SOUNDTRACK: SAMANTHA TINA-“The Moon is Rising” (Latvia, Eurovision Entry 2021).
Eurovision 2021 has come and gone and of course I’ve got questions.
Even though I enjoy checking out Eurovision entries, I know very little about the Eurovision process. I didn’t even know that there were countries that didn’t qualify for the final round.
So here is the entry from Latvia. It scored the least amount of points of anyone and sits at the bottom of the list.
I’m not sure what could have happened to Samantha Tina to make her come in last place in this contest. “The Moon is Rising: feels like pretty standard Eurovision fare. True there’s not a lot to it, but I feel like the aggressive female empowerment of these lyrics should have won over lot of people over. Or is that what killed her?
The song opens with some pulsing sounds then Samantha sings in a big powerful anthemic voice. It’s a soaring operatic opening. She kind of raps, but in a singing sort of way.
When I walk in like this
With an attitude
You should know that
I’m coming after you
You can run, you can hide
But you’re mesmerized
In your mind I am
Already idolized
A thumping bass introduces the next verse
My rules, your rules
I’m a woman, I’m a ruler
My rules, your rules
I’m accepting only true love
My rules, your rules
I’m a woman, I’m a ruler
You got something to say
Say it to my face
Then the third part with deep bass y synths and a chanted chorus of
Pa-ra-ra
Pa-ra-ra
Pa-ra-ra-pa
Pa-ra-ra-pa pa-rade
Which is certainly odd.
The song repeats these three parts, which might have been a problem if there’s no clear verse chorus verse structure. I don’t know. I thought the video was pretty cool.
Someone in the comments on YouTube (I know never read the comments, but this one is worthwhile):
“The vocal performance in the semi didn’t go just very well and it somehow lacked a little attitude.” So that could explain why it stalled.
[READ: May 10, 2021] “Turbulence”
This is an essay about being on a flight and not getting along with your seat mate.
He opens with the amusing scenario of him sneezing a cough drop out of his mouth and onto the lap of the person next to him.
He has three choices:
- Ignore it, let her look down later and think she has a shiny new button on her jeans.
- Reach over and pluck it from her pants.
- Wake her up and be honest. Which is what he’d normally do except that they had an earlier altercation.
He had assumed that he’d like this woman–she seemed nice enough. But it turns out she was married to the man in the seat in front of them–the bulkhead seat. She asked if he would mind switching.
Now who wouldn’t LOVE the bulkhead seat? All that leg room? Nobody else around you?
But well, David is David and he hates the bulkhead seat.
when I’m on a plane or in a movie theater I like to slouch down as low as I can and rest my knees on the seat back in front of me. In the bulkhead there is no seat in front of you, just a wall a good three feet away and I never know what to do with my legs.
But when he tried to explain it, she got mad at him (probably justifiably). When her husband asked what happened she loudly said “Cause he’s an asshole, that’s why.”
The essay jumps to the New York Times Crossword Puzzle, which he likes to do to seem smart.
I’ll spend fourteen hours finishing the Friday and then I’ll wave it around someone’s face and demand that they acknowledge my superior intelligence. I think it means I’m smarter than the next guy, but all it really means is that I don’t have a life.
So he starts rage-solving:
Seventeen across: A fifteen letter word for enlightenment: I am not an asshole.
Five down: Six letter Indian tribe: You are.
Forty across: I give money to p…
Forty six down: …ublic radio.
After the sneeze he considered swapping places after all. But her husband was asleep too.
So he just had to wait it out and hope to get off the plane before she woke up.
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