Finland - 2012

After that long post, I'll keep the Finnish 2012 entry pretty sweet. This year, Finland will be represented by Pernilla Karlsson and the song "När jag blundar"

I will be completely honest from the off... I personally don't like, but I am fully aware of why a lot of people do like it. It's a nice Eurovision ballad, and one positive is that Pernilla doesn't try and screech any lyrics. She seems like a really nice, sweet girl and will sing När jag blundar in Swedish. In English, this means When I Close My Eyes. It's an alright song, but it's ANOTHER ballad. I suppose we can at least take the fact that Finland never used to be part of Yugoslavia...

Anyway, Pernilla has been drawn halfway through the first semi final. She will be the last ballad, and this will surely mean Finland recieve quite a few points. Denmark are being represented by a girl with a similar image, but that shouldn't be a problem. Unsure if this song is strong enough to qualify though... Finland don't have the best history in Eurovision, and this could be problematic. Especially if countries in Scandinavia and the Baltic prefer another neighbouring country...

Good Luck to Pernilla. This one is difficult to predict qualification, but even then, I can't see this winning. Much love to Finland though...

Song Rating: 3/10
Liklihood to win: 2/10

Current odds: 100-1             (oddschecker.com) (on average)

Russia - 2012

I thought they were the Spice Girls.

Ha ha, the Spice Girls were around 15 years ago now, could be them...

No, all jokes aside, this is a group of ladies in a group called "Buranovskiye Babushki". They will perform the song "Party For Everybody" in Baku. I sure as hell want to be partying with them! Aren't they just fantastic!? The oldest member of the group is 76 years old, which coincidentally is the age that Engelbert Humperdinck turned recently too! Known as "the Grannies", they fought off competition from Dima Bilan and a member of t.A.T.u to book their place in ESC 2012. As you can imagine, there is significant hype around them!

The group usually perform in the Udmurt language, and have kept to this for Eurovision as they sing in Udmurt. However, after the start (which will grab everyone's attention as it's hilarious!) they break into singing about getting ready for a party (I think) before going into a chorus which should get everyone off their feet, belting about a Party For Everybody. To be honest though, I'm not even that fussed about what they are singing about, the whole thing is just brilliant. I think the fact that the majority of the song is in Udmurt is absolutely brilliant! It keeps them sticking to their cultural and traditional backgrounds, showing off the artists they want to be. Can we take them seriously? Not really. But do we LOVE IT? YES WE DO!

In Azerbaijan, these Grannies will put on a brilliant show! Their performance will show off just who they are and what they can do at their age, and their staging will be good too. They perform in the second half of the first semi final, and so I can't see them having a problem qualifying. In fact, it doesn't really matter where they perform in the contest, because all audiences will of course remember those amazing Grannies! I'm hoping they perform 2nd if they reach the final, because it really will be battle of the oldies between the Hump and the Grannies! Ha ha, that will be brilliant!

Now I'm going to start being a bit more realistic...I just get so carried away with them! ...the song really isn't a big number1 hit and I can't think of anyone having this on as a track they listen to. It truly is a novelty act which I know we all want to do well. And so don't take my song rating seriously because even though the song isn't that good, the Grannies are such fun! You may also think my liklihood to win rating is low, but there are a lot of pretty good songs this year which may mean a novelty act won't steal the win. Something rare has to happen for them to win, as I'm unsure if they can repeat Lordi's dramatic 2006 win for Finland.

Song Rating: 5/10
Liklihood to win: 6/10

Current odds: 8-1                       (oddschecker.com) (on average)

Turkey - 2012

Introducing Can Bonomo and "Love Me Back"

Can Bonomo is still fairly young, and steadily gaining support. And I'm not just talking about the Turks either! He has completely written Love Me Back and is hoping to reverse that surprising result last year when the Turks didn't qualify for the final! I really don't think Can should have any problems. Love Me Back has got a sailor theme to it, which is good seeing as the lyrics are all about ships, and well, the music video is above. By sailor theme, I mean the music is very traditional, and when I first heard it, I did think of ships (I also thought of pirates, but we can forget about that yeah?). It's a much better song than last years and has a good draw...13th in the second semi final...and so I think we can see Turkey in the final this year.
But is this song a winning Eurovision song? Songs with traditional music to that country will either go one way or the other...the audience will not connect to it and not appreciate the cultural relevance, so will not be popular. Or the audience will be impressed with the musical talent and that fact that the artist has stayed within their own traditions and culture. I think it does all depend on whether a song is just good or bad, but songs with traditional music are a tricky one, I'm sure any ESC fanatics will agree. For example, an entry by the Irish in recent years (I can't for the life of me remember the year or the song) was traditional but ended up finishing the bottom of the heap...whereas that Norway song in 2009 which stormed the scoreboard to an emphatic win + ESC record.
Even with a good draw, I don't think it will be the Turk's year this year. Yes it is a good song, but there are quite a few better songs, even if it will stand out. With qualification to the final, and not appearing in the first 10 songs in that final, then I can see Turkey returning to their recent ways with a top 10 finish on the score board. Can can do it? We'll have to wait and see. Personally, I think this song is brilliant, so do excuse the song rating bias below!

Song Rating: 8/10
Liklihood to win: 6/10

Current odds: 33-1                           (oddschecker.com) (on average)

Netherlands - 2012

The dutch have gone for Joan Franka with her song "You and Me".

COME ON JOAN FRANKA! I really, really like this song. It's not as great as some other songs, but the whole performance of You and Me makes me truly adore this song. The Netherlands haven't qualified since 2004 (nevermind Portugal doing badly, the Netherlands haven't had any real success since the introduction of semi finals).

Joan Franka has real talent, has co-composed a cracking song, has such strong stage presence, and a Eurovision winning Indian head-dress, which all equals to me success. So why Europe, are we hating on the Dutch? If this doesn't qualify I'll be slightly miffed. I mean, even if they are performing a disastorous 3rd in a hot second semi-final, surely that headdress should keep all audiences from a range of cultures really interested?

Will this win? No. Should it qualify? YES! C'mon Netherlands, this is your year to turn around that bad fortune!

Song rating: 7/10
Liklihood to win: 3/10

Current odds: 80-1                (oddschecker.com) (on average)

Portugal - 2012

Well, well, well...Portugal! They are still going for it! Vida Minha by Filipa Sousa is their entry this year. Nevermind my earlier posts about Slovakia...Will Lisbon finally get the chance to demonstrate their hosting skills in 2013? Eurovision has never gone there, has Filipa Sousa got a chance?

This is soooo difficult. I haven't been this up in there on my opinion on a Eurovision song in a long time. But this song really is causing me difficulties. I think I really like it, but then I will very often skip the song and it has a low playcount. Hmm... Anyway, Filipa Sousa has little musical history and so doesn't have any name recognition. But Vida Minha is so Portugese that it is automatically a better song this year. It is a traditional folkore song and is sung completely in Portugese. When translating the lyrics to English, I'm not quite sure what Sousa is banging on about, but it doesn't really matter. As long as she keeps up the same emotional performance into Baku then she could be singing about killing puppies and it would still be emotionally touching. Portugal have poor reputation in recent ESC history, and with a poor draw performing in the first half of it's semi then Vida Minha has an uphill battle in order to qualify for the final. If it does then Lisbon 2013 is still very, very unlikely. Still, Good Luck to Filipa Sousa! If anyone is for Portugal to win then it's me. After 45 entries, they definitely should deserve a win (even a top 5 finish would be nice - they haven't had that in 45 entries either!). And after all, I'd love a good excuse to pay for a trip out to Portugal. It's a lot closer to the UK than other Med countries, I've never been, and the weather is nice. Perhaps that's what is wrong with Vida Minha - I am more concerned with blogging about Portugese weather.

Song rating: 4/10
Liklihood of winning: 2/10

Current odds: 150-1            (oddschecker.com) (on average) (you can get Portugal at 300-1, which seems definitely worth it!)