Customer Reviews

Eurovision Song Contest: Istanbul 2004

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

 

 

For the uninitiated, the Eurovision Song Contest is intended to find the best song in Europe each year. I say "intended" because the songs which tend to win are often more like the "least worst" song, rather than the "best". One of the most famous winners in the past was Abba, for example.

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 2004 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 absolute standout for me is 16-year-old Lisa Andreas from Cyprus. Her song "Stronger Every Minute" is one of the most powerful female vocal performances you'll hear this year from anywhere - and it's not done with the usual studio trickery. She was never going to win, and didn't, but this is the sort of song which wouldn't be out of place on a film soundtrack somewhere.

Another highlight is the Swiss entry, "Celebrate". This song will take up residence in your mind for weeks with its infernally catchy and upbeat chorus and you can't help but sing along. Lyrically, the song is nothing - although the singers do talk about "philazophee" (Philosophy in a thick accent). This one didn't even make it to the final round, probably because the judges couldn't stand listening to it again.

Denmark's entry "Shame On You" has a similar effect. The version Tomas Thordarson performed in Istanbul was significantly less Latin-ised than the CD version and suffered as a result. This one sounds like Ricky Martin moved to Copenhagen.

The Greek entry "Shake It" by Sakis Rouvas is the sort of song which could only be carried off by someone from that general area. Right from the opening beats, (...) oozes out of the song and you almost have to dance. This is one of the rare songs which loses a bit by being divorced from its live version, featuring everyone disrobing on stage as rapidly as possible.

The winning song "Wild Dances" is another highlight. Ukrainian singer Ruslana has an almost impenetrable accent at times, but the frantic beat works in any language.

The final big standout is Turkey's entry - "For Real". This is a ska-punk-hip-hop song performed by one of the biggest bands in the country (how big? they supported the Rolling Stones) and just begs to be danced to. I must have heard this 20 times before the contest itself and watched it another 5 on the video of the contest and still the groove takes me by surprise.

In the "what were they thinking?" file, there are some notable entries. Austria's boy-band song "Du Bist" is well-written, but sounds far too Nsync-ish for me, the Bosnian entry "In The Disco" takes the worst elements of the 80s and combines them with someone who looks for all the world like Billy Idol. More spectacular still is Belarus' entry "My Galileo", in which the singer clearly demonstrates that she doesn't know the words in English (which is a problem when you're singing in it). The weirdest entry, though, would have to be Estonia's "Tii" - a modernised version of an old folk song sung by 5 attractive young women backed by a drummer who looks like Satan.

Of course, this leaves out such interesting feats as the Dutch entry of "Without You" sounding like a transplanted Boyz II Men number, the Croatian singer soaring through at least two octaves, the Finnish entry combining pop music with Satanic imagery and tango sensibilities and Malta's fusion of operatic arias and pop music, all of which are worth the price of admission.

It's an uneven CD, as various-artist compilations tend to be - particularly in this sort of situation. But it's also undeniably fun. 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 currently reliving fond Eurovision memories by listening to old ESC albums. Some of them have aged with surprising grace. This album, Istanbul 2004, is so-so. The only real highlights are the winner, Ruslana's "Wild dances" (misspelled "Wild Dance" on the album cover) and Zeljko Joksimovic's "Lane moje", which I think came second. Still, the other songs are tolerable as background music, for instance when you are writing Amazon reviews!

But yes, many of them are straddling the thin line between competent muzak and unintentional self-parody. This is even more obvious if you watch the live performances on Youtube. For instance, what are we to make of the Nazi-inspired symbols worne by the Austrian boyband? Or the half-nude, dancing disco Tarzan from Bosnia? Or Sakis Rouvas, appealing rather heavily to the "Greek player" stereotype? Or the embarassing pseudo-opera from Malta? Or...? Well, you get the picture.

Even Ruslana's winning song, representing the Ukraine, comes close to the parody category, with her weird blend of Mad Max beyond Thunderdome and Russian Cossacks, not to mention her incredibly bad accent. (Apparently, she was supposed to promote Huzul culture. Nobody got it. Hu...who?) But yes, her victory was an open and shut case.

The Eurovision Song Contest 2004 isn't for everyone. If you want *really* good pop, disco or rock, look elsewhere. But if you want to know what everyone in Europe (and Australia) is talking about around mid-May every year, this is a good place as any to start.

Four stars. But don't tell me I didn't warn you... ;-)

The Eurovision song contest is the biggest event in Europe and yeah there are some atrocious songs that participate every year. This time it was Switzerland next year (this) it will be someone else whom gets the honor to get 0 votes. Ruslana is amazing, as is Lena Ph, Serbia, Albania and many more. Ruslana is superior to all the rest of the tracks, but growing up in Europe and having seen these contests like at least 20 times, I still love it and anticipate an awesome contest in Ukraine...

The Eurovision Song Contest is the biggest music event in Europe. And you never know whó has the winning song. The performance is just as importent as the song. Now we know, Ukraine's "Wild Dances" won. Its a pretty cool dance track, that will hit pretty big in Europe. Ruslana dosent have a great voice, but the performance was wild, could be taken directly from Mad Max. Sakis "Shake it" was populer with the girls. A uptempo dancetrack that could be a summer hit. Lisa Andreas sung a beautiful balade for Cyprus "Stronger every Minute", one of this years best slow-songs. Best song, best performance was by Sweden's own Kylie/Madonna - Lena Philipsson alias Lena Ph. Her swedish smash hit "It Hurts" (Det Gor Ont) is a ctachy pop song specally design for Eurovision song contest. If you like dancepop with strong female vocals - look up Lena Philipsson, she is truely a great popstar that sony should put on the music wold map. Best song for the dancefloors is "1 Life". Its a typical Eurodisco song...and for all into disco...you can always listen to "in the disco". Many bad tracks on the album as well. But it always fun with Eurovision. And all you americans - dont forget to check out Lena Ph!

It is fabulous. The right mixture of the fabulous (e.g. Cyprus, Ukraine, Sweden) and the downright horrible (Lithuania, Portugal, Croatia) to make it interesting. Even us fans know there's crap, but if we couldn't b**** about it, we wouldn't watch it/listen to it/love it!

Eurovision contest has a history of a lot of really bad music, with a few gems thrown in. This year, thankfully, there are very few truly terrible songs! (Switzerland would be a good one to miss!) There are, however, an awful lot of generic sounding Europop, especially among those contestants who chose to sing love songs. Although Cyprus ranked high in this year's competition and won an award for best composition, the song really is the epitome of generic ballad.

Real gems on this album include:
1) this year's winner from the Ukraine -- Wild Dances makes to tap your feet and sing along.
2) Greece (which placed 3rd) -- "Shake It" makes you want to, well, shake it!
3) Turkey -- "For Real" - the only ska-style contribution, I can't get this one out of my head! This one is headed for the top of the charts, with just a touch of the distinctive Turkish beat.

Macedonia, Russia, Spain, and Malta are pretty good as well. (Malta's is an odd mix of opera and pop, but it's catchy somehow!)

If you like Europop, this is worth a listen, or two or three. I find these songs grow on you over time.

very very good Cd that helps to meet with other countries culture and music.Execellent choice.100% recommendation.