“Where is my proposal?” squeaks Krista Siegfrids during the opening verse of “Marry Me”…well no dear there’s no proposal but there is a ticket to Malmo for you to perform your 80’s up-tempo ditty courtesy of the Finnish voting public. Uunden Musiikin Kilpailu (UMK – it’s just easier) was run and won this weekend and it ended up being a tight race that came down to the public vote to decide who would get the “glittery” ticket. Personal favourite Diandra made it into the final 3 along with Siegfrids and Mikael Saari but it was the blonde in the wedding dress that took the bouquet. She’s perky, the songs cute (the chatty bippy chorus is a winner) and the performance will be classic Eurovision. If she substitutes the backing dancers for buff oiled shirtless men in tuxedos and cranks the wind machine to “cyclone” she’ll sail straight into the final.
The Norwegians too seem to have sent a very worthy entry to Malmo this year and one which should be immediately classed as a “dark horse”. Margaret Berger was an overwhelming first choice from the Norwegian Melodi Grand Prix this weekend with her bare yet compelling staging of “I Feed You My Love”. Referencing Bjork’s “Army of Me” this is one of the more serious entries we’ll see in Malmo but as soon as the strings kick in with the chorus there’s really no stopping your leg from tapping along. Norway have lucked into a strong spot late in Semi 2 and with some really dazzling lighting design as part of the bare staging we won’t need to put a knife to Ms Berger’s back and she should make it to the final.
And then finally one of Eurovision’s most endearing countries to have never won top prize…Malta. Kurt Calleja surprised everyone (not me – see earlier entries) to shuffle step his way into last year’s final and this year’s entry comes from another Maltese cutie…Gianluca Bezzina. It became a 2 horse race in Malta at last weekends National final where it boiled down to Gianluca’s “Tomorrow” and Kevin Borg’s ballad “Needing You”. Interestingly Borg’s Scandi connections could have seen “Needing You” do very well in the competition but that will need to be filed under “we’ll never know”. It came down to the final round of voting to hand Ginaluca the “glittery” ticket to Malmo and guarantee that at least one Ukulele will appear on the Malmo stage. “Tomorrow” is a simple and bouncy little song and we know the Eurovision audience loves a simple ditty – see Tom Dice amongst others – and given a love for Malta in this competition a place in the final should not be discounted.
