Bulgaria

DJ, Take Me Away Deep Zone & Balthazar

In its more than 50 years of history the Eurovision stage has been graced with an almost endless variety of musical styles and performances, but is regularly cited for failing to reflect what is really going on in the world of music. Never was this more the case than in the 1990s: though an era that produced some of the contest's finest entries, few of them had anything to do with contemporary music. There were exceptions of course - such as Gina G's Ooh Aah... Just A Little Bit for the UK in 1996 - but by and large it was a decade which, for the contest at least, never existed. Ten years later, one of the countries reaping the benefit is Bulgaria: its 2008 entry may sound very nineties, but in a contest where that sound never had the opportunity to be heard at the time it still manages to come across as refreshing and different.

Perhaps ironically then, the song that the instrumental nature and lyrical brevity of DJ, Take Me Away are most reminiscent of is mid-'90s Norwegian winner Nocturne. At just four lines repeated ad infinitum it is no wordsmith's masterpiece, but neither is it meant to be. As with its unlikely stablemate, the words are just there to add a bit of texture to the music, which is the focus of the entire three minutes. Its changes of pace are cleverly effected and only occasionally signposted, meaning that the audience are likely to be kept guessing as to what comes next. This could have backfired on Deep Zone & Balthazar; the minds of the televoters could easily wander, even in the short space of time they will get to say what they have to, but there is a relentless and very appropriate drive to the composition that should keep those watching and listening interested. This produces one of the most effective and immediate openings of any of the songs in this year's contest.

Where DJ, Take Me Away may come unstuck, if not in its musical minimalism, is in the performance itself. Limited lyrics or not, there is plenty of scope for the vocals to be dodgy, and should any or all of Deep Zone & Balthazar get a bit overexcited and litter the song with wooing and blathering as they did during the winner's reprise at the Bulgarian national final, failing to realise that the lack of human intervention is the song's strength, they may do themselves out of a qualification spot. On the other hand, if they come across convincingly, having toned down some of the more obviously dated visual references without making the whole thing sterile, they should find themselves well-placed to have a kind of Romania 2006 effect. Especially if they're also given some well-judged staging, lighting and camerawork.

Having only made the final once it is difficult to judge whether Bulgaria has been disadvantaged by the draw, although they will be buoyed by the fact that countries like Cyprus and FYR Macedonia - which showed solid support not only for Water in 2007 but also for their non-qualifying entries in 2005 and 2006 - are also present in the second semi-final. They have also done well to be drawn between the Latvian and Croatian entries on one side and virtually all of the remaining entries on the other, most of which are dated in their own way and from which it stands out a mile. It might be the '90s ten years too late at Eurovision, but I nevertheless suspect that DJ, Take Me Away will sound modern enough to most televoters to see it through to the final.