The Highs And Lows Of National Final Season 2012 Part 3

With another national final season over us and me being away from blogging and technology for a few nights, we turn our attention back to remember the highs and lows of the national final season that was. While it is almost over it will leave us with some great memories. Part 2 continues our series. #

As I should be back tomorrow so we will be back to normal but just to point out that tomorrow we should finally hear the UK entry and any others we have not heard yet. But in the meantime our series continues.

The Best Song Of The National Final season
I was one of the few fans who felt that this was song of national final season 2012 but here it is (feat. the amazing Sara Li):

Jedward's Fans
Forget Jedward they were soooo yesterday's post - they have fans lots of them - and they are about as nutty as them. Follow a few on Twitter and find out.

Greece Holding Their National Final in a Shopping Mall
I know things in Greece are bad but seriously I didn't think that a shopping center would be the best option to film a national final but anyhow that's their choice. We only need to panic about them if they win Eurovision and they propose a variety of farms with barns on which to hold their national final.

Sarah Dawn Finer - Comedian? 
I don't think anyone expected something so excellent in terms of humour from the Swedes but by God did they do so. This was such a great sketch that we had to share it once again.

Our Eurovision Friends
Without going for a big cheesy ending we just would like to say that the greatest trill of all was having so many people to talk to on Twitter or otherwise for national final season. Thank you all so much.

Did we miss something? Yes, we did, but we didn't see every national final. If you think that their was something that we missed do get in touch via the Contact Us! section and if we think that it is worthwhile we will put it up in a Part 4. (Obviously giving you full credit with a link).

Two Shows Tonight - And It's Sunday

Tonight sees Netherlands and Slovenia pick their two songs and, believe it or not this is the first Sunday with two shows. Personally I am watching Netherlands [and I really love the song Chocolatte]. Their show is quite confusing with a combination of Dutch and International Juries with a televote.

I somehow forgot that Slovenia were picking their ESC song tonight. I am not paying any attention to it as I never liked the X Factor styled competition for picking an ESC singer - anyways I see what Slovenia come up with.

Brain Kennedy, who represented Ireland in 2006 with a song that would have done well in the 90s has hit out at Jedward and their Eurovision song saying that it is forgetable and he fears a Eurovision catastrophe. In my opinion this comment might have held water but really an 8th place last year it is really difficult to say how the twins will do. However even on my most pessimistic projections they should reach the final.

You Wouldn't Want To Be Doing Anything On March 10th

• For those who are following National Final season (and if your not why are you reading this) will notice that we previously suggested that there may not be a Super Saturday this year as it looked previously, as many National Finals looked set to be held on a weekday. Now the inverse has occured. Every Saturday looks set to be Super Saturday. From now until the 10th March every Saturday looks set to deliver us 3-4 more songs each time. However the 10th March will bring at least 5 new songs. Sweden, Moldova, Portugal, Romania and Serbia will all either present or select their Eurovision Song. While this makes for exciting Saturday nights, as a lone blogger this will make life a little difficult trying to keep up with everything and I look forward to the challenge. 
• For anyone who has not noticed Lise Karlnese has been chosen as the wildcard in MGP. We are not overly surprised by this decision. We suspected it would be her or The Canoes. Anyway well done to her. We have already begun working on the Norwegian reviews for the final.
• Finally we would like to extend our sympathies to the family of Noel Kelehan who was the conductor of many Irish Eurovision entries, including five winners. He will be sadly missed by Eurovision fans worldwide. May he rest in peace.

And One More Thing

In continuing to recap on the news around Eurovision I shall endure to continue:


The Cypriot song this year will be sung in English. This is not surprising as the singer will most likely bring a very contempory sound from Cyprus, but still they have entered 2 songs in their own language in the last 4 years.


DMGP has won an award for their excellent programme that attracts many viewers each year, and had a 70% share of viewers this year. The album of the songs in DMGP charted well in Denmark. It is one of the best National Finals on the go, both in terms of quality of the music and general staging. Unfortunately due to the high intensity of the National finals I overlooked DMGP in favour of Melodifestivalen. When I came back to it I realised just how good it was and I am delighted to see it receive an award. I'm also delighted to hear DMGP is to occur in late January when there is a less intense national final season.


The big story that I forgot to report on over the last week was that eurovision.tv is reporting that the Spice Girls are considering to try to go to Baku. Normally I would dismiss this as speculation, however Eurovision.tv is quite a reliable source. While I have nothing against the Spice Girls I would warn the BBC and UK against allowing them directly through to Eurovision without any form of National Final. I believe this was key in Blues somewhat failure to break the Top 5 at Eurovision. At least the national final puts artists under an amount of pressure.


Ukraine has announced their plans for 2012, which involves a talent show style National Final. However you never really know with Ukraine. Ani Lorak and Filipp Kirkorov are thought to be involved.


So that brings the news articles to an end. Tomorrow I will continue with the And The Winner Of Eurovision 2012 is........ series. 


In other news, Saturday night saw the return of X Factor on TV. (Being in Ireland I can see it.) I was very impressed with an Irish girl - Janet Devlin. You can see her performance here.

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.