It isn't everyday when a Eurovision winner
introduces their new release on Let Me Be The One!
Eldar Gasimov has linked up with the Swedish/Greek EDM project Vocolor and released a new track called "Until The End", the 2011 winning artist also introducing that track on the show!
You'll hear that in hour one after the second break, one of the many new releases played on this week's show. You might as well listen to it all now while you are at it:
And here are all the singers on this week's show, a few 'blasts from the past' (okay, just 25% of the playlist) and a lot of new releases in addition to Eldar's...
"Why?" - Geir Rönning
"Should've Listened" - Hurricane
"Miles Of Blue" - Jill Johnson & Robin Stjernberg
"Empty Room" - Sanna Nielsen
"Fyra bugg och en Coca Cola" - Lotta Engberg
"Tusen Och En Natt" - Charlotte Nilsson
"What Would You Do For Love" (censored) - Ulrikke
"Until The End" - Vocolor ft. Eldar
"Udivitelnyy" - Dina Garipova
"Ay, bylbylym" - Dina Garipova
"My Whole World" - Alexander Rybak
"Viceversa" - Francesco Gabbani
"Il Sudore Ci Appiccica" - Francesco Gabbani
"Superhero" (English live acoustic version) - Viki Gabor
"Sloboda" - Tamara Todevska
"Rise" - Tamara Todevska
"Hypnodancer" - Little Big
"Cuckoo" (edit) - Netta
"Houseparty" - Annalisa
"Yet" - Duncan Laurence
"Lo Que Perdí al Perderte" - Edurne
"This Time I Mean It" - Trine Jepsen & Michael Teschl
"Let Me Be The One" - The Shadows
Now I'd like to say that I am not one to 'blow my own trumpet' but regular listeners and readers will know that is patently untrue so I will explain more about the link with "Eurovision: A Second Opinion 2020":
This is the brainchild of Joe Newman-Getzler in conjunction with ESC Covers.com - an attempt to get each nation to have jurors and televotes, so that we can get as close a recreation as possible to a Eurovision voting sequence as possible for 2020. I put myself forward for either category and Joe was kind enough to include me in the UK Jury as a 'radio broadcaster and Eurovision journalist'! First bit is fine by me - I'm never comfortable being labelled as a journalist though, as I have no qualifications in that field. Having said that, I have attended plenty of press events now in the UK and abroad so it is probably an easy title to use, at least for this purpose! So far, I have just submitted my top ten from SF2 of 2020, which is where the UK's votes would have gone this year. The results of the SFs will be out this Thursday (18th June) and then the Final results are planned for the week after, 25th. Another new experience for me - I have been a juror on other panels but not at this level! Lindsay Dracass is also on the UK Jury, Eldar Gasimov and Farid Mammadov are on the Azeri panel, and there are many other Eurovision and NF alumni, including one Geir Rønning from Finland and that is why he kicked off this week's show. I'll keep you informed what happens, probably in next week's show.
Sanna Nielsen gets her time on the show with "Empty Room", my favourite other song of hers apart from "Undo", for being the presenter of "Allsång på Skansen 2020", an excellent summer show from Sweden with loads of Swedish Eurovision/MF artists, as is a show hosted by this lady:
Lotta Engberg will be hosting "Lotta på Liseberg", a similar concept to the one Sanna is hosting but a show that I have yet to see! Arguably there are bigger names with Lotta and both are surely must-sees this summer, given that both will be on SVT Play. You have the chance to hear an act from each of the opening shows, Jill Johnson and Robin Stjernberg with Sanna and Charlotte Perrelli (Nilsson as was) with Lotta.
As far as the new releases are concerned, you have this delightful lady with her new track "What Would You Do For Love", that Ulrikke sung at The Impossible Games a few days ago for a start. I have done something unusual this week in that I have played two tracks from each of three different artists (Dina Garipova, Francesco Gabbani and Tamara Todevska). After last week's mess with playing one of Dina's songs and then describing it with the details of a different song, I decided it was safer to play them this way, rather than splitting them! It seemed to work okay...there was one big item of news that I managed to get into this week's show, fortuitously connected to Duncan Laurence's new release, "Yet":
Yes, we now know the dates for Eurovision 2021! Here you go:
As I said on the show, don't go made booking accommodation UNLESS YOU ARE ABSOLUTELY CERTAIN it is fully cancellable, as your travel insurance won't cover it and the travel firms/hotels/Airbnb won't be as helpful next year if crowds aren't allowed. That is still a distinct possibility, as alluded to by Executive Producer Sietse Bakker:
There will be a Contest but it might not be as we know it. All the tickets are still valid but if you want a no-strings refund, you have until 27th June to sort it out. Before then, we have show 98 and there isn't much news at the moment, so there might be a bumper 'new releases' edition - one thing is certain, one lady who sung for Serbia in 2011 fits into that category and who knows? I might break with tradition and play you her Eurovision song too - why is that, I hear you cry?
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Jury SF1: Monday evening, 17 May 2021
Family SF1: Tuesday afternoon, 18 May 2021
Live SF1: Tuesday evening, 18 May 2021
Jury SF2: Wednesday evening, 19 May 2021
Family SF2: Thursday afternoon, 20 May 2021
Live SF2: Thursday evening, 20 May 2021
Grand Jury Final: Friday evening, 21 May 2021
Grand Family Final: Saturday afternoon, 22 May 2021
Grand Live Final: Saturday evening, 22 May 2021
As I said on the show, don't go made booking accommodation UNLESS YOU ARE ABSOLUTELY CERTAIN it is fully cancellable, as your travel insurance won't cover it and the travel firms/hotels/Airbnb won't be as helpful next year if crowds aren't allowed. That is still a distinct possibility, as alluded to by Executive Producer Sietse Bakker:
There will be a Contest but it might not be as we know it. All the tickets are still valid but if you want a no-strings refund, you have until 27th June to sort it out. Before then, we have show 98 and there isn't much news at the moment, so there might be a bumper 'new releases' edition - one thing is certain, one lady who sung for Serbia in 2011 fits into that category and who knows? I might break with tradition and play you her Eurovision song too - why is that, I hear you cry?
"Čaroban" is such a joyous bop that making the world happier
for at least three minutes isn't a bad thing, is it?