At #12, this is the highest placing of a non-qualifying entry this year. Although I still think it should have qualified.
Pernilla - När jag blundar (Finland 2012)
To be honest, I am not sure how necessary a qualification would have been. It would have been nice. Suitable. Not out of place. But still.
Pernilla nailed all the important parts: throughout the week of rehearsals in Baku, she took in the stage, adapted to the camera angles, grew more confident on stage and - above all - sang really well on the live broadcast.
It is not a small task for a complete newcomer to represent your country at Eurovision and nerves got the better of several performers during the ESC history. Pernilla was calm, composed, beautiful and secure.
Sending in a slow ballad in your own language is always a gamble - this one got really close to qualification. For a country like Finland - with no less than nine last places and an almost uncountable amount of misunderstood masterpieces with dismal placings - this is an entry to be very proud of.
My grade: 4/5
Pernilla is an artist! She really gives the impression of being in Baku to give something, to share a music, to share a language, to share a message... and she managed to do it ! I hope Finns will give her a great place in their music industry, because she deserve it!!
ReplyDeleteAs a Finn myself, I am really proud of Pernilla and that we sent a song in Swedish, that doesn't happen too often! Pernilla's performance was great and I am happy with it. The song has beautiful lyrics but unfortunately Europe couldn't understand the song in its full glory, which I understand.
ReplyDeleteHopefully we'll hear more music from Pernilla!
Thank you Pernilla, you did much better that one could wait for from a newcomer on such a big stage. I love the atmosphere and the arrangement of the song, so to me this was the perfect choice for us, even though I was not at all surprised when this didn't reach the finals.
ReplyDeleteThis song, as well as the gentle song from Paradise Oscar last year, has one problem if you look at the song from a Eurovision point of view. I have many times compared these two songs to the icelandic entry from Moscow. "Is it true" is a ballad not much different from the two finnish entries, a gentle ballad with a simple melody line sung by a young and confident vocalist.
What Yohanna's song has that is lacking from both "Da da dam" and "När man blundar" is a high point that the song leads you to and what gives you the "wow"-feeling. "Is it true" has this climax during the last quarter of the song when Yohanna sings "Is it real?Did I dream it? Will I wake from this pain". This is the place that the whole songs aims at.
The two finnish entries don't have this. They start and go on, but the rise you are waiting for never comes, the second half of the song is the same as the first one.
With some (not much but some) change in the arrangement, the change of key, change in the melody or something during the last quarter would have made the songs more memorable and maybe would have given the edge that would have lifted Pernilla to the final and Paradise Oscar to higher ranking.