As beginnings go, the Czech Republic's Eurovision debut in 2007 could not have been less auspicious. Though coming away with something on the scoreboard (and thus outdoing Lithuania, who ended last with no points on their first outing in 1994), they achieved the feat of garnering just a single point from 41 countries for the rather maladroit Malá Dáma and with it possibly the only 28th place that will ever be seen in the contest. Unperturbed, the country announced its intentions to make a comeback in Belgrade, promising that they had taken their experience in Helsinki on board and would be aiming for something more Eurovision-friendly as their second entry. No more long-haired men in tight jeans shouting in an obscure language. It would be pop, pop, pop all the way.Unfortunately, Have Some Fun is the very essence of pop only if the genre is defined for you by 1987 and the likes of Sabrina and Samantha Fox. Milas Poli, the Cypriot entry in 1991, may be the closest we ever got to a Stock, Aitken and Waterman production in Eurovision, but the Czech entry in 2008 deserves special mention for sounding like it was recorded using the Calrec soundfield microphone that made the voices of so many PWL singers tolerably listenable. You only need to hear about a minute of this song to realise that Tereza Kerndlová couldn't sing her way out of a paper bag. She has other assets some viewers may appreciate, but one of the most obviously inadequate voices to reach the contest in years. I am prepared for three of the most cringe-inducing minutes we have seen in a long time when she is unleased, untweaked, on the European public.
Just as it is hard to maintain a bit of balance when you like a song, it is equally difficult when you struggle to find any redeeming features. I was fully convinced that my MP3 of Have Some Fun had something wrong with it until I heard the CD version from the official album, when I realised that it is the music itself that is so awkward. Now, I'm all for a minimalist composition, but not when the elements are so disparate and slapped together. The only time the arrangement starts to make sense is in the last two bars of the chorus and in the bridge, but the grating, omnipresent strings and the newly introduced balalaika (surely the least consistent and successful addition to any song this year) swallow everything before them. It doesn't help that the whole thing seems as though it's being powered by a hamster in a wheel, resulting in a very uneven sound.
The Czechs will be hoping for a better result with Have Some Fun than they achieved on their first try, but I'm not sure they're going to get it. Their debut may have been hard to like, but at least it wasn't bland, and this is both. I remarked in my review of Nomads In The Night that I wouldn't be surprised to see Lithuania coming last in the second semi-final, but if they are to be spared that ignominy I can only see it being at the expense of the Czech Republic.
3 comments:
There must be something really wrong with the version that has been submitted because the original 3.30ish version on her album and in the promo video sounds perfectly fine. I don't know how the hell they've managed to mess it up so much.
I agree she's a weak singer (but not as cringe worthily awful as Mr Lithuania IMO) but I have a soft spot for the song. It probably will come very near the bottom though.
Mr Lithuania is actually a decent singer. He's never out of tune in Nomads In The Night: it's just a very awkward arrangement that makes him sound like he is. Here though it is obvious even in the studio recording that Tereza's vocal prowess is very limited.
One of the few songs this year that's plummeted in my estimation after repeated listens. At first I was quite pleased to see a slice of uncomplicated radio pop make it through to the contest proper. And I was rather taken with its carefree equation of "true love = having some fun" as an antidote to the bleak blue-lipped Serbian take on matters of the heart. But as time has gone on, it's clunkiness has started to wear me down and I find myself getting impatient for it to end when I hear it nowadays. I actually think the balalaika is quite dinky but I agree it sounds like it's been selotaped in. The whole thing sounds so incredibly processed that it's hard to picture human beings actually performing it. Tereza seems like a lovely lady, but not so lovely that you'd vote for her regardless.
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