It'll End in Tears

With the national selections well under way across Europe, where nations are trying to decide who’ll get the chance to pack up their glitter bombs and oiled up backing dancers and get the opportunity to prance around on the Malmo stage for the Eurovision Song Contest in May, the next two months will prove a boon for Europop. As countries select and discard entrants, sometimes with little rhyme or reason, it’s often the songs that get left behind that actually go on to be successful (Dilba anyone?) and launch or resurrect some careers.


Iceland’s 2 semi-finals have been run and won, with former Icelandic representative Yohanna already finding herself on the scrapheap but the lovely Birgitta having survived her Semi and now with a chance to perform at the coming weekends Final (Feb 2/3). Finland have 4 finalists already, including Finnish Idol winner Diandra, with more to come. The Danes have selected their entrant in a glittering spectacle this past weekend. The Norwegians are up to Heat 3 in an attempt to assemble their finalists in the search for the perfect tune, Margaret Berger is the pick of the finalists so far, and the bench-mark for all National Selections Sweden’s Melodifestivalen kicks off next weekend with the 1st of 4 heats (and last year’s winner Loreen performed in Heat 1 in 2012…so we’ll watch carefully). Phew…and that’s only in Scandinavia!

The Danes certainly did it right. The Dansk Melodi Grand Prix collected only 10 songs for one stunning evening of energetic performances and cutting the chaff really proved for a successful show. Sultry Emmelie de Forest’s ‘Only Teardrops’ secured the Danish berth for Malmo. This song certainly will sit well with the Eurovision voters with an eccentric performance, a slightly ethnic mix of whistles/ recorders and some serious drumming action that cuts in at regular intervals but best of all is the mid-tempo "Oh My God' i'm singing it in my car chorus.   We're certain to see some pyrotechnics in the final staging and, given the Danes good track record in the competition, Emmelie has stamped herself as an early frontrunner.

But, it’s Kate Hall’s ‘I’m Not Alone’ which is a great example of a super pop ditty that’s got the potential to perform well on the charts but won’t grace the Eurovision stage. Hall’s performance borrowed a little form Loreen’s winning entry last year but with a big bonus of adding laser lights. Seriously, this girl had a costume reveal, serious smoke machine action and laser light show…think of the drinking games DENMARK!

With Malta, Iceland, Finland, Sweden and Norway all undertaking their national finals in the coming weeks it’s a good time to certainly trawl through the various heats, semis and finals to discover the gems that may not actually hit the stage in Malmo this May.