Cards on the table time. With a plethora of songs to choose from, National Finals are always going to leave behind a few gems for the fans. It’s when they leave behind a gem and send a bit of a clinker that you have to wonder what is going on.
Following on from yesterday’s look at the successful selections of 2015 , it’s time to look at the failed finals. Who dropped the ball, who left a Vienna winner on the platform (with nothing but a suitcase?), and who needs to start again from scratch?
Switzerland Were Wrong To Send Melanie René
Every year I wonder what ‘National Final’ track will be the first one I hear, and when I do, will it be any good? GIven the labyrinthine process the Swiss broadcasters go through to select their entry, it’s usually something from the open call for Swiss entries. That was true this year, and the first track out of the gate was from the Dutch dance band Bearforce 1, and their big-camp classic ‘Action Man‘. This surefire crowd pleaser was left behind in the very first cull of entries, as Melaine Rene’s ‘Time To Shine’ plodded through the average gate all the way to Vienna.
Well played, Switzerland, well played.
Germany Were Wrong To Send Ann Sophie
In a sense, the National Final was utterly right – send Andreas Kümmert. But just like the finale of the 1969 Eurovision Song Contest was bodged together at the last minute, so was Unser Song Für Österreich. With the cameras rolling, the host decided to send Ann Sophie after Kümmert’s now legendary mic-drop after a landslide victory with 78.7% of the public vote. German efficiency kicked in with its ‘we have a result, and we have a singer for Austria’ attitude.
To my mind, the correct thing would be to refund the text and phone costs of everyone who voted, sit down with the remaining contestants the next morning, and decide on a run-off show to decide the best song without the influence of ‘Heart of Stone‘ or ‘ Home Is In My Hands‘ distorting the process.
Sorry Germany, you walked into your nul points with your eyes open.
Moldova Were Wrong To Send Eduard Romanyuta
Put aside the use of Moldova as a false flag for Ukrainian singer Eduard Romanyuta. Put aside the questions over SIM card swapping in the green room. Put aside the tactless dance routines used in the National Final. The staging of I Want Your Love was tacky, cheap, and exploitative. Romanyuta strutted like he owned the stage, and failed to connect to the European audience looking for more than PVC clad dancers and a rather oily lead singer. It just looked and felt totally wrong.
Once more, Moldova left the Amazonian disco goddess of Donita Gherman in Chisinau. One year they’ll get it right…
Ireland Were Wrong To Send Molly Sterling
Is the Eurovision Song Contest the right stage to send young and inexperienced singers to learn stagecraft, arena performance, camera angles, choreography, and deal with national pressure? I’m with Guy Sebastian on this one… it’s not.
Ireland’s Molly Sterling was one of the youngest performers at the Contest, and while ‘Playing with Numbers’ was inoffensive it was nineteen points short of overhauling Azerbaijan in the semi-final, and with just fifty minutes of on-stage rehearsal time to learn her craft, she gave it a swing… and predictably failed.
Hand on heart, much as I love Kat Mahon’s ‘Anyone Got A Shoulder‘ she would have had the same issues to deal with, the same running slot, and likely the same result. Erika Selin was on the comeback trail but with a depth of Melodifestivalen experience behind her, Nikki Kavanagh has the experience at Eurovision but has never stepped up to the plate in all her live experiences, and the less said about ‘She’s So Fine’ the better.
RTE need a new drawing board.
Iceland Were Wrong To Send María Ólafsdóttir
Bringing an end to a run of qualifications that stretches back to 2008, the Frozen-like staging of ‘Unbroken’ was all set to capture the votes of the young viewers on Saturday night… forgetting that the second semi-final went out on a Thursday. With school the next day the target audience was safely tucked up in bed when the voting lines opened.
Iceland, like many others, went with a slow to mid-temp female ballad. But lurking in the National Final was a quirky little gem that was arresting, memorable, and pushed the Eurovision envelope far more than any other song in its selection. Iceland should have looked to Sunday and the visually arresting potential of ‘Feathers‘.
Spain Were Wrong To Send ‘Amancer’…
…but they were right to select Edurne, because she is everything you need in a female Eurovision lead. She has stature, she can dance and sing, she has stage presence, it’s just that everything about her style screams for modern pop sensibilities. Instead Spain hobbled her with G:Son’s variations on a theme… the theme being ‘shouty woman power ballad’. When you have a star that can handle tracks like ‘Pretty Boy’ or ‘Painkiller’, you should really be playing to her strengths.
Who Knows If Finland Were Right Or Wrong To Send Pertti Kurikan Nimipäivät?
Put simply, the public had PKN down as qualifiers from the first semi-final… the juries had them dead last in the same show.
PKN were always going to be a divisive choice. The public vote in Finland might have been influenced by years of media coverage (and a hit documentary film last year called ‘The Punk Syndrome’ which you really should try and see), but PKN comfortably won the televote in Finland, and then proceeded to comfortably win the televote in their Eurovision semi-final.
The inability for the ‘music professionals’ to appreciate a challenging genre such as punk is another discussion point for us to look over Finland did exactly what the Eurovision Song Contest should be about – taking chances, using music to explore diversity, lowering barriers between individuals, and having fun. It ticked all the boxes, and for me that makes ‘Aina jun pitää’ a Eurovision classic and the right choice for Finland.
At the same time, everyone who understood the implications of the ‘rank all the songs’ jury system knew that this was the wrong choice to make if qualification was the goal.
You decide.
Don’t forget our ‘Winning NF Selections‘ is also online, but we’re talking about the failures here. Who do you think should have picked up the ticket to Vienna? The comments, as always, are open!
“and then proceeded to comfortably win the televote in their Eurovision semi-final”
I wouldn’t call scraping a 10th place a ‘win’ but hey, I’m not one to split hairs.
A qualification is a qualification!
But a qualification is not a win. (Unless your San Marino)
You make it sound like they came first with “comfortably won their semi final televote”
They came 10th out of 16 songs that’s hardly a huge televoting endorsement, unlike Israel who came 2nd in theirs to the eventual winner
‘Feathers’ is a great song. Perhaps it was a tactical mistake singing it in English rather than sticking with their Icelandic mother tongue for the national finals. I’m still in mourning for Estonia’s 2008 ‘Ice Cold Story’!
Iceland were in the second ESC semifinal on Thursday, not the first one on Tuesday. Not that it makes any difference to your point.
Thanks, Len!
The Swiss open selection process is only half open. So far the only singers(not sure about the song’s writers and composers)coming through are Swiss singers(or at least singers who live in Switzerland)
I suspect that logistic and financial reasons are behind this, but as long this is the case, it won’t change.
When talking about a choice of song from the national finals, than it only be fair that you select another song that was actually in the Swiss final and was a better choice. Choosing a song that wasn’t even in the final is a bit awkward.
Bearforce 1 – This is the 4th of 5th incarnation of this group. The only person who have been there from the start is the lead singer. The rest are been ensembled per project. I don’t know if you ever heard them sing live? I did, in one of their previous incarnation and I can tell you it wasn’t a pleasant listening. What sound good on recording doesn’t always sound good live
I think Kat Mahon woud’ve qualfied for Ireland. Much more poised and it’s exactly the sort of Oirish ballad Europe expects. Add in the winner pedigree and it would’ve limped into the final–but into the final it would’ve been.
Though it’s possible that their allocation would’ve been later because of Charlie McGettigan’s involvement. Not all ballads are created equal and peforming a bit later in the first half might’ve helped Kat stand out.
If Molly hadn’t looked like a panicked squirrel, she might’ve got through too.
“Fjaðrir” … I still can’t believe the Icelanders didn’t even vote Sunday into the superfinal, but maybe it really was because of the language change. “Feathers” is still miles better than “Unbroken”, but “Fjaðrir” was even better. It would easily have qualified in either version, not only because the singer is much more competent than the cute María. The Icelandic lyrics were fascinating, only beaten by the incredibly poetic lyrics to “Brotið gler”. Not that that would have mattered, but I believe it’s wort mentioning.
By process of elimination I think Molly was the right choice, What RTE should have done was sent her to the preview shows, Its the exact same thing RTE were guilty of with Kasey Smith the year earlier. Based on Erika Selin and Nikki Kavanagh’s live performances of there entries then you can see why we didn’t select them.
The problem of going with a process of elimination for the Irish NF is that you sat art with the assumption that one of the five is the correct answer.
Erika Selin and Break Me Up was the best choice
It was fun and light, easy to sing a long, and had that key upbeat element that was needed in 2015.
Yes back in Feb when the NF was her vocals weren’t on point, but just like Jedward with lipstick, 3 months of practise on the one song and you can get the vocals pretty good.
The addition of Timoteij was a stroke of genius and would have definitely scored some extra points from Sweden (who was in their Semi) and possibly even the wider Nordic block. (Norway, Iceland)
Both Iceland and Finland got it wrong.”Feathers”would have been a great entry and even Fridrik would have done better even though i was never a big fan of his song.Germany is a special case because they did choose Andreas by a landslide.Alexa or FAUN would have been good choices too.My Favourite act,Fahrenhaidt didn’t seem ready to make it to the big esc stage.
I seriously doubt,though that Ireland would have fared better with “Anybody got a shoulder”.
To be brutally honest we were screwed no matter who we picked, Atleast with Molly we would go out with dignity rather than being the laughingstocks who were so desperate that we needed to pick a 100% Swedish act.
I don’t think you should blame Germany for picking Ann Sophie, they did pick Andreas after all >:)
I think the uneven selection process of an Talent-show (Clubkonzert) and a National-final Show with established Stars is to blame in Germanys case. The NDR should commit to one or the other, not both. And don’t get me started on how they are picking Artists who are to young (As in the case of the Clubkonzerts runner up Ason) or Songs that have been released before the September Deadline (Laings – Wecheslt die Beleuchtung to name one). And to work out the Choreography only last minute doesn’t help either …
Ireland: ‘Anybody Got a Shoulder’ is the counterpart to the Cyprus song: he wasn’t there for her so now she needs a shoulder to cry on. To have both parts of this conversation in the same Semi might have damaged them both. Both trying to occupy the same musical ground.
That said, AGAS was the choice of most of the country: it was the Dublin vote that put Molly over the line. That may have been because Irish televoters, specially Dubliners, tried too hard to find a ‘good song’ as opposed to a good competition song after the all the Paddywhackery of the last few years. In a more intimate environment PWN would work – but not on the big Eurovision stage. Too introspective and wordy.
At least RTE has abandoned the mentor system and the faux-Celtic staging. That’s a good sign. Now they have to abandon The Late Late Show as the selection vehicle.
I could have seen AGAS doing quite well if it were separated from Cyprus and personally preferred it to PWN.
The Finns did the right choice – adding more rock / punk. Honour and kudos to them!