Demark's Emmelie De Forest wins 2013 Eurovision Song Contest in Mälmo, but Anouk gets 12 points from Hallandale Beach Blog, and around here, that matters more; all blog-related emails from readers today were from readers who LOVE Anouk's song, and who'll now consider purchasing the new CD of the talented Dutch singer they'd never heard of until today -but have since "discovered"; 'Sad Singalong Songs'

eurovision YouTube Channel video: Emmelie de Forest - Only Teardrops (Denmark) - LIVE - 2013 Grand Final, Eurovision Song Contest 2013 Grand Final.  Mälmo, Sweden
Uploaded May 18, 2013. http://youtu.be/p3f9v8ebuD4

Denmark's earnest Emmelie De Forest wins the 2013 Eurovision Song Contest in Mälmo, but Anouk & The Netherlands gets 12 first-place points from Hallandale Beach Blog, and around here, that's the only vote that really matters.
And yes, we vote early and we vote often.


eurovision YouTube Channel video: Anouk - Birds (The Netherlands) - LIVE - 2013 Grand Final, Eurovision Song Contest 2013 Grand Final.  Mälmo, Sweden

Uploaded May 18, 2013. http://youtu.be/n5iazXvMw5o

I'll have a post in the coming days on the singing hits and misses of the show and an overview of what I thought worked and didn't work production-wise, so this will be my quick recap.

But I did want to mention that I thought that the "Stockholm smorgasbord" skit was the best of the interval bits, with host Petra Mede singing and dancing and acquiting herself quite well and showing why she was the surprise choice to host the show, even if as Karl at the Scandipop blog tweeted Monday, she overdoes the accent when speaking English.

Petra Mede's English accent is just too much. Too much. It's like a parody that doesn't stop. Tone it down love. #Eurovision
— scandipop (@scandipop) May 13, 2013

The skit also had the advantage of not just being funny, but also true.
I hope to be able to find a clip of it and post it here soon so you can all see for yourself.

I watched the show from beginning-to-end, and then the after-show interviews as well, and only had about 3-4 times when the SVT Play feed seemed to stall or there was a momentary blip, and all but one of those came during the judging.

That's always the deadly-dullest part of the show, as viewers are forced to listen to people from 39 countries stall for time with their little amusing anecdotes instead of simply reporting their own countries results via the awarding of 8 points for 3rd place, 10 for second and 12 for first-place.

As it happens, this year, Emmelie De Forest's status as winner was already perfectly obvious when they still had about 4-5 counties to poll, as we could see in the background while host Petra Mede was forced to continue asking a question that was already moot.

Norway's Margaret Berger finished fourth.

All my incoming blog-related emails from readers on Saturday were from people who just LOVE the song, some of whom even wrote that they'll now consider purchasing the new 10-song CD of this wonderfully-talented Dutch singer most said they'd never heard of until today. 

That's the power of blogging.

'Sad Singalong Songs' now available in stores and at iTunes, probably for about 8,99 € or about $11.50 USD.

That's a very good deal, indeed.

I also suggested they tale a close look at the official video for "Birds" as seen below on her VEVO YouTube Channel at http://www.youtube.com/user/AnoukVEVO

and consider subscribing to it, as I already was.

AnoukVEVO YouTube channel: Anouk - Birds, from her new CD titled 'Sad Singalong Songs'. Uploaded May 15, 2013. http://youtu.be/xPDYbuaXlA8

If yours truly was involved with a major Hollywood studio and I had an upcoming drama project involving someone like Cate Blanchett or Rachel McAdams or a similar genuine acting talent, especially a period piece pre-1960's, I'd figure out some way to get this song in the movie before somebody beat me to the punch.
With Anouk singing, nobody else.

More info, photos and video at http://www.svt.se/melodifestivalen/

Eurovision Song Contest finals are tonight in Mälmo, the Christmas Morning of Europop! Anticipation is in the air and the smart money says that the title will be a battle between Norway's Margaret Berger and Demark's Emmelie De Forest; Anouk's 'Birds' has a powerful ending; #Eurovision2013

SVT video: Norway's representative at Eurovision 2013 is 27-year old Margaret Berger shown singing "I Feed You My Love" during Thursday's Semifinal Heat.
http://www.svt.se/melodifestivalen/norge-i-eurovision-2013-margaret-berger-i-feed-you-my-love

Eurovision Song Contest finals are tonight in Mälmo, the Christmas Morning of Europop! Anticipation is in the air and the smart money says that the title will be a battle between Norway's Margaret Berger and Demark's Emmelie De Forest; Anouk's 'Birds' has a powerful ending;
#Eurovision2013

Margaret will be singing her ballad ‘I Feed You My Love’ while I'm feeding myself some cheddar-flavored popcorn and watching the show LIVE from Sweden around 3 p.m. Miami time on my desktop, via SVT Play, wondering if anyone will pull an upset. http://www.svtplay.se/

Who wants to be a star? (Som vill vara en stjärna?)

We'll know in a few hours.


Video: All the Scandinavian nations are represented in the finals: Iceland, Norway, Senmark, Sweden and Finland. Above, left-to-right: Denmark's Emmelie De Forest, Sweden's Robin Stjernberg and Norway's Margaret Berger.
Article: Vilken fest – Nordiska superfemman i final, Träffa de nordiska artisterna – som alla gör upp om segern i lördagens final av Eurovision Song Contest 2013.

(What a party - Nordic super fifth in final, Meet the Nordic artists - all of which makes up the victory in Saturday's final of the Eurovision Song Contest 2013)

17 May 2013 19:49; Reporter: Mirja Bokholm 

Backstage look at a rehearsal, as it happens, Margaret's.

Margaret Berger gears up for #Eurovision. Watch her rehearsal, a guest performance, and her greeting to Scandipop! scandipop.co.uk/margaret-berge…
— scandipop (@scandipop) May 15, 2013

Outside the arena, first rehearsel. Outfit of the day: #pants #americanapparell #sunglasses #burberry… instagram.com/p/ZGQbs4vGrS/
— Margaret Berger (@MargaretBerger) May 9, 2013

SVT video: Denmark's entry, twenty-year old Emmelie De Forest was the fans' and critics' pre-competition favorite and sings the very catchy tune, "Only Teardrops."


Sweden's entry is 22-year old Robin Stjernberg singing "You," as seen here at the 2013 Melodifestivalen in Stockholm in March.

Not that it seems to have much of a chance to win, but one song I wanted to bring to your attention is a song sung by 38-year old Anouk Teeuwe -a.k.a. Anouk- from The Netherlands, called simply enough, 'Birds.'
The lyrics are okay, though I'm really NOT so crazy about the phrasing, but I just love the music and the orchestration!
The last minute of this song is sweeping and awesome!

THIS is what an adult female singer who knows what she's doing sounds like, not some dopey twenty-something who wants to be a carbon copy of any of a dozen iconic female singers we can all think of and name who are so copied to death, with the same mannerisms -and desire to hit high notes for no reason other than to show off- that it's positively draining the life and originality out of popular music in the U.S. and why so much of today's pop music is SO awful and dull.
And why so many so-called stars of today can't sing LIVE, only lip-sync and we can all name THEM!


MrHaagsesjonny1 YouTube Channel video: Anouk singing 'BIRDS'  (The Netherlands]- From first Semifinal heat of 2013 Eurovision Song Contest, Malmö, Sweden. Uploaded May 14, 2013. http://youtu.be/jAe9b-9xA7c
I selected this particular video since it shows the lyrics. 
Starting at 2:05 thru the end, this song is wow! 

This song makes me think of a really memorable song from a good 1970's film that comes up when a female character is thinking long-and-hard about what she will do to change the course of what's been happening thus far.
That, or a song you'd hear in a Broadway show where you wish the whole play was as good as that one song that you are humming the next day at work

Of course, that's the oldest story on Broadway -a musical with one good song or one good act in search of others!

What do you think of it?

Is it just me or does Anouk's face somewhat resemble actress Peggy Lipton, circa mid-1980's? http://www.spokeo.com/Peggy+Lipton+1/Feb+26+1984+Other+Photos#4887941:28568541

I wish I was smart enough to know how to describe it here on the blog in the precise and cogent musical terms and phrases I need to make myself understood, but the first time I heard the last minute of this song, and every time since, it immediately made me think of parts of the orchestration for the version of Cole Porter's "Night & Day" as played in the fictionalized 1946 film of the same name with Cary Grant playing the life of the Hoosier-born Porter, one of my all-time favorite bio-pics, even with some of the artifice.
That orchestration is like honey to me, so whenever that's playing on TCM, no matter how many dozens of times I've seen it, I can't help myself and watch it again. Always.

I just wish I could explain it!

Last-minute addition at 2:55 p.m.

Scoresheet for tonight's #eurovision show. Thank you @schlagerfiasko. twitter.com/Scanditwitchen…
— Scandinavian Kitchen (@Scanditwitchen) May 18, 2013

-----

@MargaretBerger https://twitter.com/MargaretBerger

Hearing "Calleth You Cometh I" by The Ark was the musical highlight of last Saturday's Melodifestivalen heat in Mälmo -and it was just the intro music for Ulrik Munther!; 2013 Fourth Heat was most-boring heat in years; @SVTMello

The Ark World YouTube Channel: The Ark - Calleth You Cometh I.

Uploaded March 5, 2010. http://youtu.be/9HfKgoOJn9M

Hia80 YouTube Channel video: The Ark - Calleth You Cometh I (LIVE at Allsång på Skansen 2003, Stockholm) Uploaded May 28, 2008. http://youtu.be/u5PNmHCvZg8


In my music-oriented post of this past Monday, titled, Sweet, sweet music to our ears: the 'Nashville' soundtrack album; 'Nashville' star Hayden Panettiere (Juliette Barnes) sings "Fame" and "Consider Me"; Clare Bowen (Scarlett O'Connor) and Sam Palladio (Gunnar Scott) sing "If I Didn't Know Better," and cause a ripple to turn into a wave; #ABCNashville, @haydenpanettier
http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/2013/02/sweet-sweet-music-to-our-ears-nashville.html
I mentioned that I'd spent a good part of Saturday listening to the sweet sounds of the "Nashville" soundtrack album from the ABC-TV show, but that in between, around two o'clock, I hopped onto my computer and rode the Internet to Sweden and our friends at SVT Play.

Then, from thousands of miles away, I watched LIVE the fourth heat of this year's Melodifestivalen in Mälmo to send Sweden's representative to the 2013 Eurovision Song Contest.  http://www.eurovision.tv/page/malmo-2013

Since Sweden won last year in Azerbaijan with Loreen, Sweden will be hosting this year's competition in May. In fact, in the very arena where last Saturday's competition was held.

I also mentioned that it was probably the worst individual heat I'd seen in years, and that I even felt obliged at times to mute the volume because I was so NOT feeling it! :-(

What I didn't mention then was that the only time where I actually stood up and paid attention was when they introduced teen singer Ulrik Munther.
And that's only because the music intro they used to fire-up the crowd as he walked across the catwalk and onto the stage -at 0:45:33 here,
http://www.svt.se/melodifestivalen/se-program/23-2-20-00?autostart=true 
was The Ark's "Calleth You Cometh I," only one of the most melodic and punchy pop song of the past 25 years, and one of my Swedish favorites.

Literally, a song I have hummed to myself while stuck in traffic more times than I can count.
Which is why I have two versions of the song above today for you to see.

The second video was uploaded by Hia80, known here on the blog as "Sofia from Umeå," who was the savvy person we all have to thank for recording those four simply amazing videos of Robyn performing LIVE in concert  in Skellefteå back on July 1, 2011, which I posted here a week later on July 9th, a post which received a ton of hits from all around the world:
Wow! Sofia in Umeå -a.k.a. Hia80- has four must-see home videos of Robyn performing at Skellefteå 2011 last Friday
http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/2011/07/wow-sofia-in-umea-aka-hia80-has-four.html

Sofia's YouTubeChannel is at http://www.youtube.com/user/Hia80
Check it out and subscribe!

Eurovision 2013 news: SVT throws the world a curve in naming comedienne and new mom Petra Mede as its sole host for Eurovison Song Contest Semifinals and Finals in Malmö in early May. And not everyone is happy with the choice, whom even the show's producers call "beloved but controversial"; #euro2013, #eurovision2013, #sweden

SVT video: Petra Meade: "It's been hard to keep quiet about it." 

SVT throws the world a curve in naming comedienne and new mom Petra Mede as its sole host for Eurovison Song Contest Semifinals and Finals in Malmö in early May. And not everyone is happy with the choice, whom even the show's producers call "beloved but controversial"

So, either still feeling the effects of lingering jet-lag from my trip to Stockholm and my return to reality -six hours in the past- or restlessness, I woke-up early this morning, more than early enough to watch something that I've known was coming down the pike for a while.

The IT was the press conference carried LIVE on both Aftonbladet and Sveriges Television, SVT, at 5:15 Miami time, to see whom SVT would name as hosts for the 2013 Eurovision Song Contest's Semifinals and Finals in Malmö in May, which are expected to be watched by about 100 Million viewers throughout Europe in May. 

Plus me and other interested parties around the world, of course...

The first surprise was that there will be only one host, and the second surprise was the identity of the sole host, a name that created a frenzy this morning: Petra Mede. 

It's clearly a real coup for anyone to host such a big-time show with so much attention and pressure coming your way, much less for Mede to host solo, since while the veteran Tv presenter and comedienne, who hosted Melodifestivalen in 2009, is well-liked, it's not a slight against her just to recognize that her name was NOT on the tip of anyone's tongue, given that she just had a baby five weeks ago.
http://www.svt.se/melodifestivalen/eurovision/programledaren-klar-sa-vill-petra-mede-leda-eurovision-song-contest
http://www.eurovision.tv/page/malmo-2013

But it's just the latest serendipitous step for the former ballerina-turned-tour guide-turned-stand up comedian, who is so well-liked by most but not all Swedish TV viewers. 

Info about Petra in English:

http://www.svt.se/melodifestivalen/this-is-petra-mede

But already, less than two hours after the official announcement's been made, the mainstream Swedish news media is reporting that a not-so-small element is really NOT-so-crazy about her selection, with many penning words on social media much worse than these: "Det här kan inte vara sant." (This can not be true.)

Sverige uppdelat i två läger. Christer Björkmans beskrivning av Petra Mede "älskad men kontroversiell" stämmer in på reaktionerna.

(Sweden is divided into two camps, Christer Björkman's description of Petra Mede "beloved but controversial" applies to the reactions.)

http://www.svt.se/melodifestivalen/petra-mede-delar-upp-sverige-i-tva-lager

Additionally, as was somewhat predictable, and as would be the case here in the U.S., with the identity now known, the press is now focusing on the story line of how the brains behind the selection were able to keep their months of inquiries secret from THEM.

It turns out that the small band of SVT insiders involved in the important selection(s) used code words to keep the news about who was being actively considered -and perhaps more importantly, who wasn't!- from being prematurely disclosed and blowing-up in their face.
The name they used for Mede in their various meetings and communications?
"Harry Potter."



Aftonbladet video: Christer Björkman - "Vi kallade Petra Mede för Harry Potter" Björkman om hur hemligheten hölls.
http://www.aftonbladet.se/webbtv/noje/article16142083.ab
http://www.aftonbladet.se/nojesbladet/melodifestivalen/article16140974.ab

This selection of host today effectively starts the three-month countdown for the national music contests throughout Europe, some of which have already started in earnest, like in Iceland, where HBB fave Yohanna has already competed.

In the case of host Sweden and its selection to Eurovision, via Melodifestivalen, which begins on February 2nd with the First Round in Karlskrona, well, it is exactly as I've described here on the blog many times before, a national obsession.

To quote myself from an upcoming blog post here that was written about some news re SVT that I discovered while I was in Stockholm ten days ago:

The whole country watches Melodifestivalen, even people who think it's stupid, and people were talking about it last week to me, despite my only being somewhat famiar with some of the contestants, because the first nationally-televised competition takes place very soon. The Swedish news media positively fixates on the weeks of competition to an extent that would be hard to explain if it wasn't so self-serving, and yet also surprisingly, mean-spirited in many cases, as lots of people have reason to create or pass-along rumors!  

 It's on, baby!

---------

http://www.svt.se/melodifestivalen/live-se-eurovisions-programledare-avslojas

http://www.svt.se/melodifestivalen/