#oh she's also a big nightcore fan!

[bunnyspine]

June cosplaying Hatsune Miku because she's a big fangirl

[cowboy-robooty]

Let me show you the world of my hell hole of a playlist

Obviously I need to share the good word of the Sonic Vocal Tracks like dude i will make you sit and listen to all of them if i have to but my personal favorites are “This Machine” from Sonic Heroes, “Find Your Flame” and “Im Here” from Sonic Frontiers, “Live & Learn” from Sonic Adventure 2 and “I Am… All of Me” from Shadow the Hedgehog. They are a little more metal/rock ish sorry if my music terms are off but yeah you will be screaming you will be so pumped

Also literally just any track from any Lupin III media is so fucking good omfg. So Jazzy and upbeat you will feel so radical. My favorite intros are from Part 2 and also “Superhero” is a transcending experience I lives in my head rent free. Yuhi Ohno’s work is honestly just so good just skip immediately to his entire discography

Ok im sorry im a hardcore MARINA and Girls Love Shoes fan its just who i am inside. I need to come clean. Girls Love Shoes’ “Supamedicine” is my godsend its my holy grail. MARINA always drops bangers the people know her not much to say than that.

Also some random out of pocket ones. Any minecraft parody ever, any pop song from the 2000’s, animation meme songs that haunt you for life, the living tombstone and specifically She Wolf but nightcore. Just night/daycore / slowed down/speed up just to get a little cray cray.

Alot of my own music taste is just a bunch of Punk Rock and other random artists scattered about, sorry if you already listen to these guys </3 My entire playlist is a tonal nightmare its older than most average playlists. Been going strong since like 7th grade

DONT WORRY LOL MY PLAYLIST IS AIDS TOO ive had it since i got my first phone in 6th grade because i like to put all the songs i like ever in one playlist and hit shuffle on that ^_^

SONIC SHIT: I LIKED THIS. ROBOOTY WAS A FAN OHHH YESSS... DONT WORRY IDK HOW MUSIC TERMS WORK EITHER LOL BUT THIS IS GOOD. **nods head** ITS LOUD ITS GOT A VERY FULL SOUND I LIKE IT A LOT YESS!!!

LUPIN SHIT: DUDEEE I FUCKING LOVE THE LUPIN SOUNDTRACKS TOO!!! I FUCKING LOVE JAZZY SHIT ITS SO GOOD ITS SO FIRE I LOVE IT I LOVEEE WHAT LUPIN IS IN I ALWAYS DO BE PLAYING THAT LUPIN OPENING ON TAIKO!!!! I need to check out yuhi ohnos discography properly.... i always am slacking ok

GIRLS LOVE SHOES: i listened to supamedicine and it was pretty good! it was pleasant i was like **nods head** if my buddy put it on i wouldnt go "well... if you wanted to go to teen sex cove you couldve just asked 😏" but id be like **nods head in approval** and then continue talking about how my soundcloud almost got deleted for reposting yaoi christmas carols. anyways secret.. im actually not really a marina fan. like primmadonna and oh no is okay theyre like 5/10 to me but idk i just aint into her shit

RANDOM SHIT: IM NGL I DIDNT LISTEN TO A LOT OF MINECRAFT PARODIES BECAUSE THEY WERE PARODIES OF POP MUSIC AT THE TIME AND I HATTTTTEEDD POP MUSIC LOL. i think some are ok like dont mine at night but i cant really think of any others i liked. i still am not really big on modern pop in fact i kind of hate like a lot of it lol im a hater by birth 💔 I ALSO... **says this on the cross** HAVE HATED ANIMATION MEMES FROM THE MOMENT I WAS BORN TOO. i used to get so mad id be like THATS NOT A MEME!!!! THATS A SHITTY LOOPED GIF THAT HAS NO JOKES AT ALL!!!!! idk i never was an animation meme kid.... i always looked up to newgrounds animation and like people who made full mv parodies of vocaloid mvs or cola shake dance yknow but i liked those because i think theyre different from animation memes. its a completely different vibe and i think that comparing shit like burihamachi or the pappara baby boy thing to animation memes is like comparing manga and comics. theyre the same thing in principal but COMPLETELY different vibe yknow? anyways yeah i was a hater and refused to watch them in my lifetime... 💔💔💔 I LIKE THE LIVING TOMBSTONE THOUGH I LOVEE THE SONG CATS OUGHHH THATS SO GOOD.... i never listened to them a lot i only know like 3 songs lol so erm i dont consider myself a living tombstone fanboy since i think id be considered a poser 💔 LOOK IVE ALWAYS LIVED UNDER A ROCK IM ALWAYS SEVENTEEN YEARS LATE TO EVERY PARTY EVER!!! I NEVER EVEN LIKED FNAF I WAS INTO THE NIGHTGUARDS BUT DIDNT CARE ABOUT THE GAME THE LORE THE ANIMATRONICS I LITERALLY DID NOT GIVE A FUCK I NEVER WATCHED A SINGLE MATPAT VIDEO OR LISTENING TO ANY FNAF SONGS!! i was an asdf movie and newgrounds + niconico douga kid ermmmmm anybody like danjo danjo? anyways i do like nightcore! i love listening to nightcore of 80s songs ohh yes... i only listen to out of touch nightcore 😏😏😏

sorry for long tangents but yknow how robooty empire is. THE KING LOVES TO SPEAK! THANK YOU FOR THESE RECS ESPECIALLY THE SONIC SHIT I BE LIKE OHHH ME LIKEY 😍

[abbyfreemansmind]

Let’s talk about Hazbin Hotel

So, I finally sat down and watched Hazbin Hotel. I’d heard so much about it and felt the need to launch myself headfirst into having my own opinions about it instead of just listening to other people talking about it. This is gonna be a long post, so I’m gonna put it behind a neat little read more. Please note that this is coming from someone who genuinely enjoys adult humour and edgy humour and themes. I’ve got no problem with something that’s all swearing and raunchy jokes. It just needs to be done right.

Point 1 - The Plot The plot is describes as the Princess of Hell trying to open a new hotel to rehabilitate sinners so they don’t get exterminated during the yearly heavenly extermination to deal with Hell’s overpopulation problems. This plot is quickly undone through a few things that anyone can notice during the first viewing. 1 - Overpopulation? WHAT population? The scenery is most often noticeably devoid of any signs of life, outside of when background characters are called for. The scene where Charlie’s doing her news presentation is the most notable example of background characters. After this scene, we see almost nobody outside of the main cast and those weird little egg things. There are a few throwaway demons but outside of that, the streets are devoid of people. There aren’t even the corpses we had just seen during that opening scene. 2 - Charlie may as well be a total nobody what with all the power being the Princess of Hell holds. Just look at how the other characters treat her. You’d think the Princess of Hell would have some kind of benefit that would sway people towards agreeing with this whole idea. Instead, she gets mocked by just about everyone for reasons I can only guess involve winning her sympathy points from the audience. 3 - At no point does she give any proof that redemption would work. She basically says, “Hey guys! I hate seeing you all die, so I have this idea that has no backing evidence, that may or may not work, to try and get you guys into Heaven! Let me sing a song about it where I insult you all!”

Point 2 - Presentation I applaud the animators. Must’ve been hard, especially for Charlie’s overly fast song that really didn’t need to be nightcored, or literally any time Angel Dust was on-screen. Frame by frame. No rigs. All those stripes. All those colours that blend if you stare at them too hard or squint even slightly while watching. All that unnecessarily constant movement. It’s no wonder the thing took four bloody years to animate. Outside of animation, there are too many unneeded details and not enough needed details. Seriously. 1 - The turf war. We didn’t need this. We didn’t need this at all. If you take out the entire opening to it and the entire actual fight scene here, the episode still flows smoothly and we get the same amount of information and worldbuilding. In a pilot/first episode, you should only give the audience necessary details. Leave them wanting more, yes, but make sure they actually know what they’re getting into from the first episode. Make every scene count. Make it mean something. Don’t just shove every detail you can think of together and call it a day, especially if you don’t actually give the audience much information from it. 2 - Why is Hell overpopulated? Why isn’t Heaven? Why can angels go from Heaven to Hell, but demons can’t go from Hell to Heaven? Why does nobody care about being redeemed if Hell is so overpopulated that Angels annually come down and kill people because of it? Why does everyone treat the Princess of Hell like she’s worthless? Why doesn’t Angel Dust know about Alastor if they got into hell within 10 years of each other? Where is this supposed overpopulation problem? Would redemption even work in the first place? Why should I care about most of these characters (who are mostly complete jerks with no redeeming qualities other than “PROTAGONIST”, especially when two of the fan favourites repeatedly sexually assault other characters and, in one case, is both sexist and racist at one point)? Why are there turf wars? I should not be having to ask these questions. Don’t hold the audience’s hand, but don’t leave every single question you present in the show unanswered. Some of the questions presented make absolute sense to leave unanswered. Why does Alastor want to help with the hotel? Why are characters like Vaggie and Niffty, who do nothing all that bad, in Hell? These are questions that make total sense to leave unanswered for now. 3 - What crime is too terrible to be redeemed for? Charlie seems to think that literally everyone can be redeemed. That means murderers, rapists, abusers, tormentors... Certainly her song holds some kind of key to figuring it out! “Inside of every creepy hatchet-wielding maniac” Hmm... Okay... “All of you cretins, sluts and losers, sexual deviants and boozers” Uh... “So, all your cartoon porn addictions, vegan rants, psychic predictions Ancient Roman crucifixions end right here All you monsters, thieves and crazies, cannibals and crying babies" Oh... Also, did she imply that mental illness, alcoholism, drug dependency, plant-based diets/lifestyles, rabies and enjoyment of sex were sins in that song?

Point 3 - Edgy for the sake of edgy Hazbin Hotel tries to be an adult cartoon, but comes off as something a mentally disturbed teenager wrote during their emo/scene phase. 1 - The swearing and sex jokes. Oh boy. I’ve worked with children under the age of 15 who swear and crack sex jokes better than the adults in this show. The swearing and sex jokes are the only reasons this show couldn’t be aired as a Cartoon Network show aimed at edgy teenagers. It’s so poorly done that it in and of itself takes away from the quality of the show itself. Also, we have a character who’s name is an actual sex joke itself. Vaggie, full name Vagatha - a lesbian sex worker, of course. Fun fact for those who don’t know, but all of her previous character drafts had her name as some form of joke on the word vagina. This isn’t an accident, this is blatant and intentional. Also, here’s a pro tip for you! You can make an adult-oriented show without having swearing, slurs and sex jokes taking up a solid third or more of your script. 2 - The... “Representation”. Yes, Hazbin Hotel has LGBT+ characters! Yes, it has biracial and Latina characters! Charlie is bi, Vaggie is a Latina lesbian, Angel Dust is a gay man, Alastor is ace and biracial, Husk is pan, Niffty is Japanese (YIKES). Except none of it actually matters. No, really. Vivziepop was all like, “btw you can ship w/e, idc! also, i rlly like the fanon version of human alastor (who is whiter than marshmallow fluff even though he’s supposed to be half black)! :)” and threw all that out the window because... Who knows at this point. Now, if you look at the connected series, Helluva Boss, you get Moxie and Millie - an extremely obvious and loving couple. In Hazbin Hotel, you get Charlie and Vaggie who you probably couldn’t tell were a couple without somebody telling you that in the first place, what with all the loveydovey-ness going on with them. In fact, the biggest hint we even get is literally one line. “Life ain’t a musical, hun.” But then again, I’d be more apt to believe Charlie and Vaggie are friends, or Vaggie is pining after Charlie. Also, Charlie is a really bad girlfriend! She lets Vaggie get abused by practically the entire cast without so much as a single word in her defense and ignores everything Vaggie says. It came as no surprise when I remembered hearing about how the only reason these two are a couple is because one of the people on the team thought they were during storyboarding and Vivziepop just went with it. Also, fun fact, Vaggie fits both the angry lesbian and fiery Latina stereotypes. Charlie fits the stereotype for the bisexual cheater, what with how she seems to actually like Alastor more than her own bloody girlfriend. Alastor is canonically ace because he’s too full of himself to be with anyone else. Speaking as somebody who’s ace... WHAT?! As much as I don’t like Charlastor, it’s partially more popular than Chaggie because Vivziepop actually made them act like a couple for an entire musical number. Also, he’s annoying. He not only kept telling Vaggie to smile (heck you dude), he also smacked her butt, which is a form of sexual assault, people. This was all played for laughs, along with Vaggie’s (actually very reasonable) anger. Niffty is Japanese. A yellow-skinned demon who’s boy crazy and obsessed with cleaning... Big yikes. Finally, Angel Dust. The kinky gay man porn star/drag queen/drug addict/prostitute who verbally sexually assaulted two guys. Where do I begin. When it came to this guy, Vivziepop must’ve been like, “Imma throw every stereotype for gay men on this guy and call it a character!” If you look a Helluva Boss again, you get Stolas, who verbally sexually assaults Blitzo over the phone and also cheated on his wife with him in the first place, so this isn’t a one-off. Also, he was originally AFAB, so that whole line about “Why are you all women?” is more than a little heinous and in extremely poor taste.

In conclusion, this show is terrible. Everything about it. It needs some serious reworking, because as it stands, it’s really truly not that great of a creation.

tl;dr: Needs a lot of work and “ThEy’Re In HeLl!!1!!one!!!eleven!!!11″ isn’t even remotely an excuse for the genuine problems in it. Remember, at least one actual human being on Earth, not in Hell, wrote this garbage fire. Also, the animators deserve a higher wage than whatever they’re getting to deal with these designs. I shudder just thinking about animating them, with or without a rig.

[sole-cuore-amore-e-droga]

Tel Aviv 2019: Straight outta France to Eurovision with king of controversy

T’was a good decision for the French televisions to make Destination Eurovision a thing for yet another year. Sure, I only end up having heard of only 1 name per year beforehand (Nassi from 2018 and Florina from 2019, additionally hearing music from one other act from each year but forgetting their names soon after!), but that doesn’t stop everyone else for me from showcasing their best. Heck, I have listened to quite a lot out of some of my Destination 2018 favourites and I have never had any idea who they were! (They were Masoe and Max Cinnamon, je suis absolutely NOT désolée.)

And honestly I found this year extremely much more better to care about. For the previous edition I ended up not caring for like 5 or more songs, because I spent more of my investment in the finalists. This year I pretty much cared about way many more songs, even those that I didn’t wound up liking THAT much. Seemone for example, AKA “the only best possible choice for France from those that don’t need to have big followship numbers to have fans for the song, unlike Bilal tsk tsk”. I can’t say I was 100% mesmerized with her song, but I do remember her more than June the Girl, which was quite a fan fave but also a disaster from 2018. Oh sorry, I mean, June the Who?

And of course Destination 2019 paved the way for some more exciting plot twists and turns, for example, two of the bigger fan favourites fizzling out in the semis (and I already lowkey discussed them on my other segment, Fanwank Assimilation), and another two lowkey favourites crashing and burning live (one of them sounding like she was drunk and scared, another one being less energetic than her song requires). What did that give out at the end? Why, nothing but a homosexual French-Morrocan social media starlet Bilal Hassani of course. Let’s go ahead and review his entry.

My first impression of this song turned me off a little because of how... poppy bland it sounded. Nothing against Madame Monsieur’s co-crafting (they did make a song I liked for last year’s Eurovision), it’s just that I think that I’m a person that’s looking more into pop songs with expectations full of excitement, but then getting something average at the end. The English lines in this are ‘reasonatable’(?) with though - it’s a self-empowerement against haters, telling to oneself that they’re the “king” (yes Bilal may be wearing wigs a lot but for the last time - HE DOES NOT IDENTIFY AS A SHE) and that they “can see [their] kingdom”.

Though it grew on me overtime, to the very point I couldn’t see anyone taking his way, not even Seemone, not even any other darkhorse of the comp. No. My organism was fully adapted to the fact Bilal will win, so I ended up there lowkey supporting his win, even if I wanted someone else deep inside. (Same for A Dal 2019 but my inner systems refused to bring myself to Joci possibly winning an A Dal again, though they saw it being a likely endgame... just in a different light of events, but more on the Hungarian writeup, buckle up for that one because there’ll be buckets of everything for that one! >:) ) That and Bilal was kind of a runaway choice considering France is huge and the jury in there can’t do shit if the televoting is valuated in stronger numbers than in Melodifestivalen (I mean, look at how many points did he get??? His telescore beat the televote’s runner-up’s one by 87 points!), so if he has that many fans in a big enough country then of course they were gonna flock to him massively, and ain’t no Eurofan can’t object against the French televote numbers like these. Though they might seem too big because last year Madame Monsieur won with 118 as opposed to the artist’s of a song’s they have co-written with him for this DESC 150. And the televote gap between the 1st and the 2nd was much more humble - 29.

Maybe it has had to do it with the fact that it has a pretty damn alright pop melody that doesn’t sound specifically written for an ESC NF (unlike most of stuff that’s been done by Ylva & Linda and the like)? Maybe it has got to do with the golden hands of both Madame Monsieur members (pretty sure it might have just been Jean-Karl) touching upon this track (and some randomer whose name I don’t remember rn and I don’t want to? idk)? Maybe it’s the state of Bilal’s studio voice capabilities that carry this across for me nicely enough? Maybe it’s the persona? Somehow I don’t think I know but I’ll probably choose the first option. This is listenable, yes. Flows through like a normal pop song would. Maybe would have needed some polishing in some places (for that exists an up-and-coming revamp that will only be revealed on rehearsals (youhou Moldova 2014), but actually I only think that it will impact the song in a way that it will now be in F minor rather than F sharp minor?? So that Bilal could avoid being one of those kind of people that did sth like this:

RETWEET IF YOU CAN HEAR THIS PICTURE

Anyways. For all that it is, I savour it, it’s pretty decent, it stands out with its message if you know what it is (a kiss-off of the haters that once doubted this “roi”), I kind of like the way it’s being sung (and that vocal variation at 1:21) and some of the lyrics are not that bad actually, and for the matter of fact, I’d DIE for a possibility to create a song like this at best; I don’t quite know if it can do as well as his fanbase imagines, but I really hope it at least doesn’t do France dirty for choosing its up-and-coming-ish social media icon over the NF acts that I’ll be going off about a little later and brings a savourable result! I cannot remove my like for this song now that the deed is done, period. And I really hope that someday all this outrageousness over Bilal in a bad way will be stopped because poor 19 year old, let him be whatever sexuality he wants to be as of now, let him have his fans, let him wear those wigs, and keep those upcoming TV series about a terrorist man with an intent to blow up Eurovision in Israel (or something like that) at bay. Not to mention, these nasty caricatures. I definitely did not like seeing them. I legit feel like we’re almost talking about Lithuanian situation and what do my country’s citizens think about gay rights and all that (spoiler alert: they’re not friendly towards them). Stop it, get some help.

Oh and I know this is essentially 2,5-ish months late now but can I adress something real quick before finishing off this review and moving down to my chance-o-meters and all? Pretty please?

To all the Nightcore lyric videos of “Roi” that did this and would still do this:

Please consider looking back at the official lyric video for “Roi”, where it says:

and thank me in advance.

Not can’t, can. No wonder he’s a “roi”, ffs. What would be a king who cannot see his kingdom now? I’m sorry but this is just lowkey absurd, ngl.

Anyway:

Approval factor: As of the time I’m finishing this, I sort of approve it for now. The big dilemma though is to where do I rank this big boy - do I think it deserves to go higher than UK or lower? Do I drown it in the bottom 3 just because I had a rather negative first impression for it? God knows. For now though I’ll aprove it and carry on, dreading for the revamp obliterating some of the song’s charm that I had for it, just like maybe for Spain.

Follow-up factor: I think it is quite of a stepdown, considering last year a lot of guys publicly ADORED “Mercy”, and Madame Monsieur didn’t even need to have a huge social media following just to get that far as to win Destination! Bilal, however, did, and most people didn’t even fancy his self-empowerement ‘anthem’. And so did I at first, and eventhough I kind of like it as of now, I still prefer “Mercy” big time. France for the kings of controversial song topics and controversial entrants!

Big 5 factor: at the end of the day, you cannot change the fact that most of the Bilal fans are definitely centered in France (and maybe in some outskirts in Belgium as well) and not around Europe, especially the first time viewers, boo. So Bilal’s memorability levels in there from a Big 5 country will be questionable, unless his massive-ass French fandom decides to mass-emigrate for a week, get some foreign Simcards and start spamming votes for their idol - that’s a guaranteed televote for a guaranteed low jury vote, and if high any-votes are any indicators for where things are heading (like for Poland 2016 for instance), then Bilal will finish decently, but without any high-votes, he’ll be stuck in a low-low, maybe somewhere in the bottom 10. Sorry if you’re reading this, any remaining Bilal fans on Tumblr... you better get ready for your mass emigration for a week then?

NATIONAL FINAL BONUS

Destination’s memes are still glorious to look at, even if it feels like it’s been years since them, considering my social media timeline does not have all that many of them remaining, BUT we still got some highlights from them saved and I can’t wait to freshen up the minds of the mutuals that seemed to have forgotten them. As well as some note-worthy NF songs that the others won’t get the chance to see because only one can represent France and Bilal can’t stand in for any other ones but himself, cuz he is he, and you know he’ll always be. Let’s go:

• Silvàn Areg, probably the biggest underdog-turned-overdog-overnight act of them all out there. Back when his song was still “Le petit Nicolas” (it was changed to “Allez leur dire” thanks to copyright turmoil with some book’s publisher - no it wasn’t about Le petit prince, there ARE Le petit Nicolas stories in there), I don’t think anyone really saw THAT much potential in this song to stand out, maybe except a few select others? I mean who’d even DARE to support this upbeat guitar French-like tune that... has cartooney visuals on stage and that way wows the viewing audience??? NO WAY!!! Yeah these visuals made me truly forget this was one of the songs that didn’t come out in full release yet (as of DESC 2019, only 3 songs weren’t released in full yet, along with The Divaz and Doutson (the latter dragged his kid on stage for his performance BTW, maybe that kid liked Silvàn’s stage illustrations despite maybe not seeing them the way they were supposed to be viewed?) and enjoy the king of popup-book visuals taking it away. So much so I ended up rooting for both visuals AND the song during the final as well (and the final had the colouring book painted!). Don’t you love it when your fave has an impeccable staging AND can nail their performance as well? I sure do... Click to find out his performance serve. I stan men who can sometimes rap out of nowhere when necessary and unexpected.

• Looking for typical French chansons/ballads that make you think of how longsome and melancholic (with a hint of happiness) can things be? Look no further than aforementioned Seemone and her alive-father-ballad, “Tous les deux”. If you’re not here for all this French zany, you can sit back and relax with hearing this piano delight with Adele-ish vocals on top and the paternal gratitude intertwined in the lyrics... well duh, if the constant repetition of “PAPAAAAAA” in the bridge doesn’t give it away for you, an unassumer, then idk what does. Noir, compelling, heart-wrenching, stunning, solid and all that it is. For all the ballad lovers out there. Hope her father’s proud of her achievements (for what did she do is to take the Eurofans by storm against this inevitable Bilal-ness with her feelings-over-fireworks and her strenght to carry out this beauty without crying... in the NF final at least, making International juries side with her more than Bilal, for whom we firstly thought it was over until 150 televotes, even getting the Bjorkdaddy on her side in the semis... only to never win the televoting as hoped to (Bilal was in a different semi so another man won over the girl, while in the final Seemone was 3rd and voted just under another experienced artists and Bilal obviously) and just remain the jury darling) and will hold this song up to himself dearly. We love supportive and thankful children <3

• This 25 year old chanteuse/violinist Gabriella Laberge, hailing all the way from Canada but with a passionate love to France probably ever since performing in La voix (je t'aime nuit et jour), I mean, The Voice France 2016, dived head-first into the social interraction game, with being all-round positive with her supporters, retweeting their stuff, liking their posts, being in groupchats... she did all she could. And the international jury still let her flop big time. Probably they were too underwhelmed at how engaging her entry, “On cherche encore (Never Get Enough)”, was on the big stage, with Gabriella out there, rocking her yellow pantsuit and dancing on top of a rectangle with other cello-or-contra-bass player madames inside of it and stairs to get on top of that rectangle besides the rectangle. Oh and playing the piano at the beginning. Were they afraid she was gonna fall off the rectangle with her musical ‘gun’ the next time? Was it the show opening that startled her chances (as people are afraid that the same will happen to Srbuk in Eurovision 2019)? I don’t know, but for one that I know is the fact that the poor woman was robbed to the core for all the friendliness she radiated. And the violin lady realness she delivered. Here’s now hoping her strong friendship ties with Olivier Dion will persuade him to fly to France from Canada next for a Destination Eurovision adventure, then? (tbh he’s pretty decent!)

• UH-OH! GIVE A LITTLE RESPECT for The Divaz! Seen by me as a little bit of those girlies that will definitely be drowned in the results because of their... aura and decision of paying a tribute to the late Aretha Franklin, I was shooketh to the core when I saw them NAIL “La voix d’Aretha”... the passion, the drive, the energy, the sass, the style, the dresses, THEM VOCALS! Needless to say I got incredibly sold and even more so happy I was interested in hearing that song all along beforehand, so much I think I tried skipping our own NF over just to see these gurls S-L-A-Y! Hopefully this ain’t the last of them together, they’re a true cool bunch. Happy to see that the international juries saw something in them!

• Emmanuel Moire... now, his song “La promesse” is even more so boring sounding imo and would do less of an impression if people didn’t know the message of it, but the message (and his status in the French music skies), boy does it shine. He sings about making a promise to stay true to himself and not be afraid to admit that his heart beats... FOR A MAN! And where is the Eurofan community that denounces a ballad unless it’s gay?? Some happen to still denounce gay ballads too, but only if it comes to NFs apparently :F I applaud for this song existing tbh as I find it nice myself. Such a shame the man couldn’t really sell his song THAT strong enough though, as I couldn’t help but crack a smile at hearing his falsettos go terribly off, but still feeling sorry for the guy. His staging (that has two men playing around, further going for his song’s memo) and the fact that he beat Seemone in televoting due to his bigger status than the rest of the most other DESC participants this year (save for Chimène Badi which has a status as big as his?). And this one moment that made me feel like I’m looking at Malena Ernman’s true form:

• So how about these few other bedazzling NF flops in a little bit of blitz summary, seemingly as the paragraphs here are already going out of hand? Sure! Allow me to introduce y’all to the shy French Mélovin named Ugo who was tryna get to the spotlight all by himself with a song about... crushing I think (he’s fantasizing of meeting a gal in some interesting interesting ways), but tanked majorly live due to being nervous and letting the pre-recorded backings overwhelm him majorly. Then comes the other up-and-coming chanteuse Florina which I also talked about in the fanwank flops section (though I published it right after Spain’s NF because I had enough of THAT rattling around my drafts... and same goes for the rest of my 2019 reviews!) but I’ll put up a mention for her because I undercooked my thoughts for her. “In the Shadow” - studio god-tier that sadly reeked of “Chandelier” heavily and another NF underperformance that grew condescencing during the rehearsal-snippets period that maybe made people keep their hopes up during it just like for Rykka’s, Jana Burčeska’s and Sennek’s odd pre-party performances. Who knows if Michela would have followed them suit if she was allowed to attend all the pre-parties despite “rehearsals”! In the end we still got a lackluster performance and a total 0 point score from the international juries. Wow. I hope that didn’t scar her for life. Also worth a mention are Battista Acquaviva, the Basque-singing goddess that had some sort of a potential but heavily crushed it by sounding weak and a bit drunk even (or even similar to this) on her own performance + adding some Roman-esque shirtless hunks for no reason (sweetie if they didn’t work for Anggun then what’s the point saving your live with them? Unless you can mask it up like Demy, just leave), and the other studio fave that tanked that was Tracy de Sá who served a French-Spanish (!! that’s where the title came from, you really thought the song was gonna b called “Par ici” noooo) summer bop with her rapping skills on fleek and her desire for “whiskey cocktails rum rum rum” as a cherry on this delightful cocktail has also got really grinded down by her live performance where she was barely even enthusiastic to live up to her own song and maybe have needed some of those liquors she offered on the song to make it sound better. But hey, at least from Tracy we got 1) studio version leak drama that obviously affected the poor sis so hard she raged about it on Instagram a bit; 2) slapping track about parties n stuff for our own summer 2019; 3) her own little version of that notorious song which wouldn’t probably be remembered so fondly in the memedom if not for some mother’s pasta dish; 4) the light tunnel she emerged from at the beginning of the song during her performance, which in reality is just the NF arena exit tunnel; 5) this meme:

Yeah well, good luck at your hairbuns and your hoop-de-hoop ‘rings trying to save you this time

• I was also gonna add this interesting phenomena of “hot violinist guy” because of course I remember this hype being set up for some dudes (especially for THAT violinist. I remember almost everyone suddenly crushing on him but I couldn’t care enough to buy it because lol!) even without their song coming out to public - yes I’m talking of Lautner who obviously also tanked during their live performance of this song but the international juries loved the shit out of it (same for aforementioned Ugo... and mind you I wrote them down as sure NQs after seeing their carcrash performances live! To think they would have almost MADE it thanks to them and SHATTER my predictions???) and their bromance probably lived on... for another 15 minutes

And the ‘drunken auntie’ of someone’s that sang a rather underrated catchy spring-esque sunflowery song but completely ruined it by her awkward jumping around in red suit on stage, PhilipElise, but that’d require me to brief my thoughts upon like nearly all of the damn roster of the irrelevants, so it’s best if I forget all the rest and move on!

• Not to mention, Bilal himself is a highlight. On an occasion he’s such a mood, as demonstrated on this first biggest ESC 2019 NF season meme down here:

And keep in mind, that wasn’t the final. But for the final this happened, which is still as amusing as the first:

Epic hairspin! Laura Rizzotto wishes she remembered this technique just in time to engage some more audience so that they could at least pull her out of the NQ zone.

• Who cannot forget the occasional thought of Garou, the NF’s host, singing. This year he was one of the final’s interval acts, and his choice to sing was because of honouring a Frenchman who passed away not so long before the DESC broadcast. Truly the dedication <3

• One of those NF cases that had people rallying up against Eurovision being in Tel Aviv and withdrawing the broadcasters from it by their own force because “well fuck you, our feelings and sentiments towards Palestine are more important than this schlager-ridden shitshow musicfest!!” lolno. Some protesters came on stage sometime after Netta’s guest performance during Semifinal 2, and both Garou and the security guards did their best and hardest to chase them away, but some still got on shot because reasons. This is ridiculous (as much as it was when it was found out that some people in Spain were waiting outside RTVE’s headquarters before the OT 2019 ESC Gala just to make THEIR move) and thankfully it didn’t follow on many more NFs to come.

• oh and also the neon cube argh

Feels like a way larger post than I intended to, and this review is waaaaay long overdue, so at least I tried reminding you of the memes, didn’t I? Anyway, I wish Bilal for all the best in Tel Aviv! xx

[nightcorecommentarchives]

NightcoreReality

Nightcore - Wonderland

A: Anyone else feel like making a story based on the picture and song?

B: Now that you mention it.....yeah I do

C: One step ahead of ya bro~ writes fan fiction on wattpad ah aha~

D: Steam-punk alice in wonderland maybe?

A: I was thinking, maybe a futuristic love story where fairy tales are outdated and not even children are fooled by them. But, a girl starts to doubt it when she finds herself in a relationship that seems like a fairy tale. Doesn't have much to do with Alice in Wonderland, but it seems to fit the lyrics to me.

E: @A i would watch it.

F: @E that... Sounds pretty cool. And your grammar was pretty good, just need to put commas here and there. :)

E: or something like:

a dystopian society where the governement tries to control everyone by creating illusional "fairy tale" character thru media. In this a girl begins to start questioning the way the people are made mediafocussed when she becomes involved in a war between humans and alien, who dress like fairy tale characters. and because of this, it becomes clear that the governement is lead by aliens who make use of humans by pretending they have a good life because of the fairy tale stuff and so on. and then they start to fight. with action. and explosions. and a protagonist who starts as a little weak character who becomes a lead person in the human resistance force. Does this sound good?

And sry if i did big grammar mistakes. It's late as fuck here and it is not my native language. Gomen! ;_;

E: @F tyu :3

A: @F Much better than anything that I could come up with! :)

E: k, i will start writing... x3 <3

G: Am i the only one that thought jadas idea was way more refined? Like guys I dont wanna hate on Mirror but his story idea seems like a generic dystopian. Jadas idea would be great. As the story progresses she could use the past stories to help her get through trials as most fairy tales have some moral to take away from.

H: Anyone here heard of alice is dead? Here's the link to the game: www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/511552

I: @H HOW DO I WIN?! I HAVE NO IDEA

J: my story for this might be a bit too crazy but here is what i am thinking oh and i cant spell well so good luck in reading my idea

The girl is actualy an artuficial intelligence seand through a teleport to see if it works but the teleport malfunctions and instead of sending her to where she was ment to be sends her in a dimension much like ours but in it our fairy tails are real and she also gets free will letting her be more then just a machine.

for now this is what i came up with you tell if its good or not

NCA note: @K’s comment is lost.

A: @K

Wow! This actually was really good! I may just be biased, but I can't really find anything to criticize. The rationality pill was actually a good excuse, considering I couldn't come up with a better one. I actually almost laughed when she asks who Fairy Tales was! Overall, it was very good for a whole short story made from a vague concept! I'd definitely want to read a whole book based on it.

A: I'm so happy this escalated to almost being a real thing! Inspiring whole short stories with only a simple starting concept... this is too much power for one girl.

L: What about chapter storys?

M: @A My idea is this, sorry if it's sucky guys: In a world not so fond of fairytales, metaphors, and things along that line, a girl still enjoys reading all the greek mythology and fictional stories. But this girl suffers a severe disorder that causes her to see things nobody else sees. One late afternoon, cozyied up in her broken down house, something catches her attention. She's not the only one seeing the world differently. Desperate and curios to spread her new finding, she starts a blog on what she's experienced with this... disorder. The government (corperation thing, ect) sees what she's doing. Captured mid afternoon of a humid saterday, The president of the united states is controling the world to make them see it differently, or what we call regualarly. But this different world, this facinating world that this girl sees is the real world. Scared, fearful, and desperate to tell the community, she tries to escape the hellhole of the place. Seeking a way out, she is pulled farther and farther into her disorder, which happened not to be a disorder. The disorder fully kicks in. In a world of upside down houses and a large variety of talking objects, she tries to find her way out of the imagenary world. When a portal is found, she finds the connection of the real world and fake. Being the creative girl she was, she made a device that made her able to switch from the real world and the fake world. Jumping portals with a portal backpack and devieces over her body, she finds love that seems much like the ones out of the book. Trying to convince people they were living in a fake world while wearing something that made her look like a nerd going to comicon, but she finds people who belive her. One of them catches her eye. Her fairytale boy. Her beast. Her prince charming. Her new life of making people belive the truth of the world also brings her closer to her new group of friends, and that one boy (or girl, I don't judge, lol). Her belivers expand and expand. Her fight against the whole united states and the president himself will be hard, but only the greatest heroes can stop this brainwashing crisis all together. An action packed adventure full of magic and action, love and angst, and a thrilling plot that will leave you drooling for more. There we go, my idea

E: @M i fucking love it already. Its like a mix out of Matrix and spirited away. would definitely watch it! <3

M: @E dude, maybe Me, you, and @A should like mix all of are plots together and make this an actual book or movie, I have lots of experience in writing!

E: @M well...i...have none... :-( Thats why this text sounded so nice in my head!

A: I'm okay at writing, I don't claim to be an expert, but I can pump out an improvised 2,000+ chapter of something in a few hours. But, your ideas fantastic, and the most detailed I've seen so far! I really want to be a part of it!

E: @A  Thank you for this compliment man! Maybe i could write too, but my english is way too bad to write something that can create emotions while reading as much as e.g. Dosish's one... Lets just all write in german and its k. x)

A: I'm warning everyone now, my writing(especially when I was younger) tends to be filled with purple prose. It's at it's worst during emotional scenes.

N: @A what do u mean purple prose?

M: @A dude, with all of are skills together, this could really make a good book!

A: @N It's when someone goes overboard on descriptions of something. Using unnecessarily long and fancy words to describe something that should only take one sentence to explain.

For example: It was a dark and stormy night.

Purple Prose version: The moon was nowhere in sight, it's vivid light hidden behind thick, gigantic, charcoal clouds. The stars themselves were invisible, leaving the night sky a particularly dark shade of obsidian. A burst of electricity dashed through the sky, leaving a flash of pure, bright white light in it's wake. Transparent drops of water rained down from the obscuring storm clouds. Falling upon whoever was unfortunate enough to be under it.

(Sorry if I made your brain hurt with that eye sore. XD)

M: @A Oh, and I started a graphic organizer, tell me when you want to see it

A: I’ll love to see it!

N: and the Purple Prose is nice idk why anyone would consider it bad

@A dude I say you 3 write the story, @M does the graphics and ill edit. it could be a summer project lol

A: Quick update on the story: I'm brainstorming about it, and thinking back at  @K's version, I like the idea of her being in a relationship with another girl. Although, the song implies that she's talking to a boy. I don't want to make it a big deal, so there won't be a subplot like, everyone's against their same sex love. It's the future after all. I also might consider the idea of everyone being under "rationality pills" which would explain why fairy tales are now non-sense to them. Any suggestions? I want everyone to get in on this!

A: @N

Late reply, but Purple prose isn't bad in moderation. It just takes too long to get to the point, and new readers won't have the patience to sit through it. But, that's a great idea!

K: The wonderful part of the story is how open the world is, if you want to totally lift the world and themes go nuts. You can even use the chars, though having the Alice I created go through the same thing twice is kinda weird. And no one is "Against " same sex, it just doesn't benefit people since love is non-existent. Therefor Ration blocks feeling like that out.

O: I'd seriously love to read this story when its done

M: Well I mean, I have lots of freetime on my hands, maybe I can write the base or the first chapter and people edit it.

N: @M sounds good, books by many authors are normally good

M: (Link to chapter 1)

NCA note: The above comment has been lost. Despite this I still have the Google Doc saved in my “shared with me”. Here’s a link to my copy of it: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1sCmU3OLcdyLttvh90apoL2HzU2MesxWFBJK7D3Bg43w/edit?usp=sharing.

P: @M impressive…

Q: fyi, just search Electric Lolita City on google The picture is by John Hathaway

Final NCA notes:

Comments in thread: 107

Comments shown here: 40

There were a solid six months between the original comment and the final comment from one of the user's willing to participate in multiauthor story. It's currently unknown if anything ever came of A, M, and N's ambition.

Also, let me know if this is a good format to post large comment threads in, or any improvements I can make :P

[yumenosakiacademy]

Me.trocon 2017 Saturday

diary for future me, read if you want but it’s rly only 4 myself tbh. Cosplayed: mik.an Tsumiki

OKAY so the morning was rly bad and hectic and i dont like remembering it but i woke up and got ready bc the lol.ita fashion show was at 10 am and dad n i left and dad stopped by burger king to get himself some food but my cramps flared up BADLY and i had a midol in my bag so i took it out but im afraid of pills and cant swallow them so i was shaking and then i started crying and the drive-thru girl was like “oh gosh are you okay?” and i explained what was going on but rushed and sloppily and she was like “oh this happens to my lil sis too.. it’s okay sweetie just relax” or soething and i had dad park the car in the parking lot of burger king and for me to put my midol in a BK crospy crown and take a huge bite and swallow but that backfred and i chewed some of the pill and it was Blegh but the midol didnt kick in right away and the cramps were still v bad so i had dad rive me home so i could lie down for a while and i asked mom to use the heater bc she accidentally woke up so i asked her while she was awake and she kept saying no bc she liked it but when i begged she let me use her bed and used mine and it barely helped but overtime i gradually geew okay and hadd to calm myself so the stress wouldnt make my cramps return and i left at like 11 am and i missed the BB panel too but it’s Okay and i walked in and met up w haji near the ticket place and thankfully her mom let us wander around the con

so we went to the GF panel but i was mainly distracted by a small octopus plushie on some guy’s head and haji n i kept joking abt us knocking it off his head and abt the guy playing space jam and bassboosted music outside the panel room and it being audible whenever someone opened the door to leave or come in pff... but the dipper did the lamby dance and it was cute aa and the dipper offered ppl in the audience scooby snacks to any of the audience so haji n i had one n it was rly good aa i hadnt had one of those in years theyre Yummy...

Anyway, after that, i tried to go to the DR meetup, but it was rly rly tiny?? like we held it inside w like 2 handfuls of ppl and we tried to get the junkos to step on the tsumikis (there were 3 of us, including me) w 2 junkos bc i requested it but the junkos didnt wanna accidentally pantyshot the camera so we got up from our kneeling positions haha and haji went to the dealers room for a while while this was going on and i tried to help the mikan when she said she got a cut on her face but she said it was alright and eventualy haji came back and i left w her and we decided not to go to the m.lp panel that i kind of wanted to go to and instead went to the dealers room and looked around and i showed her the idol merch table and haji said she’d buy me anything bc she didnt get to give me a birthday present earlier on in the year so i looked around for a Big hamster plushie or something but those seemed expensive so we came back to the idol table and got me the tori keychain i’d been wanting since yesterday or thirsday and haji got a tsukasa and then we ran into the ppl running the fine panel and we all joked abt “ALL WOMEN ARE QUEENS, EICHI!!” 

and we walked around for a bit more before going to the rw.by panel but we could barely hear and we had to sit at the back of the room due to lack of seats so haji and i just whispered to eachother the whole time and i had haji read part of an en.stars smut fic w impregnation kink (just kink not actual mpreg) and a lil stupid thing i wrote abt rei and koga and then we watched the service dog near us near the other corner and watched it lick the carpet and Rest and enjoyed watchin it then we tried to walk around and someone asked for a pic of me but i was like “UHH WHERES MY SYRINGE PROP” so haji thought i elft it on the floor of the other panel and she left to go find it while i waited near these ppl bc they were just hanging out anyway and i kept worrying like “shes been gone for a while.. is she okay this shouldve been quick oh god” and my cramps started returning a lil but i tried to keep myself calm and the uraraka was like “are you okay i can go try n retkrkieve her if she got lost” and i was like “it’s okay” and eventually i checked deep in my bag and found it and i tried to call haji but she arrived just as i called her and i was like “i found it im sorry aa” and then we Ran to the en.stars panel

AND THE EN.STARS PANEL WAS SO SO MUCH FUN!! I have the first half recorded on video and since it’s rly late rn, i wont type too much abt that, but i asked eichi if he was anyone’s sugar daddy and, if not, would he be mine and he said he was kind of one to hajime and bought him lots of things and haji asked who was the most into minions and it was apparently Tori and i showed them the scooby doo au i made w some of haji’s assistance and showed wtaru (and the others) the Scoobkai Doonata that i drew and they all were laughing and i wa glad aa and the topic of vore came up again and i showed them shino’s ku.rochia vore post and the kiryu was like “OH MY GOD CAN I GIV U MY TWITTER SO I CAN BE SENT THAT” and the panelists were laughing and tori read the tweet aloud while laughing and i told them the ensemble vore account and eichi was like “well, theyve prob gained more followers today” and i asked if anyone in the audience wanted to see it and omeone rasied their hand so i showed them and they were laughing too and it was Wild.wataru apparently named his doves after fine members and tomoya, and i asked kiryu if he could lift rabits + fine and they nodded and i later asked if he knew that he’s a thicc bara and the fandom thirsts for him and he laughed and nodded. Haji asked them if they’d heard rainbow circus nightcore bassboosted and the eichi said they played it at practice ssometimes (i thick this was ooc not in-character answer) and someone in the audience actually KNEW the person who made that and messaged them and they messaged them that tori said they liked them and the rainbow cisurcus stuff and the person replied w “ Why” and honestly this whole panel was FUN but so someone told us where the en.stars buttons were so the fine group, their friend the kiryu, haji, and i all went to the booth and got buttons and i said goodbye to eeryone and walked around for a minute then haji n i went into the vol.tron talk panel and haji had to leave aww and after that the vol.tron panel was mostly shitty fanfic reading, swearing, and roasts and i wanted to go to vol.tronival but for reason i thought thatd be rude bc the panelists were like “we have to compete w... THAT” and so i stayed and went on my ipad most of the time.

I went to the per.sona 5 q and a and it was so full that i had to stand in the back but they sometimes kept bringing up per.sona 4 and perso.na 3 so i was confused and they said they were abt to start trivia and it might have spoilers so i took that opportunity to leave bc i dont want spoilers and it was kind of boring so i walked around the dealers room and i found a Rock and Uno and i talked to them and turns out the Rock was actually the mondo from the day before bc they said “hey, sweetie!” in a nice tone and i was confused and they were like “ah im the mondo btw!” so we talked and i talked abt how i watched both seasons of nan.baka in like.. 2 days and i was like “uno’s best boy-” and rock (as a joke) went deadpan and walked away and i was like “ROCK IS ALSO A GOOD BOY JUST.. UNO...” and rock came back and i said that uno and nico stole my heart and uno fistbumped me and rock was like “you should cosplay w us sometime~!” and i said i was considering doing uno but couldnt and i cant do most of the characters bc long sleeves and rock said i’d be cute as the chinese qi kid and i was like “i cant paint myself either but thank you!” and they had to leave but i got rock’s tumblr and they called me cute or sweet and i looked around the dealers room for a second more before scurrying to the LL panel and apparently the thing was 2 hours??

but anyway it was p funny and we all just messed around and did q and a and games like handshake  killer and karaoke! i sang half of Sentimental Liars but my voice wasnt as loud as i wouldve liked it and kind of shaky bc i was cold and Nervous and the nico from the panel and another random guy clapped for me and the 2 en.stars fans in front of me said my voice sounded nice and at some point i overheard those 2 talking abt making a screamo cover of melody in the dark and i was like “omfg are yall gonna actually make a cover. go fully hardcore” and Dead girl walking and candy store got sung and it was a Fun panel. the kiryu from earlierwalked in too so when everyone was talkign to eachother near the end of the panel, i asked shino if they wanted to say anything to the kuro and shino asked them how ranking went and the kiryu said they couldnt rank and shino was just so happy and keysmashing and asked f i could say “pls lift me mr.bara” and the kiryu chuckled and the kiryu was like “do they want me to like.. do anyfin?” so i asked shino and all he said was “DAB” so i took a pic of the kiryu dabbing and shino said they hadnt been feeling well so it cheered them up so i told the kiryu that and they said to tell shino that that made them happy and when the kiryu and i swapped tumblr apparently they already follow me and im like “FGNEGN DUDE.. I KNO U IVE SEEN U IN MY FOLLOWERS LIST IM YUMENOSAKIACADEMY ROX...” n they were like “oH” and they showed me a funny post abt shu and i proposed a tri.ch shu hc and then they ahd to leave but i stayed for the vol.tron panel but i was messaging shino thru most of it but i saw lynds (as lance) get hugged by the panel’s lance and i read some en.stars doujins and messaged another friend too so i wasnt paying much attention, then istill stayed in the room for the rw.by panel, but same i was just on my ipad but i saw some of the dares and the jaune sang and stuff and evemtually it was over and i walked around taking pics before going outside to wait for dad to pick me up 

and i took a pic of a pidge, lance, and keith and gav em lollipops and the pidge was like “omg ur nails.. wait, did u go to a hai.kyuu panel last year?” and i was like “ah, no i was casu.al d v a” and they were like “yea, but u went TO  a hai.kyuu panel, yea?” and i said yea and they were like “aa i was the hinata u talked to. i recognized u bc the nails” and i laughed bc thats my only noticable feature, huh. pff

[sole-cuore-amore-e-droga]

Tel Aviv 2019: Straight outta Albania to Eurovision with ethno beats

Sorry to be late to start all this, but you know, Albanians love doing their show around the Christmas period - whether before or after. xD So after this show, I was rather engulfed in Christmas and stuff, packing the gifs for every family member, putting them under the tree and waking up to see their (belated) reactions to their own gifts. Oh, and a festive dinner on the Eve. (And now it's been less than 1 and a half months since the end of this!)

But enough about that, you guys are here for my honest review, right?

Right.

I, for one, am a true fan of the ridiculous runtime of Festivali i Këngës në Radiotelevizion Shqiptar (and how the full lenght title is pronounced with the broadcaster’s name included every other single time), and that's because it allows me to discuss every single detail that I see, that goes wrong, that's just plain hilarious, and printscreen those said things. Among all these weird sights that can be seen during the interval acts and advertisements there's at least one instance of somebody in the show being such a "mood". Just like the broadcaster's current higher up for all things Eurovision at home (i.e.: commentator, spokesperson and occasional conversator), Andri Xhahu:

“mmhmm sure, keep on telling how much you love all the acts while I pretend I care, but in fact I’d rather just go home and eat something real quick”

Trust me, everyone in this show is a master of not giving a single damn. Artists, backings, instrumentalists, interval acts even maybe? All kinds of people in Albania are just mediocred out by things happening in FiK, thus nothing is remotely surprising!

Well, except for the results this year. Sure, everyone had their little outrage on social media the very time it was revealed that the international public’s darling Mirud did not impress the FiK jurors enough to qualify, but others were simply rejoicing that at least another big fave qualified - and to the fans’ dy shokë, a favourite won once again! And this one is an artsy, mid-tempo call to all of the abroad Albanians to “return to the land”, provided by the one and only, Jonida Maliqi.

And so you thought a big FiK favourite wouldn’t manage to win 2 years in a row... let alone reach Eurovision. It was nearly a given FiK juries could rather have had their traditional FiK-ness when picking the winner and that it would have become Lidia Lufi or even one of those old people, one of them being THE CONDUCTOR OF THE WHOLE SHOW (and if he was not qualifying, he’d probably have been ultra upset and leave his position from FiK’s orchestra that he has now observed every year since idk), so it’s refreshing to see Albania take on some new winds - last year with Eugent Bushpepa, this year with Jonida. Not that she was a big favourite of mine though, but you know, “Mall” was so incredibly difficult to top standart-wise that I actually didn’t really mind letting go of the songs by Dilan Reka, Klinti Çollaku and Alar Band (and 3 more nonqualifiers) emotionally. I mean, with the competition this incredibly improving in competence and easy good winners, it was a given that none of these would have even come close to reach a stellar placing in the final leaderboard of FiK. And yes, I consider my taste incredibly out of fashion with what everyone wants. Thank you for noticing.

When I first heard this, I didn’t really have a great impression on this track - the 1st verse/chorus and the 2nd verse/chorus have an extreeeeemely long gap between each other, which bothered me. Shouldn’t the song have some short enough gateway to pass the point across easier? The second thing is that it’s a little too slow. Not long after she won I became acquainted with the song’s Nightcore versions (yep! 2 of them exist apparently), and going back to he studio version of this, the slowness of it put me off. But on later listens I managed to appreciate its better qualities - the song is intense, tackles a decent topic (which will probably be underlooked if the staging does not account for it clearly enough - looking at you France 2018), the folksy interlude is too precious to be gotten rid off for the upcoming revamp (I just think it needed to be placed elsewhere... until I realized it is in an alright position songwise), the backing vocals at the last few seconds add some charm to the song, and at least there are some vocalisations! Juries obviously love it when an act tests their high vocal abilities, and often great notes don’t go too unnoticed by them. Remember why was Eugent’s performance so loved by the juries - if he haven’t done THAT, nothing would have given him a final ticket in the first place.

So that means that the first time viewers at home have a hefty fine chance to also not get what’s happening, right? Unless the music gets drastically devamped (like in 2016) and the performance is too heavy to connect with this song, it is probably going to do alright. The 2nd night performances this FiK were all devoted to the idea of preparing the acts for Eurovision in an unavoidable case of one of them winning. And Jonida’s performance uses rather cartoonish (but decent cartoonish) city-at-night shots in the background (with street lamps, traffic lights, maybe a bridge and the rest) and several random dancers too, which you can see for yourselves below:

(I’d like to inform her though that constantly interchanging street motives on the background aren’t a very good addition - Latvia 2009 went with all-round street and city signs and that didn’t work, and the 2009 stage was HUGE! Also maybe the dress is a little too extravagant for the topic of the song but that’s a nitpick. Sorry about it)

And even though it’s just 1 song (and the reason the top 1s keep poping up right after FiK is over - a common practice even among very small Eurovision fan Youtube channels) (edit: now we have 4 songs at the point of me finishing this but still), I do believe that already writing it off is harsh. Obviously the Albanian revamp curse is going to take place, but sometimes it comes to a complete advantage if the artist knows what he or she is doing and how to turn everything to their strenght rather than weakness. Eugent just happened to do more impressive vocal heights than Lindita. And Eugent didn’t even need to wear something too extra unlike Lindita, which for some reason was having to deal with a bridal attire..? not a really suitable wear for a song about world problems, yanno what I mean?? So it’s for the better if Jonida’s team doesn’t have to harm the song all too much, choose a connecting staging, do something piercing about it, don’t make Jonida look like a clown on stage, and generally don’t let her come across as too weird and cold-hearted. She should be seen pouring her heart out and let the world know that she’s talking to the Albanians (and hopefully even Kosovars) ‘round the world - to all the Ritas, to all the Duas, to all the Bebes.

Approval factor: I didn’t say I hate it so I approve it wholeheartedly! Yes I like.

Follow-up factor: in my sole opinion I would still find “Mall” way better but this current entry is good enough also, so it’s obviously a fair enough follow-up after the previous and the rest past entries for Albania.

Qualification factor: somewhere in the middle of things right now, if only Jonida’s capable of making everythhing against her work in her favour and shock the naysayers like Eugent did post-revamp that looked like it killed his chances

NATIONAL FINAL BONUS

If you don’t want to read any more of my review from this point on, just simply leave this post, thanks!

But if, however, you do want to read these post-ramblings, pls b mah frien.

So did we have Fest 57 through and it always delivered a fiesta of too many ads and too many intervals. Like you could have sworn that this show should have ended 5 years earlier than initially planned. Yet you wake up and find it still going, but more in the post-show form, with the jury still continuing to blabber about what exactly do they like in a contestant’s song for some reason. And then, when you least expect anything to happen - they mention “lista finale”! Ahh what a miracle.

Anyway, in this segment I’m here to highlight some special things that have happened:

• The puppetmaster from Night 2. No one knew what was that for, no one knew why was it needed, no one knew if it was even a little bit funny. But this Francesca Michielin’s auntie delivered a bunch of stuffed ‘humans’ to show around in front of the camera and stage something out of them. And the world was s h o o k

• Sound problems. One contestants had quiet mics at the beginning of the song (and this is FiK, which means that the poor acts WILL get a definite repeat of their entry, even if they had said their word against it. Sorry Miss Põldvere...), and another act got away with the entirety of it being completely not tuned in correctly soundwise, thus sounding completely all reverb-y and at one point even the mic feed for the backings was louder than the vocals of the artist. Hilariously enough, the both reprised acts won an award!

• Speaking of which, everyone thought that the first award of the night was actually the winner announcement. Even me. Oh how much we were falsely alarmed on this particular thing... xD

• Obviously the results. I honestly don’t think that Mirud’s nonqualification is such a mystery, despite the fact that as of lately the FiK juries are down for uplifting the audience faves. But I saw something that could have turned his song into something unbearably weak and nondescript, despite his pain and heart streamed out in bold colors through the song, considering this is the country that revamps their entries a lot. It could have been, and I’m dreading to say this but I am gonna say it anyway, a meaningless R’n’B ballad trying to show something, but projecting it too weakly. Of course I liked it, but I wouldn’t have pointed at it saying; “that right there, it’s definitely a contender”. But I definitely felt sorry for him and his song. Look what I messaged him:

• Dilan Reka’s quality stepdown. Look, I didn’t even listen to “Mos harro” as of yet, but I can definitely feel that “Karma” is some sort of a sub-par standart entry everyone gave hard time for because it wasn’t as likeable as “Mos harro”, which could have been the beginner of the good Albanian streak I suppose had it won the NF over Lindita? Or at least that’s what the fans think. Anyways, I liked “Karma” and I don’t ever want to stop defending its fun factor. The only thing not worth defending in this is Dilan’s styling:

No but WHO TOLD HIM YELLOW SUNGLASSES AND THIS SUIT WERE A GOOD IDEA???? leave.

• The girl who sang "Hallelujah" during a results break (there were several of these, can you believe that?). That was presumably Ana Kondra (you know, the one that advised to not touch her tree two years back? In JESC?) presumably singing in a personally warped take on English language, if not the actual English.

• Somewhere in the world there was hype-a-comin’ for these two: the cheap beats queen Soni Malaj and the retro hipster queen Orgesa Zaimi. While I can’t say I disliked their songs legit, it beats me as to what is attracting people to support the latter a lot, considering Orgesa submitted a bit of a huge stepdown from the cheerful “Ngrije zërin“. She at least retained her hipster attire though, even if without those French sunglasses. Oh and as for Soni, I gotta commend the Eurofan audience for still giving in some cheap Balkan pop trash! Though for country like Albania, it was never gonna win anyways. And I wasn’t hyped either. Seriously, who thought that adding some extra confused guys spout “bum bum bum” at the beginning was remotely GOOD??

Think I noted all momentswise. May I add that I’m glad to hear Jonida was allowed to sing in Albanian by RTSH (who apparently DECIDE what kind of language is more fitting for their own entry once it’s decided it’s ready for Eurovision???? I feel you, Elhaida’s composer from FiK 2014, if I had to face these rules, I’d have quit too)? It definitely takes this song up for advantage, and who cares if no one can understand it - we still have had an Albanian song about personal matters qualify, plus it was performed live on such an unfortunate occasion back at home so the power had to be extremely maxed out for that to work, and it did.

And one last thing: I did only watch the final of this, and the first time I heard this performed live, I was lowkey convinced this would indeed win because the orchestra made it sound like a stereotypical FiK winner - dramatic female ballad/midtempo/whatever having this dramatic power in chorus with all of the instruments blown right onto it. Not even the rest of the top 3 and other ballads this year were this much instrumentally packed. So there goes.