Thursday 27 May 2010

Sha-La-Lie Sha-La-La!

It's Eurovision time again on Saturday, and we here at Too Much Apple Pie (or me, at least - Spike's not heard it yet) are getting firmly behind the Netherlands' entry, the wonderfully catchy Ik Ben Verliefd (Sha-La-Lie) by Sieneke. This is a real throwback to Eurovision songs of yore, and I loves it!

10 comments:

davyh said...

Scrubs up well that Lorraine Kelly.

Kippers said...

Ha! You took the thoughts right out of my head.

Spike said...

The whole of Too Much Apple Pie is getting behind this one! I like the lack of emotional gurning and symbolic wings in the performance. Come on Lorraine!

Kippers said...

Woo! That settles it - we're wearing orange for Eurovision!

dickvandyke said...

I believe I predicted the winner last year? Davy will remember, he's good at stuff like that.

Lorraine sounds like she needs a good spit for that dangly catarrh early doors. And that barrel organ squeeze box thing sticks in the craw too.

Footless tights. I'm just not happy with them.

It could do well.

dickvandyke said...

This year I suspect the winner will be a country that I cannot spell.

Somewhere like Azerbajan

Kippers said...

Bugger. That rules the U.K. out again then.

dickvandyke said...

Well well. The UK trail in last with what sounded like a cutting room floor SAW effort from 20 years ago and Germany win it with a Brit-style 2010 song.

If you didn't see it, google it in now.

The smart money was piled on Germany in the hours up to the start - and we shoulda heeded.

The winning singer Lena is nothing short of box of frogs barmy. Lily Allen and Kate Nash with a dose of Bjork.

And what about that accent? Unique? Mixed up aussie cockney german? No idea.

Giving infatuation a rhythm has turned Lena into a recording phenomenon. Since winning Unser Star für Oslo -- Germany's eight-part reality TV series that selected the country's Eurovision contestant -- she's debuted three songs in the top five of the German singles chart. "Satellite" shot to number one, became Germany's fastest-selling digital download of all time and went platinum. And her first album My Cassette Player is expected to make plenty of noise when it's released on May 7. Lena -- who just graduated from high school in April -- has also become a media darling. "I don't mind giving autographs and letting [fans] take pictures. I think it's really cute," she recently told German broadcaster Deutsche Welle. Diplomatic answers are expected: her grandfather was the West German ambassador to the Soviet Union.

As Will Adams puts it ... "There's a fine line between puppy love and psychotic obsession -- and Lena Meyer-Landrut blurs it brilliantly. In her Eurovision entry "Satellite," the 18-year old projects frustration at being ignored:
"I went everywhere for you/ I even did my hair for you/ I bought new underwear that's blue/ And I wore it just the other day." A true masochist, she soon converts that pain into pleasure. When the chorus rolls around, she radiates ecstasy while dancing in a black void and compares herself to the loneliest of travelers: "Like a satellite I'm in orbit all the way around you/ And I would fall out into the night/ Can't go a minute without your love."

And while Lena does sweet in real life, it's her ability to project crazy that makes her memorable. As the song goes on, her neuroses pulsate to the bongo drum and xylophone accompaniment. There's loss of control: "You got me, you got me/ A force more powerful than gravity." Hopelessness: "It's physics...there's no escape." And sheer creepiness: "I even painted my toenails for you/ I did it just the other day." By the time she sings that her "aim is straight and true," it's pretty clear she intends to wield Cupid's arrow as a weapon.
Taken with her animated scowls, pursed lips and dark intonations, it's enough to conjure up images of Glenn Close boiling a bunny rabbit".

Those of you who give a monkey's, what do you all think?

Kippers said...

We liked Lena's effort too. Her inging style made us think of Alanis Morrisette attempting a Cockernee accent. Good song though, and a thoroughly deserving winner.

In other Eurovision news, it turned out the Netherlands Lorraine Kelly didn't make the final cut after all! I demand a recount!

Kippers said...

Singing style, even.