12points.tv

Presenting this year's Eurovision artists. Alternative pop rock for Hungary this year, the sound of our hearts.

Very successful in Hungary, these guys, will Europe be their next goal?

What about my life? What about that hair? What about that excessive arm-ography?

Why did this song remain a favourite before the competition, with odds in the Top 5, and crash out of the final this year?  Was it because the lyrics went away from the typical Eurovision pleas for peace and love in the world and instead said WHY DID YOU LEAVE ME YOU BASTARD AND WHEN YOU GO TO HELL I HOPE YOU SUFFER FOREVER?

Here are the results of the 12Points jury - what about how we felt?

Song/Lyrics - 12/12
It took four men to write this song, and even if one of them contributed to the lyrics, he sure had a brilliant idea of what constitutes a terrible break up from a women's perspective. Either the lyricists watched endless Jennifer Aniston movies, is gay, or both.  The music manages to be both subtle, layered, but Eurotrashy all at once utilizing some loud drums and minor chords.

Performance - 12/12
Technically, this should lose a few points because Kati's vocals are good but a bit ropey. Still, this is a vast improvement from the semi final, where she appeared out of breath and nervous, and the whole song suffered from screwed up sound during the broadcast. The 12 points awarded here come from other factors - the subtle backing vocalists and dancers kept in the background, everyone working well with what was a deadly stage by using most of it, and various anguished arm-ography moves (more on that below).

Choreography (including Arm-ography and Hair-ography) - 12/12
The classic arm-flexing, fist-closed arm-ography has been assigned to the backing vocalists, who also do the classic, arms-slowly-moving-up-and-arms-slowly-moving-down move. The hip hop dancers in the background add the latest Eurovision choreography trend of having lots of moviement that has nothing to do with the song.  Even Kati's hair had a few springy moves of its own.  

Key Change Effectiveness - 0/12
Oh, Kati... what happened!  Loss of points here due to the lack of a key change. 

Camp Factor - 12/12
Where do we start?  Clutching the microphone as if in prayer triggers an automatic 12 points award. Twirls that come out of nowhere, a turquoise dress that looked like it escaped from an 80s prom and was altered later to expose maximum leg, extremely high heels, the switch to Hungarian and back to English... inspired!

SUBTOTAL: 48/60.  We are taking the extraordinary move to award bonus points for the first time for the amazing work Kati did before showing up in Germany. In her music video, she attends a rehearsal with her dancers and within 5 seconds of arriving, grabs a water bottle and starts singing into it. That gets a bonus 6 points, leading to a TOTAL of 54/60.  Well done, Miss Wolf!

A strange experiment for Eurovision, its "Nul Points" result was definitely a mistake.

"Who sails my boat?", the translation of this songs title, is an appropriate Eurovision question, if there ever was one.  It's certainly more interesting than previous Eurovision song titles posed, such as "What About My Dreams?" (Hungary 2011), "Why Me?" (Ireland 1992) and the dreadful "Love?" (Ireland 2005). I hope that for Remedios' sake, she wears some shoes if she's in her proverbial boat, because if it's made of wood she will get splinters within her bare feet.

Here's the result of the 12points jury: did the song sail or sink?

Song/Lyrics - 10/12
Surely the most daring of all 1983 entrants, the song stayed was the polar opposite to the Swedish entry that year ("Främling") and musically was a mix between flamenco and funk. And looking at the translated lyrics, the song is about nothing but passion - "The green of your green eyes, look at me/Look at me, so I can look at you, look at me/Look at me, so I can look at you." Meow! I wouldn't want to get in Remedios' way if she fell in love with me, especially because yours truly has a pair of green eyes.

Performance - 12/12
It takes a while for Remedios to warm up, just swaying back and forth at the start of the song. But that finger starts pointing, chastizing someone, and when she flips that hand up in a "don't fuck with me" move, what's not to love? The fact that her vocals are more in the flamenco tradition - raw and dramatic - goes against the typical perfect and clean Eurovision standard. This proved to be too scary to juries to handle but always left an impression on me.

Choreography (including Arm-ography and Hair-ography) - 10/12
This one gets a special mention for a new category: finger-ography. The afore-mentioned finger pointing and additional finger-wagging is a very Mediterranean thing, and it looks so threating on TV! But it added something very unique to this song which I have rarely seen since.

Key Change Effectiveness - 0/12
This song didn't deem a key change necessary, unfortunately. 

Camp Factor - 12/12
This song deserves 14 points out of 12 just for that outfit. What is that? Is it a sheet knotted and sewn in the right places, or as the commentator Terry Wogan says in this video's commentary, her father's bathrobe?  Add to this a pair of bare feet, amazingly manicured nails and a few anguished rants, this song is much deserving of 12 points in this category.
 

TOTAL: 44/60.  A huge hit with the audience in the concert hall where this was held, it did nothing for the voting juries. Why do you think that is? Feel free to leave your comments below - we always welcome opinion.

News Round-up of the day. Kati Wolf planning a release of her ESC entry in French.

Eurovision Hungarian-Singer Kati Wolf enlisted Sony Music Label-Mate Marc Mysterio to re-write/produce her Eurovision entry 'What About My Dreams' in french for release in France, Benelux & Québec!

Qualifying might be hard

News Round-up of the day. John de Mol was guest at a popular dutch TV show, he might very well be the saviour of the Dutch Eurovision reputation. 

John de Mol is going to produce the Dutch Nationaal Songfestival this year. He dares to be critical about the Dutch participations in recent years, which is needed to get better ideas to make sure the Netherlands will do better next year. De Mol wants the winning song to be a big hit. There are quite some very good composers in the Netherlands, he is going to try to get them interested in the Eurovision Song Contest. He is also refering to artists that will have to be convinced to take part. New names of artists that have submitted a song to the Nationaal Songfestival, are popping up by the day, not many of them get us very turned on though. Hopefully his ideas will work and his reputation will help the Netherlands get back to the final and maybe even top ten... or winning? In the short interview de Mol is not triggered to reveal much, one name he does metion though. Famous magician Hans Klok is interested to support the act in Baku if it is a promising one.

Now this are real men!

News Round-up of the day. Black Symphony by Atomic Angels most interesting finalist so far.

The French speaking part of Switzerland has selected three Swiss finalists, and together with the three selected previously that makes a total of six now. As far as we're concerned the most interesting entry so far and by far the most contemporary is the one by Atomic Angels. Listen to the selected entries here and here. This Tuesday the Italian part of the country will add two more songs, later on six song selected through the net will be added.

First 4 qualifiers of "A Dal".

Today Hungary held the first semifinal of "A Dal", the new selection format for Eurovision, which has been promoted heavily in the past weeks. 4 songs have qualified to the final which is set to being held on February 11th.

No less than six national selection shows will be televised this weekend. Her is an overviews, so you won't have to miss any of them.

Malta kicks off tonight, starting the night with 25 artists ending it with the 16 that will line up in the final tomorrow. Our favorits (in this order) are 1. Kurt C; 2 Claudia F; 3. Fabrizio F 4. Deborah C, 5. Annalise. Tune in at 20:35 CET.

Tomorrow not only the Maltese national final will take place, but also 4 more will do their best to get closer to finding their representative in Baku. Watch the show here at 20:35 CET.