There is definitely one thing to be said about this show - who I get to speak to provides me and the show with so much variety to all things Eurovision, rather than just having a long list of just artists! I was fortunate enough to chat with Emily Roberts, the creative and technical force behind several musicals, but more importantly for me and other Eurovision fans a musical about the Contest that we (and she) all know and love. "Let Me Be The One" (the musical) is now at the start of its rehearsal phase, five weeks before opening night in Harrogate - I'll be attending the final show on its run in London on 2nd November. It was a really interesting chat a few weeks ago - we plan to catch up at Eurobash in three weeks time! If listening to Emily's interview has got you interested, go to dripdroptheatre.com for an outline of the show itself and of course that all important ticket information.
The other big news in the show was the UK announcing that there will be no NF in 2020 and that the BBC have linked up with record label/music company BMG to select our entry for Rotterdam internally. I'll chat some more about that later on - you heard my thoughts on that at the beginning of this week's show, along with those of Marcus Keppel-Palmer, long-time Eurovision fan, pundit and contributor to Vision magazine for OGAE UK, who is also a presenter at the station. If you didn't catch the show live, here is the Mixcloud catch-up:
And to tidy it all up radio show-wise, the playlist:
"I Can" - Blue
"Paper" - Svala
"Hold Me" - Farid Mammadov
"Yodel It!" - Ilinca & Alex Forea
"I tuoi particolari" - Ultimo
"Spirit In The Sky" (acoustic) - KEiiNO
"Better Love" - Katerine Duska
"That Sounds Good To Me" - Josh Dubovie
"Why I Love It!" - Doro Pasantes
"Su canción" - Betty Missiego
"Congratulations" - Sir Cliff Richard
"If I Had Your Love" - Selma
Interview about Let Me Be The One Musical part 1 - Emily Roberts
"In The Bubble" - Emily Roberts
"Undo" - Sanna Nielsen
Interview about Let Me Be The One musical part 2 - Emily Roberts
"Crying Underwater" - Dami Im
"Io sono bella" - Emma
"Black Sea" - Timebelle
"Yalla Bye" - Kobi Marimi
"Niemand heeft nog tijd" - Mrs Einstein
Lots of positive stuff about the Contest there in general but of course the big news of this week for us UK fans is the BBC announcement. If you have perused the great and the good of the Eurovision news websites, you will have seen about 30-40 slightly reworded versions of what the BBC issued on Monday morning (yes, I have glanced at all of them). Most sites have just taken the chunks of the press release they wanted to highlight and included the artists on BMG's books that match their reader's demographics...
There are even some artists the die-hard Eurovision fan would recognise on their books too:
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First things first...
You can read that here for yourself:
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What we did have to wait a few hours for was the only other definite item of the day, apart from the UK being in Rotterdam in 2020 - the BBC/BMG deal was there instead of a National Final, confirmed by the BBC News website:
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Not having 'Eurovision : You Decide' (or any other flavour of NF) is the only certainty for 2020 as far as us fans know. We know that BMG have a huge number of recording and publishing artists on their books but we have no clue as to who might want to perform at Eurovision or write a song for an artist or themselves. We don't know how involved BBC Studios, the commercial arm of the BBC, will be in the process or whether the BBC will just stick to showing the Contest and being 'boots on the ground' in Rotterdam. I would hope that a massive label like BMG would want to promote whoever it is as fully as they would do when one of their artists releases a new track across multiple territories all over Europe normally. Andrew Lloyd Webber proved that if enough money, time and the right sort of promotion is thrown at a Eurovision entry, the UK can get a great result - assuming that is combined with a superb singer and a good song.
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Joe & Jake, SuRie and Michael Rice did no better than Electro Velvet in 2015 position-wise and only the proven musical theatre class of Lucie Jones, the best UK staging for years plus the best song out of the four provided us with a top twenty entry. Once the BBC started to use formats that were more befitting a reality show (six artists/three songs...really?), it was obvious that one more poor finish would lead to a massive revamp. We send superb ambassadors but they have all been saddled (arguably bar Lucie) with bland songs that 'get lost in the crowd' at Eurovision. There is of course no guarantee that "BMG artist + song = instant success" but I personally believe that it is worth a try.
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Judging by the announcement of previous internal selections by the BBC, we will probably not hear anything more until the New Year. If we get anything like we got the last time we swapped from NFs to Internals, Blue got us 11th (and that would have been higher but for issues during the Jury Final - 5th with the televote) and that would be a considerable improvement. As my partner Ellen said - whatever happens in Rotterdam, we can't possibly do any worse! The only downside at the moment for us UK fans is that there won't be a NF in late January or early February to go to - for me, I'm happy to let that slide IF it results in a period of stronger results and we stop being know as 'Eurovision Duffers'...
Kylie? Simple Minds? Avril Lavigne? John Legend? MIA?
Foxes? alt-J? George Ezra? Jess Glynne? Mabel?
There are even some artists the die-hard Eurovision fan would recognise on their books too:
(Anouk c/o Albin Olsson, Loreen c/o Ainali, Francesco Gabbani c/o Tomodo Photography)
First things first...
I AM NOT GOING TO RE-HASH THE PRESS RELEASE!
You can read that here for yourself:
What we did have to wait a few hours for was the only other definite item of the day, apart from the UK being in Rotterdam in 2020 - the BBC/BMG deal was there instead of a National Final, confirmed by the BBC News website:
Not having 'Eurovision : You Decide' (or any other flavour of NF) is the only certainty for 2020 as far as us fans know. We know that BMG have a huge number of recording and publishing artists on their books but we have no clue as to who might want to perform at Eurovision or write a song for an artist or themselves. We don't know how involved BBC Studios, the commercial arm of the BBC, will be in the process or whether the BBC will just stick to showing the Contest and being 'boots on the ground' in Rotterdam. I would hope that a massive label like BMG would want to promote whoever it is as fully as they would do when one of their artists releases a new track across multiple territories all over Europe normally. Andrew Lloyd Webber proved that if enough money, time and the right sort of promotion is thrown at a Eurovision entry, the UK can get a great result - assuming that is combined with a superb singer and a good song.
24 - 15 - 24 - 26
The four reasons/placings why I think that
now IS the right time to go for an INTERNAL SELECTION.
now IS the right time to go for an INTERNAL SELECTION.
Joe & Jake, SuRie and Michael Rice did no better than Electro Velvet in 2015 position-wise and only the proven musical theatre class of Lucie Jones, the best UK staging for years plus the best song out of the four provided us with a top twenty entry. Once the BBC started to use formats that were more befitting a reality show (six artists/three songs...really?), it was obvious that one more poor finish would lead to a massive revamp. We send superb ambassadors but they have all been saddled (arguably bar Lucie) with bland songs that 'get lost in the crowd' at Eurovision. There is of course no guarantee that "BMG artist + song = instant success" but I personally believe that it is worth a try.
Could this be the UK's light bulb moment?
Could we mimic The Netherlands who went bold in 2013?
Perhaps having Anouk as part of BMG is a good omen...