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Composers Discussion Thread

Loindici

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Not for specific reasons, just shitpost anything you want about Eurovision songwriters and producers. Maybe you want to talk about new composing talents. Maybe you want to talk about returning composers like Symphonix, Darko Dimitrov and Friends, or Laurell Barker. Just put anything about them here.

xwelcome
 

Daybreak

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I'm always surprised how little ESC fans pay attention to who wrote the songs. It's a common thing with pop music in general of course - I joked already in the mid-2000's that, for example, lots of Britney Spears fans wouldn't probably have any idea who Max Martin and Rami Yacoub are - but still. In Eurovision, their names are even displayed right next to the song title :lol: The exception seems to be when songwriters become recurring participants like Sven Lõhmus and Stig Rästa from Estonia or that Ralf Siegel guy.

Anyway, if anyone's interested the Eesti Laul composers from next year who have already taken part in Eurovision are Timo Vendt, Mihkel Mattisen & Tanja (2014, the first two also 2018) with Little Mess, the Rästa/Krieger/Kikas team (2015/2016/2019) who wrote the Traffic song with Victor Crone, and Jana Hallas, who co-wrote the 2 Quick Start-produced songs in 2000, 2002 & 2006 and the Merilin Mälk song this year.
 

Leydan

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I really couldn't care about composers, if the song is great then that is what matters. Variety doesn't equal to quality, and in fact purposely not allowing some for the sake of variety seems stupid. I guess in some cases it can be a bit annoying, such as Azerbaijan yet again importing from Sweden, but really it's not a big deal. If a song is strong enough it will shine through regardless.
 

Loindici

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At the first moment I joined the fandom I despised returning composers. Maybe I'm kinda peeved seeing the same composers representing multiple countries. But overtime I though their music was amazing and they're fucking motivated to be in the contest, so it opened my mind to accept their works (even for Azerbaijan).
 

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I dont get the Hate against Kontoupoulos, Kirkorov, Symphonix etc.. among ESC-Fandom.
 

Mainshow

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I dont get the Hate against Kontoupoulos, Kirkorov, Symphonix etc.. among ESC-Fandom.

I totally get it and I usually hate Kontoupoulos and Kirkorov productions as well: They are usually poorly written, the epitome of cheese and whilst the contest has evolved, these producers seem to be stuck in the 2000's. These songs sound like rejects from those Eurovision years. Sometimes, I even feel ashamed of them submitting songs like "This Is Love" or "Scream" or that horrible Moldova entry 2018. Also, asking them to write an entry always means that the artist won't be authentic in Eurovision = showcases his own style.

Symphonix, on the other hand, sound very contemporary and well-produced. Also, they kinda worked with newcomers lately and thus, I don't get the "Sergy/Demy" feeling (when well-established artist have to fundamentally change their current style/sound to adopt these dated (already written?) entries.
 

Daybreak

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Kontopoulos is a good example how it's useful to be aware of the composers. When I first saw and heard "You Are The Only One" in 2016, well people were already calling it dated and all that which I agreed with, but the specific thing the song and its performance reminded me of was the similarly over the top, clearly engineered-to-win-the-contest Sakis Rouvas entry "This Is Our Night" from 2009 (which even received some similar backlash). Of course, later on I found out that Kontopoulos had actually co-written both songs and I think even the staging was done by the same people, so obviously it wasn't surprising at all.
 

Sammy

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I'm always surprised how little ESC fans pay attention to who wrote the songs.

Especially considering that the ESC initially was in fact a composers contest only. I don‘t remember exactly when it changed, but I think at least up to the 80s, it was the composer(s) only who was/were given the throphy on stage. At some point they started to give a second trophy to the singer and finally the composer(s) vanished from the stage.
 

Daybreak

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i think in Estonia the composers get more publicity than usual, at least partly because the music industry is so small. I remember when I was a kid and didn't especially pay attention to who wrote our ESC entries, but I still knew all of them because they were brought up in the media. And of course, many of them participate regularly. You can literally count the songs not written by one of the recurring composers/teams (aside from the ones I already mentioned, there's Sven Lõhmus, Priit Pajusaar/Glen Pilvre and Ivar Must) on one hand!

*for those curious, these would be "Mere lapsed" from 1998 (one of its writers, Tomi Rahula is the Eesti Laul producer now), the two more alternative rock-y entries (Ruffus and Malcolm Lincoln), "Partners In Crime" from 2007 (Hendrik Sal-Saller is actually a very prolific songwriter and his band Smilers is one of the most successful in Estonia, he just hasn't done much Eurovision-related I guess) and "Kuula" from 2012 (although Aapo Ilves actually wrote the lyrics for the 2004 entry "Tii", so it shouldn't really count either).
 
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I'm always surprised how little ESC fans pay attention to who wrote the songs.

There's only been one Contest that included the songwriters and composers in the postcards; the attention has otherwise always, similar to other music festivals (Sanremo, FiK, etc) been on the performer and the conductor, at least, until the mid 90's.

Even then, not everyone will remember every songwriter and composer from 40+ countries in a span of multiple decades. If anything, that's a reason to watch the selection season, so that you start becoming familiar with these names, especially to compare previous entries they've done in terms of quality.
 

Neo

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Good thread.

I don't get how it's sport to hate on some composers. Like 'it's now a xxxx xxxx song so I'm gonna hate it'. Slightly bizarre.

What I would like to see is a rule that a certain percentage of composers be nationals.

Also that composers get a bit more recognition.
 

Loindici

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'it's now a xxxx xxxx song so I'm gonna hate it'

Exactly. One of the cases this year would be Laurell Barker with two songs on NMGP's Southern semifinal. On W, some have panned her ability to songwrite. While we know that between three of her works in Tel Aviv only one made it to an immense sucess, I don't think she has a bad skill at all.
 

Loindici

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LIST OF COMPOSERS AS OF 1 MAR 2020

🇦🇱 Darko Dimitrov, Lazar Cvetkovski, Lindon Berisha
🇦🇲 Athena Manoukian, DJ Paco
🇦🇺 Jessica Cerro, Anthony Egizii, David Musumeci
🇦🇹
🇦🇿
🇧🇾 Vladzislav Paškievič, Valeria Gribusova, Mikita Najdzionov
🇧🇪 Alex Callier, Luca Chiaravalli
🇧🇬
🇭🇷 Bojan Šalamon, Matija Rodić, Ante Pecotić
🇨🇿 Osama Verse-Atile, Ben Cristóvão, Charles Sarpong, Rudy Ray
🇨🇾
🇩🇰
🇪🇪 Uku Suviste, Sharon Vaughn
🇫🇮
🇫🇷 Thomas G:son, Peter Boström, John Lundvik, Amir Haddad, Tom Leeb, Léa Ivanne
🇩🇪 Borislav Milanov, Peter St. James, Dag Lundberg, Jimmy Thorén, Connor Martin
🇬🇪 Tornike Kipiani, Aleko Berdzenishvili
🇬🇷 Dimitris Kontopoulos, Sharon Vaughn, Pavlos Manolis, Anastasios Rammos, Diverno, Gabriel Russell
🇮🇸 Daði Freyr Pétursson
🇮🇪
🇮🇹 Antonio Diodato, Edwyn Roberts
🇮🇱
🇱🇻 Samanta Polakova (Tina), Aminata Savadogo
🇱🇹 Vaidotas Valiukevičius, Robertas Baranauskas, Mantas Banišauskas
🇲🇹
🇲🇰 Nevena Neskovska, Kalina Neskovska, Alice Shrader
🇲🇩 Dimitris Kontopoulos, Philipp Kirkorov, Sharon Vaughn
🇳🇱
🇳🇴 Christian Ingebrigtsen, Kjetil Mørland, Ulrikke Brandstorp
🇵🇱 Patryk Kumór, Dominic Buczkowski-Wojtaszek, Laurell Barker, Frazer Mac
🇵🇹
🇷🇴 Ionuț Armaș, Viky Red, Breyan Isaac
🇷🇺
🇸🇲
🇷🇸 Nemanja Antonić, Kosana Stojić, Sanja Vučić
🇸🇮 Ana Soklič, Bojan Simončič
🇸🇪
🇪🇦 Blas Cantó, Dan Hammond, Ashley Hicklin, Dangelo Ortega, Mikolaj Trybulec
🇨🇭
🇺🇦 Taras Shevchenko, Kateryna Pavlenko
🇬🇧 James Newman, Ed Drewett, Adam Argyle, Iain James
 
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Loindici

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Can't believe we'll get three (or possibly four) Kontopoulos/Kirkorovs this year (🇬🇷 🇪🇪 🇲🇩 and possibly 🇷🇺 )
 

Alaska49

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Can't believe we'll get three (or possibly four) Kontopoulos/Kirkorovs this year (🇬🇷 🇪🇪 🇲🇩 and possibly 🇷🇺 )
this is not a kontopoulos/kirkorov year for russia. kirkorov has only worked with russia-1, and this is a channel one year. not that THAT's much consolation, channel one has mostly sucked lately lol. polina saved her song live, but julia sucked, dina sucked, alex sparrow sucked, etc.
 

Loindici

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It still blows my mind that :de: sends a :sl: singer with a :bg: song. It's as if there's nothing good left in Germany to offer.
 

Realest

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Hopefully we give Milanov a 5 Year Contract.
 

Loindici

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Realest

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