[LMBTO] Eurovision 2017 - I knew Week 2 would get us going...

Didn't I say that week 2 would be the week to kick start the Eurovision season?  We now know for certain where we are going, have a good idea about when (although I'm holding fire on booking annual leave and figuring out whether I will go to Ukraine for at least another week) and all of a sudden there are more countries joining the party!  I'm keep writing these weekly summaries of what I found interesting about Eurovision, at least until artists are starting to be confirmed - none of those yet...

As for my favourite things?
Sorry Julie, no 'whiskers on kittens' just yet and hopefully there weren't any 'brown paper packages tied up with string' floating around...


It's KYIV!

Yes, we all know that it is the host city now and I covered that in my own special way last post.  As I said there, the only item that is still a little bit uncertain are the dates but at least the EBU and NTU are getting down to business.  1tv.com.ua reported today (16th September) from the first working meeting that the EBU wanted primarily a seated ESC, with a 2000 fan standing area being sufficient.  It looks as though the executives want to make sure they aren't having to stand up all the time:
The International Exhibition Centre itself sounds as though it is more than big enough for fans, seats, stage, press centre and all the technical paraphernalia that goes with staging the Contest.  Jon Ola Sand indicated that he was quite positive with the venue, although his finals words might indicate that he views that Eurovision should not shrink down in size to fit the building (although that might have been a shortcoming with the translation):

The other internal matters featuring the hosts this week were that Jamala will appear on the jury of the Ukrainian NF (we at least know from this that she won't be doing a Lena or Corry Brokken by attempting to defend her title) and the Ukrainian government reiterated their threat to block any Russian performer on their blacklist from entering their country.  It cannot hurt to have such a talented classically trained singer as Jamala on the host's jury and as for the banned artists, it is highly unlikely that any of them would put themselves forward to sing at Eurovision anyway.  That being said, it will be interesting to see who Russia put forward - I would have thought it is more likely that they would send one of their biggest stars again in a quest to win Eurovision on Ukrainian soil, rather than start a major Contest incident by sending someone like this guy, Iosif Kobzon, a singer known for his crooner style and an outspoken politician:

More Serhat than Sergey?  And where did he get that hair?


Armenia starts selecting

Now as judges go, Armenia has some good looking high flyers on their panel:

Iveta, Aram and Inga make up half the judging panel on the Armenian selection format "Դեպի եվրատեսիլ / Depi Evratesil", the other half includes Essaï from Genealogy, Anush and Hayko - with a judging panel like that, how can Armenia possibly go wrong?  All Eurovision Finalists and so the pressure on those participating must be immense.  From the initial clips, it looks as though this will look a familiar process to fans of X Factor:


And it's likely to take three months before the winner is found - hopefully this won't be on a par with the marathon that the Lithuanian public have to put up with each year!  I have to say that I am looking forward to following the process, even though I do not a clue what anyone is saying...it really looks as though Armenia mean business this year and want to take their regular slot in Eurovision's top ten up a notch.  Top five in Kyiv?


TEO and Olga at Eurovision?

They make a lovely pair, TEO and his wife Olga.  Where did they meet?  I can't be sure but the first time I saw them around each other was when TEO won the right to represent Belarus in Copenhagen:



Now this guy can obviously charm the birds from the trees but it was obvious during this reprise that Olga was quite enamoured with the cheeky winner, so much so that two years later she was presenting AND singing a duet with him:
The dream Belarusian couple?  Perhaps - so much so that it has been reported on Facebook via OGAE Belarus that Mr and Mrs TEO will be putting themselves forward for the Belarusian national selection process:


Now I suspect that a lot of fans will be getting out their sick buckets on hearing this news but I'm all up for this.  For me, "Cheesecake" has been the best Belarusian entry in recent years (bar "Solayoh") and TEO does have this certain aura about him.  Having said all that, seeing more of the former Miss Ryzhikova is always a pleasure, never a chore!  The Belarusian National FInal and selection process has been a guilty pleasure of mine ever since I started this blog (2014, 2015, 2016) and I would suspect that this couple would start the process as hot favourites to progress to Kyiv (that's the first time I've said that this season, won't be the last).  The only thing to do is now wait and see if this rumour holds true...


France internal selection as per 2016...
It didn't work out too badly in Stockholm, did it?  After years of mediocrity, France got their first top ten at the Contest since 2009 and it seemed to be all due to forward planning - staging planned by Christmas, artist and song by end of February.  It looks as though it's going to be a similar scenario this time, with singers and songwriters all having an opportunity to put themselves and/or their songs forward to be involved in the French selection process.  End of November for your submission, 10th March next year when everything is announced - okay?  Will France be able to better their 6th place and follow their close neighbours Belgium and The Netherlands with a revival in their Eurovision fortunes?  We've got a bit of time to wait and see...


Germany goes back to 2010
Only half the size of the Armenian panel but it does contain a Eurovision winner - Lena, Tim and Florian will be 'guiding the viewing public' during the live performances at "Eurovision Song Contest - Unser Song 2017" in Cologne on 9th February next year.  It's submission time for solo artists only (no way in for Avantasia this year) who have a suitable video to put themselves forward to be one of the initial 30 to be previewed by a panel of music professionals before five are chosen for the Final in February.  Alongside this, five songs are to be selected for the five hopefuls to sing - lots of variables there which may or may not bring Germany success.  What you would hope is that this lifts them off the bottom of the Eurovision Final leaderboard in May - ARD are hoping for at least a top ten resulting from this, something Germany have not experienced since 2012 with Roman Lob.


Italy, Spain, Croatia and Czechia have also confirmed...
These four countries have all confirmed their attendance in Kyiv in May - Spain giving themselves a decent PR picture in doing so whilst at an EBU reception in Berlin:
It's the same deal as it always is with Italy - they will be there but we don't officially know how.  Of course Sanremo is on every year and most years the winner of that gets first dibs on going to Eurovision - not sure that is likely to change, seeing that the last time Italy went internal, they had their worst placing at the Contest ever:



HRT confirmed yesterday that Croatia will be in Kyiv, whereas the best bit of news for me was that Czechia are taking part for the third year in a row.  Having made it to the Final in Stockholm with Gabriela Gunčíková singing such an amazing composition was obviously a watershed moment for the Czechs and their official notification of going to Kyiv outlined that their representative will be chosen internally but that the song can be submitted from anywhere, any nation.  I'd be up for Gabriela to be singing once again but it is obvious from the last two years that there are many excellent singers there - we will know more after November 30th.  Oh, one thing - for the record, I'll be taking the 'friendly route' and referring to the Czech Republic as Czechia - I'd like to think we are buddies...


Eurobash 2016
Yes, I'm going - new host city for me (not been there for 20+ years) but I really looking forward to it, it is going to be excellent value.  Not for the fact that I will be writing yet another article about it but because of who will be there on the Guest List, which was finalised this week:
Krista, J&J and Paddy?  Good luck to the chair controlling the lovely if potentially OTT Krista - I would suspect that Paddy will be polite in that he is a fellow interviewer but he does have a wicked side to him and I love his anecdotes, whereas I am sure that Joe and Jake will be their usual nice, reserved selves, but will being out of the Eurovision bubble bring out a different side to them?  Seeing we had Electro Velvet last year in Birmingham, does that mean that we are getting the UK representative at the 'Bash every year from now on?  I suppose that will depend on how well they do the preceding May - a tough world out there, I suppose, but I'm not complaining at all!  Bet you wish you were all part of OGAE UK now...

So I was right - week 2 has really kicked off the 2017 Eurovision season bigtime!  Will week 3 be as busy?  We should have a list of competing nations by then and hopefully know for certain that the dates for Kyiv at the moment will be the actual ones (for annual leave, flight and hotel arrangements).  Who knows?