Norway by Isaak, Belarus by Natalia

I've had a map of Norway in my 'drawing Europe's countries' project for a few years. But I'm not quite sure that it's Norway (it could be an upside down Finland...). This is it:

So, in Norway, I decided to ask someone to draw another map. Isak - who works in a theatre - drew a map of Norway - very accurately - pointing out Tromso, Kirkenes and Oslo, the place where all the money is.

Recently, out of the blue, through the postcrossing site, I received a postcard from Natalia in Minsk on which she'd drawn a map of Belarus.

This was fantastic. I'm not sure whether I'd ever meet someone from Belarus so I'm very pleased that Natalia sent me her map, which shows Belarus' biggest cities and towns.

Ace Songs for Europe #3

Drama! There's a male singer with a potential Eurovision hit. A solo male singer hasn't won Eurovision since 1990. That puts any idea of Morrissey performing into some perspective. That said, 3 of the last year's Eurovision top 5 acts were solo male performers (Dima, Hari, Mihai) so the time is now for a male winner.

Dmitry Koldun has been chosen by Belarus as their performer. Mr Dmitry is a former gymnast and apparently has entered a "chemical faculty" of Belarussian State University. According to one site, he has a big talent. Nice. It would seem Dmitry (Dima to his friends) came from some reality tv show, and has since either dyed his hair brown or stopped dying it blonde. Well done him. He won the semi-final held in Belarus with another song, realised it was a bit rubbish, dumped it and now goes to Helsinki with this stomper Work Your Magik. The song title is a word play on Dmitry's surname with koldun meaning magician. It's all very clever, isn't it?

The song is ace. It's quite dramatic, and while not 100% ace pop, it's definitely got what we're looking for:

• Dramatic stringy synthy opening. Very Bond tune-esque. I can imagine lady dancers in sparkly silhouette.


• Spies! Belarus! Russia! USSR! Genius.


• Opening phrase: Welcome to the Night. Always a pleasure.


• Lyrics that could be about love, food or dirty sex or all of the above.


• Wonderful rousing chorus reached in 40 seconds. It's really 2 choruses in 1. High potential for strong arm waving and shaking, and dramatic body flailing / dancing.


• I am able and I'm willing. Yes I'm willing - Oh, yes?!


• When you cast your loving potion over me - Oh yes?!


• skin-to-skin lyric updates Dima Bilan's flesh of my flesh, bone of my bone lyric with a much more pleasant image


• Good potential for a glitter throwing moment (it's a loving potion!) or other such stage dramatics before the middle 8.


• Key change!


• High note and a bell to finish.

Ace.

Download Dmitry Koldun - Work Your Magik mp3