Menoizikul; Midweek Musicalisms

Last week I shared the one and only song out of the first run of 16 in the Eurovision Contest that was worth the attention. When the second run got going, a little sense of despair was starting to settle. A truly dismal offering this year, even from some of the usually rock-solid (no pun intended) perennials such as the Nordics. [Disclaimer, I have rarely picked the winner because there is no accounting for the 'fans at large' vote. The last time my pick won was in 2006, when the fantasy metal/rock band, Lordi, took the trophy.]

Anyhoo... there were a few that were passable enough but just not very exciting either. Estonia, Cyprus, Czechia, Spain and Georgia at least managed to interest me enough with content, performance and musicality to listen through to the end of each.

So, there were two songs out of the second batch that caught my full attention. One was the Australian entry! I exclaim on that because, frankly, they've been a bit bog-standard up til now. It is also a mystery to even those of us familiar with the Euro scene how they get to play. Then again, once the borders extended to Azerbaijan, Turkey, Israel... I mean, what is Euro anyway? The contest is hugely popular in OZ. I rather suspect the impetus is driven by the extensive Greek and Italian-heritage population. It is also true that what was once "A Song For Europe" has become something of an LGBTQetc annual festival - but it is by no means exclusively so. There was a slow burn early on, but OZ is truly a superfan of the whole thing, so I guess there was lots of oozing, smooching, and whatever else goes on behind the scenes to get a placement. If Australia ever wins the contest, they would have to nominate a Euro country to act as host... in much the same way as the UK has hosted for Ukraine this year.

For the first time, a band entered for OZ, all previous offerings being solo artists. What is more, Voyager is a 'prog' metal band from Perth, WA. Their lead guitar player, Simone Dow, was born in Falkirk, Scotland, and her dad played for a couple of well-known bands here. Lead Singer Daniel Estrin is also an immigrant, his father escaping the Soviet Union and marrying Danny's mum, a German. Danny is also an immigration lawyer... you'll be understanding by now that I decided I quite liked their sound and went in search of more! For the purposes of this post, though, I am sticking to the contest entry but am giving you the audition video rather than the Euro performance - jus' cos I can and, hopefully, to avoid the block those of you in the USA met last week. The lyrics are simple enough, challenging the listener with questions as to their sense of adventure and then acknowledging the need for a stable base/person.