is based upon. So all acts will appear as if they are starring in a musical reconstruction of Jonah and the Whale.

Supposedly this is all very Finnish, and it has been said that the Finns want to show their quirky side - the postcards are going to show this apparantly, no doubt a riotous affair will be had. The interval act will mix hard rock mixed with circus, dance and tenderness so I've heard. Sounds good, but it's no Riverdance is it. The last interval act I enjoyed was 2003, I hope they make it a good'en!

And fear not - I believe Lordi will open this year's Eurovision final with their unbeatable Hard Rock Hallelujah. Hallelujah indeed.

Get The Garlic Out!

"The Switzerland I know is one that isn't afraid of vampires".

These are the wise words of poor DJ Bobo, who's been rather upset by some silly Swiss people who say that Vampires Are Alive should be disqualified for being about, well, vampires.

It is ridiculous that anyone is kicking up a fuss. It is just a song! People are not going to go out and commit crimes of witchcraft simply because DJ Bobo's fun, cheesy pop song may well win the Eurovision Song Contest in May. And hello, Lordi anybody?!

Bobes rightly commented that the protesting is actually a step backwards - and indeed he's right! This is the Eurovision Song Contest for goodness sake, not to be taken seriously. And perhaps they'll dress up as vampires but so what?! I think it could be one of the best stage acts in Eurovision in May and of course it has a very good chance of victory, Switzerland's greatest chance since 1993 I reckon.

It's just a good job that transvestites, air hostesses and glam rockers don't cause such a fuss in their relevant countries isn't it! Let DJ Bobo and his great song be, maybe the vampires will fly on May 12th!

Haggis Kroce

Excuse this excruciating pun, but it's just to highlight the fact that Montenegro are hoping to pick up Scottish votes in the semi-final due to the fact that singer Stevan Faddy has Scottish descendents.

In fact his family have a Scottish flag, coat of arms and other memorobilia. I wonder if he has a family tartan?

Anyway, whether or not he'll get a few points from the UK on the 10th of May all depends on whether the UK will take to the rather dated Ajde Kroci. It's like something your Dad would listen to in the car in the 1980s! Distortion guitar solos? Surely not...

It's a catchy affair but I think Montenegro will be showed up by their Serbian neighbours. Still, it's nice to build up some nationalistic pride and who knows, maybe the Scots will come out in force for Stevan McFaddy.

Doesn't he play Phil Mitchell in Eastenders?

Marija or Marija?

As someone reminded me today that it's only one month until the semi finals, I thought it was about time I actually started writing about the songs proper. Topic one - Marija or Marija?

Both Bosnia & Herzegovina and Serbia have sent ballads sung by a girl called Marija. And how do you solve a problem like Marija? Well, not easily, as both songs are very good.

Bosnia & Herzegovina will open the final with Rijeka Bez Imena. This is a beautiful song just oustide my own top 5 at the moment and you can tell that it is inspired by the success of the similar Lejla which finished 3rd for B&H last year. Rijeka is sadly not as immediate, not that Lejla was either imo, so this will go against them. However, I'm hoping she does a killer performance, and maybe coming first will be an advantage of memory? Not a winner though, but possible top 10.

By contrast, the Serbian entry Molitva is a much more immediate, broad ballad, not quite so ethnic and with a catchier tune, although the chorus's contrived chord change does rile me so! This is a huge fan favourite and will no doubt breeze through the semi-final. In fact it'll probably do very well overall! But I really do prefer Bosnia & Herzegovina. It's so much more subtle, so much more beautiful - but if they sing it in English I won't be happy!

So Marija vs Marija - Marija Sestic wins for me, and I will be cheering Bosnia&Herzegovina on come May.

Get A Life!

What comprises of "opulent costumes, an orgy of Swarovski crystals, spectacular pyrotechnics and an oversized red ribbon"?

That's correct, this year's Austrian stage show.

Get A Life - Get Alive is this year's lacklustre Austrian entry from Eric Papilaya and it's fair to say it's not a patch on such Austrian classics as Thomas Forstener or Alf Poier. I suspect that the Austrian broadcaster ORF are aware of this. Therefore they're going to put on a spectacular stage show for the song. All of it, I suspect, rather unecessary and distracting.

As Austria hosts the annual 'Life Ball', the event to highlight the effects of AIDS, they've decided to use their entry this year to spread the message. This involves a gigantic pink ribbon, the sign of solidarity for those with HIV, covered with 700 metres of feathers of which 4 dancers will emerge. On top of this there will be a guitarist onstage, and Eric will be wearing a Vivienne Westward suit with 2000 crystals on it.

Now I'm not knocking the message that Austria are trying to spread. But sometimes less is more and I fear that the rather flamboyant nature of the stage show will not send the Austrians to the final. The song is simply not good enough. Sometimes I think a big stage show can be a bad thing. The 2004 French entry, A Chaque Pas, was one of the stronger songs I thought that year and would have done better if a black bald lady in white dress wasn't tottering around on stilts (yes, stilts, in the middle of a ballad) making young Jonaton Cerrada look about 2 foot tall. It finished 15th.

I suspect that if Austria don't qualify then this could be the last we see of Austria as they're putting every available effort in to making this a memorable show. But I still fear the worst. I say, ditch all the glamour and perform it as a straightforward rock song. Yet I think that the Austrian's are concerned more about getting alive than getting a life.

Fools, Fools, FOOLS!

You may have noticed the lack of recent posts and indeed there has been little important ESC news in the past week or so. Except some Swedish bird called Pandora claiming she actually wrote Flying The Flag and is possibly going to look into a plagiarism case against Scooch. Of all the songs to claim you actually wrote... To be fair, it does sound quite alike but I think that Scooch's Eurovision position is quite safe.

Yesterday however it was April 1st and so April Fools jokes ran riot on the Eurovision websites! Sadly there was nothing from esctoday.com this year who did actually have me fooled into believing that a score sheet had been found from Eurovision 1956. So gullible was I.

eurovision-croatia "announced" that their entry would be sung in French. A joke! Another one of my favourite fools from yesterday announced that the Royal Mail would be issuing a special set of stamps to mark the UK's 50th Eurovision entry. Sounds believable until you realise that on one of the stamps would be Nicki French. I mean would you lick the back of Nicki French. Actually, I would, Don't Play That Song Again was bloody robbed.

However, congratulations has to go to diggiloo.net who changed the titles of many of the entries to more comical names...

- Bulgaria's song became Vodka and Redbull
- Israel's was simply titled Disqualified Entry
- Denmark became Drama Queen Margarethe II
- Czech Republic turned into Dalai Lama
- Estonia had the topical Same-Sex-Partner In Crime
- France, in a tribute no doubt to Zdob Si Zdub turned into L'amour A La Moldavaise
- Scooch were Frying The Fag
- Armenia became Anytime You Need (Except Tuesday, I'm Busy Tuesday)
- And Latvia, taking influence from Italy of course, were singing Mamma Mia Dat's A Spicy Meatball

It's hard to beat that.