So many songs......So much time

Malta is one of the non-nordic countries whose national final I actually do follow. Today they released all the songs in the semi final for you to listen to so over the coming days I will put a few reviews. As with many countries national finals some of the songs are just a little......ah (bored grunt) so while I will put up a grade for each there may not always be a review to go with it sorry!

ESCInsight have an ebook launched written by website editor Ewan Spence, about the Junior Eurovision Song contest 2011. Which is a fair achievement in two weeks. I will have a review of it posted to the blog over the coming weeks (hopefully before New Year)

Netherlands to host JESC 2012!!!!

It has been annonuced that Netherlands will host JESC 2012 next year in Amsterdam. This is a big step for Netherlands and shows their commitment to Eurovision both Junior and Senior. I am delighted for them and have big expectations for them. So we will see how that progresses.

Sticking with JESC the running order was done today and the running order is here: http://escxtra.com/articles/23131 Interestingly Georgia has got the best slot. 12th and today they launched a new video clip today with revamped music and that is the video of the day, I think this version is a bit stronger and could stand a great chance at JESC this year.

 Also just to mention the new Eurovision website ESC Buzz www.escbuzz.com. I believe this could be one of the greatest innovations for Eurovision fans in a few years. It is run by the highly innovative team at ESC Insight. Well Done.

Ukraine JESC song review

This year Ukraine has picked a strong song to send to Armenia. They are sending Kristal with the song Evropa. I think this is the strongest song picked so far as it has a good beat to it, compared to the other songs, however it is not my favorite. I also think that she needs a better costume as the one she is wearing just looks poor. They also need to change the gap between chorus and verse.

In other news, it is claimed that Cyprus will send Ivi Adamou to ESC 2012.

And The Winner Of Eurovision 2012 Is.....?: Part 10

In my opinion, August is by far and away the quietest month for ESC. Largely caused by everyone being on holidays. The biggest news is that Ukraine has picked their song for JESC 2011 but unfortunately I can't make up my mind about it. So I will have a review for you tomorrow. Until then Germany is up on the And the winner is series.

Germany

You cannot deny that Germany is one of the most successful countries in ESC in the last two years. However, after two years of Lena Meyer-Landrut, the big question is who or what will represent them next year? Assuming they use the same X-Factor-ish format as 2010, there is little question of its ability to find a winner. [Even without Stefan Raab I expect the format to remain largely the same]. However in a country as big as Germany there is the talent, it’s more about whether they can find it.

Dusseldorf 2013? Most unlikely, while Germany may win the contest again in the next 5/6 years the trend is the previous host does not usually do as well as expected.

And JESC Rolls Around Once Again

So as the year moves on, we now know exactly how many countries are going to be there for JESC 2011. We now know that 12 countries will risk not being let into Azerbaijan next year and go to Yerevan. Italy has not decided to debut but San Marino will be there instead. As expected Serbia, Malta and Latvia have decided to stay home for this year. I would hope to see a good number of them return next year. 


One notable change to the rules for this year is that due to the low number of voting countries all points from 1 to 12 will be announced. This is something I very much welcome as JESC regularly comes down to a close call.


Will talk again tomorrow.

So I briefly return to my desk following some spectacular holidays in Kerry. However I am only here for the day and I will be back on either Wednesday or Thursday.

http://www.discoverireland.ie/

Moving on to some more serious business, Georgia picked their song for JESC 2011 a few days ago. Now, I have only just been shown this and OH MY GOD! This is Louis Walsh's Dream. This is so camp. The outfits are dire however  the song is by no means poor however it has a bit of shock factor. This will either sink or swim, there will be no mid table placings with this song. The bass beat the back must be as strong as possible however or else we will have a Getter Jaani on our hands. However I am not really that good at judging how a song will do at JESC. However I  would guess that Georgia have a strong song on their hands and with a good draw the could be in with a good chance, as we all know Georgia will not be short of friendly neighbours and vocally this is very strong the juries should lap this one up. 

So until later in the week when I will have a piece another on JESC, I wish you all good luck.

News Flash....or something like that

Today we have some news and most importantly of all is Netherlands were due to announce their plans for ESC 2012 today and they did. This year they will have an open national final. There will be only one final with  6/7 songs, depending on quality. I am delighted with this news as Netherlands could be a very strong Eurovision country. An open national final would allow this.

Serbia have announced that they are to withdraw from this years JESC, claiming, not content with it only being an annual event they need to have a year to "think". Really they did very well last year and were not to far outside the shake up coming 3rd. They really impressed me last year so I was hoping they would have something nice for this year. Shame.

As you may have noticed I am going on holidays a lot lately and sadly this means that I have trouble finding a place to do a blog (largely due to the fact I cannot find internet where I go) - you can thank rural Ireland for that. Though I hope to find a WiFi spot somewhere in Kerry. The trick is with me is it must be free. Tomorrow I will try to get up a few And The Winner Is? pieces and from there I cannot say when or where I will blog next. My aim is to blog once or twice over the next week but I won't really be in full swing until after August. In the meantime I really hope you enjoy your summer, do check this blog from time to time. For those with Eurovision depression there is the weekly podcast over on ESCInsight.