Quelle Surprise!

Today’s been a day I never expected to happen – at least not this quickly. This morning somebody I know told me something in confidence—so I can’t share—but suffice it to say I was blown away by the news.

Anyhow, I’ve been having a very busy weekend and week: After a brief lull where I actually had nothing significant on my agenda, I am swamped. Some of the items on my to-do list are challenging and interesting, others are, well… dull and tedious.

All of it must be done, however, and I am buckling down.

Meanwhile, in other news, as you can tell from my last post, Eurovision is rapidly heading our way—a week from Saturday and I already have plans to attend a small Eurovision party here in Weimar with friends.

I bought the tracks off of iTunes last weekend and have had the songs on constant rotation while working and I have to say there are some really good ones this year. In fact, I have more 5 starred songs this year than I have ever had in the past: ten!

The song I posted last time was the Eastern European Funk, which is the entry from Lithuania. It’s surprisingly catchy and fun—even as it pokes fun at the status of Eastern Europeans—almost catching that “Polish Plumbers” je ne sais quois, if you know what I mean.

Speaking of Je ne sais quois: it’s the title of Iceland’s entry and it’s one of my ten favorites. I haven’t actually seen the performer until just now and now that I see Hera Björk I suspect that the song won’t do well in voting and that’s a shame.

Another song that I seem to like, although I doubt it will do well in the actual contest, is Run Away, which represents Moldova (one of my favorite countries that I’ve never actually visited) and is performed by SunStroke Project & Olia Tira.

I’ll post more of my favorites this week moving toward ones that I think might win. If you’re unlucky I’ll honor this year’s worst songs with a post of their own.