Thursday, March 27, 2014

Copenhagen 2014 Reviews: Hersi Matmuja "Zemerimi I Nje Nate"


Yes folks, it's spring time in the northern hemisphere. We all know what that means: EUROVISION time!

It is 40 days away from the first semifinal. This year, the 59th edition of the ESC is in Copenhagen. As the days are counted down, there will be my reviews of every entry one by one.

This year, 37 European nations will be present, down from 39 in Malmo 2013. Poland returns, and so does Portugal. Bulgaria, Croatia, Serbia and Cyprus will try to regain financially for the 60th edition next year (ESC executive supervisor Jon Ola Sand (of Norway's NRK Television fame) said that he wants every nation involved in ESC for years to be there next year for that occasion, per an online interview somewhere online). Previous nations involved in the ESC--such as Slovakia, Czech Republic and Bosnia and Herzegovina--also declined to return this year.

With that in mind, it's time to begin the country by country review of the entries, starting with "Zemerimi I Nje Nate" by Herciana Matmuja (pictured).

Hersi is the first entry I am profiling, and the reason is simple: Albania is the first nation alphabetically among the ESC participating nations this year. This song starts off good with some good guitar riffs (on the original version, not in the 'edited for EUROVISION version'), then it gets somewhat soft in melody and rhythm. She has an OK voice, an almost mainstream pop voice. I would think that this could be a borderline final qualifier as she will perform out of the first semifinal on Tuesday, the 6th of May. As far as comparing this with past Albanian ESC entries, I don't think it was good as the Adrian Lulgjuraj & Bledar Sejko collaboration from last year ("Identitet," which really rocked and should've made the final!). I've never been really enthralled from anything from this country in ESC, but this is yet another head scratcher here.


Up next: Aram MP3 "Not Alone."

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