The Art of downgrading

There has really been very little activity going on here, but I blame the Swedish preview shows for that. They are great fun to contribute to, but afterwards I feel a bit short on words. It feels like I don't have so much to say anymore once they are over.

Of course that is not a state that will stay on for long.

But one very positive side effect is that I have a reason to put each and every song under very strong scrutineering (eat your heart out, Frank Naef!) so I can finally get down to what I really think about them. And the hardest job is actually the dirty job of taking OK songs and ripping them to shreds.

Since the ESC is not only a hobby of mine but also a job, I need to be able to keep a healthy relationship to these songs and I can't go around liking songs that are barely acceptable.

So I have been putting my most critical eye to use, and several songs have fallen from grace in my personal list. For many years, I used to defend lukewarm entries because I found one phrase I liked or because the singer seemed like a nice person or because they came from a country I usually liked. Those days are gone. If something is bad, I must be able to define it as bad.

The likes of Croatia and Latvia have now been reduced to the "bad" section even if I almost liked them at first, while some others have gone down from "good" to "OK". And so on.

So now I know a lot better what I like and dislike, and can more easily define my opinions from now on. How about you people, have you made your minds up?