Every person has a twin, every Kdam song have a clone

Israel in Eurovision often reminds me of a failed pupil at school. This pupil just fucked up so many times in the past, and has been through so many anger sessions with his parents, that he has became super insecure. Since he does not has confidence in himself anymore, he is confused and keeps changing tactics in the hope that one day he will not fail anymore.

While most countries have reached to a point when they have a somewhat permanent format of preselection for Eurovision, Israel keeps changing its selection format every single year. We've had a traditional preselection. An internal selection. A private preselection for a chosen artist with 4 songs. A  comittee. A traditional preselection again. With every additional unsuccessful entry, the method changes again, in hope that maybe this time we've found the perfect way to choose the perfect song. Well, not gonna happen.

And this year - surprise! We Israeli fans get a treat that we've never had before: A big, modern preselection, with two semi-finals, a second-chance and a final. Just like in Sweden, Denmark, Norway and so many other European countries. It's not a coincidence. The IBU didn't suddenly see the light and decided that we should be up-to-date. It has happened due to Shai Barak, a dedicated Eurovision fan which is part of the "Tali Eshcoli" group that produces the Kdam this year. He knew what the ESC scene abroad is like, and hoped to import the successful Swedish method to Israel, in the hope that an entertaining prime-time show would attract the right musical talents and not just the nobodies that Eurovision in Israel usually seem to attract. 

That's a good thinking. The group even launched a facebook page and updated it constantly with information and pictures of the contestants, built a graduate tension untill the day the songs were exposed (today) and even proved that the show is connected to the daily Israeli reality while all Kdam contestants uploaded pictures of themselves holding a suppport banner for Israeli gay couples who want to have kids - a trend on Israeli facebook right now.

But it's not enough. A promising show with a modern stage that everyone praises is good, but the contest is all about music. And the music is somewhat of a disappointment. The songs were revealed today and you can listen to them at this page and on youtube. The good news - maybe appart from Leila's song, no song can be considered a Eurovision-cliche. The bad news - well, nothing really stands out. When I compare these songs in terms of production to the songs in other national finals, they still sound a bit old fashioned. But let's not be too critical about musical production and such things, everyone has to start somewhere and that's quite a good Kdam if you take into consideration that this is the first time they hold such a big event. What really made me upset is something else...

Maybe I'm just imagining this, but every single song from this Kdam sounds to me like a copy of some other well-known Eurovision song. Yes, I know, that's Eurovision and it's all about songs that "we must have heard before" (like the old schlager guys from Sweden said in their song yesterday, at the third semi of MF). But honestlly, we usually copy songs from the outer music world, not from Eurovision itself! Don't believe me? Please, let me show you:

Song no. 5: Shani Zamir - Forever = Euphoria

Well, every national final in 2013 must have a Euphoria clone, otherwise it's not whole. But honestly. It's not just "an upbeat song in a style similar to Euphoria" like most of the other clones. Just listen to the chorus! The backround music, her voice effects...and let's add the fact that Israel rarely does dance music, especially  when it comes to Eurovision. That's why the existence of this song just screams: "I wanna be Euphoria". But I must add a compliment to Shani - well done, you were brave enough to send something which is not a ballad / ethnic song to the Kdam. You did something new, and apart from the light plagrism, it's actually quite good!

Song no. 7: Aderet - Victory = Diva

A transgender singer. A single-word title with the air of superiority. A silent dramatic intro, and soon, the song turns into a dance tune. Only that in contrary to Miss Isternational, this lady can't really sing - look out for the ear-piercing scream at the chorus.

Song no. 8: Kathleen Reiter - Jusqu'a moi = Je n'ai que mon ame

It starts familliar, with a silent slow pace and an angelic female voice. By the time the French part comes, we all understand what song it reminded us of.

Song no. 6: Ron Weinreich - Love is one = Random Turkish song 

The playback of this song could serve Sertab Erener, MaNga, Hadise, and many others. But in this case it doesn't matter. In contrary to all the other clones, this is a good one! It stands in itself as a great song that is fun to listen to. That's how you play right the game of Eurovision!

Song no. 4: Adi Cesare - We will never let you fall = Mi'lim

Well, untill he starts singing in Spanish after the first chorus, it sounds just like that. 

Maybe I'm too critical, but I just feel that behind all these songs lies this typical wish of a Eurovision fan: "I wanna write a song that will sound just like _________ (fill in an ESC song you were impressed by). Personally, I think that's a wrong approach, but who am I to judge? 

So let's just hope for two things: First, that the show next week will be as good as they promise. Second, that even if after two semi finals, a second-chance and a final, a bad song would be chosen and another ESC-failure will take place, these Kdam producers would not give up. Persistence is the name of the game. Melodifestivalen did not always produce good winners, even though the show was always great. And they kept on producing it, year after year, and improved it all the time. The multy-semi Kdam is good. We just need to keep on, and try over and over again untill one day we will succeed, and then success will become a habit.

Alternative name for Eurovision: Which country is the smartest?

If you'll ask a person to describe the Eurovision Song Contest in one sentence, he'd probably say something along these lines: A music contest, where people vote for the best song. We are all used to think about Eurovision as a contest where every country does its best to come up with the best possible song. Evenings like yesterday, however, remind us that most of the time, this is not the case. Somehow, countries tend to choose a mediocre song out of the existing pool of entries offered in their national finals. Even if no one can guerentee what chance the songs not chosen might have had in the big contest compared with the preselection winner, sometimes the winning song just seems wrong.

Was Ég á líf Iceland's best choice for Eurovision? Or even second-best? I really don't think so. Birgitta's song was much more catchier and interesting, Stefania & Jógvan's duett was much more exciting and Magni Ásgeirsson's song had much more character. And still, the public and the juries wanted Ég á líf. That was the choice of the majority. Which leads me to wonder: Maybe Eurovision isn't about "best songs" but about "best choices". In other words: The final results of Eurovision show us which population in which country was the most smart, in terms of musical inteligence, to identify the best song in its preselection.

Higher and lower Eurovision IQ

Today, at lunch time in my workplace, the conversation suddenly reached the topic of Eurovision. People laughed about Lihi Grinner, ex-reality show star who sent a song for the Israeli Kdam. At some point, someone said: "It doesn't really matter who we send to Eurovision, because we are never going to win again". I agreed with her immidiately. "Yes, Israel is not about to win again in the close future" I said. And then, when she continued talking, I discovered she meant it in a whole different way. "Eurovision is all about politics nowadays", she said, "And our only chance is maybe Dana International, and she surely can't represent us every year". I pointed out for her that Dana failed two years ago, but she neither remembered it, nor seemed to believe me. Then another guy said: "Yes, we will never win in Eurovision if we go on like this. What we need it a song in English, or at least half-English. Like Shiri Mimon, she got 4th place and why? She's a diva and she sang half-English". I tried to tell him that Shiri did well simply because her song was good, but it was no use. He and the others kept saying that we should send Divas who sing half-English songs, or Dana International.

Eyþór - Did he really have the best song?

These workplace friends of mine are the typical televoting population in Israel. They are not the snobbish type who will not watch a Eurovision preselection. On the contrary, they are prime-time lovers who enjoy it and would probably vote. But anyone who is a Eurovision fan would agree that their formula for a successful Israeli song (English + Dana / some other Diva as a performer) is a total nonesence. Israel therefore, if to judge by its typical voters, is a country that would not be smart enough to choose the right song, and would probably end up with a song that has no chance of ever qualifying to the final.

Other countries, on the contrary, have higher Eurovision IQ. The population in Sweden, for example, kept crowning non-relevant songs in Melodifestivalen, until they finaly learned the trick in the last few years and started choosing songs that really stand a chance. It didn't happen because of Melodifestivalen itself - as we all know, it has always been a preselection full of musical gems to choose from. It was a change in the voting behaviour of the population that made the difference. It's as if they suddenly understood their former mistakes, and learned how to choose "right". 

Did he teach Sweden how to choose right?

How did that happen? I have no idea. Maybe a casual success with a non-typical song changed their idea of a "good song for Eurovision". Maybe the target audience of MF has changed and the schlager fans lost their power over the results. I really don't know. I only hope that more countries will become Eurovision-smart and choose the most promising candidate of their national final. It can only do good for the contest - it will become much more challenging, and better in terms of quality.

Eurofalsh - the movie, the wasted potential.

Just watched "Eurofalsh - the movie". A bit of a dissapointment. This movie was based on a brilliant idea that had the potential to become a must-see-film for every Eurovision fan. Basicly, it's a documentary about a band that performs Eurovision covers - with lipsinc and the exact dance moves - on Eurovision sunday parties in Israel. The movie tells the story of the band members, and how the band, with all its glory and fame, became their means of escape from their everyday personal problems. The four band members who are the heart of the plot - Micky, Ben, Irit and Eran, are all very colourful characters with a potential of spicing up everything and making the movie into a hit. Unfortunately, amateurism and an apparent lack of creativity turned this movie into a quite boring work, with not even a single moment that I really liked or became moved by.

Right from the start, when the opening theme of Eurovision sounded, I understood that this movie was not going to be a burst of originality and creativity. And I was quite right. The movie lacked the drama and the glory that a movie about Eurovision fans should defenitely contain. The conflict between the glorious life of sunday night's show and the normal life was not emphasized enough. The band members were not given each his unique and intrigueing portrait and their colourfulness was not apparent. All the questions the interviewer asked were very expected ("what if eurovision would cease to exist") and boring, and the answers sounded cut out, and not like a natural flowing story. There was also a part where they featured Israel not qualifying in ESC 2011 - really unnecessary and irrelevant to the plot, which was timeless and spreaded over several years (and several Eurovisions).

If I would have created that movie, I would focus more on the personal stories. Eurovision would stay mainly at the background, and the people and their emotions and passions would conquer the main stage. In addition, I would want to demonstrate to the average non-Eurofan viewer how the Eurovision fans see the band members - as some kind of envied celebrities. I would have done it by showing attractive high-quality scene shots of the band dancing and performing, showing-off their charisma and talent big time. In the movie, there's not even one good shot of the band on stage. 100% of the shots are taken from too close to the stage and from down, which causes a distortion of the perspective and prevent us from seeing the whole choreography. For the average viewer who haven't heard about the Eurofalsh before, the whole performance concept would seem very amateuristic.

But the movie has its moments, when it raises some interesting issues. The band members ask a question at one point: Do they wanna become professionals and try to reach higher with the band idea, or do they wanna continue treat it as a hobby and hope that one day, someone would "discover" them and do all the hard work? Well. Becoming a professional band of artists also means re-branding everything, and making some hard descisions that, from then on, would be based on professional motivations, rather than on friendly ones. Judging by the band members' arguments about who's getting to do "the solo", and why those who established the band 10 years ago should always have priority - I guess they may want to keep it as a non-profitable hobby.

Another interesting aspect in the movie is the "low self esteem issue". In the movie, Micky claims that even though they know they are very talented, they don't wanna  go proffessional because they all have low self esteem. To this adds the fact that the band, in all it's 10 years of existence and performing, has never demanded any sort of payment from the Eurovision club in which it performs (even though they do attract the custumers). They even feel guilty after asking for 100 NIS for props. I don't know if it has to do a lot with low self esteem. But I think that somewhere deep inside, the band members suspect that the band exist more for the benefit of themselves, than for the benefit of the audience and the bar-costumers. Unlike popular artists, the Eurofalsh wants to perform, more than the audience wants to watch. I mean, the audience do have a lot of fun watching them, but sometimes people just wanna be left alone and dance to Eurovision music without someone on stage showing them the right way to do it. Eurovision fans, after all, love to be the diva themselves, not only the admirers. Based on this, would the eurofalsh be sponsored had they went proffessional?

The movie has some kind of a happy-end, where one year later, each band member solved his personal conflicts and found balance in life. Micky, the teacher who was torn by the love to dancing and performing and the will to experience family life, managed to have a baby. Irit, who always hanged up with gays and never had a serious hetrosexual relationship, finally found a boyfriend. Eran, who was bankrupt and lost his business, returned to work as a fashion designer. And Ben, who had Eurovision as the center of his  life, finally found himself professionaly and started a career as a police officer. What the movie does not show, is how these changes in the lives of the band members, affect Eurofalsh in the close future. Will they stay a tight group of friends as they were? Would their interest in Eurovision stay the same, now that each one of them have a new main interest in his life? And will they ever stop fighting over solos? The answer would probably have to wait for "Eurofalsh 2", if it would ever be created.

No dream impossible

Life can really be an amazing thing. You have your friends, you spend time with them as a child, and you talk with them about their hopes and dreams. Then you grow up, and they grow up too. If you're still keeping touch with these friends, you get to be a witness to the most marvelous thing in the world: You get to see your adult friends making their childhood dreams come true.

I decided to write about this because I've just got a phone call from one of my best friends. She's a Eurofan, too - a very dedicated one. She's been traveling to Eurovision every year since it was held in Serbia, and just like many other fans, she's always been feeling herself better abroad than in her own country. Moving abroad, or more accurately - moving to her favored country Greece, has always been her biggest dream. And now, on this phonecall, she told me that she found a job in Greece and she's moving there already on Sunday! Isn't that amazing?! I know I should be a bit sad because it means I'm probably never gonna see her again, but I feel so happy for her because I'm imagining myself in the same situation (moving abroad is my dream as well) and it makes me shiver with excitment!!!

Making huge dreams come true is not such a rare thing as I might have assumed. Another friend of mine, a Eurofan as well (or Ex-Eurofan), has always liked Scandinavian music and has been dreaming his whole life about moving to Sweden. Then he signed up to study East Asian studies at the university and totally fell in love with the Chinese culture and language. Since then he's been dreaming about moving to China, and guess what? He won a very exclusive scholarship to study abroad and he's now studying in China and having the time of his life, with no intentions of coming back.

Another Eurofriend of mine has always dreamt about taking part at Eurovision. He's been trying all sorts of things like sending songs to our national preselection, or getting in contact with famouse artists, untill he understood that he needed to find a job which would express his unique talents. He got an invitation to work as an assistant for someone in the showbizz industry - a job that was less paid than his current job back then, but he still accepted the offer. Since he was really good with people and with orginizing things, he gradually moved up in the ladder untill on 2010 he finally became a member of the Israeli delegation to Eurovision. Now he's flying to ESC every year as a delegation member and he's also orginizing the Israeli party there. I think that's one of the most impressive ESC dreams to ever come true!

I have many other friends I could tell about, some already made a big dream come true, and some are showing good signs of being in the proccess of...almost getting there. One thing is sure - watching people do what they've always dreamt of is just amazing. It gives you new hopes and energies because it shows you that the world IS a fair place after all, and that everything that should happen - eventually happens.

What Loreen has to do with branding

A few weeks before Eurovision, I had a very interesting conversation with one of the fellow Israeli ESC fans. We talked about the artist who was considered the biggest favorite already back then - Loreen. My friend said that he sees an elementary difference between Loreen and other female singers in Eurovision, like, for example Ani Lorak or Shiri Mimon. Loreen, in contrast to them, is not perceived in the contest as a person, or as a woman, he said. Loreen and Euphoria are perceived as a united image that represents something, rather than a certain singer who is participating in the contest with a song.

I think that what he was trying to say is that Loreen is not perceived merely as a singer, but as a brand. I personally think that Loreen and Euphoria were delivered to the audience in MF and Eurovision as a catchy product which is very easy to digest. "Loreen - Euphoria" is a brand by all means. Loreen is a catchy name with a unique spelling, and no surename. Her hairstyle stands out and is already identified with her. Those amusing pictures (of Thomas G:son and Peter Boström) serve as a proof for that -

Her voice is also very unique (that was already said about her back then in "Idol" - one of the judges said that all the Swedish singers sound very similar to each other, but not her) and so are her singing manners. The name of her song is catchy, too - there's even a popular parfume with the same name  - and it has the unmistakeable qualities of a hymn. As for her public persona, even when she's interviewed, it's very easy to notice some of Loreen's remarkable characteristics:  She's calm, relaxed, "chill" as some define it.

Everything about Loreen is so clear, simple, easy to understand and easy to like. And people love it. People love brands, because they release us from the need to do the hard work: To think, to understand, to define, to decide. Loreen, the well-defined product is much more popular on the market than other good ESC singers who appear just too "human", too complex and not so commercial. This explains why Loreen was a clear favorite among the fans from the very start, and may explain what made her overpower the other strong candidates in the contest and get points from just everyone. She was like a versace in a sea of good-but-unknown designers. And the best thing about her was that in contrast to Versace, she was not really a famous figure, but her excellent branding made everyone like her as if she was a well-known artist all along.

Efter regn kommer solsken

Free-translation from Swedish: Sun always shines after the rain

This week has been quite busy and emotionally-hard for me. But as a compensation and a treat for the upcoming weekend, a lot of nice things happened today. So these were the little rays of sunshine in my day:

1. After I was forced to live without a mobile phone (or with a very basic one) for about two months, my Blackberry has finally came back from the lab and is now ready to use again! While it was gone, I didn't miss all its advanced functions at all, apart from one: the ringtones!!!! Now I can finally do what I've been dreaming about for the whole Eurovision season - listen to Euphoria every time someone is calling me. I was so excited that I made now a whole bunch of nice ESC and Melodifestivalen-related ringtones ("Stormande hav" by Timotej, "Het" by Timotej, "Det går för långsamt" by Mimi Oh and many many others...)

2. I got a good feedback at work. I work as a visual merchandising trainee at H&M - we design the various departments, place clothes, dress the dolls, etc. Today we had an internal inspection - our store manager surveyed the way everyone constructed their department and gave us critique. He really loved my departments and said that I did a good work. These words cannot be taken forgranted because usually there is a lot of negative notes, especially of you're new - and I'm in this role less than a month. It really made me happy and gave me more motivation. I think that I'm gonna go for the weekend to Haifa (where my parents live) and on my way stop at the local H&M store, in order to be inspired and get new ideas.  

3. A stupid thing but still - Today I discovered that we have a whole stock of Loreen-like wigs at work for the mannequins. It has very long dark hair and long bangs, just like the divine original. I think I'm gonna use it on the dolls for the one-after-next campign and also make them as Loreenish as possible! 

4. My new two roomies on the appartment seem very nice!

Hope this weekend is gonna continue as nice as it started! Have a great weekend everybody!

Loreen and the new Eurovision

Once upon a time, people who listened to Eurovision music were quite rare. If we, Eurovision fans, did find about someone listening to an occassional Eurovision song, the only conclusion to make was that this must be another Eurovision fan, just like us. This "once upon a time" was actually not so long ago.

But now, in the new Loreen era, things have changed drastically. People, "normal" people who have nothing to do with Eurovision, listen to Euphoria. They don't just express a casual positive opinion about it. They want to listen to it. They want to download it. They crave for it, as if it was Rihanna's new single. It also has a screening effect on the the other Eurovision 2012 songs - many people are interested in getting to know them. They think that if the winner of this contest is such a successful hit, the other songs from this year's show might be worth listening too.

I think that we still don't fully understand it, but Loreen started something new here, and Eurovision is about to change as a result. Maybe it's about to become more trendy, more updated, more modern, more popular. We cannot really know yet, but one thing is sure: It's not gonna stay the far-flung odd contest it was.

What was the trigger that made me think about this issue? Today at work I suddenly heard a mobile phone ringing loudly with "Euphoria". And it was not my phone. The sound of the ringtone came from the lockers so I went closer in order to discover who's mobile is was (and then become his / her best friend). But then it hit me. When it comes to Euphoria, It doesn't necessarily mean that the owner of the phone is a Eurovision fan. Because everybody like Euphoria. And they don't like it because it won. They love it because it's a song with the clearest characteristics of a radio hit ever.

I already know what I'm gonna ask the next Swede I'll meet: How do you people do it? When everybody all over the world are struggeling to "sell" things, to make people buy things, you Swedes seem to have found a way to make people crave for your stuff on their free will. They just go crazy for everything your country offers to the world: H&M, IKEA, and now your Eurovision enrty which won hearts and points all over Europe. Tell us, Swedes, what is it that they teach you at school?