Two more Eurovision notes

I can't tell you which Eurovision act I'm looking forward to more: Switzerland's Lovebugs, a Swiss Britpop act, or the Czech Republic's Gipsy.cz, a Roma rap act. Neither are particularly promising, but Gipsy.cz at least doesn't sound like Keane covering Oasis.

Czech Republic's Eurovision 2008 Entry

Tereza Kerndlová's "Have Some Fun" will represent the Czech Republic in this year's Eurovision Song Contest. It is perfectly mediocre Euro-pop, but after last year's Czech entry, it is almost unquestionably brilliant. I don't know why Tereza has Landon Donovan photos on her closet door in the video, though.

Czech Republic

Kabat's vocals are... slushy. They're muddy, and oozy, and slushy. The lead singer points to the crowd a lot, as if he keeps seeing people he knows. When I was growing up, we had a phrase for stuff that really sucked, and it's offensive, but I'm going to use it: this sucks dead donkey dick.

Czech Republic (2007 Eurovision preview)

Kabata - "Mala Dama"

So yes, a jaunty guitar riff to open it... then... death metal vocals! WAAAH??? It's not fast enough, and the guitar doesn't rip enough to be angry. There's a serious disconnect here between vocals and orchestration that I simply don't get. If only I understood Czech.

Czech Republic (Eurovision 2007 Preview)

Kabát: "Malá Dáma"

Surprisingly, this is Czech Republic's Eurovision debut. Kabát is a rocker, and the vocals have baritone under-dubs to make the song sound vaguely menacing. I'm willing to bet that if you replaced the guitars with synths and the tenor and bass vocals with sopranos, you would get a pretty generic Eurovision track. Fairly forgettable.