Each year there is a bombardment of news and rumour about who is in or out of next years Eurovision Song Contest. So, without further ado the list of confirmed so far is:
Azerbaijan
Denmark
Germany
Hungary
Austria
Switzerland
Finland
Belarus
Belgium
Netherlands
Sweden
Estonia
Slovenia
Croatia
Slovakia
and .....Czech Republic (Only country to declare a return)
Withdrawals are possible from Israel and Armenia, due to a National holiday occurring on the day of the final and because the contest is in Azerbaijan respectively
I have a piece prepared for the And the winner of Eurovision 2012 is? series about Azerbaijan which I will post up later this evening.
Tuesday, June 14, 2011
Monday, June 13, 2011
The Break Up Of The UK
I was wondering what I should write today, however it seems my mind was made up for me. Unusually I seem to have started a little debate over on EscInsight, about the possible break up of the United Kingdom at Eurovision and I shall continue it here.
Firstly I believe the UK has lost the plot with Eurovision. As the European country with the largest music industry in Europe you'd think they could produce a credible song [cough, cough, Josh]. It is often said that Eurovision is younger person's game, and therefore the BBC decide to send Blue. Allow me to put this in context. I'm a young student and on the night I saw the BBC announce Blue as their choice the first thing I did was look them up on Wikipedia. I never heard of them.
Blue did do their best. (If their best was what happened on the Friday night jury final.) For me the UK does not work as a Eurovision Country. And this is largely due to the shear size of BBC. Unlike their counterparts in RTÉ who know what all out promotion and drumming up National support is (Jedward are national hero's here), BBC failed to invigorate the British Public. They must do this to try and counteract the infamous British tabloids.
One of my key beliefs with Eurovision is national support for a Eurovision is really important and I believe that national support and how well a country does are strongly connected. I believe that the solution to the problem is to Break up the UK into the four parts. This could lead to some healthy internal competition within the UK. Which may deliver a good result. Some national pride needs to be brought to the table. While this blog is not Political, it would not surprise me if Alex Salmond was to push for this to try and build up the idea of the national Scotland.
As regards the "Big" status I would expect England to take that, with Wales, Northern Ireland andd Scotland in the Semis.
Firstly I believe the UK has lost the plot with Eurovision. As the European country with the largest music industry in Europe you'd think they could produce a credible song [cough, cough, Josh]. It is often said that Eurovision is younger person's game, and therefore the BBC decide to send Blue. Allow me to put this in context. I'm a young student and on the night I saw the BBC announce Blue as their choice the first thing I did was look them up on Wikipedia. I never heard of them.
Blue did do their best. (If their best was what happened on the Friday night jury final.) For me the UK does not work as a Eurovision Country. And this is largely due to the shear size of BBC. Unlike their counterparts in RTÉ who know what all out promotion and drumming up National support is (Jedward are national hero's here), BBC failed to invigorate the British Public. They must do this to try and counteract the infamous British tabloids.
One of my key beliefs with Eurovision is national support for a Eurovision is really important and I believe that national support and how well a country does are strongly connected. I believe that the solution to the problem is to Break up the UK into the four parts. This could lead to some healthy internal competition within the UK. Which may deliver a good result. Some national pride needs to be brought to the table. While this blog is not Political, it would not surprise me if Alex Salmond was to push for this to try and build up the idea of the national Scotland.
As regards the "Big" status I would expect England to take that, with Wales, Northern Ireland andd Scotland in the Semis.
Sunday, June 12, 2011
And The Winner Of Eurovision 2012 Is.....?: Part 1
At the end of each Eurovision year I try to make some sense of all the statistics. I try and see where all the countries are at. Normally this is an operation done inside my head, but because I have a blog now I'm going to put it up here. However this has proven to be a success on many years. Therefore I have written up a number of reviews for about 20 countries. The first in this series is Armenia.
If Armenia come to Eurovision at all [that remains to be seen], they may a little try extra hard to win in Azerbaijan. It would be very understandable. Given Emmy’s narrow failure to qualify, Armenia may come out fighting next year. Excluding 2011 they have had a string of good results since their debut; however it should be noted they have been dragged down the scoreboard by the juries rather than the public, who support them. Armenia has a large block and diaspora vote ready if they bring a good enough song, but they don't have a strong neighbour vote. They have a very flexible national final structure which can only benefit them. Armenia also can make any song look good on stage with choreography and large boxing glove chairs….
Yereven 2013? If they turn up [very unlikely] I could see them with a strong entry for the Azerbaijani stage. A win is possible but I don’t expect something over daring for 2012. They may just settle for 8th place or so. But they always have a good shot at it and are not a country to be ruled out.
Saturday, June 11, 2011
My First Review: JESC 2011 - Russia
Today I am doing the first review of a song for the blog - I'm so sorry - for me this is what is all about. Opinion. I intend to review each JESC song after it is picked and one review in the lead up to the contest [the two weeks before]
Even though some fans may turn their noses up at the prospect of JESC however at a time when there is slim to nothing about Eurovision on but we are all brusting to know who is going to be in Melodifestivalen. For me JESC represents the opening of the real National Final season Despite JESC being months away Russia seem to be planning to be ahead of the crowd. [Not that there is a rush on to go to JESC].
This year Russia chose to send Ekaterina Ryabova again [she represented them in 2009]. Their song is Kak Romeo I Dzhulyetta. Now it is always difficult to say how good a song is when you have nothing to compare it to for this year. I still really like this. When you first hear this the start sounds somewhat Russian, even though it is not. The song builds very nicely. Ekaterina is a good singer and has matured somewhat in the last two years.
However the song is presented poorly. I don't like her dress, the white is to simiple against the dancers and complex staging. The song is really good, even a little anthemic in the way it builds [I adore an anthemic song] but it needs a key change or some lift at the end to make it really stand out. Also she needs to drop the scooter, the little fella pushing her around is a bit sad looking and is risky in terms of consistent vocals. All in all a good song and Russia usually to well at JESC but it is an awful lot less predictable than ESC.
Don't agree with me? Well, comments are always welcome.
Even though some fans may turn their noses up at the prospect of JESC however at a time when there is slim to nothing about Eurovision on but we are all brusting to know who is going to be in Melodifestivalen. For me JESC represents the opening of the real National Final season Despite JESC being months away Russia seem to be planning to be ahead of the crowd. [Not that there is a rush on to go to JESC].
This year Russia chose to send Ekaterina Ryabova again [she represented them in 2009]. Their song is Kak Romeo I Dzhulyetta. Now it is always difficult to say how good a song is when you have nothing to compare it to for this year. I still really like this. When you first hear this the start sounds somewhat Russian, even though it is not. The song builds very nicely. Ekaterina is a good singer and has matured somewhat in the last two years.
However the song is presented poorly. I don't like her dress, the white is to simiple against the dancers and complex staging. The song is really good, even a little anthemic in the way it builds [I adore an anthemic song] but it needs a key change or some lift at the end to make it really stand out. Also she needs to drop the scooter, the little fella pushing her around is a bit sad looking and is risky in terms of consistent vocals. All in all a good song and Russia usually to well at JESC but it is an awful lot less predictable than ESC.
Don't agree with me? Well, comments are always welcome.
Friday, June 10, 2011
Another Day
Ok! So now that we are up properly. I can start to have a bit of fun. At the moment I am making a plan for the blog; how to take it from this stage over the next few months and how to try to gain a few readers.
Over the next two weeks I am going to try to fully develop the blog so don't be surpirsed if there are a few changes from the last day you were here. Some of you may notice the background as changed. I also intend to add some ad's just to give me a bit of an income from the blog. Over the coming weeks and months there is little Eurovision news to discuss so you see a few opinion pieces on various aspects of the contest. I will also review songs for the upcoming contests (JESC Russia Tomorrow).
And why not tell you friends about this blog? We could use a veiw extra readers. In the meantime, i'll be here, blogging away. Writing up a few pieces. I also have a series of articles which I will be throwing up over the next few weeks.
Sorry I don't have anything that great to talk about today. But I have another series to show you entitled "The Best Songs Not To Go To Eurovision". It is for publicise some of the great music in the non-Eurovision world that Eurovision fans may like.
First up we have Poison by Nicole Scherzinger. I first saw this on the X Factor last year. It would have been great at Eurovision.
Next, a group we should all know very well - Alcazar. This is a little different from Stay The Night. However, it is one of my favorite songs and deserves a mention. The song is Harlem Nights.
Over the next two weeks I am going to try to fully develop the blog so don't be surpirsed if there are a few changes from the last day you were here. Some of you may notice the background as changed. I also intend to add some ad's just to give me a bit of an income from the blog. Over the coming weeks and months there is little Eurovision news to discuss so you see a few opinion pieces on various aspects of the contest. I will also review songs for the upcoming contests (JESC Russia Tomorrow).
And why not tell you friends about this blog? We could use a veiw extra readers. In the meantime, i'll be here, blogging away. Writing up a few pieces. I also have a series of articles which I will be throwing up over the next few weeks.
Sorry I don't have anything that great to talk about today. But I have another series to show you entitled "The Best Songs Not To Go To Eurovision". It is for publicise some of the great music in the non-Eurovision world that Eurovision fans may like.
First up we have Poison by Nicole Scherzinger. I first saw this on the X Factor last year. It would have been great at Eurovision.
Next, a group we should all know very well - Alcazar. This is a little different from Stay The Night. However, it is one of my favorite songs and deserves a mention. The song is Harlem Nights.
Thursday, June 9, 2011
Day 2
Well, we've made it to day 2. So at least no one has asked for the blog to be taken down and if the stats are correct we had a whole 3 visitors yesterday. Thank you. If ever this blog becomes world famous at least they can say they were the first people to visit. However the odds of this becoming world famous are slim, so anyhow.
As this is an Irish Eurovision blog I felt the first story I should do should be something to do with Eurovision in Ireland. As a result a piece appeared on RTÉ yesterday that Crystal Swing may try enter the Eurovision for Ireland next year. For those who may not have heard of Crystal Swing: They are a group comprising of a mother; her son and daughter. They have become [slighty] famous in Ireland over the last year since their appearance on the Ellen DeGenres show in the US [paid for by the Irish Taxpaper]
Now look, the Americans love their kind of Toora Loora Irish music but really they would be a bigger joke for Eurovision than Dustin and he was the joke to top all jokes. They don't sing songs that have any sort of shock factor to them. They would find it difficult to get any sort of real vote for them to qualify. On top of all this the juries would fall asleep watching them. This would not be the best we could send.
Now I have no problem with them being included in the line up of the National Final but really in the Eurovision for Ireland is a bit of a push. But these people are 2/1 with Paddy Power to be our entry. Until a real competitor comes along I will simply say that I don't support anyone for this years contest.
Anyway I will try not to be so negative in the future.
Over the coming weeks and months I'm going to try to give a little time each day to adjusting the blog in terms of design. If you have any suggestions please let me know by living a comment.
As this is an Irish Eurovision blog I felt the first story I should do should be something to do with Eurovision in Ireland. As a result a piece appeared on RTÉ yesterday that Crystal Swing may try enter the Eurovision for Ireland next year. For those who may not have heard of Crystal Swing: They are a group comprising of a mother; her son and daughter. They have become [slighty] famous in Ireland over the last year since their appearance on the Ellen DeGenres show in the US [paid for by the Irish Taxpaper]
Now look, the Americans love their kind of Toora Loora Irish music but really they would be a bigger joke for Eurovision than Dustin and he was the joke to top all jokes. They don't sing songs that have any sort of shock factor to them. They would find it difficult to get any sort of real vote for them to qualify. On top of all this the juries would fall asleep watching them. This would not be the best we could send.
Now I have no problem with them being included in the line up of the National Final but really in the Eurovision for Ireland is a bit of a push. But these people are 2/1 with Paddy Power to be our entry. Until a real competitor comes along I will simply say that I don't support anyone for this years contest.
Anyway I will try not to be so negative in the future.
Over the coming weeks and months I'm going to try to give a little time each day to adjusting the blog in terms of design. If you have any suggestions please let me know by living a comment.
Wednesday, June 8, 2011
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.
I called this The Best Eurovision Blog (BEB) and I intend to live up to it.
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