It’s May. It’s Eurovision month. So to honour it, we’ve gone through all the songs and given them a vigorous ranking!
Out of 42 entries, we were pleasantly surprised to find that we actually really liked over half of them – that doesn’t happen every year, we can assure you. But 20 or so favourite songs were whittled down to 14, and then 14 were painstakingly reduced to 10. So we can now present to you our Top 10 favourite songs of Eurovision 2012. These are all jolly good listens – we’d give each of them an 8/10 or above.
The contest starts in a matter of three weeks. So if you’ve not yet heard all of the songs, then you can do so at the Eurovision website.
But we’d recommend our top 10 as a very good place to start (and they’re listed in no particular order);
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NORWAY
Tooji: ‘Stay’
Regular readers of Scandipop will know the drill here. Eurodance with a middle eastern flavour, composed by Swedes, and performed by a Norwegian of Iranian descent. How very Eurovision. However, this isn’t just one of our favourite Eurovision entries of the year, it’s also one of our favourite songs of the year too.
UNITED KINGDOM
Engelbert Humperdinck: ‘Love Will Set You Free’
A classy, beautiful, old fashioned ballad. And it lays claim to the best final glory note of the entire contest. Who knew that Engelbert, or indeed the UK, had it in them?!
GREECE (pictured above)
Eleftheria Eleftheriou: ‘Aphrodisiac’
This is the type of thing that Greece do so well. Always. An up-tempo pop song with lots of traditional Greek sounds, and a hot brunette pushed to the front. The melody is all very well here, if a little simplistic. But it’s the music that really makes us fall for this one.
SWEDEN
Loreen: ‘Euphoria’
You should all know this one by now. It’s the one that everyone – not least us – have been talking about for months now. And not without good reason. This is without a doubt the best song in Eurovision this year, let’s be realistic. And by rights it should walk to victory (being showered in fake snow). But then Eurovision voters and juries do love to shock.
ITALY
Nina Zilli: ‘L’Amore È Femmina (Out Of Love)’
Although if anyone is going to beat Loreen, we reckon it will be this one. It’s universally enjoyable. An instant and catchy pop song with a retro flavour. And Nina delivers it with plenty of charm.
RUSSIA
Buranovskiye Babushki: ‘Party For Everybody’
What’s not to love here?! And why are people calling this a novelty entry? It’s just a genuinely brilliant song. Isn’t it?!
SPAIN
Pastora Soler: ‘Quédate Conmigo’
A legitimate diva belting out a massive ballad. And impressively at that. What would Eurovision be without that every year? And this is by far the best example of it in Eurovision 2012. We particularly can’t wait for the big note that links the end of the second chorus, to the final part of the song – to be performed live!
CYPRUS
Ivy Adamou: ‘La La Love’
Aside from the Norwegian and Swedish entries, this is probably the most Scandipop.co.uk friendly song in the contest. Helped of course by the fact that it’s written by Swedes. And even Sweden itself has fallen for it – with it being the only Eurovision song aside from its own to spend more than a few days in the upper reaches of the iTunes chart. And listening to it, it’s not that difficult to understand why. Pure pop.
LATVIA
Anmary: ‘Beautiful Song’
Pretty much everyone aside from a few of our closest friends HATE this. And it’s widely expected to do fuck all in the results, crashing out of the contest in its semi. But we LOVE it! Yes, the lyrics are ridiculous (and amazing at the same time), and her behaviour in the video does her case absolutely NO favours at all. But…..but…..but….it’s just a really good song – c’mon, give it a break!
DENMARK
Soluna Samay: ‘Should’ve Known Better’
We’re surprised that we like this song better than some of the hot mess dance tracks that came into our ranking just below our favourite ten, but there you go. We guess a good ‘ol, simple melody always wins at the end of the day. Maybe the same will be the case on Eurovision night.
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That was our top 10, but if you’re hankering for a bit more, then these four gems also come highly recommended by us. All raven haired beauties frolicking around to a WTF dance beat. They’re all a little bit mental. But in the best possible way.
ROMANIA
Mandinga: ‘Zaleilah’
FRANCE
Anggun: ‘Echo (You & I)’
UKRAINE
Gaitana: ‘Be My Guest’
BULGARIA
Sofi Marinova: ‘Love Unlimited’
Finally, if you’re in the UK, then tune into our regular Scandipop show on Dance Nation TV (Sky channel 376) this week. We’re very pleased to be playing the Swedish and Norwegian entries – Loreen’s ‘Euphoria’ and Tooji’s ‘Stay’. Loreen on UK television – how exciting! As always, the show goes out on Friday at 10am, Saturday at 4pm, and Monday at 9pm.
