"Weak and unwise, I betray all fears that I should disguise, melting in your arms, I fail to realise, why the mornings always change the colour of your eyes"
Bit of a change of pace here eh? From songs verging on novelty, to songs verging on . . . suicide? 4Fun? Really? Based solely on their Eurovision entry, I don't think a group has ever been so incorrectly named. "Love Or Leave" is many things, but "fun" it ain't.
I can totally imagine being in New Orleans in some jazz bar and hearing this song in French. It would have been perfect in French! It's very good in English though. So many Eurovision songs are lyrically a bit sketchy (Lena Philipsson, I'm looking at you!), but this one is really good - perfectly evoking the feelings and emotions of lost love. Everything is very low key with this entry. And while that's lovely, and makes a nice change in a contest full of general nonsense and an assortment of caterwauling, I think it's possibly a bit too low key. For instance, I wish the camera work had given us some long shots. The whole things felt like it could have been filmed in a studio and not in the arena at all. And whilst I'm sure it was to deliberately make everything more intimate, it didn't feel very Eurovisiony (yes - Eurovisiony is a word). The draw didn't help it either - coming after similar shorthaired Eastern European woman singing tale of woe (i.e. Magdi Ruzsa from Hungary). The shadow background was nice but I always imagined it could have been built up a bit more i.e. Lead singer Julia is on her own at first, then the band are revealed in the shadows and then finally the screens are gone and we see the entire group. It is the most grown up of Lithuanian entries - although don't forget that for that title it was competing with songs including "U Got Style" and "We Are The Winners". Talking of "We Are The Winners", isn't it ironic that a country can enter total nonsense and come 6th and yet something classy and understated languishes in 21st place. 4fun do have something to thank their predecessors for, without their strong finish in 2006, this would never have been in the final.
Best Bit: Surely the highlight is that when the word 'Lithuania' came onto the screen, for the first time I didn't need to apologise to those watching with me for what they were about to wtiness. It's called progress, Lithuania. I was proud of you. Until "Nomads In The Night" at least.
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