Song Contest 124 (Results posted!)

[xyzzy]

two contests ago I submitted "Waters of March" by Tom Jobim and Elis Regina, and last time I submitted "Waters of March" by Art Garfunkel. this time I'm submitting a

completely different

song

[xyzzy]

here's my thoughts about the first half of the songs:

Spain - I like this vocalist a lot, but the song doesn't really coalesce into something I really care about that much - it feels pretty generic. I didn't hate it, but I also didn't really feel very strongly at all about it.
Tanzania - this is pretty pleasant to listen to, but I never really felt like I loved it, if that makes sense. it's another song in the "I didn't hate it but I also didn't really like it either" category.
Greenland - I really don't care for this fellow's vocals, but they work well with the song, even if they're not exactly for me. very nice video, but as always, this is Song Contest, not Music Video Contest. some really sweet guitaring going on here.
USA - this is very loud! it's fun. this isn't necessarily what I would call a great song, but it's a good song, and it's a fun listen. this video has 156 views as of when I'm watching it, which means that a significant percentage of its views come solely from Song Contest. that's interesting!
Liechtenstein - this is a pretty fun, cute song. it feels like it comes from an extremely personal place, and I like songs that come from personal places.
Djibouti - I... kind of hate this a lot tbh. this is fundamentally unlistenable and the only context I can imagine it working in would be, like, in a movie where the members of this band are the villains and we're actively supposed to hate them and the song they made. I'm pretty sure that's not what this is though so I really just hate it
Hungary - these singing children are all very talented and I'm proud of them for all their hard work rehearsing for this performance. I did not enjoy it though.
South Korea - I immediately recognized this when I started listening to it, which makes sense, because according to the video description it was used in some of the

Bourne

movies. it's not a bad song and I vaguely recall it working well in the context of those movies, but I honestly can't fathom a scenario where I'd intentionally listen to this just because I wanted to hear this song.
Kenya - damn this boy's voice goes high. that's impressive. however as skillful as this is I'm not sure I actually like it? it's impressive but there's just not that much substance to it.
Italy - I've never actually played a

Mega Man

game, so maybe I'd like this if I had that emotional connection to it, but there's a big difference between having an emotional connection to a song and ths song actually being good. like there's at least one other band in the "songs about the

Mega Man

videogame franchise" genre who makes music that's good enough that I've listened to it on purpose before, so this band really just has no excuse. anyway this vocalist is trash and he shouldn't be allowed access to microphones anymore.

will the second half of the contest have at least one song that I genuinely love that I didn't submit? I mean, maybe, but I'm honestly not getting my hopes up after this batch. this is probably gonna be a difficult one to pick a top 10 for just because I don't really care for any of these

[xyzzy]

Byzantium - well this is just deeply unpleasant
Lebanon - I was prepared to not hate this song! and then the vocals started and I started researching what it would cost to have my ears surgically removed
Egypt - this is the best song in the contest so far, and it's pretty good. this must've been a fun song to construct, and it's a pretty fun song to listen to as well. it's really interesting how this manages to escalate the mood over the course of the song using just these found vocals.
Ecuador - normally I'd hear the first 15 seconds of this and then notice that it's nearly 8 minutes long and say to myself "well, this one probably won't be in my top 10," but the rest of you did such a bad job that I am forced to actually consider giving this one points. oh wow I scrolled down and I could see this band in Baltimore next Tuesday for only $23! I'm not gonna do that though because I don't like this!
Burkina Faso - I had a good time listening to this song. the whole thing works pretty well. it was nice.
Hong Kong - this is a pretty bad song that venerates a guy whose career in entertainment started with him owning slaves, but I guess it's not the worst song in this Song Contest, I guess.

I guess

United Kingdom - I'm not sure I've ever actually listened to CHVRCHES before because I'm not very cool. this is a pretty good song before, and for the first time in this contest, I am tempted to go search out more music by an artist I first heard in this contest. so I guess this is the best one so far?
Madagascar - this is pretty good! a very fun song.
Central African Republic - this was pretty good, but I was never really super engaged by it.
Bhutan - this is a pretty decent song to close out the contest. I didn't love it, but I liked it, which is a lot better than the "I didn't hate it, but I didn't like it" that a lot of these songs have been.

[xyzzy]

r a b b l e

[xyzzy]

hey just out of curiosity how does the tie breaker work for me being in 10th with 49 points and Shadoweh being in 11th with 49? they're clearly being treated as distinct scores with mine in the colorful section.