12points.tv

Shakira meets Helena Paprizou...

You're my lover, undercover - We would like to share this newest 12points.tv CD review: Helena Paprizou's compilation album. 

Helena Paparizou - Greatest Hits & More (2011) ****

It´s December, so it is litterally raining compilation albums, and when it comes to Eurovision artists this is an excellent oportunity to take notice of the essentials.

I cannot say it anyway else: Helena Paparizou's work is quite something! For her early work, when she was still part of Antique, you'd have to get your hands on another compilation CD, the Very Best (2004), that is quite pleasant too. Greatest Hits & More, that was released recently, comes as a very nice follow up to complete your La Paparizou collection!

Let's start with the More-CD. The first track, Baby It's Over, impresses. What a delightful song with such a lot of European hit potential, that it might even compensate for the Greek deficits. Play the song once and it will be in your head for at least three days. And if this for any reason wouldn't work for you (impossible if you ask me), then there still is Love Me Crazy, which is so eey-eey-eey great and just as easily gets stuck in your head.

The compilation part of this album presents us 40 of Helena's hits. Well, there was some cheating going on there, as not all songs really made it to the charts. Where Antique was a bit predictable now and then, Solo-Helena sounds grown-up like a pop diva should: always dramatical (she is Greek after all), sometimes luciously bombastic, sometimes rocky, sometimes in English, sometimes in Greek and sometimes just a sweet little nothing inbetween. It seems rock is very popular in Greece though, in my ears that part seems a bit empty and dated. My advise: Helena, more europop, less rock, please!

But anyway, Helena offers quite some variation on these three discs, showing she is the real pop diva from Greece with still quite some potential for the rest of Europe. As far as I'm concerned she should do a Carola or a Charlotte and just make a comeback on the Eurovision stage. She also has her roots in Sweden too after all. Just get some advice from the other two ladies...

Helena, come back!!!

Ell & Nikki - Running Scared, 221 points.

A remake of "I, Robot" without Will Smith, but with some excessive winking.

A cry of "Oh. My. God." escaped from millions of mouths throughout all ESC countries in dozens of languages when this song appeared on screen. Long before the age of YouTube, seeing these men and their strange stomping choreography sent a minor shock wave through Europe, until the 1.00 mark in the song, which was the time a mass of people around the continent decided to take a simultaneous bathroom break, leading to water pressure dropping in 40 countries. Apparently.

Here are the results of the 12Points jury - did we eventually find the password that Michalis was singing about?

Song/Lyrics - 4/12
Ripping off Gary Numan's song "Cars" is one thing, but rhyming "sad" and "mind" must have been an error in the online rhyming dictionary that Rakintzis used when writing the lyrics of this song. A not-typical 80's retro electro melody gives this song a few points, but in general, there echo effect they were going for is just laughable. (as in - Hey (hey hey hey hey) and Sad (sad sad sad sad))

Performance - 2/12
Where does one start. Rakintzis is terrified of the microphone, pulling it from his mouth as quickly as his wonky vibrato allows him to. He starts off key, throwing all the rest of the singers off key. This is otherwise known as the "100% Wrong Key Effect" (see FYROM 2000). And the Robocop meets late Michael Jackson looks as if they wanted something outrageous in costumes but ended up with a lot of pleather and buckles.

Choreography (including Arm-ography and Hair-ography) - 12/12
This song was rescued by its insanely post-modern choreography. It looks simple, but it must have taken weeks to perfect. The sequence of raise knee, lower knee, step left, step right, and kneel (and get up) should inspire choreographers around the world to drop all of their training and just work in lots of raise knee-lower knee moves. Critics will rave, the public will faint, and stars will be born.

Key Change Effectiveness - 0/12
No key change. FAIL!

Camp Factor - 8/12
Well, this gets some points for unintentional hilarity. My absolute favourite moment happens about at around 1.22 in the video, when there is a really exaggerated wink to the camera in front of Rakintzis' face. Was it a nervous tick, a flirty gesture, or did someone on this team read that winking is the key to points?


TOTAL SCORE: 26/60.  This song may be a turkey, but Rakintzis went on to record even more music after this ESC travesty. Guess the Greeks are a forgiving race.

Greek pop that sounds like German schlager with undertones of trombone and tuba.

Anna Vissi has appeared as the representative for both Greece and Cyprus a total of 3 times at the Eurovision Song Contest. A huge star in both countries, Anna first appeared in 1980 with this lovely song about hitchhiking. She came in at 13th place, which is a shame, as this song is more than competent.

Here are the results of the 12Points jury - did Anna hitchhike her way into our hearts?

Song/Lyrics - 8/12
Curiously, this song has a dansband oom-pah-pah kind of thing, which you wouldn't expect from something Mediterranean. That said, pop music in the early 1980s was all over the place stylistically, so perhaps it makes sense that it doesn't make any sense. A bit hard to determine what the lyrics mean considering the 6 languages that the 12points staff share does not include Greek, but the melody is catchy and any song about hitchhiking probably has something a bit naughty about it.

Performance - 10/12
Very slick. Perfectly sung and harmonized. Considering how hard it must have been to maneuver the endless microphone wires on stage, they make it look easy. Red and black costumes never did much for me, but Anna is rocking a Pat Benatar look that was almost ahead of its' time in 1980.

Choreography (including Arm-ography and Hair-ography) - 12/12
A strong dose of arm-ography make this song get the ultimate honour. There are lots of patented Eurovision moves involved - pointing on one level from left to right, the bending and pointing move and let's not forget the "pushing backing singers forward and backward as if you control gravity" move. 

Key Change Effectiveness - 10/12
Not only is there a key change, but to celebrate the movement of the music, we have a quick glimpse at Greek line dancing and box steps!

Camp Factor - 6/12
Nothing in this screams camp, but I'll say it again - picking hitchhiking as a Eurovision song topic is unique. This gives Anna a small number of points.


TOTAL SCORE: 46/60.  I was surprised how, 31 years later, this song has really held up well. The performers are spot on. It's hard to see how this song passed the juries by, but never the less it lives on thanks to the it's quiet creativity and Anna's brilliant hair.

This should easily qualify

News Round-up of the day. Ani Lorak is going to help her fellow countrymen to find the one for Baku, this year.

Tom Dice managed to reach the first place in the Flemish charts this week. He previously did that with his Eurovision entry Me and my guitar (BE'10). In the Netherlands Elena Gheorghe (RO'09) has two songs in the local charts this week!

News Round-up of the day. Eric Saade's first single from his newest CD will be released on 2 November.

Just after releasing Hearts in the air, from his previous album, in France, the news reached us, that a new single release in Sweden has been planned for Eric Saade (Sweden 2011). Hotter Than Fire will be a joint project together with American rap artist DEV. Later on in November fans can expect Saade vol.2 the new album from the number three in this year's Eurovision Song Contest.

News Round-up of the day. MTV has announced the nominees in the Worldwide Act Category of the "2011 MTV EMA".

The five global finalists are: Britney Spears (North America); Lena (Europe); BIGBANG (Asia Pacific); Abdelfattah Grini (Africa/India/Middle East); and Restart (Latin America).

News Round-up of the day. The Jedwards were a bit too fast and - - - Kirsten & Søren are back!.

Irish RTÉ has confirmed that Jedward indeed are going to be taking place in the  Irish national final again, but they are not selected yet, like the brothers revealed earlier this week. There will be five artists and one of them will win.... Good Luck Jedward, we'll most likely see you in Baku anyway! Further details will be announced in the new year.