ESC - The Final

LetZzz comment the ESC Final!

Few years ago, one of the biggest problem of the votes was the pronunciation of this years country. Even today some people put out the question if it is Europe, at all. Others are wondering how the next years ESC will look like, organized by a some (almost) unknown country. I only now that almost nobody expected this to happen... to see Azerbaijan as a winner on ESC 2011! :)

After the final, few commentZzz are important. This was the best organized ESC ever! All the effects, the stage and the voting, which was unusually short, impressed me totally. However, I have a feeling that the emotional part of the ESC was lacking. In the end, the host didn't even gave the winners time to get themselves calmed, after hearing the results. Lena, last year's winner, was waiting for a microphone and in the very same moment when she (finally) got it, the hosts gave "the final words" and said "Good night everyone! See you next year!". :/ She didn't even said a word... I didn't liked this thing at all.

On the other hand, as BBC reposts this ESC was the most watched in the UK since 1999 with more than 9.5 million viewers in UK. Who says ESC is not watched there? ;) On a global level, the 2011 ESC was watched by more than 125 million people around the world. And before you ask why "around the world", the next very interesting fact. ESC is watched in Australia and each year they pick their own winner. This year it was Jedward (Ireland). Funny, ha? :)

LetZzz begin with the commentZzz. :) The opening was quite amazing. I loved the way Stefan Raab's (Germany representative on ESC 2000 and ESC 2011's host) way of performing Satelite! I also loved all those "Lena's" on stage! :) What a great idea, isn't it? ;) The audience was on feet! The atmosphere was quite amazing. Only few more participants made that happen.

The hosts were pretty good, except the ending of the show I already commented. They were fun, if you could get their jokes, creative, something you cannot really see on ESC, and the worst dressed hosts on ESC in the last 13 years (as long as I'm watching it). We all know that the Germans were known as the worst dressed Europeans, but this was too much. I can only imagine how the "come-backers" - Italians were feeling. :P On the other hand, the Macedonian host (for those who watched the show on MTV) was f**cking horrible. She was "loosing" the point in her own sentences, totally misinformed and boooring. :/ We can't really do anything good, a? :/ BTW Macedonia ended 16th in the semifinal. The worst ever! :/

Anyway, letZzz comment the entries. The commentZzz will be made in the same order as the final positions.

01. Azerbaijan (Ell & Nikki - Running Scared) - One thing is for sure. Nobody really expected them to win. The song is totally "american" and sounds like they stole it from "One Republic"! :) The performance was totally understandable (which was not case with some other performances), simple and lovely. It didn't sounded as the winning combination, but let's make one thing clear. There are two, totally different entities voting- the audience and the national jury. If you present them as two circles, Azerbaijan was the perfect cross-section. 

The commentZzz, which could be read everywhere (web-site, blogs, forums, etc.) tend to be negative and I'm not really sure why. It was just a successful promotion using the electronic methods, as Facebook for example. Azerbaijan is part of ESC for 4 years and already had great positions in the finals, 8th in 2008; 3rd in 2009; 5th in 2010. So, let's say we all voted it to happen, one way or another.

02. Italy (Raphael Gualazzi - Madness of love) - Finally back on ESC! And the 2nd position in the final is just a proof, how much the ESC was missing the Italian charm. The entire performance looked like it was part of some past memories. The mixture of Italian and English (language), the Italian music, the Italian charm... Well done!

03. Sweden (Eric Saade - Popular) - Just like Justin Bieber... the guy wanted to be popular. The dancing and the show was OK, even though a little bit "too much", but the singing was horrible. :/ Disappointed...

04. Ukraine (Mika Newton - Angel) - When you have a ballade, which is not special in any way, you make sure there is something else on the scene to keep the attention of the audience. "The sand thing" (I still have no idea if there is a name for that technique, even though "sand drawing" could be used as a term) was the real deal. As far as I'm concerned, the performance was really good, but without "the sand", Ukraine wouldn't have been 4th. :)

05. Denmark (A friend in London - New tomorrow) - AVERAGE! The performance was OK, the song not that much. The styling was interesting, even though I didn't got the point of the shirt without the back of the singer... I would have never said that they'd end as 5th.

06. Bosnia&Herzegovina (Dino Merlin - Love in rewind) - Even though he was one of the oldest performers on this ESC, he was one of the rare who made a pleasant atmosphere in the F.D. Arena. The whole audience was clapping and some of them were even singing the song with him. Simply wonderful. In my opinion, they should have been, at least 3rd. :/

07. Greece (Loukas Yiorkas feat. Stereo Mike - Watch my dance) - Without any political influence in the comment, those were the worst 3 minutes in the show! I really don't get the point, why would anyone vote for it. :/

08. Ireland (Jedward - Lipstick) - In the beginning I hated them, then I liked them and in the end I loved their hyper energetic performance! Musical reborn, "new age" pop music and young performers. If Gaga wasn't that young, I would have asked if they were her children. :P :D

09. Georgia (Eldrina - One more day) - Also, one of the song I didn't expected to be this high in the final rank. However, they were the only rock band this year, which probably helped them. The performance, however, was powerful.

10. Germany (Lena - Taken by a stranger) - I wanted her to be in the top 5! She was totally different than everything else. No matter what other people say, I loved it! :)

11. United Kingdom (Blue - I can) - Well, they didn't ended second as expected, didn't they? What I noticed was that they sounded kinda weird (They've been absent for a while... ), but they looked pretty good. I loved the outfits! Totally... Blue! :) In my opinion... they should have been placed better than 11th.

12. Moldova (Zdob si Zdub - So lucky) - I'm not sure why, but I find this song confusing. :/ Not my favorite...

13. Slovenia (Maja Keuc - No one) - The best and most powerful ballade on this ESC Final! Just... amazing!

14. Serbian (Nina - Čaroban) - Nice... for everyone who understands Serbian! :) Serbia had better entries on ESC.

15. France (Amaury Vassili - Sognu) - I'm glad he didn't win! :) This sounds wrong, but from marketing point of view, it would have been disaster for the repositioning and re-branding of ESC. The performance itself, was just music and nothing but the best from the classical one.

16. Russia (Alexej Vorobjov - Get you) - Great choreography, nice vocal and a song ... well, not that good. Even though Russia had much better entries in the past, this wasn't so bad.

17. Romania (Hotel FM - Change) - The song was way too "old fashioned"... and those were the worst pants on this year's ESC! :/ Nothing special...

18. Austria (Nadine Beiler - The secret is love) - Keep it simple... simple is good. Especially if you sing and look like that! I expected it to be higher in this rank. :/

19. Lithuania (Evelina Sašenko - C'est ma vie) - Fairytale, once again! The dress and the piano, just made the whole picture. Anyway, ballades and ESC don't always go together.

20. Iceland (Sjonni's friends - Comming home) - Kinda boring! :/ Not for ESC...

21. Finland (Paradise Oskar - Da Da Dam) - Even though the audience was "Da Da Dam-ing" with him, this performance was boooring! I also hated his apathy for ESC.

22. Hungary (Kati Wolf - What about my dreams?) - Horrible styling, strange song and (almost) great vocal.

23. Spain (Lucia Perez - Que me quiten lo bailao) - What?!?! :O Oh dear... No commentZzz for the performance, but the dress was awful!

24. Estonia (Getter Jaani - Rockefeller street) One of my favorites before the final. But the performance was far from what she did home. :/ The director missed almost every good part of the choreography. :/

25. Switzerland (Anna Rossinelli - In love for a while) - The performance was easy and enjoyable! She noticed that she wasn't expecting to get in the final, so I guess she wasn't disappointed with the final result. However, being last is frustrating.

To sum up. The voting was strange, but the neighbors voting was still present. The winner wasn't really expected... at least not as last year. The marketing goal were achieved... or maybe not? How the ESC in Azerbaijan is going to get closer to the younger European population, I don't know... On the other hand the music quality was much higher than 2 years ago. No more bad English in almost every song, no more silly performances and bad acting, no more kitschy shows on stage. This year ESC was more modern than any other in the last 10 years. There were good vocals, stillness on stage, stable performances, European cultural mentality and, possibly the most important thing, no hard feeling about the winning (as one friend of mine, noted). It was just one big European party... finally!

 There were also, some new things, as the creativity of the Ukrainian performance, or the new age pop music of Jedward, etc., which unfortunately is still "beyond our understandings"! Also, ESC had Blue, one of the most successful male pop band ever! Maybe next year we would see more world-known artists, which would be great! :) As Macedonia's representatives are concerned, we have to make huge differences in the entire process, from choosing the song (not the performer) to the final performance on the ESC stage.
I'm glad I watched ESC this year and I truly hope next year will be even better, especially for Macedonia. I hope that Azerbaijan will do well in organizing the next ESC, at least as half as good as the Germans did. For the rest... next year!
CommentZzz? Your favorites? :D