Customer Reviews

Eurovision Song Contest 2006: Athens

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Every year, singers throughout Europe get together to perform their songs in the hope of winning the Eurovision Song Contest. They gyrate, they stretch rhymes, they perform ethnic dance and they often make utter fools of themselves. For the uninitiated, the Eurovision Song Contest is intended to find the best song in Europe each year. I say "intended" because the Contest tends to throw up some exceptional songs, as long as you don't mind the industrial levels of kitsch which go along with them.

That said, I must confess to enjoying some of the offerings of Eurovision as a bit of a guilty pleasure. There's something undeniably entertaining about listening to a series of songs which have been translated (in some cases) into English - often with hilarious results - being sung by people with some of the thickest accents and who really, one would hope, should know better. If that's your thing, grab yourself a copy of Eurovision 2005 and enjoy the kitsch. If it sounds like a car crash, look the other way and keep driving.

Eurovision songs tend to fall into three categories. The "reasonably talented" category, the "do not let them near a microphone" category and the "what were they thinking?" category. Thankfully, this year's contest had more of the first and third category than the second one.

One song you can't help but notice is the Finnish entry (which in fact won the competition), Lordi's "Hard Rock Hallelujah". To call the song a death metal track is probably doing a disservice to death metal, but it's certainly one of the louder entries on offer in quite some time - three minutes of pounding drums, screaming lyrics and a remarkably over-the-top feel.

Another highlight is Denmark's "Twist Of Love". The song largely does what it says on the box, providing something of a Chubby Checker vibe to proceedings.

Also worth a listen is Armenia's "Without Your Love". Armenia made their debut this year, and this mildly Middle Eastern-flavoured offering carried them to a top 10 finish.

This was also the year of attempts to bring Balkan folk music to the Eurovision stage. Bosnia's Hari Mata Hari achieved this goal admirably with "Lejla", a very heartfelt love ballad which hardly needs translation from the Bosnian. Croatia's offering of "Moja Stikla" tries for the other approach, that of the folk dance with sing-along (or shout-along, depending on your mood) lyrics and largely pulls it off.

The final standout for me is Ukraine's "Show Me Your Love" a joyous combination of dance and a moderately folky ethos performed by the ever-perky Tina Karol, whose voice sounds impressive on CD but can probably break glass live.

In the "what were they thinking?" file, there are some notable entries. Among these are Latvia's acapella performance of "I Hear Your Heart", the United Kingdom's woeful hip-hop in "Teenage Life", Belarus' allegedly Michael Jackson-inspired "Mum", which ultimately sounds like nothing so much as a car crash and Bulgaria's "Let Me Cry", complete with unearthly moaning in the middle of the song.

Of course, this leaves out such interesting feats as Switzerland's song (unkindly described as a "public service ad"), Iceland's unforgettable "Congratulations" performed by a television character and Lithuania's controversial football chant of "We Are The Winners", which is scheduled to come to a World Cup stadium near you.
As an added bonus, two contestants previously enjoyed global fame. Spain's entry was by Las Ketchup (the girls who brought us "Asereje" some years ago), while Poland coaxed Olaf Jeglitza (ex-lead singer of The Real McCoy) out of hiding to provide guest vocals on Ich Troje's "Follow My Heart".

It's an uneven CD, as various-artist compilations tend to be - particularly in this sort of situation. But it's also undeniably fun. For the Eurovision neophyte, this is probably as good a place as any to start following the contest, bearing in mind that more than half the fun is watching the contest and many songs lose their significance without it. Give it a listen and remember that under Eurovision rules, each song can't be longer than 3 minutes - so if you hate one performer, you'll get a new song soon enough.

I'm satisfied with this year's competition. I think it's not better than last year,but it was still enjoyable. I love almoast the whole CD. I'll name my favorites,with number of points IMO.

Finland - 12 points
Germany - 10 points
Bosnia&Herzegovina - 8 points
Greece - 7 points
Lithuania - 6 points
Ireland - 5 points
F.Y.R.O.M. - 4 points
Poland - 3 points
UK - 2 points
Albania - 1 point

^ these songs got an A+ from me,but I also gave it to Russia, Ukraine and Spain. Croatia was also OK,but I hate the stupid lyrics.

There were only 3 songs I hated and those are Turkey,France and Latvia.

Overall,this year was excellent. "Lordi" is my personal favorite, because I'm a big fan of hard rock music. "Texas lightning" is another highlight,country music is nice,too bad they finished on 15th place. Congratulations for "Hari Mata Hari",I'm listening to his music for about 10 years. Buy this CD,you won't regret it.

Just the other day, I relived some Eurovision memories by listening to some old ESC albums. Surprisingly, some of them have aged with grace.

One example is this album, containg the songs from the 2006 Eurovision song contest, organized in Athens and won (very surprisingly) by a heavy metal band from Finland, the legendary Lordi and their song "Hard Rock Hallelujah". Still, the lyrics sound like a parody on death metal, rather than the real thing...

Otherwise, I must say that the variety of styles is bewildering: heavy metal, cheesy ballads about peace on earth, light weight hip hop, parody folk music, serious folk music, Polynesian-inspired tunes, twist á la Chubby Checker, eurodisco, and even real chart pop (Kate Ryan's song, which was voted out already during the semi-finales!).

Was anyone surprised? :D

Otherwise, I still remember all the scandals in Athens. The Swedish singer Carola (an evangelical Christian and former Word of Faith supporter) climbed the Acropolis, shouting "Athenians, get ready, Jesus is coming!!!" The Icelandic singer Silvia Night took her spoof role as a cartoon character with bad attitude a bit too seriously. She was actually booed by the audience before, during and after her performance - something unprecendented in ESC history. The Greek singer Anna Vissi, a superdiva, hated Carola (another diva) but loved the Finnish rockers Lordi. And two really good pop songs, the Belgian and Estonian entries, didn't even reach the finale.

The Eurovision Song Contest isn't for everyone. You probably need a certain kind of frivolous humour to really appreciate it, especially if you watch the actual live event. Still, 2006 was a relatively good year. Even non-ESC fans could probably use this album as muzak. Personally, I was reading a book by Theodore Draper on Cuba (!) while listening to this easy going CD, which deserves all its five stars.

Un video estupendo, con un diseño y contenido de lujo.
un excelente consejo para los coleccionistas de este gran concurso internacional