World Song Contest

The 20th edition of the World Song Contest, launched in October 2006, was by far one of the most exciting one. And that for several reasons. The first one: the number of participants. For the first time, 50 players decided to represent a country. As a result, some new nations made their first appearance. Most of them from Asia with Taiwan or Malaysia. Georgia and Greenland also enter for the first time. Some will say Taiwan or Greenland are not independant countries. But this contest is not about what's a country, but about music. And sometimes you can expect that music from these "territories" is not the same that the one from the country they "belong to". Just check what happens in France with the "DOM-TOM".

The second reason is that so many kinds of music were represented with Bosnia & Herzegovina going with something really different from usual... let's just call it rock. Finland and Estonia, even though it didn't help them once again, stayed faithful to their rock attitude, but with some folk in it. Turkey gave something unusual, with some ethnic elements, more similar to what we expect from Poland or Austria.

Then, and it could also be a good reason, came the stars. Probably one of the edition with the more famous names. George Michael, for Cyprus, Laura Pausini back for Italy, just like P!nk for the USA and, the most successful of them all, Katie Melua, for Georgia. Though they are not international stars like the ones before, Luxembourg, France and Monaco sent some of their most famous singers of the moment in the French music scene. But the real "star" of this edition was probably Thomas Glock who really showed interest. He is the first singer to take this seriously, and was backed by a lot of Austrian fans.

The final reason is probably that the winning song is far from the songs which usually wins the contest. Maybe the players wanted something more ambitious this time. So after nearly two years of participation, Poland finally won the contest. Soul For Me, performed by Pati Yang took the crown. Georgia finished second, and Israel third.

Pati Yang released her first album in 1998 at the age of 18 called "Jaszczurka" (Lizard), which became one of the most successful alternative albums of that year in Poland. Since she has worked on many projects (such as "Children") and composed a lot of soundtracks in London (where she currently lives) and Poland. The film-music she worked on was on film such as: "Buffallo Soldiers", "Out of Sight", "Ocean’s 11", "Ocean’s 12". In 2005 she came back with a solo album called "Silent Treatment" which includes the song Soul For Me written by Pati Yang and Stephen Hilton. The album was recorded in London's finest recording studio's (Air Studio). The producer of the album is Stephen Hilton who collaborated in the past with Massive Attack, U2, Pulp and Depeche Mode.

Lyrics

I've heard magic through the door
Half stairs up
I stopped: too fast
Maybe the key will turn
Four white walls and only one echo
I guess I talk to myself again
With tens of voices
Schizoframed

Soul for me a little
Before the soul is gone
Shake a little
And speak a little more
Soul for me a little
Feel a little
If you can
If you can feel at all
If you can feel at all

I thought:
On three
The miracle would become real
Isn't that what you said?
and then left
Since the door has shut
The silence screams
Against the only prayer I've had:

Soul for me a little
Before the soul is gone
Shake a little
And speak a little more
Soul for me a little
Feel a little
If you can
If you can feel at all
If you can feel at all