Are the Dutch going to be Eurovision contenders again?
Ilse found Duncan and he won...
Duncan found Mia and Dion...
Three nations have now selected their artists to sing in Liverpool next May - Mia Nicolai and Dion Cooper are the Dutch duo that were put together by Duncan Laurence and his partner, songwriter Jordan Garfield in 2020. Michaja Nicolaï and Dion Cuiper are the actual names of these performers, both with singles behind them (Mia with 6, including "Dream Go" that was on this week's show, and Dion with 9 including "Blue Jeans", his latest release). They have been described as 'unconventional' but they appear to have gelled in a very positive way, if this Q&A video is anything to go by:
I got the press release on the day from AVROTROS (Tuesday 1st November) and eurovision.tv have done a pretty good job of bringing it altogether, so instead of reinventing the wheel:
All the details are there - I am looking forward to hearing what they will be singing in May, given that it is "distinctive, outspoken and meaningful". It could be said that Jeangu Macrooy's "Birth Of A New Age" had those qualities, so we shall see. What I could do you all now was play a taster of what each singer sounded like - have a listen to the show...
And the playlist...
"Dream Go" - Mia Nicolai
"Blue Jeans" - Dion Cooper
"Ukraine Is Alive"- DJ For Ukraine ft INPLUS & Iana Kovalova
"I Can't Go On Living Without You" - Lulu
"La Emperatriz" - Rigoberta Bandini
"Më Duaj" - Evi Reçi
"A trecut vara" - ROXEN
"Strong" - Sissi
"Cheri Cheri Lady" - Maléna
"Stand By You" - Anna Gjebrea
"Molitva" - Marija Šerifović
"Oh Maman!" - Lissandro
"Som du vill" - Theoz
"Jag Är Mamma" - EMIL HENROHN
"When All The Lights Go Out" - Marcus & Martinus
"Miljonär" - LouLou LaMotte
"Ödet Var Min Väg" - Nordman
"As I Lay Me Down" - Wiktoria
"Love Song For A Vampire" (Live at Estudio Uno) - Ruth Lorenzo
"Ein Bißchen Frieden (2022)" - Nicole
"Dans Mij Naar Huis" - S10
"Pure" - Gjon's Tears
Immediately after Mia and Dion on the show was a lady that I have been chatting to on and off for the past 4 years. She came to my attention when she thanked me for the article that I wrote about the Technical Stand-In singers, who have a very important role to play in the run-up to each Eurovision Song Contest:
She played the role of Lucie Jones, Blanche and a third of OG3NE - a dear friend, fan of the show and member of the LMBTO Eurovision Facebook Group, Iana Kovalova...
She has been on Swedish Idol in 2019, wrote a song that made the Vidbir 2020 Final ("Savior" by Oleksandr Poriadynskyi) and was backing for Jerry Heil that year too. The wonderful news is that she is one of the artists on the Vidbir 2023 long list alongside Jerry, Krutb and TVorchi who have all been there before! Fingers crossed that her audition impressed and that she makes it to the live shows. During a chat about her making the list, she told me more about the song I played on the show where she was the voice, "Ukraine Is Alive".
"Ukraine Is Alive", it’s not only a song, it’s an anthem of organization called Ukraine.alive and initiative dj for Ukraine. The first one is volunteering humanitarian organization helping people in need during the war, the second one is like a library of Ukrainian national instruments samples and [when] buying one, people automatically donate to Ukrainians forces. ❤️ I’m very proud of working on this song with composer Vlad Darvin and I would be really happy if it would be possible to say that ❤️"
That I did on the show on Tuesday and I am honoured to be able to place it here too. Hopefully we will hear a lot more from Iana over the next 6 weeks...
The Benidorm Fest 18 have been announced - the big name returnee for us Eurovision fans is Alfred Garcia from 'Amaia and Alfred' in 2018, along with the sole Fest 2022 artist to try out again (Blanca Paloma) and two other Operación Triunfo alumni to give this format a go (Agoney from 2017, Alfred's year, and Famous from 2018). No idea what they are all singing but 'Benidorm Fest - Los elegidos' did give us a taste of what they all sounded like.
There is only one way that Freya would not open show 222...
But surely we can't have the UK Eurovision artist and song
revealed within the same week as well...
Can we?