Europop – Page 20

Michela – Chameleon

“Unexpected” would be the best description.

Tim: I work with a Maltese person at work, and every year she tries to tell me that the Maltese entry is absolutely brilliant, and every year I disagree with her completely. Except this year.

Tom: Do you only disagree with her slightly?

Tim: Correct.

Tom: Because while that pre-chorus is really great, the rest is… well, “unexpected” would be the best description of that odd breakdown.

Tim: Probably about right, yes – certainly got me the first time I heard it, and it’s not ‘absolutely brilliant’ at all, not least because having lyrics of ‘chama-chameleon’ is never going to be a great move. It is, though, as with yesterday, a proper example of Modern Pop. I’m not such a fan of it – that breakdown really doesn’t do it for me – but I can’t deny that as a pop song, this is properly good, and I genuinely hope it does well.

Tom: Really?

Tim: Wel, not win, of course, as if our song doesn’t win it’ll be a robbery so big we’ll need to call Interpol in, but top ten at least. That’d be deserved, and almost lend some respectability to this contest of ours. Or is that a lost cause by now?

Katerine Duska – Better Love

“I actually said “oh!” out loud at that chorus.”

Tim: I think it’s about time we have a song from this year’s Eurovision that actually sounds like a modern pop song. Shall we visit Greece?

Tom: They don’t exactly have a history of doing modern pop in Eurovision, but sure, let’s try it.

Tim: Admittedly the video’s very distracting, and for the first forty-five seconds or so you’re wondering what the hell’s going on and is this just awful Eurovision garbage. Then the chorus hits, though, and you put the video in a background because you’ve seen enough and it’s just weird, and you realise that actually it’s a really good song.

Tom: I actually said “oh!” out loud at that chorus.

Tim: The nice thing is that it works both as a standard pop track, which you’d be happy to hear multiple times, and as a Eurovision track, with a really strong hook which, even if it gets buried in the standard twenty-odd tracks in a row, stands out bright and loud in the multiple recaps.

Tom: You’re not wrong, although I don’t think the Hellenic Florence Welch sound is going to win over enough of the audience.

Tim: I don’t know, I really think this could do well. And, indeed, I hope it does.

Miki – La Venda

“It’s ridiculous, it’s nonsensical, it’s atrocious, and it’s brilliant.”

Tim: Tom, I’m not linking here to the official Eurovision channel, because I don’t want to tell you immediately what country this is. Instead, I want you to tell me roughly how many seconds passed before you guessed.

Tom: It actually took me until the vocals kicked in; I briefly thought it’d be Ireland from that intro instrumentation. And then, yes, it went very Spanish.

Tim: Very, very Spanish. So, I have multiple Eurovision history books, because of course I do, I’m me, and I can tell you that the idea for a Europe-wide contest came from a Swiss TV exec, Marcel Bezençon, who had two ideas. The first, a generic ‘talent show’ was rejected, which is probably a good thing as it would likely have ended up with ABBA sawing each other in half and Brotherhood of Man bringing us dancing dogs. The second was not rejected, as you can probably guess, and its original brief was ‘to promote high-quality original songwriting in the field of popular music’. 64 years later, we have this: Spain being as absolutely bloody Spanish as they possibly can, with a song that is entirely reminiscent of the fabulous piss-take that a Norwegian guy did a few years back, but played straight.

Tom: Those handclaps in the middle eight! I fully expected, just before the final chorus kicked in, someone to yell “¡Ay, caramba!” in the background.

Tim: And I love it. It’s ridiculous, it’s nonsensical, it’s atrocious, and it’s brilliant.

Tom: And it’s not going to win, but everyone involved will have a fantastic time.

Serhat – Say Na Na Na

“He’s probably a lovely person, but good grief.”

Tim: Right then, Tom – you sadly weren’t able to join in the annual Eurovision Preview Session; nevertheless, it’s only right that you hear some of what might fairly be described as the highlights of this year’s contest, so let’s have a Eurovision Preview Week. We’ve already featured my favourite entry; here’s my second, from San Marino.

Tom: San Marino?!

Tim: San Marino.

Tom: Good heavens, they’ve gone Full Stereotypical Euro Sleazeball with that vocalist! I mean, he’s probably a lovely person, but good grief.

Tim: Some would say it’s an unusual move to make a music video that could quite feasibly be a (very extended) intro for a generic TV reality talent show if you put multiple faces on the big screens (and in fact, thirty seconds of searching later, turns out it basically is), but others (hello!) would say HELL WHY NOT.

Tom: Nice of him to actually turn up in person for the final shots of the video, too.

Tim: Yeah, nice that he can meet the fans. Or, in fact, MEET THE FANS, to the tune of NA NA NA, because I have, quite genuinely, started singing a lot of three syllable phrases to myself: it’s TIME TO GO, the BUS IS LATE, and also I NEED A DRINK, because I think living on my own might finally be starting to get to me.

Tom: I could hum the chorus after one listen, and… hmm. I’m on the fence as to whether I mind that or not. Still, a cautious thumbs up here, although there’s no way it’ll win. I hope it punches above its weight, but the cheese factor just isn’t what a modern audience isn’t looking for. I could see this being top of the table in the 90s, though.

Tim: The one thing I don’t get is why they haven’t got an immediate NA NA NA call back in the backing vocals, because let’s face it the audience will want to do that.

Tom: They sort of do in the final chorus, but perhaps that would be the thing that tips it over from “cheesy but genuinely entertaining” to “just cheesy”

Tim: Hmm, maybe. So as it is: it’s BLOODY GREAT.

Saturday Reject: Chris Medina – We Try

“It makes no sense. Absolutely no sense at all.”

Tim: Norway has a flipping brilliant final this year, with a lot of highlights, but sadly we’ve only got time for a few. Let’s start with a hypothetical, though: if you’ve got a song with a piano intro that you’re ‘playing’ and then a big drop, at what point do you, the performer, get up from the piano and start moving around? I ask because, well, I’m fairly surely the answer is ‘much, much sooner than Chris does’.

Tim: Let’s note that even at the start of the pre-chorus he has mostly revealed, with his fist pump, that he’s not actually playing, and that at the beginning of the chorus he almost stands up, giving the game away completely.

Tom: It’s not even a decent piano synth! If it was meant to sound like a grand piano, then maybe all this would make sense: but it just doesn’t. It’s as bad as if he were just noodling aimlessly on a guitar. But he just keeps going!

Tim: So if he’s hanging around still past then, the logical thing would be to stay there until either a big break – middle eight, say, or final chorus – or for the whole song. Not – entirely not – for the barely notable jump into the second pre-chorus. And why, why oh why oh why, would you then return to the piano for the outro? It makes no sense. Absolutely no sense at all.

Tom: I mean, none of this does. The dancers don’t make sense either. And neither does that slightly-wavy falsetto.

Tim: Spoils a somewhat decent Eurovision dance song, really. Eh, well.

Isa Molin – Scared Holding On To You

“The best pre-chorus I’ve heard in a long while.”

Tim: We’ve never featured this Isa before: she’s Swedish, this is her second track and it was written by her and former Eurovision star Robin Stjernberg. Have a listen.

Tom: Ooh, those dubstep-lite synths in the background are lovely. And when they drop out, they’re replaced by the best pre-chorus I’ve heard in a long while: I know I’m a sucker for that particular type of melody and chord progression, but it’s also done so well here.

Tim: Now it’s good you say that, because full disclosure: I got distracted a few seconds after pressing play on this, not because it was dull but because I found out tickets for Avengers: Endgame had just gone on sale, and the Cineworld website was very, very overloaded (but in the end I got a ticket for a midnight showing so THANK GOODNESS) but anyway it wasn’t until the second chorus that I was back paying attention to this.

Tom: Well, then you missed the good bits! Because I’m not sure about that chorus at all. What did you reckon, when you were back in the room?

Tim: I realised it was pretty good. Well, loud, and that’s often a decent basis to start, and then you throw in a decent melody, which you’re very much getting in the middle eight (and pre-chorus, it turned out, as I listened again).

Tom: See? That’s the best bit!

Tim: It really is. So in total yes, actually, it is pretty good. That sums it up nicely.

Ben Zucker – Wer sagt das?!

“Who say we can’t trust our luck, who says we can’t give it a go, who says anything?!”

Tim: Sit back and relax, because it’s HUSKY MALE GERMAN time. His first album was called Na und?! Sonne! (So what?! Sun!),and here’s the title track from his upcoming second, translated as Who Says That?! Do you think there’s a pattern emerging?!

Tom: I don’t know, maybe?!?! But it’s always a good sign when you send me a video from this channel, because it’s almost certainly some Quality Schlager.

Tom: The track record stands! And you’re right, that’s the sort of HUSKY MALE GERMAN vocals that don’t seem to work for any other country. And which always seem like they should be hurting his throat.

Tim: Upsettingly, the lyrics don’t involve him taking apart his ex’s rejection message line by line and pointing out nonsensical bits in it, or breaking up with someone because they’ve just started spewing rubbish, as both of those could be entertaining! Instead, it’s a heartwarming hopeful number – who say we can’t trust our luck, who says we can’t give it a go, who says anything?!

Tom: I mean, at least the words match the style for once.

Tim: But let’s move on from the lyrics, because that music’s great isn’t it?! Beefy, bolshy, rock with a slight dancey twist which I’m all here for!

Tom: Yeah, I genuinely like this, although I am worried about quite how much you’ve been infected by the enthusiastic punctuation marks. It’s catchy and memorable.

Tim: It’s unusual for me to get a foreign language track stuck in my head after just a couple of listens, but this has done it! And yes, I seem to be infected! Isn’t it worrying?!

Jessica Andersson – På dejt med mig

“I’m not sure doubling that key change would be legal, Tim.”

Tim: The first half second of this is reminiscent of her entry (as part of Fame) into Eurovision 2003, and it doesn’t disappoint after that.

Tom: Well, that’s straight out of the 80s, isn’t it?

Tim: LOVE a good bit of disco schlager – I mean. which normal person doesn’t? – and it’s nice to know that all the skills are still there.

Tom: Full marks for actually including a proper double-clap, and for — I’m fairly sure — ripping off a James Bond chord progression in the verse.

Tim: It’s not flawless – I’d happily lose twenty seconds of the rinse and repeat leading up to the middle eight, because it does get a tad tedious, and I’d at least double the level of that key change.

Tom: I’m not sure doubling that key change would be legal, Tim. It’s already audacious.

Tim: THERE’S ALWAYS ROOM FOR MORE. But the genre is fabulous, they ramp up to said key change is excellent, and all in it’s a lovely listen.

Tom: I’m not sure I’d actually want this on a playlist, but I’m glad it exists.

Tim: Very glad indeed.

Dilba – Running Up That Hill

“You come at Kate Bush, you’d better not miss…”

Tim: You come at Kate Bush, you’d better not miss…

Tim: …and I don’t think she really does.

Tom: Okay, so I realise this is a big hole in my musical knowledge, but I don’t think I’ve ever heard the original of this. So to me, this sounds like a slightly-odd chilled-out dance track, and, well, we both know how I feel about that genre.

Tim: True. For those that have heard the original, though, the nice thing is that Dilba (Swedish, btw, been going 20-odd years now) has a fairly similar voice anyway, so if you weren’t really paying attention you could almost dismiss it as a remix. But it’d be a good remix, because it’s sounding all modern and everything, and a fair bit dancey but still the same gentle laid back loopiness of all the best Kate Bush songs.

Tom: Despite my dislike of the genre, there is a lot to like here. The synths that appear over the final chorus are great, in a sort of video-game-soundtrack kind of way. Yes, it is a good chorus. I went back and listened to the original, and, frankly, I prefer the modern version — but that’s because those weird keyboard sounds haven’t dated well.

Tim: Just a shame there’s no video, really, because oh boy, did Kate Bush do good videos.

SINNAH – Running Wild

“I remain completely unmoved by it!”

Tim: Here is a song where, in a break with tradition, I will be talking exclusively about the song.

Tom: Finally. This does, however, almost guarantee that I won’t like the music.

Tim: Because that chorus is just wonderful, and that’s mainly what caught my ear, with the beating drums and everything.

Tom: I remain completely unmoved by it! It’s OK, sure, but… you remember this obscure track, Lionheart, that we talked about years ago? They feel similar to me — but that was entirely pop, whereas this might be trying to be something more, and it’s not quite making it.

Tim: Hmm, ish, and I guess this could be trying for a bit of a dancier vibe, but that’s certainly no bad thing. That is still a top track, though.

Tom: I’ll grant you that, by the final chorus, I didn’t think this was bad. It just wasn’t spectacular either.

Tim: Thing is, after being attracted by that chorus, I’m listening to it again properly and the rest of it just strikes me as lovely as well. Particularly her vocals in that pre-chorus, gentle and melodic, and beautifully in contrast with what’s about to unfold. And that middle eight as well, all quiet and mild, and calm, and suddenly BANG in come the drums for the close. It’s fabulous, all of it.