Who said that Margaret just did hip hop as a look?  Not sure if what she is wearing above is what young ladies would be attired in on the Forest Opera stage at Sopot but it shows she can do posh, don't you agree?  Of course the reason for her 'headlining' this article is that 'Cool Me Down' gave Poland the OGAE Second Chance Contest 2016 win:



A foregone conclusion really in my opinion, with Wiktoria being the only artist to at least make a fist of it in 2016.  So Poland was the 'host' for this year's Contest and I was in like a shot for my fourth stint as UK juror.  As we in the UK had our second National Final in a row, we had the job of selecting who would represent us at OGAE SCC 2017 - here were the selections, if your memories have faded that much:
If you read my review of the UK NF you will remember that I had Lucie as the standout at the venue and on television - you will also recall that I had Holly as my runner-up, so that is where my 12 points went this time (Olivias got 10, Nate 8 and the 'car crash twins' of Danyl and Selina got 4 and 1 respectively).  I was delighted to see that the rest of the UK voters thought the same as I did as to who was second behind Miss Jones:



So we had our entry - 21 others were to follow from all over the continent, all submitted on the Official website - we even had a welcoming message from the Polish entrant Carmell:



Come 1st June, we had our list of competitors (with their finishing places in their NF):

1. Albania (Dilan Reka – Mos Harro, 3rd)
2. Belarus (NUTEKI – Take My Heart, 2nd)
3. Denmark (Ida Una – One, 2nd)
4. Estonia (Kerli – Spirit Animal, 2nd)
5. Finland (Zühlke – Perfect Villain, 2nd)
6. Georgia [Rest of the World] (Maliibu – We Live Once, 3rd)
7. Germany (Axel Feige – Wildfire, 4th)
8. Greece (Demy – When The Morning Comes Around, 2nd)
9. Hungary (Gabi Tóth & Freddie Shuman feat. Lotfi Begi – Hosszú Idők, 5th)
10. Iceland (Daði Freyr – Is This Love?, 2nd)
11. Italy (Paola Turci – Fatti Bella Per Te, 5th)
12. Latvia (My Radiant You – All I Know, 3rd)
13. Lithuania (Greta Zazza – Like I Love You, 6th)
14. Malta (Janice Mangion – Kewkba, 2nd)
15. Norway (Ella – Mama’s Boy, joint 5th)
16. Poland (Carmell – Faces, 6th)
17. Portugal (Pedro Gonçalves – Don’t Walk Away, 6th)
18. Slovenia (BQL – Heart Of Gold, 4th)
19. Spain (Le Klein – Ouch!, 3rd)
20. Sweden (Mariette – A Million Years, 4th)
21. Ukraine (Tayanna – I Love You, 2nd)
22. United Kingdom (Holly Brewer – I Wish I Loved You More, joint 2nd)

Compared to last year where I had only seen the UK entry live, this year I had seen Holly AND Kerli both perform, the latter in my opinion still being robbed of what should have been an obvious Kyiv trip but Koit and Laura was who the Estonian public wanted and that's who they got!  Now on first look there were a lot of these entries that didn't spring immediately into my head - I would have to be honest and say that only Estonia, Finland, Germany, Malta, Norway, Ukraine and the UK flicked a switch when I read the names, the rest I had to listen to via the helpfully constructed playlist:



You had a look too?  I have to admit that unlike previous years there is no real stand out for me, no Helena, no Nek and definitely no Margaret!  It is really up for grabs - it is also a decent field of songs, as I only have one rated 4.0, the rest all higher.  I'm going to do my usual review of all 22 using the following scoring criteria:


Unlike previous years where the hosts have attempted some sort of running order, OGAE Poland kept it simple.  You notice that the playlist was in country alphabetical order?  No reason not to really - it is not as if this is a tv show!  Our Chairman Gary Spiers recommended at least three views of each before voting - that gave me a lot of chances to put my point of view about each song down here too!  You wouldn't expect anything else, would you?


Albania


Dilan Reka – "Mos Harro" : 8.0 (8)

Having watched FiK 55 myself live, there really wasn't any way that Albania were going to send anyone other than Lindita to Kyiv, whatever the song title she ended up with.  Having said that, I could have seen this doing a decent job in Kyiv, especially as "World" bombed so badly at the SF stage.  Dilan supplies a nice, solid foreign language pop song that works pretty well with the FiK enforced combination of orchestral and modern instrumental accompaniment.  The music has a great rhythm, he sings really well and connects superbly with the camera and crowd.


I have to say that I really enjoyed this and if this had been at any other NF, the crowd would have been dancing and singing along to this - but this is FiK and it is always a bloody tough gig!  A great start to proceedings and I had Albania down as my 6th placed entry this year.

By the way, if anyone can identify the brunette backing singer nearest the camera, I'd love to know!  Please give her a chance at FiK 56...


Belarus


NUTEKI – "Take My Heart" : 6.5 (6)

I have to admit that if I were a creative stage director that my initial thought for a Eurovision National Final would not be some sort of homage to Hannibal Lecter in 'Silence Of The Lambs'.  If you are going for that angle, at least throw in the Chianti and some fava beans!  I suppose I can get where they were coming from, although with this track sounding bilingual (well, that is how it sounds to me) I cannot tell how the straitjacket fits into this.  I loved the pounding beat of the music too so on that side of things there is lots of interest here.  The main downfall of this entry?  The vocals - it is obvious that English isn't the lead singer's native tongue and it sounds all very awkward...


Whatever language had been used, this was just very average alternative metal and there was no way that this would have matched Navi, TEO or Alyona in getting to the Final in Kyiv.  It is always good to have variety in a National Final (UK, take note) but it doesn't mean that that they should win - this ended up 16th on my list this year.


Denmark


Ida Una - "One" : 5.5 (6)

Step aside Lindita, if Ida had won DMGP this year, "One" would have be THE CONSCIENCE SONG of Eurovision 2017!  Unfortunately, unless you are in Hungary where these sort of entries go down a treat, Ida was realistically always going to lose out to "Where I Am" but ending up second was a decent result.  For me this entry has only a couple of positives - Ida is very easy on the eye, bringing a 'Daenerys Targaryen' vibe to the piece and she sings this entry quite well.  The negatives cascade down, much in the same way that Anja's pyro curtain did - the staging for "One" is quite reminiscent of  "What If" by Dina Garipova, the song itself is very preachy, with an annoyingly repetitive hook and to be totally honest it is all very boring.


This was totally outclassed by a better singer (Anja), a more dynamic stage show (Anja and Johanna Beijbom) and more visually attractive entries - if this had got to Kyiv, Denmark would have been looking at yet another DNQ.  18th for me - I'm not a great fan of 'peace songs' unless it is of the "Imagine" excellence level...


Estonia


Kerli - "Spirit Animal" : 9.5 (9)

Okay, so I am amazingly biased here - having met this enigmatic lady at Eesti Laul and seen her perform three times in the Saku Suurhall, it was always going to take a very special entry to beat "Spirit Animal" this year.  In my opinion, there are a couple of entries that come close but none match Estonia's entry and this is my number 1.  This should have been at Kyiv instead of Koit and Laura and she would have been there too, if it wasn't for those pesky kids televoters!


She puts huge amounts of effort into this performance that would have been easy to scale up for Eurovision and loads of passion into everything she says and does.  This was the complete package - the superb dance routine, the interaction with her dancers, the thumping electro beats, the Björk undertones and even the very sexy look (Victoria's Secret, anyone?).  Some fans have commented upon the howling towards the end being borderline off-key - when you consider how Koit and Laura went into meltdown in Kyiv, this was nothing!  I loved watching and listening to this live and feel privileged to have done so - top three minimum for this one...


Finland


Zühlke – "Perfect Villain" : 7.5 (7)

Now I am never going to say that any other entry at UMK 2017 was better than my absolute favourite entry at Eurovision this year but this lady was a deserved runner-up to Norma John.  If "Blackbird" had not been making my jaw drop in amazement then I would have been more than happy to see this in Kyiv.  Zühlke has a lot of things going for her - she demands your attention, she is supremely confident and acts this out to the max, her black leather superhero outfit look being spot on.  "Perfect Villain" is a very interesting piece lyrically and she sings this superbly well but there were a few things that meant I rated this relatively low, most of these related to the lyrics themselves.


The other thing lacking is that I don't feel that the music itself has the same power and dynamism that the singer herself provides with her vocals and acting.  Would this have done better than "Blackbird"?  What do I know - I had Finland down as a possible 'dark horse' entry!   Zühlke would have stood out in Kyiv and the subject matter would have attracted a younger audience than Norma John ever could - possible Final qualification but that would have all depended on those superhero references staying in the lyrics.  Finland still made it into my 9th placing in the SCC...


Georgia (ROW)


Maliibu – "We Live Once" : 4.0 (4)

You ever get that feeling when you hear the first few bars of a song and think "this is going to be good, it's atmospheric, it's moody, it's passionate" - then the singer powers up her voice as you move into the verse and you rapidly change your mind?  That's what happened here with me and Maliibu - her voice was great during the lower parts of the song early doors but it all became very unintelligible, even unpleasant to listen to as the song progressed.


There isn't even anything redeemable with the staging either - it's a bulk standard "solo artist sings to the crowd scenario", she doesn't connect with the camera at all and there is really not much to watch here either.  She is very striking and for some reason I remember liking this when I heard the preview to the Georgian NF but singing it live this becomes my 24th and stone cold last placed entry this year - "We Live Once" gets my only poor rating too.  As for Kyiv, I know that Tamara didn't make the Final but at least she wasn't bottom of her SF, which is where I could have seen this ending up...


Germany


Axel Feige - Wildfire : 5.5 (5)

Watching this again after the passage of time since the German NF in February, it becomes more obvious why Levina won the race to be the artist to sing for Germany and why "Perfect Life" won the battle of the songs.  Axel demonstrates why he and this song were never going to go to Kyiv - it is almost as though he has somewhere more important to be, given the seemingly rapid pace that he hammers out this song and the lack of passion and connection that he has with the lyrics or with the audience at home.


The best bit of the whole song here?  His slow look into the camera for all of five seconds - if he had done that for 2 minutes and fifty seconds longer, Axel might have at least been in the sing off with Levina.  Would this have done better in Kyiv?  Bizarrely enough it might have done - there weren't huge numbers of male soloists singing this sort of song and even I can recognise a good looking bloke who might attract televotes based on his looks alone.  In this Contest however, 20th place is as good as it got in my eyes...


Greece


Demy - "When The Morning Comes Around" : 8.5 (9)

Like Estonia, I think that the voting public of Greece got their choice wrong for Kyiv.  Admittedly it is still Demy singing but for me, "When The Morning Comes Around" would have been a far better choice than "This Is Love".  I know why the latter was chosen for Eurovision but I think that the former draws on Demy's vocal strengths far more and it suits her voice perfectly...


Using the video as a base, she acts this pretty well too, putting the lyrical content over in a heartfelt way.  Those lyrics are beautifully constructed too, quiet and yet hard hitting with a basic musical set up that works well.  No complicated or high pitched notes for her to deal with here either, another plus over "This Is Love" and it is topped off with a lovely build-up to the thumping beats at the end.  If this had been given the right staging, the mobile phone lights would have been signalling a top ten finish for Greece.  A beautiful choice of song for the Second Chance Contest - I think that this will be a real contender and this is my number 4 this year...


Hungary


Gabi Tóth & Freddie Shuman feat. Lotfi Begi – "Hosszú Idők" : 5.5 (5)

Isn't it annoying when you go for an angle that seems to tick all the right boxes for that year and you get to the Final, only to find that someone else had the same idea as you and has done everything so much better and more memorably than you have?  That is, in a nutshell, what has happened to this act here - in any other year at A Dal, this would have stood out a mile but unfortunately there was this guy called Joci Pápai...


The main difference between the two was the quality of the songs themselves - "Hosszú Idők" was no "Origo".  This song is extremely repetitive, plods along and lacked any real ups or downs in tone.  She sings this really well but the whole was not that interesting - it's not bad but that good either.  "Origo" was definitely the entry to send to Kyiv this year - "Hosszú Idők" finished a lowly 19th on my list...


Iceland


Daði Freyr – "Is This Love?" : 9.0 (9)

There are novelty Eurovision entries that are quite frankly rubbish - then again, there are entries like this one that, if it had made it to Kyiv, would have stormed the leaderboard and given Iceland a surprise top ten in my humble opinion.  Geek chic, the infectious electro beat that sticks in my head, the understated vocal style that suits the song and lyrical content perfectly - these are the musical influences that make this an song to remember.  What makes this an entry to smile at and want to watch/listen to again and again are the visual touches - the jumpers with the 1980s pixelated faces on them, the quirky nerd dance, the focus on the focus of his affection in the unexpected form of the female keyboardist, together with the madcap electronic organ solo from Daði himself.


This would have done so much better than Svala in Ukraine purely as there was nothing like this there and its unique character would have been its strength and its genius too.  My award of 2nd place is well deserved here...


Italy


Paola Turci – "Fatti Bella Per Te" : 7.0 (7)

Anyone following my journey through these OGAE Second Chance Contests will remember Nek winning the 2015 show.  Have a listen to that and now listen to Paola - am I wrong in thinking that someone from OGAE Italy has thought "Fatti Avanti Amore" won this two years ago, this is like it but with a female vocal, surely this will win SCC too"?


I suppose that this is the problem with my being so involved with these processes now that I see this as a 'copy' of a winning song two years ago, rather than an entry in its own right.  I love the music, the drums and the piano make this a very memorable piece, even though the lyrics seem to be repeated over and over again.  Better than "Occidentali's Karma"?  Different and appealing to a different audience - I suspect that 6th would have been beyond this track - this ended up just outside my top ten in the SCC, 11th place...


Latvia

My Radiant You - "All I Know" : 5.0 (5)

"All I Know" is very nice and watchable but ultimately is a totally bland and forgettable band performance.  None of this entry sticks in my head at all, despite the endlessly repetitive two lines that seem to make up the majority of this song.  There is minimal connection with the camera either and as for the 'hey hey' fist pump?


This entry just drifts along to the end which is a good thing for me, as his vocals have an annoying quality to them and he doesn't appear to finish off any of the lines of the song!  Can you guess that I'm not a fan of this entry at all?  I had this down as my 21st placed song and even though they came last in their SF in Kyiv, I'm still convinced that Latvia sent the right entry to Eurovision - says it all for "All I Know"...


Lithuania

Greta Zazza - "Like I Love You" : 6.5 (6)

Something for everyone visually here and as far as pop bangers go, this is a decent effort.  "Like I Love You" has a very basic studio staging that keeps you watching, even if it is just at Greta or the male dancers, whilst the song itself is listenable if fairly unremarkable.  There's not much to it but it is okay - what would have been interesting would have been if this had qualified for Kyiv instead of "Rain Of Revolution".


Those pesky synth background 'vocal sounds' appear here too - would this have bust Eurovision apart?  Probably not - I'm unsure if this is dynamic or interesting enough to have made the Eurovision Final but Greta is far better than Fusedmarc and I would have loved to see what the 'rules and regs' would have said about this one.  This is okay but nothing more - my 14th place...


Malta

Janice Mangion - "Kewkba" : 6.0 (6)

Now this could have been another first at Eurovision - the Maltese language being heard at the Contest for the first time.  I can see why the local crowd at MESC loved this but this didn't float my boat - it sounds 'all a bit Disney' throughout, the language doesn't flow very well and Janice's voice is very shrill at times, which makes the song have a strange broken quality at times.


I also remember Ray Caruana saying that Maltese isn't the nicest language to listen to as far as songs are concerned and that's coming from a 'local'!  Fans had issues with Claudia winning this year and taking "Breathlessly" to Kyiv - I think that in the end was the right choice.  It would be nice to hear Maltese at Eurovision - this just wasn't the song to do it with.  My 17th placing here...


Norway

Ella - "Mama's Boy" : 8.0 (8)

Now this is one of the better SCC entries this year and I'll put it out there that this is at 5th on my list.  Why?  "Mama's Boy" is a fun pop song, it is well constructed, the music is infectious and the lyrics are simple and therefore memorable.


When I heard the vocals beforehand, I imagined Ella being younger but she is superbly sassy and provides this entry with great vocals.  Unfortunately for her, JOWST took the crown for Norway this year and I cannot deny that finishing tenth was a great result for this nation - I cannot imagine that "Mama's Boy" would have done any better than that.  In the OGAE Second Chance Contest however, I could see this having an outside chance of a win.  There is also one other thing to say - euphemisms are better delivered subtly on stage than going for the 'sledgehammer to crack a walnut' approach.  Lesson learned, eh, Slavko?


Poland

Carmell - "Faces" : 6.5 (6)

Respect due to OGAE Poland, they could have easily put their entry up last as hosts but they stuck to the alphabetical running order, which is admirable.  It might also be that they were trying to hide their song, picking the sixth placed National Final finisher, the lowest placed SCC entry bar one that we'll come to next.  Carmell provides us with a nice calm ballad and a lovely smile throughout - unfortunately the song itself is all very underwhelming, no highs or lows to give this any sort of interest.


It seems to me that Carmell is a far better singer than this and "Faces" just doesn't allow her to show how good she really is - maybe with a different song, she would have been challenging Kasia for the Polish title.  As it is, Kasia was by far and away the choice for Kyiv - in my opinion, this would have been a definite DNQ.  15th on my list this year...


Portugal

Pedro Gonçalves – "Don’t Walk Away" : 9.0 (9)

As Portuguese entries go, "Don't Walk Away" would have been a massive improvement on the previous 48 attempts to make an impression at Eurovision.  This is fresh, it sounds great and as though it has been lifted from any English speaking pop chart in 2017 - Pedro has a certain onstage charm about him, almost Bieber-esque and would have appealed to the younger viewers watching the SF and Final.


I could have seen this make the top ten, even higher in Kyiv and for Portugal, that would have been a superb result and a major vindication of letting their acts sing in any language.  Alas for Pedro, he was only sixth and we all know who finished top in the fight to get to Ukraine, don't we?  There is no way that this would have been better or as good as Salvador Sobral - this was destiny stating that Portugal were going to get their first top five and victory at Eurovision.  All the other entries in Portugal are destined to be an afternote now but Pedro here has the opportunity to make it a Contest double, if others think the same as me.  I've got this one down as my 3rd place finisher in the SCC - there is a chance that this could win, as this is a pretty fine entry...


Slovenia

BQL – "Heart Of Gold" : 6.5 (7)

"Heart Of Gold" would be a decent pop song if you could get past the endlessly repetitive nature of the lyrics which almost sounds like the offering of someone who has never written a song before.  There is a nice musical accompaniment with guitar and piano, and the guys definitely know how to hold a camera pose but I couldn't work out why they start so far apart and then close in together.


The chorus hook is memorable purely because of it being sung over and over again but as an overall package I don't think it would have been strong enough to make it into the Kyiv Final.  Better than Omar?  Possibly but this is another entry that just passes me by - 13th place for me...


Spain

LeKlein - "Ouch!" : 6.5 (7)

If Eurovision was only about an entry's staging, its floor effects and how the artist looked, Spain should have sent LeKlein as all of those aspects were in place at the Spanish NF.  Le Klein even has an amazing voice and the music has an interesting rhythm and use of electronica but the downside for me with this entry was how and what she was singing - the lyrics are totally bizarre and the rhythm of their delivery is so confused.


In my opinion, if the vocals and the delivery had matched the look of this entry, this would have done well for Spain in Kyiv.  To be honest, as it stands it would have done better than Manel as LeKlein has a far better voice and is always in tune!  For the purposes of this Contest however, I have Spain down in 12th...


Sweden

Mariette - "A Million Years" : 8.0 (8)

So is it Mariette's 'thing' to have dreads and to always utilise as much of the props department of Melodifestivalen as possible, through the medium of contemporary dance?  "A Million Years" is a good song, sung really well and Mariette always connects with the camera, giving the viewer the wonderful sights and sounds of this entry.  The downside of this entry are the springing, diving dancers, who are all very, VERY distracting - it is almost as if she has to have someone on stage with her, that she feels that her own stage presence isn't enough to hold the viewer's attention.


As it was, the clear winner of 'Battle Of The Props' at MF this year was Robin Bengtsson.  This could still have an outside chance of the OGAE SCC crown this year though - I have this as my 7th place...


Ukraine

Tayanna - "I Love You" : 7.5 (7)

Even though Tayanna would have joined a bigger Eurovision 2017 subset (solo female ballads) if she had been chosen by Ukraine, this intense power ballad would have finished a damn sight higher than O.Torvald in Kyiv!  "I Love You" is a very emotive song...


Great performance and amazing vocals aside, there were a few downsides to this that might have been the reason for Tayanna not representing her nation.  If the naff removal of the red outfit (why?) could have been lost, the ending with the erratic vocal gymnastics tamed a bit and her rather 'breathy at times' vocals calmed down, this would have got a far better rating from me here too.  Those quibbles aside, this is a superb entry and I can still see this doing well in the Second Chance Contest - it got my 8th place...


United Kingdom

Hollie Brewer - "I Wish I Loved You More" : 7.5 (7)

Now Gary Spiers, the UK chairman for the OGAE Second Chance Contest, always gets us jurors to score our entry, despite our scores not counting towards our result.  My rating above took Holly to my number 10 ranking and deservedly so - despite trailing behind Lucie Jones, I had Holly down as runner up on the night of Eurovision : You Decide as "I Wish I Loved You More" was definitely 'best of the rest'.


That top note was hit superbly well and there was bags of emotional delivery to camera throughout.  I felt that this was a solid entry, rather than great - the lyrics and music were evangelical in tone and sounded a little strange coming from the lips of someone who had a very spoken 'TOWIE' accent.  The one thing I did enjoy was the backing singers during this entry, as they interacted really well with the lead singer.  I have to say that I don't think that this entry would have done as well as Lucie though - maybe even another bottom five for the UK?  Even so, this is an enjoyable entry, a great way to open up the UK NF and close the OGAE SCC 2017...

When you see the live shows, whether that is at home or at the venue itself, we Eurovision fans know that it is not all just 'thrown together'!  The artists and their backing singers are well honed by the time they perform their 3/6/9 minutes, knowing that their sound and visuals are the best they could be hopefully production-wise (unless you are Nina Sublatti in Vienna and have an over enthusiastic smoke machine).  There's a reason for this - numerous rehearsals at the venue, warm-up gigs at promo events and practice run throughs at 'home'.  Having said that, there is a very important artist who helps out the process enormously, someone who assists the host production team with how everything will look, how everything will sound, allowing the actual artist quality time during their two rehearsals to tweak their performance, rather than start totally from scratch.  That person?


Above is one of the most accomplished of these, Josephine Thunell from Sweden.  This nation has hosted twice in the last four years and seem to have this aspect of the show off pat, along with being the most open in letting these singers demonstrate their talents.  I am fascinated by the mimicry as far as vocals and actions are concerned, so much so that I wanted to flag up some of these and discuss how they caught my eye.  The actual job of being a stand-in singer is something that has been covered far better elsewhere - Ben Robertson interviewed David Rodriguez-Yanez, one of the Vienna singers and his article gives a fascinating insight into how these guys and gals apply, get chosen and go about singing the Eurovision entries.  In fact, let's start with the man himself (David, not Ben) and a medley of the songs he sung in 2015:



I have to say that he sung "Hour Of The Wolf" possibly better than Elnur - admittedly he had dancers who kept a wider berth from him!  So David was one of the better ones - I've picked ten of the artists that stood out for me, not always in an amazing vocal way but some that demonstrated how something that is visually technically complex can be helped immensely just by having extra run throughs before the main artist appears.  It seems as though the sharing of these performances on social media has only recently happened over the last few years - hopefully we'll see some more of these in Portugal 2018.

I will not embed the 'actual entry' in this post but will supply a link - have a watch of the finished article and you will see how superb some of these singers are at matching the vocals AND even acting the choreography.  Most of the time this is as good as and sometimes a LOT better than the competing artist...


Josephine Thunell



Of all the stand-in artists that I have watched via the footage on YouTube, Vimeo etc., Josephine impressed me the most.  To be given "Sound Of Silence" to sing, now having watched Dani Im absolutely blow the Globen apart twice with this, you couldn't believe that anyone else could come close to singing this song to the same standard.  Josephine gives it a damn good go, in my humble opinion, and apart from the show stopping top notes that really only Dami could hit, Ms Thunell really makes this song her own and for me does a better job with the acting and camera connection, being more believable with the emotional connection of the song.  She even coped with the two guys getting her down from the cube - something that SVT would have wanted to get lots of rehearsal time for!

Not only did Josephine have to nail 2016's runner-up song, she also had to deal with the song that so messed with my head last year that I can only now think of the term "Operation MindF**k" (thanks to Frankie Boyle) when I hear it:



Well done Josephine, although this entry will never be one I listen to as a matter of choice!  Another performance that matched the staging to a tee, although once moved onto stage front there wasn't anywhere near as much choreography as "Sound Of Silence" - no 'Minority Report' copies here.  I think that "Icebreaker" suited Agnete's voice better and she gave more emotion to camera in her SF performance (easier to do with a song you've been singing for several months, rather than a few days) but vocally they were both on point and I could easily have listened to Josephine singing either the Australian or Norwegian entries.

Could I see Josephine Thunell at Eurovision sometime in the future?  Just judging from these two videos, she has the voice and the stage presence to at least be given the chance to be in Melodifestivalen, assuming she went via her own nation's NF - it is just that it is all so damn competitive!  I'll be keeping an eye out via her website, just in case - not difficult to do when the subject has such striking looks...


Nanna Kovalova



And so we pass from the best stand-in that I have seen overall to by far and away the best in Kyiv.  Nanna got the chance to sing in front of Lucie's 'glass mirrored shell' and did a superb job - she too has an amazing voice and gave a decent delivery, more understated than the actual entry itself, where Lucie went a 'bit too theatrical' at times.  Listening to this and the original, I couldn't separate them - another artist who perhaps deserves more attention and who might have more of a chance of appearing at Eurovision through the Ukrainian route.  Following on from this masterclass in being a stand-in, Nanna was also 'Blanche for three minutes':



Anyone else feel that Nanna had to rein herself in vocally with this one?  Even she couldn't resist singing at her normal range and volume towards the end of "City Lights", suggesting that Blanche's deep tones are quite difficult to reproduce by most female singers.  I have to say that I prefer Nanna smiling though, something she got to do more of in her final showing as stand-in in Kyiv, along with Sasha and Anna, shining like a beacon when compared to the others:



I think it shows that Miss Kovalova perhaps felt more comfortable singing in English and she coped with being 'Lisa' admirably!  One third of OG3NE being excellent is better than none at all.  She was definitely the best vocalist of all the stand-ins I have seen from this year and it will be interesting to see if she ever pops up at a Ukrainian NF - I'll be monitoring her Facebook page for more news...


Ellen Benediktson



Now this is the lady that showed that a stand-in singer can truly make anything happen and that dreams can come true!  Ellen smoulders into the camera and sizzles with her delivery during this absolute technical masterclass, providing superb French vocals and wonderful tone that for me was better delivered than Amandine Bourgeois.  Slightly more 'one of your female mates jokingly trying to seduce you' than Amandine's 'femme fatale' staging but I love this teasing performance and I could have seen this doing better than 23rd in Malmö.  It was obvious that someone at SVT saw Ellen's potential too, as her career took off and she had the chance to sing at Melodifestivalen twice (Songbird in 2014, Insomnia in 2015).  This is what all stand-ins are likely to be aspiring to...


Isabelle Larm



Now it can't do an artist's ego much good at all when they watch the footage from a technical rehearsal such as the one above and feel that the stand-in is doing a far better job with the material provided than you are!  I say that because, to be  brutally honest, Isabelle Larm's interpretation of "Sing It Away" was infinitely better than Sandhja's ever was.  Whereas the Finn in the ill fitting blue jumpsuit went for the sassy street approach, Isabelle went for full on fun and the rehearsal here blew the socks off of Sandhja's short lived Eurovision career.  Isabelle's vocals flowed effortlessly, she was always in tune, even when on the move between main and satellite stage and EVERYONE on the stage danced and interacted really well - unlike the 'real deal'.  A far more entertaining show here and I am certain that Isabelle would have got Finland to the Stockholm Final, no doubt about it.  She might even have managed to get FYR Macedonia there too:



Yep, it was Isabelle again, this time giving a more controlled and thoughtful performance with the Kaliopi ballad "Dona".  Given that she was singing phonetically in a totally foreign language to her own, this sounds absolutely flawless, at least to a non-Macedonian.  Isabelle has an absolutely amazing voice and acts this wonderfully well, keeping the viewer (okay, me) totally transfixed throughout, more so than Kaliopi did during her SF showing.  Miss Larm is the sort of singer that could be given anything to sing and it sound spot on every time.  Another one to watch out for at Melodifestivalen, perhaps?  She was definitely pushing Josephine for the title of 'best Stockholm stand-in'...


Droboutiuk Andrii



Just to prove that there are male stand-ins too, here is one from Kyiv who provided technical data for two of the 'ones to watch' of 2017, Hungary and Italy.  It was a tough ask for Droboutiuk, being asked to sing in Hungarian/Romani and Italian but he did a great job, judging by these videos.  "Origo" sounds as good as the original, although it is difficult to tell for someone not versed in that language and the use of the bongo instead of the 'milk pail' is genius (if you watch other technical shows, there is a lot of ingenuity when it comes to instruments)!  There is a big difference in the interpretative dance however and the dancer used - tall pale skinned redhead against Alexandra's olive skin and jet black hair.  It's probably best to ignore the violinist's moves - not needing to mimic playing their instruments seems to be a common thread amongst all these rehearsals!  Onto the Italian entry and the Sanremo 'clean uncluttered version' was still the template being used:



Forget the very ropey backing singers and 'Ale!' shouts here, this guy does a half decent job of matching Francesco's fun, cheekiness and on-stage presence, at least enough for the Italian delegation to get a good idea of how "Occidentali's Karma" might have looked if they had stuck to the Sanremo version, rather than the visually cluttered OTT mess that we ended up with in the Final.  What probably was obvious was the 'second verse' break in the technical rehearsal, something that Francesco did well to hide throughout his Eurovision campaign.  All in all, Droboutiuk Andrii did a damn fine job with two entries that weren't in his native tongue or in English, a no mean feat - something to bear in mind if you ever want to be a stand-in singer at Eurovision...


Lesya Falina



These technical rehearsals aren't just there to test the sound systems as these singers provide some superb vocals, they are also there to check camera angles and how well artistic concepts work (or not).  Watch the above video again with Lesya acting out Dihaj's role during "Skeletons" - her vocals aren't as crisp and clear as the Azeri singer but she provides a lot of information for the host broadcaster and the Azerbaijan delegation as to what arguably was the most theatrical staging we had in Kyiv.  All of the singer's movements had to be tracked by camera, many here didn't succeed but it did on the night - all of the chalk drawing motions had to be mimicked to check they would work and also whether the camera would successfully deal with the guy up the step ladder!  No horse head on a male model here, just a black hat on a roadie!  Lesya did a fine job acting this out and I feel that this was the main object of the exercise - Dihaj's vocals are very refined, very measured and those didn't need checking but all of the visual imagery did.

This is where the technical rehearsals lay a lot of the ground work for the delegations before the actual artist arrives - camera angles and how everything will tie in together are 95% complete, allowing only tweaks necessary over the two rehearsals during Eurovision fortnight.  It was worth the solitary clap just for that...


Frida Linnell


Sometimes a technical rehearsal shows you simply how damn good the actual artist's voice is and '1944' is that one.  Frida Linnell gives an excellent rendition of the winning song from Stockholm, her high notes and wails almost as good in tone as Jamala's but for most of this I realised that '1944' is one of those songs that only sounds right being sung by the original artist, her jazz background fits in perfectly with the rhythms of the entry and her personal perspective and connection with the lyrics cannot be felt in the same way by another singer.  Decent effort though by Frida and this outing confirmed that technically 'simple is often best'...


Aksel Mörk & Vanja Lehtola



Sometimes these technical rehearsals are just to confirm some sort of special effects are doing what they are supposed to do, whilst others check that switching camera angles continually appear effortless and not too disturbing to the viewer.  Aksel was involved in both Georgia and Bosnia & Herzegovina's entries in 2016 - "Midnight Gold" mainly involved him pretending to be the laid back Nika Kocharov singing about 'the night before' and allowing the production staff to check that their camera tricks from the 1990s looked okay.  One aspect that stood out for me here was that all the lyrics were clearly audible and the story of the song told a lot better - a lot of the energy and charisma of the Georgian group was missing though, only to be expected when singing another band's song.  As for the Bosnian entry, that was a totally different 'kettle of fish':



There were lots of visual aspects to cover here, the camera shots from either side of the barbed wire, watching the Ana Rucner replacement 'play' her cello and the Jala stand-in lip-syncing the Bosnian rap (SVT obviously decided that even that level of rap couldn't be entrusted to anyone else!).  What is the amazing part about this performance is the vocals themselves - Aksel and the excellent Vanja Lehtola both singing in Bosnian with only days to learn it word for word perfect.  When I read the comments section to the video, native speakers were extremely impressed with how they did with the lyrics and some even prefered this version to the Deen and Dalal live show in the 2016 SF.  Whether the predominance of black here convinced the B&H delegation to brighten things up with colourful costumes for Dalal and Ana, we'll perhaps never know, but this performance by Aksel and Vanja was superb and a enthralling watch.  Aksel did also stand-in for Sergey Lazarev too but there is no real footage of that available (that would be absolutely amazing to see)...


Art Demur



I didn't feel that the stand-in performance for this year's winner could be ignored, especially as Salvador effectively had TWO other artists 'testing the water' for him (if you include his sister taking on the 'real rehearsal' duties for him).  If "Amar Pelos Dios" wasn't getting you at the vocal and lyrical level, maybe the simplicity of the staging, with the singer owning the satellite stage, tipped the scales in Portugal's favour.  Watching Art here sing this song absolutely beautifully, admittedly without Salvador's 'mannerisms', showed that having no special effects or backdrops with this entry was obviously the way to go.  Even this version makes me feel all nostalgic and smile as the last note is sung, a testament to Art's delivery.  Someone else must have thought that this artist was something special - he made it onto the Kyiv stage as one of Nathan Trent's backing singers:
As this picture from his website would prophesy, he was the singer far left of the crescent moon on the Kyiv stage...


Now I could be wrong, not having an encyclopaedic knowledge of Eurovision in my head but only access to the right keywords on Google, social media and the musical upload websites, but it appears that only the last couple of years have really shown off the better stand-in rehearsals, which is a shame as I suspect that there have been the odd 'OMG' performances like the final one that I wanted to flag up for you all.


A decent heavy rock entry in the studio, sadly lacking the same vocal power in the 2012 SF with Max singing it live and that was why it didn't make the Final.  Max didn't give it much in the way of watchability either - maybe if he had watched this 'stand in' show, he might have got some tips:



Yes, this is all totally lip-synched (maybe having the type and calibre of stand-in rehearsals from the ten artists above only started in 2013?) but these guys are giving it everything and enjoying the craic of being on stage, rocking it out and even getting some canned 'crowd goes mad cheering' for their efforts!  Max appreciated this when he saw it:

I would love to know who these guys are, as neither the YouTube comments section nor Max's Facebook timeline actually say - their roadies perhaps?  Some of Baku's production staff?  Whoever they are, they showed that you can just be 'mucking around' (as Mélanie René might have once sung) to the studio version playing on stage or as I would prefer to see it continue...

Those ten singers that I have picked out prove that this stage of the process is a vital one for the production staff and it can be potentially a big boost to their careers - here's to some young Portuguese singers joining the roll call!

Cheryl and Mike let themselves go in later years, didn't they?  I jest, this was Deborah Meaden from the BBC programme "Dragon's Den" and her dance partner Robin Windsor, dancing the jive on "Strictly Come Dancing" to Bucks Fizz and "Making Your Mind Up".  This was one of the few times that a Eurovision song has accompanied the dancing on the Saturday night ratings winner that is SCD in the UK - around the world it tends to be known as "Dancing With The Stars" or "Let's Dance".  Whatever it is called, the music used for the dance on show is so, SO important and can be the difference between a great dance and one that leaves the celebrity in the 'dreaded dance off' for survival.

Being a massive Eurovision fan AND a SCD viewer too, I wondered if I could fit Eurovision songs to particular dances from these popular shows.  Of course, it didn't always mean that the dances ended up being as good as the songs:

Enough said on that one perhaps but it is an example of a Eurovision song being used for the jive, perhaps the easiest dance genre to fit a bouncy, rock 'n' roll sounding pop song to.  By the way, in case you hadn't realised, these shows use 'house singers' and not the original tracks, but picking holes in how these songs are sung was not my goal here, it was to see if all the dance styles used in these talent shows could be accompanied by a Eurovision song.
Now I have no dance talent whatsoever and my musical knowledge extends to 'I know what I like but technically I don't know why'.  In other words, I don't know an A minor from a C Major nor do I have a clue about what beats per minute a pop song has or what time signature it is.  I really thought that this was going to be a thankless task and that I wouldn't get very far but through the power of the internet (via Wiki mainly), I have found that Eurovision songs HAVE been used widely for most of the dances, all over Europe.  Some appear to be obvious choices, some less so - I will start with the dance styles where the genre of music we all love has been used and then I will move onto those dances that seem to have been ignored.  With these handful, I have found that some Eurovision STARS have danced to them Strictly-stylee though and have included those too.  There is even a special Freestyle dance for you all to enjoy at the end!  So here goes - I think we'll start with a ballroom style and a performance from the UK show last year...


Viennese Waltz - "Boom-Bang-A-Bang"



I have to say that I was always puzzled that it took fourteen series of Strictly for this song to feature, more so considering that Lulu herself was in the 2011 series!  Even to my untrained ear, the beat and rhythm of this song just screamed 'Viennese Waltz' to me, as it seems to fit perfectly with the whirling and twirling of the dance.  As Eurovision songs go, "Boom Bang-A-Bang" has a lot of humour flowing through it and the choreography here compliments it beautifully.  27 out of 40 scored in the fourth week of Strictly's 2016 series - Judge Rinder and Oksana reached the QF in the end but there wasn't any time for another Eurovision song.  I won't hold my breath for another anytime soon in the UK version but having the 1969 winning entry as the sole example of the genre being linked with a Viennese Waltz is a good place to start...


Rumba - "Is It True?"



Now the Swedish version of Strictly (Let's Dance) had embraced Eurovision entries wholeheartedly, as you might expect of a nation with one of the most popular NF series and enjoying a purple patch at the Contest for much of the 2010s.  There are lots of examples of songs across various dance styles - the first one I wanted to focus on was the Rumba, the slow dance of love, often painful to watch due to most celebrities not wanting to release themselves into being passionate with a dance partner they barely know!  What was most interesting here is the celebrity dancer - Molly Sandén, 'veteran' of JESC and Melodifestivalen:
All the more reason perhaps to include Eurovision songs during her routines and who can deny that Yohanna's "Is It True?" is a superb choice of love song and therefore a prime candidate for the Rumba?  The version used in "Let's Dance" has much the same vocal treatment as the Eurovision entry we all know and love but the instrumentation has been 'sexed up', swapping strings and drums to a heavier guitar sound and a slower beat.  Definitely a song to dance sensually to but perhaps difficult for a 17 year old (as she was in 2010) - Molly struggled with this dance and ended up with a very low score (10/40)!  Luckily for her, this was only week two - she survived to end up 4th overall...


Cha Cha Cha - "J'aime la vie" / "Hard Rock Hallelujah"



Norway's version of Strictly seems to love Eurovision as much as Sweden - during one week of "Skal vi danse?" in 2011, all seven couples danced either the Jive or the Cha Cha Cha to Eurovision songs, admittedly some of those being very unusual choices.  I've included two of the Cha Cha dances here, as they are SO different in their choreography and more so in the songs used!  The first one above has got Sandra Kim's winning Belgian entry from 1983 supplying the tempo for the Cuban dance that supposedly uses the shuffling sound of the dancers' feet for its name.  Not only do we have a Eurovision song, we also have a Eurovision artist dancing too - Stella Mwangi of "Haba Haba" fame, who was riding high in 2011 with a number one song (that admittedly didn't qualify for the Düsseldorf Final) and who ended up 4th in season 7 of Norway's favourite dance contest.  This routine got her four 9s and 36/40 - no mean feat at any Strictly show.  We moved on from Eurovision teen pop for my next example - on the same show there was yet another Eurovision winning song, this time heavy metal:



I know, "Hard Rock Hallelujah" - really?  I would have thought it more of a Paso Doble song (we'll get there in a minute) but whether it is because, as in Eurovision, this musical genre is SO different to what is normally served up, and that the choreography, dancing and lifts were spot on, Lordi's anthem worked amazingly well for this Cha Cha Cha.  The look and the attitude from both the celebrity and dancer (Atle, a pop singer, and Marianne eventually won this season) were transfixing too and that probably explained the 37/40 score.  Different styles and yet both successful in their own way - a fitting tribute to the only 'all Eurovision week' anywhere in the Strictly world:
I suspect that only Sweden's "Let's Dance" might repeat this sometime - hell would probably have to freeze over for the BBC to put up seven Eurovision songs in a week, seeing it took until season 6 for the first ESC song to be used and we have only had THREE Eurovision songs over 14 seasons of shows (four if you include "Volare" by The Gypsy Kings, something I will have to do here)!


Paso Doble - "Fairytale"



Now this is where I was expecting the heavy metal winner of 2006 to have been used, dance wise.  The dance that is modelled after the sounds, the drama and the movement of the Spanish bullfight is all passion, aggression, sharp movements and very stylised arm and leg positioning.  Out of all the dancing shows with any information about the songs, I found only two examples with Eurovision songs - one was Carola's "Främling" from 1983 (which on closer listen does have the necessary rhythm for a Paso but still seems too nice) and the second was Alexander Rybak's classic "Fairytale".  Not exactly something would have imagined at a bullfight but when you hear how the house band has adapted the 2009 winning song, made it more 'Spanish', it suddenly comes to life as a song that the dancers can utilise their attack, their fight and put in all those sharp moves.  Anyone who remembers reading my piece about "Fairytale" all the way back in 2013 will know that his dancers performed the Norwegian folk dance "Halling" during the winning performance in Moscow, so the song itself was recognised as fitting with certain dance genres anyway.  Andrine Flemmen (alpine skier) and her partner Lars did enough to survive week two of "Skal vi danse?" season 6 in 2010 with a score of 24/40 - it's all a bit static and not particularly passionate or aggressive but she does have 'good arms' and I have seen a lot worse...


Jive - "Waterloo" 



Well it took six series but Strictly eventually used the most recognisable Eurovision song ever.  As I said in my preamble, the Jive is a dance that suits a lot of pop songs and "Waterloo" is no exception, especially when it is danced by the eventual champions of 2008, Tom Chambers (actor) and Camilla Dallerup.  By the time they got to dance this routine, we were at the SF and despite this being a damn fine routine, the 33/40 it was awarded left it as the lowest scored dance of the night.  There was not much to change to the song itself (except shorten it to 90 seconds for the length of the dance) - instantly recognisable and an entry that everyone can dance to, even if the majority of Eurovision fans would do something resembling a 'disco two step' rather than these flicks, kicks and party tricks!  Other Eurovision songs that have been used around the worldwide Strictly franchise for this sort of routine?  "Fångad av en stormvind" (totally get that, just listen to the drum beats and watch Carola's routine in Rome, there's almost some leg flicks there already), "La Det Swinge" (a little slower paced, some Strictly shows have had a "Rock 'n' Roll" section, maybe more suited to that?) and even "Stay The Night" (see?  Any pop song can be used for the Jive)...


Quickstep - "Satellite"
I would have to say that of all the Eurovision songs that have been used in any of the formats around the world, there have been two that are nailed on perfect for their dance - the first was "Boom-Bang-A-Bang" for the Viennese Waltz, the second is Lena's "Satellite" for the Quickstep.  As EVERY SINGLE CELEBRITY on the planet would say about this dance, there are a lot of steps and it is quick!  The winning song from Oslo 2010 was used for the pairing of Rebecca Mir (model) and Massimo Sinató, the eventual runners-up in 2012 in "Let's Dance Germany" and to me this dance (Lets Dance Quickstep) was nigh on perfect (although they only got 35/40 from the judges).  Apologies for the link only here, Germany doesn't like YouTube and RTL likes to keep its shows tightly held to their websites!  Rebecca and Massimo mimic the fun and light-heartedness of the rhythm and beat of the 'obsessed love song' that is "Satellite" but do it in a "beautiful girl makes geeky guy's night" sort of a way.  Like Lena performing in Oslo, this routine is extremely watchable and made me smile but whether Lena's bobbing on the stage was elegant, smooth and glamorous - everything a Quickstep should be - is another matter!  By the way, you know how we saw "Fairytale" used for a Paso?  It's also been used for this dance style too...


Foxtrot - "Survivor"



It might have only come fourth in Melodifestivalen 2014 behind Alcazar, Ace Wilder and Sanna Nielsen but Helena Paparizou's song "Survivor" has made it as a "Let's Dance" song!  Sweden's TV4, much like RTL in Germany, severely restrict what non-Swede's can see of their shows so thank goodness for this video, shown from a very different perspective.  The Foxtrot, smooth and characterised by long, continuous flowing movements across the dance floor, is know as 'SlowFox" in Sweden and other European nations, but whatever it is called, it is a popular dance that lends itself well to pop music, something that had evolved from its initial link to blues and ragtime.  Admittedly "Survivor" isn't anything like "Rock Around The Clock", one of the biggest selling 'foxtrot records' of all time but the rousing chorus by Helena does lend itself nicely to the rhythm required.  Marie Serneholt (singer and model) and her partner Kristjan Lootus appeared to make a good fist of this dance, getting 20/30 in week two and putting them second on the leaderboard, ironically where they finished in the Final too.  If TV4 had been more accommodating, there were other examples of SlowFox and Eurovision songs - "Why Am I Crying" by Molly Sandén, Charlotte Perrelli's "Hero" and even the tour de force that is "Heroes"...


Samba - "Volare"



Okay, so I have taken a few liberties to find a suitable song for the Samba but this was the only example of a Eurovision song being used...sort of!  Of course the original was the third placed Italian entry from 1958 that we all know and love ("Nel blu dipinto di blu") by Domenico Modugno but that would never be fast enough for Samba, a dance that is lively, rhythmical and influenced by the Brazilian version that is "maxixe" (Wiki is a very useful tool sometimes).  Using the Gipsy Kings' version of the song (part Italian, part Spanish) gives this routine the necessary flow and action needed to push the Samba moves through and make this look dynamic, fast and entertaining.  Georgia May (actress) and Giovanni got 35/40 for this and it helped them reach the Final, where they finished runners-up.  I wonder if Domenico had any idea how commercial his 1958 song would become and that it might be used as the basis for a Strictly routine 57 years later...


Waltz - "Movin' On"
Now this dance genre has really annoyed me!  There is only one reference to any Eurovision song being used with the Waltz at a Strictly type show and for the life of me I cannot find any footage of it to link to here.  The song itself was from this lady in 2009:



Sounds a fairly solid track to dance a Waltz to - the clockwork ticking sets the pace perfectly and the changes in mood and rhythm with the chorus kicking in would lend itself well to any couple being whisked around the dance floor, performing no end of spin turns, Chassés and Fleckerls.  The only example of Eurovision and Waltz crossover happened in the 2012 version of "Let's Dance" in Sweden, where Sarah Dawn's song was danced to by Camilla Henemark and Tobias Karlsson.  Think you recognise the lady in the picture above?  Here is where you might have seen her but 26 years ago:



To be honest, I just wanted to throw that video in here, just so it was in my blog.  Imagine those three at Eurovision...


Now at this point I had run out of examples of Eurovision songs that had been used for different dance styles and that was over all Strictly franchises around the world, at least the ones that had credited those songs via the internet.  I was going to just pick some random Eurovision songs that might fit the four dance styles that don't seem to have been covered:

• Salsa
• Charleston
• Tango
• Argentine Tango

Salsa - Gabriela Gunčíková



In Stockholm she came across as a very refined and reserved artist, almost like an 'ice queen' at times but Gabriela's demeanour during the fifth season of "Let's Dance Slovakia" was totally carefree, fun and flirtatious.  One of the highest finishing Czech celebrities of this version of Strictly, Gabriela still only finished seventh in Slovakia - she did attempt the Salsa, which fortunately fills one of my vacant dance styles!  Judging by the knee support on her left leg, she was carrying an injury during this extremely energetic and fast paced dance, not the best genre to be attempting with a bad knee.   She got 23/40 for this dance - her other dances are on YouTube, showing that she at least made it through two more rounds.  She might not have won but I have to say that I could watch the rehearsal footage of Gabriela all day...


Charleston - Alexander Rybak



Now Alexander can't be a winner every time, can he?  Let's Dance 2011 saw him come fourth in Sweden but he did nail a very classic Charleston here with his dance partner Malin - he definitely has the face and the mobility for the dance, with all its tricks and wacky arm and leg movements.  Even so, comparing this to most other dances of its type, this is quite restrained and a bit subdued - it does look as though Alexander wants to do more outlandish things than his partner did!  Solid and competent for me rather than outstanding - even so, at least he got to near the end of his season, more than this other Eurovision winner did...


Tango - Lulu



Or "That Bloody Lulu", as a lot of Strictly fans imagined her partner Brendan Cole would be calling her!  It is not a secret that the UK's 1969 winning artist and the former 'bad boy' of the UK show did NOT get on at all throughout their short run up to week six when they danced this Tango.  There were no Eurovision songs for her, not even her song featured way back up at the start of this article - this dance got the pair 27/40 which wasn't a bad score but it did lead to them being eliminated and them both breathing a huge sigh of relief!  It's not a bad Tango, given that Lulu is being hauled around the floor at times and it is obvious that her partner was still in his 'look at me, not at her' phase.  Decent footwork but Lulu's head flicks just ended up with her face being hidden by her hair!  There are quite a few ESC winners who fill the gaps with these final dances - my favourite Eurovision Beauty even makes an appearance...


Argentine Tango - Helena Paparizou



Now this is labelled as a Tango by the original poster but for those in the know, this is at the very least an Argentine Tango-inspired freestyle dance that the divine Helena performed on "So You Think You Can Dance" in Greece.  All of the intimacy, sensuality and eroticism are there in this spell-binding dance that is always one of the more popular ones when performed well - the entwining of and the flicks between the dancer's legs never cease to amaze and entrance the viewer.  This dance adds lots of lifts and spins but the basis of it is an Argentine Tango.  Ironically Helena looks to have this dance off pat and yet four years later, when participating in Sweden during the 2012 season of "Let's Dance", she found herself knocked out at the second elimination stage, despite being joint top of the leaderboard at stage one and a respectable 5th out of 9 the week she went home.  Any fan of Strictly shows knows that sometimes shock results happen...


Freestyle - Ruth Lorenzo



Now here is a little bonus that some of you might remember - a matter of weeks before she sung "Dancing In The Rain" in Copenhagen, Ruth showed her versatility by singing her Eurovision entry AND performing contemporary dance at the same time.  Giuseppe Di Bella helped her re-create her promotional video in the studio and boy, did they do a good job!  Admittedly Ruth sounded vocally a little weak at times but when you look at the dance moves there, I would defy any singer to have spot on sound when being tossed and spun through the air at the same time!  There were rumours at the time that this might be the choreography at Eurovision - sensibly perhaps, Ruth went for the traditional "stand on stage and belt it out" route.  Edurne, on the other hand, thought that singing and performing a freestyle dance would work perfectly...


And so we have found either a song or an artist for every dance popular to the Strictly Come Dancing Franchise - Sweden and Norway showing the way when it comes to using Eurovision songs as the accompanying music to dances, whereas most countries have had Eurovision artists participating in their versions of the shows.  We have even seen two ESC stars WIN their Strictly titles - let's just say that one of them had a 'Hero' in their showdance and the other always had 'rhythm' in whatever dance they portrayed....



The days when Måns had quite a different look but gave a very entertaining show dance - not sure I've seen too many martial arts kicks in a dance routine before!  A clear winner in "Let's Dance 2006" with his partner Maria Karlsson (Anna Book was runner-up)...



And you just knew that Loïc was destined for so much more than finishing fourth in Vienna when you saw his spins on stage - the producers of "Danse Avec Les Stars" must have realised that too.  Head and shoulders above the rest, he and his partner Denitsa Ikonomova blew everyone else away with stunning routines such as the one above, the pair getting a perfect score in the Final to win the competition.

But not everyone linked to Eurovision has performed so well at this dancing lark.  When you hear Scott Mills, BBC commentator at the SFs, taking the piss of other nation's entries and providing so-called comedy interval acts with Mel Giedroyc, just picture him as a crab who can barely walk across a stage, let alone dance:



At least Joanne got to dance with Ore Oduba, the winner in 2016, as compensation for having to choreograph for Mills the series before.  So if you think that you can't dance and have two left feet...

Whenever the Swiss seem to get something right in recent years, as above at "ESC 2017 – Entscheidungsshow" where Timebelle presented a very classic look to "Apollo", they then seem to 'go a bit mad with the staging' when they get to the Eurovision stage:

Yellow and Candy Pink - not my favourite look and Miruna's face sums it all up perfectly!

Now as entries go, "Apollo" was not that bad but up against the variety found in SF2 (Bulgaria, Hungary, O'G3NE, JOWST, "that bloody yodelling song" to name a few), this slow paced pop song, best of the pack in Switzerland, fell short when it came to qualifying for this year's Eurovision Final (admittedly only by four points).  Its failure was the third DNQ in a row for the Swiss, and the NINTH in the last ELEVEN years.  An pretty poor record, putting the Swiss almost on a par with minnows like San Marino - staging alone cannot account for this.  This year's song and vocals were pretty decent, as were acts like Mélanie René with "Time To Shine":

But 'decent' ain't enough in the cut throat world of Eurovision Final qualification and Switzerland's recent 'specialism' of sending female vocalists (yes, Timebelle really was all about Miruna Mănescu) just has not worked.  The only time recently that this nation has reached the Final and got any success there was with this guy:
Why was that?  Upbeat song, charismatic and handsome singer, instrumentation on stage, visual interest with movement and pyros - Sebalter had it all and it proved that there are artists out there who could do the job for Switzerland.  It is just a question of finding them...

The process over the past few years has been gradually truncated - originally we had an 'Internet submission stage' that led onto the "Expert Check stage", long before we got to the NF.  Possibly now in the knowledge that this hasn't succeeded in providing an entry that can make it to the Final at Eurovision,  in came the Swedes:

#Eurovision-Workshop with the Swedes. Thanx Christer Björkman & Martin Österdahl! ​🇨🇭​​🇸🇪​ #ESC2018#srfESC#Switzerland#SRF#Portugal2018pic.twitter.com/hTztJwadMi

— SRF ESC (@srfesc) June 30, 2017

Some of you will know where this reference comes from but for those of you not old enough to be alive in September 1976, this is the classic comedy sketch from which it is lifted:

As for Eurovision, maybe it was as well - "Save All Your Kisses For Me" had won at the Contest that April (yep, it wasn't always May for the Final) with what could be considered the first effective choreographed staging.  Talking about UK winners, it was only just before my last birthday post that I eventually finished my review of the fifth and last one from Katrina And The Waves.  It just shows you how involved I have become with Eurovision in general now - so many categories I was going to cover that I listed during the first few months of this blog, all the way back in July 2013, so few completed!  So what has happened during year 4 then?  Much different to the previous three?  Let's recap:

Nothing to do with Eurovision but everything to do with the Portuguese musical genre of 'Fado' ("destiny, fate"), the classic song that is "Coimbra" by Amália Rodrigues, the 'Rainha do Fado' ("Queen of Fado"), is also known as "April in Lisbon".  And I suppose that is what we got, if you include the start of the Eurovision rehearsals next year probably being either Sunday 29th or Monday 30th April 2018.  Yes, we now know the location and the dates of Eurovision 2018.  First up, what was probably the most obvious part of the plan, the location:

Is it just guys of a certain age that will look at the picture above and see Virgil's 'baby', Thunderbird 2, before its green paint job?  It does look like a great big spaceship though and I have to say that it will be as iconic a stadium as The Globen was for Eurovision visually.  Judging by the acts that have frequented the MEO Arena (for that is its proper title), it can also cope with a big musical event like the Contest and it is obvious that the EBU and RTP agreed, as this is going to be the 2018 venue...in the capital city of Portugal, Lisbon (that's for those fans of the biggest international music show who do not know any geography!).

Portugal's first ever Contest as a host so surely the capital city was always going to get the nod - somewhere with the right combination of hotels, tourist facilities, the biggest international airport in the country, good internal travel arrangements and of course the largest Arena.
It was nice for the EBU and RTP to make it sound as though there would be a selection process with other interested cities  (Braga, Gondomar, Guimarães and Santa Maria da Feira) but was there any real possibility that Eurovision 2018 would be staged anywhere else?  Not only do we have the largest venue for music in Portugal but also amongst the five largest in Europe, capable of hosting huge world pop acts with attendances up to 20000 fans (although seating tends to be 12500).  Now have a look at how things could look next May - Adele used the traditional 'stage at the front with a satellite at the front' (remind you of any Contest?):

Whereas Muse went for the 'perform in the centre' staging (that would sort the 'men from the boys' at Eurovision):
And @kinu_unik on Twitter has already transposed the 2016 stage into the MEO to give an idea of what a Eurovision stage would look like in there:
This was all announced on the evening of 25th July, one of the earliest yet - only Oslo, Malmö and Stockholm were announced before that date and we are only talking a matter of a few weeks!  Whether there was only lip service to the other cities in Portugal being given a chance to host, we may never know, but only the capital city had all the boxes ticked to host a modern day Eurovision Song Contest.  Even the dates were predicted in advance - an eleventh hour rumour that the Contest might be held in the first week of May were scotched with this announcement:

Okay, so Rex Harrison and the ill fated original "Doctor Dolittle" film allowed him to communicate with animals by talking and singing but "Talk To The Animals", despite winning an Oscar for Best Original Song in 1968, would never have been a good Eurovision entry that year.  Mainly because the UK had a certain mega pop star singing perhaps the most recognisable song to ever be sung at the Contest, but more importantly as Eurovision has never really attracted entries that have mention of any sort of animal in their title.  Want to have a guess as to how many out of the 1479 songs sung to date (July 2017) have focused on any species other than humanity?

Not many, is it (assuming I have found them all, after translating all the titles)?  0.8% of the total - apparently composers and artists want to sing about love and matters of the heart (I know, how would that work?) but out of those dozen songs we have one winner and two runner-ups, not a bad strike rate at all!  Maybe a tip for those Eurovision songwriters out there?

As there aren't that many, I thought that a gentle passage across the Contests was called for, where song one is, well...song 1 and the twelfth example is song 1444.  There's a mixture of gentle chanson, passionate ballads, quirky novelty acts and even performance art to enjoy - one or two of my all-time favourites are in there too.  The only focus is on the songs themselves, not animal imagery on stage or the backdrop as there are loads of examples of those.  So here we go - let's start from the very beginning, as Maria von Trapp might have sung...


Jetty Paerl - "De Vogels van Holland"



As mentioned above, this song's major claim to fame is that it was the first ever sung at the Eurovision Song Contest, song number 1, one of two that year by Jetty Paerl for The Netherlands.  It finished in second place, as did every song apart from "Refrain", and was one of many, many entries throughout the Contest's history that extols the virtues of its nation.  If you have listened to any of the early shows, this being a typical chanson style will not be of any surprise at all - gentle and swaying, classically presented and performed by a vocal specialist, no bum notes, everything sung absolutely perfectly.


Apparently the birds all sing better in The Netherlands due to better water and perhaps bizarrely the girls being "so sweet" and "so faithful" ("Zijn de meisjes zo lief, zijn de meisjes zo trouw") - that was how women were perceived in 1950s Europe....


Bob Martin - "Wohin, kleines Pony?"



Year two of Eurovision and we have our second entry that goes really heavy on the animal content, with pet's favourite (the UK readers will get that reference) Bob Martin asking his equine companion where they should go for the day.  In the days of chanson, this little ditty is quite the uptempo number (relatively) and Bob has a very listenable tone which goes perfectly with the brass section of the orchestra which has its own little solo section.


Unfortunately the jurors weren't ready for <sarcasm mode on> such an fast paced Eurovision entry yet <sarcasm mode off> and it finished last in Frankfurt with just three points, two of which came from the UK...


Pearl Carr & Teddy Johnson - "Sing Little Birdie"



Now whether it is the fact that this is the UK's first runner's up place at Eurovision or maybe it's because the delivery of this entry is so joyous and delightful that this song holds a special place in my heart.  I absolutely love this entry - Pearl and Teddy as husband and wife naturally mesh well together and like performances from all great double acts, I could not imagine this song being sung by either of them alone.  Perhaps the use of the toy bird is a little passé even then but it was possibly the first use of props at the Contest and therefore ground-breaking!


A very simple song, superbly sung and beautifully performed to camera and crowd - the mark of true professionals and as a UK fan it is a shame that this wasn't our first winner, rather than our first second place.  I think that this would have done a fine job at most of the opening Contests and would put a smile on a lot of the fans even now - I'm hoping that they both reach the 100 mark in their acting retirement home, true icons of early Eurovision...


Fernando Tordo - "Tourada"



We jump fourteen years to our next animal related Eurovision entry.  Now it could be argued that this song, translated as "Bullfight", is less about this activity and the animals within it and more about the subject matter being a metaphor for a culture of materialism that was becoming more prevalent in Portugal in the early 1970s.  Whatever the intended meaning of this entry, the lyrics do talk about:


All clearly terms relating to bullfighting - forcados are what have been termed 'suicide squads' by some observers, a group of eight men who challenge the bull in a line and attempt to catch it and subdue it without weapons.  Irrespective of the fact that killing the bull in the ring is forbidden in Portugal, the subject matter is definitely an emotive one now and possibly was becoming more so even in 1973, what with more tourists visiting and watching the 'spectacle' first hand.  Some of the lyrical content might allude to this change in the old ways of Portugal towards a society more dependant on tourism - whatever it was, this is possibly the only Eurovision entry that mentions any 'blood sport' within its title or lyrics.  Despite its pomp as the horns (no pun intended) start the tune off and the parade energy portrayed throughout, the fact that this was in Portuguese would probably leave most viewers and even jurors unaware of its meaning.  "Tourada" finished 10th out of 17 in 1973 - a reasonable result for this nation most years...


Marie Myriam - "L'oiseau et l'enfant"



Now this was a total coincidence, my favourite ever Eurovision entry being one of the twelve songs about the animal kingdom...honestly!  I contrived this list more for song 1444 (you'll see that later) but it was a pleasant realisation that this classic French ballad would be included too.  Now I won't go on and on about this song as I've dedicated an entire post to it - I'm wrenching myself away from the youTube video above to write this piece as it is!  One thing I didn't focus that much on was the title or the lyrics of the song itself - "The bird and the child" is the straight translation of the title, the words of the song itself focus on the love that Marie has for the object of her affection, they being the metaphorical 'bird', her the 'child'.  She only sees the brightness of life and how free the birds fly above her.


This is still one of the most transfixing vocal presentations ever at the Eurovision Song Contest and I am convinced that this would do a decent job for France whichever year this was submitted, even this year in Kyiv!  I can't really say anymore - out of all 1479 songs to date, it is the one that I would predict will stay my number one until my last breath - the one winning entry mentioning an animal to boot!


Sophie & Magaly - "Papa Pingouin"



From one of the best to one of the cringiest novelty entries ever at the Eurovision Song Contest.  Watching all of this performance makes you realise why this is a must-have staple for all those shows that try to knock the Contest, to make fun of it, to highlight a 'typical Eurovision entry' which this is anything but!  It is a classic fun entry, a tale about a bored penguin who dreams of flying around the world like a seagull and visiting all those places, such as England, Rome and Carthage (you can tell it is imagined, that place doesn't exist anymore, it is Tunisia).  And that is basically it!


I told you that singing in French makes everything sound better than they are actually are sometimes!  As for the presentation of this song, you have to say that the whole concept and staging does match the song - I love the backing singers' costumes that look quite the tuxedo but have the longer 'tails', the best part of the look by far, much classier that the futuristic jumpsuits the sisters have to wear.  Now for Jean-Paul Cara, who acted as "Papa" - I'll forgive him this as he wrote "L'oiseau et l'enfant" but he does fling himself into the role!  The Gilles sisters were probably the ones most hard done by with this song, even more so than us viewers who had to watch it - they got very little financial reward from this song, despite over a million copies being sold (yes, I know, how?) and they were only chosen to sing this because they were twin singers.  Despite all of that, this managed to finish mid-table in 1980, 9th out of 19, but the position then doesn't matter - this video will live on in piss-take shows forever...


Aistė Smilgevičiūtė - "Strazdas"



Nineteen years until the next mention of a bird at Eurovision - Lithuania went with a very tuneful avian subject, that of the song thrush.  This was an unusual entry in that the language rules had disappeared for the first time since 1977 and yet this nation sent an entry to the Contest not only in their native tongue but also in a particular dialect, that of Samogitian, spoken mainly in western Lithuania.


The staging of the song was simple with Aistė just standing there and singing her song but she has a great voice and decent stage presence, vital when there are no other visual prompts to look at.  Not so sure about the minimalistic dance moves but it was a decent opening act which did not deserve the low scores and lowly position in 1999 (20th place and 13 points, the country's first at the Contest).  Not really much else to say - surely there could have been more commentary about such a beautiful bird?


Christina Metaxa - "Firefly"



In the year where every nation bar Norway should have sent their worst ever entry as it didn't really matter how well they sang, it could be said that Christina sounded so shaky at times singing "Firefly" that Cyprus would have had no chance of winning in any year.  The first of two Eurovision songs to focus on insects (this might as well have been about the sci-fi series but I have seen the lyrics), this entry finished 14th out of 19 in 2009's SF2 and it is clear why.  As a performance piece it is rather on the basic side, especially if you compare it with the winning entry that year, what with the spinning light boxes and the superfluous 'dancers'.

The lyrics are almost a philosophical treatise, using a firefly as the means to highlight that Christina wants to fly free into the unknown, jump and take a leap of faith, but that she is scared like the firefly of leaving the room.  Quite heavy stuff for a song about an insect but listening intently to this being sung wasn't my idea of fun in 2009!  I had forgotten this entry entirely but to be fair most of the focus in Moscow was on a cheeky chap playing a fiddle...


3+2 ft. Robert Wells - "Butterflies"



2009 seemed to be a 'release of the pressure cooker' as far as 'creature songs' were concerned and the next year saw Belarus enter in Oslo with a song that not only sung about butterflies but also had the props to back it up!  We have a traditional set up with five singers all decked out as they are going to a very posh function, along with the composer Robert Wells on piano.  You do need to search the internet to look at the lyrics as the guy's English accents are quite difficult to understand at times - even then, it is still difficult to look past the song just being about how butterflies are fragile, that we can't look inside the chrysalis as even the sun can't penetrate that cover but the beautiful creature will hatch at the right time.


All very worthy, all very well sung but all very unforgettable at the end of the night, although this did make it to the Final in Oslo, only to finish second to last there, just in front of the UK.


Anouk - "Birds"



Three years on and we have a masterclass in how to deliver the perfect ballad, with no bells and whistles, no pyros or gimmicks, minimal use of the backdrop, ensuring that all the attention is on the singer and the song.  Sound familiar?  Think that a certain Portuguese singer and his delegation took some notes whilst watching this and decided that a beautiful song and an enigmatic soloist could always carry this staging off?  Anouk, the ultimate 'rock chick', who has covered many a musical genre during her career, including grunge, R&B, soul and rock, had perhaps surprisingly to some excelled with softly sung and yet powerful ballads such as "Birds".


Yet another song where the subject is not really what is being sung about but it all still counts for this article!  This entry broke The Netherland's nine year DNQ streak and gave them their first top ten finish in the Eurovision Final in the 21st Century.  This was one of the standout moments of the 2013 Contest, one of the reasons for it being my favourite ever - the power and simplicity of this entry's presentation and the stage presence of Anouk makes it all the more memorable.  If 2013 hadn't been such a competitive year, with so many superb entries, this could have had a top five placing - it is still a moment in time that is well worth repeating...


Elnur Huseynov - "Hour Of The Wolf"



Two years on and almost up to the current day, Azerbaijan's Elnur had another crack at Eurovision after his 8th place in 2008 with this atmospheric pop ballad in 2015.  Only the second Eurovision entry about a mammal and the only one about a predator, which might explain the lyrics seemingly being about Elnur's anxiety and fright as he hears the wolves approach him, staring at him and even coming to terms with the fact that he might not make it through the night!


This SF performance was by far the best that we saw "Hour Of The Wolf" staged - the moon and forest backdrop was superb and set up the song perfectly, Elnur's stage presence was spot on and even the contemporary dancers played their part, actually interacting with the singer here when he parts them late on in the song (it didn't work as well in the Final).  This didn't actually garner many points in Vienna - Azerbaijan almost suffered their first DNQ, scraping into the Final in 10th and yet this eventually finished 12th, probably due to the three-way mega scorers at the top of the leader board leaving little pickings for the rest.  A performance piece that this nation seems to excel at - entertaining and powerful, one that sticks in the mind far longer than many that finished ahead of it...


Norma John - "Blackbird"



Here we go, song 1444 or as I will always know it:


I know that I have gone on about this ad infinitum since this failed to make it into the Kyiv Final and my focus will not be on that here.  For the purposes of this article, song number twelve that includes mention of an animal in its title has all its focus on a blackbird.  Okay, maybe not so much on the bird itself but on what it represents to the wonderful Leena singing her heart out.  Bad memories unfortunately - its song heard during the times she was with her ex in bed in better times now just rips her apart emotionally.  Absolutely powerful imagery throughout the song, not often heard in such a stunningly succinct way at Eurovision - just read the lyrics and be amazed:


Leena mentioned to me at the London Eurovision Party press event that the lyrics reflected on a personal experience for her - songs that come out of heartache always hold a special resonance as they are so relatable to every listener in some way.  Maybe this song was too painful, too bleak, too much of a downer to connect with jurors and voters this year - whatever the reason, I still feel that not getting a second listen to this in Kyiv was one of the downsides of Eurovision 2017.  It is a wonderful entry to end this list of entries with though...


Not quite!  I couldn't resist flagging up yet another example of an animal in a 'Eurovision' song title:



Okay, so it was all fiction but if only this had been Ireland's entry in 1996, they'd have...what was that?  "The Voice"?  It won?  Oh...

Maybe not, but at least this was a fictionally funny example of this subject genre!  This song by The Divine Comedy was never going to be added to this list though - as for reality, I wonder if Lisbon 2018 will add song number 13 to this list...


An update to this post...

One of my Facebook friends via Tommy's Eurovision Retro Show Group, Jesper Diaz Nissen, pointed out that a certain Valentina Monetta had an entry that could qualify for this list and I have to admit that I totally overlooked it but he did understand why.  The entry?  This one:



The title in Italian doesn't automatically draw attention to anything to do with animals unless, like me after Jesper mentioned it, you translate the first word "Crisalide" - in English, "Chrysalis".  The pupal stage of the butterfly (so 3+2 weren't the only group to sing about these beautiful creatures) might not be the most attractive stage of this insect's development but it is still part of the life cycle and therefore it is about an animal.


What sort of scientist am I?  Admittedly one who hasn't studied insect life cycles in any way for at least 34 years but still, I should have included this one!  Of course, Valentina wasn't providing a biology class through the power of song at all, the reason for including this subject in her song was for the metaphorical impact that it had - the subject of her affections was once alone in their 'chrysalis' but now as a 'butterfly' his 'wings have dried' and he is able to fly with her, together in love.


This entry really does contain superbly poetic lyrics and it was almost lost to this list - the chrysalis might not be an animal in the way all the others were (all bar the firefly not having multiple forms after birth) but it has given me a new insight into this song.  I wonder if other fans were willing this on for San Marino to get to their first Final in 2013 because of this?  I suspect it was mainly down to Valentina - I still can't understand how this failed to get there, especially with the visual artistry we observed and her magnificent vocals.

There you go, 13 out of 1479 songs - that takes it up to 0.9%!


Maybe Anouk and Valentina had both been watching Doctor Doolittle...

It's mid-August.  There's not much going on Eurovision-wise.  Portugal have already announced their host city.  There appears to be no major dramas at the EBU.  Yep, much like last year (although for different reasons)...



I would still love to see her represent Iceland - surely that would secure THEIR first Eurovision win?

Anyway, the only musical news of any note is that the Swedish radio competition P4 Nästa is down to its Final selection of eight artists:

Now you may remember my post last year about this contest, which has always led to one of the artists getting a wildcard to Melodifestivalen since 2012.  Admittedly it is not always the winner, as Noomi found out in 2016 - Christer Björkman decided to give Les Gordons a go.  A fairly safe bet to cover this for my blog, you'd think - one of these artists being a potential (if highly unlikely) Eurovision winner...but that might not be the case this year, if the response of the digital producer of P4 Nästa to my question is anything to go by:
Okay, so the winner/"most suitable" artist might not be selected for MF...

"As it is for now" does suggest that it might still happen, that one of these acts could be singing somewhere competitively in Sweden in February/March 2018.  I had listened to all the eight artists and songs before I got this news, something seemingly ignored by the Eurovision news community, who were still going with the "one entry to MF since 2012 so it must happen again" - it did make me stop and wonder if I would be writing about a singing competition that might NOT have anything to do with Eurovision 2018!  Having pondered this for six days, I have taken the positive approach - you know that I love to put my thoughts down in type, it would be rude not to now!

For those who know Swedish and want to hear the whole show announcing the eight acts (bear in mind that this won't be here in a year's time, as I have found out when trying to listen to last year's show), here you go:


Enjoy that?  Okay, for those that don't know the lingo, let's go one by one with the audio...


Stiko Per Larsson - "Kumpaner (We Are Like)"
First up is some folky pop, to my ears at least.  Now this guy apparently is gigging every fourth day on average and does a lot of charity work whilst doing so.  All very admirable and he is an experienced performer - as far as this entry is concerned however, it is all very nice, very pleasant but not very exciting.  It's got a decent guitar hook but it comes across as muzak, something to have in the background whilst chatting rather than actively listen to.  There's nothing wrong with it, it just doesn't stick in my head and blandness seems to be the order of the day.  6.5 - sixth place.

MIAH - "That's when we all come falling down"
Once you get past the tricky start, where MIAH's enunciation is a little bit difficult to understand, this becomes a great listen with a heavy gospel influence that I love.  Maria has a superbly soulful voice and hits all those high notes spot on, this vocal wonder backed up by the pounding drum beat and musical punch that completes this entry nicely.  This is a song to really listen to if for no other reason than it is an amazingly well constructed song.  This will be a definite contender for the P4 Next title - 8.5, second place.


Chris L Svensson - "Drive"
 Look at the picture - what sort of music do you think that Chris will be playing?  Hearing a Country influenced song come out of this man's mouth is not that much of a surprise, although it verges on hillbilly with the banjo strumming, rather than guitar.  It links in nicely with the lyrical content of the song, which is nice and light with a simple message of a first meeting between a guy and girl where there is an immediate attraction!  Now C&W has never been my favourite genre but this is a fun song and extremely listenable, with the chorus sticking in my head long after the last twang of those strings.  I prefer some of the other tracks of the eight but this doesn't disgrace this singer or his favoured song style and it could be an outside bet for the win.  7.0 - fourth place.


Sisanda - "If This Is Love"
I could imagine dancing to this at the end of a dance or disco, a lovely slowie that you could drift a few paces at a time to whilst staring into the eyes of your date but unfortunately I get the same reaction to the song - I'm not concentrating on it, my attention is elsewhere.  It is a very nice mellow ballad and Sisanda has a beautiful voice - it's the structure of the song that makes this forgettable for me.  It is very simplistic and is repetitive to the extent that I really wished there was more content to this entry - having listened to her interview, which was in English, she explained that she sung partly in the South African language Xhosa, with the distinctive clicking noises, something that I wished she had included here.  6.0 - eighth place.


Frontback - "On And On"
According to the P4 Next biog, this track is the 'softest' this band has produced and I agree that it is VERY soft rock.  Lead singer Anlo makes this sound like "heavy Fleetwood Mac", as if Stevie Nicks tried her hand at this genre of music.  I absolutely love the music, some superb musicianship there but the vocals don't mesh with it - the lyrics aren't memorable and it all sounds like a warm up track at a concert before the 'real music' kicks in.  I really hate the ending too with the false ending that leads into the 'band goes mad playing everything hard'.  I am all for having rock in anything to do with music competitions but this entry doesn't do it for me.  6.5 - fifth place.


Maija HomHom - "Skyskrapor"
Now this is chill of the highest order, the music flowing along in an electronic wave.  Maija's vocals overlay extremely nicely over the electronica and provides a wonderful effect that I could imagine would suit a venue in a chill room, somewhere you could let something of this quality flow over you and allow your thoughts to move through the music.  The actual lyrical content is not that great, to be fair, but in a way minimal is probable best with such a track.  It sounds great and it is listenable but not particularly memorable - for that reason, I'm not sure that this will contest the win in this selection of tracks.  It provides a great counterbalance to the 'soft rock' before it so maybe we do need the calm of this entry!  I did enjoy it though - 7.5, third place.


Michi - "Friday Night Club Escape"
Wow, now this track hooks you straight away!  Michi has an intriguing vocal style that I love, very listenable with a lot of depth and interest to it.  This is the most uptempo pop song of the eight and it's a definite toe tapper, you have to give it that.  Unlike a lot of earworm pop songs though, this one is intelligently written and intricate, with lyrics that are worth listening to and tell a story about Friday night clubland that most other songs wouldn't even scratch the surface of.  The musical hook of the drums completes this tour de force and I could listen to this entry over and over again.  As an aside, this 20 year old is hugely experienced musically and even performed as a stand-in rehearsal artist for Molly in Copenhagen!  Personally I have this as my stand out song of P4 Next and I would not be surprised to see this win on 26th August - it's a superb entry.  9.0 - first place.


Jo'& Eliah - "Since"
Very soft vocals at the start of this entry, almost feminine in tone - this simple folk ballad goes the traditional route with the guitars but is supplemented with electronics.  It is other worldly in parts and there is a pleasant mix between softness and power.  It is a decent effort that brings some elements of Simon and Garfunkel to the fore but it becomes quite messy in the second half of the song, where drum elements take over and spoil the soft melodies before.  It also doesn't stick in my head when it finishes - probably because I'm not a massive fan of this genre of music.  Nice enough but that's about it - 6.5 and seventh place.


The eight tracks are a decent mix of genres and styles and it will be interesting to hear how these all sound live in the heat of 'battle; on August 26th in Linköping Concert & Congress.  Voting is happening now - Swedish readers take note!  As for my ratings?  Here's my scores, Eurovision style:


Having said all that, the big question is:


I suppose we'll know for certain on Saturday 26th August...

Us Brits knew him as 'Brucie' - Bruce Forsyth, the male entertainer with the longest television career and who was bringing enjoyment and pleasure to audiences for SEVENTY-FIVE years, died today, August 18th 2017.  This was his distinctive pose, "The Thinker", mimicking the Rodin sculpture - along with many, many catchphrases linked with a multitude of shows, he was "Mr Entertainment" in the UK for decades.  Whether that be with game shows such as "The Price Is Right" and "The Generation Game", being the host at the London Palladium shows or the lead host on "Strictly Come Dancing", he was an institution of British comedy and variety shows, only recently 'retiring' in his mid 80s.  Any singing that he did was normally part of the act on the show he was hosting, although the picture above was of him at Glastonbury in 2013 on the Avalon stage, making him the oldest performer at the festival:

An incredible entertainer, an amazing showman, a superb host - you could fill days of television schedules with his output and find yourself laughing and smiling.   Having said all that, what did Brucie have to do with Eurovision, I hear you all cry?  Not a lot, to be fair - there was one Contest however, one very famous, very closely fought show where a member of his family had a special connection.  You know the one, the one where a female soloist with a French language singing career in Canada shot to international stardom by winning Eurovision by one point:



Yes, the 1988 Contest, where Celine Dion beat Scott Fitzgerald to the prize, "Ne partez pas sans moi" beating "Go" by a winning margin of 0.73%.  The link to the UK song was Bruce's daughter Julie, who wrote and composed Scott's ballad:
That meant that a certain entertainment giant got to sit in the audience and watch proceedings, along with the voting:



We didn't get to see his reaction to Yugoslavia failing to give Scott Fitzgerald a single point but fans of the comedy show "Room 101" did see him 'get closure', as Paul Merton put it:



To be fair to Yugoslavia, Julie Forsyth was always more annoyed with The Netherlands who gave the UK no points at all, as Scott had had a hit there in the 1970s and was fairly well known.  Bruce's concern with how the voting was going was more borne out of fatherly protection for his daughter's accomplishments:
This image of him in the Dublin audience, seeing his reaction as he realised that the UK might be runners-up yet again and that his daughter would not be going back up on stage to collect the accolades due to the winning songwriter, spoke volumes of how this massive celebrity cared about his family AND also about whether the UK would win at Eurovision that year.  Of course, if they had have won, a host would have been needed for the 1989 Contest...
Sir Bruce Forsyth was one of the best tv show hosts that the UK has ever had - would he have ever done Eurovision?  He was still a consummate professional at the end of the 1980s but comedy whilst hosting was not really 'the done thing' back then.  Having your hosts present the Contest professionally and with one having French language proficiency were the order of the day, so his style and skills would not have been a perfect match.  If a more 'lighthearted approach' to presenting, as is more the case now, was prevalent then, Brucie would have been in his element but perhaps his comedy style and interaction with the audience might have been in danger of taking over the gig!  Unfortunately we will never know - Eurovision's loss perhaps?

Only one thing left to say:

Thank you for your song and dance career, your entertainment of audiences and viewers throughout the decades, your personable nature with the general public that put them so at ease on any show you presented and for that little cameo in  Dublin in 1988, where you unintentionally added to one of the most unforgettable nights in Eurovision history...

If you've been keeping track of my experiences as far as Eurovision events are concerned, you will know that I have done most things in the UK but there was one that had its premiere last year, EuroStarz, that I didn't attend.  Not one to miss out on anything now, I decided to go to the 2017 show on Saturday 19th August, knowing that I would get to see the artists above.  Better than last year's?  Let's see:



Same number of acts, one less Eurovision competitor but arguably a bigger 'headline' act in Anne-Marie David (although I adore Emmelie and will be seeing her at EuroBash in a fortnight's time).  What would this year's Concert be like?  I thought that knocking up a playlist of their previous endeavours would be a good thing to put together:



Two things that sprung into my head after watching all the clips - I had forgotten how different and upbeat "The Image Of You" is to almost every other Albanian entry there has been since 2004 and also that it had taken up to last week for me to release that Salena Mastroianni was one of the backing singers behind Karl William Lund at Eurovision:You Decide 2016!  How on earth I didn't realise that before, I don't know...
Now being the 'old man' that I am now, I remembered how convenient being a VIP was at the London Eurovision Party, how I has able to get a seat and a fairly unrestricted view.  When I saw that a similar option was potentially available here too, I went for it - a Meet and Greet session with all the artists, a free programme and wrist bands as well?  Seemed a good deal - I was all set to attend the gig last Saturday.  It meant staying in a different part of London to others that I had attended, King's Cross this time, an area that I knew reasonably well from my year working in London in 1991/2.  Another inexpensive stay was in order and I found a great place a matter of five minute's walk away from The Star Of Kings, where EuroStarz was being held:
My room at the Hub Premier Inn, Kings Cross?  Stephen Fry might have called it 'compact and bijou' in the 1980s but for £70 plus £5 for breakfast, it was ideal:
One thing I missed out on was securing a press pass in order to interview the six artists - too much indecision on my part as to whether I was going to attend or not meant that all the places had gone.  It did mean that I didn't have to rush into London but also that I didn't really get the chance to chat with all of the singers at EuroStarz - the Meet and Greet, a 30 minute session that happened before the gig itself, was a little on the short side to get around everyone and definitely not enough time to ask them lots of questions!  Memo for next year...
Half an hour vying with the other VIPs for time and space?  I decided to get reasonable quality time with at least a couple of the singers and utilise the short list of questions that I had produced in case I got a late call-up to the press event.

I briefly spoke to Kurt Calleja who happened to be free when I went into the room - nice guy, I suspect I asked him much the same questions that everyone else on the planet did:

• Who came up with the dance - his DJ friend on the 2012 performance but four years earlier;
• Was he entering MESC 2018 - no, his brother is and he didn't want to split the vote;
• Reasons for not participating in 2015, 2016, 2017?  2015 - he threw his support behind Amber, 2016 - no-one had a chance against Ira Losco, 2017 - working on new album.

One of the best sets of the night, Salena sounded on point all the way, she powered through her songs magnificently and gave us something to watch too, considering the tiny stage all the artists were performing on.  She also had the best set of golden boots on since Nadav Gudej went all 'Tel Aviv Tourist Board' on us Eurovision fans in 2015!  Here's an example of her singing "Ready To Kill" to give you an idea of her stage presence and vocal prowess:



Having watched some interviews with her, she has recently changed her management team, so I am hoping that we get to see more of her soon, hands up in the air if you agree:
Come on - I have to link into these pictures somehow...

From two artists who almost made it to Eurovision, we moved onto the four who did.  First up was the 'man with the dance' from Malta, Kurt Calleja:
Not only a virtuoso in English (with his album tracks he sung) but also in Italian, as Kurt provided us all with superb renditions of "L'Essenziale" and the stock Eurovision song for any male soloist worth his salt, "Nel blu dipinto di blu (Volare)".  He got us all singing along to those and of course to his 2012 hit, allowing us to sing the chorus whilst he delivered that unique dance:



It was a good thing that I WASN'T the official EuroStarz cameraman!  I learnt that recording HD quality video on your mobile makes it go a bit hot and causes the camera to shut down after a while.  A thoroughly enjoyable set of songs by Kurt and I got the feeling that the crowd want to see this man back at Eurovision sooner rather than later!

Onto act four - now I knew who that was going to be half an hour before the gig, as she had told me herself during the VIP Meet and Greet - Anjeza Shahini:
After our long chat beforehand, this set was the one that I was really interested in seeing and hearing - Anjeza didn't disappoint on either count.  A wonderful voice, great stage presence and a beautiful smile throughout - if only I had recorded anything of any worth on my device but the background volume around me was starting to increase, so I will wait for the material produced by the EuroStarz team.  Anjeza provided us with all her FiK songs, in addition to her Eurovision entry as well - yet another set that I would have paid to see on its own, let alone as part of a six.
I seemed to have spent a lot of my time at the Star Of Kings in the presence of this lady, one way or another - time thoroughly well spent!

Next was the artist with almost certainly the biggest vocal range - Mihai Traistariu:
Superb singer and someone who knows his audience - all bar one of his songs that night were Eurovision classics from other winners ("My Number One", "Fairytale" and "Rise Like A Phoenix").  Once he had got the crowd to sing all those with him, "Tornero" was unleashed!  This guy is a vocal phenomenom and I was delighted to hear in his interviews that he is going to enter the Romanian selection process each year until he returns to Eurovision once more.  Unfortunately no live recordings from me of Mihai - I am not sure that we would have heard his voice that clearly anyway, despite his five octave range, given the crowd participation that was around me by this stage of the evening!

What Mihai had done by warming up the vocal chords of the crowd was get us all ready for the headline act of the night - the one, the only Anne-Marie David:
The highlight of the evening for most fans, to have a Eurovision winner yet again at EuroStarz is a massive coup for the organisers!  As in her interviews, she talks more than most artists on stage but this was really insightful, chatting to Karl about her previous Eurovision life and her musical theatre career:
I am a musical theatre fan too and to hear her sing "Memories" from Cats and of course "I Don't Know How To Love Him" from Jesus Christ Superstar was heaven.  It was also superb to hear her talk about how she got the part of Mary Magdalene at the age of 18 and meeting Tim Rice and Andrew Lloyd Webber - amazing stuff.  Of course, she also sung her two Eurovision hits - the 1979 French entry "Je suis l'enfant soleil" was much as you'd expect, a small venue version of what she sung in Israel but when we got to her 'magnum opus', 1973's "Tu te reconnaîtras", we all had a surprise, as least those of us who hadn't interviewed her earlier on!  Anne-Marie had decided to have new arrangements for the song in all the languages she has sung it in written and we were treated to the first performance of the English version, "Wonderful Dream":



I got the feeling that there were some fans in the audience who might have been a bit disappointed at this - to be honest, I really enjoyed it and was honoured to be there for this new presentation.  I have to admit that I was a fan only of the original French winning version anyway - but regular readers know what a sucker I am for 'the language across the Channel'!

Right at the end of the gig we got an encore and a totally unexpected one it was too!  All six artists were on stage, singing a medley of UK Eurovision entries!
The highlight of this had to be Mihai singing our 2009 entry "It's My Time" (with the help of the tablet in front of him).  It was a great way to end the performance part of the evening.  "DJ OGAE President" Alasdair Rendall played loads of Eurovision tracks to take us through to when the security man kicked me out of the Star Of Kings at 1.30am Sunday 20th August...



From what I saw, everyone in attendance, artists and fans alike, had a great time!  A brilliant selection of singers on offer, an extremely good host controlling events on stage and everything flowed nicely - even the beer was good and seemed to be served within seconds!  My first experience of this concert was a very, very good one and I am already looking forward to the 2018 one, assuming it is in the same venue, the Star Of Kings - as pub venues go, it coped really well with the crowd and had great acoustics too.  My heartfelt compliments to Caroline, Michael and Tania for organising this event - my only regret was not attending the 2016 one!  I will be keeping a closer eye out for when the 2018 one is so I get in quicker for a 'Press Pass'...

There was an official photographer and obviously live filming going on - I'd recommend keeping your eyes open for those pictures and videos on the EuroStarz website.  I will be as hopefully I'll be in some of that footage!  So all there is to say in summary is:

Die hard Melodifestivalen fans will recognise this band from 2017 - Les Gordons, who came sixth in the fourth heat in Skellefteå, the one with Wiktoria and Loreen in it.  No dishonour in where they finished, especially as they didn't even win Svensktoppen Nästa 2016 or sing in the SuperFinal!  Christer Björkman and the jurors put them through to MF - I won't repeat it all, you can read my analysis of last year's competition here.  Their song wasn't too bad at the 'big event' to be fair:

Today, Saturday 26th August at 6pm BST, was the 2017 Final of P4 Nästa - I reviewed the eight acts a couple of posts ago and at the time it was uncertain whether any of the eight acts would have the same privilege as Les Gordons, whether they would join the likes of Wiktoria, Ace Wilder etc and have the chance to be Sweden's Eurovision representative.  Whilst wishing Arna, the Digital Producer of the show, good luck for the Final, I found out the very good news that one of the artists WILL go to MF:
Superb news and an extra reason to listen to the Final live, even though I have no idea what anyone is saying in between the songs (apart from Sisanda, who speaks in English)!  Our hosts for the evening were these two ladies:
Annika Jankell, former host of MF, together with Linda Sundblad, former MF contestant.  Performing live as guest artists were two more MF alumni in the shape of Darin Zanyar, one of Sweden's best selling artists:
And Pernilla Andersson, singing coach and former MF participant:
Last year's winner, Noomi Thorstensson was also singing and kicked off the show with last year's winning entry, Intoxicated.  I still feel a bit sorry for her that she won in 2016 and yet missed out on MF:
But enough of the guests and last year's winner, we were on with the 2017 show!  Here it is, in all its audio glory:


I am not going to repeat all my thoughts and feelings about the acts in full, as I did that a fortnight ago.  There was some differences here live in Linköping as against the performances in that article:

• Those that improved live - Stiko Per Larsson and Jo'& Eliah, almost certainly because they had a song that tends to sound great live, purely because it is a style that demands instrument playing with little or no movement!  "Since" was the song with the greatest improvement from studio to live, fun and intriguing and one that came alive when sung on stage;
• Those that matched the studio version - Michi and Sisanda, for different reasons.  Michi was still by far the best in my opinion, a great pop song that had an intricate story to it - Sisanda was still the weakest track here, not helped by her singing a little off;
• Those who were worse live - MIAH slightly lacking the power and wow factor of the version I had heard previously but it was still a damn good song; Maija's individual vocals sounded nervous and a bit harsh but when singing with her backing singers, it sounded superb again; Chris sounded as though he was putting too much effort into his live performance, it was all growling and cries now and he played a lot to the crowd, losing focus; and Frontback just played to their fans in the audience, they didn't need a win here but I still feel that with a different lead singer, they could have been in contention.

That sounds fair enough to me, at least as far as the artistic expression is concerned - the wording also sounds as though they wanted an 'old head' to go forward to Melodifestivalen and possibly even someone with a bit of personality?  Judging from his YouTube channel, you know what you are going to get - acoustic folk, guitar driven, a distinctive vocal style that has been compared to Mumford & Sons.  No possibility of Schlager or special effects here - this will be a man and his guitar, lyric driven and tuneful.  Of course "Kumpaner" is not going to be the song that Stiko will sing at MF, it being five days before the 'September 1st' rule but I suspect that this musician has plenty of material to hand or can turn out something new at a moment's notice.

I have to admit that the eventual winner wasn't my first choice but Stiko's live vocals were spot on and they did raise my rankings for his entry from 6th to an outside third for the win.  I did manage to select both Super Finalists but I have to say that "Friday Night Club Escape" and "That's When We All Fall Falling Down" will probably stick in my memory more than the other entries heard at P4 Nästa.  Having said all that, there is a niche market for Stiko Per Larsson's style of music at Eurovision - think Firelight, think The Common Linnets.  Maybe this could be the start of a magical trip for this unassuming guitar player, maybe we'll see a Melodifestivalen win, followed by an 'against all odds' win in Lisbon...

The magic day is here - the day that any artist, any delegation, any nation can reveal what song they will be sending to Eurovision the following May (normally).  Most years that date is used merely to have a 'commercial break' between Contests, so that (for instance) any song before that date is considered to be 2017, whereas any from today are for 2018.  The only artist to be obviously affected by this ruling is the same as it has been for the last five years - the act from P4 Nästa who either wins or gets chosen by the jury there to go to Melodifestivalen, this year it being the one and the same, Stiko Per Larsson (above).

So we know one artist in one selection process, one of the famed 28 but who won't be singing to get into Eurovision until February at the earliest.  What else do we know?

We all know where Eurovision is going to be held - just over a month ago, Portugal announced possibly the most predictable Eurovision news since Stockholm went for Petra and Måns as hosts.  Lisbon it was, the capital city, which is where first time hosts ALWAYS stage Eurovision and in the biggest arena in the country, again not a surprise.  If it is good enough for Adele, Enrique Iglesias and Maroon 5, it'll cope with the ESC!  The dates were the only variable in the decision to be made - in the end, the "Eurovision fortnight" has fallen more or less where it falls every year:


A nice big televisual event before we get the World Cup to watch a month later from Russia - I already get the feeling that they will be going all out to win in Portugal, so they can celebrate a summer where the whole world focusses on them...
We also know the names of the countries who have said they will be in Lisbon or have declared they are making plans for how they will be selecting their artist:

Look at me, getting Emmelie De Forest all wide-eyed!  I'm pretty sure it was when I told her that I was one of her pledgers towards her EP on PledgeMusic - she appeared to be pleased...

Where were we last Saturday (9th September)?  It was all a bit earlier in the year than before but I still made it to:


2017 at the Park Inn had a lot to live up to - much like Kyiv 2017, this year's Eurobash was a necessary reset of my expectations.  Things can never get better ad infinitum - the Eurobash I have just experienced was probably never going to be on the level of 2016, purely because I got so much out of the day itself eleven months ago and also because my Eurovision 'career' has gone up several notches since then.  That doesn't mean that this year wasn't good - there were quite a few new highs.  Let's summarise the event step by step...


Getting There...

Yes is the answer to both of those questions - the reason why I had to take a detour into South Wales was due to my nearest station, Bristol Parkway, being closed for two weeks due to electrification works.  This meant I had to begin my journey from a smaller local station, travel to Newport and then travel from there to Manchester.  It didn't help that the train up to Eurobash was only TWO CARRIAGES long and stopped throughout East Wales and Shropshire before reaching Crewe - luckily I got a seat from the off and got to meet Paul and Lloyd on the platform, who were also travelling up.  Spending 30 minutes out and 75 minutes (due to a cancelled connection) back there waiting for connections was not my idea of fun - at least Uber worked marvellously in Manchester...


Wining and Dining...
For future reference, the Oriental Duck at the Banyan Bar and Kitchen Restaurant in the Corn Exchange is well worth having!  As was the food provided by the Park Inn for Eurobash - over indulgence all day and a huge chip butty to top it off at midnight!  If only the price of a pint at the hotel hadn't left just 20p change from a fiver...


Friday Night Entertainment...
This was part of it - two sculptures on the side of a stereotypical concrete 1960/70s city building.  No one from the city itself told me what it was - a friend from Bristol informed me that as an art form to brighten up a building from the former UMIST, the sculptures are called "The Graduate Training".  Who said that Eurovision events weren't 'edukazional'?
The real highpoint of Friday was Bar Pop and I have to say that this is the best pre-Eurobash drinks establishment I have been to - excellent choice, whoever went with this one.  It was within walking distance of the hotel (when sober) and the only thing about it all that was cheap was the beer - £2 a pint, not experienced that since...I can't remember when!  Upstairs, the ambiance was superb - great music of course from DJ Danny to accompany some decent chats with quite a few OGAE members who I'd not really had the pleasure of talking to at any length before.  Vocalist extraordinaire Adam, our representative at the OGAE Berlin Contest, filled me in about his experiences, how some of his competition had been in the audition stages of certain music reality shows and were demanding dance routines be built into their entries - it makes his finishing position sound all the better once you know that!  I got chatting with Eddie about blogging - I hope that our chat inspired him to try it out, as his ideas would provide a totally different outlook on Eurovision and I'd definitely read it.  I also conversed with John and Rodney - Bar Pop allowed us all to drink, enjoy the music and have a good old natter.  There was even a bar photographer who put pictures up on their Facebook page - I wasn't obviously photogenic enough but two ladies who I'd seen at previous Eurobashes and wanted to chat to were:
I finally got to meet and chat with Maria and Robyn on Saturday - the tongue had gone by then...


Interviewing The Guest Stars...
During Eurobash itself, Monty was the compère of The Guest List and it was a superb session, as always.  I'll get to a summary of what answers came out that in a moment - the only disappointment of the day for me happened about an hour beforehand...


To be honest, since I have started interviewing Eurovision stars, everything has gone so smoothly to date that 'having the rug pulled at the last minute' had not even entered my mind - I suspect that this is actually part and parcel of such events and I have just been very lucky in the past!  If I had known that was going to happen more than two minutes before my first allocated interview time, I would have passed all my questions onto Monty but he was the master researcher and had more or less picked up on everything I had.  The stand out moments of the session for me were:

• Emmelie De Forest making Yvie Burnett and Selma Björnsdóttir feel old, with her earliest Eurovision memory being The Olsen Brothers winning in 2000 when she was seven;
• "Only Teardrops" originally had bagpipes in it, instead of the penny whistle it ended up with;
• And the aforementioned penny whistle was a popular 'press gift' in Malmö, although Monty likened the press pack to a 'bunch of seven year olds' in the days after;
• Selma had 19 songs to choose from for her 1999 entry;
• She was also surprised how busy she was at Eurovision, as she had been told by previous Icelandic entrants that "she would be drunk all week"!
• Yvie met her husband at a Deacon Blue concert, who introduced her to Louis Walsh and gave her the break into being a coach;
• Jade Ewen needed confidence boosting for 2009, given she was singing on such a big stage;
• Selma found 1999 a friendlier experience than 2005 - all the contestants were in the same hotel and she got to know them really well;
• Selma found being Sylvia Knight's choreographer a nightmare due to her 'acting';
• Emmelie gave us an insight into the 'songwriters camp' where she wrote "I Will Never Give Up On You";
• Yvie informed us all that being on the UK Jury in 2015 was very strictly controlled and she wasn't able to talk to anyone else, and she meant ANYONE!  It was funny to hear how the members of the jury 'communicated' with verbal noises and smiles;
• "Golden Boy" was her favourite in 2015 - she 'joked' that it was all about the shoes;
• And Yvie does like her shoes!
• Selma's life is now theatre and film - casting, directing, performing.  Lots of musicals, theatre plays and even a new Icelandic film, "Under The Tree";
• Yvie pointed out that she can't quite help everyone sing!

I also got a book signed by Yvie - I'm not a singer so I'm not sure that I'll be taking the contents of her tome to heart but you have to buy one in these circumstances, don't you?

It's mid-September and on the surface, it appears that not much is happening in Eurovision land - not even this tumbleweed is moving!  This time last year?  We at least had Depi Evratesil starting in Armenia, which kept us Eurovision fans amused through the darkening autumnal nights - it doesn't look as though that selection process is happening again, which is a damn shame as I loved it!  Just to remind you what we are all missing - my favourite performance of the series:



I think that, in hindsight, the performance skills and on-stage presence of Marta might have given Armenia a better placing in Kyiv, seeing that Artsvik wasn't given a power ballad to blast out there.

But what has been happening over the last couple of weeks?  Maybe more than I had realised...


Who will be there (probably)...
There were 31 nations who had already confirmed their place in Lisbon on 'Eurovision New Year' - add to that six more 'definites':


and a probable, as long as the EBU accept their broadcaster - Israel.

As expected Slovakia has said NO, which is a shame:
I know that I speak for a lot of fans when I say that it would be great see Kristína sing again.  Add to them Bosnia & Herzegovina - the cost of being at Eurovision and their public broadcaster having hardly any funds has led to probably one of the most obvious withdrawals of the year:

BHRT will not participate in Eurovision 2018. #ESC2018#BiHpic.twitter.com/GObp7RhCQR

— BH EUROSONG (@bheurosong) September 18, 2017

Of course, these are all the countries that have announced their participation publically - there is a 'cooling off' period where any nation who has tendered their submission can withdraw without financial penalty.  There are five nations missing from above that were in Kyiv - spotted them yet?


All likely participants bar perhaps the microstate within Italy but we'll have to wait and see if they all confirm publically over the next few weeks.  I would be surprised if anyone else appears this year - Morocco haven't said anything one way or the other but it is incredibly remote that they would suddenly appear with no EBU fanfare after 38 years!  Talking of 38, that's how many 'definites' we have after two weeks of the Eurovision season...


Cyprus have a songwriter and it ain't G:son...
This seems to be the only picture available of the Cypriot songwriter-in-waiting, Alex P (or Alex Papaconstantinou, as his mum would know him) - maybe he needs to widen his portfolio!  Having world class songwriters and producers has at least helped Cyprus reach the Final and have okay results over the past couple of years - this guy has excellent pop music credentials and a history of Eurovision hits:



Being part of the team that got a bronze medal in 2009 is not to be sniffed at, nor was co-writing what should have been Poland's winning Eurovision song in 2016 ("Cool Me Down") and also working with Helena Paparizou. You have to say one thing for the Cypriot Eurovision team, they definitely don't skimp when it comes to talent on the production side of things - now all they need is a artist of the same calibre.  If you know anyone from Cyprus or of Cypriot origin, get them to send their application via an email to cypruseurovision2018@cybc.com.cy - they might get through the audition process and end up in the proposed NF.  I know of a couple of singers myself...


Sweden have one artist, Malta have thirty...
Thank you for escYOUnited for producing the clearest list of the 30 'runners and riders' for MESC 2018 and the only major news website that recognised that Richard and Joe Micallef are actually two individual people!  Lots of returners there - Brooke and Christabelle probably being the stand outs for me, although Malta's own 'Liberace' is back yet again to potentially give Eurovision a bouffant and a piano:



In a break in tradition, we will lose 14 for the NF, not four as tended to happen in the past with the MESC process between SF and Final - as we have no idea what these will sound like, I'll leave it there but we should be seeing one of these artists with potentially one of these song titles being announced in Lisbon.  I like the sound of "Casablanca Love"...


A snippet of the first song for Eurovision consideration...



He's never blooming happy, is he?  Eurovision ever-hopeful Sasha has been spotted yet again by Roy Delaney from Eurovision Apocalypse putting himself forward for Moldova's selection process.  Is he hoping that because "Hey Mamma!" was so 'up', so fun, so entertaining, that this nation will flip aboutface and go for a tune that could only be staged with him alone, mid stage, bawling and contorting himself in agony, singing such a downbeat tune?  Not really got his finger on the pulse of how to succeed in this Contest, has he?  It will be interesting to see if he makes it to any live rounds this year...


Madonna is in Portugal...

A post shared by Madonna (@madonna) on Sep 7, 2017 at 6:04pm PDT

Have we got our Final interval act in Lisbon already sorted?  Madonna has reportedly bought herself a 'small gaff' for something rumoured to be worth £5m+ outside of the capital due to one of her sons being signed up at Benfica's Academy - she has also shown on her social media feeds that she is embracing the distinctive musical Portuguese genre of Fado.  Madge literally taking on 'destiny' in May?  If she's there already, RTP won't have to fly someone in...


And Eesti Laul grabs my attention...

Can you tell that this nation will now always have a piece of my Eurovision heart?  Attending Eesti Laul this year with all the wonderful experiences that followed has meant that whenever I see any sort of news coming out of Estonia, I am all ears and eyes!  Ten years old in 2018, Eesti Laul is after songs to fill the Saku Suurhall in Tallinn on March 3rd next year - the producer, Mart Normet, wants the tenth show to be special:

I cannot imagine that Koit and Laura will be involved (apart from maybe reprising "Verona" in some way) but having watched this selection process closely over the past few years, the same names and faces do tend to crop up with almost as much regularity as those in Malta do.  I have to admit that I won't be upset if these ladies reappear:

But regular readers would have known that anyway!  It is noted that there is no mention of a SuperFinal this year - a combined jury/televote only.  If that is the case, is it a reaction to the lady above being the leader before that stage last year, only to be beaten by the clear public favourites?  My plan for 2018 was to just attend Eurovision itself but I am so, SO tempted to return to Estonia to watch yet another instalment of this fascinating and enthralling spectacle - there are still tickets available...

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Okay, so maybe there was more going on in weeks 1 & 2 of the Eurovision 2018 season than I thought at first glance!

Not a bad start on the face of it - what's next?

We were coming towards the end of week four of Eurovision 2018 and not much had been really happening since I posted my 'tumbleweed post' but then from leftfield came word yesterday (28 September) that Belgium were going to announce who would be singing for them in Lisbon:

Belgium's Eén television show Van Gils & Gasten was the place to be last night even if, like me, you didn't have a clue what was being said - I kept my ears clued in on any mention of the Eurovision Song Contest.  The last segment of the show was the big reveal - the lights were dimmed and out of the darkness came a female soloist with an English version of a song that we all know quite well:

Some striking visual and audible similarities to Luísa Sobral perhaps?  Immediately I was impressed with her live vocals when singing "Amar Pelos Dois", a plus for any singer expected to represent their country at the world's most popular musical song contest!  Laura also has a presence on stage, even though this was just a segment within a talk show - another positive attribute for the Contest.  Watching her being interviewed, Laura seemed to have an real ease about her, much in the same way as Levina did last year which made her my favourite interviewee in 2017.  Eurovision.tv already had spoken to her and their interview confirmed my initial thoughts - her Head of Delegation won't need to provide much in the way of media training before all the press events begin:



So what do we know about Laura?  The Belgian tv channel Eén has some bio about her on their page released after their big announcement:
So after reading that, first stop was NOT an IKEA catalogue, it was to listen to Gravity:



It will be interesting to find out what part of that is Laura - music? lyrics? both?  Very chilled to listen to, quite hypnotic in its pace and content - assuming Laura writes her own song for Lisbon, a well constructed piece like this would go down well with juries.  This belief is cemented by watching two of her compositions as SENNEK, her solo 'alter ego' - first up is 'Kaleidoscope':



That voice of hers flows beautifully and her ability to move up and down the vocal scale is a pleasure to listen to.  Such a simple song and yet there was bags of emotional texture in there.  There's already scope for a set designer to have her playing a piano on stage - something to think about in the New Year perhaps but as she alluded to in her interview, no dancing...

The second presentation - Butterfly:



This song sounded as though it was stretching Laura's voice more than with Kaleidoscope - nice control within the verses and then opening up during the chorus.  An almost jazzy sound at times there, perhaps hinting at what musical genre might be presented in Lisbon.  What these songs show, along with her cover of last year's winner on the talk show, is that she has absolutely no issue with singing live and perform very, very well - probably the main reason for her internal selection.  It is a pity that we don't have orchestras at Eurovision any more as Laura can accompany them more than adequately too:



A Bond theme, eh?  Didn't we have someone with an amazing voice sing something that sounded like one of those in 2014?  Admittedly this was five years ago but I have seen enough live material now to realise that Belgium have struck gold yet again with their internal selection.  Why do I say that?

• Even from this small portfolio of songs, Laura has demonstrated that she has a great voice, one with an interesting tone and range and also has the presence on stage to captivate the viewer;
• She appears to be very grounded and at ease in front of the camera, whether that be on stage or in a chair opposite an interviewer.  Music isn't the be all and end all for her at the moment - it appears that Laura is realistic enough to have a day job too, whilst she is growing public exposure to her solo career;
• She also seems to have a reasonable appreciation of the Contest too, unlike a lot of other performers who often come into this 'arena' totally blind!  I loved the comment she made in the eurovision.tv interview to the question about what she considered made a 'successful Eurovision entry' - "it doesn't exist", showing that she understands that anything can catch the viewer and juror's imagination.  It was obvious that she appreciated singers of quality too - having heard Laura sing live, it was not a surprise that she might love "1944" and Jamala's technical ability.  It was more of a surprise in a way that her first memorable song at the Contest was "Diva", as I have not heard too many other artists flag that entry up as an answer to that question.  Laura has a wide and varied breadth of knowledge that most fans will appreciate.

Here in one of her many guises as keyboard player alongside Ozark Henry, Laura Groeseneken was the main focus of Eurovision this past week as she was chosen as Belgium's representative for Lisbon.  I've no need to expand on that further as my last post was dedicated solely to her - I'm going to pull out my favourite bits of what happened over the second half of September...

The Amsterdam curtain raiser to Eurovision itself, Eurovision in Concert, has reached a big milestone:


Because of this, the organisers have gone the 'whole hog' and instead of just relying on their venue staple, the Melkweg, they have gone for somewhere five times the size - the Black Box hall of AFAS Live:
There is another plus for me at least - I'm going to be there as I have purchased my tickets!  I took advantage of an email sent to me by OGAE UK, giving us club members the chance to get tickets pre-General sale two days early, conveniently coinciding with my day off, so I went for it as it will be another tick on my Eurovision 'journey'...


I've been to The London Eurovision Party twice now (2016 and 2017) - that will still be a possibility next year but I feel that going to the 'mother' of all Pre-Parties is something I should do and why not in 2018?  I'm really going to be familiar with all the acts this year and this might be my chance to be press with the Lisbon stars early, seeing that I am going just as a fan to Portugal...that's what I keep telling myself anyway!

We have a few more confirmations...
Why did Czechia never take off?  I am determined not to keep typing out "The Czech Republic" so I will continue to use the shorthand version in this blog!  Anyway, they have confirmed their attendance in Lisbon, as have Montenegro and FYR Macedonia.  What will they all send?  Czechia have sent a jazz singer, a rock chick and stars of their musical theatre over the last few years, FYR Macedonia seem to switch between young hopefuls and Kaliopi and I suspect that Montenegro wish that this guy tried out X Factor this time last year BEFORE he went on Eurovision:
It wouldn't surprise me if they return to the tried and tested 'Balkan Ballad' route - is Knez or Sergej Ćetković available in May?


Could Kazakhstan be a guest?  Kosovo won't be though...



Every Eurovision fan's tip for the first Kazakh artist to participate at the Contest, Zhanar Dugalova giving her Turkvision winning performance above - ARD, the German Eurovision broadcaster, has let it be known that there would be 'two surprise participants' in Portugal and the EBU has not ruled Kazakhstan out, so maybe we could be seeing them, perhaps as an interval act, in Lisbon?  A promo act for Eurovision Asia?  It's all tittle tattle at the moment but what we do know is that Kosovo WON'T be performing in May (unless, like Lindita or Rona, under the banner of another Balkan nation):

ESCToday found out from RTK, the Kosovar state broadcaster, that because of the country is not a full or associated member of the EBU they would be allowed to sing at Eurovision.  It appears that the real sticking point is that several nations within the Eurovision family do not recognise Kosovo as an independent state, the major obstacle being one of the 'Big 5', Spain.  That'll probably mean that unless RTP in Portugal invites a Kosovar singer as an interval act, we won't be hearing anything from that nation in Lisbon...


Everything appears to be tickety-boo in Lisbon...
Potential Heads of Production in place, the Reference Group supposedly happy that all matters Eurovision 2018 are on schedule and that RTP have all their plans in place - it's not Kyiv, is it?   RTP took over the Contest officially on 20th September at the 5th Annual Eurovision Workshop and it is a case of 'so far, so good'.  Looks as though the production of next year's show is in safe hands...


Now isn't Entscheidungsshow 2018 the popular one?
As Samuel, Miruna and Emanuel walk off into the sunset, the Swiss broadcaster SRF has received the largest number of entries ever for their NF, 670 in total!  This cat was well pleased:

Neuer Bewerbungs-Rekord! Danke 670 Mal!!!🎉 https://t.co/8QRHbtc0Gk#Eurovision#ESC2018#srfESC#Switzerland#SRF#Lisbon2018🇨🇭🇵🇹 pic.twitter.com/9QUTf14DKh

— SRF ESC (@srfesc) September 22, 2017

I like cat gifs, so sue me!  A 20-strong jury will now cut that down to 6 (you know the process already) and we'll get that Swiss NF that will hopefully give Switzerland their first Eurovision Final appearance since Sebalter...


Portugal reveal their composers...
It worked well enough for them last year - Portugal have revealed their composers for Festival da Canção 2018, all 26 of them.  They will all have full artistic freedom to create the entries for the Portuguese NF and ultimately one of these composers will have their song going to Lisbon to defend Portugal's Eurovision title.  Salvador and Luísa Sobral's involvement in the process was to nominate Janeiro - I would have loved to see them involved more this year, maybe even have Luísa as one of the composers or even be a singer this time but her brother's worsening health is almost certainly limiting what they can both do for 2018.  I sincerely hope that Salvador recovers enough to be involved in Eurovision 2018 in some way, alongside his sister, the architect of Portugal's 2017 win...


Uncle Ralph wanted to cover B&H's costs...
We almost had Ralph Siegel being involved with Eurovision for the 25th time in Lisbon - according to the lady above, Bosnian folk singer Hanka Paldum, Uncle Ralph was prepared to finance Bosnia & Herzegovina's participation at Eurovision 2018, lock stock and barrel.  This would have been much in the same way as many suspect he has been involved recently with San Marino - unfortunately this time B&H's massive debt to the EBU has stopped their participation in Lisbon, much in the same way as it stopped Romania in 2016.  If that obstacle had not been present, the deal was that Hanka performed his song - we will never know what that might have sounded like but this is one of her most recent tracks:



This scenario of Ralph Siegel funding Eurovision entries raises an interesting debate - does it matter where the money and resources comes from when sending an entry to Eurovision?  If someone is prepared to stump up the cash, especially in a smaller nation, should anyone care that the person paying for it all can stipulate exactly what happens?  I discussed this aspect in a previous blog post earlier this year, when it appeared that San Marino were wanting their artist to bring along sponsorship or money to fund the country's participation.  In the end, Ralph came through for them and did much the same as he proposed for B&H - I still can't see any problem with it, as long as the broadcaster agrees and can sell it to their nation.  It won't be happening for B&H anytime soon though, whatever the potential involvement of the 'Old Man of Eurovision'...


Alex Larke wants to try again... but for Greece!
Now I have met the guy and have chatted to him on FB about various Eurovision matters but I had not realised his mum was Greek and that he speaks the language too.  It therefore made sense that INFE Greece would want to chat to him about all things Contest related and they found out that he did suggest to ERT that he would be honoured to perform for his second home.  Unfortunately for him the Greece delegation already have their own ideas for 2018 (a National Final has been mooted) but Alex is working on songs in Greek.  I'm going to keep this one on the back burner for now - who knows, maybe Alex will join the 'two Eurovisions for different countries" club one day...


And Finally...the UK Selection Process starts!
But I'm going to leave what I think of all that until my next post - being the UK patriot that I am, I think that the selection process for my country deserves some special attention!


The first month of the 2018 season is over - everything is proceeding quite smoothly and that, perversely, makes it difficult to find things to talk about.  Thank goodness for what HAS happened so far...


Not bad seeing there is still 218 days until that first Jury SF in May...

Three Lucie's for the price of one and yet it still didn't grab the public's attention.  We connected with the juries around Eurovision with this amazing piece of vocalisation and songwriting involving a former Eurovision winner - can our entry at Lisbon be even better?  The process had to start at some point, given that we had already announced our presence in Portugal next May - last Friday was when BBC Eurovision opened up the selection pathway:
So what does that all mean?  In summary:


You don't believe me?  Read the same blurb in October 2016:
Have a good look and tell me the difference.  It is as if BBC Eurovision have taken last year's template, decided that it will be much the same as last year and just changed a few words here and there, mainly to make it current.  Am I being unfair?  Is it a bit uninspiring?  Could it have been jazzed up a tad to make it more encouraging to the willing amateur?  I am sure it could!  The major points are strikingly similar:


The only real difference between the two years are the words of Hugh Goldsmith and Guy Freeman.

Hugh's stand out words and phrases were:

2017

• "Impact"
• "Great is required"
• "emotive lyrics and memorable melodies with a brilliant production"
• "not constrained by genre - best in class is what we want"

• "emotive lyrics, memorable melodies and brilliant productions"
• "originality and the element of surprise"
• "creatively fresh, brave and a little bit different"

How about Guy's even briefer text?

2017

• "passionately believes they've written an outstanding song"
• "win over the hearts and minds of millions"
• "go for it"

Being a member, we have already been asked to put our names forward for the process:
I have duly answered the email - hopefully I will rise to the top of the other 2000+ fans who have not participated in the last two years!  It would be a very interesting experience although I am not sure I'd be able to blog about it much, what with non-disclosure agreements.  To be honest, I think that my chances aren't that amazing, seeing that only 45 members are needed!  Whether a Finalist materialises out of the public submissions is difficult to tell - in 2016, OGAE UK found Karl William Lund:



In 2017, we were informed that the OGAE selection missed out on the Final, reaching the stage beforehand, the penultimate stage of deliberation by the BBC delegation.  Was that because more songwriters are now interested, not just from here but from around the globe?  Emmelie De Forest was involved in the process last year, along with DWB Music Ltd, who had links with THREE of the six songs last year.  I know from conversations with Greig Watts, director at the firm, that they are writing for many Eurovision markets and the UK is obviously one that they are concentrating hard to conquer, as would be expected from a home songwriting firm.  There has also been a UK songwriting camp in Denmark, with a  familiar face:

Greta Salóme in Regent Street (not the Ark Recording Studio near Copenhagen, where the camp was based), shopping or sightseeing, I'm unsure but I suspect that she was in London in her capacity as Eurovision artist and composer.  Will we be getting an entry with heavy use of the violin?  Dipping into some of the UK's mythical tales?  At least this is someone who 'gets' Eurovision...

I have this feeling that as we have had a public submission process each year for the last two NFs, this will continue for the foreseeable future.  It always looks great PR-wise to get as many people involved with the process, especially on social media:

🎼 Could you write the UK entry for #Eurovision2018? 🇬🇧 Public submissions for our #Eurovision song are open! 👉 https://t.co/V6NMUeBhtfpic.twitter.com/NsImEtU86X

— BBC Eurovision (@bbceurovision) September 29, 2017

I do get the feeling that the chances of someone providing an entry from this method of selection is now less likely than in the first "Eurovision : You Decide" due to the added interest caused by the 15th placing of Lucie Jones.  It is always possible that there is a "Amar pelos dois" out there amongst the hum drum ballads, a "Euphoria" amongst the swathe of so-so pop or even a "Hard Rock Hallelujah" sticking out of all the rock submitted.  It is obvious that Hugh Goldsmith for one is keen to seen different genres being put forward, entries involving more than just a soloist on stage, along with lyrics and music that is edgier than traditional Eurovision.  If anyone is stuck for ideas, have a look around the extremes of acts connected to Eurovision for inspiration - remember Onuka from Kyiv's interval?  How about a three minute version of this on the NF stage:


It is all still early days - I cannot imagine that there have been huge numbers of submissions yet, given there is still just over a fortnight to put an track forward.  I am certain that we will see a few of the 'waifs and strays' of this process appearing soon, typically the ones who have absolutely no chance of making it to the NF.  Until that time and the closing date, where all the submitted tracks will be brought together for OGAE UK to view, I should be grateful for the following...




What would I like to see this year from my nation?  To be honest, we need someone who can sing live spot on every performance, someone who can connect with the camera and draw the viewer into the show, together with someone who can handle the media with a smile and some interesting chat:
Okay, so we need just something extra this year...perhaps it will be just having the right song that stands out from the other 40 odd nations and connects in a way that we weren't expecting - there's one every single year, here's hoping the UK get the lucky break in 2018!

You are so right Frank - this is the official end of all things Eurovision 2017.  A lot earlier than the previous three Results have been presented (2014, 2015 and 2016), this was SCC number four for me as a UK juror and having the results announced on 7th October has helped fill in the Eurovision quiet time!  I have done pretty well so far in calling the winners of this Contest, with Helena Paparizou taking the crown in 2014 and Margaret last year, leading onto OGAE Poland hosting this.  Would my choices this year fare as well?  As a reminder, these were my scores:


Would my favourite 'spirit animal' from Elva in Estonia do the business this year and at least get an OGAE Second Chance win to make up for being robbed of being in Kyiv by Koit and Laura?
As I mentioned in my review post, I felt that this year was going to be a pretty close run affair, more like 2014 when Helena and Brequette were battling it out.  Would I be proved right?  In case you've not seen the voting, here is it in its full glory:

The title to this post is not as catchy as Cliff's "Goodbye Sam, Hello Samantha", is it?  I suppose the question should be:

The reason for this is simple - remember 'the grey Thunderbird 2' we'll be in next May?

We all know it as the MEO Arena - it was formerly the Pavilhão Atlântico, so changing its name isn't a novelty.  According to a couple of Portuguese business websites (economia online and dn.pt), Altice is currently unifying their brands under the parent company name and so rebranding the venue for next year's Eurovision IN TIME for May 2018 will amplify their corporate exposure greatly.  Monday 16th October is apparently when it all becomes official - we will see if we are going to be sitting in the Altice, rather than the MEO.  If you have a look at Altice's branding , they almost have a Eurovision logo in place already:

16 acts, almost exclusively soloists bar two duets and most of them are MESC 'veterans'.  Brooke Borg is still being flagged up as the favourite to go to Lisbon, mainly due to her strong performance when finishing runner-up to 'Queen Ira' in 2016 but also in the hunt will be Christabelle Borg, as long as she gets the right song to sing.  And that is the crux of the matter or it should be - but we all know how small a place Malta is and how 'who knows you' sometimes takes priority!  "Song For Dad" by Firelight's Richard Micallef and his father Joe sounds most intriguing, to be honest...

Christmas Eve is a Sunday this year so FiK 56 could well be showing a SF or its Final then.  The importance of that is of course the Festival's role of providing the artist for Eurovision, if not always the song version we will get to hear.  Most fans feel that changing from Albanian to English has rarely worked for this nation, even when Lindita did the same thing with a voice and accent that suited English and with a song that was originally written in 'the world's second language'!  Here's hoping we get some decent entertainment and maybe, just maybe, FiK will let that brunette backing singer nearest the camera have a go...

Culturally, visually and vocally distinct from most other nations at the Contest at present, A Dal will be the Hungarian selection process yet again in 2018.  Sticking with nationals or those who can speak fluent Hungarian (admit it, who other than someone of Hungarian descent can do that?) gives A Dal a unique quality and actively encourages the artists participating to stay true to their roots - I would be more than happy to see more songs of the quality of "Origo" and "Kedvesem" in Lisbon.  As for Israel, the EBU are allowing the new broadcaster IPBC (KAN) to participate in Lisbon and "The Next Star For Eurovision" will be used to select their artist...

When we don't have any artists or songs to be interested in, all of the Eurovision news media flags up any internal/external selection process and all the steps that have to be taken to get there.  I'm not going to go into any detail at all except to summarise:

The broadcaster has already received an entry put forward as a potential contender for the Greek slot - folk musician Areti Ketime, a sample of her previous work from 2016 is here:

You cannot deny that Areti definitely brings a Greek sound to her singing and there is the undercurrent of ethnicity as far as instrumentation is concerned!  There has always been a place at Eurovision for ethnic folk and on its day it can lift a nation into the upper reaches of the scoreboard but as a winner?  This isn't really my cup of tea, even though her voice has quite the hypnotic quality, but who knows - perhaps Greece could provide a 'Origo' rather than a 'Utopian Land' in 2018...

Poor Twin Twin - I think that they weren't anywhere as bad in 2014 as their paltry two points would suggest, although on an annoyance scale, saying "Twin Twin, Oh Yeah" at every interview was comparable to Krista and her girls singing "Ding Dong" the year previously!  Given France's return to form over the past two Contests, it is a brave move to return to a format that did so badly four years ago but only time will tell.  Amir and Alma have given the 2018 hopefuls much to live up to:

Like Greece, France 2 and the French Eurovision delegation have approached French record companies looking for talented artists to participate in "Destination Eurovision".  Unlike most nations, at least the French make no bones about their wanting their Eurovision entries to be sung in THEIR language, even going as far to say that if the winning song at the NF is 100% sung in French, there will be no 'grafting in' some English to appease the Eurovision multitude - that's what the position is at the moment, of course.  I have to say that, like most fans, I prefered "Requiem" in its unadulterated state:

I still feel that putting English in was a cynical marketing ploy, totally unnecessary in my opinion - much like what happened to "No Degree of Separation" for Francesca Michielin in 2016...

I wonder if the skirting board out of shot is red?  Now that would be a fortuitous colour scheme to put Poli in front of!  'Little Miss Bundle Of Energy" was at the OGAE Spain Congress on 7th October as one of the excellent selection of guests and of course was being interviewed about all things Eurovision.  ESC Bubble might have stumbled onto something in their interview with her:

Forgive them that the footage cuts the left side of Poli's face off and yet keeps the the interviewer in frame all the time but the important aspect came at about 2:45, when she was asked about whether she was planning to do something else at Eurovision or if she had had enough...

Unfortunately the guy interviewing didn't follow up on that and try to find out what that meant!  Poli participating again at the Contest?  Being involved behind the scenes somehow?  What?  Watching the video again, it doesn't seem to be a throwaway comment purely to fend off an intrusive question - to me, there was a big hint that Poli has got something planned!  Watch this space I suppose - I have to say that she is always a delight and I would be very happy to see her back at Eurovision in whatever capacity she chose...

I get so used to having three Special Guests at the UK Eurobash that when I saw that OGAE Spain had EIGHT, my ears pricked up!  Admittedly four of them are home grown or near neighbours (José María Purón, Le Klein, Lucía Pérez and Jenny) but also having Christer Björkman, Getty Kaspers, Zöe and Poli too must have made this day a Eurovision fan's dream to attend.  Are you allowed to a member of more than one OGAE club?  Viva Eurovision put together a summary vid of the day's singing - I'm very jealous of the lucky fans there in the audience...

Not in a Ding-Dong Eurovision way but the 'Real McCoy'!  One of my favourite artists tying the knot with her long-term beau and doesn't she look absolutely gorgeous - one of the best wedding photos I have ever seen.  I've snuck Krista in here as I am sure that she will be involved in something Contest related this year but what will it be?  MF?  UMK?  Presenting the Jury votes for Finland?  The big question will be, of course, are we to call her Mrs Grönroos...

Recognise the name?  If you were a major fan of the "Eurovision Song Project" that ran in Cyprus to find their entry for Vienna, you might remember Nelena just missing out on qualifying from the audition stages:

She has been combining a music career and her daytime role as a Police Officer in the UK but is now interested in competing at Eurovision again.  I sent her a reply through FB Messenger, as it seemed as though she had not got much information so far:
She was obviously realistic enough to go for the singer only route that Cyprus are offering - will we see her at the National Finals of either country?  There is always that chance and it is interesting to chat to a singer who is right at the start of the selection process...

Not necessarily the domain of Eurovision music but I suppose if one of their guests has raised the subject previously, it will get covered!  For those of you who don't know who she is, Mary Epworth is a singer/songwriter who is difficult to pigeonhole.  Some of the critique she has had in the past includes "magical synthpop", "wonderfully strange album" and "Psych pop".  Her new album has been released called "Elytral" and this was obviously the reason for her being in the Radio 6 studio but it was the comments about wanting to participate in Eurovision, either as singer or composer, that was quite unusual.  This was insofar as she was extremely complimentary about the genre we all love, when you consider that this is a UK artist who doesn't view the Contest as career suicide.  As she hints in this snippet from her interview, her music is not standard Eurovision fare - here is one of the tracks from "Elytral":

Having listened to the album, there's lots of influences from synth pop throughout its history - from early Human League (Ware and Marsh era) through to some Björk sounding tracks - along with what could be described as English electronica folk.  Maybe Mary would have to write something a little more mainstream for Eurovision but it was delightfully refreshing to hear a current artist from the UK actually seeing the benefits of participating at the Contest...

Another Eurovision first to tick off my list...
The location and time has been announced - OGAE UK members will know this info and therefore I don't need to flag it up here!  I decided to attend for the first time partly to see what it is all about, partly to meet any of the Committee I haven't chatted with to date and also to see the Eurovision Ticket ballot being drawn!  Hopefully mine and Ellen's luck will be in...

At the beginning of week 7 of Eurovision 2018, we had a big story coming out of a totally unexpected source - San Marino!  We weren't even sure if they were participating this year and then we hear that the San Marinese delegation and RTV would be at a Rome press conference on Tuesday 17th October:
Why Rome?  An Italian involvement?  Not enough room in the largest hall in their nation?  None of us knew at the time, although OGAE Italy had leaked that beforehand that San Marino had a project that was...


What on earth did that mean?  Fans were coming up with various ideas - mine was that there would be a raffle, 25 Euros a ticket, and whoever won would be the San Marino representative in Lisbon, whether they could sing or not!  Now that would be revolutionary...in the end, I suppose I wasn't that far off.


Well, this is potentially a massive extension of the 'internet wildcard' process used previously by Switzerland and Ukraine.  Theirs were to select one or more acts for the pre-jury vetting process (Switzerland) or to go into the nation's SFs (Ukraine).  None of these wildcards have won, although Yasmina Hunzinger did finish second in Die Große Entscheidungsshow 2014:



Here's what the internet process for San Marino will actually lead to - in a nutshell, do a cover or one of your own and submit, get some likes and you might be chosen by an expert panel to perform in numerous shows, battle it out in a National Final (first time for SM) and you could be the winner...
Remember my quip about the raffle?  This is where I was slightly prophetic - you can either go for the 100 likes to get to be considered by the expert panel or make absolutely sure by paying 4.99 euros.  I think they could have asked for more to be honest - the sort of acts who are going to go for this would be more than happy to pay lots of money!  It will be very interesting to see what quality this process finds - 1st November is when we can see the first submissions.  There is one line in the blurb that stands out and suggests that the San Marino delegation aren't solely relying on this 1in360 submission process:


Would this be the "Valentina Monetta" route in?  At least it suggests that if all the submissions are terrible, the delegation can still get three decent artists in there somewhere.  The other news linked to all this was that the selection committee is rumoured to consist of three surprising names:


Non-UK readers may not know that the last one is a radio DJ and tv presenter in the UK - no idea of the link, maybe he said he liked Eurovision once or is married to someone in San Marino!  What is definite are our hosts:
John Barro Nick Earles and Kristin Stein - they look good together at least...

It all sounds very intricate and yet this will draw a lot of fandom attention towards a nation who are often overlooked as also rans - 1-0 to the San Marino PR machine at least...


Lisbon - cost-effective and there will be 43...
We learnt that Lisbon will be more of a "Malmö" than a "Baku", at least as far as cost efficiency is concerned.  €19 million is the figure aimed for as a maximum spend - translation reported this as RTP aiming to have the 'cheapest Eurovision Song Contest ever', I suspect that we will have anything other than a show that looks 'cheap'!  Having all facilities in place in a city that is 100% geared towards thousands of foreigners visiting should mean that, compared to other Contests in the recent past, relatively little will need to be spent.  Savings will be made on the postcards used at the Contest too - they will all be filmed in Portugal with the artists there, rather than splitting their time between host and home nation.

It appears that thousands of people will be visiting Portugal from 43 nations - this figure was revealed yesterday on Portuguese television by Carla Bugalho, the Deputy Executive Producer in Lisbon.  No list though, although it seems likely that it is the 42 countries who participated in Kyiv, together with Russia.


Altice Arena - everything up and running
Whereas it seemed that a name swap for the MEO might take a bit longer than a weekend, we got to last Tuesday to find that everything has changed - no more MEO, it is now 'altice' (seemingly with a small 'a'). Now I've not been inside next year's venue (irrespective of what it was called) - a little soiree was held after the announcement of the name change and a short video gave me and 99% of Eurovision fandom an idea of what it looks like inside:



I'm already salivating in the knowledge that I'll be inside there in May, hopefully for six shows...


Montenegro and Lithuania announce NF plans...
Anyone got long memories?  Or access to Google?  Stefan Filipović was the last Montenegrin artist to qualify for Eurovision via a NF in 2008 - he finished 14th in his SF.  That might have been the reason why his nation has internally selected the next seven entries, with varying degrees of success (two Final qualifications with 'Balkan Ballads').  It seems as though Montenegro is now ready to entertain a televised NF ("Montevizija") with five songs/artists and 100% televote.  Hopefully 1m long hair braids will not be a requisite for qualification...

At least that nation will have only one show - Lithuania are threatening us all again with “Eurovizijos”!  No details yet about the process but if it is ten shows and 49 acts again as it was this year, I'm not interested...apart from the Final, maybe.


Another entry for Greece...
Here's another of the publically confirmed artists for the Greek NF, Vasiliki Stefanou.  Much like Areti Ketime, Vasiliki prefers traditional soulful music that will probably suit the edict issued by ERT for this year's Greek entry.  She can definitely sing - I love the tone of her voice, quite different to a lot of other female singers and this is demonstrated really well here:



In her 'pitch', she describes her entry as following an Epirus musical style, with Greek lyrics and emphasis on the clarinet.  The music from that region has been characterised as 'relaxed, gentle and exceptionally beautiful' - looks as though song and artist may be a perfect match...


The first UK submission has been found...



Courtesy of the legend that is Roy Delaney via his superb Eurovision Apocalypse blog, we have an example of what will be submitted to the powers that be at BBC Eurovision.  Yes, it is all very 1990s in sound - best described as an Erasure-esque piece of Muzak but it isn't bad at all.  I for one have seen and heard a lot, lot worse during previous internet submission processes (and current ones but I'll get to that soon) and the video is quite the decent effort.  Having said all that, Subject:2 are unlikely to get anywhere near the UK NF with this as it's all a bit low key - maybe they should take Roy's advice and fork out the €4.99 or go for the 100 likes to get through the San Marino process to see what Måns, Zoë and Dave think of it all...


The Latvian 63...



At this stage of the Eurovision season, any chance to review potential Eurovision songs is gleefully grabbed on by your truly!  The 63 songs in contention for the title of Latvian winner of Supernova have all been put online for our delectation - Eurovision fans have the ability to say 'Like' or 'Dislike' to each track.  We don't know much about them, merely the song title and obviously an audio of the song itself.  A useful recap of the songs has been provided above - the full audios are here:
It will take you about three hours if you listen to all of them in full - I have to say that some of those didn't need the full listen to know that I didn't like it!  Just so you know, most are in English, seven in Latvian or a dialect of that nation and one is in Spanish!  Now there is a caveat that a jury of music professionals will evaluate all of them too and decide who goes into the Supernova SFs but they will take our views into consideration - having said that, the Latvian entry at Eurovision 2018 IS here, amongst these 63!  Want to know my favs?  I'm going to tell you anyway but you knew that...

• Funny Girl - superb vocal, thoughtful lyrics, very evocative and powerful, almost jazz/pop.
• It's Time - weird combination of soft rock and spoken/sung lyrics, strident female vocal cuts through music that then goes all slow and moody.
• Pray - loads of emotion in vocals and lyrics, bit superficial but enjoyable vocals and memorable sentiment.
• Running Red Lights - traditional club anthem, builds nicely into chorus, great tone to vocal, head nodder, beat and drums makes this really listenable that compliments her voice.
• 1000 Roses - beautiful voice, wonderful lyrics, lovely interaction between piano and voice, clumsy title.
• Not Afraid - beautifully sung ballad, great scales up and down, nice build-up and great voice.
• Staccato - great jazz beat and vocals to this one, memorable chorus, bounces along and very enjoyable.
• Say My Name - very 'soft rock ballad' but very good, vocals make you listen and the music drives this along, it is almost 'nursery rhyme' in rock form.
• Be Here - very interesting spoken/sung style by male soloist, sounds a bit like Robert Smith, lyrics have substance to them and very listenable because of that, music adds to intrigue.
• The Way Back Home - unusual voice with how the emphasis is put on the lyrics, a nice chorus shift at odds to the rest of the song, interesting music changes that doesn't break the flow.
• Sunset - great guitar riffs, quiet and assured female vocal, lyrics almost club-like basis, low key toe tapper, guitars make this though.
• Backbone - ethnic folk, very pretty voice, nice interaction with drums, powerful and emotional.
• Pilītes - strong musical baseline and male vocal, haunting sounds, interesting journey with this song.
• Esamība - beautiful sound and wonderful quiet singing, interesting classical instrumentation use, superb vocals.
• Soledad - this is SO Spanish in its construction and acoustic guitars, nice beat and singing here, not sure why this is not in a Spanish NF, fun and fresh, club music adds to the scene.
• Take Me Home - nice intro, solid upbeat section that turns track into an anthem, interesting lyrics, music is something to clap to, love the quirky end.

16 out of 63 for me - listening to them audio only will obviously be a totally different experience to seeing these performed live but it is always an interesting exercise to review songs like this.  November 5th is when the professionals have a go...


Eurovision Takeover


This week I became part of a Eurovision radio show!  Tommy Ferguson, the DJ who is the genius behind Tommy' Eurovision Show on Mearns FM that happens every Tuesday night between 8-11pm, took twenty of my fav Eurovision choices (Contest and NF) and made them into a superb playlist.  I love it - have a listen and I think you'll love it too!


Now we're cooking!  I can't risk taking this into week 8, you would all be reading my version of "War And Peace".  Lots going on and it is sure to continue all the way to May...