[LMBTO] Wake Me Up When September Ends, Eurovision...

This might be the most tenuous link I have ever put in my blog to go with a title!  Petra Marklund, previously known as September, performed "Tuff brud i lyxförpackning" (the Lill-Babs classic) as the interval act at SF2 of Melodifestivalen 2018 in Gothenburg - to be honest, if Green Day had been linked with Eurovision in the slightest way, I would have put them here but I suspect that they are barely aware of the Contest, being American and also global rock superstars who already have exposure to more than the 200m viewers that watch our show each year.  The first month of month of this year's Eurovision season has passed us by and there is not a great deal to flag up that I haven't already discussed earlier in September but here goes...

Guess how I found my accommodation in Tel Aviv?  I'm staying fairly central, close to the Museum Of Art where the Opening Ceremony and Red Carpet will be staged and also near where the EuroVillage will be held in Charles Clore Park.  It appears to me that the main mode of transport would be buses and taxis on first glance and there is a major hub near the venue, due to its proximity to the University.  I'll be there from Friday 10th until Sunday 19th May and flying in and out of Luton Airport - last time I used that airport was when I went skiing to Kitzbühel in the 1990s!  I get the feeling that not as many of the fans I know personally will be going out to Israel but hopefully there will be new ones to meet and befriend...


Looks as though the screens may be back...
ESCXtra picked up on an interview with the set designer for the 1999 Concert in Jerusalem, Ronen Levin, in the publication 'Israel Hayom', where he commented on the criteria that KAN had put forward to prospective set designers for the 2019 show.  His preference would be for a home grown designer but utilising the expertise of those outside of Israel he felt was important too, Levin being only too aware of the importance of impressing the world with the nation's vision.  He wasn't impressed with Lisbon's staging as he felt that the absence of any screens and the low budget led to a 'not particularly beautiful' or groundbreaking set.  Within the criteria the words 'iconic', 'unique', 'innovative' and 'groundbreaking' appear a lot - it is also clear that the energy of the fans within the venue and how that is harnessed and portrayed is important to KAN too.  The most clear change to Lisbon is with this statement:


Hopefully we'll have more of a Stockholm effect with props and screens being used in proportion together, rather than in Kyiv where we often had massive heads behind the artist or, in the case of Claudia Faniello, massive hands...


Eurovision In Concert and Amsterdam Calling are all systems go again...
It was so successful in April that it will be the same venue again - Eurovision in Concert 2019 will be back at the AFAS Live in Amsterdam for its eleventh showing.  It isn't that much of a surprise to me at least, as the tenth show was totally packed at the venue and the after-party such a success that it it now highlighted in its own section on their website.  Early Bird tickets have gone on sale and sold already but general ones are still available as I type this.  Amsterdam Calling will be the night before as it was last year too and at the Melkweg yet again - unfortunately, given that this all happens a week after what might happen on 29th March 2019 with all the uncertainties that hang around that date, I am giving a lot of serious consideration as to whether I will attend my second set of Dutch extravaganzas.  At the moment, that prospect makes Tel Aviv seem positively straight forward...


Spain has started their process...
Series ten of Operación Triunfo, the 2018 set, has started and the 18 above have already lost two artists who did not even enter the Academy.  Sixteen to go and we will eventually get the Spanish Eurovision representative from this group of young hopefuls.  Despite my delight that there is a singer called Dave here, the stand out for me so far is this lady:



Natalia hit the ground running with this performance of "Crazy", owning the stage and looking as though she was already gunning for the Final, not just singing to get into the Academy itself on what the producers termed 'Gala 0'.  Her first duet was superb too but threw up some male opposition with the baritone Famous partnering her:



Natalia is definitely one to keep an eye on - as long as there's not a song she's given to sing that doesn't suit her, I'd be tipping her for the Final already.  She has the on stage sassiness of Ana Guerra and the vocal talents of Aitana - I wonder if she knows the words to "Lo Malo"?

But will the UK NF be in a studio?
This is how the BBC music show "Pitch Battle" looked before any 'civilians' were allowed in, the studio being at Dock 10 in Manchester, part of the MediaCityUK complex.  Why show this, you may ask, what has it got to do with Eurovision?  Well, it might well do in January or February 2019, if this tweet that appears to have been issued by mistake was correct in the information that it contained:
An eagle-eyed fan, Stuart Donnelly, spotted this and shared it in the OGAE Facebook group - given that most of the BBC is now based in Manchester at that very complex, could it mean what I think that it might?


More importantly, if that tweet was correct and the UK NF is going to be filmed in one of those studios, what does that mean for possible fan numbers and how they will get the tickets?  Looking at the studios as listed on the Dock 10 website, there would probably be only one option indoors and that is HQ1:
An audience of 1000 fans would be the maximum but with all the technical bits that go with hosting a tv music show, that might be reduced - here is a picture of the 'shell':
There is the Outdoor Studio HQ11 that has a capacity of 5000 but I am unsure whether using that in the first two months of the year would be prudent - how 'outdoors' is it?

I have to say that if this is what is going to happen (and that isn't guaranteed, as nobody from any of the organisations listed in the tweet - Dock10, MediaCityUK or the BBC - have said anything about it at all, neither confirming the information or denying it), moving the UK NF around the UK is a good thing to allow fans who could not make it to London or Brighton to have the opportunity of getting to be at the venue live.  Filming the UK NF would make absolute sense financially and technically for the BBC - it is a 'no brainer' for a tv production to be there when you consider that four of the most recent BBC Saturday night music series (see above) have been filmed at these very studios.  Everything is geared up for it, everyone knows what they are doing and the costs will be potentially a snip compared to moving everything 'down south'.  Having said that, there is a downside for those fans who aren't near that part of the NW of England - that potential issue is ticketing:
The previous three EYDs have been at venues independent of the BBC and therefore we paid a fee to attend, knowing that we then had a guaranteed seat or at least standing space inside.  If it is filmed at MediaCityUK, the tickets will be issued by BBC Shows And Tours and those will be free, which sounds great but there is a catch.  Getting hold of a ticket might not be automatic - a lot of the shows are massively oversubscribed, the most obvious one of those is Strictly Come Dancing.  If you do get a ticket, that doesn't mean you will get to see the show - the BBC want a full studio and issue more tickets than there are spaces to ensure that there are no empty gaps shown on tv.  This often means queuing to get inside - in the case of Strictly, that is several hours wait!
If I lived in Manchester and the surrounding area, I would take the risk of getting in that queue with my free tickets - best case scenario being that I got in, worst case that I get turned away but can go home and watch it with only the expense of local travel incurred.  As a fan in Bristol, even if I got tickets in the draw, I would not want to incur the expense of train travel and hotel stay without the certainty of knowing that I was actually getting into the UK NF, something that I would do if I had to buy tickets again, as per the previous three years.  There is another option open to me - I haven't watched any EYD on television yet, having been at all three NFs in their current format.  Perhaps 2019 might have to be that first time!  Is this all likely to happen?  We shall see in good time if that tweet was just a false alarm or a social media release issued incorrectly ahead of time...
So not that much happening so far in month one of the 2019 Eurovision season - lucky that I've had the material from my radio show "Let Me Be The One" to fill my blog up with this month!  Perhaps October will kick start things off...