Eurovision 2012 - Azerbaijan: Sabina Babayeva - When the Music Dies

Well, 2 songs, 2 ballads, although Miss Sabina Babayeva’s efforts are a little more flamboyant than Mr Humperdinck.

The song starts with a mood setting but perhaps a little generic piano intro. Like Love Will Set You Free, When the Music Dies relies largely on the strength of it’s singer and Babeyeva certainly has a set of pipes on her, her tone really is gorgeous, very soulful vocal work throughout, particularly during the songs climax.

 Lyrically the song isn’t terrible but it’s nothing particularly particularly brilliant either, they’re the kind of lyrics that you would expect to hear about 5 different variations of during any given chart music top 10 countdown, talking about love or relationships or love or... romance or... love or... sorry, getting topic.

 The song ends on a peculiar note, Sabina rushing the last lyric, almost as if she’d noticed that she was running out of time at the studio. Whatever the case may be, it’s a little abrupt and ends up being a little jarring.

Ultimately When the Music Dies is a good but ultimately bland entrant, there’s nothing here particularly unique, the melodies and lyrics are all fairly generic, Sabina’s vocal work being the only thing that stands out. Still, the host nation have a song that they need feel no shame over, it certainly isn’t bad by any stretch of the imagination, but after the success of last years “Running Scared”, some may feel When the Music Dies to be a bit of a let down.

Miss Moneypenny, Eurovision

Well, we’re one month away from the Eurovision song contest, so I thought I’d use that as an excuse to listen to some music and then tell the internet what I thought of it. I’ll be going through all the entrants in more detail nearer the time, but for now I’d like to focus on the six countries already confirmed to be competing: France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Great Britain, and of course the hosts, Azerbaijan. Let us eschew all forms of cultural and national bias and begin with my home country, Great Britain, being represented by Engelbert Humperdinck.

Engelbert Humperdinck - Love Will Set You Free

I confess, I had never heard of Mr. dinck before, so you can imagine my anxiety upon hearing the news that after the humiliation of last year’s teeth-pullingly bad entrant “I Can”, Britain would be represented by a man who’s last name is shared by a prince in “The Princess Bride”. My mixed feelings were completely washed away upon hearing what is, in my humble opinion, the best Eurovision entrant Britain has had in many a year. The song opens with some smooth, lonely guitar chords, perhaps partially influenced by Spanish flamenco, before Humperdinck comes in with some incredibly velvety crooning, showing no trace of his borderline 76 years. It’s a very welcome pegging back of the usually over-the-top production that Eurovision has become known for in recent years, there’s little else but Humperdinck and a guitar, and that’s all the song needed. Humperdinck’s… experience, shall we put it politely, ultimately works to his advantage, because when he’s singing what are simplistic but effective lyrics, he actually has the air of someone who really has been through what he’s singing about, unlike the vast majority of pop “sensation” 20 year olds singing about love as though they have any idea what it is, (Disclaimer: I’m 19, I just hate my generation) Humperdinck is actually (incidentally I’m also not gay) believable when he sings about missing the woman who is the subject of the song forever. The song finishes with a beautiful high note that I hope for Britain’s sake Humperdinck is able to pull off live on the night, but in terms of the song, it’s a great finish to this quiet, brilliant ballad. If I had to levy one criticism at it, I would say that, while the lyrics do work, they are occasionally a little too simplistic, particularly a chorus totally void of rhyme which undoes some perfectly solid and occasionally pretty good verses. But ultimately, the lyrics aren’t much of an issue, the certainly never stopped me singing along, and they aren’t going to stop Humperdinck from having one of the best songs of the show, in spite of how the politically skewed voting goes.

Tomorrow, we’ll be taking a look at the hosts and defending champions, Azerbaijan.

The Role Motive Plays in Ethics

I’d like to present a thought on morality, I don’t for a moment claim that it’s original to me, but it did occur to me one night about a week ago, and it’s the role of motive when making moral judgements. I think motivation is the most important ingredient when it comes to judging whether an action is moral or immoral, much more important than even the act its self. Let me provide a quick example. If someone stabs someone with a knife in cold blood out on the street, there are very few people I know who would class that act as anything other than immoral. However, if someone were to break into your house, and you grabbed a knife to protect yourself and your family, and you killed the intruder, perhaps the issue is a little more grey, but I would class that as a moral action, you have defended yourself and your family from someone who themselves was committing a crime in the first place. Notice that in both these situations, the action is exactly the same, namely, person a has stabbed person b with a knife. What’s the difference? The motive. The motive in these cases is everything. This is why adhering to a strict, unalterable moral code will never provide an adequate path to acceptable ethics. Morality must be flexible for it to be worth anything, it must be contingent on the circumstances and the people involved in any given scenario.

I’ve been extremely busy with irl stuff, work mainly, but I will return to morality in due time, I’ll flesh this thought out a little more and talk about some other things over the next week or so. Just thought I’d share this with you as some food for thought.