#sebalter

My ESC Top 250 (#160-151), featuring Tommy Seebach's first entry, Poli Genova's second entry, and a horse head.

Also, since we made it through another 50 entries, here are the stats before the top 150.

By Country:

Sweden: 7 (+4 since the last count)

Italy, Greece, and Israel: 6 each (though Italy has the most gained since the last--+3, versus +2 and +1 for Israel and Greece, respectively)

United Kingdom: 5 (+2)

Belgium, France and Spain: 4 (Belgium gained 3 more songs, whereas France and Spain just 1)

Croatia, Germany, Hungary, Ireland, North Macedonia, Portugal, and Slovenia: 3 (all of North Macedonia's entries are here, but Croatia, Ireland, Portugal, and Slovenia each gained one song, and Hungary two)

Azerbaijan, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Latvia, Luxembourg, Russia, Switzerland, Turkey, Ukraine, Yugoslavia: 2 (all of Azerbaijan, Bulgaria, and Latvia's entries are here; Cyprus, Finland, Switzerland, Ukraine, and Yugoslavia gained one song)

Albania, Armenia, Austria, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Czech Republic, Estonia, Monaco, Poland, Serbia, Slovakia, the Netherlands: 1

By decade:

1950s: 2 (all done here, unfortunately)

1960s: 6 (+1 since last count)

1970s: 12 (+7 since last count)

1980s: 20 (+3 since last count)

1990s: 13 (+8 since last count)

2000s: 22 (+11 since last count)

Luther: Sebalter - Hunter of Stars

The complete tracklist can be found here

Lyrics:

Looking for a candidate

You have an option, only one choice

Sipping my drink, looking around

There's so much beauty, yes we can

And yet, self-confidence is a fragile concept that often fades away in the night

And there it comes, that unwanted guest, there's no place for you tonight

Want me to go, want me to go

Because you think I'm lying, 'cause you think I'm lying

No, open the door

'Cause tonight I cannot go hunting for stars, no no

Like an evil satellite

Twisting the truth and leaving us alone

In this mad and moody world

Society without love

And I state, my heart has been well-trained

I'm going to be your candidate

I'm the hunter, and you the poor prey

Tonight I'm gonna eat you up

Want me to go, want me to go

Because you think I'm lying, 'cause you think I'm lying

No, open the door

'Cause tonight I cannot go hunting for stars

I press my nose to the glass, it's raining outside, it's raining outside

I would like to storm in, roar like a lion, roar like a lion

But I feel your judgement, I feel your judgement, I am sweat, wet and dirty

I feel your judgement, I feel your judgement, I bear the stains of imperfection

Want me to go, want me to go

Because you think I'm lying, 'cause you think I'm lying

No, open the door

'Cause tonight I cannot go hunting for stars, no no

Want me to go

Because you think I'm lying, 'cause you think I'm lying

No, open the door

'Cause tonight I cannot go hunting for stars, no no

Want me to go

Because you think I'm lying, 'cause you think I'm lying

No, open the door

50. Poli Genova - “Na inat” Bulgaria 2011

Oh I know, the strength will be within me So that I may reach my destinatiooooooon

So starts one of the most underated empowerment anthems in Eurovision. Honestly, Poli Genova brooks no introduction. The woman is an international treasure and one of Eurovision’s most recognisable dispensers of AGGRO LES ENERGY. 😍 Which is of course the main draw to “Na inat”. It is basically “Proud” but disguised as SCREAMY FEMALE-FRONTED ROCK <3 By a woman who styles herself as this:

And it’s loads of fun. 😍 That one shot of the drummer faking out the camera <3

True, “Na inat” isn’t as good as Poli’s return effort or her jesc hosting stint, but still, it contains all of Poli’s natural kick-ass sass in a smaller packages I could hope for. Merely seeing this motormouthed pixie go for it is a delight. 😍

We’ll see more her, much, much later. 

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49. Aarzemnieki - “Cake to bake” Latvia 2014

Ever since they beat Dons in Dziesma, Aarzemnieki have been called “UNBEARABLY ANNOYING”, “A DISGRACE TO MUSIC” and “DISRESPECTFUL FOR NOT TAKING THE CONTEST SERIOUSLY” by people who themselves have been called “severely misguided”, “malicious troglodytes” and “not my friends” ^__^

Surveys have indeed shown that cake makes life better about 107.2% of the time, so don’t feel angry towards the Aarzemnieki hater: they simply aren’t living life at the best. Therefore, Aarzemnieki love equals self love. Can’t argue with science, yo~ It is, as Raitis would interject,

A PIECE OF CAKE 

and I mean, other than just generally curing my depression and being a generous display of Raitisms and serving some really witty pop culture references and doubling as my go-to humming melody whenever I bake a cake (at least once a month since Eurovision 2014 <3), “Cake to bake” is such a dignified end to Old Incompetent Latvia, entering Eurovision being almost universally dismissed for its frivolity and leaving it being mourned by a sizeable chunk of the fanbase. 😍 So,

MIX SOME DOUGH, 

ADD SOME LOVE, 

LET IT BAKE, 

HAVE SOME CAKE 

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48. Kuunkuiskaajat - “Työlki ellää” Finland 2010

Did you know “Työlki Ellää” translates to: “Working is a way of making a living, too”. 😍 I’m not even sure how the linguistics function here, but FINNISH 😍

As a Finnophonic accordeon-heavy happiness anthem, “Työlki ellää” of course immediately blasted my soul with so much positive ki I now have to punctuate all of my sentences with heart emojis 😍 IT IS SO INFECTUOUSLY HAPPY, without actually being legit annoying, which is highly impressive feat, because, let’s be honest, people who are ‘Cheerful All The Time’ are usually either the most irritating humans to be around, or compulsive lying instawhores. 😍 

Of course, like many other robbed angels in this update, “Työlki ellää” was too merry for that part of the votebase who wish to deny your joy and happiness, which promptly punted Kuunkuiskaajat back to The Shire, but not before they stole the hearts of the eurovision fans that have hearts. 💗

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47. DoRoDoS - “My lucky day” Moldova 2018

[2018 Review here]

BANALITY ANTHEMS. 😍 DoReDoS are probably the single greatest example of the Moldovan Staging Wonder, taking a painfully antiquated nondescript schlager-folk drone and turning it into a Legitimately Funny farmer’s comedy <3

Take a tumble in a world of:

HILARIOUSLY EXAGGERATED FACIAL EXPRESSIONS

HOT DOPPLEGÄNGERS

SITUATIONAL COMEDY

LIVE GROPING

What a rags-to-riches story. 😍 Made even better by the fact that DoReDoS are in fact commited SovBots, and therefore are forced to mime humour, which they do very awkwardly 😍 enhancing the comedy even more. 😍

Is DoReDoS’s score inflated by the fact that they’re the only good OTT joke act (yes, i know “Toy” exists, but I’m also older than twelve) in a very humourless year of Eurovision? Hell yeah, absolutely. Is this a bad thing? Fuck no. Every year needs a moment of levity, a moment where you can just sit back and enjoy seeing the madness unravel before your eyes, without racking your brain at the underlying meaningitis. “My lucky day” is blissfully simple and efficient. It is one of the funniest Eurovision entries of all time and if you can’t appreciate it, well, your loss. 😊

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46. Sebalter - “Hunter of stars” Switzerland 2014

I’ll open by noting that Sebastiano is a lawyer. THIS MAN DEFENDS PEOPLE IN COURT:

As you might expect, I fell in love with this magnificently neurotic stonergod the instant he drunked his way towards winning the Swiss NF. 😍 Of course what I expected of Sebalter was that disarming neurosis wrapped in an NQ bow, but he gave us so so so much more. 

First of all, “Hunter of stars” is the rare bluegrass bop and like many in the elite tier, unabashedly cheerful, infinitely replayable and utterly impossible to sit through without singing or dancing to it’s whimsical whistling tones.

Second of all do my ears deceive me or is this song about JOB INTERVIEWS??? 😍 Well, it’s about applying for a job and the worries about not being good enough, which is both so Sebastiano AND so fucking relatable. Heavens knows how many time I wanted to storm in an row like a lion, but got rejected because of me and my imperfections.

Thirdly, Sebastiano actually overcame his nerves, so this high ranking is less of an “aw bless”, and more of a “wow you really did this 😭”. He performed with fiery confidence and wonderful esl diction (”row like a lion”, “i’m suet, i’m dirty”) and absolutely deserves to be put amongst the select group of singers who OUTSOLD their song.

(and yes he lost his voice in the funale, but that’s why I rate by best performance only :teehee: 🤭)

Fourthly, after spending months in palpable anxiety, worried for Sebalter and Tinkara, they were the first two names announced amongst the qualifiers and it was the best birthday gift ever. 😍 I promptly jumped from my counch, poured myself two glasses of red, immediately downed them, passed out and woke up cured from depression. What a wonderful time to be alive.