Estonia 2011 - Meister & Mari - Unemati

You can always rely on the Estonians to fill their final with a huge bundle of strange and curious songs. They're always a mix of etherial weirdness, unexpectly chunky guitar pop and bonkers electronica, but the one that's burrowing into our consciousness like some virulent worm is the insistant Unemati by a slightly unsettling mob called Meister & Mari.

It all starts like some innocent late sixties children's TV theme, but the more they repeat the song's title over and over again in the chorus soon gets under your skin, and you begin to feel like you're trapped in a small  box with them, and the walls are closing in. And that was before you see the video. Altogether now: Unemati Unemati Unemati Unemati Unemati Unemati Unemati



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Latvia 2010 - PeR - Quiet Like A Mouse

The sad news was announced earlier this week of the passing of the Latvian pop singer and songwriter Martins Freimanis. He died of complications of influenza at the criminally early age of 33. He left behind a legacy of great pop music - most notably as one third of F.L.Y, whose song Hello From Mars was the home entry in the 2003 contest in Riga.

His interest in the contest never wained. He also wrote Latvia's entry in Kiev in 2005, The War Is Not Over by Walters and Kazha, which bagged an unexpected and popular fifth spot, and has a song in this year's contest, the until-now unfancied Hop, performed by the band Blitze. But our favourite of his tunes here at Eurovision Apocalypse was his 2010 stab at qualification, the delightfully creepy teen-stalker human beatbox anthem Quiet Like A Mouse, which you can watch below. He was a lovely, unassuming chap, and he will be sadly missed.



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Iceland 2011 - Matthías Matthíasson & Erla Björg Káradóttir - Eldgos

The 2011 Eurovision Song Contest took a while to get going, but it kicked off with a vengeance in its second semi-final when a chap looking like a chunky Adam Lambert in an overtight top belted his way through this little treat. The 40-second segment from around 1:16 is so intense that it'll make your brain  explode!

To my great surprise it managed to get to the final - although it's up against a darling of the local pop world and a bloke that died last week, so I'd be amazed if it made it to Dusseldorf. So enjoy it's shouty splendor right here!




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