RAVE: My Eurovision 2011 Choices

With just over an hour before the 2011 Eurovision Song Contest gets under way in Germany, here then are my choices from this year's 25 finalists.

Follow the links to hear each of the songs that were my favourite.

My choices will be done with the exact same voting system used by all the juries - a voting system which has become synonymous with the Eurovision Song Contest...

Here they are, my top ten:

(10th) 1 point - ROMANIA

"Change" by Hotel FM: Goodlooking guy, good voice, quite a nice song from a country that consistently offers me one of my favourite choices each Eurovision.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1q1WpOTpZ1A


(9th) 2 points - ITALY

"Follia d'amore" by Rapahel Gualazzi: A tremendous suave mood and some great piano at times, only spoilt by too much jazz at key moments. Still, a welcome return after 14 years absence for Italia.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KfwGqf0bHd0


(8th) 3 points - ICELAND

"Coming Home" by Sjonni' Friends: A bit folksy at times, but a still lovely, sweet song from a country that I have consistently loved at Eurovision for years now.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rY2l00PC0JA


(7th) 4 points - SWITZERLAND

"In Love For a While" by Anna Rossinelli: Deceptively simple. A sweet tune, and really lovely singer with a voice to match. One of the understated joys of the year. Charming, lovely simplicity.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z8kgzFpMDUw


(6th) 5 points - ESTONIA

"Rockefeller Street" by Getter Jaani: A terrific opening riff and very clever beat, only spoilt slightly by a too repetitious ending. This would've been in my top three had it been more stylishly composed.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=feypa0Di014


(5th) 6 points - AZERBAIJAN

"Running Scared" by Eldar & Nigar: Very pop, very much a love song, very Eurovision - yet it totally works for me. This duo work terrific together, has great orchestration and it's damn catchy. Love it. 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Vk4HYUatv8


(4th) 7 points - UNITED KINGDOM

"I Can" by Blue: A very clever, very committed choice by the UK. Yes, they're an established boy band and the song is hardly groundbreaking, but it's strong, modern pop and, yes, hellishly catchy.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z2JYc_jWIDQ


And now my Top Three...

(3rd) 8 points - HUNGARY

"What About My Dreams" by Kati Wolf: What a voice this woman has! Shades of Celine Dion, but still all hers - powerful and resonant and a true voice. The song may be pop, but it's great pop. Terrific!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NbKNKfePCrs


(2nd) 10 points - DENMARK

"New Tomorrow" by A Friend in London: Incredibly catchy, incredibly clever and a hit in the making by this indie band. I loved this from the first hearing. Yet again, Denmark delivers one of my favourite songs. Great!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p_fFy5Icbh0


And finally...


without a doubt for me...

my ABSOLUTE favourite song of the 2011 Eurovision Song Contest...

1st with DOUZE POINTS...FINLAND!






"Da Da Dum" by Paradise Oskar: The first time I heard this tears welled in my eyes within seconds of hearing it. Superb ecological message, superb lyrics, great voice. Just beautiful. GO FINLAND!!!!!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoDsA9PutU4


And there they are - my favourite ten songs for this year's Eurovision.

Honourable mentions: SERBIA, GERMANY, SLOVENIA and UKRAINE (in that order...for now) - all really good songs in their own way which, on the night, may do better in my final rankings than countries like Romania, Italy, Iceland and even Switzerland. We'll see.

Finland's entry is too smart and too 'simple' to win Eurovision and has been dealt a death blow by being the 1st song on the Finals night - never a good thing in this competition. But it'll remain my favourite for sure.

They say France is a big favourite - great voice, brave concept, but I very much doubt it. Simply too operatic - and not memorable, to be honest. And I usually love the French entry!

Other favourites are Ireland (horrific - camp at its worst, not its best), the UK (very okay with that), Azerbaijan (very okay with that too) and, heaven help us, Sweden (annoying, unbelievably repetitive and shitty song). I also hope Russia (cute guy - can't sing, crap song) doesn't win just because of all those Eastern European votes. Greece isn't much better. Austria is also crap, whilst Moldova is diabolically bad!

Bosnia & Herzegovina has a song I actually quite like, but it'll never win, nor will Lithuania, although that song is boring and that woman sings way off-key! Georgia will also not win, which is fine with me

Just watch Azerbaijan - they could go all the way and beat the heavyweights. And just watch Spain maybe come away with nul points - the song deserves no more, frankly.

Less than ten minutes to go - it's Eurovision time!

RAVE: Why I Love Eurovision

In less than two hours it will be the 56th edition of the Eurovision Song Contest, to be held in Dusseldorf. Yet again, I will sit glued to the television as the show is aired live via satellite on the Portuguese station, RTP Internacional. I will, as ever, thoroughly enjoy some of the better songs, whilst groaning and laughing out with derision at some of the terrible songs on display.

And some of it is toe-curdling stuff, to which anyone who has ever watched the show can attest.

So, why do I bother? Why do I sit through this music fest, this ode to kitsch and camp in high gear so derided and so made fun of by so many? Why?

I'll tell you why...

1. Because Eurovision is an opportunity to just sit back and just enjoy the show, knowing none of it is terribly important.

2. Because, even through all the dreck and the horrendous songs, there are always those few songs that really shine through, that are really quite good, and which are sung really rather well.

3. Because even the dreck and horrendous songs can be so much fun.

4. Because no one does glorious, technicolour kitsch quite like the Eurovision Song Contest. And, once in a while, I'm a total sucker for technicolour kitsch.

5. Because any competition that gave ABBA their breakthrough is deserving of respect. Enough said.

6. Because I love a good competition, especially between countries. Countries, flags, voting - hell, I'm in. Douze points, baby!

7. Because it's fun and all done with good heart and for the hell of it. It's a terrific, fun tonic. And, hey, how many things can one say that about in this day and age?

8. Because in its own funny, weird little way, it does unite Europe, which is really great to see. Even if for only one night.

9. Because after a few years in the early- to mid-2000s of hyper-regionalism in the voting which really made me very angry, it seems they've (to an extent) sorted that one out. Unless Moldova or Sweden win tonight - and then I'll be spitting blood and hating Eurovision all over again!

10. Because it's a constant in my life. Every year in mid-May I know that I can look forward to this camp, kitsch musical affair that seems to drip with technicolour. It's something I can look forward to. Something akin to what the Oscars once meant to me and no longer do.  

I take Eurovision for what it is and enjoy every moment, both the great and the atrocious. Isn't that enough?

Do you get my point?

RAVE: It Says It All...

I came across this cartoon today regarding the massive bail-out given to Wall Street at the expense of the American public.

It really says it all...

RANT: Robin Hood Would've Wept

I came across another article on Yahoo News, once again linking to an article in the New York Post, which annoyed me even more than the one about Will Smith's super-size trailer (see previous post). This one had to do with a charity benefit in which Lady GaGa performed in front of a room full of Wall Street's 'best' (ahem...) and 'finest' (again, ahem...).

A room full of fatcat scheisters so grossly rich that they make Will Smith look like an impoverished Ethiopian.

The article was a showcase of one example after another of just how ironically screwed up the United States and its super-rich thieves have truly become.

Take Lady GaGa. She the modern temptress of ironic kitsch and wit. She performs in front of these super-rich twats, no doubt picking up a huge pay cheque for her one night's work, and what's her grand gesture of 'irony and wit' at this crowd? She supposedly 'breaks a nail' and shows the fatcats the broken nail, thereby "showing them the middle finger" as she giggled, according to the article. Oh, what wit, Ms GaGa!

That may have been her (lame) attempt at poking fun at the assembled fatcats, but she's still a big sell-out.

Then there's the assembled fatcats. According to the Post, "The generous bigwigs coughed up $11 million in donations via credit card machines on each table to help Afghanistan and Iraq war veterans and fight poverty while the night took in more than $47 million. Bidding on a recording session with the Black Eyed Peas reached $400,000."

The mind boggles (and the stomach turns) at that statement. Consider it:

• "Credit card machines on each table"?! The sheer vulgarity of that image belies description. And how does Wall Street give so 'generously' to these charities? By paying with...wait for it...credit! Oh, what sweet irony.
• "To help Afghanistan and Iraq war veterans"? Really? Shouldn't the government be doing that? Oh, that's right - your government is bankrupt, all because it decided to sell its soul to Lucifer and spend all those billions bailing your Wall Street fatcat asses out, you greedy, conniving bastards!
• "Fight poverty"? Would that be the poverty that you, Wall Street, caused more than anything else in your country in the last few years?! Is it that poverty you're wanting to 'fight'?
• "$47-million"? Is that all?
• "Black Eyed Peas"? Another bunch of sell-outs. Big surprise.

But the biggest irony at an event dripping with irony? The name of the charity - the Robin Hood Foundation. That's right - the biggest thieves in the modern era, the robber barons of Wall Street, were wining and dining and living it up and being warbled at by Lady GaGa for a charity called the Robin Hood Foundation. 

Except these rich scheisters on Wall Street got it all confused - Robin Hood was about stealing from the rich to give to the poor, not the other way around, you gormless, amoral turds!

Robin Hood would've wept, not to mention Jesus.

Where are those blood-baying crowds of the French Revolution when you need them, huh?

Do you get my point?

RANT: Vulgar Wealth Blocks SoHo

I read a silly little piece on Yahoo News this morning which had the ability to irk me. It was regarding Will Smith and a movie trailer the size of the Battlestar Galactica. Turns out that the residents of a certain neighbourhood in SoHo were up in arms because of the ginormous personal trailer that Will Smith had parked in the street.

The actor is in NYC doing shooting for the latest "Men in Black" instalment. You know, just another reason for the overrated actor to make another few tens of millions of dollars.

The New York Post reported how his 53-foot double decker trailer had so blocked the street that businesses were losing money and traffic was affected. That's roughly 28 metres long for those of us in the rest of the world who use the metric system. Residents in the area, true to Noo Yawk form, were furious and very vocal about it. He finally had to move his $9000 a week trailer (that's right, $9000 a week just for a lousy freaking trailer) up the street to a parking lot where it will now be docked.

A local public official made the hilarious comment that, "Hardworking New Yorkers have a right to wake up in the morning and not find a cruise ship parked out in front of their house."Too true! Not to mention a Hollywood star with clearly an ego the size of Manhattan to boot strutting about.
The poor little thing with his goofy grin and cauliflower ears now has to walk a full mile between his trailer and the set. Poor little munchkins.

Oh, and he also has his own $25000 a month apartment just a mile away. You know, as we all do when we're in these where-the-hell-do-I-park-my-53-foot-personal-trailer issues in life.

Who the fackula are these people?

Who are these twerps who prance around sets and make (some of) us laugh and be entertained for a couple of hours and JUST FOR THAT become these multi-multi-multi-millionaires who behave as if they were born this way and that their behaviour is simply so utterly normal and so, you know, earned, dude, you know, like.

It is this obscene, vulgar display of such conspicuous wealth, inevitably shoved in our 'plebian' faces with utter brattish contempt, that makes me so bloody angry. Not to mention want to smack a useless turd like Will Smith to within an inch of his life. Or get the Mafia to do it for me.

It is not cute, it is not funny and it is not just 'a little thing' to be shrugged off. It is symptomatic of just how warped our times have become when a Hollywood star sees fit to park a 53-foot trailer in the middle of SoHo.

Does this gormless idiot not realize there is still a recession going on in America? Of course he doesn't - he lives in the stratosphere, pissing down on the rest of us with his opulent and charmed-beyond-belief life. It's rather fitting, then, that he's shooting a film about aliens.

Does he care? Clearly not a damn. Thing is, neither would I if the masses were to one day get hold of super-rich f***ers like this and show them a thing or two about mob justice. Or just call in the Mafia.

Do you get my point?

RAVE: Hating Facebook Is So Easy 1

I've just posted on the brilliant Julian Assange and his damning assessment of just how nefarious Facebook really is. Like Sarah Palin, this is one blog that finds hating Facebook so very easy to do.

It's now well over a year since I was a member of that most hideous social networking site, yet my rancour towards it continues afresh, now spurred by Assange calling it the "most appalling spy ever".

I literally ran for my life from Facebook. And, boy, was it difficult to get all my data erased and not be able to freely 'access' my profile even after I had supposedly deleted it. That in itself was a creepy, creepy exercise in how and why to hate Facebook.

Hence, I simply had to post this picture below that I came across, courtesy of sounds-like-me.com. It really says it all.

RAVE: Assange & The Most Appalling Spy

I always grab any opportunity to sit down and listen to Julian Assange. He is always erudite, exacting and entirely on point. For all his many detractors, he continues to be the voice of reason and truth in the midst of all the hogwash and corporatist propaganda masquerading as 'media' and 'news' these days. It wasn't by chance that he (just) beat out the brilliant Max Keiser to be my Man of the Year last year.



In an interview yesterday with Russia Today (RT) regarding his pending (and outrageous) extradition to Sweden and the ever-threatening presence of the United States in his life, he spoke of the media and how the powers that be continue to usurp our truth.

What really caught my attention, however, was how critical Assange was of the Internet and culture phenom that is Facebook. He analysed how much personal information, not to mention other habits, that Facebook had on its files with regard to its hundreds of millions of users. He is convinced that so much information being in the hands of a corporation like Facebook can only be bad, especially given their poor track record to date regarding data disclosure. Very bad.



In fact, he went to so far as to suggest that Facebook could most certainly be a front today for the United States government, possibly even the CIA, and their many, many nefarious and privacy-invading schemes and neuroses. He called Facebook the "most appalling spy ever."

That's correct - there it was writ large on an RT banner at the bottom of the screen: "Assange: Facebook Most Appalling Spy Ever".

I didn't just relish that statement - I positively whooped in glee! All my worst fears as to just just how creepy Facebook had made me feel came rushing to the fore. To have Julian Assange put that putrid organisation into such stark, lucid context was music to my ears. Yes, it's exactly what I wanted to hear, unexpected as it was.

Facebook is everything I loathe about this Internet era - the scummiest downside, its very nadir. It's the pervasive, relentless cheering of the mundane and the petty and the banal, not to mention the very dumbing down of society. It is mental voyeurism that cheapens us all.

And, yes, I do believe it could be a front for much larger, much more sinister machinations by the paranoid powers that be.

Trust Julian Assange to put it out there, and in no uncertain terms. Thank goodness for his voice.

Do you get my point?