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.