[LMBTO] As The Clocks Go Back, Will Eurovision 2019 Spring Forward?

Another month gone and still very little has happened in the way of confirmed artists and/or songs for Tel Aviv (NONE) but a few days ago, we did find out what the new Eurovision slogan would be:

DARE TO DREAM-
The slogan for @Eurovision 2019 in #TelAviv was revealed!⭐#ESC2019#Eurovision2019@kaneurovisionpic.twitter.com/7JjEgw56Ni

— Tel Aviv (@TelAviv) October 28, 2018

It wasn't the most glamourous of venues for the announcement - it looked like a dingy lecture room but other pictures showed that Jon Ola Sand plus the Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu were there to provide the big reveal.  Jon Ola came up with words such as:

Being the consummate diplomat, he then conveniently linked the slogan to Netta's victory in Lisbon, her having the dream to bring the Contest back to Israel - conveniently side stepping which city she mentioned when accepting the trophy!  The PM's dream is to win on home turf - good luck with that one, given a host victory hasn't happened since 1995.  I have to say that given the slogan tends to be two to three words long, anything chosen is always going to be fairly vanilla, easy to remember and inoffensive enough for it to be put on all of the EBU's merchandise!  Remember all the others?

There have already been some critics who say that it doesn't relate to anything in particular, unlike Lisbon's that tapped into that city's maritime history.  Judging by all the others, only Baku could be viewed as choosing something related to the nation itself (Azerbaijan being the "Land Of Fire") so I'm not too bothered about purchasing a t-shirt/mug/poster etc with "Dare To Dream" on it...
Tel Aviv Marina - the limit of what can dock from the sea where Eurovision will be held next year.  What is being proposed by the Municipality is that an ocean liner that could accommodate up to 2000 fans might be used to increase the number of rooms in the city whilst Eurovision is on, ferrying in and out passengers as needs be.  The nearest port that would normally take a ship of that size is in Haifa so imagine that view but with a big boat out in the near distance...



This drone footage of Sir Charles Clore Park, where the Eurovillage will be, shows this area off superbly well - it looks massive but I suspect that with thousands of fans there, it will be really busy!  There are plans for various zones containing music, food and sports, together with a possible combination of the Eurovision activities with what is known as "the White Night", where there are overnight concerts, parties, tours and all tourist facilities such as restaurants and museums stay open.  All very embryonic in what is being revealed but it looks as though Tel Aviv is determined to welcome the Eurovision world in the best possible way next May.

So officially it seems that Israel are getting things sorted in a smooth and calm manner - as for the rest of Eurovision?

OFFICIAL STATEMENT | 15 OCTOBER | Sofia, Bulgaria
We are sad to announce that Bulgaria withdraws from #Eurovision. The decision is based on financial reasons because the costs of the project far exceed the financial capacity of BNT according to the Management of the broadcaster

— BNT Eurovision Bulgaria 🇧🇬 (@bg_eurovision) October 15, 2018

Of course the big news this month was that BULGARIA have withdrawn from Eurovision 2019 due to financial reasons.  For me that is a real shame, as they were one of the few nations who appeared to be wanting to win each time they entered over the past three years, rather than just turn up as some countries seem to do.  Poli, Kristian and Equinox all brought some excellent material to the Contest and I hope that their absence is just a short one.  Of the rest of the 43 in Lisbon, I have yet to see confirmation by Russia, San Marino and Moldova to date - I am not surprised by the first as the Russian delegation never reveal much before the Head of Delegation meeting in March.  As for the other two, I am slightly surprised that MOLDOVA have said nothing, given that they tend to have a NF but as for SAN MARINO, given that 1 in 360 have not linked themselves to the microstate or to anyone else for that matter, an internal selection would be my guess.
How about letting this lady got for her fifth Contest but let her sing the style of music she loves, a touch of jazz?

Onto the rest of the pack now and who is doing what...



The big announcement was that Australia will be having their first ever NF to pick their entry for Israel!  Given that their placings have gone downhill in the last two years, especially with the televoters, it isn't that much of a surprise and the announcement does lend itself to this nation now being an ever present at the Contest.  As for 2019, it means that we have yet another NF to watch, set up in much the same way as Eurovision is - 50% jury voting based on a performance only seen by jurors the night before the public get to supply their half of the vote.  I'm excited about it all to be honest and I'm pleased that the Aussies liked the UK's name for our NF so much that they just changed one word for themselves!  There was also confirmation by the Gold Coast authorities that they would be hosting the inaugural Eurovision Asia Contest, a potential date being given as December 7th next year, but that is all yet to be confirmed officially by the EBU or SBS, who would be organising this event if true.

Next up, one nation will be holding their process at a venue that has good omens for them:
Will Denmark go back to the days of podium finishes by staging their NF here, at the Boxen in Herning?  Emmelie started her journey to Eurovision victory here and Rollo & King also won in Herning (albeit at the Conference Centre) to set themselves up for what was almost a host victory at the Contest.  One of those NFs I'd love to attend but having DMGP there involves quite a trek from either of Denmark's international airports, so I'll stick to watching it all unfold online.

Talking about online streaming of qualification processes, Czechia have decided that 'if it ain't broke, don't fix it' - ESCZ 2019 will be their method of finding next year's entry, albeit with maybe eight songs to choose from, rather than six.  You've already missed the submission process (unless you supplied one of the 300 songs submitted, in which case, good luck) but if any of the artists are reading this, get yourself a really watchable video to put on YouTube - both versions worked wonders for Mikolas last year (remember that this original version is potentially NSFW):



From a nation using a successful format from 2018, we have one who is returning to one that they haven't used since 2011.  Croatia are attempting to mix it up again, given that their past three internal selections have seen Jacques Houdek as their best entry, somehow!
Dora is going to be used as their NF, it being staged in the beautiful coastal town of Opatija - let's hope that the three night competition of chansons, Dora classics and Eurovision 2019 entries do the business for Croatia, although I think that Franka was woefully undermarked in Lisbon:
Moving onto personalities now, Melodifestivalen have announced their hosts for the six shows to select the Swedish entry for Tel Aviv:
Eric Saade, Marika Carlsson, Sarah Dawn Finer and Kodjo Akolor will be hosting Sweden's biggest music series of the year - having a third placed Eurovision finisher plus a lady who can either be herself as a former MF participant or as her alter ego Lynda Woodruff will provide us fans with a couple of familiar faces.  Marika and Kodjo will be more familiar to audiences in their home nation but this seems to be a quartet who will provide a lot of experience on set.  Whether they will be all present for every show...
Someone who WON'T be participating this year, for the UK at least, is JOWST:

#UKxJOWST IS OFFICIALLY DEAD 💀 they didn’t want any of my songs. Good luck 🇬🇧

— JOWST (@JOWSTMUSIC) October 26, 2018

He followed this tweet up with another that had, it has to be said, a hint of annoyance:

They actually think that my 3 best songs/demos are worse than ALL the songs they will have in their national final.
But don’t worry, you’ll hear it one day, and can decide for yourself ❤️🎢 https://t.co/l1tl5M5faB

— JOWST (@JOWSTMUSIC) October 26, 2018

Could it be that his public campaign to be one of the selected artists put the BBC off (part of that would have been his interview with me) or is it just that there are already better songs submitted?  A source close to the submission process for the UK suggested to me the latter but we will have to wait and see if any of his songs see the light of day and then compare them to the UK NF entries, to gauge whether the BBC have missed out in any way.

Someone else who has tried out for two different nations in recent years appears to be providing her services for a third:
Emma Sandström, as you may remember reading in an article of mine last year, was the hot favourite to win UMK 2017 but had a disastrous time in the Final, and also reached the 1 in 360 Final for San Marino in 2018.  Yesterday (1st November) she revealed on her Instagram page in a Story that she had recorded a demo in Spanish to be submitted to RTVE for consideration for selection as one of the songs to be sung live at the Spanish NF.  The contestants at Operación Triunfo 2018 will sing them during a special show where the singer and song will be chosen to go to Tel Aviv - I assume that Emma is a writer of the lyrics or music, as she will obviously not be the singer!  Good luck to her - maybe it will be third time lucky...

The saddest Eurovision moment in October was the passing of Valters Frīdenbergs on 17th October aged 30, 'Walter' from Walter & Kazha, Latvia's artists in 2005:



One of the most successful entries for their nation to date, their 5th place finish was one of the stand outs of the night, what with their lullaby tones and the use of sign language, a rarity at that time.  This song is a fitting tribute to a great singer and performer...

Just to tidy up any October loose ends - Italy won the OGAE SCC, as I summarised in a recent article, whereas we in the UK won the OGAE Song Contest 2018!  This is probably as close as this group will ever get to Eurovision itself but a win is a win:



So that is the past month in highlight form as far as I am concerned - I am sure that I will be posting a lot more from now on here, at least as far as articles that aren't linked to my weekly Eurovision radio show, "Let Me Be The One", are concerned!  That is going well as far as I am concerned - it is available to listen to every Tuesday at 1pm GMT (repeated at 11pm on Thursdays) at bradleystokeradio.com/live and uploaded to Mixcloud as soon as possible after the first airing.  The latest one was all about Halloween - well it would be, wouldn't it?



So we reach November - will we find out something definite this month?  Surely one of the 40-odd nations will at least tell us who is singing for them...