This month, European Vibe Magazine’s art director and biggest football fanatic Phily McIvor brings us his all-time top ten football-related songs.
10 - Glenn & Chris - Diamond Lights – 1987
9 - Tottenham Hotspur - Ossie’s Dream (Spurs Are On Their Way To Wembley) - FA Cup Final 81
8 - Liverpool FC - Anfield Rap - Cup Final 88
7 - Collapsed Lung - Eat My Goal [used in Coca Cola ad] - World Cup 98
By Khilen Mehta
Although Kylie Minogue is a likeable personality, she has never been to everyone’s taste. Her career has often seemed a series of attempts to expand on this basic likeability. But in her two decade career, the tiny Aussie wonder has dominated the charts by providing non-stop fun in her performances.
Throughout her battle with breast cancer, everyone’s favourite pop princess was constantly thanking her followers for their loving support, and judging by the success of her most recent comeback performances, her fans couldn´t be more pleased in seeing her back on the stage. Her huge grin, her flamboyant costumes and the over-excited crowd are everything that makes a Kylie gig so memorable.
Throughout her career, Kylie has won countless awards, and had plenty of top tensingles. In the 2008 Brit Awards, she won Best International Female Artist and she also received the French Ordre des Arts et des Lettres in 2008, which is France’s highest cultural honour. With a tally of over thirty top ten singles, Kylie is the second most succesful woman in British chart history after Madonna. Kylie’s biggest single was “Can’t get you out of my head”, which reached number one in over twenty countries and sold more than four million copies worldwide.
It was reported that every ticket scheduled for her UK tour was snapped up in an unbelievable thirty minutes after going on sale. Tickets are likely to go fast for her performance in Madrid as well, so make sure you snap yours up nice and early!
Here is an example of what you could be missing out on…
Long live the Pop Princess!
by Maja Gojkovic
The Eurovision song contest 2008 kicks off this evening with the first leg of the competition, the semi final. For the first time in the history in the competition there will be two Semi Finals held to decide which 25 countries will be represented in the Final.
The first Semi Final takes place today, Tuesday, 20th of May.
The countries participating in the first Semi Final will be Montenegro, Israel, Estonia, Moldova, San Marino, Belgium, Azerbaijan, Slovenia, Norway, Poland, Ireland, Andorra, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Armenia, The Netherlands, Finland, Romania, Russia and Greece.
The 19 participants are getting more and more nervous and tension is rising as they all are hoping to qualify for the Grand Final that will be held on Saturday.
The Semi Final competition will be aired live and will be shown live in all the 19 participating countries and also live on German NDR and Spanish TVE.
Other countries may also broadcast the competition as well, so check the timetables of your local broadcasters to see if the Semi Final will be shown in your country.
If you miss the Semi Final you will have the opportunity to watch it again as it will be available for 7 days on Eurovision TV.
The Semi Final televoters from the 19 participating countries will be able to vote for their favourite songs as well as the TV audience in Germany and Spain. The local televoting numbers will be displayed on screen during the show and will also be available on your national broadcaster’s website.
We at European Vibe will be following the competition, so if you’re a Eurovision Song Contest fan like me, I will be covering the highlights and lowlights of the show. So stay tuned for all the latest Info.
The second Semi Final will take place on Thursday 22nd May.
by Maja Gojkovic
The Eurovision Song Contest 2008 is the 53rd Eurovision Song Contest, and this years competition will be hosted by Serbia. The semi-finals will be held on 20 and 22 May respectively and the final on 24 May 2008 in the capital, Belgrade.
The contest wll be held in Belgrade Arena. The arena is among the largest indoor arenas in Europe, with a total capacity of more than 20,000 seats.
Serbia will be hosting the Contest for 2008 after Marija Šerifović won the Contest in 2007 in Helsinki, Finland.
The contest will be hosted by Jovana Janković, a daily morning show host and Željko Joksimović one of the most successful musicians in the Balkan region. In 2004, he represented Serbia & Montenegro at the Eurovision Song Contest in Istanbul, Turkey, with Lane Moje, and finished second.
For this years’ competition Serbia will be represented by Jelena Tomašević feat. Bora Dugic with a song entitled Oro. Let’s hope it is as good as last year’s winning song by Marija Serifovic- Moltiva.
Belgrade is known as Beograd by the locals, is the largest and capital city of Serbia. The city has almost 1,6 million citizens. Belgrade is located confluence of the Danube and Sava rivers. It is the cultural and political heart of the country; it hosts several music- and cultural festivals across the city throughout the year.
The city is slowly becoming the new trendy place to be, it is still undiscovered by many people. The City offers various styles of beautiful architecture that dominate the city. Trendy hot-spots such as Knez Mihajlova is one of the most popular pedestrian only streets in Belgrade and offers a wide variety of quaint cafés and restaurants and is definitely a popular place to be seen.
With the help of hosting the Eurovision Song Contest, Belgrade have finally be given the chance to show off the amazing sights and exactly what the city has to offer.
The Eurovison Contest has been broadcast every year since its inauguration in 1956 and is one of the longest-running television programmes in the world. It is one of the most-watched non-sporting events in the world with audience figures reaching to anything between 100 million and 600 million internationally in recent years.
Eurovision has also been broadcast outside Europe to such places as Australia, Canada, Mexico, Egypt, United States, Hong Kong, India, despite the fact the countires do not participate. Since 2000, the Contest has also been broadcast over the Internet with more than 74,000 people in almost 140 countries having watched the contest in 2006 online.
The artists who achieved most success after thier Eurovision win that led them to a career and launched them into the spotlight were ABBA, ABBA won the Contest for Sweden in 1974 with their song “Waterloo” after this they went on to be one of the most successful bands of their time.
Other winners who have also achieved international fame due to a successful win at Eurovison include Céline Dion, who won the Contest for Switzerland in 1988 with the song “Ne Partez Pas Sans Moi”.
With regard to winners the country that had achieved most success has been Ireland. Ireland holds the record for the most number of wins, having won the Contest seven times which includes wins three times in a row in the mid 1990s.
In joint second place with five wins each are France, Luxembourg and the United Kingdom. The United Kingdom holds the best record at the Contest in terms of average scoreboard position; having finished in the top two in 20 out of 52 Contests from1956–2007.
The first few years of the 21st century produced a variety of first-time winners, from both “new” Eurovision countries, and old-timers who had entered for many years without a win. Every year from 2001 to 2007 resulted in a country winning for the first time. The 2006 winner was Finland, who had finally won after having entered the Contest for 45 years. Ukraine on the other hand did not have to wait so long, winning with their second entry in 2004. Serbia won the very first year it entered as an independent state in 2007. As of 2008, the country which has entered the longest with no wins to their name is Portugal. They started entering in 1964, and are still awaiting their first win.
For the first time in the history of the Eurovision Song Contest, two Semi-Finals will be held to decide which 25 countries will be represented in the Final. The first Semi-Final will take place on Tuesday, 20th of May.
Citizens of each participating country vote by telephone and SMS. Two of the so-called ‘Big Four’ (France, Germany, Spain and the United Kingdom) will also vote in this Semi-Final (to be decided by draw), and possibly the Host Country (also to be decided by draw). Each country’s 10 favourites are awarded 1 to 8, 10 and 12 points based on the number of votes. The top-9 of the tele-voting qualifies for the Final. The highest ranked entry of the back-up jury that has not qualified for the Final in the tele-voting also qualifies for the Final. The 10 qualified countries will be presented in randomly drawn order at the end of the show. The complete results of the tele-voting will not be announced until after the Final, to keep the tension high.
The favourites to win this years’ 2008 Eurovision Song Contest are Russia who will be represented by Dima Bilan with the song Believe. According to bookies PaddyPower the odds on favourites Russia are 10/3. Spain and Ireland stand at 25/1 with the UK in shocking position with odds of 300/1. Spain will be represented by Rodolfo Chikilicuatre with the song Baila El Chiki Chiki. Ireland will be represented by Dustin the Turkey with song Irelande Douze Pointe and the UK by Andy Abraham (Runner up of X-Factor) with song Even If.
This month, our Vibe Box comes from Alan Shelly - licensee of rock and blues bar Echegarito.
In the May issue of European Vibe Magazine, Echegarito was the venue for our monthly bar chat - where we talked about the pickly subject of infidelity. Check out the magazine to see what our bar chatters had to say about cheating.
These are Alan’s choices:
7. The Trooper - Iron Maiden.
because: Not alot to say about this. It’s Iron Maiden!!
8. Plush - Stone Temple Pilots.
because: A great single release from a debut album from a band that was highly under-rated.
9. Rocket Queen - Guns n’ Roses.
because: I chose this not only because it’s a great song but it’s probably the only song with a real screaming orgasm stuck in the middle (i think they call it “taking it to the bridge”!!).
10. Rearview Mirror - Pearl Jam.
because: A very powerful number from one of the best alternative rock bands of the 90’s.
This month, our Vibe Box comes from Alan Shelly - licensee of rock and blues bar Echegarito.
In the May issue of European Vibe Magazine, Echegarito was the venue for our monthly bar chat - where we talked about the pickly subject of infidelity. Check out the magazine to see what our bar chatters had to say about cheating.
These are Alan’s choices:
4. Won’t get fooled again - The Who.
because: Probably one of the longest songs ever released by a rock band but you never get bored half way through like with most lengthy numbers.
5. Gimme Shelter - The Rolling Stones.
because: One of the more diverse songs from stones and not too commercial.
6. Radar Love - Golden Earring.
because: A great one hit wonder from one of Hollands greatest exports!
by Martin Brown
Tim Booth appeared on stage on crutches for this show. There was a muffled explanation in Spanish from one of his bandmates, but I didn’t catch it. So he sat for most of the show. This must have been very, very difficult for one normally so active! Known for his spasmodic whirling and spinning, he cut a different figure here. He has also shaved his head since I last saw him play.
I really like James, so this is not really a very objective review. I had not seen them play live for more than 10 years. Of course, they were inactive during most of that time, with all kinds of reported bust ups. Let’s just all be grateful that the issues have now been resolved. With a new album out last month, and based on the fanatical crowd at this show, the future looks good again!
I could feel Booth’s pain as he sang Born of Frustration, he wanted to be on his feet, not in a chair! The voice is the same, pure, unique sound as ever and the band seemed very happy to be there. Andy Diagram, resplendent in a spotted dress, blew his trumpet and compensated for Booth’s immobility by running all over the place throughout the show. There is not just one front man in this band, that’s for sure. Maybe that was the problem before?
Running through material from their 20+ year career, each song was greeted with screams for the 1500 or so people in attendance. It’s always amazing to me that, whilst most Spanish people seem reluctant to learn English, they are happy, and very able to sing the words to every song of their favorite performers!
Towards the end of the almost two hour set, Booth said, “We said we were not going to play this song for a year, but we are going to sing it for you tonight, because I am sitting down!” The crowd went nuts and sang along with the band.
The band looked genuinely surprised by the length and passion of the responses to the songs, especially after Sometimes, when the crowd continued, a capella, long after the band had stopped playing.
This was a lot of fun, for the crowd and the band, the perfect scenario for any concert.
By Will Cade
I never know if I should give money to panhandlers or not. Reading their signs about having children and no job, I do feel for these people, but I never know if my money is going towards a hot meal for the family or a fresh bottle for mom or dad.
Street performers, however, fit into a different category. They’re providing me with entertainment, which, if I like, I’ll gladly pay for. What they do with the money is their own business: they worked for it.
My favorite street performers in Madrid have to be in the Metro, because they give me a much needed break from a busy day running around the city. We have some talented metro musicians here - and some not so talented - but there’s nothing like hearing African bongo drums or an acoustic version of Ave Maria echoing through the underground.
Even with these daily pick me ups in Madrid, I have to be the most impressed with the metro performers in Berlin, although at first I didn’t realize they were performing. Out of the blue, a homeless or otherwise scrappy looking individual would step onto the metro. But before asking anyone for money, this person would proudly lift a newspaper - one specifically written for the homeless to sell - and commence to give a speech.
Now, I don’t know a lick of German (aside from a few curse words) but still these speeches were magnificent. Sometimes they sounded like the diatribe of a madman, but they were given with enough vigor to inspire me to do whatever it was I couldn’t understand them saying. And other times they were given with such a smooth delivery that I felt like I was sitting in the Globe Theatre listening to Shakespeare, or, in this case, Goethe.
Not until these performances were finished would anyone even start to rummage through their pockets, and sometimes not until after the applause erupted into the metro with more intensity than the speech just given. It’s times like this when I’m not only happy to emtpy out my pockets, but I would gladly sit with these people over a coffee and listen to their stories - even if I don’t understand German.
by Maja Gojkovic
Chambao are the hottest Spanish acts around, with their continuing success and more coverage, the band are making their way further into the mainstream music scene.
If you are thinking, “I have never heard of Chambao”, not to worry, my predictions tell me we will be hearing and seeing a lot more of the band in the future.
In terms of genre the band would categorize itself as Flamenco-Electronic. Their flamenco chill sound fuses the flamenco and palos (a musical form) with electronic music.
The name of the band comes from an improvised wind-breaker that is used on the beach to provide shade (and stop the wind, of course).
The band is made up of a trio from Malaga El Mari, Edi and Dani. The group were discovered by the Dutch musician Henrik Takkenberg. Together three of them featured as part of a double CD by various artists that was released by Sony under the title “Flamenco Chill” in (2002). On the CD Chambao recorded eight songs and sold 90,000 copies and led the record label to release subsequent instalments, this time without Chambao.In 2003, the band’s first record on their own, “Endorfinas en la mente”, came out. It was released in more than twenty countries, sold over 80,000 copies and won the Premio Ondas (Ondas Award) for the Best Musical Creation in 2003. After their song release “Pokito a poko” in 2005, Dani left the band, but La Mari and El Edi continued to create the original sounds that make the band so eclectic and fresh.
European Vibe will be meeting Chambao to get the lowdown on the latest from the band, as well as an exclusive interview. The interview will be featured in the June edition of European Vibe Magazine.
For those of you who cannot wait until June and if the sound of Chambao tickles your musical tastebuds then you can find out more about the band on their Myspace page www.myspace.com/chambao. The band will also be playing at Palacio de Deportes on Friday 11th April.
by Maja Gojkovic
Andrea Corr has embarked on a new solo career leaving her siblings behind. While the rest of The Corrs have taken a break from the group to raise their families, Andrea has decided to return to the music industry with a new and fresh sound.
Her record ‘Ten Feet High’ was released last summer and had success in Spain where it reached number 9 in the music charts. Meanwhile, the rest of Europe did not respond in the same way, and her record only reached number 38 in the UK album charts. The first single from the album is still receiving good radio-play in Spain - the track called ‘Shame on you (to keep my love from me)’ is an anti-war protest disguised as an upbeat dance tune. The album has a different vibe to it and is very different to the stuff she did with The Corrs.
To read more about The Corrs’ and, specifically, Andrea’s trajectory in the music industry, check out the March edition of European Vibe Magazine. We feature the rise, the golden era and relative decline in popularity of The Corrs, Andrea speaking on how the album came about and how we explain the album’s cool reception in most countries.
Below you can check out the tribute montage video, ”Andrea Corr - Irish Angel”.
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