WEEK 4: Sometimes in Eurovision, producers and artists just struggle to come up with original ideas for songs. I mean the contest has been going on for 57 years now so it's a little more difficult to think outside of the box these days. The solution: 'Hmmm, why don't we just nab some bits from songs that have already been chart hits? It'll take less time (and money - we're in debt remember), sound instantly familiar to everyone who's heard the original and will definitely be better than that cack about pigeons we were composing before. Just give it to some young sexy people to sing, throw in some equally sexy dancers, add a gimmick - flames, snow, thunder, midgets dressed as sheep - and ta-dah! We've totally won this thing.' The 2012 Eurovision Song Contest is rife with stolen musical identities so here are 5 cases of Pop Theft running amok the firework-laden stage alongside their chart hit counterparts (so you can decide for yourself):
Sofi Marinova - Love Unlimited (Bulgaria) Poor Bulgaria. They've had a hard time of it ever since they joined the Eurovision party, only qualifying once in the last seven years. So, I think it's ok for them to try nabbing a little bit of mainstream magic for Sofi Marinova's Love Unlimited which sounds incredibly like Romanian dance artist Inna, especially the song Hot. You may shout at me 'Josh, that song was released in 2008! Surely they wouldn't be copying a song that old?' and perhaps you're right but listen to Inna's more recent output Sun Is Up, a number one in Bulgaria may I add, and it's near identical again. Sofi even acknowledges she had Love Unlimited on her phone for the a good 6/7 months before entering it in the Bulgarian national final placing it very close to the charting of the Inna song just mentioned. The plot thickens but does it work? To an extent. Sofi's voice is perhaps a little schreechy at points but it fits that eastern european dance pop mould quite well. The official video is quite bland and Sofi looks particularly uncomfortable about being stuck in some cloud ripples but don't expect that onstage as her live performances have featured light shows and fireworks. WOOP. Not that I'm saying it will qualify but it should be a nice get-up-and-dance-interlude during its semi-final. One last word: Bulgaria is this year's Speak-Every-Language-You-Can-To-Gain-Votes entry with lyrics in Bulgarian, Arabic, Azerbaijani, French, English, Spanish, Greek, Turkish, Romani, Italian and Serbo-Croatian. Not many then... Odds of Winning: 200/1 - will struggle performing next to the similar Ukrainian entry so it'll be touch and go whether this qualifies.VS http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1rh3_r0nbKs&ob=av2e Ivi Adamou - La La Love (Cyprus) A common trend in recent pop music is the lyrical stutter, repetition being a girl's best friend. Don't believe me? Well there was J-J-J-J-Jessie J, P-P-P-Pokerface, Make Them Go Oh-Oh-Oh and J-Lo's stellar attempt to fill in some lyrical gaps on On The Floor with La La La La La La La La La La La Lah La-Lah. Cyprus, another country left fairly hard-done-by in most of the contests they've entered, have gone all out guns blazing in the hope that their sequence of La La Las will be even more catchy than J-Lo's simply because there are so many more. La La Love is the name, La La La is it's game. It's helmed by former Greek X-Factor contest Ivi Adamou and, in all fairness, I think its an improvement on On The Floor dumping the Lambada sample in favour for some squechly electro sirens, a tribal drum breakdown and some proper Mediterranean beats which are nice and summery for this time of year. Here the many many La's feel less chucked in there to avoid writing actually lyrics because the song doesn't take itself too seriously. The video on the other hand takes itself very seriously - no shots of gyrating in clubs and Ivi stumbling home, kebab in hand - which doesn't completely fit the song but is still a welcome change from the low budget, couldn't-give-a-toss videos you can sometimes see from Eurovision entries. Have no idea how it'll be staged and it'll have to go toe-to-toe with Greece's very similar (worse) entry but this should see a phoenix rise for Cyprus. Odds of Winning: 33/1 - the only reason this isn't higher is because Cyprus barely ever qualify. They should do this year and could even hit the top 10 in the final.VS http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t4H_Zoh7G5A&ob=av2e Soluna Samay - Should've Known Better (Denmark) Of course if you ARE going to nab some parts of other songs, your best hope to not get detected is to mirror a much older song that people will have forgotten/not know so when they hear your song they're like 'Oh my days! This sounds so familiar but I can't put my finger on it...'. Step forward Denmark who've gone for some classic 90's Seal for their inspiration. Listen to the chorus of Should've Known Better then the one in Seal's Crazy (about 1:16 into the video) - it is the same melody and everything! Except now instead of a dreadlocked, smoky-voiced man in leather trousers we've got Soluna Samay with her girl pop-rock band in a nice military hat/jacket combo. Fair dues though it is a very pleasant song that sounds like it could have been around during the whole 'let's throw a little country-accoustic-ness at pop' (eg. Emma Bunton - What Took You So Long?, Shania Twain and Darius - Colourblind - yes, THAT era of pop) which makes a change from the ballad or banger motif this year's contest seems to have going for it. It particularly picks up during the girl back-up singer sections and twinkly piano/keyboard notes going on in the background. The bookies rank it highly, fans quite like it too and it should appeal to a wide range of viewers - all seems to be swinging in Soluna's favour so Denmark will be hoping its Copenhagen 2013. Odds of Winning: 14/1 - extremely high for this but it's got a nice mid-level pace that'll stand out in the pack.VS http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Fc67yQsPqQ&ob=av2e Donny Montell - Love Is Blind (Lithuania) Lithuania is another country with a fairly mediocre set of results in past years so they'll be looking to beat back the competition with the charming Donny Montell and his song Love Is Blind which was clearly composed after listing to the whole of George Michael's discography. Listen to his voice and you'll get the comparison - there's the Careless Whisper brooding of the opening ballad section before the switch-up into disco reminscient of Let's Go Outside or a sped-up Fast Love. The proper disco guitar lines in the later section could work well off the back of Moves Like Jagger too but there are some issues with Love Is Blind. Firstly, the lyrics are empty cliches at best that don't straddle the line between endearing and cringe very well however the saving grace is Donny's vocal delivery which is generally top-notch (even if his english pronounciation is a little dodgy sometimes). Secondly, the bloody blindfold affair - who thought it would be ok to have a singer walking blindfolded around the stage to song about love being blind? I just feel it's in bad taste or at least adds nothing much to the performance, which picks up tremedously when good old Donz whips off the black shroud of idiocy, does a handspring and starts air guitaring to the sounds of Chic - Le Freak. Please please overhaul the performance in time for Baku because it's a massive mis-step in what could be a great entry and George Michael will weep that his second coming nearly fell off the stage because he was blindfolded like a goon. Odds of Winning: 150/1 - not going to win anytime soon but it's looking like Lithuania's best chance at qualifying in years.VS http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=izGwDsrQ1eQ&ob=av2e Tooji - Stay (Norway) Now I'm sure when you saw the video for Benny Benassi - Satisfaction down the bottom there you thought 'Oh God here come the robot voices spouting double entendres' but no, its not the robot voices Tooji has swiped for Stay but the scratchy, whirring overlay of the track. In fact its an ultra-pop-dance enhancement of that whirring with tight dance routines, attractive people, Na Na Na's, rave beats, chanting and african tribal drums. Tooji is a Norwegian model, presenter and now singer who seems to have modelled (hah, pun...) himself and his stage performance on last year's 3rd place entry Eric Saade from Sweden. Not neccessarily a bad thing but it occasionally feels a little copycat and considering Norway crashed out of last year's contest with a Waka Waka rip-off, they'll be hoping that lightning doesn't strike twice. Regardless of all the nabbing (there's an element of Christina Aguilera's Not Myself Tonight lurking there too), the song is perhaps the most full-on uptempo in this year's contest but it seems more chaotic and crazy than it actually is if you look at the live performance video. I wonder if they could crank it up a notch in time for Baku, get some big crazy gimmick going on just make it all the more bonkers. Yeah I want explosions, steam jets, rising-from-the-floor plints and a dancer on fire but that's just me.... Odds of Winning: 25/1 - bookies have it this high because of its similarity to Eric Saade last year but don't expect it to do as well as that.VS
For our final week of entry introductions say Hola & Ciao (amongst others) to five scorchers from along the Mediterranean Sea. Sights and sounds to experience along the way include the Italian Amy Winehouse (minus the addictions), a fairly annoying extended boat metaphor on a slave-ship, aphrodisiac lovers and THE warbling masterclass. Fetch your suncream, shades and a parasol because the musical cruise is ready to set sail in one week's time...