#I didn't like ulrikke's song very much

[arabela25]

Queen of Kings, Alessandra - Melodi Grand Prix | Norway, Eurovision Song Contest 2023

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Year-end personal goals and culture roundup for 2023:

Goals

My goals were not a priority this year because I severely underestimated how much time I would spend working, so the results are a little sparse. The things that I did do (reading, Duolingo, theater minus the personal notes) were either established habits or escapes from work.

Culture stuff:

Read ten books: mostly done (9/10). Not too bad really.

Finish seasons 2 and 3 of Supergirl: not done; not even close.

Take a few notes on everything I see live (though may or may not post): not done; actually did worse than last year. Seeing more things probably made this a bit more difficult.

Getting out goals:

Walk more: not done. Spent a lot of time sitting this year. Unfortunately exercise of any kind still feels like extra work, not a habit.

Run an organized 5K: not done. The running part would be in addition to the walking.

Visit a historic site: not done. Technically the Pasadena Playhouse is a state historical landmark but I did not actually learn about its history (or visit for that purpose), which was meant to be part of this goal.

Political/civic engagement goals

Read more (very) local news: not done. Trying to be more engaged in my community, not getting there.

Other stuff

Complete the Swedish language path in Duolingo: Done even though Duolingo repeatedly restructured their language paths and I ended up skipping several units in order to avoid repeating sentences like "min osthyvel är trasig" for 180 more lessons.

Theater

See separate post here

Music

I cannot claim that "Norwegian Pop" counts as branching out from my usual Eurovision-adjacent listening habits since that layer is 95% Ulrikke. Most-played album was Kimberly Akimbo (Original Broadway Cast Recording), most-played song was "How to Wash a Check" from that show. Most played non-theater song was "Tattoo" by Loreen.

Television

Finished the most recent season of The Great British Bake Off which was thoroughly enjoyable. Liked Alison Hammond as the new host and the return to non-gimmicky challenges. Otherwise I didn't watch much TV other than a few stray episodes of Forged in Fire at the end of the year.

Movies

Still not much of a moviegoer; watched a couple things streaming:

Black Crab (an action thriller with ice skating!)

The Banshees of Inisherin

Books

See separate post here

[deep-hearts-core]

2020 vs 2021 part 2: new artists

originally posted 6/24/21

Sweden - Move vs Voices Truly such a shame The Mamas weren't allowed to represent Sweden again. Move is a great song and they seem much more comfortable onstage than Tusse did. This at Eurovision would have been really fun and I hope they get to represent Sweden in the future.

Russia - Uno vs Russian Woman Uno has alright potential as a meme song, but that is generally not what I'm about in Eurovision. It just sounds annoying to me. I mean... people liked this? Russian Woman was clearly better.

Croatia - Divlji Vjetre vs Tick Tock It is an alright song but Tick Tock (live, at least) was FUN. Divlji Vjetre does not have that.

Cyprus - Running vs El Diablo Running is a showy, well-produced song, but it feels awfully repetitive. El Diablo also came together live really well and I'm sure Running would have done okay but... yknow. I enjoy them both but El Diablo seems a little more substantial.

Norway - Attention vs Fallen Angel Not at all what I was expecting. This is so pretty though! I know I've been defending Fallen Angel on here, but I would have loved it if Ulrikke had been selected internally for 2021. I vaguely remember her MGP entry from 2017 and Attention is so much more intimate than that in a way I really like.

Poland - Empires vs The Ride Empires cannot decide if it's a love song or a peace song, in a way that makes me a little uncomfortable. This is a good song for Alicja - even though it's obvious she's trying to build on Tamara Todevska's success from 2019. The Ride was better in studio, and I'm not going to bother to watch the Empires NF performance right now but I'm going to assume that it was decent live.

Denmark - Yes vs Øve os på hinanden Yes is a lovely song, very sweet, and really captures the feeling of headfirst love - at least in studio. The DMGP version of this is weird because Ben and Tan appear to have next to no chemistry with each other onstage (which is what sold This Time for me in 2015!) and have decided to social distance a whole [checks upload date] couple days early! This was always going to win out over their 2021 entry though. No contest.

Albania - Fall from the Sky vs Karma I like some of Arilena's other music better than this. If Albania's history is anything to go by, this probably was better in Albanian. I'm not a huge fan of Karma but I think it beats this one out - although Arilena seems to be an incredible vocalist.

Finland - Looking Back vs Dark Side Looking Back is more the kind of music I listen to, but it's not as good within the genre as Dark Side. The UMK performance online is really good - I doubt it would have placed well but I think I would have liked this a lot.

Portugal - Medo de Sentir vs Love is On My Side Medo de Sentir doesn't really go anywhere. I didn't like the 2021 song all that much but at least it had some direction. Also this liver performance is a little lackluster. Everyone is very slightly out of tune. It's a pretty song I guess but it's not executed well.

France - The Best In Me vs Voila It's very Me And My Guitar. I like this a lot better than Voila - I mean, any readers (not that I have any) are well aware that I don't like Voila very much and have in fact hated it from the first time I heard it. So The Best In Me is superior in my opinion. It feels a little more honest and I like his voice a lot.

Italy - Fai Rumore vs Zitti e Buoni Zitti E Buoni obviously worked out for Italy lol but Fai Rumore is a little more my genre. Like, Maneskin grew on me a lot, especially after seeing it live. But this is just really gorgeous to listen to. The strings!! His voice!!

Germany - Violent Thing vs I Don't Feel Hate Violent thing is soooooo fun, I really don't know what Germany was thinking not bringing Ben Dolic back. They could have actually scored pretty well with this.

Bonus:

Armenia - Chains On You Polished enough in the studio version, although I would have worried about this live. The high "chains on you" refrain is a little jarring but Athena's voice sounds nice in the low parts.

Belarus - Da Vidna The national final performance online doesn't seem very polished. I doubt this would have done well. I should give this a listen in studio though, I like this sort of Slavic techno as a genre.