#UMK2016 FIRST SEMIFINAL REVIEW BY PETER

What would the national selection season be without a review by Peter Clancy, already a Blogilkar tradition! He reviews the songs in the Finnish national selection #UMK2016. First semifinals, then the final once the finalists are out and later on this spring also the Eurovision song contest entries as well. Hopefully! Here is the Semifinal one of #UMK2016. Enjoy!

Saara Aalto - No Fear

I love the opening, and like Saara's voice. Very warm. There's a nice buildup to some kind of neo-Chinese type music, the flow is continually broken though and unfortunately it doesn't do it for me. In the middle I had hope that something would change, but unfortunately it lead nowhere and ends nowhere (points: 3 out of 5) qualifies

Mikko Herranen - Evil Tone

Don't get the point of the driving given that he's blind .. Go figure … I don't particularily like his voice and the lyrics are a bit haphazzard - almost a mistake. This could be characterised by being one big moan … what a boring singer .. It sounds like the song was manufactured to "fit" some kind of Eurovision winning template including the modulation - but I think they took the wrong template. (points: 2 out of 5)

Stella Christine: Ain't Got Time for Boys

Well Fado style has never worked for Portugal, why would it work for Finland? It's not a bad lounge song, and at least it tries to break the mould. Not sure it would do well at Eurovision though. Lyrics are corny, pretty miserable actually. There's no real climax and it's in no way captivating. (points: 2 out of 5)

Eini - Draamaa

Ok, Unlike Mikko, Eini chose a winning Eurovision template, only problem is that it was from the 1970s. Far too "traditional" for 21st century Eurovision. At least there's a bit of a beat, and we won't be too bored during the performance. She should also consider acting her age and not pretending to be 30 years younger (sorry, but that's painful to watch) (points: 2 out of 5)

ClemSo - Thief

By comparison to the other songs in the first semi, this one is reasonably good. At least it's different and it has a beat. It would not do well on an Eurovision stage as a result of the constant repetition of the motif. There is no variation in the song at all. (points: 2 out of 5) qualifies

Pää-äijät - Shamppanjataivas

This goes direct into the song, though I'm not a fan of rap, it looks like a song that could have potential as a fun song. When it comes to this selection it's in the top half of the songs. It has a melody (of sorts), and I have no idea what they're talking about, but that's probably ok. Whether it gets through or not, it would be a song that would go down well at Eurocafé. (points: 3 out of 5) qualifies

So this is it, my first review of the 2016 season. Unfortunately the top three songs in this first semi-final are very unimpressive. My hope is that the next semifinals will have better songs in them, but I guess that will be review 2. Of course it all depends on the performance in the first semi as to whether or not the song will come across well on TV. So maybe their acts will be good and I'll change my mind when reviewing the songs in the final.

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Life after Helsinki 2007 Eurovision

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