Swiss Music Awards 2015

27.02.2015 – I was torn. Swiss Music Awards is THE music event of the year here in Switzerland. Or something like that anyway. Kodaline were performing on this evening at the SMA show and yes, I LOVE Kodaline. But was CHF 40.- worth to me? Then I won tickets from Phonag (thanks!) – and I went for the first and last time to the SMA.

I’ve actually never seen a whole show before. Zapped into it and watched single performances, the winners I got to know from the media. Cos I always was somewhere else. Now after the show I think: If you can go there for free, fine then, but CHF 35-70 for a standing ticket or a seat, it’s totally not worth it. One would have been better gone directly to the aftershow party (sadly I wasn’t there), where a LIVE concert of Seven took place. Whether you like Seven or not, you get quality for sure. Yes, others see it differently, I know. Dressing up and having fun with friends. Dressed up were at least within the standing area the fewest. Would have been impractical.

First there was a  preshow from 7pm. The continuity was explained to the audience, trailer and whatever got filmed, microphones set and what else is necessary for a tv show. The audience got fired up. Nothing spectacular in this sense, such preparations are just needed. The actual interesting part didn’t happen during this preshow, but to see partly, what was needed to operate such a show or how certain things got handled. What happened in the pit etc.
Guitar player Slädu played a warm-up with DJ Alex Price. I was semi thrilled. Slädu’s guitar play is really cool, the guitare was apparently the only live instrument of the whole show. He’s great, though I don’t really like DJs and the whole boom boom. (I know today’s youth likes it a lot, how I found out esp. last autumn at Energy Air). Well, it’s not unusual that most of it isn’t live, we all know this by now. On the one side understandable cos of all the work, on the otherside it’s still stupid. Esp. as there can happen strange performances with all the playback shows… on that evening it worked quite well.

The whole thing got presented by Melanie Winniger and Mario Torriani. The showacts I liked, except of two: Die Fantastischen Vier opened the show with a bang. Actually a pitty that they did the start. Somehow they were one of the higlights or even THE highlight, and they could have let them performe later. Stefanie Heinzmann presented the premiere of her new song “In The End” with a great light show, James Bay and Kodaline played beautiful ballades.  Lo & Leduc weren’t just the big winners of the evening, but fired up with “Jung verdammt” even literally. But nothing totally incredible and rare, it was worth for to spend so much money. Everyone played just one song and not even live.

Bad were Bonaparte as well as Leal. Bonaparte played a “Aber bitte mit Sahne” cover as a honor for recently passed away Udo Jürgens. I am no Udo Jürgens fan, but sorry, where was the honoring? This man would have deserved something better. The worst was the living disco ball though. About Leal’s performance of “Disco ball” I couldn’t even laugh?! Was this just a joke or really serious? This was a bad ESC performance… he should think about that again in future?! Heard the song on SRF3 in the morning and thought so far… well, ok to listen. This changed on this evening immediately. I did listen to some of the Sens Unik stuff before and wondered, how he came up with something like THIS? But nowadays everything seems to be called art 😛

The rest of the show was so so. Very pedictable and quite weird sometimes. Originally Best Act Romandie was chosen few days earlier in Lausanne already – the very played meeting of Stress and Melanie was totally unnecessary so. At every show with both of them the same … to roll the eyes. Then international categories were partly mentioned, what they could have left out. Either properly or not at all? Well, with Lo & Leduc and James Gruntz as winners I agreed for sure. They deserve it. Great musician with fab songs and concerts. Esp. Lo & Leduc didn’t get hyped up for no reason, they are really good! Also that Pegasus‘ “I Take It All” was voted, I like (and no, not just because it’s Pegasus. Would it have been “Digital Kids”, I would have seen it differently. With the choice of the rest of the category… well, let’s drop it 😉

[more photos in gallery]

So, I don’t need the SMAs in my life. How much worth is this award really and then the show… would I have had to pay for it, I would have been very annoyed about and indeed wouldn’t have been worth it for once. I recommend: If you want to see the show, watch from home in front of the TV. You won’t only see more of the show, it is even more comfortable. Better invest your money in a live concert. This way you support your favourite musician a lot more than at the SMA. Noramlly I am also up for “on site and live is best”, but defintively not in case of the SMAs.

you can watch the show online .

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