Best of National Finals 2013
2013′s edition is the nineth BoNF; it was held the spring of 2013, between April and May, as explained in the rules here. It’s the last to date but definitely not going to be the last ever as I have since then become a full administrator on ET helping me make BoNF more noticed. For the 2013 edition, a few of my closed friends on ET got to follow each step of the way, even helping me select the original top 30 songs! A bit messy, it features the lowest scored winner so far (with only 81 points, 33 points less than the 2012 winner!) In this edition, Martin Rolinski qualified for the fourth time to the final, a record. With his presence, the 2013 final featured two former winners (Rolinski 2008 and Tenfold Rabbit) as well as two former runner-ups (Rolinski 2006 and Caroline af Ugglas). I continued to work harder on getting a good logo, personalized pics for the finalists and for the first time I posted all individual videos of the finalists on youtube. 39 countries took part in the 2013 Eurovisiong Song Contest. 27 of them used some sort of national finals in which 446 songs were performed. I wrote down a list of 100 songs I liked and then came up with these top 30:
Albania | “Kush ta dha këtë emër” Hersi Matmuja
Estonia | “Balance of water and stone” Tenfold Rabbit
Estonia | “Dance” Rasmus Rändvee & Facelift Deer
Estonia | “Päästke noored hinged” Grete Paia
Estonia | “Üle vee” Liisi Koikson
Finland | “Lost” Arion
Finland | “Paperilyhty” Atlético Kumpula
France | “L’Enfer et moi” Amandine Bourgeois
Germany | “Craving” Saint Lu
Germany | “Heart on the line” Blitzkids mvt.
Germany | “The Righteous ones” Ben Ivory
Greece | “Angel” Alex Leon feat. Giorgina
Hungary | “Kedvesem” Bye Alex
Iceland | “Augnablik” Erna Hrönn Ólafsdóttir
Israel | “Tagid li lama” Ortal Ofek
Italy | “L’Essenziale” Marco Mengoni
Latvia | “Sad trumpet” PeR
Lithuania | “War in the wardrobe” Gerai Gerai & Miss Sheep
Netherlands | “Birds” Anouk
Norway | “Awake” Gaute Ormåsen
Norway | “Det er du” Tom Hugo
Norway | “I feed you my love” Margaret Berger
Serbia | “Halo” Marija Mihajlović
Serbia | “Ruza od baruta” Nenad Milosavljević
Sweden | “Falling” State of Drama
Sweden | “Heartbreak hotel” Yohio
Sweden | “Hon har inte” Caroline af Ugglas
Sweden | “In and out of love” Martin Rolinski
Sweden | “Paris” Jay-Jay Johanson
Sweden | “Tell the world I’m here” Ulrik Munther
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. For the fifth year, I saved the full results of the semifinal. And so we have from 30th to 16th:
30 
Greece | “Angel” Alex Leon feat. Giorgina (20pts)
29 
Estonia | “Dance” Rasmus Rändvee & Facelift Deer (27pts)
28 
Israel | “Tagid li lama” Ortal Ofek (28pts)
27 Estonia | “Päästke noored hinged” Grete Paia (29pts)
26 
Norway | “Awake” Gaute Ormåsen (30pts)
25 
Sweden | “Heartbreak hotel” Yohio (31pts)
24 
Serbia | “Ruza od baruta” Nenad Milosavljević (32pts)
23 
Finland | “Paperilyhty” Atlético Kumpula (33pts)
22 
Lithuania | “War in the wardrobe” Gerai Gerai & Miss Sheep (34pts)
21 Norway | “I feed you my love” Margaret Berger (35pts)
20 
Albania | “Kush ta dha këtë emër” Hersi Matmuja (35pts)
19 
Germany | “Heart on the line” Blitzkids mvt. (36pts)
18 
Iceland | “Augnablik” Erna Hrönn Ólafsdóttir (36pts)
17 Sweden | “Falling” State of Drama (36pts)
16 
Netherlands | “Birds” Anouk (37pts)
Finalists scored: 38, 39, 41, 42, 42, 43, 44, 44, 45, 46, 47, 48, 49, 50, 50.
Final
So now I had all 15 finalists! As usual by now, I also managed to get the songwriter and the composer down for each of them. I uploaded them all individually on youtube, so you can just click on the song titles to watch each song! I used a computer “random playlist” to get the running order for the final:
01
Sweden
“In and out of love”
Martin Rolinski
(Thomas G:son & Andreas Rickstrand)
02
Estonia
“Üle vee”
Liisi Koikson
(Immi)
03
Latvia
“Sad trumpet”
PeR
(Ralfs Eilands, Arturas Burke & Edmunds Rasmanis)
04
Serbia
“Halo”
Marija Mihajlović
(Nikola Cuturilo)
05
Estonia
“Balance of water and stone”
Tenfold Rabbit
(Andres Kõpper, Meelik Samel & Martin Petermann)
06
Hungary
“Kedvesem”
Bye Alex
(Alex Márta & Zoltán Palásti Kovács)
07
Sweden
“Tell the world I’m here”
Ulrik Munther
(Peter Boström, Thomas G:son & Ulrik Munther)
08
Germany
“Craving”
Saint Lu
(Saint Lu & Stefan Skarbek)
09
Italy
“L’Essenziale”
Marco Mengoni
(Francesco De Benedittis, Roberto Casalino & Marco Mengoni)
10
Sweden
“Hon har inte”
Caroline af Ugglas
(Heinz Liljedahl & Caroline af Ugglas)
11
Norway
“Det er du”
Tom Hugo
(Tom Hugo)
12
France
“L’Enfer et moi”
Amandine Bourgeois
(David Salkin & Boris Bergman)
13
Finland
“Lost”
Arion
(Iivo Kaipainen)
14
Germany
“The Righteous ones”
Ben Ivory
(Alexander Kronlund, Ali Payami & Ben Ivory)
15
Sweden
“Paris”
Jay-Jay Johanson
(Jay-Jay Johanson)
Results
No recap was made because I posted individual videos but you can still check BoNF’s youtube page if you want to dive into the contest’s past.
Very good choices. Though I of course miss a few in the final (Anouk, Erna, Hersi, Nenad… my beloved priests who weren’t even nominated :P …) it was a great line-up. My own points would have been:
12 Halo – Marija Mihajlović
10 L’enfer et moi – Amandine Bourgeois
08 Hon har inte – Caroline af Ugglas
07 Üle vee – Liisi Koikson
06 L’essenziale – Marco Mengoni
05 Sad trumpet – PeR
04 Kedvesem – Bye Alex
03 In and out of love – Martin Rolinski
02 Craving – Saint Lu
01 Paris – Jay-Jay Johansson
Which would have put Caroline in the lead. And made the gap between Marija and the extremely pretentious Tom Hugo much bigger.
Tom Hugo went wild on my youtube page and is the second most watched vid of the 2013 line up behind Marco Mengoni (first time ever one of my vids reach 22.000 views and 56 comments!)
but yeah, my personal taste would have been rather different as well, for once I don’t think that many sonds stood out and once I made te top 30 I wouldnt have quite been able to pick just 15… glad to see you support Martin though, it’s nost just me and my schlager friends lol (JayJay one pt, yay)
Anouk and Margaret deserved to make it though, every year there’s a heart breaking one missing :(
It’s me and Patrick against your YT followers then. ;)
As for Martin Rolinski, I can’t say anything else than that I like Modern Talking. :)
And with Marc’s votes, Ben Ivory took the lead again.
i was surprised by that result but Amandine took 3rd… but what you have and my friends don’t have is knowing all songs in each nf, knowing a country’s history, knowing the overall level: here my friends only heard the 30 songs (whic are imo the best and I tried to make it diverse) and we get something very different and is quite interesting too, knowing Martin Rolinski did please my non-esc fans (and myself) or that Amandine is “only” 9th there when we all had her higher… that’s the whole fun of BoNF imo
if i were to chose a personal top 5: Ben Ivory, Arion, JayJay, Tenfold Rabbit and Liisi Koikson (and PeR 6th)
I’m glad to see that somebody else dislikes Tom Hugo.
Very interesting! Whilst most of the songs I love were eliminated in the semi-final stage (Anouk, Blitzkids mvt, Hersi, Margaret…) or not even nominated (Winny Puhh), the winner in the end was certainly one of the better songs of the season.
My votes in the final would have been…
12 Ben Ivory – “The Righteous Ones”
10 Liisi Koikson & Söörömöö – “Üle vee”
08 Tenfold Rabbit – “Balance Of Water And Stone”
07 Jay-Jay Johanson – “Paris”
06 Amandine Bourgeois – “L’enfer et moi”
05 Bye Alex – “Kedvesem”
04 PeR – “Sad Trumpet”
03 Marija Mihajlović – “Halo”
02 Marco Mengoni – “L’essenziale”
01 Saint Lu – “Craving”
None of the other finalists made even my Top 75 of the 2013 NF season, with the exception of Caroline af Ugglas (somewhere in the 50’s).
My Top 10 are listed in the written section of my gravatar by the way…
yup, ive seen it, so in a way, we more or less agree on the top 30 except that the few ones we disagree with are the ones who my friends pushed to the final ;)
i do think you have a similar taste from one of my friends (jury member)
Have you guys checked other BoNF results?
I guess I should put what my votes would have been:
12 pts: ByeAlex – “Kedvesem”
10 pts: Marija Mihajlović – “Halo”
8 pts: Liisi Koikson & Söörömöö – “Üle vee”
7 pts: PeR – “Sad Trumpet”
6 pts: Ulrik Munther – “Tell the World I’m Here”
5 pts: Amandine Bourgeois – “L’enfer et moi”
4 pts: Jay Jay Johansson – “Paris”
3 pts: Saint Lu – “Craving”
2 pts: Marco Mengoni – “L’essenziale”
1 pt: Caroline af Ugglas – “Hon har inte”
Remaining five:
Good performers let down by weak songs: Martin Rolinski, Tenfold Rabbit
Good songs let down by weak performers: “The Righteous Ones,” “Lost”
Why is this here?: Tom Hugo – “Det er du”
sometimes i got tired to convince my friends to go through it every year and i considered turning it into another type of contest with my esc fan friends voting, but it would be a whole different contest (and at the time, without ET i didnt have ten friends i could trust whereas today i could)
If I take the live performance into consideration Ben Ivory would have fallen out of my top ten as well…
I did my votes based on the videos that Morgan gave, which included a live performance. It’s a shame because with a good liver performance, Ben Ivory would have probably gotten my ten points.
All in all, this list makes sense, even if I personally do not have a clue what 2 or 3 songs are doing there (Arion, Martin …).
Here are my top 20 songs of the 2013 season:
1. Hersi Matmuja – Kush ta dha këtë emër?
2. Mikael Saari – We Should Be Through
3. PeR – Sad Trumpet
4. Anouk – Birds
5. Marija Mihajlović – Halo
6. Nenad Milosavljević – Ruža od baruta
7. Blitzkids.mvt – Heart on the Line
8. Liisi Koikson & Söörömöö – Üle vee
9. Margaret Berger – I Feed You My Love
10. Moran Mazor – Rak bishvilo
11. Amandine Bourgeois – L’enfer et moi
12. Gerai Gerai & Miss Sheep – War in the Wardrobe
13. Alex Leon feat. Giorgina – Angel
14. Ben Ivory – The Righteous Ones (would have been in my top 3 without the disastrous live performance …)
15. Electric Fence – Emilia
16. Saint Lu – Craving
17. Marco Mengoni – L’essenziale
18. Erna Hrönn Ólafsdóttir – Augnablik
19. Jay-Jay Johansen – Paris
20. Kal – Kadifa usne
“Porslin” and “We should be through” are the two songs I did not keep in the top 30 and could have! Apart from those we agree on almost everysong except, for my sake, not liking “Emilia” at all ;)
A try from my side to create a Top 20 for this year’s NF:s.
1. Kush ta dha këtë emër
2. Meerstern, sei gegrüsst
3. Augnablik
4. Halo
5. Birds
6. En förlorad sommar
7. L’enfer et moi
8. Gravity
9. Ruža od baruta
10. Alcohol is free
11. Tomorrow
12. Meiecundimees üks Korsakov läks eile lätti
13. Rak bishvilo
14. Hon har inte
15. An me thimase
16. Emilia
17. We should be through
18. Üle vee
19. Ég a líf
20. Nackert
Btw, I checked your older BoNF:s. I may return to them but I must refresh my memory of the songs first. ;)
There are links in the pages, if you need a specific song I can send it to you ;)
My top 25-ish favourite songs of the 2013 NF season (not including winning songs)
1. Blitzkids mvt. – “Heart On The Line” (Unser Song für Malmö)
2. Ben Ivory – “The Righteous Ones” (Unser Song für Malmö)
3. Valerija Iljinaitė – “Taip noriu vėl” (“Eurovizijos” dainų konkurso nacionalinė atranka)
4. Mikael Saari – “We Should Be Through” (Uuden Musiikin Kilpailu)
5. Fjellfolk – “Ulvetuva” (Melodi Grand Prix)
6. Winny Puhh – “Meiecundimees üks Korsakov läks eile Lätti” (Eesti Laul)
7. Liisi Koikson & Söörömöö – “Üle vee” (Eesti Laul)
8. Gerai Gerai & Miss Sheep – “War In The Wardrobe” (“Eurovizijos” dainų konkurso nacionalinė atranka)
9. Tenfold Rabbit – “Balance Of Water And Stone” (Eesti Laul)
10. Neogeen – “Lune sournoise” (Eesti Laul)
11. Jay-Jay Johanson – “Paris” (Melodifestivalen)
12. Kőrsikud – “Suuda öelda ei” (Eesti Laul)
13. Facelift Deer – “Dance” (Eesti Laul)
14. Svavar Knútur Kristinsson & Ylva Hreíndis Holm – “Lífið snýst” (Söngvakeppnin)
15. Atlético Kumpula – “Paperilyhty” (Uuden Musiikin Kilpailu)
16. PeR – “Sad Trumpet” (Dziesma)
17. Carrousel – “J’avais rendez-vous” (Die grosse Entscheidungs Show)
18. Hersi Matmuja – “Kush ta dha këtë emër?” (Festival i Këngës)
19. Giedre Smolskaite – “Stay Awake Tonight” (“Eurovizijos” dainų konkurso nacionalinė atranka)
20. Nuteki – “Save Me” (Eurofest)
21. Odett – “Ne engedj el” (A Dal)
22. Mia Diekow – “Lieblingslied” (Unser Song für Malmö)
23. Elina Orkoneva – “He’s Not My Man” (Uuden Musiikin Kilpailu)
24. Armastus – “Young Girl” (Eesti Laul)
25. Sophie – “Make It Happen” (“Eurovizijos” dainų konkurso nacionalinė atranka)
Just missing out…
26. Flank – “Missing Light” (Eesti Laul)
27. Datarock – “The Underground” (Melodi Grand Prix)
28. Marie Vaigla – “Maybe” (Eesti Laul)
I love that Sophie just made the cut. I feel like she was really underrated. I like two of the “Eurovizijos” songs you posted more than her though, and the other one is in my top 5 of the competition.
In my opinion the entire 2013 Lithuanian NF is quite underrated. If they had abandoned the heats (which were full of chanceless filler songs) and just started with the semi-finals they would have had quite a strong competition indeed.
Which two songs did you like better than Sophie? Gerai Gerai and Giedrė?
And do you have an overall rankings list of 2013 NF songs? I would be interested to see :D…
Gerai Gerai and Valerija, although at the time of the national final, Sophie was my winner of the entire thing. It’s just that time has allowed the other two to grow on me more, while Sophie has remained stagnant in my mind.
Nah. Maybe I can make one in November, but I don’t have one at the moment, although I can tell you that we have the same number one, and my list includes more FiK songs.