Eurovision 2010

Long-time readers might remember how much I love Eurovision, sometimes because it can be so awfully bad that it becomes amusing again, sometimes because it features some suprisingly good songs among the many rubbish ones. I thought this year's winner wasn't very convincing with her fake British accent and rather boring song - I mean, they call her the German Kate Nash, but every single Kate Nash song is at least three times as catchy. These were my personal favourites of the latest edition:

Georgia: Sopho Nizharadze - Shine
Excellent singer, classic but beautiful song.


Romania: Paula Seling & Ovi - Playing with Fire
Catchy, I like the act with the piano and especially love the female singer's voice.


Ireland: Niamh Kavanagh - It's For you
Very traditional, but quality song. Again, really good singer.


Bosnia-Herzegovina: Vukasin Brajic - Thunder and Lightning
B-H sends excellent songs to Eurovision almost every year. Eastern-European rock pur sang, quite bombastic but I like it.


Iceland: Hera Björk - Je ne Sais Quoi
Not at all the kind of genre I usually listen to, but she's a terrific singer and this song was stuck in my head for three days at least.


Denmark: Chanée & N'evergreen - In a Moment Like This
Biggest rip-off I've heard in a while ("Every Breath You Take", "The Winner Takes It All", "Simply The Best" and some Shania Twain song combined in one 'new' song), but the result is pretty good. And that guy is a sort of hot.


Belgium: Tom Dice - Me & My Guitar
And yes...I actually liked Belgium's entree this year! Tom Dice was an X Factor finalist in Belgium, which probably doesn't make it very cool to like him, but I think he's got a special voice and his song turned out pretty nice as well.

Oh, and if you haven't seen it: don't forget to check the Moldova entree. It's one of the worst songs of this year's contest, but I thought the bit with the sax player (great moves, haha) was extremely funny! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9-seDrv1eQo

Warm me up and breathe me

I saw the last Six Feet Under episode two nights ago. It was a great finale for a brilliant series. If you haven't seen it yet, I can recommend you this excellent series about a family-owned funeral home and the lives of the family members living there. It shows very well-drawn characters, non-cliché storylines and beautiful visuals and music choices.

Later...with Jools Holland

I've been a fan of the BBC music show 'Later...with Jools Holland' for years and years, so it's always a happy moment for me when a new season has arrived.

Last week, the first episode of series 33 aired and it could definitely be called a good one. The artists playing were Metallica, Kings of Leon, Carla Bruni, VV Brown, Nicole Atkins and Sway - like always a nicely variated line-up.

Top act for me was Kings of Leon (oh, how I adooore their new single 'Sex on Fire'), but the other artists were all worth watching as well.

For instance - I had never heard of VV Brown, but she turned out to be a superb singer from London who's able to bring us back decades in time with her - like she describes it herself - 'do wop indie'.

Some of the performances on YouTube:

Kings of Leon - Sex on Fire



VV Brown - Crying Blood



Nicole Atkins - Maybe Tonight

An Iranian in UK

A couple of days ago I watched The Omid Djalili Show on television. It's a comedy show build up around Omid Djalili, a British actor and stand-up comedian with Iranian roots. Wikipedia taught me he's pretty famous in (and even out of) the UK, but I hadn't heard about him before his show came on Belgian television. I can understand why he's so popular, though. It's been a while since I had to laugh that hard. To share the fun, here are some vids: