Wednesday 23 January 2013

Eurocovers: Kurt Nilsen's Adieu and Hver gang vi møtes

I love the concept of the Norwegian show Hver gang vi møtes. Based on a Swedish format, a diverse group of popular musicians come together for a TV series broadcast across a number of weeks. Each episode is dedicated to one of the artists, and each week the other singers perform their own versions of that artist’s hits, often in their own, very different style.

Three weeks ago in Norway it was Anita Skorgan week. Considering the 54 year old singer has a somewhat limited back catalogue of actual hits, it was perhaps unsurprising that four out of the six other singers opted to take on one of her previous Eurovision entries.

Marion Ravn performed a somewhat underwhelming version of 'Casanova', which mainly built on the original’s disco influences and didn’t really add a huge amount to the song. Morten Abel took on 'Oliver' in his own dark style, the result being almost unrecognisable from the original. And Ole Paus sang a beautiful, stripped back version of Karoline Krüger's 'For vår jord' (co-written by Skorgan), which really gave me a new appreciation for the song.

The revelation of the week, however, was Kurt Nilsen, who took on the 1982 Norwegian entry 'Adieu'. It's not a song I'd ever really paid much attention to before, but Nilsen takes it in a completely different direction. He allows the sadness of the lyrics to truly shine through, and personally the raw emotion in the song cuts me like a knife.


Let me know which of the covers is your favourite.

Thursday 17 January 2013

Eurocovers: Carmen Rasmusen sings Crazy in Love

Fred Bronson is a curious man. He's an eminent American music journalist, having published a number of books and contributed regular columns to Billboard magazine. He has an encyclopaedic knowledge of popular music, and a wide range of tastes. Which can be the only explanation for the fact that he is the only person in the known universe to profess a liking for 'Loca', the 2006 Moldovan Eurovision entry sung by one of O-Zone and a girl in a bikini hiding behind a sail.

He's also evidently a keen follower of Melodifestivalen, even being involved in the international jury that loved 'Alla' so much in 2009. So much so that, as a mentor on American Idol in 2003, he wanted one of the contestants to perform one of that year's MF finalists.
"I had a song that I thought would be perfect for Carmen Rasmusen -- a Swedish hit by Jill Johnson called 'Crazy in Love' (not the Beyoncé song). I knew she shouldn't sing an unknown song on the show, but I also knew I couldn't suggest a song while she was in competition."
And so he kept the idea to himself, but not for long. Once Rasmusen left the competition in sixth place, Bronson was back on the case, with 'Crazy In Love' in his pocket:
"A few months after season two was over, Carmen told me she was recording some demos. That's when I told her about 'Crazy in Love'. She heard the song, loved it and her manager called the publisher in Sweden to make a deal. Carmen recorded the song on an EP that was released on an independent label […] and did a fantastic job."
She did indeed. Rasmusen's performing style was derided by many when she was on American Idol, and indeed the young singer did have trouble taming her sometimes goaty-sounding vibrato and had an unfortunate habit of slapping her own backside while singing, but she did have an interesting tone. That quality comes out in her studio recordings, and 'Crazy In Love' is a surprisingly good fit for her voice, coming across higher and lighter than Jill Johnson’s more mature sound.

Being by a mostly unknown artist on an unknown label, the song didn't achieve any success in the US, but it's great to see how well it could transfer to an American artist.

Saturday 5 January 2013

The Evrop(j)esma contests of 2005 and 2006 and the secession of Montenegro

This article is an adapted extract from my university dissertation, which I wrote in summer 2007 on the political and social effects of contemporary music on society in Serbia and Montenegro. The writing is somewhat different to my usual style as it was written for academia, though I have tried to remove any references to other sections of the essay or to my overall examination. This article is also missing its original footnotes which cite a lot of the facts and opinions mentioned.

In this piece I take a look at the furore surrounding the victories in the Evrop(j)esma contest by Montenegrin boyband No Name. In both 2005 and 2006, in the Serbia-Montenegro selection for Eurovision, the Montenegrin jurors were accused of rigging the contest, giving no points at all to the Serbian favourites and effectively ensuring the win for their own songs, both by boyband No Name. The fact that it happened twice in a row compounded the problem, and in 2006 the Serbian audience became aware of what was happening, booing the Montenegrin jurors even before they gave their points. In the words of the one audience member: "we started cheering for Flamingosi, even though we didn't like it before, because we just didn't want No Name to win". When the group came on the stage to reprise their winning song, they faced chants of "lopovi" (thieves), and bottles were thrown at them, and the Flamingosi, the runners-up, reprised their entry instead, supported by all the Serbian singers from the contest. The result eventually was nullified and the country withdrew from that year's Eurovision.


However, why was the result of this contest so important to both republics? I don't intend to address the question here of whether either the Serb or Montenegrin jurors voted unfairly (though I do have my own opinions on that), but rather their possible reasons for doing so and the consequences.

One benefit that TV stations see in participating in Eurovision is the chance to promote their country, to market it to a worldwide audience. Ognjen Amiđić of the group Flamingosi, the Serb favourites who lost out to No Name in 2006, said that one reason both TV stations want to make it to Eurovision is that it is the only forum for Serbian or Montenegrin music on a global scale and is therefore a very valuable opportunity, both for acts themselves but also for giving an impression of the country to outsiders.

The opportunities for promotion can not only be found in the song itself, but also in the accompanying press materials. At the 2005 contest in Kyiv, No Name removed the flag of Serbia and Montenegro from their press conferences and replaced it with the Montenegrin one. In addition, the promotional materials featured Montenegro exclusively, and the video included many sweeping shots of Montenegrin landscape, as well as Montenegrin symbolism; The Head of the SCG delegation in Kyiv, who was herself Serbian, apparently despaired over this overt use of patriotism and nationalism to promote one half of the Union. We can clearly see therefore why it was important for both Montenegro and Serbia to win the Evrop(j)esma competition, as music in turn yields important opportunities.


The event itself had significant political and social impacts. It is obvious that the show effectively turned into a contest between the two republics and their TV stations, with clear political voting on both sides overshadowing the songs. There are also obvious national consequences to this, shown by the fact that the crowd did not mind which song won, as long as it was Serbian, and the fact that all the Serbian singers joined in the 'victory' reprise. One political commentator observed that "there is no deep-rooted animosity between inhabitants of Serbia and Montenegro", but, in contrast to this, more than one Serb was happy to admit to me that they "hated Montenegrins".

However, the most important consequences are linked to the subsequent referendum, which took place on 21st May 2006, the day after the Eurovision final. There were allegations from Sabrija Vulić, the PR of Montevizija (the Montenegrin heat for Evrop(j)esma), that, because of this, RTS did not want No Name to perform at Eurovision , though there were counter-claims from the Serbian side that No Name were planning to perform wearing pro-independence shirts, with Aleksandar Tijanić, Head of RTS claiming that it would have been a last-ditch effort to get people to vote in the referendum. Opposition politicians in Montenegro, including Nebojša Medojević, leader of Grupa za promenje (Group for Change), maintain that No Name were being used as pawns by the regime. It is perhaps not unlikely that there is some truth in this - the main backer of No Name was Aco Đukanović, brother of the pro-independence Montenegrin prime minister, Milo Đukanović. Either way, a Montenegrin song performing on the European stage a day before the independence referendum would have no doubt had some effect on the vote.

In contrast, there was the view in Montenegro that this incident was yet another example of the Serbs trying to control the Union, and that it was "another Serbian provocation" and proved why the republic needed independence. It can therefore be argued that that, by contesting the victory so ferociously, RTS and the Serbian media further alienated Montenegrins, raising the likelihood of a pro-independence vote; indeed, Milodrag-Milo Ćurić maintains that the actions of the Montenegrin jury were intended to incite such a reaction.

In regard to the political implications of the event itself, Evrop(j)esma was compared by commentators to the events of the football match between Dinamo Zagreb and Crvena Zvezda at the Maksimir stadium in Zagreb in 1990, which is seen by many to symbolise the start of the Balkan wars and what happened thereafter. The subsequent split of Serbia and Montenegro supports this opinion, and although obviously it happened in a far less bloody way, we can see here a link between music and politics, in the same way as one has been seen between sport and politics; indeed, cultural sociologist Ratko Božović says, "sport and recreation reflect the situation in a country".

Evrop(j)esma obviously had important implications politcally, and gives some indication of the political scene and social mood. Many commentators made the point that the event "has nothing to do with music", and Tijanić addressed his decision to withdraw from Eurovision by stating that it was better to have no representative than to "obey the will [...] of political mentors". We can see that the event was very much seen to have been overridden by politics, and indeed a protest was held on Trg republike, for the reasons that "music has to be stronger than politics". As well as showing how music gets involved in politics, this event also shows again the concept of music as a signifier – liking Flamingosi's song showed you to be Serbian. Indeed, when I admitted to a Serbian friend that I enjoyed the song of No Name, a considerable time afterwards, she was aghast.

Through all of this we can clearly see that music can be important on a political and social level. It created friction between the two constituent republics of the State Union, and, given the tight referendum results, could have affected the outcome. Regardless of whether it did or not, we can see serious allegations here of how politics can involve itself in music, and the subsequent consequences.

Thursday 3 January 2013

Reaction: Lozano and Esma for Macedonia

Macedonia has long been my favourite country at Eurovision, ever since entries like 'Samo ti', 'Ne zori zoro' and 'Od nas zavisi'. Even '100% te ljubam' is a great slice of cheesy 90s girl-pop. They've lost their way somewhat in recent years, failing to qualify to the final four times in a row (though I still liked the entries), before changing their approach in 2012, internally selecting one of the biggest stars in the country in Kaliopi, a decision that paid dividends.

Now for 2013 MRT is repeating that formula, announcing last week that Vlatko Lozanoski and Esma Redžepova will represent the country in Malmö. On the surface, this combination of young popstar and folk music legend is pretty unusual, but I have pretty high hopes that they can build on their success in 2012, and potentially go even higher with this choice.


Vlatko Lozanoski, or Lozano as he is known, is perhaps best remembered among Eurovision fans for his song 'Letam kon tebe', which probably should have won the 2010 Macedonian Final. The track, and particularly the album that was released in the same year, have strong echoes of the late Toše Proeski about them, both in Lozano's vocals and in the production. Indeed, I wouldn't be at all surprised if many of the tracks he has recorded had previously been written for Proeski. Lozano has been one of the most popular Macedonian pop singers over the past few years, both in terms of sales and radio play.


In contrast, Esma is known as one of the biggest names in Romani folk music, both in Macedonia and beyond. Much of her repertoire is in very traditional styles, with new songs building on Romani folk motifs, and she has released over 50 albums, in both the domestic market and the world music scene. She even took part in Jugovizija in 1971. Her work frequently appears on those terrible 'Music of Eastern Europe' compilations, which, if you didn't know any better, would give you the impression that all anyone in the former Eastern bloc listens to is gypsy wailing and cow-stomach instruments battling with overly cheery hippity-hoppity dancers.

Fortunately, that's far from the case, and Esma has also lent her distinct vocals to pop tracks over the past ten years, creating some pretty interesting fusions of pop and folk styles that show just how well these combinations can work. She duetted with Magazin on 'Dani su bez broja', and in 2003 joined Kaliopi on 'Bel den', one of the best tracks on the latter's critically acclaimed Ne mi go zemaj vremeto album.


'Ljubov e', a duet with Adrijan Gaxha, placed a close second in the 2006 Macedonian Final. The best of these collaborations, however, is a duet with the aforementioned Toše Proeski on his Ako me pogledneš vo oči. 'Magija' was a huge hit in 2003, and also came out in a Serbian version. With the comparisons I mentioned before, I have my fingers very firmly crossed, and if Macedonia's songwriters can come up with something like this again, I will be very happy.


It probably wouldn't be a winner - it's far too Eastern for that - but I do think they have the potential to pull off a great performance, and hopefully secure another strong result for Macedonia. We'll hear the song in February, and I personally can hardly wait!