#s'an aggelos s'agapisa

[borisbubbles]

Eurovision 2010s: 260 - 256

260. Tulia - “Fire of love (Pali sie)” Poland 2019

In a reverse from the songs ranked around them, Tulia actually brought a VERY entertaining song, but their presentation turned it into a boring experience. 🤦‍♂️ The selfie backdrop. The lack of dynamism in the act, which is killing for a song this repetitive. The song is called “Fire of love”, WHERE 👏 IS 👏 THE 👏 FIRE? 👏

The worst has to be the  camerawork though; I don’t think I’ve seen worse in any entry? SO MANY wideshots, SO MANY audience shots, SO FEW close-ups. This is not Tulia’s fault, but Poland failed hard at selling what should’ve been an easy qualification. 

However, even here there are a few qualities that prevent me from ranking Tulia lower. I actually LOVE the first minute of “Pali Sie” quite a bit; The four of them on the lazy susan, faces covered by veils, those giant golden headdresses, brighly coloured skirts and ribbons. It really makes for a strong first impression that piques my interest. It’s just a damn’ shame the staging doesn’t do anything to maintain my attention after the first minute mark. :( 

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259. Christos Mylordos - “S’an aggelos s’agapisa” Cyprus 2011

My Eurovision staging philosophy has always been that no matter how bad the song, great staging CAN elevate it to a higher level, but that isn’t entirely true. Sometimes the staging provided IS good, but not suitable to the song.  Enter this anonymous Cypriot entry which doesn’t really go anywhere musically, but has some pretty rad staging. This looks pretty cool:

and course it has a amazing screaming woman because why not?

AND it ALMOST snatches my wig? But then I try to remember what “S’an aggelos s’agapisa” sounds like and struggle, as the final memory of it is blown away by the wind like a dandelion.

Also with this update, I’ve now eliminated HALF of 2011′s entries, more than 50 write-ups before of the actual halfway point of this ranking. What an amazing year, y’all. 

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258.  Željko Joksimović - “Nije Ljubav Stvar” Serbia 2012

I am surprised I have Željko this high lol? I mean, ‘surprised’ in the sense that my usual reaction to him is “GOOD LORD HIS MUSIC IS SOOOOOOOO FUCKING BOOOORING GTFO” and we are well past that point in the ranking by now. And yes, the first 2 minutes and 15 second of “Nije ljubav stvar” ARE that breed of hohum lullabye noises Željko is famous for.  However, those final 42 seconds are... legit good lol? Well, I shouldn’t get ahead of myself: the climax of “Nije ljubav stvar” isn’t wig-snatchingly great, and it doesn’t absolve the previous 2 minutes of tedium and it certainly doesn’t excuse the ridiculous third place the song finished in.🙄 Regardless, I enjoyed the closing minute, which by itself makes “Nije ljubav stvar”the second best of the Joksimovic compositions in this ranking. ^__^

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257. Freaky Fortune ft. RiskyKidd - “Rise up” Greece 2014

Lol “Rise up”. It’s fiiiine. The song itself is sterilized nondescript dance noise but Nicholas and RiskyKidd manage to work it well enough with a well-needed energy injection. Not too fond of that momentum-slaying trampoline though~

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256. Oto Nemsadze - “Keep on going” Georgia 2019

I don’t think “Keep on going” brooks any introduction: it’s not a good song lol. It’s aggressive and drags on forever. Out of all the “Build up into climax” songs, the build up is arguably the MOST agonizing. 2′20′‘ of “ugh END ALREADY” But holy hell that climax was awesome though. It’s really weird how a song as bad as “Keep on going” manages to almost sell itself with excellent A+ staging. Great LEDwork  and, deviating from the 2019 norm, wonderful camerawork that give the song a cinematic feel. The staging is Inspired.  If Georgia keep on going down the path of treating their entries like cinematic masterpieces, then nothing will be able to stifle their domination once they get their hands on a good song.