[LMBTO] When I started this Eurovision blog, there was no five year plan...

Now even I didn't think I'd be writing a post to celebrate my blog's FIFTH anniversary when I posted that first article back on July 17th 2013!  All that time ago, my short term goal was to not give up posting after a month or so, something that I have seen quite frequently with blogs of various topics, not just Eurovision, up to that time.  Nothing infuriated me more than starting to follow a writer with a really well constructed and interesting piece of work, only for it to disappear or tail off its content after a few months - it annoyed me because I have done it myself!  There is a Baldur's Gate blog that I started in a journal diary format that got six posts in and then I ran out of enthusiasm and time to keep playing the game/writing about it.  I was determined for that not to happen with this one and so here we are...
Looking back to my first blog birthday, I put out a mission statement of sorts and everything I wanted to achieve there has been done, admittedly all those goals being fairly easy to obtain after five years:

Big tick to all four of those points and of course the last one has been covered as a fan now, at home and at the Contest venue itself.  I have had some personal highlights this year that I want to flag up:

Being at Eurovision as a fan...
May 12th 2018, the Altice Arena, the Eurovision Final and the sixth and last evening show that I attended in Lisbon.  Apparently getting tickets for all Jury and Public shows, including the Saturday night extravaganza, WITHOUT securing an OGAE package is a massive achievement and I have to thank the venue itself for being able to get the tickets for that night.  As for the others, the Jury and Public SFs weren't that difficult to obtain, so if any of my readers are thinking of going in future years, I would say that at least try for the SFs - if you go to both Jury ones, you will see all the acts once anyway, due to the Direct Finalists all performing as well.  It was an incredible experience and one that I intend to repeat as often as possible...

Being at Amsterdam Calling, Eurovision in Concert and the Press event & After Party...
I know that a certain gentleman who is the powerhouse behind Eurovoxx will appreciate this picture - Eugent was one of my favourites this year too!  Getting a ticket for the tenth EiC was almost an impulse buy, with consideration as to where I was going to stay and how to get there being the afterthought!  But an outstanding weekend it turned out to be, what with the chance to see so many of the acts going to Lisbon in an amazing venue, added to that the opportunity to interview eight of the stars including my favourite of the year, plus attend the After Party where the above picture was taken AND go to Amsterdam Calling the night before and see such great acts from Eurovision past.  Six weeks in April and May were the pinnacle of my Eurovision career to date - amazing stuff, especially as I had the opportunity to share the experiences in Amsterdam and the weekend before in London with a newly found 'partner in crime'.  No, not Eugent...


'Stagedooring' the Eurovision Way...
Before April, I had never considered hanging around either the front or back of a venue in order to see the 'great and the good' of Eurovision arrive or depart in order to get a selfie/chat/promo gift - that changed in London, partly due to the fact that I had decided to stay the night before because I hoped to have got press accreditation for the London Eurovision Party (I didn't), but mainly due to this lady:
Joanne Powell is the fan (and now someone who I can call a friend) who introduced me to 'her world' of standing outside a venue, waiting to meet anyone who ventures out and getting a picture or autograph with them!  In London, we met up outside the Café de Paris alongside a lot of younger fans and their parents, who could only meet the artists this way as they were too young to go to the gig!  It was a great experience and it was amazing to see the artists that were delighted to see fans waiting for them and willing to do anything for the youngsters.  Selfies such as the one with Suzy were the order of the day there - I acted on a complete whim in Lisbon after Jury SF2 to try to meet Laura and whoever else, quietly shivering as the temperature dropped!  I did get my wishes granted too and got a Waylon scarf into the bargain!  A very interesting experience - if Press duties aren't forthcoming in future, it might be the way to go...


Being recognised by other fans and even artists is a strange experience for me...
This season has been a special one in so many ways but one thing that I have never expected was that writing a blog about Eurovision would lead to having someone wave at me, smile and then say "Hello Martin"!  Some of that is to do with Facebook but I have been getting very complimentary comments from other fans who I have met in Manchester, (Eurobash 2017), Brighton (UK NF), London (LEP and Heathrow Airport!), Amsterdam (EiC) and Lisbon and that is wonderfully gratifying.  It is also slightly embarrassing as I often do not immediately recognise who I am talking to - I apologise for that to everyone that I have met, especially in Lisbon when I did not expect to see anyone I knew there!  Of course the one time I was recognised by an artist really made my whole season - standing in the queue to interview Laura at the EiC Press Event, have her spot me AND her say "Martin! Oh my god, you're here!" was a truly memorable experience and makes me smile even now I am typing this sentence out.  That moment will stay with me for the rest of my days and that was part of perhaps the biggest highlight of my year...


Following two artist's journeys from start to finish was a new and exciting concept...
Sara and Laura - almost both a completed journey from first listen to performing on the Eurovision stage.  As we all know, if it wasn't for some 'strange occurrences' at the 1 in 360 Final in Bratislava, Sara would have almost certainly provided San Marino with their second ever Final appearance and probably best ever finish at the Contest.  You all know how I feel about "Funny Girl" and Laura and I am still hopeful for an interview where I can tie up any loose ends with her journey - as for Sara, I am hopeful that she will be back in 2019 and trying to secure a Eurovision slot for a suitable backer, hopefully one that treats her with the respect she deserves.  It will be interesting to see if I can repeat this intriguing journey with another artist - there was one young singer that I was impressed with at the initial stages of 1 in 360 last year, a Maltese singer called Gail Attard:



She has applied for the X Factor in Malta, which has the end product of a record deal and being Malta's representative in Israel - I will be keeping an eye out for developments in her career too...


So those are my personal highlights this year - there were some realisations that have come to mind over the last year or so, things that have crystalised how I operate as a blogger and areas of my writing/interviewing (and hopefully presenting) that I need to improve on:

Not being a news site means I can have preferences and not predictions...
You can clearly see that I wasn't predicting who would win in Lisbon and to be fair to myself, I never have done.  My pre-Contest lists have always been my personal preferences and nothing more, coupled with the belief in the songs and artists I like the best irrespective of how well they were likely to do.  At least three of the entries above did make it into the top ten in Lisbon but that is now not the point of my obsessive fandom - I am now after experiences of meeting new fans, artists, composers and associated professions.  If my favourite for future years comes 43rd, so be it - I am at peace with supporting the artist and entry that gives me the most pleasure which is a good thing, given my track record since Vienna!


Always highlight the positives as well as the negatives...
Since I have interviewed more of the artists at the Contest in the run up, typically via the pre-Parties, I have realised that being as impartial as possible with an artist or an entry is really important.  Case in point was with Iceland's song this year - on first listen, I felt that "Our Choice" was very old fashioned, that the tone of the lyrics were overly sentimental and that Dagur Sigurðsson, the loser at the SuperFinal of Söngvakeppnin, would have been a better choice to go through to Lisbon.  I did point out at that stage that Ari was a real professional and a great singer, something he proved to me superbly at Israel Calling when he had to remove his in ear monitors, having been given the wrong sound equipment, and then sing perfectly with no monitor help at all.  This was something I congratulated him on during my interview with him at Amsterdam - impressing on him the positives, even though I wasn't a fan of the song itself.  Thorunn Erna Clausen (the delightful lady above at the EiC After Party) was the song's composer but it was obvious that she is a passionate writer and had pulled the song's lyrics from her heart, as they meant so much to her.  She was also amazing on stage as a backing singer and was the epitome of close emotional support for the 19 year old lead singer throughout his path from Icelandic NF to SF1 of Eurovision.  Having learnt from my experience with Ari and Thorunn this season,  I want to keep being positive for acts in the future and I recognise that, until you get the whole story, that focussing on only one aspect of a nation's entry isn't healthy.  I will strive for a nice balance and make any criticism as constructive as possible from now on...


I might need to watermark my pictures...
I was delighted that Suzy and Emmelie de Forest both wanted to use these pictures on their Facebook timelines, the former from the London Eurovision Party and Emmelie's from Amsterdam Calling.  Purchasing a Google Pixel 2 XL was perhaps my best move of the whole Eurovision season - as long as I could get close enough to not have to use zoom, the images I got were truly amazing for a mobile phone!  So much so that I could foresee someone using these other than the artist - perhaps playing around with a watermark might be prudent...


I am rubbish at pronunciation of foreign names and need to rectify that...
I could just say that being a Brit means that I'm no good at saying foreign names correctly, laugh it off and leave it at that.  However, as I am now meeting more artists face to face, me not being able to say their name perfectly is no longer an option.  The lady above was the case in point this season and I am not proud to say that I made quite a mess of her surname when speaking to her at the EiC press event - Ieva was gracious enough to smile and overlook it but it is something I plan to rectify for the 2019 season.  The importance of being able to do such a thing as a basic common courtesy was ironically recently highlighted during the World Cup, where the Australian host Lucy Zelić has been lambasted by some of the SBS audience for actually trying to say people's names correctly:

The guy in the clip is Craig Foster, a former Pompey player, and what he said there is spot on:

Any name, song title or any other non-English word will now be treated with all due regard, especially when one of my plans for the forthcoming season comes into play...

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On previous birthday posts, I've flagged up my most popular articles as far as views are concerned in year three and my favourite live performances up to last year.  As I've been a busy boy for the last few years as far as interviews are concerned, I wanted to flag up those that I enjoyed the most, whether that be for the information gathered or because the interviewee was so relaxed and amazing to chat with.  There are two or three from each year since I plucked up the courage to chat face to face - hope you enjoy listening to them again...

In hindsight, this should have been one of the most daunting interviews I have ever done and it was my first!  I was really nervous (as you can probably tell from my manner) and there I was, chatting to an icon of UK Eurovision and a world-class presenter and interviewer himself.  Now whether he sensed my nervousness, I have no idea, but it was a wonderful interview in that he provided me with lots of information and also answered each of my questions brilliantly, with some really interesting points that I could possibly have made a full interview out of on their own, if only we had the time.  A very witty and intellectual speaker, I couldn't have wished for a better first interviewee...

You know when you have a day where no matter what you do, it all goes perfectly well and you get effectively 'interview gold'?  These guys gave me perhaps the most relaxed and fun interview that I have ever had!  It might have had something to do with the fact that it was early evening, they had done their set and so could start to imbibe from the bar and we were sat at a table in the bar of the hotel - just me, them and their manager.  Joe and Jake are superb guys and they seemed to enjoy the chat because it was so informal and unscripted (not on my part, I hasten to add), probably also that we had Sky Sports News on a tv behind us and it allowed the guys some downtime during the chat!  They gave me some nuggets of information that I had never heard before and so I got a totally different experience over the course of the day...

Chris West at London Eurovision Party 2017



Now this was might be called 'thinking on your feet'!  This was effectively my second 'press event' and I had questions prepared for all the current artists and all the guest acts, in case I met any of them, but I had no idea that the author Chris West would be there too, promoting the new update of his book about Eurovision.  So my first statement is totally truthful in that I had nothing prepared and I felt it best to let him start off by telling me what his book was all about!  I was delighted that he did such a marvellous job with that and it gave me some time to think of follow-up questions for him.  He was passionate about his book, his publisher sitting alongside him was pleased with how it all went and I got a free copy!  I was given a piece of advice by Jamie McLoughlin at Eurobash 2016, he being a bona fide journalist: "People want to hear who you are interviewing, not you".  Such an simple and yet brilliant piece of advice and I felt that this interview showed that best...


Levina at London Eurovision Party 2017



The morning after she had won the German NF, I caught an interview with Levina on German breakfast tv.  Now I have limited German understanding but that wasn't important as what I realised very quickly was how at ease Levina was when she was being interviewed.  It was as if she had been doing it for years - a beautiful smile and a lovely gentle way of presenting herself to her nation.  She was the one artist I really wanted to chat with at that event and I was lucky enough to do so - I was also fortunate to chat to her delegation representative beforehand who 'fed' me some basic information about Levina and gave me more information to help smooth the way in our interview.  As on the tv interview, Levina was calm, eloquent and charming - to be honest, she has been the most natural interviewee I have come across and it was definitely my favourite interview of 2017.  We also had the fun when her HoD took our picture and pointed out our height differences...


Norma John at London Eurovision Party 2017



There is one part of this particular interview that gave me a real feelgood moment - it isn't the fact that Norma John were my number one act for Kyiv (you will have gleaned that from the interview) but the fact that I had apparently spotted something that no other pundit or interviewer had up to that point.  It was all to do with the black lace wrapped around Leena's microphone at UMK that matched her dress - I mentioned it to them and the look of delight on both their faces was immeasurable.  I still can't believe that I was the only one to have mentioned it to them, that I had spotted that tiny touch to their staging, but obviously I was and they really appreciated anyone noticing.  That moment has stuck in my brain - try to highlight the little things as it shows you are really taking notice of an artist's attention to detail...


Saara Aalto at Eurovision in Concert 2018



Saara showed me how a very established artist who has been interviewed many, many times will deal with interviews - she was the first person I spoke to in Amsterdam and Saara was very professional, articulate and oozed charisma.  I knew that I had to be well prepared and also I wanted to be able to ask her questions that she hadn't already been asked hundreds of times before.  I had read that she was the voice of Princess Anna in the Finnish version of 'Frozen' - that appeared to 'break the ice' (sorry!) and asking her about her multilingual presentation of "Monsters" literally a day or so after the video was released showed that I was at least keeping track of what she had been doing.  She was also the first 'victim' of my special question and her intrigued response to that convinced me that it wasn't such a daft thing to ask - I definitely picked wisely when deciding to chat with her...


Laura Rizzotto at Eurovision in Concert 2018



It helps when you have a real rapport with an artist because they give you more time to talk to each other than perhaps you'd otherwise have!  Regular readers know the score - I loved this lady's song from the very first time I heard it, got to know about her and chat with her on social media, everything culminating to that moment in Amsterdam where we finally got to meet, speak and smile.  It does come across a bit 'fanboy', much in the same way as I did with Krista Siegfrids at Eurobash 2016, but I got the interview I really wanted this year and whoever said 'never meet your idols' has never been in the company of Laura Rizzotto...


So that is FIVE years gone like a flash, what about 2018-19?  In addition to the photo watermarks and learning how to pronounce everybody's name correctly, here are my plans for the next twelve months...


Keep being a juror...
The main reason for that?  It really helped keep on top of all my reviews this year!  I managed to put down my initial thoughts on each qualifying song as soon as possible for the SECHUK Jury and that made writing a review for it so much easier - it also meant that all 43 songs were covered almost as soon as the last songs were announced in March, rather than what I had done before, where I had reviewed them all at the end.  If going to the Contest itself is now a regular 'gig', I can't leave it all until the last moment.  As for the Second Chance Contest, it continues as a nice filler as we enter the 'close season'...


Attend as many events as possible...
When I say 'event', I'm including the next one on my list which is happening later this week - the last date on SuRie's "Eurovision Unplugged" tour is at the Redgrave Theatre in Bristol on Sunday 22nd July.  I'm hoping to get an interview with her too but at the very least she has had time to chat and have pictures taken with all who wanted them at previous dates.  EuroStarz will be the next gig to go to after that:
Lindsay Dracass, Scott Fitzgerald, Esther Hart and Paula Seling & Ovi are the guests so far, a superb lineup.  That's July and August sorted, with Eurobash 2018 in Leeds at the beginning of October!  The off season isn't that quiet when you get to know what events are going on.  I plan to attend the UK NF (assuming there is one) and will see if time and resources stretch to attending a NF abroad, or whether going to some pre-Parties might be a better option.  There is the small matter of a soiree to attend next May as well...


Continue going to Eurovision itself...
One of the possible venues we could be at next year in Israel - the Tel Aviv Convention Center, the New Pavilion 2.  KAN and the EBU are working their way through the submission process for host city and venue at the moment but it would appear to be a straight 'fight' between Tel Aviv and Jerusalem.  Wherever it is, I am extremely tempted to go next year, given that it might be easier to obtain OGAE packages and accreditation (fan or press).  Things will become clearer as the months roll by but I am already thinking this way - the bug really has bitten me hard and my next big step may make that decision even easier to make...


Become one of the few Eurovision radio show hosts...
It is all in the very early stages yet but my guest contributions to my local community radio station, Bradley Stoke Radio, have not gone unnoticed and I have been encouraged to join the team of volunteers, not just as a guest and local Eurovision expert, but to have my own show on the station that is all things Eurovision!  I need to have an induction and be trained but at some point in the very near future, I will have a one or two hour slot in their programming to help widen the scope and broadcasting of the Contest, not just locally in South Gloucestershire but also online so that anyone around the world can hear it.  I have lots of ideas and getting started now will be ideal, so I can gear up for the 2019 ESC gradually over the next few months.  I will keep you all informed...


Hopefully I'll be able to keep the numbers up...
Having done the math on this snapshot taken at 1am this morning (that is when the blog stats recognise a new day), I am astounded by three numbers that have come to light concerning the blog:

Most of my posts now reach 1000 views as a minimum and that is really humbling - potentially a thousand readers are coming back to my blog each time I post a new article.  That is absolutely amazing and the vast majority of the comments I get on social media (mainly Facebook) are positive.  This anniversary post should help push the total number of views past the 400k mark, another major milestone for this blog.  And it all started on July 17th 2013, due to my positive feelings about a certain Danish singer's entry that ran contrary to those on a particular Eurovision website:
Having some cliquey, standoffish 'regulars' try and shoot me down in a boorish and aggressive manner, ironically on a website that has really faded away into nothing since then, really galvanised me to start this blog.  I suppose I should really thank them but I just cannot be bothered - I don't wish to give them any more of my article time!


Enough of the trolls and moaners of Eurovision - they'll never find a place here on "Let Me Be The One - Eurovision Through The Ages" and that is probably why I still enjoy writing all these posts and have totally absorbed the Contest that we all love into my psyche.  The 2018 season is all over bar the shouting (and the OGAE SCC)...