[LMBTO] Eurovision 2017 Weeks 6 & 7 - we have our first artist!

On October 19th, something actually happened as far as artists singing in Kyiv was concerned!  Director Klitos Klitou tweeted the above image, hinting at the singer who would be announced as representing Cyprus at Eurovision 2017.  It had already been strongly suggested that the Cypriots would be going down the internal route and they were true to their word.  On Friday 21st October, we knew for certain our first Eurovision 2017 singer:

Hovig Demirjian, or Hovig as we will surely all get to know him now until the end of the Final in Kyiv (assuming he follows Minus One's finish in Stockholm), is the Cypriot representative this year and even I recognised him as someone who has tried to get to Eurovision before.  He was one of the singers to miss out behind Giannis Karagiannis in 2015 during 'those three hours of my life I could never get back' but in my opinion he gave the best performance with "Stone In A River", providing superb light and shade in his voice.  Still unsure why he came fourth that night as this is a powerful watch:

If you are cynical about such things, Hovig being of Armenian descent might lead to high marks from Greece AND Armenia, purely based on cultural matters alone (he appeared in the Greek version of X Factor) - what is not cynical is Cyprus placing their trust in the hands yet again of Thomas G:son again to compose the song itself.  I think as internal selections go, this is a good one - he can definitely sing live, has lots of experience and it looks as though Cyprus are building on last year's Final qualification.  I'm sure they will be looking for better than 21st in the Final though...


Is Associate EBU Member participation now more likely?
Could this scene be part of one of this year's postcards?  The Baiterek Tower is possibly the most iconic sight on Astana, the capital city of Kazakhstan and if that nation was invited to participate, I am sure that this would be pride of place somewhere in the 45 seconds showing off their artist and nation.  It has been spotted that the official EBU wording regarding Associate EBU Members entering the Contest has been changed slightly:

This is the first time that any mention of Associates being able to participate has been made - this would obviously cement Australia's place at Eurovision from now on but it would allow any of nineteen others to apply.  The chances are that almost all of those (including Bangladesh, Iran and Mauritius, for example) would not be interested in doing so but as Kazakhstan has showed the ESC annually since 2010, a case could be made for them to enter in 2017.  I think we need to watch this space - will the EBU spring a surprise later in the year?

A week ago, we were led to believe that San Marino, rather than Cyprus, were to be the ones to reveal their representative, and maybe even the song, first this year but that was all a 'false dawn'.  There was no song, no singer and it is even uncertain whether there was official confirmation that they would even be in Kyiv.  Cry Wolf?  The moment has passed now...

How will 'we' select?  Lots of nations decide...

There is definitely a swing across Europe towards letting the public have more of a say when selecting their nation's Eurovision entry, and more so in countries that you wouldn't expect.  For instance, Albania will break from the tradition of having just a professional jury decide who wins FiK 55 and sending them the the Contest (if the artist wants to go) and will now have a public jury that has a 40% say in the result - no televote though.  That is probably understandable as Albania rarely have a televote at Eurovision itself due to lack of numbers.  There are also going to be less acts in the SF and Final - that might thin out some of the poorer quality entries from the Albanian mix!

Montenegro have traditionally chosen internal candidates for Eurovision, doing so for the last seven years but will go for 'an open process' for Kyiv.  That doesn't mean they will have a NF, just that Montenegrin acts can apply to represent their nation...  

Denmark appear to be moving towards a 'Melodifestivalen jury vetting process' by allowing 4% of their entries to be vetted by selected fans.  The 41 songs out of 1100 submitted entries had been pre-selected by producers Cutfather and Jonas Schroeder and then played to OGAE Denmark fans.  I am assuming that it is a similar process to that experienced by OGAE UK last year when helping select an entry for the UK NF.  It will be interesting to see how their selection does...

Armenia completed their audition stages last weekend during Depi Evratesil and finalised their 37 singers for the live shows.  You only have to watch everyone in the same clothes and with the same hair styles one more time:

My picks of the third round of auditions?

You've seen my favourites over the past few weeks but this could all change, depending on whether these 37 are consistent enough or whether they have sung their best and only song!  At least Armenia will keep all the Eurovision fan focus on them until Christmas...

Now I realise that the lovely Greta appeared for Iceland in Stockholm and was cruelly denied a Final place by the juries and televoters of Eurovision.  Yes, I know that her backscreen artistic masterpiece didn't work but she is always up for a challenge and that is what her fans on Snap gave her - perform a cover in her inimitable style of "Seven Nation Army" by The White Stripes!  Now that would seem an almost impossible task, given the unique nature of that classic song by Jack and Meg White but Greta did it and her version has gone down a storm with everyone, Eurovision fan or not, who has heard it.  Using her violin alone is a masterstroke, although not unexpected given her training, but Ms.Salóme Stefánsdóttir doing rap?  Now that was astonishing!  I wonder if there is room for a rap-violin entry at Söngvakeppnin 2017?

And so the Eurovision pace is picking up!  We now know one artist - a pretty decent one in my view, judging by previous performances - and Armenia are keeping us amused at the moment with their X Factor-like selection process.  Depi Evratesil is obviously going to feature regularly here over the next few weeks...