[LMBTO] Eurovision 2018 Week 7 - You Say You Want A Revolution...

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...