You know how sometimes you get a nice surprise in the morning? That happened today when I found that the new single by the lady above, Holly Tandy (portrayed beautifully in the picture above from her Insta page), had been released today (Tuesday 5th November) rather than tomorrow (Wednesday 6th) as was originally announced. That meant that "Small Talk" is in the playlist on this week's show and the title for this blog post has a double meaning. I still think that her version of "Bigger Than Us" was the better one and that she should have gone to Tel Aviv this year for the UK - "The One That Got Away" also refers to the Contest being run by the UK Eurovision fan club, OGAE UK, which involves UK entries in our national finals that didn't quite make it:
You want to know which of those songs got my top marks? You better listen to the show:
Lots of variety in the show this week - have a look at the playlist, just so you didn't miss anything:
"Na Inat" - Poli Genova
"I Stand" - Gabriela Gunčíková
"Don't Ever Cry" - Put
"När jag blundar" - Pernilla Karlsson
"Tih deževen dan" - 1 X Band
"Popular" - Eric Saade
"Lights And Shadows" - O'G3NE
"Gasoline" - The Rua
"Secret Combination" - Kalomira
"Small Talk" - Holly Tandy
"Ein Lied kann eine Brücke sein" - Joy Fleming
"Sister" - S!sters
"Change The Record" - Emily Roberts
"Light On" - Monika Marija
"Brutalero" - Luka Nižetić
"I'll Leave My Heart" - Cyndi
"Happy Everything" - Maggie Moone
"Where The Action Is" - First Division
"Woo (You Make Me)" - Michelle Gayle
"I Need You" - Deuce
"Queen Of The Mardi Gras" - Tony Christie
"Waterloo" - ABBA
"Tell Me Baby" - Eye Cue
"Somewhere We Can Talk" - Adelén
"Let Me Be The One" - The Shadows
As I said last week, I am delighted that Bulgaria are back in the mix this year and it will be interesting to see if fate and Poli Genova's hints back at Eurobash 2018 will lend themselves to the dream scenario for that country. I also want to thank Bojan and Marija of Eye Cue yet again for tipping me off that their new track was being released and that I could air it here. I was also delighted that Emily Roberts managed to provide me with another song to play from her superb musical that I attended last Friday, Let Me Be The One (great name, that!). Oh, and one more thing - if you think I sounded breathless between 1 X Band and Eric Saade, I was! That was the result of running to my car to get a water bottle on a cold November night within three minutes and then trying to coherently speak - mental note made not to do that again!
As for next week, hopefully a lot of the content will revolve about what is happening on Friday evening at the Royal Vauxhall Tavern in London. Yes, it is Eurofest yet again and there are two main parts to the gig - first is one that I touched on in this week's show, the Second Cherry Vote, where songs that missed out going to Eurovision via national finals have been selected by the Second Cherry team, broadcast on podcasts and then voted on by fans online and at the RVT (you need to get a move on if you want to vote online - closing time is Thursday 7th). The second part of the night is about these guys:
KEiiNO
The real reason I am going to Eurofest, Second Cherry is a nice bonus for me! Hopefully Alexandra, Fred and Tom will have recovered from their flight back to Europe from their Australian tour, that being something I can ask them in person as I plan to be interviewing them after their soundcheck! That will make a clean sweep of artist interviews at Eurofest in 2019, as I was able to chat with Krista, Eye Cue and Anna earlier this year. Fingers crossed that it happens and you will be able to listen to the chat on next week's show. Lots of their material to play from them and we will probably hear most if not all here on Friday:
It should be a great gig and I am looking forward to seeing lots of my readers and listeners there!