[LMBTO] Eurovision 2018 Weeks 3&4 - one Artist and one Pre-Party...

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...