The Swiss will choose tonight!

Much the same like Christmas it seems like Eurovision season kicks off earlier every year. And for the record, that's not a bad thing. In the Good Evening Europe HQ every day is Eurovision day all year around. And tonight the first entry for Düsseldorf will be selected. Oh joy! The Swiss have done terribly bad the last few years and darling Michael von der Heide even told us that they might consider withdrawing if he didn't make the cut in Oslo. Well, we all know how that went and his sinister prediction turned out to be a bunch of BS, thank Gawd. 



But they seemed to have realized that something must be done to try and save the sinking ship and it would be nice to see a Swiss entry proceed from the semi-finals at the very least. Step one towards restoring Swiss ESC-greatness is to bring back the national selection final. We've had a quick spin though tonight's candidates, and that's about half an hour of our lives that we will never get back. We better hope that the Swiss will choose wisely so we're not stuck for the next six months with the realization of Switzerland sending yet another non-qualifier. Cause most of the entries in the line-up won't have a snowball's chance in hell to make it through, we reckon.

Here's tonight's line-up:


1.    Polly Duster - Up to you

2.    Duke - Waiting for ya
   
3.    Andrina - Drop of drizzle
   
4.    Bernarda Brunovic - Confidence
   
5.    Anna Rossinelli - In love for a while
   
6.    Aliose - Sur les paves
   
7.    Dominique Borriello - Il ritmo dentro di noi
  
8.    Scilla - Barbie Doll
   
9.    CH - Gib nid uf
   
10.    Ilira and The Colors - Home
   
11.    Sarah Burgess - Just me
   
12.    The Glue - Come what may

You might as well skip the first 8, unless you take a particular twisted joy in torturing yourself. In that case you might consider seeking professional help. Andrina's Drop of drizzle is perhaps not that bad. She's young and we get a hunch that she might be ok live. The song is very commercial in a Faith Hill kinda way. It should have played out the country feel to it to a much greater extent to really stand out. We like the fact that Dominique Borriello sings in Italian, but that's it, the song itself is one big yawn. And Scilla's Barbie Doll, we expected it to be bad, but we actually couldn't finish listening to the whole song, it's just too awful. Anna Rossinelli's name gets our hopes up for a full blown Italian power ballad, however instead she gives us a bland and boring sqeekathon, what a bummer. Polly Duster's kilts and Aliose's French sugar pop are equally horrible in very different ways. Top that with Duke's wannabe hip hop/rap, perhaps of even poorer quality than FYR Macedonia this year and a boring ballad in the Jesus/Praise the Lord segment by Bernarda Brunovich you're in for a roller coster ride of bad taste and heart wrenching moments.



CH's Gib nid uf is not half bad, we like that it's sung in Swiss German and it has a radio friendly sing along melody. But it's not ESC material we're afraid. The ex-American Idol participant Sarah Burgess seems to emerge as a fan (aka gay) favorite, but we don't like it much. It's annoying, kinda fake and very Katy Perry wannabe. And for those of you that didn't care much for Lena's freaky accent, here's another challenge for you. 



This boils it down to a couple of favorites, really. Ilira and The Colors with Home, has that something special. It sounds a little like Justin Timberlake's What Goes Around.../...Comes Around and that can't be a bad thing. And we became very puzzled by the language, could it be Romansh? It turns out it's Albanian, and the song is about how it's like being a second generation immigrant in Switzerland. Interesting. With a pimped-up production this could turn out to be a real dark horse in Düsseldorf.



The Glue with Come what may also reeks dark horse miles away. What is this? Is it entirely a cappella? We're intrigued and wonder how this will turn out live. After some contemplation we have reached the decision that this must be our favorite for tonight.



A last piece of advise for Switzerland, forget about neutrality for once and take a stand. Happy voting!

Our night: Thursday of Estonia and Norway

Today we have been to a reception with the Estonian embassy and the Estonian participants Malcolm Lincoln, followed by a Norwegian party at Ballroom. Here's a couple of hightlights:

Malcolm Lincoln had a small selection of people, among them us, over for a concert. How lucky were we to see glorious Robin Juhkental swing the microphone over his head and even another couple of hotties in the back there. We now love the Estonian song even more.

-I wanna be a fool, not cool, Robin said as this picture was taken. We thought it was a tremendous idea. Check out our interview tomorrow.


At the Norwegian party, Alexander Rybak did an amazing performance and swung his fiddle like only he could do it. Whatta man he is.


And here's another fantastic fiddler, Moa Meinich. Even though Alexander sings about loving her in his new single, he claims they are not a couple. But won't you look at that connection? We think Alexander should get around to this very sweet girl if he hasn't already. Because we love you Moa.



Not bad connection here either, as buddies Alexander Rybak and Didrik Solli-Tangen dreams away the Everly brothers way.



Didrik did the final version of My hard is yours - with choir for the first time. It did wonders to the song, and we are starting to believe Norway might have a good chance in the final.

And yay, there's Michael von der Heide, the Swiss Sweetheart! He told us that Switzerland might consider withdrawing from ESC if the country fails to qualify for the final again. Now we can't have that happening, can we. We will cast a vote for the Golden Boy next Thursday!

Posing effortlessly with our buddies from Eurovisionnorway.com.  Lookin pretty fly with their glasses on!

Semi-Final 2

All righty then, it's time to reveal our pick for the second semi-final!

• Armenia
• Azerbaijan
• Cyprus
• Georgia
• Ireland
• Israel
• Lithuania
• Romania
• Sweden
• Switzerland

This list might be as far off as it gets when comparing it with the final list Thursday night. Like, there's not much hope for Europe to ignore Turkey with their polished, family friendly rock show, is there? And don't get us started on those pretentious Danes. Croatia has more than a fair chance with the lovely femidoms, and Bulgarian Miro is so kitchy we're almost starting to like him.

And Sieneke! She scares the shit out of us...

Woha, this will be so exciting, we can hardly wait!

And you guys, beg to differ anyone?

Hello sweetness!

Switzerland hasn't really given us much Eurovision history recently. That is, if you don't love the cheesy ballads Celine Dion and her kindred spirits deliver. Safe to say, we don't.
 

The very first Eurovision Song Contest was actually held in Switzerland in 1956, and they even won themselves. The winner was the very cute Lys Assia. Not really ESC like we know today, but such a lady of the 50s and such a romantic, lovely and dreamy song. It just makes you want to watch the sunset and sip cocktails with Don Draper. Lys Assia continued to be cute for a couple more years until other, more annoying women replaced her. Horrible entries from Annie Cotton and Vanilla Ninja have managed to grasp surprisingly good scores, and Celine Dion was a bit quirky and sweet, but still no good winner in 1988. Then DJ Bobo’s vampire flirt and Lovebugs’ rock disaster last year made us think the country had lost it completely.

That’s why we are so happy that Swiss cuteness again will enter Eurovision this year. Michael Von Der Heide is the male equivalent of Lys Assia, and his golden jacket and adoring ears really makes you wanna take him home for dessert. His energy, the song reminding you of Shagma and the fantastic Balalaika-player just adds to the menu. This is Eurovision like it should be. And it is welcome back to the chocolatiers of Europe.