BoNF 2014

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Best of National Finals 2014

2014′s edition is the tenth BoNF and therefore an occasion to celebrate the contest’s 10th anniversary! A logo featuring the 9 previous winners was made for the celebration. The contest is being held during the spring of 2014, between March 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 2013, 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; it was repeated in 2014, so a big thanks to Ivan, Niclas and Patrick!

2014 is the first time I write this before the contest is over. I can’t yet discuss results or patterns, but what striked me most was the huge number of low-key undertone and beautiful ballds this year: almost a third of the songs in the top 30 are part of that genre! Also, the contest is getting more and more countries in: Armenia, Azerbaijan and United-Kingdom are getting their first entry ever in my top 30 while the Netherlands and Moldova only their third. On the other hand, Italy’s internally chosen song makes it for the 4th time in a row. Estonia, Finland, Norway, Iceland and Germany confirm their excellencies while Sweden dropped back to “only” 3 in its worst MF edition in a long time. As usual, there were a few songs I hesitated with, so sorry for Miau (Finland), Bandits (Belgium), Hersi (Albania), Raquel (Portugal) or F.U.N.K. (Iceland) who were just outside my top 30. Last interesting trend in this year’s edition: 9 songs from the actual contest made it to the top 30! It’s the biggest number ever, proof that the NF season was a bit underwhelming but that we did in the end get a good contest after all. Of course, 6 out of 9 came from internal selections (Finland, Norway and Germany are the other three).

I continued to work harder on getting a good logo, personalized pics for the finalists and for the second time I will post all individual videos of the finalists on youtube. 37 countries will take part in the 2014 Eurovisiong Song Contest. 26 of them used some sort of national finals in which 341 songs  were performed, the lowest number ever since I started this in 2005. I wrote down a list of 80 songs I liked and then came up with these top 30:

Armenia | Aram Mp3 “Not alone”
Azerbaijan | Dilara Kazimova “Start a fire”
Estonia | MiaMee “Fearful heart”
Estonia | Sandra Nurmsalu “Kui tuuled pöörduvad”
Estonia | Super Hot Cosmos Blues Band “Maybe maybe”
Estonia | Traffic “Für Elise”
Finland | Hukka & Mama “Selja”
Finland | Softengine “Something better”
Finland | Mikko Pohjola “Sängyn reunalla”
Germany | Oceana “Thank you”
Germany | MarieMarie “Candy jar”
Germany | Elaiza “Is it right”
Germany | MarieMarie “Cotton candy hurricane”
Hungary | Bülbüls “Minden mosoly”
Iceland | Ásdís María Viðarsdótti “Amor”
Iceland | Guðrún Árný Karlsdóttir “Til þín”
Italy | Emma Marrone “La mia città”
Latvia | Dons “Pēdējā vēstule”
Latvia | Ralfs Eilands & Valters Pūce “Revelation”
Malta | De Bee “Pin the middle”
Moldova | Curly “Your recovery”
Montenegro | Sergej Ćetković “Moj svijet”
Netherlands | The Common Linnets “Calm after the storm”
Norway | Linnea Dale “High hopes”
Norway | Carl Espen “Silent storm”
Norway | Moi “Bensin”
Sweden | Little Great Things “Set yourself free”
Sweden | Eko “Red”
Sweden | Yohio “To the end”
United-Kingdom | Molly Smitten-Downes “Children of the universe”

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. You can also download all 30 songs on this page! For the sixth year, I saved the full results of the semifinal. And so we have from 30th to 16th:

30  United-Kingdom | “Children of the universe” Molly Smitten-Downes (23pts)
29  Montenegro | “Moj svijet” Sergej Ćetković (24pts)
28  Malta | “Pin the middle” De Bee (26pts)
27  Azerbaijan | “Start a fire” Dilara Kazimova (27pts)
26  Moldova | “Your recovery” Curly (28pts)
25  Finland | “Selja” Hukka & Mama (30pts)
24  Sweden | “Set yourself free” Little Great Things (32pts)
23  Norway | “High hopes” Linnea Dale (33pts)
22  Iceland | “Amor” Ásdís María Viðarsdóttir (34pts)
21 Estonia | “Fearful heart” MiaMee (35pts)
20  Norway | “Silent storm” Carl Espen (36pts)
19 Germany | “Thank you” Oceana (36pts)
18 Iceland | “Til þín” Guðrún Árný Karlsdóttir (37pts)
17  Hungary | “Minden mosoly” Bülbüls (38pts)
16  Estonia | “Maybe maybe” Super Hot Cosmos Blues Band (39pts)

Finalists scored: 39, 39, 39, 40, 40, 41, 42, 42, 44, 45, 47, 48, 50, 50, 50. Sadly, song 16th was voted out on number of 5pts (only 2, while songs 15th, 14th and 13th had 3, 4 and 5 respectively).

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. A quick analysis first: as usual in bonf, a lot of them are self penned which is good, females win this year (8 songs sung by a woman, 7 by a man), only 6 songs in original language though with 9 in english,  europop and electro win by a huge margin with a bit of rock and a tiny bit of folk; it was a heavy year for ballads but only four made it to the final. More importantly, Germany (3), Estonia (2), Latvia (2), Finland (2), Sweden (2), Norway (1), Italy (1): all these 7 countries took part last year and make up for 13 songs this year! However, Armenia and Netherlands make it to BoNF’s final for the first time ever!

Now, I used a computer “random playlist” to get the running order for the final. I uploaded them all individually on youtube, so you can just click on the song titles to watch each song (except the German ones, ARD has blocked them, sorry)! I also made a playlist featuring my vids and the ones from ARD so you can watch them all in a row: click here for it!

01 Italy - Emma Marrone - La mia città01
Italy
“La mia città”
Emma Marrone
(Emma Marrone)

02 Germany - MarieMarie - Candy jar02
Germany
“Candy jar”
MarieMarie
(Maria Scheiblhuber, Anya Weihe, Johannes Vogt, Maximilian Spindler & Alexander Rapp)

03 Finland - Mikko Pohjola - Sängyn reunalla03
Finland
“Sängyn reunalla”
Mikko Pohjola
(Mikko Pohjola)

04 Latvia - Dons - Pedeja vestule04
Latvia
“Pēdējā vēstule”
Dons
(Artūrs Šingirejs ; Ingus Bērziņš)

05 Germany - Elaiza - Is it right05
Germany
“Is it right”
Elaiza
(Elzbieta Steinmetz & Frank Kretschmer ; Elzbieta Steinmetz & Adam Kesselhaut)

06 Sweden - Eko - Red06
Sweden
“Red”
Eko
(Linnéa Deb, Joy Deb, Anna Lidman, Hannes Lundberg & Michael Ottosson)

07 Estonia - Sandra Nurmsalu - Kui tuuled pöörduvad07
Estonia
“Kui tuuled pöörduvad”
Sandra Nurmsalu
(Sven Lõhmus)

08 Armenia - Aram Mp3 - Not alone08
 Armenia
“Not alone”
Aram Mp3
(Aram Mp3 ; Garik Papoyan)

09 Netherlands - The Common Linnets - Calm after the storm09
Netherlands
“Calm after the storm”
The Common Linnets
(Ilse DeLange, JB Meijers, Rob Crosby, Matthew Crosby & Jake Etheridg)

10 Sweden - Yohio - To the end10
Sweden
“To the end”
Yohio
(Andreas Johnson, Johan Lyander, Peter Kvint & Yohio)

11 Norway - Moi - Bensin11
Norway
“Bensin”
Moi
(Ingjerd Østrem Omland)

12 Finland - Softengine - Something better12
Finland
“Something better”
Softengine
(Topi Latukka ; Henri Oskár & Topi Latukka)

13 Germany - MarieMarie - Cotton candy hurricane13
Germany
“Cotton candy hurricane”
MarieMarie
(Thies Mynther, Maria Scheiblhuber, Juri Kannheiser & Thomas Rainer Berthold)

14 Latvia - Ralfs Eilands & Valters Puce - Revelation14
Latvia
“Revelation”
Ralfs Eilands & Valters Pūce
(Ralfs Eilands, Valters Pūce & Ansis Grūbe ; Ralfs Eilands)

15 Estonia - Traffic - Für Elise15
Estonia
“Für Elise”
Traffic
(Stig Rästa ; Silver Laas)

Results

Vote 1 ; Vote 2 ; Vote 3 ; Vote 4 ; Vote 5 ; Vote 6 ; Vote 7 ; Vote 8 ; Vote 9 ; Vote 10

FULL RESULTS

80 thoughts on “BoNF 2014”

  1. So this is the top 30 for now guys. Which 15 would you want through?

    My personal rankings would go like this:
    1. “Bensin”
    2. “Candy jar”
    3. “Not alone”
    4. “Something better”
    5. “Revelation”
    6. “Calm after the storm”
    7. “Kui tuuled pöörduvad”
    8. “Red”
    9. “Silent storm”
    10. “To the end”
    11. “Is it right”
    12. “La mia città”
    13. “Für Elise”
    14. “Til þín”
    15. “Sängyn reunalla”

    PS: I doubt my friends will venture on ET (though they all know about it) and even less so on this page so it’s fine for us to post our own faves ;)

  2. My top 15:
    1. “Amor”
    2. “Cotton Candy Hurricane”
    3. “Red”
    4. “Selja”
    5. “Not Alone”
    6. “Maybe-Maybe”
    7. “Is It Right?”
    8. “Fearful Heart”
    9. “Your Recovery”
    10. “High Hopes”
    11. “Pin the Middle”
    12. “Revelation”
    13. “Candy Jar”
    14. “Moj Svijet”
    15. “Bensin”

    And, of course, I have to mention that my easy 30th is “Silent Storm.”

  3. 1. Start a fire
    2. Not alone
    3. Silent storm
    4. Til þín
    5. Pin the middle
    6. Calm after the storm
    7. Revelation
    8. Für Elise
    9. Amor
    10. Sängyn reunalla
    11. Fearful heart
    12. Maybe maybe
    13. Is it right
    14. Cotton candy hurricane
    15. Selja

    Mr. Ballad Lover has spoken, as you can see. ;)

  4. Oh god, I wasn’t ready for this! I barely finished a 41-song shortlist. :P This’ll almost certainly change, but here’s a preliminary top 15.

    1) “Shining Bright” (I don’t care that this wouldn’t have even made the shortlist if I was honest to my system, nothing else would feel right if this wasn’t on top.)
    2) “Pēdējā vēstule”
    3) “Fearful Heart”
    4) “När änglarna går hem”
    5) “Something Better”
    6) “Sangyn reunalla”
    7) “Tule ja jää”
    8) “Calm After the Storm”
    9) “Search”
    10) “En enkel sång”
    11) “Red”
    12) “Revelation”
    13) “Needs”
    14) “Songbird”
    15) “Solina”
    *16) “Kus on EXIT?”

    And my 30th is “Busy Doin’ Nothin’,” which is tied 11 other songs that have the same score as it, including the FiK version of “Zëmerimi i një nate,” “Coming Home,” “Bensin,” and “Cotton Candy Hurricane.”

  5. My top 15:

    1. Ralfs Eilands & Valters Pūce – Revelation
    2. Marie Marie – Cotton Candy Hurricane
    3. Guðrún Árný Karlsdóttir – Til þín
    4. De Bee – Pin the Middle
    5. Dons – Pēdējā vēstule
    6. MIAU – God/Drug
    7. Mia Mee – Fearful Heart
    8. Herciana Matmuja – Zemërimi i një nate
    9. Traffic – Für Elise
    10. Freaky Fortune feat. Riskykidd – Rise up
    11. Margarita & Metafora – Vis
    12. Wilhelm – Resignal
    13. Ásdís María Viðarsdóttir – Amor
    14. HoneyBeast – A legnagyobb hős
    15. BülBüls – Minden mosoly

    • 9 from your top 15 (including 7 from your top 10) made it in my top 30: and Miau and Hersi made it close, “Vis” was in my shortlist but I didnt think it lasted that long, especially live, I did like “Resignal” but not the lyrics so I didnt have it because of the live.

    • I’m glad you see it that way, I do try to make it a personal list (as Patrick said, I’m the host after all) but still trying to cover all goodies of the year as much as I could in 30 spots!

      Which internally chosen songs would have made your list? As you know, internal selection often delivers strong songs!

      • AZE
        NED
        ARM

        Common sense, I think. :)

        … and MNE if I have a day longing for the beautiful Balkans … and POL if I have a day when close ups of boobs do not bug me. LOL

  8. I actually agree a lot with this list, which is surprising considering how much we disagreed this season. However, I would have included Ace Wilder and excluded YOHIO.

    My top fifteen (including just NF songs)

    1. Iceland: Ásdís María Viðarsdóttir – “Amor”
    2. Latvia: Ralfs Eilands & Valters Pūce – “Revelation”
    3. Sweden: Ace Wilder – “Busy Doin’ Nothin”
    4. Germany: MarieMarie – “Candy Jar”
    5. Norway: Moi – “Bensin”
    6. Estonia: MiaMee – “Fearful Heart”
    7. Malta: De Bee – “Pin The Middle”
    8. Germany: MarieMarie – “Cotton Candy Hurricane”
    9. Sweden: EKO – “Red”
    10. Estonia: Wilhelm – “Resignal”
    11. Hungary: BülBüls – “Minden mosoly”
    12. Norway: Linnea Dale – “High Hopes”
    13. Estonia: State Of Zoe – “Solina”
    14. Estonia: Lenna – “Supernoova”
    15. Finland: MIAU – “God/Drug”

    Just missing out…

    Belgium: Day One – “Whoever You Are”
    Moldova: Curly – “Recovery”
    Norway: Martine Marbel – “Right Now”
    Ukraine: ILLARIA – “I’m Alive”

    • yes! another one for “Candy Jar” above “Cotton Candy Hurricane” (though both are top materials)… State of Zoe and Illaria also came close on my list! And Finally huge support for “Bensin” much appreciated!

      and glad that at the end of the season, we agreed on most ;)

  9. This is my top 15:

    1. Albania – Herciana Matmuja “Zemërimi i një nate”
    2. Estonia – Mia Mee “Fearful heart”
    3. Iceland – Guðrún Árný Karlsdóttir “Til þín”
    4. Latvia – Dons “Pedeja vestule”
    5. Azerbaijan – Dilara Kazimova “Start a fire”
    6. Netherlands – The Common Linnets “Calm after the storm”
    7. Moldova – Alina Sorochina “Ascultă-mă tăcere”
    8. Armenia – Aram MP3 “Not alone”
    9. Moldova – Margarita & Metafora “Vis”
    10. Norway – Moi “Bensin”
    11. Latvia – Ralfs Eilands feat. Valters Puce “Revelation”
    12. Hungary – Fool Moon “It can’t be over”
    13. Italy – Emma Marrone “La mia città”
    14. Germany – Marie Marie “Cotton candy hurricane”
    15. Finland – Hukka & Mama “Selja”

  12. We definately agree on Eko and LGT being the best two entrants that did not qualify and along with Sanna and Ace they are my winners of this MF edition :)

    As for my top 20 for this season I have already posted once and have it on my profile but here it is again (without entries that are going to participate in esc that is – only entries that did not make it to Copenhagen) :

    1. Latvia : Ralfs Eilands and Valters Pūce – “Revelation”
    2. Estonia : MiaMee – “Fearful Heart”
    3. Germany : MarieMarie – “Candy Jar”
    4. Hungary : Lilla Polyák – “Karcolás”
    5. Sweden : Ace Wilder – “Busy Doin Nothin”
    6. Sweden : Eko – “Red”
    7. Estonia : Maiken – “Siin Või Sealpool Maad”
    8. Norway : Moi – “Bensin”
    9. Sweden : Little Great Things – “Set Yourself Free”
    10. Hungary : New Level Empire – “The Last One”
    11. Denmark : Rebekka Thornbech – “Your Lies”
    12. Norway : Knut Kippersund Nesdal – “Taste Of You”
    13. Estonia : Lenna – “Supernoova”
    14. Spain : Brequette – “Más”
    15. Norway : Linnea Dale – “High Hopes”
    16. Ukraine : NeAngely – “Courageous”
    17. Sweden : Helena Paparizou – “Survivor”
    18. Iceland : Sigríður Eyrún Friðriksdóttir – “Lífið kviknar á ný”
    19. Finland : Jasmine Michaela – “Kertakäyttösydän”
    20. Finland : MIAU – “God/Drug”

    Special mentions to : Jessika – Hypnotica, Traffic – Für Elise, Zana – Nas Asas Da Sorte

      • I counted 7 in common from my top 20, 8 if you include Traffic. But yeah I failed to graduate lol ! But we do agree on my top 3, meaning you included them as well. And it’s a 5/10 for my top 10 ;)

        Some things may change with time though. For example at this time last year when I had my top 15 for the national finals finished, Greta Paia was 6th but I can’t stop even to this day listenining to her entry and its the only NF entry from last year that I hear that much still..

  15. This is how I rank the 15 finalists:

    01 – Latvia – Dons – Pedeja vestule
    02 – Netherlands – The Common Linnets – Calm after the storm
    03 – Armenia – Aram Mp3 – Not alone
    04 – Norway – Moi – Bensin
    05 – Latvia – Ralfs Eilands & Valters Puce – Revelation
    06 – Italy – Emma Marrone – La mia città
    07 – Germany – MarieMarie – Cotton candy hurricane
    08 – Finland – Mikko Pohjola – Sängyn reunalla
    09 – Finland – Softengine – Something better
    10 – Estonia – Traffic – Für Elise
    11 – Sweden – Eko – Red
    12 – Estonia – Sandra Nurmsalu – Kui tuuled pöörduvad
    13 – Germany – MarieMarie – Candy jar
    14 – Germany – Elaiza – Is it right
    15 – Sweden – Yohio – To the end

  16. Yohio in and De Bee out? I don’t want to meet your friends … ;)

    01 – Latvia – Ralfs Eilands & Valters Puce – Revelation
    02 – Germany – MarieMarie – Cotton candy hurricane
    03 – Estonia – Traffic – Für Elise
    04 – Netherlands – The Common Linnets – Calm after the storm
    05 – Norway – Moi – Bensin
    06 – Latvia – Dons – Pedeja vestule
    07 – Armenia – Aram Mp3 – Not alone
    08 – Finland – Mikko Pohjola – Sängyn reunalla
    09 – Germany – MarieMarie – Candy jar
    10 – Germany – Elaiza – Is it right
    11 – Sweden – Eko – Red
    12 – Finland – Softengine – Something better
    13 – Estonia – Sandra Nurmsalu – Kui tuuled pöörduvad
    14 – Italy – Emma Marrone – La mia città
    15 – Sweden – Yohio – To the end

    • Yup. Candy jar was 6th in semi. And then no one voted for it. No one. Not even one person voting for Candy jar and ignoring Cotton candy hurricane. So I’m glad it’s a great winner but… I guess that’s punishing me for keeping both MarieMarie in lol

  19. I would have ranked the finalists as follows

    01 – Germany – MarieMarie – Cotton Candy Hurricane
    02 – Latvia – Ralfs Eilands & Valters Puce – Revelation
    03 – Norway – Moi – Bensin
    04 – Armenia – Aram Mp3 – Not Alone
    05 – Finland – Mikko Pohjola – Sängyn reunalla
    06 – Sweden – Eko – Red
    07 – Latvia – Dons – Pedeja Vestule
    08 – Netherlands – The Common Linnets – Calm After The Storm
    09 – Finland – Softengine – Something better
    10 – Germany – Elaiza – Is It Right?
    11 – Germany – MarieMarie – Candy Jar… see what I did there ;)
    12 – Estonia – Traffic – Für Elise
    13 – Estonia – Sandra Nurmsalu – Kui tuuled pöörduvad
    14 – Italy – Emma Marrone – La mia città
    15 – Sweden – Yohio – To the end

    So as you can see, I found Softengine, Sandra and YOHIO a little overrated in your poll, and thought EKO, Elaiza and Mikko Pohjola should have done a bit better. I agree with your winner either way :)

  20. My (rough) ranking of the 15 finalists.

    1) Latvia: “Pējdējā vēstule” – Dons
    2) Finland: “Something Better” – Softengine
    3) Sweden: “Red” – EKO
    4) The Netherlands: “Calm After the Storm” – The Common Linnets
    5) Latvia: “Revelation” – Ralfs Eilands & Valters Pūce
    6) Estonia: “Für Elise” – Traffic
    7) Finland: “Sängyn reunalla” – Mikko Pohjola
    8) Norway: “Bensin” – Moi
    9) Germany: “Cotton Candy Hurricane” – MarieMarie
    10) Germany: “Is It Right?” – Elaiza
    11) Estonia: “Kui tuuled pöörduvad” – Sandra Nurmsalu
    12) Germany: “Candy Jar” – MarieMarie
    13) Sweden: “To the End” – YOHIO
    14) Italy: “La mia città” – Emma Marrone
    …
    15) Armenia: “Not Alone” – Aram MP3

    Two of the same top five is fine with me, but I wish that Dons and EKO had done better and that Softengine (the most realistic alternative) could’ve won, obviously. This also isn’t similar to my personal top 15 in any way, shape, or form (“Not Alone” 15th for the year? LOL), but it’s pretty agreeable.

  21. It’s a pity that “Cotton Candy Hurricane” stole all the credit from “Candy Jar” which is far superior IMO but at least “Revelation” was 3rd among your friends :)

  22. Fascinating how “Cotton candy hurricane” and “Candy jar” could end up so different. Me personally think they’re very close to each other and I have them both in almost the same place. Pity that Traffic and The Common Linnets didn’t score higher.

    And it’s pretty clear that jury member no. 2 is the one closest to my own taste. :)

    • Well at least I know who to introduce you to when you come visit to Paris ;)

      As I said to Patrick, I think my friends voted tactical on MarieMarie: they did have “Candy jar” 6th and “Cotton candy hurricane” 1st in semifinal. But they felt like putting their eggs in one basket was better for MarieMarie. Big battle in the other spots for top 5: hope you dont disagree too much. You had the top 3 correct in your predictions :o

      But a female finally won it again! Germany twice in a row and joins Bosnia and Estonia as a double BoNF winner!

      • “Well at least I know who to introduce you to when you come visit to Paris”

        Exciting! “Avec le temps et la paille, les nèfles mûrissent”. :)

        I’m not disappointed since I really liked every finalist this year (unlike last year f.e. when we had that pretentious Tom Hugo). It was indeed great to see a female winner this year. I was so sure that Softengine would win. :P

        • I ADORE Softengine they would have made a fine winner. I like “Something better” more than “Coton candy hurricane” but I do like “Candy jar” better than both. Alas, “Bensin” is my personal favorite!

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