At Least Iceland Got It Right

So after the big night of Nordic finals and some others it is time to take stock again in what seems to be my Saturday Night routine.

• Hungary have selected Compact Disco for Baku with the song The Sound Of Our Hearts. There is nothing to complain about barring the rather flat performance, review will follow in due course [think weeks not days though].
• Lithuania did something and our friends over at escXtra have a wonderfully concise report here. 
• Sweden - the problem with Sweden is that they have some excellent songs which they then don't pick. This annoys me. We were not remotely impressed with them sending Timoteij to Andra Chansen. Neither are we impressed by who they did send - Ulrik Munther [understandable] and David Lindgren [aimless] but continues the male theme of their final so far. I am starting to think they might send Loreen or if we are extremely lucky Love Generation <3. I am wondering if there might be a lot 
• Iceland provided us with some delight by sending Greta Sálome and Jonsi with their amazing ballad which I cannot spell. Anyway we think it is extremely good and are very happy that they avoided rather poorer songs. Full review in due course [like Hungary, think weeks not days though].
• Norway (sigh) - well let's just say I think they missed a massive opportunity to send a song that would be original and authentic. Instead they send Eric Saade Mark II. Tooji won the vote with 40%, with Nora Foss in second (21%), Bobby Bare and Petter Oien (20%) in third and Plumbo in fouth (15%). This is exact the opposite to how I wanted it to go. Better luck next year Norway. We would also like to briefly say a huge well done to Reidun Saether whose performance was amazing.

 So that concludes tonight but next week will be manic so we will be post regular updates. Azerbaijan will select the representative that has to do the least travelling to Eurovision tomorrow but we don't tend to pay to close attention to that.

100 Tweets Later And We Have Song Six

Tonight after a marathon National Final we have reached the end of the Maltese selection. To explain how bored people were: You may notice sometimes during the dull part of a national final we will post up a Why not visit the blog? tweet [Our marketing department say it is a good idea]. Normally this generates 2/3 extra visitors. When I did it during Eurosong I got 15.

Anyway we all woke up just after midnight to see what was a rather entertaining voting. The ultimate winner was KURT CALLEJA who will sing This Is The Night for Malta in Baku. Full review will be out in a week or two but suffice to say I think it is a little average.

Moving on to other matters at hand Hungary and Lithuania had their semi-finals tonight also and I gather that they passed off without anyone watching them.

However most interestingly Sweden held their first Melodifestivalen semi-final which was a entertaining and as interesting as ever. I think people have finally gotten their heads around the "poor" songs and are now accepting that the songs are not normally seen in MF. This meant that we had one of the most intriguing contests in a long time. I know our predictions were out (badly) but Swedes are very changeable in their nature when it comes to Melodifestivalen. Sean Banan and Throston Flinck went to Anfra Chansen with Dead By April and Loreen advancing to the Final. I thoroughly enjoyed Melodifestivalen this week and look forward to next week.

Norway too held their ultimate semi-final. This one turned out to have a couple of surprises (most of them were very pleasant). The biggest surprise was Yaseen & Julie Maria coming third with their song Sammen. I didn't think very much of it and my mind is still unchanged but I think their performance highlights why the number of people on stage needs to be restricted. Tooji also made it through. He was the Norwegian answer to Eric Saade and the number of similarities was actually freaky. It turned into a bit of a spot the difference competition [He didn't wear leather gloves]. He deserves credit for an excellent performance however coming second means that he will be first to sing in the final which may not work in his favor. The best and most pleasant surprise was how well Bobby Bare and Petter Oien's song came across on the stage. Everything about it worked and Bobby was such a country gentleman. I was really impressed by what appeared to be the bond between the two men. It was real music.

Norway is expected to announce their wildcard on Thursday. We suspect it will go to the Canoes but also consider Minne-Oh, Lisa Stokke and especially Lise Karlnese to be in with a chance.

That brings this evening to a close. The next big event will be on Monday with Germany holding heat 5. However we tend to ignore Germany for the moment. We will be busy over the coming week preparing for the weekend so please be patient with us if things are quiet during the week.

P.S. We don't have a marketing department.

Melodifestivalen 2012 Starts Thursday!

Like many of our Eurovision Friends we are just uber-excited to say that on Thursday. But  is so much to look forward to? Well we think yes there is and before I hear the songs and become very biased (as our readers will see).

The Return of The Moniker:
Last year The Moniker came to the fore despite coming to the final via Andra Chansen (Sorry if my Swedish spelling is wrong!) He wowed us with his song Oh My God! and we are very much looking forward to his entry.

We also should mention we look forward to Loreen and Afro-Dite but mostly to see what their song are like. Loreen could have something good given that Thomas G:sson is involved.

What else? Well we in the other semi-finals we like Molly Sandén and Andreas Johnson and (to a lesser extent Danny). Love Generation will be a high on the list but most importantly:

TIMOTEIJ!

But what we cannot fail to mention is all the other artists. There will be some great songs and artists that I have never heard of before because that is what Eurovision is all about!

News Flash

We're very happy with how our "Why Ireland Needs Jedward" post was received. In the future we will try to publish a little more on Jedward (just wait until RTÉ gives the full list of who is participating)

Turkey have announced that Can Bonomo will represent them in Baku. I don't personally go for him but many people will think he is good. (It's Turkey afterall)

Tine Lynggaard has been disqualified from DMGP 2012 due to her song being published to early. (Must not own a calender).

Nina Badric will represent Croatia in ESC 2012. Seems like a good choice.

Melodifestivalen running order has been revealed. The best slot in the semi finals has gone to Danny (sigh) Timoteij are singing fifth in their semi-final (Another sigh).

Cead Míle Fáilte Chuig Mo Bhlog (Welcome To My Blog)

First of all well done for finding this blog. I warmly welcome you to this little corner of the web that I run. I never wrote a blog before so please be patient and don't expect everything. 

First and foremost this is a Eurovision blog. It is about the great annual event that is the Eurovision Song Contest. As we are about 11 and half months out from the contest this seemed like the right kind of time to set up a blog ahead of the next contest, but we won't stop there, oh no! There is so much out there besides seven and a half hours of television in May.

This is an Irish Eurovision Blog and take pride in supporting Ireland though the contest. However I will  try to keep you informed of what is going on in as many other countries as possible and  keeping a close eye on the Junior Eurovision Song Contest (JESC) and the second best TV show in the world Melodifestivalen (MF). 

I will try not to be a news site but to actually look at what is going on around the Eurovision world and to express a genuine and sincere opinion on the events. 

What is seldom is wonderful so I will try to keep my posts as concise as possible and please don't expect and daily blog. Feel free to comment particularly if you have any suggestions for the blog, and I will try to interact with you as I can.


I called this The Best Eurovision Blog (BEB) and I intend to live up to it.