British rumors

After the British success with Andrew Lloyd Webber writing their entry the rumor about next year's "Your country needs you" is in full bloom. Some are saying that the natural step would be to involve old Take That member Gary Barlow who is supposed to be in charge of a similar talent show on BBC in the near future. Others are saying that we might have Elton John as a composer next year. These are of course only rumors but I would love the idea of Elton writing something classy and timeless for preferably someone already known to the public. Sugababes anyone?!?

Did your country really need Diane Warren after all?

What a thriller Your country needs you turned out to be. My friends and I who saw the show together were all rooting for Jade but had a feeling that the Brits would go for the Twins. It's been Jade all the way for me as you might remember from earlier posts. What I have been worried about is that her voice in ballads is not as strong as when she does uptempo numbers with lots of dancing. Still she was clearly the best in the winning song.

The song in itself has devided people. Some love it, some say it's utter rubbish. Most of the batting is for the cheezy lyrics. When I heard the first version sung by Mark I wasn't convinced either. The lyrics really are cheezy and I'm in fact very disappointed in Diane Warren. I also thought that the song was too simple and too musical theatre and not at all what I had hoped for. But then came the last minute when the song explodes with a key change and everything and it made up for most of it. Then the Twins sung it and by then you had already got used to the song and so when Jade finally did her take on "My Time" the factor of recognition was already there and you could focus on her interpretation instead. Which took the song away from musical theatre and landed in Whitney Houston power ballad area. Still annoyed with the lyrics though. Is it possible to re-write them until May? Can they do that?


Winner UK. Jade - "My Time"

Good luck my British friends. I'm not convinced it's a winner yet but on the other hand the UK should be satisfied with anything above mid-table after the last couple of efforts. And Jade is by far the strongest bet you had to chose from. If they promote the song a lot around Europe it will help them since the song actually do grow for each time you hear it. Somehow it reminds me quite a lot of another ALW number - "Our Kind Of Love" from the musical The Beautiful Game. It builds up in the same way but the lyrics by Ben Elton is a bit less cheezy than Warrens.

Your country needs you to avoid nul points

On Saturday the British public will decide which one of these three acts is going to represent them in Eurovision with a song by Webber/Warren. Who would you pick?


Jade


Mark


The Twins

Hallelujah, BBC is trying!

• How do I live
• Because you loved me
• If I could turn back time
• Un-break my heart
• I don't want to miss a thing
• Can't fight the moonlight
• Don't turn around

What have all of these songs in common? Other than having been big hits?! Any guess? No? Diane Warren of course. This miracle woman of songwriting has been a favourite of mine since the early 90s. The first time I fell in love with her words (I think) was when I heard Celine Dion singing "Water from the moon" from her 1992 album "Celine Dion" also containing "If you asked me to" and "Love can move mountains" (by - surprise surprise - Warren).

In 2009 Diane Warren will compete in Eurovision! This is a dream come true for Posh. I was happy enough to have Andrew Lloyd Webber compose a song for the contest. Yesterday I found out that he will have Warren by his side writing the lyrics for his song. I'm in heaven! Some of my absolute favourite singers have recorded songs by Diane Warren. Celine Dion, Dusty Springfield, Elaine Paige... The list goes on and on. Now let's hope the Brits vote for Jade in Your country needs you and this could be a future ESC-classic!

Your country needs you (heat 1). Jade - "Deja vu"

More Diane Warren songs that I love is:
"Wherever would I be" - Dusty Springfield
"Heart don't change my mind" - Elaine Paige (in this clip Barbra Streisand)
"Any other fool" - Dusty Springfield (in this clip Patti Austin)

With Terry Wogan gone and a production team that actually give a damn this could be the turning point for Britain in the big ES of C. Good luck BBC!

The Phantom of the Euro-stage

To start the ESC-year for real dear old Eurofivestar and I had a kick off on Sunday. We watched the first episode of BBC-produced "Your country needs you" which will follow a few British hopefuls on the way of representing UK with a song penned by none other than the Lord himself. Andrew Lloyd Webber. I'm not just a sucker for Eurovision I'm also a sucker for musicals and that Lordi-guy has written some masterpieces through the years. It will be exciting to see what he comes up with for Moscow. Dear Andrew, just know that you are allowed to compose a killer popsong for this event. A bombastic ballad might do the trick but a killer popsong sung by Jade WILL trick the viewers of Europe to finally vote British. Of that I am sure. Good luck Webby!

€5* and Posh continued the evening by going down memory lane watching Eurovision 2003. A year voted the best ESC-week ever by us who were in Riga. The fun we had. Crazy. The parties we went to. Crazy. The people we hung out with. Crazy. Ah, those were the days. I had forgot a lot of songs and some I wish never would have surfaced my consciousness again (hey Cyprus! hey Israel!) but also some gems that I really like. This is one of them. I didn't rate it at the time but afterwards it grew and grew on me and the singing is perfection to the last note.

I give you Portugal 2003.


Rita Guerra - "Deixa-me sonhar"

To hear the whole song in English, called "Keep the dream alive", click HERE.