Armenia: Emmy - Boom Boom
I don't like it or hate it, it's one of those songs that make your foot tap along to it even though it's pretty average. It's another very typical ESC entry for this year.
Russia: Alexey Vorobyov - Get You
*Note: all opinions are based on a really bad quality leaked video*
I don't mind this one, from what I've heard/the muffled video I'm listening to. I like the fact that it's very upbeat after last year and the year before (they both kind of depressed me, not something you want from ESC really...) It's quite catchy.
Croatia: Daria Kinzer - Celebrate/Break a Leg (I'm not actually sure of the title of this one)
I really like this one. I watched the first two episodes of Dora 2011 and then gave up, but I don't remember Daria at all...maybe I missed her? Anyway, I like this song, it's pretty cheery and I'm always a sucker for songs that have a really cheesy message in them.
Greece: Loukas Giorkas ft. Stereo Mike - Watch My Dance
Er, well, Greece have disappointed me a little this year, I'm afraid. I like the traditional Greek thread running through it, and Mr Giorkas seems like a charming fellow. My main worry with this song is that people won't 'get' it, especially because it's two distinct different genres of music mashed up into one song. I like that there's Greek in it, though.
Hungary: Kati Wolf - What About My Dreams?
I can't speak any Hungarian, but it sounds pretty alright despite this. Rumour has it that it will have English in too on the ESC stage. It sounds like quite a strong entry, nice to see them taking it more seriously than when Zoli Adok took to the stage for them in 2009.
Portugal: Homens da Luta - A luta é alegria
Just disappointing. Seems to have stepped straight of what I shall call 'old ESC'. There were so many better entires, why this?!
Slovakia: TWiiNS - I'm Still Alive
Firstly, horrible styling of their name. Secondly, I like it, it sounds very modern - completely different to Horehronie but I like them both for their own reasons. It's not as quick paced as some of the other entries, but I think this makes it stand out in a good way. I hope the vocals are good live, otherwise this good song could be ruined.
Ukraine: Mika Newton - Angels
I never really liked last year's but I much preferred it to this - this just isn't good but I've got a feeling it'll end up in the final regardless. And the stage set-up with the 'angels' is creeping me out...
Israel: Dana International - Ding Dong
Not a fan, it's another upbeat one which is good but there's something about it - not sure what yet - that I'm not a great fan of. I'm also getting tired of going ''it's upbeat''...
France: Amaury Vassili - Sognu
Just the thought of this being a classical song excited me, perhaps more than it ever should have done. I'd never have liked this if I didn't like Josh Groban, I'll admit, but bizarrely, I do. France always surprises me - every year the entry is completely different to the last but for the past few years, good in its own way.
United Kingdom: Blue - I Can
Words cannot even describe how happy I am with our entry this year. I know I'm biased and everything, but not even I could champion poor Josh's entry last year. I could imagine this song in the charts, which is always a good start. It's catchy, upbeat (again with that word!) and I don't think it's the sort of song that can be easily forgotten. I love it, and I'm proud of our entry for once :)
Favourites so far (not in order because our entry has totally thrown my order off balance):
- Norway: Stella Mwangi - Haba Haba
- Denmark: A Friend in London - New Tomorrow
- United Kingdom: Blue - I Can
- Poland: Magdalena Tul - Jestem
- Slovakia: TWiiNS - I'm Still Alive
- Croatia: Daria Kinzer - Celebrate/Break a Leg
- Spain: Lucia Perez - Que me quiten lo bailao
Finland's entry has slowly worked its way off the list, probably mostly because I've found songs since that I prefer. It's still good, though.
I'm very much looking forward to the Melodifestivalen final. I'd like either Eric Saade or Swingfly, although I don't mind Danny or Sanna Nielsen, wasn't a huge fan of The Moniker because the song just annoyed me really.
What are your favourites so far?
Besos ♥
Rachel
Thursday, 10 March 2011
Wednesday, 9 March 2011
Festival de las lenguas
I wanted this post to be my all Spanish post, but it's late and I'm tired, so it's not. I promise it is definitely ''in the works''...
I went to the Leeds Met/University of Leeds 'Languages Festival' for Mardi Gras yesterday with some of the languages students from college. Most of them were French students, though Antonia from my Spanish class and Cory/Corey (no idea how he spells it) from the other AS Spanish class went too. Everyone kind of mingled in together all day, though, especially when we were left to our own devices and had to find lunch then find our way back to the room we were in all day.
The day was always going to be a tad weird, the teachers going with us were Tosh - the German teacher - and Steph - a French teacher. Before we'd even left Tosh potentially could have ended up getting run over by our minibus... We arrived waaaay too early so we hung about outside the conference room for a bit beforehand. We had a talk from thebigword, a global translation company based in Leeds. I was particularly happy to find out that they had an office in Stockholm, not because it's useful information at all but because I like Sweden. What a sad thing for me to say...
We then broke off into our chosen language groups to do some speaking practice. I was paired with a girl called Lucy, an A2 student. Our tutor, Elisa, looked scarily like my cousin Amy and was possibly the happiest Spanish tutor I've ever come across, she was lovely though. Even though we didn't speak for long and it was all on 'la ley antitabaco', I actually got something out of the fact that I was working with an A2 student - her speed when talking showed me in a very practical way that I need to improve on my own pace for the oral exam, and I found myself consciously trying in my speaking session with Ester today (it didn't have much of an effect, but I was trying which is a start).
In the afternoon we got to do two 'less common' language taster sessions. My group did Italian first, which confused me because it's not uncommon in comparison to the other languages we could have done/did do. The teacher was a little strange and didn't really teach us any Italian, although I do now know what 'spaghetti' means, always useful...
Our second taster session was Japanese with an adorable little Japanese woman (that honestly was never intended to sound quite so patronising...) - we learnt the basics (ohayou, konnichiwa, konbanwa, arigato, Rachel desu etc etc) and some basic numbers, as well as ''biiru o ippon kudasai'' and something about ice cream. We then learnt that karate literally means 'empty hand' (kara - empty, te - hand) as in not holding any weapons, using your body to fight etc, that karaoke means 'empty orchestra' (kara - empty, oke - orchestra) as in without music and about the Shinkansen. We had a little introduction to how Japanese writing characters are formed, it was actually really interesting. For instance, 'eye' in Japanese is '目' - if you rotate that symbol it looks like a square eye, as it originates from the visual for 'eye'. I found the bit about characters fascinating.
Excuse that really bad Paint created picture. The resemblance is there though, right?
All in all, it was a good day out. I'd have preferred to choose our own languages, as I wanted to do Russian as I do actually have an interest in it, but never mind. I'd have never chosen Japanese and it was fascinating, so I'm glad we didn't get a choice in that respect. I seem to have taken away a feeling that languages aren't as hard as I seem to believe they are, which is nice because I feel a little more encouraged to stick at my Spanish and do it at university now.
Besos ♥
Rachel
I went to the Leeds Met/University of Leeds 'Languages Festival' for Mardi Gras yesterday with some of the languages students from college. Most of them were French students, though Antonia from my Spanish class and Cory/Corey (no idea how he spells it) from the other AS Spanish class went too. Everyone kind of mingled in together all day, though, especially when we were left to our own devices and had to find lunch then find our way back to the room we were in all day.
The day was always going to be a tad weird, the teachers going with us were Tosh - the German teacher - and Steph - a French teacher. Before we'd even left Tosh potentially could have ended up getting run over by our minibus... We arrived waaaay too early so we hung about outside the conference room for a bit beforehand. We had a talk from thebigword, a global translation company based in Leeds. I was particularly happy to find out that they had an office in Stockholm, not because it's useful information at all but because I like Sweden. What a sad thing for me to say...
We then broke off into our chosen language groups to do some speaking practice. I was paired with a girl called Lucy, an A2 student. Our tutor, Elisa, looked scarily like my cousin Amy and was possibly the happiest Spanish tutor I've ever come across, she was lovely though. Even though we didn't speak for long and it was all on 'la ley antitabaco', I actually got something out of the fact that I was working with an A2 student - her speed when talking showed me in a very practical way that I need to improve on my own pace for the oral exam, and I found myself consciously trying in my speaking session with Ester today (it didn't have much of an effect, but I was trying which is a start).
In the afternoon we got to do two 'less common' language taster sessions. My group did Italian first, which confused me because it's not uncommon in comparison to the other languages we could have done/did do. The teacher was a little strange and didn't really teach us any Italian, although I do now know what 'spaghetti' means, always useful...
Our second taster session was Japanese with an adorable little Japanese woman (that honestly was never intended to sound quite so patronising...) - we learnt the basics (ohayou, konnichiwa, konbanwa, arigato, Rachel desu etc etc) and some basic numbers, as well as ''biiru o ippon kudasai'' and something about ice cream. We then learnt that karate literally means 'empty hand' (kara - empty, te - hand) as in not holding any weapons, using your body to fight etc, that karaoke means 'empty orchestra' (kara - empty, oke - orchestra) as in without music and about the Shinkansen. We had a little introduction to how Japanese writing characters are formed, it was actually really interesting. For instance, 'eye' in Japanese is '目' - if you rotate that symbol it looks like a square eye, as it originates from the visual for 'eye'. I found the bit about characters fascinating.
All in all, it was a good day out. I'd have preferred to choose our own languages, as I wanted to do Russian as I do actually have an interest in it, but never mind. I'd have never chosen Japanese and it was fascinating, so I'm glad we didn't get a choice in that respect. I seem to have taken away a feeling that languages aren't as hard as I seem to believe they are, which is nice because I feel a little more encouraged to stick at my Spanish and do it at university now.
Besos ♥
Rachel
Sunday, 6 March 2011
Week in Review
I'm tired. This is despite having slept for 'a long time' last night and Friday night. It may have something to do with the long and fast walk we went on this afternoon, though I set the pace so it's my own fault really.
College was pretty horrific last week, not helped at all by one of the personal tutors telling me he was ''relying on'' me to organise some people for Comic Relief. I hated how it felt like he was just taking advantage of me, he didn't seem to be interested in it at all. Anyway, we had a misunderstanding and I ended up all upset at lunchtime. It wasn't helped by somebody who told me he definitely could help out changing his mind after I'd given the member of staff his name - great, I love it when I can't rely on anybody. Eleanor also just told me that she can't help out, but she genuinely apologised which makes it a lot easier to deal with, and also shows that she isn't just trying to get out of it.
Monday began by my Spanish class finding out we now have to have two speaking sessions per week. I've scheduled my second for Monday, right at the end of lunch, and my first is still first thing Wednesday morning. I hate them but they're better than when Ester has us speaking in class, I always feel completely inferior to every single other person in the room when that happens. Fun stuff...
I'm going on a languages study day in Leeds on Tuesday. I still don't really know what it'll involve but hey, it's a day off college to spend all day thinking about languages - it's like it was made for me... I didn't know anybody else who was going until Wednesday when I met Sophie when I somehow ended up being involved with the relaunch of a new college magazine. She studies AS French and not Spanish, but still, I know somebody/won't be entirely lonely at least :)
I've been in 'one of those moods' all week this week which has been majorly rubbish, but I'm hoping that this week will be better despite exam results on Thursday morning (not even going to explain how much despair I have over my Psychology result, there's no way I've got my predicted grade and I'm dreading the inevitable conversations about it) and then two full days of CoPE on Friday and the following Monday (again, not even going to go into why I HATE the idea of spending two full days doing CoPE with just my form in the same room all day, but I do).
I was planning a big, long post on why I'm so fed up of feeling like I can never give an opinion without people attacking me for it, but I just can't be bothered. It's easier just to sit in the background and pretend I'm not paying attention, even if it is thoroughly dull and not all that pleasant to feel like you can't speak around your friends...
Here's to a better week :)
Besos ♥
Rachel
College was pretty horrific last week, not helped at all by one of the personal tutors telling me he was ''relying on'' me to organise some people for Comic Relief. I hated how it felt like he was just taking advantage of me, he didn't seem to be interested in it at all. Anyway, we had a misunderstanding and I ended up all upset at lunchtime. It wasn't helped by somebody who told me he definitely could help out changing his mind after I'd given the member of staff his name - great, I love it when I can't rely on anybody. Eleanor also just told me that she can't help out, but she genuinely apologised which makes it a lot easier to deal with, and also shows that she isn't just trying to get out of it.
Monday began by my Spanish class finding out we now have to have two speaking sessions per week. I've scheduled my second for Monday, right at the end of lunch, and my first is still first thing Wednesday morning. I hate them but they're better than when Ester has us speaking in class, I always feel completely inferior to every single other person in the room when that happens. Fun stuff...
I'm going on a languages study day in Leeds on Tuesday. I still don't really know what it'll involve but hey, it's a day off college to spend all day thinking about languages - it's like it was made for me... I didn't know anybody else who was going until Wednesday when I met Sophie when I somehow ended up being involved with the relaunch of a new college magazine. She studies AS French and not Spanish, but still, I know somebody/won't be entirely lonely at least :)
I've been in 'one of those moods' all week this week which has been majorly rubbish, but I'm hoping that this week will be better despite exam results on Thursday morning (not even going to explain how much despair I have over my Psychology result, there's no way I've got my predicted grade and I'm dreading the inevitable conversations about it) and then two full days of CoPE on Friday and the following Monday (again, not even going to go into why I HATE the idea of spending two full days doing CoPE with just my form in the same room all day, but I do).
I was planning a big, long post on why I'm so fed up of feeling like I can never give an opinion without people attacking me for it, but I just can't be bothered. It's easier just to sit in the background and pretend I'm not paying attention, even if it is thoroughly dull and not all that pleasant to feel like you can't speak around your friends...
Here's to a better week :)
Besos ♥
Rachel
Tuesday, 1 March 2011
2/2 ESC Song Reviews For the Night
Moldova: Zdob si Zdub - So Lucky
I've liked Moldova before. 'Before' being the most important word in that sentence. Another one that I'm predicting will be skipped frequently when I play the CD...
Netherlands: 3JS - Je vecht nooit alleen
It doesn't have a huge first impact, I've pretty much already forgotten it and I just gave it a listen before typing out this sentence. Not too bad, voices aren't horrible etc etc.
Belarus: Anastasia Vinnikova - Born in Belorussia
Also sounds a bit like something from the Croatian supermarket I visited (see today's earlier post for that to make sense). The version I'm hearing is very low quality, so the singing isn't being done any favours by the video. It needs tweaking, very much so visually - she needs some sort of dancing going on. The bit with the male voices is a tad scary, then her vocals go off dramatically. Awkward.
Bulgaria: Poli Genova - Na Inat
I like it. Finally. Another that I like. I liked Bulgaria last year (Miro followed me on Twitter so I felt like I should give it a chance, and I liked it). I'm not the biggest fan ever of the ending (it just seems a bit too random to me) but up until the last few seconds it's a good song. I hope it'll get through, although Bulgarian political allies have never really been my strong point and they didn't last year. Hmm.
Denmark: A Friend in London - New Tomorrow
Another one that I like, which is awkward with the plagiarism rumours flying about. Actually, I really like it, even more awkward. If it is plagiarised from Andreas Johnson's Sing For Me (I have to admit, they are scarily similar), it's better. The thing is though, as The Axis of Awesome pointed out with their song 4 Chords...songs are pretty much all the same if mainstream... I'm going to like it and hope it doesn't get disqualified...
Estonia: Getter Jaani - Rockefeller Street
I kind of like it, it's a little different but interesting too. Better than last year. She needs some better dancers though, they're pitiful. I like the American bit in the middle but it doesn't have a smooth enough transition into the chorus at all and the ending ia a bit 'meh'.
Latvia: Musiqq - Angel in Disguise
I think there's some potential in it, somewhere, hidden underneath the bad execution of the song in the video I've just watched. It's very 'boybandish' which is either a good thing or a bad thing and I'm not sure which at the moment.
Macedonia: Vlatko Ilievski - Rusinka
I liked the song Karolina Goceva did about her world, almost liked last year's, am seriously confused by this year's . I can't figure out whether it's just mental or whether it's to do with Macedonian music, but there's something odd about it. It sounds quite angry but in a watered down way.
Slovenia: Maja Keuc - Vanilja
It's alright. Her vocals aren't very strong for...most of it. I find myself thinking of Horehronie and signing because that song was good, and this isn't a good enough match. She somehow manages the big notes well, and misses the simple notes, which is (my new ESC motto apparently) 'both good and bad'. It picks up towards the end, thankfully, making it considerably better.
Germany: Lena - Taken By a Stranger
I deliberately didn't pay attention to Lena's possible songs, because I could almost guarantee I'd find one I preferred to the chosen one. It's got a very British influence again, and it reminds me of something but I can't quite figure out what...will let you all know if I ever do. There's a good degree of mystery about this one, as if it belongs in the background of a slightly more sophisticated Scooby Doo or something. The Marmite of ESC is back...
Italy: Raphael Gualazzi - Follia d'amore
I can't bring myself to hate this because it's Italy...and they're BACK! Unfortunately ESC has changed since Italy last participated, however it's a nice, little classic song from the Italian team. It doesn't even have to do well, I'm just thrilled they're back, and with a non-boring song that's a little different with some class to it.
Spain: Lucía Perez - Que me quiten lo bailao
Muy bien... I hope she isn't wearing that dress on the night, seriously, just no. I wanted Auryn, however this isn't bad. Her vocals don't seem to match Daniel Diges however I like it more than Soraya. It's going to be stuck in my head for a while, I can just tell. I hope if she tries choreographed dancing, it's better than in the final, though.
Favourites so far (in order):
1. Norway: Stella Mwangi - Haba Haba. I was dancing around my house to this when I first heard it, no joke, and I know I will for a long time... REALLY love this one.
2. Poland: Magdalena Tul - Jestem. Catchy and fun as well as showing off the Polish language without making it sound like murder (like the on-stage pretend murder of last year). Another one to dance about to.
3. Finland: Paradise Oskar - Da Da Dam. Not my favourite Finnish potential ESC entry however I do like it, a lot. Reminds me of Tom Dice and Jon Lilygreen.
4. Denmark: A Friend in London - New Tomorrow. Sounds a bit like an anthem, also sounds very British like the band name would suggest. It's my kind of song.
5. Spain: Lucía Perez - Que me quiten lo bailao. It's fun and the sort of song you don't have to pay much attention to in order to enjoy. Light and easy on the ears...
I'm also terribly afraid to say that Lipstick has grown on me without me listening to it again. Oh dear...
What are your top fives?
Besos ♥
Rachel
I've liked Moldova before. 'Before' being the most important word in that sentence. Another one that I'm predicting will be skipped frequently when I play the CD...
Netherlands: 3JS - Je vecht nooit alleen
It doesn't have a huge first impact, I've pretty much already forgotten it and I just gave it a listen before typing out this sentence. Not too bad, voices aren't horrible etc etc.
Belarus: Anastasia Vinnikova - Born in Belorussia
Also sounds a bit like something from the Croatian supermarket I visited (see today's earlier post for that to make sense). The version I'm hearing is very low quality, so the singing isn't being done any favours by the video. It needs tweaking, very much so visually - she needs some sort of dancing going on. The bit with the male voices is a tad scary, then her vocals go off dramatically. Awkward.
Bulgaria: Poli Genova - Na Inat
I like it. Finally. Another that I like. I liked Bulgaria last year (Miro followed me on Twitter so I felt like I should give it a chance, and I liked it). I'm not the biggest fan ever of the ending (it just seems a bit too random to me) but up until the last few seconds it's a good song. I hope it'll get through, although Bulgarian political allies have never really been my strong point and they didn't last year. Hmm.
Denmark: A Friend in London - New Tomorrow
Another one that I like, which is awkward with the plagiarism rumours flying about. Actually, I really like it, even more awkward. If it is plagiarised from Andreas Johnson's Sing For Me (I have to admit, they are scarily similar), it's better. The thing is though, as The Axis of Awesome pointed out with their song 4 Chords...songs are pretty much all the same if mainstream... I'm going to like it and hope it doesn't get disqualified...
Estonia: Getter Jaani - Rockefeller Street
I kind of like it, it's a little different but interesting too. Better than last year. She needs some better dancers though, they're pitiful. I like the American bit in the middle but it doesn't have a smooth enough transition into the chorus at all and the ending ia a bit 'meh'.
Latvia: Musiqq - Angel in Disguise
I think there's some potential in it, somewhere, hidden underneath the bad execution of the song in the video I've just watched. It's very 'boybandish' which is either a good thing or a bad thing and I'm not sure which at the moment.
Macedonia: Vlatko Ilievski - Rusinka
I liked the song Karolina Goceva did about her world, almost liked last year's, am seriously confused by this year's . I can't figure out whether it's just mental or whether it's to do with Macedonian music, but there's something odd about it. It sounds quite angry but in a watered down way.
Slovenia: Maja Keuc - Vanilja
It's alright. Her vocals aren't very strong for...most of it. I find myself thinking of Horehronie and signing because that song was good, and this isn't a good enough match. She somehow manages the big notes well, and misses the simple notes, which is (my new ESC motto apparently) 'both good and bad'. It picks up towards the end, thankfully, making it considerably better.
Germany: Lena - Taken By a Stranger
I deliberately didn't pay attention to Lena's possible songs, because I could almost guarantee I'd find one I preferred to the chosen one. It's got a very British influence again, and it reminds me of something but I can't quite figure out what...will let you all know if I ever do. There's a good degree of mystery about this one, as if it belongs in the background of a slightly more sophisticated Scooby Doo or something. The Marmite of ESC is back...
Italy: Raphael Gualazzi - Follia d'amore
I can't bring myself to hate this because it's Italy...and they're BACK! Unfortunately ESC has changed since Italy last participated, however it's a nice, little classic song from the Italian team. It doesn't even have to do well, I'm just thrilled they're back, and with a non-boring song that's a little different with some class to it.
Spain: Lucía Perez - Que me quiten lo bailao
Muy bien... I hope she isn't wearing that dress on the night, seriously, just no. I wanted Auryn, however this isn't bad. Her vocals don't seem to match Daniel Diges however I like it more than Soraya. It's going to be stuck in my head for a while, I can just tell. I hope if she tries choreographed dancing, it's better than in the final, though.
Favourites so far (in order):
1. Norway: Stella Mwangi - Haba Haba. I was dancing around my house to this when I first heard it, no joke, and I know I will for a long time... REALLY love this one.
2. Poland: Magdalena Tul - Jestem. Catchy and fun as well as showing off the Polish language without making it sound like murder (like the on-stage pretend murder of last year). Another one to dance about to.
3. Finland: Paradise Oskar - Da Da Dam. Not my favourite Finnish potential ESC entry however I do like it, a lot. Reminds me of Tom Dice and Jon Lilygreen.
4. Denmark: A Friend in London - New Tomorrow. Sounds a bit like an anthem, also sounds very British like the band name would suggest. It's my kind of song.
5. Spain: Lucía Perez - Que me quiten lo bailao. It's fun and the sort of song you don't have to pay much attention to in order to enjoy. Light and easy on the ears...
I'm also terribly afraid to say that Lipstick has grown on me without me listening to it again. Oh dear...
What are your top fives?
Besos ♥
Rachel
More ESC 2011 Song Reviewing...
Georgia: Eldrine - One More Day
Wow. Admittedly, this song does pick up towards the end. The first 3/4 are incredibly messy, in my opinion. I don't really know what to say about it to make this mini review a tad longer. It's not my kind of thing, I don't hate it, it's just this year's Narodnozabavni Rock - I'll probably skip it when I listen to the CD most times.
Poland: Magdalena Tul - Jestem
Reminds me of music I heard in Plodine (Croatian supermarket at Benkovac) except I know who it is. I'm kind of biased as I'm going to Poland in the summer but I've liked their past few entries - this is one of my favourites so far. It's quite catchy unlike Marcin's entry last year. As long as it doesn't feature poison apples, it should do fine...
Serbia: Nina - Čaroban
Don't mind it, don't love it. It's not as insane as last year's entry, which could work well or could work badly. Will probably get through anyway, but it's quite strong, I'd imagine...
Turkey: Yuksek Sadakat - Live It Up
It's definitely no We Could Be the Same, but at the same time it'll probably still do reasonably well. I understand that a lot of people have been disappointed, which is a shame because it's not a bad song at all, it's just not perhaps up to last year's standards. I've got a feeling it's going to grow on me and then become quite catchy.
Iceland: Sigurjon's Friends - Aftur Heim
A nice performance tribute to Sigurjon Brink. It wasn't the strongest song in the final by far but there's something charming about the song that I can't quite put my finger on. Another grower, I think, though I quite like it already. A lot of people were disappointed that Yohanna didn't get it, and while her song was beautiful, it wasn't as...interesting as this one.
Lithuania: Evenlina Sasenko - C'est ma vie
First thoughts: this is a little like Shine by Sofia Nizharadze. Second thoughts: this belongs in a Disney movie, or placed in a musical soundtrack. I wanted Sasha Son because I believe he was robbed with Love - it was so good. His ballad was better than this one, in my opinion. I'm not at all sure about this one at the moment.
Malta: Glen Vella - One Life
As I tweeted, I never bothered with the Maltese final this year after last year's nearly put me to sleep (the best part was the adverts...Crosscraft etc) - I was surprised that Malta had picked such an upbeat song after last year's selection. It has a VERY typical Eurovision feel to it, which is kind of missing in so many entries chosen thus far.
Austria: Nadine Beiler - The Secret Is Love
Have a sneaking suspicion it could be this year's Firefly...good in principle but badly executed. She has a strong voice but we all thought that about Niamh last year and it wasn't as such on the night, which was a shame then and could well be with this. It's a little dull but not bad, there are much worse.
Belgium: Witloof Bay - With Love Baby
Oh, Belgium, what have you done?! You seem to have chosen a bunch of people from an office and made them sing acapella. Tom Dice to this? Honestly... The main singer is, well, bad, at singing and the rest aren't good either. Even Lipstick is better than this.
Bosnia and Herzegovina: Dino Merlin - Love in Rewind
His voice reminds me of Slav singing in Croatia...but aside from that...it's a little odd but in that intriguing way. My first impressions haven't left me very impressed but it may grow on me. It's certainly not one that's been heavily influenced by Lena, which at least makes it original and not a rip-off Britpop style song. It also has that typical Eurovision feel. Whether it will get through or not is debatable.
Cyprus: Christos Mylordos - San aggelos s'agapisa
Mr Mylordos himself seems like a likeable guy, but I just do not understand this song. It'll be interesting to hear/see it in live version rather than the music video version I found. It's a little Urban Symphony/Dmitry Koldun mixed with some Greek.
More to follow later if I get my Media done in time...
Besos ♥
Rachel
Wow. Admittedly, this song does pick up towards the end. The first 3/4 are incredibly messy, in my opinion. I don't really know what to say about it to make this mini review a tad longer. It's not my kind of thing, I don't hate it, it's just this year's Narodnozabavni Rock - I'll probably skip it when I listen to the CD most times.
Poland: Magdalena Tul - Jestem
Reminds me of music I heard in Plodine (Croatian supermarket at Benkovac) except I know who it is. I'm kind of biased as I'm going to Poland in the summer but I've liked their past few entries - this is one of my favourites so far. It's quite catchy unlike Marcin's entry last year. As long as it doesn't feature poison apples, it should do fine...
Serbia: Nina - Čaroban
Don't mind it, don't love it. It's not as insane as last year's entry, which could work well or could work badly. Will probably get through anyway, but it's quite strong, I'd imagine...
Turkey: Yuksek Sadakat - Live It Up
It's definitely no We Could Be the Same, but at the same time it'll probably still do reasonably well. I understand that a lot of people have been disappointed, which is a shame because it's not a bad song at all, it's just not perhaps up to last year's standards. I've got a feeling it's going to grow on me and then become quite catchy.
Iceland: Sigurjon's Friends - Aftur Heim
A nice performance tribute to Sigurjon Brink. It wasn't the strongest song in the final by far but there's something charming about the song that I can't quite put my finger on. Another grower, I think, though I quite like it already. A lot of people were disappointed that Yohanna didn't get it, and while her song was beautiful, it wasn't as...interesting as this one.
Lithuania: Evenlina Sasenko - C'est ma vie
First thoughts: this is a little like Shine by Sofia Nizharadze. Second thoughts: this belongs in a Disney movie, or placed in a musical soundtrack. I wanted Sasha Son because I believe he was robbed with Love - it was so good. His ballad was better than this one, in my opinion. I'm not at all sure about this one at the moment.
Malta: Glen Vella - One Life
As I tweeted, I never bothered with the Maltese final this year after last year's nearly put me to sleep (the best part was the adverts...Crosscraft etc) - I was surprised that Malta had picked such an upbeat song after last year's selection. It has a VERY typical Eurovision feel to it, which is kind of missing in so many entries chosen thus far.
Austria: Nadine Beiler - The Secret Is Love
Have a sneaking suspicion it could be this year's Firefly...good in principle but badly executed. She has a strong voice but we all thought that about Niamh last year and it wasn't as such on the night, which was a shame then and could well be with this. It's a little dull but not bad, there are much worse.
Belgium: Witloof Bay - With Love Baby
Oh, Belgium, what have you done?! You seem to have chosen a bunch of people from an office and made them sing acapella. Tom Dice to this? Honestly... The main singer is, well, bad, at singing and the rest aren't good either. Even Lipstick is better than this.
Bosnia and Herzegovina: Dino Merlin - Love in Rewind
His voice reminds me of Slav singing in Croatia...but aside from that...it's a little odd but in that intriguing way. My first impressions haven't left me very impressed but it may grow on me. It's certainly not one that's been heavily influenced by Lena, which at least makes it original and not a rip-off Britpop style song. It also has that typical Eurovision feel. Whether it will get through or not is debatable.
Cyprus: Christos Mylordos - San aggelos s'agapisa
Mr Mylordos himself seems like a likeable guy, but I just do not understand this song. It'll be interesting to hear/see it in live version rather than the music video version I found. It's a little Urban Symphony/Dmitry Koldun mixed with some Greek.
More to follow later if I get my Media done in time...
Besos ♥
Rachel
Monday, 28 February 2011
Littlest Things
I think I've discussed on here before how the small things can have the biggest of impacts. Today seems to have been one of those days where everything had an effect on something else. I had an SOS training session at lunch where we were given our assignment for the week: think about how you appear to other people. It reminded me of Psychology this morning - we had a test first thing and as I handed it in, Nigel (teacher) grinned at me. My response was (obviously) "why are you grinning at me?" - he said it was because I was pulling a face as if to say I'd hated the test, I really didn't think I had been...
I then encountered my old GCSE Spanish teacher while walking home who grinned at me slightly insanely from her car and let me cross the road before turning into the road I was trying to cross. It made me smile, for reasons unknown, but it struck me that she was clearly appearing happy to see me, even though we didn't talk (I see her quite a lot in that spot, though). This is my first example of a little thing having a big impact because it made me smile for most of the way home.
Unfortunately I then encountered two men delivering leaflets who followed me for the last five minutes of my journey, which kind of put a downer on my random good mood. It's really not fun being followed by two men making noises and shouting at you, just in case you were wondering. I ended up hiding from them when they knocked at the front door to try and deliver a leaflet (who does that by knocking rather than posting through the letterbox anyway?!)
And then for most of this evening I've been doing my Media double page spread assignment - not as fun as it may sound and actually intensely frustrating.
However then I ended up talking to Oliver from the Amnesty Group which cheered me up because it was just generally light-hearted and joking about stuff...and talking about stalkers. I know I've probably said it before on here, but I really do love the Amnesty Group - everybody is so nice and we all seem to get along quite well :)
'Labas' to my Lithuanian visitors :)
Besos ♥
Rachel
I then encountered my old GCSE Spanish teacher while walking home who grinned at me slightly insanely from her car and let me cross the road before turning into the road I was trying to cross. It made me smile, for reasons unknown, but it struck me that she was clearly appearing happy to see me, even though we didn't talk (I see her quite a lot in that spot, though). This is my first example of a little thing having a big impact because it made me smile for most of the way home.
Unfortunately I then encountered two men delivering leaflets who followed me for the last five minutes of my journey, which kind of put a downer on my random good mood. It's really not fun being followed by two men making noises and shouting at you, just in case you were wondering. I ended up hiding from them when they knocked at the front door to try and deliver a leaflet (who does that by knocking rather than posting through the letterbox anyway?!)
And then for most of this evening I've been doing my Media double page spread assignment - not as fun as it may sound and actually intensely frustrating.
However then I ended up talking to Oliver from the Amnesty Group which cheered me up because it was just generally light-hearted and joking about stuff...and talking about stalkers. I know I've probably said it before on here, but I really do love the Amnesty Group - everybody is so nice and we all seem to get along quite well :)
'Labas' to my Lithuanian visitors :)
Besos ♥
Rachel
Friday, 25 February 2011
Las Vacaciones
I've been ill for about two weeks now. Not bad ill, but enough to make me want to just sleep forever and not leave the house, which is handy because it's been half term ('las vacaciones'...) so I've had all week off :)
I never seem to have a point to anything when I write blog posts anymore. College seems to suck the life out of anything. In a way, that's good I suppose because I don't have much time to think about things during the week and I'm always busy at weekends, so I never end up overthinking anything or getting bothered by stuff.
College finally feels normal, properly normal. It's kind of nice because I'm at that point where I'm so OK with things that I can actually appreciate them better. Like last Thursday, I had an interview for something college-related but I didn't get it. My tutor then tried to convince me it was his fault because he helped me with my application - small things like that make college a lot more bearable. We also had a nice conversation about tolerance last Tuesday. It's good that I can talk to my teachers about stuff.
I tried learning some Swedish tenses on Monday. I drew up a verb grid and copied out some nouns, prepositions etc so that I'd be able to form sentences with the tenses. It's not actually that hard, just a bit confusing how there are two groups of verbs and then the irregulars as well. They're easy to form though, group one verbs basically have an 'r' added to the end (e.g. 'att tala' is 'to speak' but becomes 'jag talar' to mean 'I speak') while group two have the 'a' removed and 'er' added (e.g. 'att heta' meaning something along the lines of 'to have the name' becomes 'jag heter' to mean 'I am called' or 'my name is'. I've found that it's a lot easier to deal with tenses in foreign languages when you already speak a second language. It also helps that the verbs are like Spanish ones in reverse. I'm itching to 'randomly drop it into conversation' with my Spanish teacher to see what she'd say...though it'd probably be something about the fact that she's learning Arabic. She likes telling us that...
I've also been listening to Jack Johnson a lot this week and have therefore suddenly got back into Hawaiian. I'd been desperate to know what he says at the end of Angel/Better Together on the En Concert album...and last night I figured it out thanks to http://www.alohafriendsluau.com/words.html - turns out he says 'mahalo nui loa' which means 'thank you very much'. I also learnt 'me ke aloha' which means 'with love'.
Last night, I edited together the Amnesty Group video and uploaded a few others from the Burmese Festival campaign we did on Wednesday 16th. The main video can be viewed here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MBtPalRHhS0
Besos ♥
Rachel
I never seem to have a point to anything when I write blog posts anymore. College seems to suck the life out of anything. In a way, that's good I suppose because I don't have much time to think about things during the week and I'm always busy at weekends, so I never end up overthinking anything or getting bothered by stuff.
College finally feels normal, properly normal. It's kind of nice because I'm at that point where I'm so OK with things that I can actually appreciate them better. Like last Thursday, I had an interview for something college-related but I didn't get it. My tutor then tried to convince me it was his fault because he helped me with my application - small things like that make college a lot more bearable. We also had a nice conversation about tolerance last Tuesday. It's good that I can talk to my teachers about stuff.
I tried learning some Swedish tenses on Monday. I drew up a verb grid and copied out some nouns, prepositions etc so that I'd be able to form sentences with the tenses. It's not actually that hard, just a bit confusing how there are two groups of verbs and then the irregulars as well. They're easy to form though, group one verbs basically have an 'r' added to the end (e.g. 'att tala' is 'to speak' but becomes 'jag talar' to mean 'I speak') while group two have the 'a' removed and 'er' added (e.g. 'att heta' meaning something along the lines of 'to have the name' becomes 'jag heter' to mean 'I am called' or 'my name is'. I've found that it's a lot easier to deal with tenses in foreign languages when you already speak a second language. It also helps that the verbs are like Spanish ones in reverse. I'm itching to 'randomly drop it into conversation' with my Spanish teacher to see what she'd say...though it'd probably be something about the fact that she's learning Arabic. She likes telling us that...
I've also been listening to Jack Johnson a lot this week and have therefore suddenly got back into Hawaiian. I'd been desperate to know what he says at the end of Angel/Better Together on the En Concert album...and last night I figured it out thanks to http://www.alohafriendsluau.com/words.html - turns out he says 'mahalo nui loa' which means 'thank you very much'. I also learnt 'me ke aloha' which means 'with love'.
Last night, I edited together the Amnesty Group video and uploaded a few others from the Burmese Festival campaign we did on Wednesday 16th. The main video can be viewed here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MBtPalRHhS0
Besos ♥
Rachel
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