Kal

Noa Kirel for Israel 2023

photo: instagram It’s been exactly one month since KAN announced that Noa Kirel was selected to represent Israel at the Eurovision Song Contest in 2023. However the tables turned really quickly, ’cause the day after Noa said she still had to decide if she was willing to do the job. Today the official news came out that Kirel will indeed wave the Israeli flag on the Eurovision stage! Kirel is a 21 year old singer, who often sings in Hebrew. Perhaps something we can look forward to for 2023. Noa has had many hits in Israel, with her biggest song being “מיליון דולר”.

Ben Dolic: “I would like to come back as a songwriter”

Photo made by Zlatimir Arakliev This week the 2020 representative for Germany held a Twitter Space, and our reporter Kal had the chance to interview him. But how is Ben doing as of today? What are his upcoming plans? How does he feel about Eurovision these days? Ben told us everything. “I’m doing good! Right now we’re busy with my next single, and we’ve already got a location for the music video! Just like ‘Kissing Her, Missing you’, we’re shooting it in London again. We also have some plans for merch, but that has got to wait a little longer.” Kal: “New music? That’s always great to hear, but since there’s so much new music coming out, does this also mean there’s an album coming along the way?” Ben answered that “It takes a lot of time to make an album, ‘cause there’s so much that needs to be done. But maybe in about a year or two I might drop one.” Kal then asked how it is to perform at gigs now that everything opened up again. Ben: “It’s great now that the pandemic is kind of over, but I don’t perform that much. I still need some more tunes to sing. Maybe if I and some friends put a set list together for a festival or something, maybe than we can gather a crowd.” Kal: Now everything’s back open again, however this wasn’t the case in 2020. How do you feel about missing out on performing at Eurovision? Ben said that “It of course sucked. The week everything closed down, I was actually about to fly to the Caribbean Islands to film my postcard. It sucked that we didn’t get to see the end result of ‘Violent Thing’, but at least the German broadcaster put together a small Eurovision show, and I got to perform it there.” Kal was stunned to hear that Eurovision would go so far for postcards. After that he asked if Ben would ever return to Eurovision. Ben: “For now I wouldn’t say yes again to be the representative for a country. For a whole year you focus your life around one song, and it’s that song only. However I would like to come back as a song writer, or creative director in some sort of way.” Kal: I have always wondered what the staging for ‘Violent Thing’ was about to look like, so if you can maybe spill some details, then I would love that.” Ben answered that the staging was going to look very futuristic. “So the staging was about look like the German Eurovision show one, but way better. There would be pictures and videos that would kinda float in front of me, and it would look as if I’m in the future. The main colours of the staging would like the cover art, mainly red and blue.

Kalush Orchestra will travel to Turin

Today, the Ukrainian representative Kalush Orchestra gave a performance on the Market Square in Lviv. Despite that the group couldn’t film a Live-On-Tape back-up performance , they announced that they will travel to Turin for the Eurovision Song Contest. They will leave Ukraine at the of the month, but firstly the group will travel trough Europe for their Fundraising tour. There people can give money to support Ukraine. The first country they will tour in will be announced tomorrow on April third.

It’s Andromache for Cyprus!

The Southern country has released it’s entry for this year’s Eurovision. The Greek Andromache will sing “Ela” in Italy. The song is in partly Greek. It’s the first time in four years we’re hearing the Greek language. Cyprus is keeping it’s streak with sending artists that are partnered with Panik Records. Marvin Diettman has been assigned to do the staging. Do you think Andromache will be a successor to Elini foureira, Tamta and Elena tsagrinou?

Sam Ryder to wave the United Kingdom’s flag

Today the last big 5 country, the United Kingdom, presented it’s Eurovision artist and song. Sam Ryder will sing his song “SPACE MAN” at the 66th edition of the Eurovision Song Contest in Turin. The English artist became famous in the first lockdown by posting covers on his TikTok account. At the moment Sam has a following base of 12 million people. His most popular song “Tiny Riot” has the same amount of streams as his followers on TikTok. Sam will perform in the Eurovision final on the 14th of May. ????: Edward Cooke

Vladana releases Breathe

All the way back on january 4th, Vladana Vučinić was announced as the representative for Montengro at the Eurovision Song contest 2022. Tonight at 10 P.M. CET she will release her song called Breathe, but we already heard it! The power ballad starts dark and calm. Right before the second chorus the song starts to build itself up and then stays like this trough out the rest of the song. Vladana is no stranger to the Eurovision Song Contest as she has composed six Eurovision songs already! We even saw some of her work in Rotterdam! Her latest entries were Loco Loco (Serbia 2021) and Proud (North Macedonia 2019).

Russia is suspended.

The European Broadcasting Union has come with an official statement regarding the situation with Russia. In short terms: Russia will not participate in this years Eurovision Song Contest.

Will we see Russia in Turin?

As you all may know, there’s a war going on in Ukraine. The Eurovision Song Contest is a non-political event, but the war between Russia and Ukraine has raised attention from countries all over the world. Even in the tiny world of the Eurovision Song Contest this war strikes. Broadcasters from all over the continent have asked the European Broadcasting Union to suspend Russia from this years Eurovision that will be held in Turin Italy. The EBU has stated that they still welcome Russia at the Eurovision Song Contest, despite them invading Ukraine. As we speak, the broadcasters that have asked the EBU to suspend Russia are: NRK (Norway), SVT (Sweden), LRT (Lithuania), Avrotros (The Netherlands) and UA:PBC (Ukraine). Few broadcasters have taken a step that goes even further than just suspending Russia. If Russia still participates, YLE (Finland), ERR (Estonia) and RUV (Iceland) will withdraw from this years Eurovision. Some Eurovision artists have spoken out aswell about the situation in Ukraine. Manizha (Russia 2021) has stated this: The Roop (Lithuania 2020 and 2021) have posted on Instagram that they stand with Ukraine. Sergey Lazarev (Russia 2016 and 2019) said that he is against this war. Artists from 2022 that have stated something are Citi Zēni and Subwoolfer. Citi Zēni have contacted the EBU about suspending Russia, while Subwoolfer have posted a picture in their yellow (as usual) and blue wolf suits.

Kalush Orchestra represents Ukraine

photo: EBU While the whole world is watching the news about Ukraine, the country itself comes up with Eurovision news. The committee of the national final has decided that Kalush Orchestra will represent the country with the song “Stefania”. The song is written and composed by Ihor Didenchuk, Ivan Klimenko, Oleh Psiuk, Tymofii Muzychuk and Vitalii Duzhy. The Ukrainian final was won by Alina Pash. She withdrew when it appeared that one of her team members had forged documents, which said that she had visited Crimea via the Ukrainian border and not via Russia. While Kalush Orchestra was second overall, they still managed to win the televoting of Vidbir 2022.

Will Kalush represent Ukraine?

Will Ukraine still participate? OGEA Ukraine states that national broadcaster UA:PBC has asked Kalush if he wants to represent Ukraine at The Eurovision Song Contest 2022, after Vidbir winner Alina Pash has withdrawn because of her travel documents. In a recent interview with Kalush on Radio NV he says he’s ready to go to Eurovision and that he will sign the participation documents today. Broadcaster UA:PBC hasn’t said anything yet about the possibility of withdrawing or selecting a new artist. In 2019 a pattern like this happened aswell. Maruv won Vidbir but wasn’t able to travel to Tel Aviv ‘cause she wouldn’t sign a contract where she was held from performing in Russia. The runner up and third place didn’t want to follow up Maruv and so Ukraine decided to withdraw from that year’s contest.