Right before we’ll have some more exciting Eurovision stories written in the history book, let’s take a loot at what we had so far! Following the national finals tightly since 2005, here is my top 10 moments of the 2015 National Finals Season!
10. Cyprus: Minus One – Shine
The Cypriot Eurovision Song Project was complicated, with 8 qualification rounds and a final. But during the advanced stages of the competition I couldn’t ignore the great Shine by Minus One, including a ”now we know it’s from Cyprus!” comment while hearing the Bouzouki part for the first time. I really hoped to see it in Vienna, as it might have brought us more color to this pretty quiet Eurovision.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bsnIifVOu80
9. Belarus: Milki – Accent
“Come sing my song because my, come sing my song because my la la la la…” – another country that could break this year’s lullabies is Belarus, who placed the girl band Milki (featuring the artistic director Alexander Rybak) in the fourth national place. Forget about scandals and tears, it’s a simply cheerful uptempo song that one can not avoid. However, I am still pleased with Uzari and Maimuna and predict to see Belarus gaining some success this year.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XKbNMgSnrwM
8. Malta: Ekklesia Sisters – Love and let go
Hosting the JESC in November 2014, the Maltese have decided to take the opportunity and use the same facilities for selecting their Eurovision 2015 entry in the weekend afterwards.
This quick selection process, that was announced in the summer, might have resulted in a lower song level than the usual that can be found in the mediterranean island, but after a well produced JESC, we got a reminder that sometimes it really is all about the children, with the Ekklesia Sisters giving us something that the Eurovision has not yet seen during the last 60 years.
7. Slovenia: EMA (Evrovizijska Melodija) 2015
Sometimes I miss the days when Slovenia had their own Melodifestivalen. Back in 2004 it was all about four semifinals and well produced schlager in Slovene, but as the years went by, the people of this small ex-Yugoslav country decided to do it smaller. With a quick promotion and selection, sometimes all a country need is just eight easy going local songs and an invisible violin. (which currently stands in line with Italy, Sweden and Estonia!)
