Mandinga represented Romania in Baku, Azerbaijan in 2012. The band has been around since 2002 but in 2006 they split and reformed with a new front singer. Unfortunately there is a rule with Eurovision saying that only 6 people can be on stage during an act's performance, so someone had to stay backstage. The 7 band members are: Elena Ionescu, Alex, Chupi, Zach (Valle), El Nino, Omar Secada and Tony. Been searching for hours for last names so if anyone can find them out for me with sources I'll be very grateful... So Romanian music has hit big here in the UK, with the likes of Inna (who was nearly the Eurovision act to come from Romania), and Alexandra Stan, will this band follow in their footsteps?
"Zaleilah" was written by Consti Ioniţǎ, Elena Ionescu and Omar Secada. Zaleilah is the dance they perform in the music video, and the verses is about Elena and her love interest, which is sung in Spanish. The fact that the band helped to write the song, is what makes it so much more interesting, as they believe what they are singing and would have performed it to the best of their ability. I like how it's a two-language song, and having English for its chorus and the bridge, makes it that little bit special. This is definitely my favourite song, and if it were down to me, the UK would have given this 12 points, but no matter how many times I voted for this band, the UK didn't award any points at all, which was quite disappointing. Romania came 12th in the Eurovision, but clearly deserved to be in the top 10. Funnily enough, in 2009 Elena Gheorghe represented Romania. Elena is an ex-member of Mandinga. She only managed to get to number 19th, whereas Mandinga got 12th, and 31 points more than what Elena did...
This music video is full of everything, there is a narrative with that purple ring, there are performance pieces, there is choreography, and even more there is scenes that doesn't relate, but fits well with the verses of the song. Usually this is what makes a good music video, but is it too much information? Is there too much going on for one person to handle?
Let's start off with the performance piece, I love how there is bagpipes from the start, and that they are performing on a stage. I also like the fact that each member of the band is included, and although focus is on Elena Ionescu, the other band members do get scenes. And how can you not love the choreography? It's easy to follow, and I can't stop doing the Zaleilah whenever it come on.
The narrative is a little different, you follow the ring, but it's not as clear to see what the storyline is. Clearly it is a special ring, that flashes due to light, but what does it do? We find that out at the end, but I don't think we know enough about it to be perfectly honest. And the sexy scenes of Elena, made me think it was Inna when I first saw it on the music channels, as it's sort of a typical Inna music video scene. I love how they are transported to Baku, Azerbaijan with the ring, it's quite clever.
Overall a great song that I can't get enough of, but it's accompanying music video is better than most Eurovision music videos, I just don't know how you can refuse to do the Zaleilah, as it's quite easy to do. I wish Mandinga the best of luck, in the future. They should be a hit in the UK, but it doesn't look like this song is going to chart, which is unfortunate. I hope they return to the UK, and give it one big shot.
Another power ballad on my top 7, however it was definitely the year for ballads, so quite surprised that a lot of them managed to get a high position. However they do show off what amazing voices these artists have, and that's why so many people like ballads, including myself.
Pastora Soler, real name Pilar Luque, is quite a big hit in Spain, she has had some high charting albums, including a number one which was "Fuente de Luna" back in 1999. She has recently been getting chart topping albums in Spain, and now she's trying to hit out internationally, and how else to do it, than using Eurovision to help. She has an amazing voice that I could listen to for hours, I hope she does great elsewhere too.
"Quédate Conmigo" was written by Thomas G:Son (who's a big Eurovision song writer), Tony Sánchez-Ohlsson and Erik Bernholm. In English it means "Stay With Me", and you can kind of feel that kind of emotion come off from her as she sings this song; it's like she is feeling every single word of this song, and sending it to us. The fact that it is in Spanish makes it that bit more surprising, especially since you can feel the words of the song even if you don't know what they mean. This just proves that she is a great singer. She managed to come 10th in this years Eurovision, which is really good for Spain. The UK gave 8 points to Pastora Soler, which shows how big a hit this song was over here, however no sign of the song entering the UK chart this Sunday... If it was down to the song, this would definitely get the five stars it clearly deserves.
However, it's down to the music video, which is disappointing. I admit, that it is difficult to make a ballad music video look good and interesting, but people still manage to do it. But in this case it's pretty boring, with very little going on to keep the audience interested. I'd probably pass on watching this on the music channels, and attempt to find something better on another channel.
It's mainly performance based, but also includes two dancers that didn't appear in Baku, Azerbaijan, or maybe the UK took them instead... These dancers are the highlights of this music video, however there is a repeated sequence footage, which is quite annoying, although to make up for it, everything is in slow motion making it go along with the song, which is perfect. I wonder if that water at the end was warm... And how many takes they had to do.
As for Pastora Soler, she's a magnificent singer, but she isn't even doing anything except singing, and although various shots are used, there is nothing stunning about the performance. I was just expecting something, but there wasn't anything.
Overall, a quite catchy song, and I think everyone understands why I like it. But I'm not impressed with this music video, I was pretty bored with it to be honest. Whilst trying to focus on it, I ended up looking at the YouTube comments and the other videos on the right, instead of watching the video. There's just nothing to this music video, apart from the song.
Nina Zilli, real name Maria Fraschetta, has got my 2nd spot on my top 7, please remember the order of my top 7 is in order of which they placed in the Eurovision Song Contest. Nina Zilli performed for Italy, and managed to come 9th, which is a great position to get. She reminds me a lot of the late Amy Winehouse, she not only looks like her, but she sounds quite like her too. And this is definitely the sort of song I could see Amy singing. Nina Zilli is a great singer, she has already made a name for herself in Italy getting some pretty high charting positions, but can she do as well in the rest of Europe? There's no sign of her charting this Sunday on the UK chart, but that doesn't mean she won't. At the end of the day, I think she should have a crack of it, I'm sure the UK will bring her in, and I can see her doing pretty well elsewhere as well. I wish Nina Zilli the best of luck.
The song was originally written by Christian Rabb, Kristoffer Sjökvist, Frida Molander and Charlie Mason. They wrote the song in English, however Nina Zilli then translated it into Italian for her album. Then when she released it for the Eurovision, she decided to sing it in both English and Italian. I love it when you watch singers on the Eurovision who has sung a song in 2 or more different languages, they make it seem effortless, but then again, it probably is when you are fluent in those languages, it's only difficult when you aren't.
This music video isn't too bad, but it's not great either, it's another pure performance piece with artistic choreography, and an extremely catchy tune. It kind of reminds me of the old jazz/pop music videos where the singer didn't do much and the dancers had quite a lot of choreography. It also reminds me of the classic musicals where the main character is lifted and moved, with not much choreography. This links in well with the sort of song this is.
It was definitely more entertaining than the Eurovision performance, however the latter was more interesting as it portrayed the song, perfectly. This is lacking somewhat, I have watched this video 4 times already, hoping I'd come up with something more to write about , but there isn't a lot going on.
I like how they've made Nina Zilli stand out, one scene she has ginger hair, that makes her noticable and makes her that little bit more interesting, and then those dancers are in bright coloured shirts with a white overcoat, that emphasises Nina Zilli, they also make her quite sexy too.
Overall a great, upbeat song and a not bad music video to go with it. What would have made this video much better would be making Nina Zilli do some more complicated choreography, maybe include a narrative, maybe make it look on the old side to go with this song. Although, this music video works pretty well, I have to give this rating, I wish I could give more.
From my top 7 this is the highest placed Eurovision entry. Which is quite surprising; of course I liked a few others that did place higher, but I had to narrow them down didn't I? So Ott Lepland first found fame from the third series of "Eesti otsib superstaari", which translates in English as "Estonia is Searching for a Superstar". It is Estonia's version of Pop Idol. In which Ott Lepland won. He has an amazing voice, and although he sung a ballad, he made it sound recent and current. His voice just outstands me and I really hope he becomes that world-wide star he clearly deserves to be.
"Kuula" was sung in Estonian, therefore I haven't got a clue what he was singing. Kuula means Listen. However Ott Lepland has recorded versions in many different languages. The English version can be heard below, which is titled "Hands On". The English version is very good, but you just can't beat the Estonian version. The song was written by Ott Lepland and Aapo Ilves. The former is the singer, which makes me happy, as I like it when artists write their own songs, they're more meaningful, hence the reason why I like this song as it's full of emotion. The latter is a writer and poet who lives in Estonia, but has dipped into songwriting every now and again. Marvi Vallaste provides additional vocals to this track, and she was seen on stage with Ott Lepland at Baku, Azerbaijan. The UK gave 4 points to Estonia, which isn't too bad considering this is a ballad, so my vote helped somewhat.
This music video is another performance piece, however it's not as boring as the UK's entry, which was Engelbert Humperdinck's "Love Will Set You Free". It contained words, some I couldn't quite pronounce until he sung them, that wisped away like sand in the wind, it went nicely with the song, and kind of suggests "read me" if you won't "hear me". Which was a great technique to interest the viewers more.
Again, because it's a ballad, not much is going on, there's good use of the lights, and he is wearing a great suit, that I want to wear. This also helps to make this more entertaining. And then comes the voice in the second half of the song and you just can't stop listening to this over and over again. But not only that the song actually gets stuck in your head, which is rare for a ballad, and might be one of the many reasons he came sixth in Eurovision 2012.
Overall a great song that I'm still in love with, there's no sign of it charting on the UK chart this Sunday, but it might be in the top 200. I wish Ott Lepland the best of luck in the music industry, and I hope to see him crack the UK soon. He definitely has the chance with that amazing voice. The accompanying music video is different to what is about, and that is the main justification I have for giving him this rating. I hope others take a leap out of this music video and make people realise you can do a ballad music video and make it look good.
Engelbert Humperdinck was a big star in the 60's and 70's along with the legend that is Sir Tom Jones. But lately he hasn't been doing that well, and when we all heard that he was going to be our UK entry into the Eurovision, most of us, of the younger generation, went "who?" Last year, the UK tried to appeal Eurovision to the younger generation with Blue's "I Can" and it worked, but for some reason that people have no clue as to why, they picked this person. I had to research a lot about him before I really knew who he was. But before he had been selected I wouldn't have had a clue who it was. I give him ten out of ten for doing perfectly well at the Eurovision with this song, he has an amazing voice that you can't help but like, and with this catchy song, you could tell we might grab a few points, but unlucky for us, he had to sing first, so most people forgot this song since all the amazing acts had followed. We grabbed 12 points, and placed 25th, just ahead of Norway. I just hope that next year in 2013, we get to either have our say, or we get a upbeat song as for the last 5 years we've had ballads, that really aren't for the Eurovision, in my opinion.
"Love Will Set You Free" was written by Martin Terefe and Sacha Skarbek. I'm sure I've wrote Martin Terefe's name before. Sacha Skarbek has produced and wrote quite a few well known songs and albums, I can see him appearing on my blog a few more times in the future. This song kind of reminds me of the sort of song a boy band would sing, such as One Direction. It's the sort of song you could sway to, but also understand all the lyrics. I loved what Engelbert Humperdinck has done with it, and he makes it really catchy, but it is missing this spark, that was apparent in quite a few other entries.
The music video is a pure performance piece. There's not much going on, so I don't see me commenting much, although I loved the lighting and it was really clever how they recorded it. It's quite laid-back which works well with the song.
I like the fact that there is a guitarist that we can see and it allows the camera to focus on him as well. There was more going on in the performance on the stage. There were two dancers who was choreographed by Arlene Phillips. I would have liked to have seen them appear in this music video.
Overall, I think it's a pretty good song, it's something nice and relaxing, however the music video is lacking a lot, and I think the staging was in Baku, Azerbaijan. I have my fingers crossed that next year we shall do well, but I'm not holding my breath.
