Showing posts with label Anouk. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Anouk. Show all posts

Saturday, May 18, 2013

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.






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.






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.






-----

@MargaretBerger https://twitter.com/MargaretBerger