This is so sweet, and she can sing, and the boys are cute. But it's Switzerland. Will anyone remember they're in it by the end? Vote now! Lines are open. Needless to say, there is an absence of Swiss fans storming the media centre. The Russians have sat down.

Qualifying? Borderline, but no. Ooh, it does seem big in the hall though. Seeds of doubt now...

Labels: Eurovision 2011, Switzerland

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I know what you were thinking as you sat in front of your telly tonight. 'Wow! Look at Rihanna's marvellous breasts and legs!' Well yes, many of us were thinking that. You were probably also thinking, 'It's been six months and thirteen days since the Eurovision final in Oslo. With barely five months to go before rehearsals start for the next one, isn't it time some countries chose their songs?

Thankfully, Switzerland stepped into the void tonight, beating Albania to the title of 'first song chosen' for a change. (Theirs comes up as usual around Christmas week.) So here it is. The first song chosen for Germany 2011. It's not like the Swiss even had the excuse that they needed to make great travel plans. They could easily walk to Düsseldorf. Look:



Eurovision 2011 - Song #1

Switzerland - 'In Love For A While' - Anna Rossinelli



I didn't watch tonight's Swiss TV show, in which this was chosen. I 'followed' it on facebook, through the medium of friends' comments, while watching The X Factor. Quite bizarre, but this is the modern way. On first hearing and viewing, I would file this under 'quite nice'. She seems like a good singer. The song seems quite catchy. Its simplicity is probably its great strength. In a weak year, this could get past the Eurovision semi-final. In a strong year, probably not. We'll just have to wait and see. Only 40 more songs to go.

Labels: Eurovision 2011, Switzerland

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Chig has a new favourite in this year's Eurovision. It probably won't excite a Eurovision audience very much, but I think this is fantastic! Basle band Lovebugs have been going for fifteen years and have plucked the title track from their tenth album, 'The Highest Heights', to become their country's 51st Eurovision entry. The shimmering guitar at the start sounds a bit like early U2, with vocals that remind me a lot of The Psychedelic Furs (and it's taken a frustrating 24 hours for me to work out who it was!) It doesn't have much of a verse/chorus structure, or even a key change, but still manages to be catchy. The best Swiss entry since Vanilla Ninja in 2005 - and they were Estonian. Allez la Suisse!


Eurovision 2009 - Switzerland - 'The Highest Heights' - Lovebugs

Labels: Eurovision 2009, Lovebugs, Switzerland

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Switzerland - 'Era Stupendo' - Paolo Meneguzzi

This has been around for so long,it feels like an old friend. It was a hot favourite with the fans, but the first rehearsal this week was a little underwhelming, vocally and in terms of action on stage. However, I think Paolo looked tired and will be much better later. I think he was saving himself. Judge for yourself:



That said, they had previously produced this amazing video, which is full of energy and very TV-friendly, but it hasn't been transferred to the Beograd stage at all. He's very pretty though, and sounds adorable when he speaks (at the beginning of the one above).

Labels: Eurovision 2008, Switzerland

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We mentioned it once (back in November) but I think we got away with it. However, the self-imposed moratorium on mentioning it has now ended, so I would now like to declare the Eurovision season officially open! Some of you may now wish to look away until about 26th May.

We had our first gathering of the season on Saturday, to watch the Cypriot final and the first Danish semi-final. The good people of Cyprus decided that, even with only three countries’ songs for this year chosen and in the public domain so far, there is clearly not enough unintentional comedy heading for Belgrade, so they decided to make Cyprus this year’s laughing stock. To this end, they have chosen well. The song they picked on Saturday is destined to end up a long way short of qualifying for the final. The song, Femme Fatale, is the second in a row from Cyprus with a French title. However, unlike last year’s Comme Ci, Comme Ca from Evridiki, it’s not in French. It was, in fact, the only song in the Cypriot final in Greek, which probably had a lot to do with it being picked, and the fact that it's in a musical style which is very obviously going to appeal to a domestic audience. That's the problem though; its appeal won't travel much further afield than Cyprus and Greece.

There was a very interesting song called Moments of Madness, but unfortunately Cyprus had some and picked the wrong song. 'Femme Fatale' is a dog's dinner of a song/cabaret act, which can't make its mind up what song it wants to be and will end up near the bottom of the pile, no matter where it is drawn in one of the new semi-finals.

Watching the Cypriot final at B+K's, I wrote these notes on my scoresheet after watching 'Femme Fatale':

"Slow start, then v. Greek + v. gay. A mess. 4/10"

But when it came to our voting, I was laughing out loud, as I found myself giving a song that I'd described as "a mess" eight points, because the selection was so poor that only two were better. (Moments of Madness was by far the best choice, I thought.)

Here is the Cypriot winner. Please bear in mind that this is not a medley of former Cypriot favourites. It's just the one song, apparently.



Here are the other three songs destined for Beograd which have been revealed (Switzerland and half of Andorra's) or chosen (Albania) so far.

Do we already have the winner, from Switzerland? Or is a song in Italian never going to break through again? It's certainly damn good and he's not ugly either. Your comments are welcome.

Switzerland - 'Era Stupendo' - Paolo Meneguzzi



Albania - 'Zemren e lame peng' - Olta Boka



Andorra - 'Casanova' (audio only) - Gisela

Labels: Albania, Andorra, Cyprus, Eurovision 2008, Switzerland

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