Hi everyone. In the following days I’ll post my opinions on this year’s entries. It may be obvious, but what I write here doesn’t at all reflect the opinion of the whole escdaily.com team, but rather my own very personal opinions. Therefore, any criticism should really come to me directly (I’m sure I’ll get a lot from my colleagues in the first place). This being said, let’s start with the first three countries I’ll review: Albania, Switzerland and Finland. Hope you enjoy!

Albania

I’m going to start, of course, with Albania, which was the very first country (as it’s becoming a tradition) to select their entry.

Festival i Kenges was yet again the way of selecting the song. However, unlike previous editions, this year the quality was fair, to be condescending, and therefore the result of the chosen entry was of the kind.

The worst Albanian entry in years, if not the worse Albanian entry ever. The one thing that is rather good is Juliana’s voice. She does seem to be able to perform live and not lose the key, which is always something to be thankful for. However, the song itself sounds dated, and becomes overly repetitive; I have to say though, that the revamped version sounds a lot better than the original one, and it seems to have managed to gather a lot of support among some fans. Not me, really it’s not at all my cup of tea!

Switzerland

Ever since Cool Vibes back in 2005 I have suffered disappointment after disappointment when I see their live performances. Last year was no exception, and therefore this year I plan on being more cautious.

I absolutely adore ‘Il pleut de l’or”. Michael von der Heide can surely sing; I mean, his voice is not remarkable, but it suits the song perfectly. The lyrics are magnificent, and the overall act seemed to work pretty well in the song presentation. However, Switzerland was drawn to the semi which I reckon as being the “tough” one, so it will be necessary to leave history behind and actually perform impecably live.

It’s yet again a solid strong effort from the Swiss, which I sincerely hope won’t follow the pattern of ‘Vampires are alive’, ‘Era stupendo’ and ‘The highest heights’. It’s time we see Switzerland back in the final for a change!!!!

Finland

What to make of this entry remains a problem to me. I’m not sure I like it, but I don’t totally dislike it either. ‘Työlki ellää’ seems to me the kind of song which can be enjoyable at times and intolerable at other times. Since I don’t speak Finnish, I most certainly don’t understand the lyrics, but it’s beyond doubt that it gets overly repetitive (particularly since, as I said, I don’t understand a word of what’s being sung), and this can either be really good, or a terrible mistake. On the one hand, it’s more likely people will remember it, but on the other, the audience can just get fed up with them and not pick up the phone to vote for it.

The girls from Kuunkuiskaajat have voices which are far from good, but which seem to work well with the song. I didn’t like at all their performance in the final of Euroviisut, and I think they’re going to be equally wrong in Eurovision (of course, it’s a matter of time before we see if this was indeed the case).

It’s true that Icelandic people seem to be very loyal when it comes to voting, giving Finland a lot of points on a regular basis, but still, none of the other Nordic countries vote in this semifinal, so the public vote might prove a difficulty to Finland. The jury might be a whole other story, and it will probably give them a chance. Still, I wouldn’t like to see Finland in the final this year