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Klapa s Mora - Mižerja
Croatia's entry for Eurovision 2013
Croatians have six. Well, at least when they churn out their copy of Il Divo. And it's not bad. Doomed, but not bad.
The video is a performance video. Nothing exciting there.
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Elitsa & Stoyan - Samo Shampioni
Bulgaria's entry for Eurovision 2013
I love Elitsa & Stoyan. They're Bulgarian stars of rhythm-driven pop-folk, and Samo Shampioni is off the hook. A bit of electro, a tiny spot of dubstep, and a metric ton of drums. It's much more retro than their 2007 entry. It's not a winner, but it's a lot of fun.
...and you think it's just another performance ( Read more... ) -
Roberto Bellarosa - Love Kills
Belgium's entry for Eurovision 2013
It's a big dance pop ballad. And it's a pretty decent big dance pop ballad.
I don't really like the video, though. It's got that wide-angle close-up thing going, and that's a very risky choice making his face very round and his schnozz look huge. The choreography is very clever, though.
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Alyona Lanskaya - Solayoh
Belarus' entry for Eurovision 2013
Ah, dance pop. Belarus sends us a Latin-tinted folky dance-pop number. It's kind of scattered. Where "scattered" is a nice way of saying "bad." It's Spanish and it's eastern.
We have a performance video. Unfortunately, the presence of 4 half-dressed male dancers don't really do enough to counteract the weakness ( Read more... ) -
Farid Mammadov - Hold Me
Azerbaijan's entry for Eurovision 2013:
Another rock ballad, but pretty mainstream. It's not bad.
Another performance recording.
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Natália Kelly - Shine
Austria's entry for Eurovision 2013
Rock ballad again, but bluesy with a solo female singer. It's a decent song, and she's got a strong voice.
The video is the live performance from her selection concert. It's interesting that she didn't have any sort of fancy costume or choreography, and I think that was by design.
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Dorians - Lonely Planet
Armenia's entry for Eurovision 2013:
More rock, but this time an indie-ish rock ballad with a message. It's a ballad-heavy year, but there's variety in the ballads.
Again, a fun video. I don't quite get why the performers are being projected in black-and-white with scrawled messages on their own headless, legless torsos. And the scrawled messages ( Read more... ) -
Adrian Lulgjuraj & Bledar Sejko - Identitet
Albania's entry for the 2013 Eurovision Song Contest
It's a pretty solid rock number, with a big, lush orchestral score behind it. In short, it doesn't suck.
The video is... interesting. Fun, actually. The construction zone is used effectively. The melting army is a pretty cool effect, and I'm sure meaningful.
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