The second semi-final sure is packed with people of many talents. A medical doctor from Malta, a journalist with a masters’ in philosophy from Hungary, a Nobel Peace Prize nominee from Macedonia, just to name a few. Albania is represented by a lawyer and a freedom activist, how cool is that?
Adrian & Bledar comes across as a rather odd duo and they present a song we find confusing. It starts up rather promising and we instantly get the impression that this will provide us the much needed ethnic fix we miss so sorely from most of the other contestants in Malmö. And holy crap it’s a real rock belter as well, what’s not to like? We find ourselves with growing enthusiasm, enjoying the older bloke’s raunchy voice. When the lawyer gone rocker kicks in it’s not so bad either, we’re definitely feelin’ it. But somewhere along the road it’s starting to lose its momentum. And when the 80s guitar solo kicks in we’re having a hard time taking it seriously. Do the peeps in the Balkans still like that stuff? We truly love most rock entries in ESC, but the heavy guitar solo we can do without. It usually borders on becoming parodic and gives us Spinal Tap associations.
It’s refreshing to see Albania being represented by a rock act for the first time, and we’re sure this will make a certain impact towards the end of the semi-final with lots of pyro and attitude in abundance on stage. Subtlety has never been Albania’s strongest suit in this competition and thank Gawd for that. We suspect however the final will run without Albania. Simply because Europe doesn’t seem to take a particular liking to Balkan rock. We don’t think we will miss them too much in the Grand Final.
Not my cup of tea, but it could qualify only because it’s the only rock song in the competition.
This is a borderline qualifier. The performance will most likely pip it in or out
More rock in ESC please….this is great!
Agreed! Hopefully Norway will go ahead and select a real rock song for ESC soon. We’ll be there to headbang!