19th May 2019, about 6am at Euroclub in Tel Aviv...
The last moment of any Eurovision experience for me...
8th May 2021 - it all starts again!
Today is the day before the first rehearsal within the Rotterdam Ahoy - THE ROOP will kick things off at 10am CET tomorrow on Saturday 8th and the world that we all love will be back in action after almost two years away. We all know the whys and wherefores, so I won't be going into that again - let's just say that I am as excited now as I was back in 2019, even though I will be watching from just north of Bristol online and on tv, rather than being in the venue itself. Unfortunately I won't be able to catch moments like this that happened in the last few hours of my Tel Aviv experience (although the lady concerned in the picture, the wonderful Krista Siegfrids, is still actively involved in the Eurovision process with her online eurovision.tv series):
Here is the planned list for the radio shows...
5 Minute Specials
A brief daily summary of what has been going on at the Ahoy during Eurovision week, Monday 17th through Thursday 20th, on Bradley Stoke Radio's Drivetime show (4-6pm BST). The UK entry"Embers" will get a play afterwards, effectively becoming the BSR Drivetime record of the week!
15 Minute Previews
Monday 17th, Wednesday 19th and Friday 21st will have previews of what is coming up in each SF and the Final, with my tips for who will qualify/win plus a play of James Newman's "Embers", just in case you haven't had enough of the UK's song! These segments will appear during the day when there is a suitable gap.
1 Hour Eurovision Special
Saturday 22nd May at 4pm will be the time to tune in for an hour long special show that will set up everyone (fans and casual once-a-year viewers) for the big event that evening. There will be a bit of history, what has happened at Rotterdam 2020 & 2021, the plan for that evening plus my thoughts on how well the UK entry will do!
As for the blogging, I will be summarising my thoughts starting from tomorrow (Saturday 8th May) about what I have seen during the rehearsals - whether the bookie's favourites lived up to expectations plus the money bet on them, who were the surprise packages and went up in my estimation, plus any 'odd moments' there might have been. I am not sure if it will be daily or after each set (SF1, SF2 and Direct Finalists) - time will tell, literally!
Radio : Bradley Stoke Radio 103.4FM and bradleystokeradio.com
Eurovision 2021 is GO!