Eurovision 2012: My Top Five

5. Germany

Another stripped down, simple song from Germany, this time sung by a really cute, baby-faced lad. A gentle ballad as opposed to Lena’s creepy cool or her bubbly quirk, it continues a strong series of songs from the nation.

4. Switzerland

The lead singer many be scarily manscaped, but Switzerland’s entry is a fantastic dance rock track.  It’s a genre growing in popularity in Eurovision entries. Catchy and unforgettable. Plus- love the accented vocals.

3. Slovenia

My BFF Nina even likes this song. After the last few years apologizing for the over the top Christina wannabe and that other thingy (forgettable…), The best of the 2012 pop ballads has a strong vocalist in Eva Boto (seriously, girl, strong pipes) and a song with an interesting melody that is bolstered by militaristic drumming and a soaring melody.

2. Hungary

I had a soft spot for Kati Wolf’s fantastic dance ditty from last year, and Hungary returns with a power ballad that tugs at the heart-strings. Even my cold, cynical muscle grew three sizes too big when I heard it.  Lovely.

1. Malta

I am a huge sucker for Eurotrash dance music, and this song is not only the best representation of that since Hadise got all “Dum Tek Tek”, it’s the best song Eurovision has this year. Infectious, celebratory, and dude, I need me some glow sticks stat.

DARK HORSEs: Iceland

I love it when we Scandinavians get all dark and stormy. I can never peg the Eurovision voters, either jury or televoting.  Does this odd little Icelandic song fit in this years music scheme, or will it get ditched? I hope it goes through, because it’s a great song with an interesting structure.

Ireland

Because Jedward are an unstoppable force. Seriously, someone stop them. I beg you. Or at least give them Ritalin.

Past Eurovision Winners And Losers, And Other Oddities

My North American friends, the ones not as obsessed with everything music around the world no matter how obscure or terrible they may be ( hi, Soviet era pop music!) have tweeted me about Eurovision. They have all been touched by Eurovision, even if they didn’t realize it. I mean, they’ve all heard “Waterloo”. They haven’t been living in caves near Tora Bora.

But the following is a list of Eurovision songs they may not have heard of, but they should probably listen to. Just to round out their musical education.

Eurovision 2011 Has Actually Gotten To Me

I know the U.K. is the frontrunner with Blue’s “I Can”, but there are better songs. Expand your international music palette with the following bands and songs.

First, from Serbia, the lovely and charming Nina from Belgrade. She’s only 21, which explains how she can pull off the Mia Farrow pixie cut. Below is the English version of the song. It’s still awfully catchy.

Obsession of the Week: Peep Show

It’s that vaguely naughty title, right? It intrigues. I know the first time I saw it my SuperChannel lineup, I turned to my daughter and said “It’s gotta be British, possibly Channel 4, and it’ll be entirely about sex and men being idiots.”

I wasn’t wrong. But I was being dismissive.  And that, in itself, is wrong. When one works and worships in the biz called show, one must never outright dismiss anything. It is about men being idiots and sex, it is a British sitcom, and it is on Channel 4. But it is simply the best sitcom in the world not starring Tina Fey.

It was just a bonus that it stars the genius double act of Robert Webb and David Mitchell. They don’t write it, unlike their other brilliant work, That Mitchell and Webb Look.  The latter is an uproarious sketch show that almost equals for brilliance A Bit of Fry and Laurie. No, Peep Show, randy title and all, springs from the minds of Sam Bain and Jesse Armstrong. What deliciously dark and weird minds they are.

Some Levity Before The Next Album List Post

Seeing  as my next album list post is music I am finding both depressing and oddly life affirming, some comedy from my favourite double act, Mitchell and Webb.

Obsession of the Week (Month… Year…): Stephen Fry, David Mitchell, and British Tweed

Months ago I wrote about my love of British panel shows, a unique brand of U.K. comedy programme where a bunch of mismatched characters crack wise about politics, music, or general knowledge. Some of them even attempt to make a real game out of it, but come on, panel shows exist for very funny people to snark on various subjects and for us to laugh at their ire.

I mentioned two shows in particular last time, the music based Never Mind the Buzzcocks and the Stephen Fry hosted QI. The former should surprise no one who reads anything I have ever written, for as much as I love books and TV and film, my life is pretty much centred around the fact that I believe in the divinity of Ray and Dave Davies and The Kinks are The Village Green Preservation Society is my holy book/album.

I have to admit though that my geeky self prefers QI, mostly because I’m one of those people who read the encyclopedia for fun as a child. No, I am NOT kidding, ask my brothers. Some people surf the net for porn. I surf Wikipedia instead. For fun. Not porn. Analogy gone bad. Though not really.

Obsession of the Week: “Doctor Who”

I spend a lot of time watching TV. A lot.  It takes something special to get me wound up ( see: Chuck, Fringe, Homicide, The Big Bang Theory, Freaks and Geeks, How I Met Your Mother). It is very rare for me to dismiss something outright and even rarer for me to ignore a phenomenon.

I grew up in Canada, a place very British in many sensibilities. I have a deep love for British comedy. You would be hard pressed to find a bigger fan of Monty Python and Fry and Laurie than me. I’ve already written about my love for British panel shows. I was built to be a life long fan of Doctor Who.

But I wasn’t.

Obsession of the Week: UK Panel Shows

Ah, yes. The Brits and their panel shows. It appears to be a unique phenomenon in the UK, as panel shows tend to be cable fodder in North America.  But since the Brits also rarely take themselves seriously, they tend to be hilarious and raunchy. Just the way I like my humor.

My two personal faves make perfect sense if you know me. The first one is QI, short for ” Quite Interesting”. It’s a lovely show about completely random facts and tidbits and trivia. As the reigning Trivial Pursuit champion in my family for the last twenty years, I’m partial to randomness told with humor ( you think I’m kidding? I’m not. They all actually refuse to play with me anymore.) Hosted by the marvelous Stephen Fry, who reeks of academia, it remains my new obsession of the moment despite curling being on the TV right now.

Panel shows are nothing if not true to a format. QI best exemplifies this format. Take four people ( in this case, the funnier the better. It does not explain the frequent appearances of Jimmy Carr.). Put them in chairs behind a counter. Have Stephen Fry ask questions you think you know the answers to. Watch Alan Davies, the only regular panelist on the show, consistently give the obvious and incorrect answer.  Laugh hysterically as the conversation suddenly devolves into a bunch of dick jokes. Because dick jokes are always funny. Scoring is always arbitrary, as you score points for being “interesting” and lose points for being “obvious”. Obvious answers are ridiculed at length and highlighted with bells and whistles. Scores on the negative side of zero are frequent.

The other panel show obsession is the long running Brit classic Never Mind The Bollocks. This is a team panel show, with two team captains and a host. It’s also a (shock to the system) music panel show.

Created in the 90s, long hosted by Mark Lamarr, later by Simon Amstell, and currently by a string of guest judges, it’s a highly amusing look at what constitutes as cool in music ( cool- anything not McFly, Busted, Blue, the Sugababes, Coldplay, Girls Aloud…). The show is traditionally divided into four rounds. From the episodes I’ve seen ( all produced in the mid to late noughts), the second round is usually the intros round and the last round is usually Next Lines. Those should both be self-explanatory.

The team captains currently are Phil Jupitus ( who has been on every episode of NMTB) and Mighty Boosh funny man Noel Fielding. Both are hilarious people ( a recent suggestion by Bernard ” Obsessed with him, too” Cribbins that Phil should use buckshot to hit a moving target like a bouncy Chris Martin had Phil snark ” I’ll be taking Cribbins’ advice”, while Noel admits that his hating Coldplay was thought of by his manager as a way of being “cool”, but no, he genuinely hates Coldplay. Both fail to realize that Coldplay is in fact awesome. But that’s another post). I find that after watching some Lemarr and Amstell episodes recently that the show could use a new permanent host to stop it from spinning wildly out of control, but it’s nice to see guest hosts every once in a while. And one can never, ever, have too many Sugababe jokes. Never.

Now, the fact that both of these shows recently had other obsession of the moment David Tennant on is purely coincidental. Or not. But it does bring to mind growing up in Canada and watching Front Page Challenge on Sunday mornings. I guess my love for panel shows does go way back.