
My inner Craig Revel Horwood awoke yesterday – for obvious and less obvious reasons…Continue reading “MF Semi 4 – (Not that) A-ma-zing darling!”
A personal view on the Eurovision Song Contest

My inner Craig Revel Horwood awoke yesterday – for obvious and less obvious reasons…Continue reading “MF Semi 4 – (Not that) A-ma-zing darling!”

Everybody knows the feeling: you’re in line at the supermarket and everything’s held up by someone who can’t find his or her change. All traffic lights spontaneously turn to red whenever you’re approaching. In traffic it seems the lane you’re in is moving the slowest but as soon as you change lanes it’s the same. In other words – pun alert -you ask yourself ‘why me?’.Continue reading “The Dimi Curse – MF semi 3”

Busy busy busy on Saturday at Casa Dimivision with not only semi 2 in Melodifestivalen but also the Norwegian and Icelandic finals on the menu. An opportunity to compare the different shows by the Scandinavian broadcasters and the differences are clear. But the similarity is striking: everyone is attempting to win this game of Stratego.

February’s here and that means SVT is ready for another round of the party that is Melodifestivalen. Europe’s largest selection for Eurovision is upon us again and boy will we have known it. After an impressive internet campaign with a real trailer and an online MF for the most popular songs that failed to reach the final in the last decade the Real Thing started yesterday. And that’s how producer Christer Björkman and his team try to sell MF this year: as the show case for the Swedish music scene. Ambitious or pompous? We’ll know it in a few weeks time.Continue reading “Not just for gays – MF 2012 semi 1”

Your guess is as good as mine really but we’ll soon learn the language of music transcends any other language so I figured the same could be applied to titles of blogposts. We’re in Riga for the 48th edition of our beloved Contest and after two rather disastrous editions we’re in desperate need of one that not only the fans might (on a blue monday) approve of. Hello Latvia?Continue reading “Eurovision Review – 2003: Léala, léala, sorimana soléo”

No, I really don’t wanna! This is the post I’ve been dreading to write since the day I started doing my reviews as this is the absolute worst edition for me – and it’s not about not wanting to give out bad ratings or comments, as should’ve been clear by now, but I just can’t be bothered. I’ve seen this edition twice until now: on the night itself and then when Boyfriend got me the entire collection on DVD. After this review I’ll probably never watch it again. Let’s get this Worst Contest Ever over and done with – brace yourselves!Continue reading “Eurovision Review – 2002: I don’t wanna!”

That’s what DR must have thought when they decided to go for Parken Stadium as the location for the 2001 edition of the Contest. Quite the remarkable decision really as it had so much impact on everything and my guess would be the Danes realised they bit off more than they could chew a bit too late in the preparation process. But that’s not the only issue with this edition…Continue reading “Eurovision Review – 2001: Mine is bigger than yours”

As the little Swedish Elf said in the fantastic opening sequence – the best we’ve ever gotten, certainly better than the year before and a fantastic way to kick off the new millennium. Who knew Eurovision would survive beyond Y2K!Continue reading “Eurovision Review – 2000: Welcome Joewoep!”

It’s here: The Period Of The Year. The semis and national finals have arrived and yours truly is ready to have his say. December was a tad too early really so I passed on the Swiss and Albanian selection – I’ve even heard their entries only once or twice (and the Albanian one won’t climb any higher in my iTunes playlist due to the risk of permanent ear damage). It seems I’m not too keen on all the Eurovision fuss this year because I haven’t heard any of the Icelandic songs either and running up to the Danish final yesterday I decided to jump into it with a clean slate as well.
Continue reading “Exactly what the doctor ordered – Dansk Melodi Grand Prix 2012!”

After two splendid editions and the fact that the orchestra was put out with the garbage cans it was to be feared the ’99 edition would turn out to be a weak one – Johnny Logan would refer to the fact that a studio backing track would be used and only the vocals had to be live as ‘karaoke’ and he’s not far off the mark really, bar the fact that the artists are singing their own songs and not someone else’s. You’d think it would make it easier for the performers but we’d soon find out it doesn’t make a difference at all…Continue reading “Eurovision Review – 1999: What the hell, Israel?”