Hmm every so often we get complete classics like Montenegro 2008, Belgian 2006 and Albania 2010 and I’m then forced to tell Europe that they’re completely wrong and it’s really not much cop and you can flash as many lights as you like in the audience’s face, it ain’t gonna make it a good song.
It isn’t the most dreadful thing I’ve ever heard but at the same time it leaves me with a feeling of numbness where the essence of my life dried up listening to it.
I’m sure if they got Norman Wisdom to sing it, it would sound a whole lot better but Juliana Pasha can be just as adept at falling on her arse.
Don’t go building proper roads in Tirana just yet.
Phil: Underwhelming. On the face of it, I heart Albania – lots and lots, so much so that I have almost convinced my real life job that this is going to win the Eurovision Thingummy contest for nineteen two thousand and 10….
And then, at 12.30CET I saw her on stage. She looks like Laurel from ITV’s hit soap Emmerdale. She isn’t selling me this song, although by the way she looks into her camera she is Isis Gee‘s natural dental successor, man thats some shiny Albania dental work.
……..but back to the song. It’s missing something and it pains me that I cant work it out. Maybe its the drawing of a giant sperm like balloon on a grave stone, like in the preview video… Maybe its the lack of a green gimp man like last year, I just don’t know – but Tirana has lost its sparkle for me. It’s still got qualifier written all the way through it, but I am….. concerned and perturbed.
Roger Fry, of escnation fame has just come up and said that the Rounder girls are backing her up – or at least the Albanian equivalent. Laurel and the Rounder Girls…. Discuss!!
Nick: There’s something almost imperceptibly missing from Albania’s rehearsal sessions. I think it’s the first sign of Eurovision on a Budget kicking in. This needs maniac amounts of props of a size and quantity that would make any stage crew cry. It needs movement and massive amounts of choreography, ideally slightly silly.
This is not a song to just stand there and sing, but that’s what Juliana’s doing (very well, I’ll grant you). Three backing singers of varying shapes and sizes also just stand there and sing, one guy with facial hair and a violin who charges around a little bit, but the energy’s not there.
It’s not the performance the song needed. Pity.