Impressed and Disappointed – Road to Liverpool 2023 – Part 2
In the first episode, we shared our thoughts on Italy, Belgium, Malta, Albania, San Marino, Ukraine, Poland and Slovenia. You can find that video on our channel page. Without further ado, let’s continue from where we left off in the last video.
There is no arguing that Évidemment by La Zarra is one of the better songs in this year’s competition. The singer will try to make us forget last year’s bad result and repeat Barbara Pravi’s success for France. Like for all the participants in the competition, her live performance is going to influence the final outcome.
Congratulations Denmark for choosing the weakest song in the lineup. That was quite an achievement. We don’t want to be too harsh but there were at least 5 better songs in Melodi Grand Prix than “Breaking My Heart”.
The situation was even worse in Romania. Not 1, not 2, not 3, not 4, but almost all the songs in the national selection were better than the actual winner. We will be very surprised if this one qualifies.
Ireland is yet another country that could have selected a better song, but at least “We Are One” by Wild Youth is a decent one.
We had a lot of fun watching the video of “Who the hell is Edgar?” by Teya & Salena. This could finally be the song to take Austria to the final.
Australia always sends good songs to Eurovision, and “Promise” by Voyager, is one of those good songs. It is going to excel on the stage.
“Aijā” gets better everytime we listen to it. Contrary to popular opinion, we feel that Sudden Lights deservedly won the national selection in Latvia. If you think otherwise, we totally understand because Supernova 2023 had many good songs.
We can copy and paste the same comments we just made about Latvia and they would perfectly fit Estonia. “Bridges” by Alika is a good winner because as well as being a good song, the staging was the most original one in our opinion.
Of the 2 countries which internally selected their participants, both Netherlands and Cyprus came out with very good songs. If live versions turn out to be as good as the studio versions, they should qualify with ease.
We think Blanca Paloma is a very good choice for Spain. We have heard all the songs in the national selection and we think there is nothing to complain about the winning song, or the singer’s performance. You may argue that there were better songs, but it’s not like any of them was exceptionally good.
Trolls of the year come from Croatia in the form of Let 3. This may actually get a good result if they display English subtitles during their live performance. Otherwise, it can easily go out in the semis.
This is the best song to come out of Czechia since they started their Eurovision journey. At least, that’s what we think. This is a song that would elevate with a good staging.
Lithuania has been very consistent with good entries in recent years. This year’s song “Stay” is as good as it gets. We love both the song and Monika’s vocals. This song definitely deserves more recognition.
Next, we are going to share our opinions about Iceland, Norway, Finland, Serbia, Switzerland, Germany and Moldova’s songs. But before that, it’s time for our “Stunners of the day” section. Let’s remember some of the most beautiful and handsome singers that graced the Eurovision stage.
The beauty of the day is Aysel Teymurzadeh, who is the stunning half of Azerbaijan’s 2009 duo, Aysel and Arash. No one can deny that Aysel, who finished the competition in third place together with Arash, impressed with her performance as well as her beauty. Although Aysel and Arash lost the Eurovision title to Alexander Rybak, Aysel managed to leave a sweet memory in the minds of many Eurovision fans.
The handsome of the day is Sweden’s 2017 representative, Robin Bengtsson. Sweden has no trouble sending beautiful and handsome singers to the contest. We felt Robin Bengtsson would be a perfect choice for this episode.
You can use the comment section to suggest your favorite beautiful and handsome singers for our future episodes.
Back to this year, surely we are not the only ones mesmerized by Alessandra’s “Queen of Kings”. After failing to win Melfest last year, the same song was back to win Melodi Grand Prix this year. Ok, joking aside, both the song and the staging reminded us Klara Hammarström’s “Run To The Hills”. Don’t take it the wrong way. We think it’s an innocent similarity. We love epic songs and “Queen of Kings” is on the peaks of epicness. This will do some damage come May. By the way, we are in love with Ulrikke Brandstorp. She was our absolute favourite in 2020, and she would have been an equally great pick this year.
There was no competition in Iceland. Thanks to very strong vocals, Diljá was the best choice with her song “Power”.
Serbia had options with Nađa and Princ, but Luke Black had the most original song and staging. “Samo mi se spava” should have no trouble qualifying.
Käärijä was the favourite in Finland with his song “Cha Cha Cha”. The song, the vocals, the staging, all contributed to a perfect spectacle. The more times you watch it, the more addictive it gets.
Pasha Parfeny had a fairly good result for Moldova in 2012, placing 11th in the final. We think he had the best performance in the national final. One more good performance and he is going to be in Eurovision final.
Lord Of The Lost with their song “Blood & Glitter” had a very good performance in the German national final. We don’t have any issues with the winning song, and we actually quite like it. But the curse of Patty Gurdy will haunt Germany for a long time to come. “Melodies Of Hope” could be one of the best songs in any national final that failed to make it to Eurovision. It’s a shame she came last with this enchanting song. We are disappointed.
When we were making this video, Switzerland’s Remo Forrer released his song “Watergun”. It’s another good song from Switzerland. We are looking forward to seeing his live performance.
In upcoming episodes we will keep sharing our thoughts on all the participants of this year’s Eurovision Song Contest.
