Saturday, May 23, 2015

Thoughts from a metal mind: Eurovision 2015

Okay, so I know that I should probably not speak about the Eurovision Song Contest since I run a metal blog and so, but it should be noted that I am a general music fan. Sure, Metal is my main subject and I dedicate almost all of my time into it, but that does not mean that I completely ignore all the other things that happens in music. And when it comes to ESC, I have followed the competition deeply for about 7 years, so I think I should speak my mind over what happened during the competition.

Anyway, not surprisingly, Sweden won with Måns Zelmerlöv and his song "Heroes". He and his little stick figure friend (named MP, representing Måns' younger self) got out on the stage with a bunch of accusations against them. Some said that the song was a copy of David Guetta's "Lovers In The Sun", others have bashed him over one anti-gay comment he did in some Swedish television show, and then we have the overall fact that some were bored of Sweden being the favourite once again. But in the end, the people of Europe made their voices heard, and Måns stood as the winner.

But let us back the tapes to the start of March this year, when the final of the Swedish tryouts (Melodifestivalen) had its final. I personally attended the event together with my Mother and my Little Sister, and was pretty impressed overall. The line-up of finalists was pretty decent, but Måns was already there favorized heavily. A lot of people had about the same opinion, the song was right in its time, the lyrics was inspiring, and the show itself was new and unique. Måns defeated several of Loreens previous records, like most points and most votes from the people, but it was one thing that made Swedes hopeful that history would repeat itself. In 2011, Eric Saade came in 3rd place in ESC, the year after, Loreen won with "Euphoria". Last year, Sweden came once again third, this time with Sanna Nielsen, and look here and now. History has repeated itself once again.

Måns definitely deserves the win, the song has very few similarities to "Lovers In The Sun", but not enough to make it a copy. In the end, it was the performance that I think gave the victory. None of the entries could match up to it, and Måns did all of the bits perfectly (except the fist bump). So congratulations Måns, you made Sweden proud.

Other notable stuff

Sweden won with 362 points, Russia came in 2nd with 303 points, and Italy got 3rd place with 292 points, so the expected favourites all came in the top 3.

Russia actually led the competition after half of the countries had laid out their votes.

Germany and Austria finished last without any points at all. I personally thought that the British entry deserved last place (they finished 24th with 5 points).

The special guest Australia ended 5th in the competition with 196 points. Good for them, thank you for coming.

Who came 4th? Belgium did with 217 points. Did not think they would end up this high, but I did like the song, and I think they deserved the place they got.

Azerbaijan came outside of the top 10 for the second year in a row. I hope that they from now on skips the Swedish song writers and competes with a song that is written by native writers.

The amount of ballads this year was way too many. But since Europe goes with the flow, I expect next year to be a uptempo year since Sweden won.

This year's overall set list was one of the most boring overall, probably the worst since 2011.

My personal favourite this year was Finland's entry, Pertti Kurikan Nimipäivät and their song "Aina Mun Pittä". Those guys were simply awesome.

Worst song this year was Hungary, Boggie with "Wars For Nothing", simply because it was such a boring ballad and the artist was named Boggie. OH THE IRONY!

The stage was spectacular, especially the LED-screen was impressive. Made some cool effects.

Besides from Conchita, the overall production was just mediocre. The hosts were bland, but good looking.

I might try to get a ticket to next year's competition since it goes in my home country, but we will see how my situation is in the future.

If you have questions, wheter it be about a specific entry or any other general ESC questions for me, comment here or send me a tweet @FATGreviews.

Stay Metal
Robert "Sharkruisher" Andersson

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