en http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.0/uk/ Thu, 1 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000 Thu, 1 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000 60 http://www.audioscrobbler.net/data/webservices http://www.last.fm/user/delphalune/journal The Last.fm journal for delphalune. Last.fm journals are a place to talk about all things music. http://www.last.fm/user/delphalune/journal/2007/05/13/b6dh6_esc_%2707%3A_east_vs_west_-_it%27s_not_what_it_seems Sun, 13 May 2007 20:06:27 +0000 http://www.last.fm/user/delphalune/journal/2007/05/13/b6dh6_esc_%2707%3A_east_vs_west_-_it%27s_not_what_it_seems First of all, this is not all my own work. This partly belongs to Stelios Katinakis, taken from ESCToday, and I have also added a few of my own analyses too. I have decided to publish it on my journal because I think it makes a very important point that is being overlooked in regards to the result of this year's Eurovision Song Contest. Hopefully this will help some people understand the voting better.

If we add the results of the 18 "western" countries and compare them to the results of the "eastern" countries, the patterns are all there.

A list of the western countries in Eurovision:
Andorra
Austria
Belgium
Denmark
Finland
France
Germany
Greece (the only one of these you could say benefits from an "eastern bloc" vote)
Iceland
Ireland
Malta
Netherlands
Norway
Portugal
Spain
Sweden
Switzerland
United Kingdom

The other nations that took part in ESC '07 are regarded as eastern for the purpose of this analysis. This is also the current common understanding of the division between western and eastern Europe.

The table below shows the ranking in the final, then the points + ranking from "west" Europe and then "east" Europe.

Pos. Nation Total West East
1. Serbia 268 128 1st 140 1st
2. Ukraine 235 111 =2nd 124 2nd
3. Russia 207 84 4th 123 3rd
4. Turkey 163 111 =2nd 52 12th
5. Bulgaria 157 80 5th 77 5th
6. Belarus 145 38 15th 107 4th
7. Greece 139 69 8th 70 6th
8. Armenia 138 76 7th 62 9th
9. Hungary 128 79 6th 49 14th
10 Moldova 109 50 12th 59 10th
11. B&H 106 56 10th 50 13th
12. Georgia 97 31 16th 66 7th
13. Romania 84 58 9th 26 17th
14. FYROM 73 8 22nd 65 8th
15. Slovenia 66 13 21th 53 11th
16. Latvia 54 24 18th 30 16th
17. Finland 53 41 13th 12 19th
18. Sweden 51 51 11th 0 23rd
19. Germany 49 40 14th 9 21st
20. Spain 43 27 17th 16 17th
21. Lithuania 28 16 20th 12 18th
22. France 19 8 22nd 11 20th
23. UK 19 19 19th 0 23rd
24. Ireland 5 0 24th 5 22nd

WEST TOP 10:
1. Serbia
=2. Ukraine
=2. Turkey
4. Russia
5. Bulgaria
6. Hungary
7. Armenia
8. Greece
9. Romania
10. Bosnia & Herzegovina

EAST TOP 10:
1. Serbia
2. Ukraine
3. Russia
4. Belarus
5. Bulgaria
6. Greece
7. Georgia
8. FYR Macedonia
9. Armenia
10. Moldova

The above tables show many different things:

1. Serbia was voted best by ALL sides of the continent.

2. Ireland was voted worst by all sides of the continent too! In fact, Ireland received its only points (5) from Albania, an eastern European country.

3. Most benefited by the west were: Turkey ("east"), Hungary ("east"), Romania ("east"), Finland, Sweden, Germany and the UK.

4. Most benefited by the east were: Belarus, Georgia, FYROM and Slovenia.

5. The UK only got votes from the west, but still they ranked 19th on the western list

6. Looking at the top 10, the total results are closer to the western votes than the eastern. The eastern countries did not choose to have Turkey (4th) or Hungary (9th) in the top 10, even though they are classified as eastern countries.

7. All votes considered, even the westerners did not like the western songs as a whole, and that is the reason more eastern european songs did better.

8. Armenia, the furthest eastern country, received more votes from western Europe than eastern Europe.

9. So perhaps eastern Europe favours eastern Europe, but western Europe favours eastern Europe too!

10. Yes, diaspora plays a part. Mostly benefiting Turkey and Armenia, but the entire result is and cannot be dependent on diaspora.

I hope the above will help some people reconsider blaming the so-called eastern pattern of voting and just enjoy the good songs, no matter where they come from. Even with the neighbourly voting, the overall result is not statistically influenced.

Marija Šerifović Verka Serduchka Serebro Kenan Doğulu Elitsa Todorova & Stoyan Yankoulov Koldun Sarbel Hayko Magdi Rúzsa Natalia Barbu Marija Šestić Sopho Todomondo Karolina Alenka Gotar Bonaparti.lv Hanna Pakarinen The Ark Roger Cicero D'Nash 4FUN Les Fatals Picards Scooch Dervish Sabrina Anonymous Eiríkur Hauksson The Jet Set Evridiki Dragonfly feat. Dado Topić Dragonfly Frederik Ndoci Guri Schanke DQ DJ Bobo Edsilia Rombley Gerli Padar Stevan Faddy Teapacks Olivia Lewis The KMG's Eric Papilaya Kabát Sopho Khalvashi Dmitry Koldun]]> http://www.last.fm/user/delphalune/journal/2007/02/19/b6dh1_songs_for_this_moment_%2523001%253A_yuna_ito Mon, 19 Feb 2007 18:49:32 +0000 http://www.last.fm/user/delphalune/journal/2007/02/19/b6dh1_songs_for_this_moment_%2523001%253A_yuna_ito As a new feature for my journal, I'm going to look at the songs that I'm loving at particular moments (whenever I feel like it) and explaining just why I love them at that moment. So let's begin...

Yuna Ito

Precious
I've only recently properly "discovered" this song, I only ever had a poor quality version which sat unnoticed in my library before now. Since I watched the video on YouTube I found myself falling in love with Yuna Ito all over again since I was seduced by Endless Story (see below). Precious is a wonderful ballad. It soars, it dips, it flies. Yuna's vocals are gorgeous - clear and totally in tune (of course!)

JOURNEY
The B side to Endless Story. I really think this is as deserving as Endless Story to be an A side but that just wasn't to be, which is a shame. I love that this is edgier than much of Yuna's other music, yet it still holds all the classic beauty and euphoria present in her other songs.

ENDLESS STORY
I guess I'm pretty into Yuna Ito at the moment, huh? Of course like many others, this was the song that got me interested in Yuna in the first place, and for a damn good reason! This is such a great ballad - it's cheery but not at all saccharine, and Yuna polishes it with fantastic vocals which are easy to sing along to (and in tune too!) and really enjoy.]]> http://www.last.fm/user/delphalune/journal/2007/01/21/b6dgs_exploring_the_horizons_of_j-pop%3A_utada_-_exodus_%28album_review%29 Sun, 21 Jan 2007 17:50:44 +0000 http://www.last.fm/user/delphalune/journal/2007/01/21/b6dgs_exploring_the_horizons_of_j-pop%3A_utada_-_exodus_%28album_review%29

First off, I want to review an album by my all-time favourite artist, the incredible, multi-talented, singer/songwriter/producer Utada Hikaru! Yeah, as you probably know, I adore her and own her complete albums instead of just the odd songs. So for my first review, I will be looking at her only English language album since her debut as the short-lived Cubic-U, Exodus.

Those who have heard Utada Hikaru's older music will immediately notice a change, a growth, in this album. The language most certainly makes a difference, as she has always written her own songs, the English language makes a different song altogether. She has actually changed her name to simply "Utada" for this album, for international audiences. The English language is less open for literal descriptions and more for poetry and wit. Thankfully, the experimentation found in the songs of this album has been highly successful and has created a unique and highly enjoyable listen.

Following the opening track, the electro/oriental/rock fusion Devil Inside bursts into life, a brilliant start to the album. The song is vibrant, exciting and totally infectious. Immediately following Devil Inside the pace changes, not to low-tempo but experimental, perhaps mid-tempo sounds, from the Japanese-influenced, wonderful album title track, Exodus '04, to the almost bizarre electro/pop mid-tempo The Workout. The Workout is not at first clearly appealing or listenable, but the lyrics are definitely enjoyable and over time it's a big grower and is actually a highlight of the album.

The album keeps going, experimenting with similar sounds at different paces with different meanings in such songs as Tippy Toe and the interestingly lyrical You Make Me Want To Be A Man. Preceding these comes the mainstream yet still Utada Hikaru pop song Easy Breezy, featuring the infamous "You're easy breezy and I'm Japaneesy" line. I can understand why some people don't enjoy this song for its lyrics but I think they show Utada's character and are quite witty.

Two outstanding songs that follow Easy Breezy are Animato and Kremlin Dusk. The former is a bizarre but brilliant experimental song that makes very little sense, written by Utada while she was in hospital, she wrote the song with a very personal meaning. The song itself is brilliant. Kremlin Dusk is an epic song, the favourite from the album in the opinions of many fans. Again, it's not mainstream at all, and plays for over five minutes. Kremlin Dusk starts off slowly and soon builds into a formidable, mindblowing finish, making for a hugely impacting song.

From there on one could say that the album fizzles out to a not so brilliant end, but I would have to disagree. Although the songs are not as outstanding and hold little to some of the other songs, they are definitely listenable and show off Utada's wonderful vocals. You Make Me Want To Be A Man particularly is an unusual choice for a highlight of the album but it really does stand out for me because it's totally unusual, both in the instrumental and lyrically. The song is about Utada's frustration with her husband and how sometimes she just cannot understand how he is thinking, like they are on totally different wavelengths. She ponders what it would be like to be a man, if she would then understand him better.

The two penultimate songs are definitely not the strongest, WONDER'BOUT and Let Me Give You My Love. Neither are particularly listenable or great, yet I still like both. The former is quite R&B influenced, but it is modern with quite strong beats, whilst the former is very synthesised and mellow.

Finally, the last song on the album is a pick up, called About Me, it is again quite unusual. It starts off just acoustic with gorgeous vocals and is highly enjoyable as it is, then suddenly bursts into a percussion fusion chorus before returning to acoustic. This goes on right to the end, making an interesting and enjoyable finish to the album.

Overall this album is definitely worth listening to if you like more experimental pop music, or even if you do not you may still enjoy some of the tracks. I like the direction Utada took with this album, and she carried that onto her next Japanese album, Ultra Blue. There is a definite growth in her as an artist and it's great to witness that.

Essential tracks: Devil Inside, Animato, Kremlin Dusk, About Me]]>