BoNF 2011

Best of National Finals 2011

2011′s edition is the seventh BoNF; it was held the spring of 2011, between April and May, as explained in the rules here. After the great (or so I thought) 2010 edition, my youtube page was launched and running as well. I worked harder on getting a good logo, personalized pics for the finalists… 43 countries took part in the 2011 Eurovisiong Song Contest. 33 of them used some sort of national finals in which 493 songs  were performed. I wrote down a list of 85 songs I liked and then came up with these top 30 (first edition without Albania or Finland in the top 30):

Austria | “Happy song” Alf Poier
Austria | “Let love kick in” Oliver Wimmer
Belgium | “Rien en apparence” Sarina Cohn
Bosnia & Herzegovina | “Love in rewind” Dino Merlin
Denmark | “Hvad hjertet lever af” Stine Kinck
Denmark | “New tomorrow” A Friend in London
Estonia | “Babdy had you” Viktoriya Suslova
Estonia | “I wanna meet Bob Dylan” Outloudz
Estonia | “Rahu, ainult rahu” Sõpruse Puiestee & Merili Varik
Estonia | “Rockefeller Street” Getter Jaani
Estonia | “Smile” MID
Estonia | “The Storm” Mimicry
Estonia | “Valss” Orelipoiss
France | “Sognu” Amaury Vassili
Georgia | “One more day” Eldrine
Germany | “Taken by a stranger” Lena Meyer-Landrut
Iceland | “Beint á ská” Rakel Mjöll Leifsdóttir
Ireland | “Lipstick” Jedward
Italy | “Follia d’amore” Raphael Gualazzi
Latvia | “You are” Pienenu Vins
Moldova | “Let’s jazz” Natalia Barbu
Norway | “Gone with the wind” Noora Noor
Norway | “Vardlokk” Helene Bøksle
Portugal | “Chegar à tua voz” Wanda Stuart
Serbia | “Čaroban” Nina
Sweden | “Better or worse” Julia Alvgard
Sweden | “My heart is refusing me” Loreen Talhaoui
Sweden | “Spring för livet” Sara Varga
Sweden | “The Hunter” Melody Club
Switzerland | “Come what may” The Glue

Semifinal

My friends recieved the mp3 of these 30 songs and they have graded each of them with a 1 (awful) through 5 (great) system. Just like 2008 and 2010, I saved the full results of the semifinal. And so we have from 30th to 16th:

30  Estonia | “The Storm” Mimicry (17pts)
29  Sweden | “Spring för livet” Sara Varga (19pts)
28 Latvia | “You are” Pienenu Vins (21pts)
27 Estonia | “Rahu, ainult rahu” Sõpruse Puiestee & Merili Varik (27pts)
26 Georgia | “One more day” Eldrine (27pts)
25 Ireland | “Lipstick” Jedward (28pts)
24 Estonia | “Rockefeller Street” Getter Jaani (29pts)
23  Serbia | “Čaroban” Nina (29pts)
22  Estonia | “Valss” Orelipoiss (30pts)
21 Sweden | “The Hunter” Melody Club (30pts)
20  Portugal | “Chegar à tua voz” Wanda Stuart (31pts)
19 Denmark | “New tomorrow” A Friend in London (31pts)
18 Switzerland | “Come what may” The Glue (32pts)
17 Moldova | “Let’s jazz” Natalia Barbu (33pts)
16 Austria | “Happy song” Alf Poier (34pts)

Finalists scored: 35, 36, 37, 37, 38, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43, 44, 44, 47, 47.

Final

So now I had all 15 finalists! For the second time, I also managed to get the songwriter and the composer down for each of them. I used a computer “random playlist” to get the running order for the final:

01
France
“Sognu”
Amaury Vassili
(Daniel Moyne, Quentin Bachelet, Jean-Pierre Marcellesi & Julie Miller)

02
Estonia
“Smile”
MID
(Markus Robam)

03
Denmark
“Hvad hjertet lever af”
Stine Kinck
(Pharfar, Rasmus Allin & Fresh-I)

04
Bosnia & Herzegovina
“Love in rewind”
Dino Merlin
(Dino Merlin)

05
Norway
“Vardlokk”
Helene Bøksle
(Cecilie Larsen, Sindre Hotvedt, & Knut Avenstroup Haugen)

06
Italy
“Follia d’amore”
Raphael Gualazzi
(Raphael Gualazzi)

07
Estonia
“Baby had you”
Viktoriya Suslova
(Viktoriya Suslova & Sten Pulkkanen)

08
Iceland
“Beint á ská”
Rakel Mjöll Leifsdóttir
(Tómas Hermannsson, Orri Harðarson & Rakel Mjöll Leifsdóttir)

09
Norway
“Gone with the wind”
Noora Noor
(Simone Larsen, Moh Denebi, Jennifer Brown & Bjørn Djupström)

10
Belgium
“Rien en apparence”
Sarina Cohn
(Sarina Cohn)

11
Sweden
“My heart is refusing me”
Loreen Talhaoui
(Moh Denebi, Björn Djupström & Loreen Talhaoui)

12
Germany
“Taken by a stranger”
Lena Meyer-Landrut
(Gus Syffert,  Nicole Morier & Monica Birkenes)

13
Sweden
“Better or worse”
Julia Alvgard
(Manne Hjelm, Ola Holstad & Joar Lenz)

14
Estonia
“I wanna meet Bob Dylan”
Outloudz
(Stig Rästa & Fred Krieger)

15
Austria
“Let love kick in”
Oliver Wimmer
(Oliver Wimmer)

Results

If you don’t remember those songs, you can check BoNF’s youtube page or this recap video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZUfNrEgIw2I