ROMAN I A
S ERB I A
SEMI-FINAL 2
GRAND FINAL
Song: D.G.T. (Off And On) Performer: Theodor Andrei Songwriters: Luca De Mezzo, Luca Ştefan Udăţeanu, Mikail Jahed, Theodor- Octavian Andrei ROMANIA Semi-Final 2 Televote total: 0 points 15th place • After a superb run of reaching the Grand Final, Romania has only qualified once since 2017. It has yet to win the contest.
Song: Samo Mi Se Spava ( I Just Want To Sleep ) Performer: Luke Black Songwriter: Luke Black SERBIA Semi-Final 1 Televote total: 37 points 10th place Grand Final Total: 30 points Juries: 14 Televote: 16 24th place • Luke just scraped through to the Grand Final where he failed to impress neither the juries or televoters. Regardless, the country still has a great record of qualifying.
To nobody’s great surprise, Theodor’s psychodrama about a toxic relationship – and the poor lad is only 18 – failed to qualify from Semi-Final 2, finishing with nul points. The staging didn’t help with Theodor alone and rather dwarfed by gigantic images of him and red-hot lava on the screen behind. In the run-up to Eurovision Theodor recorded and put up on YouTube two medleys, one of Eurovision songs and one of songs by The Beatles. You feel either of these may have been more successful. Afterwards, Theodor returned to school to successfully sit his Baccalaureate exams and graduate on to acting school, where he wants to learn to become a director. When asked about Eurovision, he said “I’ll never sign up again! God forbid! If you want to go, go at your own risk!” Marcus Keppel-Palmer
Ah yes, a performance to dazzle the brain! This was in my top five this year - I found the whole performance weird and wonderful. I had no idea what was happening, but I gave up trying to make sense of Eurovision years ago. This entry was made out to resemble a computer game - with great imagery - a bit of a mind-fest really. I actually loved the techno-sound and Luke Black’s performance. It however failed to impress at the Grand Final - maybe a bit too post-modern for juries and the public? And it probably produced a few nightmares! But I loved everything about it. This was probably the most original performance (along with the country’s neighbour, Croatia) of the contest this year. Bravo! (But it should’ve been in the Top Ten!) Hass Yusuf
SAN MARINO
S LOVEN I A
SEMI-FINAL 2
GRAND FINAL
Song: Carpe Diem ( Seize The Day ) Performers: Joker Out Songwriters: Bojan Cjetićanin, Jan Peteh, Jure Maček, Kris Guštin, Nace Jordan SLOVENIA Semi-Final 2 Televote total: 103 points 5th place Grand Final Total: 78 points Juries: 33 Televote: 45 21st place • The success in the semi- final never materialised in the Grand Final, but still got 12s from the Serbian jury and Croatian public.
Song: Like An Animal Performers: Piqued Jacks Songwriters: Andrea Lazzeretti, Francesco Bini, Marco Sgaramella, Tommaso Oliveri SAN MARINO Semi-Final 2 Televote total: 0 points 16th place • This was a bad result for San Marino coming last in its semi-final and failing to score any points. The country has only qualified three times to the Grand Final since it entered the contest.
Like An Animal was always one of the weaker songs in arguably a weak semi-final and probably suffered from being performed immediately before Austria’s memorable crowd- pleaser. Unfortunately, despite the valiant efforts of the lead singer, the song suffered from patchy vocals and over intrusive backing vocals. The staging itself, while understated and quite classy with its black and red theme, was a little incoherent. While the lead singer did his best to carry the song, the other members of the band seemed to be trying a little too hard to give the impression of being rock bad boys. The song was very repetitive and generally weak, so it was not completely surprising that the Piqued Jacks scored zero. Simon Bennett
One of the most heartening results from Eurovision this year was the success of Slovenian indie band, Joker Out who did indeed seize the day and propel themselves onto a wider stage. They may have finished 21st in the Grand Final – eschewing using pyros might not have been the best decision - but immediately took themselves off on a European tour featuring gigs in the UK, Scandinavia, Ireland and the Balkans as well as major headline concerts in Slovenia. Carpe Diem charted in ten countries following Eurovision, while the lads collaborated with Liverpool legend, Elvis Costello on a track called New Wave which has now been released. Look out for more from Joker Out in the coming years... Marcus Keppel-Palmer
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VISION ● AUTUMN 2022 39
AUTUMN 2022 ● VISION
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