There’ll be a dark cloud over a lot of the Nordics tomorrow (darker than normal for this time of year anyway). And that’s because a whopping three out of the five Nordic nations have crashed out of the Eurovision Song Contest in their semis. Denmark, Finland and Iceland now won’t compete in Saturday night’s final – leaving just Sweden and Norway waving two Nordic flags on the night.
We’re not used to this happening. Both Denmark and Iceland haven’t missed a Eurovision final since 2007 – when the old semi-final format was still in place (one massive semi-final, rather than two normal sized shows). And this will only have been the third time that Finland missed out on a Eurovision final in the last decade. The Nordic nations know how to do Eurovision. They’re supposed to show the rest of Europe how it’s done. That’s how it works around here!
So what went wrong?
Well this is Eurovision. So any number of factors could have had any kind of impact on the dire results of Tuesday and Thursday night. And so we’re not here to dwell on what could have went wrong on the night. Instead, we thought it a good opportunity to present five pop gems from this year’s national finals of Denmark, Finland and Iceland. Each offered up to their home lands as potential Eurovision entries, but all declined in favour of something else. Five songs that at most might well have resulted in their nations progressing to tomorrow night’s final, but at least deserve a little bit more attention before Eurovision 2015 grinds to a halt once and for all.
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BABOU: MANJANA (Denmark)
Carnival themed, summer flavoured ethno-pop with drums and a chanty chorus. This screams out Eurovision from its every beat, note and bang. And this year more than ever, its tempo would have been welcomed onto the Eurovision stage as readily as Lys Assia. Live performance.
CADEM: FYRIR ALLA (Iceland)
Funked up disco pop with an undeniably infectious joy about it. These three would have been SUCH a good addition to this year’s Eurovision line-up, and would have done some much needed representing for pop groups. Eurovision has always been missing a group like Alcazar – CADEM would have delivered, wowed, and made the final. Live performance.
TINA & RENE: MI AMORE (Denmark)
Ok, so for all intents and purposes this might as well have already made it to Eurovision – albeit under a different guise back in 2010, when the song was basically rewritten as ‘In A Moment Like This’ and gave Denmark a Top 5 finish. But fuck me what a song! Would Europe have cared that they’d been served a cheap rehash? Not when it sounds like this, they wouldn’t. If there’s one thing that Eurovision 2015 is missing (ok, there’s a lot it’s missing), it’s SCHLAGER. Live performance.
CECILIE ALEXANDRA: HOTEL A (Denmark)
Unquestionably charming, this cute number would have had Europe fall completely under its spell. Probably. We don’t know what it is about this song that makes it so loveable, but love it we do. It might well have bombed even harder than the actual Danish entry – but it would have at least brought something fresh and unique to the contest. Live performance.
SATIN CIRCUS: CROSSROADS (Finland)
Where does one even begin here? ‘Crossroads’ is a song that more so than any in this year’s Eurovision Song Contest, sounds like something you would hear on the radio in any of the 40 countries competing. It sounds like a hit. And it’s hugely likely that it would have been a continental hit, had it been given a stage as large as Eurovision to introduce it to the rest of Europe. It would have been one of the favourites to win the contest, and it would have reached the Top 10 in the UK the week after the final. It got to number 1 on Finnish iTunes even before the national finals started, and it also went on to win the jury vote of the national final (which inexplicably was only allowed to make up 10% of the total vote – with the public votes being afforded a weighting of 90%). It came second in that public vote. Second to a song, or rather a group, who had a great story behind them. A story which – great as it might be at home in Finland – was unlikely to ever translate onto the same scale across the whole of Europe. It’s difficult to begrudge this year’s Finnish Eurovision entry their national win, because at the end of the day more Finns got behind them than any other act on the night. But we feel it’s a massive shame that ‘Crossroads’ was denied an international stage, a genuine chance to give their country another Eurovision win, and a good shot at scoring a proper hit across Europe. We believe it would have absolutely ran with and made the most of all three of those opportunities, had it been afforded them. Live performance.
