Archive for Eurovision

ESC13: Those Who Didn’t Make It; Belarus – Switzerland and Belgium

December 16, 2012 Belarus, Belgium, Eurovision, Switzerland No comments

eurovision_song_contest_2013_logo_by_lazaric-d51dij3Believe it or not, but not even 8 months after Sweden won the Eurovision Song Contest many countries have already started their quest for their nation’s hopeful in the 2013 event. Even though it’s still waiting for a final list of its participants, which according to various reports won’t have Slovakia, Portugal, Poland and Turkey included, the Eurovision season is full on.

As last year we’re not going to spoil the suspense by presenting you the winner songs, but we kick off with our ‘those who didn’t make it’ chapter where we present you some of the tracks, we think would have made a pretty good chance. We’re kicking off with Belarus who chose their entry last week, and finish with Switzerland and Belgium, who both made their choices yesterday and today.

Belarus: Daria – Catch Me Again

Last week, Belarus kicked off the Eurovision season with their Eurofest final. Belarus is one of the most intriguing countries when it comes to Eurovision as their selections seem to be rather interesting with most of the times the winner and its song being changed more than usual. However we don’t think that would have been a necessity if Belarus had chosen Daria to represent Belarus in Sweden with ‘Catch Me Again’. It’s old school, sixities and jazzy. Lovely lovely!

Switzerland:

Last night saw Switzerland choose its representative for the contest and going unanimously for the salvation army. Listening to the other candidates this fella caught our attention the most. With a track that sounds a bit like a Coldplay track, but sung by a singer with a voice timbre of Roch Voisine, Nicolas Fraissinet’s Lève-toi would have been a decent entry for Malmo in our opinion. A bit baffled this ended fairly low in the overall ranking. Never the less still very enjoyable.

Belgium:

Just barely a month ago, Belgian broadcaster RTBF announced the winner of their first season of the Voice, Robert Bellarossi would defend the nation at the upcoming Eurovision Song Contest. This morning during a radio show, the young performer presented three songs of which one was selected to be the entry. One of the tracks, coming from his latest album ‘Reste Toi’ has to be our favourite though as it’s catchy fresh and reminds us a little bit one particular Swedish pop star who went to third place back in Germany, now two years ago in the Eurovision Song Contest.

What do you make of these songs, and what were your favourites? We’d love to hear!

First ever Eurovision winner is to give the contest another go

October 4, 2012 Eurovision, Switzerland No comments

Yes you read it right. Lys Assia, the first ever winner of the Eurovision Song Contest is back to give the contest another try. The Swiss singer won the contest in 1956 with her track ‘Refrain’, making Switzerland the very first country to win the annual European festival.

Despite having won, and returning a few years later, where she finished in a respectable eight place (something which isn’t always guaranteed… look at Dana International and Charlotte Perelli) the 88 year old singer is not planning on leaving the contest behind that easily.

Although she returned to the Swiss final last year, with a nostalgic ballad ‘C’Etait Ma Vie’, co-written with Ralph Siegel, the singer didn’t win the ticket to Baku as the Swiss representative. This year she hopes to attract votes from the younger audience by teaming up with rappers ensemble New Jack, transforming herself into a trendy hip hop babe and thus hoping to make it to the televised event, later in the year to pack their bags for an appearance at the Eurovision Song Contest, held in Malmo, Sweden in May. A preview of the track can be heard here, and as usual the typical Siegel lyrics are not that far off (‘Hello, How Is The Flow’ … no we are not joking)…

This will be an interesting one for sure. The Swiss entrant for Eurovision 2013 will be selected by ‘Die Grosse Engscheidungs Show’ at Kreuzlingen on 15 December 2012. Apart from Lys Assia, German idol finalist Jesse Ritch and the winner of the local ‘Switzerland Got Talent’, Maya Wirz, have expressed interest in taking part in the selection.

ESC 2013: Anouk rejected for Melodifestivalen concept by Dutch Broadcaster TROS

July 12, 2012 Eurovision, Netherlands No comments

While their usually not the first to talk about their plans for Eurovision, Dutch broadcaster TROS has been grabbing a few headlines in the local media after it emerged they rejected to select rock singer, Anouk internally as their Dutch representative for 2013.

Anouk Teeuwe rose to fame in Europe in 1997 when she released ‘Nobody’s Wife’ reaching the top ten in France, Germany, Belgium, Norway, Sweden, Finland and her native the Netherlands. Although she hasn’t succeeded to match the same success in most of the countries, she remains a high profile artist in the Netherlands and Belgium. In fact the singer released her seventh studio album last year  called ‘To Get Her Together’.

The pop rock singer is rumoured to have a killer song ready for the Eurovision song Contest, yet TROS has its eyes set on a preselection format with 6 heats,  similar to the Swedish selection process ‘Melodifestivalen’. The news has been confirmed by a spokesman of the Dutch broadcaster who also read the following statement: “We are delighted that Anouk thinks about the contest, but (she) must take part in a national final” a ” She is obviously disappointed… but we want the Dutch public and a jury to decide what is the best song for Eurovision.”

The Netherlands have overall opted for a national final to choose their representative. The only exceptions to the rules in the past few years have been Edsilia Rombley (2007) and Hind (2008) who were internally selected including their entries. In 2009 and 2010, the Dutch representatives were internally chosen, but the audience was given the chance to vote for their entry, before the broadcaster went back to a full scale national final in 2011 .

The Netherlands are yet to qualify from the semi finals since the introduction of the current system. The last time the Netherlands were present in the final was in 2004.

Watch the video of Anouk’s debut hit single ‘Nobody’s Wife’ below:

An update in regards to Anouk and the Eurovision Song Contest can be found here

ESC 2013: Eurovision Song Contest to be held in Malmö

July 8, 2012 Eurovision, Sweden No comments

Only a few moments ago, the organizing Swedish broadcaster of the Eurovision Song Contest 2013 has confirmed their host city for the annual event; Malmö has won the bid over Stockholm to host the Eurovision Song Contest in 2013.

According to an article, published on the official website of Eurovision.tv, ‘ the decision about the host city was open till the very last minute’ and a very difficult one to make according to Martin Österdahl, who recently has been announced as the Executive Producer of the 2013 contest.

Explaining the reason behind their choice: “We chose Malmö because there is a very good infrastructure and we have good experience of holding Melodifestivalen [the Swedish national selection] and the Eurovision Song Contest there,” he explains. “The choice of Malmö is based on an overall assessment of the environment in which we think is best for the format of the Eurovision Song Contest, both in terms of TV shows and on the preparations.”

The three shows, will find their home at the Malmö Arena where international superstars like Britney Spears have performed on their world tour, and has hosted several sport competitions including 2011 World Men’s Handball Championship and 2011–12 Svenska Superligan finals. For Eurovision fans the arena is best known for its appearances and host location during one of the semi final heats of Melodifestivalen since 2009. The arena itself is in many ways similar to the Hartwall Arena in Helsinki, Finland where the Eurovision Song Contest was held in 200.

The mayor of Malmö is happy to see the contest return to his city and has announced to be ‘extremely proud and happy today’. Malmö has organized the contest once in 1992, after Carola won in Italy the year before. The city of Malmö is t he third largest city in Sweden and one of the largest ones in Scandinavia (664,000 people).

It was previously reported that the city of Malmö had undertaken action to receive an early response by SVT in regards to hosting the contest as freezing hotel rooms for the period, was having a negative impact on local business.

(Source: SVT/Eurovision.tv)

ESC 2013: is Nuša Derenda Slovenia’s hope for this Eurovision 2013?

June 29, 2012 Eurovision, Slovenia No comments

With the 2012 edition only just over, the first rumors and gossip for Eurovision 2013 have begun. While the focus has mainly been on host country Sweden, who’s been revealing more details about their host city bids, and their production team, the Slovenian broadcaster RTVSLO has apparently approached superstar and 2001 representativeNuša Derenda to represent them again at the forthcoming event..

Derenda, born Anuška Žnideršič, has been one of the countries most popular singers since she released her first single in 1999. In 2001, she was approached by the Slovenian broadcaster to represent her Slovenia at the Eurovision Song Contest in Copenhagen, Denmark, with the song ‘Energy’, achieving a high respectable 7th place. To date it’s still Slovenia’s best result in the competition.

Whether Nuša Derenda will actually be picked as the Slovenian representative is yet to be seen. If she does, she’ll be succeeding Eva Boto, who represented the country this year with the ballad ‘Verjamen’ but failed to qualify for the grand final.

To be continued…

Watch Nuša Derenda’s 2001 entry ‘Energy’ below

ESC 2013: The Latest Eurovision News from Sweden

June 27, 2012 Daily News, Eurovision, Sweden No comments

The 2012 edition of the Eurovision Song Contest has only finished a month ago, yet news about the forthcoming edition in Sweden is already on its. Here’s a short story of what’s been going on in Eurovision land so far:

SVT, the winning Swedish broadcaster has announced its production team for the contest which is currently scheduled for 14, 16 and 18 May. The broadcaster has opted for an experienced team with Martin Österdahl as executive producer of the show. He will be joined by SVT Malmö head Christel Tholse Willers, who’ll take up the role as head of relations, Johan Bernhagen, Head of Production and Christer Björkman, the current Swedish delegation leader and executive producer of Swedish selection format ‘Melodifestivalen’. He will function as the show’s producer.

The broadcaster has also confirmed the return of its highly successful formula ‘Melodifestivalen’ which will continue to be used as their selection method. SVT has announced a few changes for this year: The web joker system, will not be used any longer, instead the winner of radio show ‘Svensktoppen Nästa 2012′ will be able to take part with a different song. 15 songs will be taken from two websites, where Swedish and foreign composers can upload their material from 3-17 September onwards. Newcomers can do so in the Public contest, while the established producers upload their tracks to the Regular Contest. The remaining 16 songs are to be  written or composed on request by SVT. To read the rules in English click here.

As usual, the composers and song titles are expected to be announced around October/November, while the announcement of performers is expected in December. The actual heats are expected to commence on February 2nd. The different cities to host the heats have not been confirmed yet apart from its final which is taking place on March 9th 2013 in the newly Friends Arena nearby Stockholm.

Stockholm is currently also one of the cities who has bid to host the Eurovision Song Contest, originally alongside Malmö and Gothenburg. The latter however has withdrawn its application. Despite the rumors that the Eurovision Song Contest could take a Melodifestivalen approach and have its two semi finals and final in three different cities, Björkman confirmed that their would only be one host city as, as logistics would be incredibly difficult in such a short time span. The bid is expected to be won, by Stockholm which has two venues with interest: Globen and the new Friends Arena (pictured).

Sweden won the Eurovision Song Contest on May 26 with ‘Euphoria’ by Loreen. Watch her winning performance below:

(sources: Youtube, EscToday, EscExtra, Eurovision.tv, SVT.se)

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