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ESC 2013 line-up check: The Nordic countries

by | Apr 5, 2013 | 2013 reviews, Uncategorized

ESC 2013 line-up check: The Nordic countries

by | Apr 5, 2013 | 2013 reviews, Uncategorized

In our series introducing the entries from different groups of participating countries, we’ve already talked about the Big 5 and the former Yugoslavia. This time, Felix takes a closer look at the Nordic countries: Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden.

Looking back

The Nordic countries, which is the proper term for what many people mistakenly describe as “Scandinavia”, have always been an integral part of the Eurovision Song Contest. Iceland, Norway, Sweden and Denmark have a tight linguistic connection, and together with Finland, they all share a similar flag layout with a cross laying on the side – but they are still quite diverse in terms of landscape and culture. Following several political unions throughout history, the strongest official connection that binds the five states nowadays is the Nordic Council, founded in 1952. Finland entered in 1955. Beyond all that, there has always been a more invisible tie around the countries that can be felt in their shared culture, and most of all in their feeling for each other.

Finland joined ESC in 1961, Norway in 1960 and Sweden in 1958, but the Nordic Eurovision history began in 1957, with the Danish song “Skibet skal sejle i nat” – and the region’s ESC ship is still sailing in strong winds.

11 victories have achieved by Nordic countries so far, four of them even before the 5th Nordic Country joined the contest: Iceland, introduced by the neighbour’s host Åse Kleveland, only entered for the first time in 1986.

Accusations of Scandinavian point exchanges have arisen numerous times, all ignoring the fact, that – for example – the victorious Norwegian entry “Nocturne” didn’t get any points from Sweden, and only 2 from Denmark.

And it’s not as if the other end of the scoreboard has been any less populated by Nordic countries, as a total of 25 of their entries have come last – with Norway being the famous keeper of the sad record of 11 times in last place.

Nowadays, only Iceland is still waiting for a victory, as all of the other four countries have been successful in this task before – indeed, all of them have won at least once in the era(s) of free language. And one of them is the reason why we’re travelling to Malmö this May: Sweden. Can a Nordic success be repeated this year? At least two countries are currently enjoying excellent places in various fan polls – Norway and Denmark. Now let’s get to this editor’s own opinion.

The Nordic countries in 2013

Norway has experienced it all: victory, last place and being stuck in the semi, all within the last 4 years. After the bad result of Tooji in particular, the country should be interested in getting a better place again this year. In their surprise-packed national final, MGP, they didn’t go for what turned out to be the biggest commercial success of the selection, and what became the most popular song of the whole National Final season: “Bombo”. Instead, Margaret Berger will fly the Norwegian flag in Malmö.

“I Feed You My Love” is one of these cold and dark songs, and it probably does nothing that people wouldn’t initially connect to Norway: It doesn’t try to be Tooji-hot, nor Mwangi-charming, and maybe that’s what gives Norway more credibility this year. Instead, we get a song cold as ice, with knife-sharp lyrics. It’s distinctive and – I like dark and cold – good.

However, I doubt it’s going to end up as high as many predict, as I assume people from the whole Mediterranean area won’t feel the urge to vote for this. Unlike their southern Nordic neighbour, which I will introduce later, Norway probably won’t be able to reach as many different groups of voters. It’s still a strong entry, but – if you ask me – not as likely to succeed as many people think.

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Denmark had good results in 2010 and 2011, but was put back on the gravel road with the negative surprise that was Soluna Samay’s result in Baku. Despite this, Denmark shouldn’t be as much in need of a good result as some other countries may be in order to ensure their further participation. Still, they put up an excellent National Final with DMGP 2013. The announcement of the results was exciting, as Denmark didn’t go for the biggest names, but instead for young Emmelie de Forest.

“Only Teardrops” is a phenomenon. It’s not a victory-by-numbers product, nor does it use any other fanboy fever formula. It hasn’t taken any obvious inspiration from former Eurovision winners, nor does it sound like a 2013 chart hit either. So what is it that makes Denmark 2013 top most of the fan polls, anyway? The answer may be as simple as the very concept of ESC: It’s a damn good song that reaches the hearts of the people. A song that you can sing and dream along to, a song that you can still hear and like in 2043, or when travelling back in time, even in 1973. It’s a timeless composition, and thus predestined to be a Eurovision classic, and probably a Eurovision winner. And unlike Norway 2013, Denmark can reach people from all across the continent, as the song unites the Nordic love for melody and the southern passion for rhythmic drums. Any prediction can be totally wrong, as we all know, but this – out of all songs – smells the most like a winner at this point in the season. And I personally love it.

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Finland came a long way from their first entry in 1961 to their first victory in 2006. Ever since, Finland have returned to their traditionally bad results, with none of their recent entries managing to get into the top 10. Will their 2013 entrant, Krista Siegfrids, manage to break this streak?

“Marry Me” smells of the same syrup that songs like Le Kid’s “Oh My God” have bathed in ever since Katy Perry has existed in our collective memory. Some find it catchy and fun, some find it annoying, and I belong to the latter group – at least after the 2nd listen. The contest, however, doesn’t ask for 2nd opinions, and that’s the good news: The Finnish song is instant. Even though I consider it to be dated (which is something different than “timeless”), it’s neither pretentious (because it admittedly is – on purpose – exactly that, in an ironic way) nor is it begging for votes. I don’t really like it, but I think it can achieve a better result than any other Finnish song since Lordi. Even a victory can’t be ruled out completely. A Waldo’s People result is equally possible, though.

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Sweden makes it a bit easier for me to talk about; however, the quick facts that everyone knows anyway are: the country won last year and hosts this year. But what can that alone say about the chances of their hopeful, Robin Stjernberg?

“You” is a complicated song. Some people seem to go for it, as could be seen at Melodifestivalen, where it was mainly the international jury that helped Robin to victory. It’s also getting some good results in fan polls. I am just very surprised. I must emphasize that Robin is a lovely guy, I met him in person for this interview and can’t say anything bad about him. He spreads a positive energy all the time, which doesn’t hurt when you need people to vote for you.

The song has nice and deep verses, with the necessary “vocal landmarks” that the bits around “crazy-y-y” are. HOWEVER. What’s that chorus? To me as a musician and songwriter, it sounds like the composers stopped bothering to write a good song as soon as it came to the chorus, where the melody has multiple car crashes with the accompanying harmonies, while climax and anticlimax feel like they have been put into a mixer and been rearranged by random.org. I know there are other reviews written by people with a musical background, and we must not forget the expert juries that helped this to proceed in first place, but I can’t do anything than to stick with my own opinion and verdict: namely, that I think this is not a good song at all.

I like Robin. I don’t like the song. I still think it can do well though, and it’s all because of… Robin.

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Iceland – despite Yohanna’s sensational success in 2009 – can’t be happy with their recent results. For all “Je ne sais quoi” and “This is my life” remain classics for every Eurovision party, neither entered the top 10. And Iceland is the only Nordic country to never have won Eurovision. However, it needs to be taken into consideration that they have the shortest ESC experience so far, given that they entered not that long before the fall of the iron (Eurovision) curtain.

More than the half of all Eurovision editions so far have been held without Iceland participating, so despite the country probably having deserved victory before now, we all can live without an Icelandic victory for at least one other year – as can Eyþór Ingi Gunnlaugsson,  most likely.

“Ég Á Líf” is a solid song. Before, I talked about the love for melody – as counterpart to the love for rhythm – and melody is where this song shines. No one who looks for something like this in Eurovision needs to understand Icelandic to feel this melody, and to feel right at home with it very quickly. The song isn’t as “sparkling” and noticeable as Denmark, but it can be given the same “timeless” tag, despite addressing a different taste – and probably a smaller, more mature audience. Both outcomes are possible: ignored, or a dark horse. I didn’t get the song during the lovely show that can’t be named often enough (Söngvakeppni Sjónvarpsins), but I’ve got it now. And it will have its fans.

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The bottom line is that the North is not doing any experiments this year. All of the chosen entries have a certain credibility for what they are – even Finland, for the aforementioned reasons. And Denmark will probably reach the widest audience out of the five… and maybe even out of the 39.

You can tell us your own opinion in the poll on the right-hand side of our website: Which song from the Nordic countries do you like best? The poll will remain open until Thursday morning.

We want to emphasize that the judgements on the songs are based on the personal taste of the author, and that the predictions made here might be very different to the predictions we make once the rehearsals begin!

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