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The eagle-eyed amongst you will recognise Elitsa and Stoyan
as the duo that has brought Bulgaria it’s greatest Eurovision success thus far
with a 5th place finish in 2007 singing Voda. In fact they’re the
only contestants to ever get Bulgaria out of the semi final, so it’s no wonder
they were asked to return this year. They performed three songs in the final,
one ill-advisedly mixing rap with Elitsa’s distinctive folk style vocals, and
the winning song Kizmet in a similar style to this. Quickly afterwards though
it was announced that Kizmet would be disqualified, citing disagreements with
one of its composers over the requirements of copyright when submitted to
Eurovision. So the runner up took the place, Samo Shampioni. It means Only
Champions but I can’t quite get the idea that she’s singing ‘champignoni’ out
of my mind so to me it’s Only Mushrooms. Elitsa and Stoyan both like to bang
things and there’s drumming a-plenty in this lively track with quite a cavalier
attitude to their own drumsticks. But will the ethnic-shtick work a second time
round? I love the franticness to this, and I adore this typically Bulgarian
style of singing, and I think it will get sufficient votes from the Balkans to
get it through to the final, but I can’t see it having mass appeal to many
western ears. It’s also not as good as their previous attempt. But who knows
with a song like this? I’m going to enjoy it whatever the outcome, and whilst I
don’t think it has a prayer of winning I would love to head to Sofia for
Eurovision one year.
My score: 8 points
Monty x
Have to say, from a Balkan perspective, Elitsa's live traditional Bulgarian vocals are actually horrible and underdeveloped. There are far better Bulgarian folk singers out there, but none of them have the gimmicky drum banging to team with their act.
ReplyDeleteI would love to hear something authentic in that style for Eurovision one day!
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