Support ESC Insight on Patreon

Not Quite a Copycat: A Musical Journey Starting At Eurovision Written by on April 7, 2014 | 8 Comments

It seems like every year, some of the fans throw the dreaded “P-word” around. Yes,  ‘plagiarism’ rumours tend to hover sound some of the entries, often repeated ad infinitum and usually unjustified.

That being said, it’s much more common to find entrants that share general traits and trends with other artists or songs.  In fact, digging around a bit, finding, and sharing those commonalities is a great way to not only discover new artists, but also to re-familiarize oneself with old favorites.  In this series, the ESC Insight’s musical detectives (myself, Ewan Spence, and Roy Delaney) would like to shine a light on some of the connections that we’ve encountered in this year’s playlist with our own musical inventories and share them with you.

Sam steps up to the plate first…

Come On And Rinse Up

Let’s start with some low-hanging fruit, shall we?  Seems pretty appropriate, since Greece is serving up something sweet, easily-digestible, and generally palatable.  Freaky Fortune & Riskykidd’s ‘Rise Up‘ brings in elements of ethnic flair and plenty of hands-in-the-air-like-you-just-don’t-care attitude.  My mind can’t have been the only one to have heard shades of Sam and the Womp’s 2012 smash ‘Bom Bom’, Yolanda Be Cool & DCUP’s ‘We No Speak Americano’ (below), and LMFAO’s ‘Party Rock Anthem, all of which made massive waves on international airplay and sales charts.

I’ve even previously mentioned ‘Bom Bom’ as a song that could have easily slipped into a Eurovision playlist.  Could the previous pan-European success of songs like these herald the summer-hit potential of the boys from Athens?

Is It Left?

When I first laid my ears on newcomer Elaiza’s entry on behalf of Germany, there was something achingly familiar in the song that resonated with me, but I just couldn’t put my finger on it.  It bounced around my head, almost taunting me until a lucky moment of iTunes shuffle-based serendipity gave me some clarity.

The slight bleat in Ela’s voice, an arrangement nicely nestled in the corner where pop, rock, folk, and ska meet, the lyrics talking about the bittersweet liberation from an uncertain relationship…all roads led to No Doubt’s ‘Bathwater,’ an underrated track from Return of Saturn.

While it’s hard for anyone to match Gwen Stefani’s unabashed ska-punk-pop swagger, and ‘Is It Right‘ has a much slower tempo, it’s not much of a musical jump from Anaheim to Berlin, in this case.

On a side note that simply makes me feel ancient, Ela was only three years old when No Doubt released their breakthrough album, Tragic Kingdom.  Yeesh.

Tick-Tack

For fans of Maria Yaremchuk’s sassy, sexy ‘Tick Tock‘, my suggestion is less of a single-song conversion, and more of a whole-genre suggestion.  Since Ukraine revealed the revamped version of their entry, Maria’s song now has the polish, danceability, and hook-filled arrangements of any one of a thousand K-Pop hits.

If you ever have the urge to sing into your hairbrush and dance around your apartment to ‘Tick Tock‘ like nobody’s watching, might I suggest heading over to YouTube, closing the blinds, and getting down with your bad self to ‘Can’t Nobody‘ or ‘I Am the Best” from 2NE1 or the Ke$ha-written ‘Run Devil Run‘ by Girl’s Generation/SNSD.  You won’t regret it.

Stand At Ease

If you find yourself drawn to Lithuania’s ‘Attention‘, written and performed by Vilija Matačiūnaitė, and are looking for the same sort of soulful, confident, modern, female-driven hip-hop sound to add to your playlist, let me take this opportunity to introduce you to Dessa.  Born and raised in Minneapolis, Dessa is the only female member of the locally-renowned hip-hop collective Doomtree.  Just as adept at smithing rhymes as she is at singing, Dessa has released a trio of solo albums to critical and popular acclaim.  Check out ‘Call Off Your Ghost‘ (below), ‘Warsaw‘,  and ‘Skeleton Key‘ from her newest release, Parts of Speech; or ‘Beacon‘ from Doomtree’s latest album, No Kings.

Your City

Similarly, if you’ve taken a shine to Italian pop rocker Emma Marrone and think that ‘La mia città‘ is the greatest thing since sliced ciabatta, you might appreciate the equally feisty Grace Potter and the Nocturnals, a Vermont-based band who have found success on the indie circuit (and a few successful go-rounds over at South by Southwest).  If the “grrrr” you hear in Emma’s entry for Copenhagen or past hits like ‘Non è l’inferno‘ hits your switch, take a moment and check out the searing ‘Paris (Ooh La La)‘ or the soulful “Tiny Light”, which builds to a chill-inducing climax.

Can You Hear My Arrhythmia?

Over in Ireland, recent Eurovision entries have often balanced local musical traditions and modern trends.  This is definitely the case with Can-Linn and Kasey’s ‘Heartbeat‘, as it was with Ryan Dolan last year and Niamh Kavanagh before them.  (Let’s be honest; Jedward are a bit of an anomaly.) But one of the biggest hallmarks of Irish culture has been absent from the Contest since 1972: the language.

However, the folks over at Coláiste Lurgan, an Irish language summer school in Galway, are bringing music and speech together in a way that makes it accessible for its students.  Recent Gaeilge covers include Avicii’s ‘Wake Me Up‘, Anna Kendrick’s “Cups”, and Macklemore & Ryan Lewis’s “Can’t Hold Us”, among others.  With over six million total hits for those three videos alone, it’s safe to say these recordings have gone somewhat viral.

If Ireland continues to embrace its musical touchstones in Eurovision, why not take it the next step and embrace its linguistic traditions, as well?  (Extra bonus if they bring in Stiofán Ó Fearail of Seo Linn, soloist on the ‘Wake Me Up’ cover).  We can go into hours’ worth of discussion on the benefits or disadvantages of using languages other than English in Eurovision, but if RTÉ is willing to take the risk, the bones of potential to send a modern Irish language track to future ESCs are there.  At the very least, it’s a fun listen.

We Prefer The Backing Singer In Orange

Finally, we come to Iceland’s flagbearers for 2014, Pollapönk.  Their ‘No Prejudice’ has seemingly divided Eurovision fans; there are those who love their bright, bouncy, punk-infused ode to equality, and those who simply think it’s simply kids play (and may also claim that it’s a rip-off of Steppenwolf’s ‘Magic Carpet Ride‘… No. Stop.)

For those of us who either appreciate Iceland’s approach this year or have kids of their own and are dying for an infusion of new music that everyone in the family can enjoy, might I shine a light on They Might Be Giants.  For many of us, TMBG’s music is not a new revelation; John Flansburgh and John Linnell have been performing together for over thirty years, and released their eponymous debut album back in 1986.

However, since 2002 they’ve used their talents in intellectual (borderline geeky) indie rock and channeled them into four highly successful children’s’ albums: No!, Here Come the ABCs, Here Come the 123s, and Here Comes Science.  Songs from these albums fit into their “grown-up” repertoire so seamlessly that it’s not uncommon to hear ‘The Alphabet of Nations‘, ‘Clap Your Hands‘, and ‘I Am A Paleontologist‘ (below) in their live shows next to evergreens like ‘Ana Ng‘, ‘Birdhouse in Your Soul‘, ‘Istanbul (Not Constantinople)‘ and ‘Don’t Let’s Start‘, with audiences singing along to every word.

As we wait for next week’s edition of ‘Not Quite A Copycat’, I open the floor to you, dear readers: after listening to this year’s roster of entrants, are there any entries that echo your favorite songs or artists from the non-Eurovision world?

About The Author: Samantha Ross

Vaguely aware of the Contest since childhood, a fanatic since 2008, and an ESC blogger since 2009, Samantha Ross made her first sojourn to Eurovision in 2011, and was quickly welcomed into the fold at ESC Insight. Over the years, she's been interviewed by BBC World News, SVT, LBC Radio, and many others. She was a semi-regular contributor to Oystermouth Radio's weekly dedicated Eurovision program, "Wales 12 Points". Furthermore, Samantha contributed to BBC Radio 2's coverage of the Copenhagen contest, and was a member of the official JuniorEurovision.tv web team in 2014 and 2015. She also worked as a member of the Bulgarian Delegation, serving as Assistant Head of Press in Kyiv and Lisbon. She is also the creator of the podcast "12 Points from America", an irreverent look at Eurovision from a US point of view. When not at Eurovision, Samantha is a regular on the Twin Cities pub quiz circuit, and has volunteered as a moderator for the local high school quiz bowl for over ten years. She lives in Minneapolis, Minnesota, but is wistfully looking for opportunities to get geographically closer to the heart of the Eurovision action. You can follow Samantha on Twitter (@escinsider).

Read more from this author...

You Can Support ESC Insight on Patreon

ESC Insight's Patreon page is now live; click here to see what it's all about, and how you can get involved and directly support our coverage of your Eurovision Song Contest.

Have Your Say

8 responses to “Not Quite a Copycat: A Musical Journey Starting At Eurovision”

  1. As BB King once said: “I don’t think anybody steals anything; all of us borrow.”

  2. I think it’s a blend of borrowing and convergent evolution… Vilija and Dessa, for example, have likely never had any contact and live 7500km/4700mi from each other. But maybe, somewhere in the formation of each of their musical styles, they listened to the same track on the same album which inspired them. The wings of birds and dragonflies evolve differently, but serve the same purpose in the end.

  3. Zolan says:

    It’s easy to ignore distinctions between things we don’t care about. All opera, for example, is just copying other opera … But every track on “Back in Black” is unique, and AC/DC must never change their style one jot.
    Familiarity is also the foundation for musical appreciation. And so much enjoyment stems from half-buried resonances — Possibly what delighted me most about Zdob si Zdub’s “So Lucky.”
    Big topic. Stopping now.

    Instead of similar songs, here’s a couple of idiosyncratic associations. For fun I won’t say which ESC2014 song they go with.
    “Army Dreamers” Kate Bush (easy)
    “Heatwave” The Blue Nile (oblique)

  4. Seán says:

    While a strong pop song in Irish would undoubtedly get more traction in Ireland, the trouble is when you look at the Lurgan video in the “Big Shmoke” (Dublin), is you can virtually smell the grant money. Though it is a great production and song.

  5. Keley Ann says:

    There are definitely good points in this article, but I think the author doesn’t know much about modern dance music if you think that Greece is intentionally ripping those songs off – those are just 3 that happened to be big hits, but there are literally hundreds if not thousands of songs in that mould both before and after those hit the top of the charts. It’s a style rather than a direct homage/ripoff.

  6. Hi there, Keley Ann! The focus of the article was actually that these entries *aren’t* intentional ripoffs of the songs or artists I mention, but rather in similar styles or genres. Sort of an “if you like X, give Y a listen”. 🙂 Some are songs that we’ve heard (even though, to be honest, “Bom Bom” is almost completely unknown on my side of the Atlantic), others might be new revelations to some of our readers. Thanks for commenting!

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *