2004 Top 50

50-41

50. Maarjaa - Homme

Lovely gentle pop song, with a slight ethnic flavour, sung softly by Maarjaa. It is reminiscent of Estonian entries from the 90s, and is great as relaxing background music, though it can be a bit dull at times, and is relatively forgettable, which is a shame for such a beatifully crafted song.

49. Athena - Easy Man

The worst song in the Turkish National Final still makes the top 50! Athena's best song was chosen to go to Istanbul, but they produced 2 other good Ska songs for the pre-selection. This song lacks the catchy hooks that made For Real so successful, but is typical Athena fare all the same, with the lead singer's unique voice, and their unique music style. Maybe I like Athena so much just because they are so different to traditional Eurovision stereotypes. The bridge and then the blend back into the chorus near the end is very well done, but the ending seems slightly abrupt.

48. Alan Nizetic- Pala Si Se Naba/Angel Wing

This song starts off really slowly, before launching into what seems at first to be a powerful chorus, although this fades out soon after beginning, it is a typical Croatian ballad, as have been seen in Eurovision so many times, but it lacks that extra edge or catchiness that many of them have. The bridge is an improvement, and leads into a powerful repeat chorus, in typical Euroviison style, and this could have done equally as well as Ivan Mikulic did in Istanbul. The English version (all DORA entries were required to record one) is even more effective, and sounds better on the whole than the Croatian version.

47. Ewert Sundja - Dance

The noisy introduction almost covers up a nice beginning to the song, which is quite rocky, and builds up well to the chorus. The chorus is a let down, however, as it is so cheesey, with terrible lyrics and 3 year-old-rhymes. Luckily the verses make up for this enough, and it must be admitted that the chorus is quite catchy in it's cheesiness, though the la-la-la bit at the end of each chorus does make the song sound very immature.

46. Mariza Ikonomi - Mbi Urë

A very odd Gregorian-esque opening to the song shouldn't be allowed to put you off, the song does improve once the dance beat comes in, and MAriza begins to sing At the start she "oh"s a lot, but when she get's into the powerful chorus the song improves greatly. The transition from chorus to verse is rather stilted and takes away from the song, but Mariza sings the song as best she can, and really brings the chorus out at you. Near the end when her backing singers help,the song manages to push that little bit further and really grabs you. The ending is disappointingly anticlimactic though.

45. Charizma - I'll Give You A Mountain

Eurolaul's third entry already in our chart is this simple pop song, which tries to be both a ballad, and a power ballad (with the guitar heavy chorus) but fails in both. It is cheesey, as are most Eurolaul entries, but it isn't too cheesey, and is quite catchy. The bridge elevates the song and the singer (surprisingly from the name it is sung by a male voice) uses his voice to good effect during the song's climax. Not a bad effort, but not the best in Eurolaul 2004, nowhere near!

44. Deen - Pobjednik

In the Disco may have been extremely camp and Eurovisiony, but Deen managed to produce some slightly less embarassing efforts in the pre-selection. This was the best of a very good selection, that leaves you wondering why that song was chosen by the Bosnians. A misleading ethnic start soon gives way to a (admittedly still a bit camp) dance beat and the good verse builds up to a not-as-good chorus. In the chorus, Deen seems to lengthen every other word for as long as he can, which takes away much of the impact, although during the last time through the chorus, the backing singers beef it up a lot with their "ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-dum-dum-dum" and a good ending results.

43. Amber - Fly Away With You

A jazzy number, that doesn't sound very suited to Eurovision gets you in a summery mood. It is slightly Santana-esque but in a much cheaper way, the chorus is catchy, though slightly repetitive, and thesong is let down by the bad bridge, though the rest of the song is very nice and easy to listen to. The lyrics aren't the most imaginitive, but their simpleness suits the songs relaxed atmosphere.

42. Athena - I Love Mud On My Face

There is a massive gap between this effort and Athena's For Real, and this entry would not have done anywhere near as well at Eurovision. The verses are disappointing, and seem to use several different tunes in each one, though the lead up to the chorus is decent. The chorus is another letdown, extremely repetitive, merely "I love mud on my face, my face" repeated over and over, in a style that is extremely similar to Gary Glitter's "D'you wanna be in my gang" chorus. After the final chorus, the "my face, my face, my face..." bit and the "ah haha haha" bring some fun feelings to the song.

41. Rain - Let Me Go

The slow verse is effectively simple, but unfortunately it leads into a chorus that is far too fast. The words seem to be squashed in, and it is almost impossible to tell what is being sung. Nonetheless, it's a nice summery pop song, that the music is slightly too complex for, which leaves it slightly lacking.

And that concludes part 1!