Over the weekend, Norway, Iceland, and Finland kicked off their national selections to find their entries to the Eurovision Song Contest 2011.
There’s a LOT of rubbish to wade through all in all, with the majority of songs on offer so far being utter TRIPE! So in these updates over the next few weeks we’ll only be uploading the vids of the songs that actually liked from each heat. And we’ll also be posting the results of course, so that you can look those up too if so desired.
NORWAY
In Norway, 7 songs were presented. 2 songs had the chance to progress to the final, and 2 to a second chance round. To our ears and eyes there were only 3 songs worth watching out of the 7. The other 4 were abysmal. And we got the impression that NRK had selected songs not based on their quality, but rather in an attempt to make the heat as diverse as possible, trying to cover as many musical grounds as they could over 7 entries. Which is just stupid really.
Although what do we know?! Of the 3 songs that we liked, the Norwegian public only voted 1 of them to go any further in the competition. Helene Bøksle got a place in the final, while Sichelle and Carina Dahl were elminiated from the competition (unless 1 or both of them get the two ‘wildcard’ slots that will become available once all three heats are over).
Below are the results, and below that are the 3 performances from the night that we liked.
Final: Helene Bøksle, ‘Vardlokk‘, and Åste & Rikke, ‘Not that easy (Ah-åh-ah-åh)‘
Siste Sjansen: Sie Gubba, ‘Alt Du Vil Ha‘, and Use Me, ‘Daisy‘
Clips from Heat 2 go online tomorrow morning.
ICELAND
In Iceland, 5 songs competed for 2 places in the final. The quality was even less agreeable thaN in Norway, although there were 2 songs that we sort of liked a little bit. One of those, ‘Ástin Mín Eina’ by Erna Hrönn Ólafsdóttir, made it though to the final, and was joined by ‘Ef Eg Hefði Vængi’ by Haraldur Reynisson, which we didn’t like so much.
Below is Erna’s performance, plus the other song from the night that we enjoyed, ‘Huldumey’ by Hanna Gudný Hitchon. You may recognise Erna, as she performed backing vocals at Eurovision for the last two Icelandic entries, ‘Is It True’ by Yohanna, and ‘Je Ne Sais Quoi’ by Hera Bjork.
FINLAND
In Finland, 5 songs competed for 3 slots in the final. Again, we weren’t exactly enamoured with the quality on offer. We liked 2 songs, and thankfully both made it through to the final. Cardiant, with their string laden, cod metal, ‘Rapture In Time’, and Johanna Iivanainen, with her simple ballad, ‘Luojani Mun’. They qualified alongside ‘Synkän Maan Tango’ by Marko Maunuksela
