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We can not wait for the Eurovision Song Contest in Liverpool. Therefore, we have a closer look at one of the contestants every day. Today: Slovenia Joker Out Slovenian broadcaster RTVSLO internally selected the band Joker Out to represent the country. Their song “Carpe diem” was written and composed by the band members themselves. Joker Out excists of Bojan Cvjetićanin, Jure Maček, Kris Guštin, Jan Peteh and Nace Jordan. The band is from Ljubljana and was founded in 2016. A previous band, Apokalipsa, split up. Their first public performance was at the Festival Na Gaj in May 2016. The band released many singles, and their debut album “Umazane misli” was released in 2021. A second album, “Demoni”, was released a year later. Joker Out won prizes for Newcomer of the Year in 2020 and Artist of the year in 2021 and 2022. “Umazane misli” and “A sem ti povedal” were nominated for Song Of The Year. EMA Because of lack of success, Slovenia decided to select the band internally. Normally, the national final held in Slovenia is called EMA. It was already held since the first participation of Slovenia in 1993. Names as Regina and Darja Švajger were returning artists. On a few occasions, the results were controversial and the jury overruled the televoter. A song that surpassed the national finals in 2006 was Saša Lendero’s “Mandoline“. She became 2nd but the song is still famous among Eurovision fans. In more recent years it was the famous band BQL failing to represent Slovenia on several occasions. Slovenia in the Eurovision Song Contest When Slovenia was part of Yugoslavia, Slovenian entries reached the Eurovision stage four times. The most successfull one was Berta Ambrož, who became 7th with “Brez besed”. In 1993, Slovenia took part for the first time as an independent country. The country had to qualify through an Eastern European preselection. Slovenian band 1X Band managed to win this contest and took part in the international final. Best score for Slovenia was a 7th place twice: in 1995 Darja Švajger did the job with “Prisluhni mi”, in 2001 it was Nuša Derenda who took the spot with “Energy”. The last two years, Slovenia did not make it to the final. Bookmakers Slovenia currently is in 21st place in the betting odds. Also in the specific odds for the 2nd semifinal, Slovenia has a good place: 7th. That means Slovenia is likely to return to the final! The song And of course, this is the song:

We can not wait for the Eurovision Song Contest in Liverpool. Therefore, we have a closer look at one of the contestants every day. Today: Poland. Blanka Poland has chosen for Blanka. She will sing “Solo”, a song composed by Blanka herself with Maciej Puchalski, Mikołaj Trybulec, Bartłomiej Rzeczycki and Marcin Górecki. She wrote the lyrics with Maria Broberg and Julia Sundberg. Blanka Stajkow is a wellknown Polish model and singer. She took part in Top Model, a Polish reality show, in 2021. During that time, she also released her first single “Better“. A year later, on 23 September 2022, she released a second single, “Solo”. The song reached the no. 4 spot in the Polish charts. As the song was released after the 1st of September, Blanka was able to submit it to the Polish national final for the Eurovision Song Contest. And she won the contest. Jann The Polish national final this year was called Tu bije serce Europy! Wybieramy hit na Eurowizję!. The clear favourite of the audience was Jann with his song “Gladiator“. The televoters awarded Jann, as expected, with 12 points, Blanka with 10. The juries however awarded “Gladiator” with only 7 points, Blanka with 12. Immediately, accusasions came towards the jury. Did they do this on purpose to make Blanka win. Especially when Blanka appeared to have a relationship with Allan Krupa. Krupa’s mother, Edyta Górniak, was the chairman of the jury. Blanka was accompanied by dancers of dance group Volt. Agustin Egurolla, who is the owner of this dance group, was one of the members of the jury. The fact that TVP already started writing an article about the winner of the contest, being Blanka, hours before the national final, didn’t help much. Poland in the Eurovision Song Contest Poland took part in the Eurovision Song Contest for the first time in 1994. Aforenamed Edyta Górniak was the contestant with the song “To nie ja!”. She took the second place. Poland has never had such a high score again in Eurovision. Only two times after this, the Polish entry reached the top-10. In 2003 it was Ich Troje with the multilinugal song “Keine Grenzen – Żadnych granic”  who took the 7th place. Michał Szpak did the thing in 2016 with “Color of your life”, good for an 8th place, and even no. 4 in the televoting. Bookmakers Blanka is currently 25th in the betting odds. In the specified odds about the 2nd semifinal she has the 12th place. That would be no final for Poland. If that happens, which we don’t hope for Blanka, we got the feeling that somehow the storm will not lay down very quickly. The song And here is, of course, the song:

We can not wait for the Eurovision Song Contest in Liverpool. Therefore, we have a closer look at one of the contestants every day. Today: Greece. Victor Vernicos Victor Vernicos was chosen internally to represent Greece in the Eurovision Song Contest. Victor wroteand composed the song himself. Victor Vernicos Jørgensen, born in Athens, is a Greek singer/songwriter of Danish descent. He started making music at a very young age. When he was 8 years old, he sang his own version of the Eurovision song “Heroes”. His first single “Hope it’s heaven” was released in 2021. A year later, the song was followed by the song “Mean“. On 30 January 2023, it was announced that Victor Vernicos was going to be the Greek representant in the Eurovision Song Contest. Legal action The internal selection in Greece was quite complicated. Out of 7 shortlisted songs, 3 were chosen for the final selection: the female duo Antonia Kaouri and Maria Maragkou, Melissa Mantzoukis and of course Victor Vernicos. However, Antonia and Maria withdrew. Still, all three acts were awarded points. Melissa Mantzoukis took legal action to this and the way the winner was chosen. The voting system made Victor win, while with a voting system were every jury member would award 1, 2 and 3 points, Melissa would have won. A temporary injunction halting the Greek participation was denied by Greek courts on 6 March, citing the short time period between then and the EBU’s 13 March deadline for entry submissions. Mantzoukis’ lawsuit to be declared the winner and awarded damages is anticipated to be heard in mid-May following the contest. Greece in the Eurovision Song Contest Greece first took part in the Eurovision Song Contest back in 1974. Marinella‘s “Krassi, thalassa ke t’agori mou” didn’t gain many points, but is still a classic in Greece. The first top-5 score for Greece came in 1977, when Pascalis, Marianna, Robert and Bessy sang “Mathema solfège”. The first time Greece entered the top-3 was in 2001, thanks to the duo Antique and the song “Die for you”. Helena Paparizou, half of the duo Antique, brought the trophy to Greece in 2005 with “My number one”, but also Sakis Rouvas (“Shake it” in 2004) and Kalomira (“Secret combination” in 2008) reached the top-3. Bookmakers The bookmakers currently give Greece a 28th place in the betting odds. However, the specified semi final betting odds give a 9th place, which means Greece will head to the final in Liverpool. Let’s hope for the sympathatic singer that this will happen. The song And of course, this is the song:  

We can not wait for the Eurovision Song Contest in Liverpool. Therefore, we have a closer look at one of the contestants every day. Today: Iceland. Diljá The Icelandic preselection Söngvakeppnin was won by Diljá. She co-wrote her song “Power” with Pálmi Ragnar Ásgeirsson.  Diljá’s full name is Diljá pétursdóttir. She was born in Kópavogur, the 2nd city of Iceland. Diljá’s first steps into stardom came when she took part in Ísland Got Talent in 2015. In 2018 she took part in a contest called Vælið. She moved to Copenhagen to study music in 2020, but came back now to participate in Söngvakeppnin, the national final for the Eurovision Song Contest. Yesterday, Diljá was one of the performers in Eurovision In Concert. Söngvakeppnin Söngvakeppnin is the Icelandic national final for the Eurovision Song Contest. Already in 1986, when Iceland debuted, that was the name of the national final. Ten songs competed and the winner was Pálmi Gunnarsson, who sang “Gleðibankinn“. However, Icelandic broadcaster RÚV decided that the song should be sung by a group. Pálmi was joined by Eirikur Hauksson and Helga Möller in the group Icy. Also in 1994 it was not the Söngvakeppnin winner who represented Iceland. Singer Sissa (Sigrún Eva Ármannsdóttir) won the contest but was, according to RÚV, not good enough to sing her song “Nætur” in Eurovision. She was replaced by Sigga (Sigriður Beinteinsdóttir). Fun detail: 2 years before, Sigga and Sissa also took part, but then as a duo, Heart 2 Heart.There has not been a Söngvakeppnin every year. Iceland also selected the song internally on several occasions. Since 2005 however, there always has been a Söngvakeppnin. Okay, not in 2021, when the 2020 winner Daði & Gagnamagnið could take revenge for the cancelled Eurovision Song Contest. Oh and we want to show you one Söngvakeppnin song in particular. The song was called “Is this love?“. And yes, you know the guy who sings it! Sigga Iceland in the Eurovision Song Contest As mentioned, Iceland took part in the Eurovision Song Contest for the first time in 1986. The first three entries all became 16th. It was Daniel Águst Haraldsson who broke the spell in a negative way: he did not get any points back in 1989. When Iceland became 4th in 1990 with Stjórnin this was so exceptional for the country that a big celebration followed on the island, as if they won the European Championship Soccer.Iceland never won the Eurovision Song Contest. However, they became 2nd twice. In 1999 it was Selma with her “All out of luck” and in 2009 Yohanna got silver with “Is it true?”. And this will always remain a speculation, but it might well be possible that Daði & Gagnamagnið would have won the contest with “Think about things”. In all the alternative contests and polls replacing the cancelled contest, Iceland got the number 1 spot. Bookmakers Currently Iceland has the 25th place in the betting odds. That would be enough for a place in the final. However, if we look at the particular betting odds for the 2nd semifinal, Diljá would be placed 14th. Of course we hope for Iceland that they will have a place in the final. The song And of course, this is the song:

We can not wait for the Eurovision Song Contest in Liverpool. Therefore, we have a closer look at one of the contestants every day. Today: Cyprus. Andrew Lambrou Cyprus internally selected Andrew Lambrou for the Eurovision Song Contest. His song “Break a broken heart” is written and composed by Jimmy Jansson, Jimmy ‘Joker’ Thornfeldt, Marcus Winther-John and Thomas Stengaard. Andrew Lambrou is an Australian singer of Cypriot descent. He was born in Sydney in 1998. In 2013, he gained attention when he uploaded his version of Evanescence’s “My immortal“. Two years later he took part in the X-Factor Australia. In 2021 he signed a record contract and released his debut single “Throne“. In 2022 he was already close to Eurovision: he took part in the Australian national final with the song “Electrify“. Anna Vissi Anybody who says Cyprus says Anna Vissi. She is probably the most famous artist ever from Cyprus. Anna Vissi was born in Larnaca, Cyprus. She rose to fame when she won the Thessaloniki Song Festival in 1977. She had many hits and almost all of her albums got at least the gold status, but most of the times platinum or more. She reached the international charts with “Still in love with you“, “Call me” and “Everything“. The last one was one of her Eurovision Songs. Because Anna Vissi IS Eurovision. Already in 1978 she was supposed to take part. Due to troubles with the composers of the two candidate songs for the contest, Anna withdrew. But in 1980, she represented Greece. With the song “Auto-stop“, accompanied by The Epikouri who became 2nd in the national final, she had her first Eurovision experience. In 1982 she reached a 5th place, the best score for Cyprus, with “Mono I agapi“. She had to give away that title only in 2018. In 2006 she represented host country Greece with the song “Everything”. Cyprus in the Eurovision Song Contest Cyprus first took part in 1981, with the group Island and their “Monica”. A debut with a 6th place, quite well! As mentioned, Cyprus became 5th with Anna Vissi‘s “Mono I agapi” in 1982. She had to share that record when in 1997 Hara and Andreas Konstantinou reached the top-5 with “Mana mou”. Cyprus did not reach the top-5 in other years, until…. Eleni Foureira participated in 2018. The song “Fuego” was not really noticed by the bookmakers until the first rehearsals. Suddenly she became one of the serious contenders to win. Cyprus ended up in 2nd place. Bookmakers In the betting odds, Cyprus is currently 24th. That means the country might reach the final but will not do well there. Of course we hope the betting odds are wrong and he will end up higher. The song And of course, this is the song:

We can not wait for the Eurovision Song Contest in Liverpool. Therefore, we have a closer look at one of the contestants every day. Today: Belgium Gustaph Gustaph was the surprise winner of the Belgian preselection. He co-wrote and composed the song “Because of you” with Jaouad Alloul.  Gustaph’s real name is Steph Caers. And yes, he was at the Eurovision Song Contest twice before. As a backing vocalist he supported Sennek in 2018 and Hooverphonic in 2021. Born in Leuven, he rose to fame in 2000 when he had a hit as Steffen with his debut single “Gonna lose you“. A second single, “Sweetest thing“, followed. After this, Gustaph focused more on studio work and writing music. He also made jingles for Radio Donna and Q-music.  Under the name Gustaph, the singer performs since 2008. our years later, under that name, he began singing and writing for Hercules & Love Affair. Gustaph left the group in 2018. Rendez-vous This year’s Belgian national selection was organized by VRT, the Flemish broadcaster. Belgium switches every year: next year, French speaking RTBF will select a song. The Flemish broadcaster had selected internally for many years. Eurosong is a contest that returned after 2016, when Laura Tesoro won the contest. The Flemish national selections have a great history, from the early years until Canzonissima, a contest that lasted for months. Songs like Ann Christy’s “Dag vreemde man” became classics in Eurovision history, even though the song never made it to the Eurovision stage. But the most remarkable year must be 1983. 9 artists competed. The big favourite was Sofie with the song “Nummer een“, but also other artists could seriously win. However, the opinion of the jury was that the quality was só bad that they all decided to give a protest vote. They all voted for the quite unknown band Pas De Deux, who sang a song with “Rendez-vous, maar de maat is vol en m’n kop is toe” (Rendez-vous, but it’s enough now and my mouth is shut) as the full lyrics. When the audience found out this was the winner, half of them left the building. The other half remained, just to boo throughout the entire reprise of the winning song. Pas De Deux became 18th at the Eurovision Song Contest in Munich. Belgium in the Eurovision Song Contest Belgium first took part in 1956, so they were present at the very first contest. As aforementioned, one year the Flemish broadcaster participates, the other year the Wallon. The first great Belgian success came in 1966, when Tonia reached a 4th place with her “Un peu de poivre, un peu de sel”. Jean Vallée even was 2nd with “L’amour, ça fait chanter la vie”. In Jordan they also transmitted that contest. As Israel won, they quit the broadcasting of the show, and later told the tv-watching audience that Belgium had won! But in fact the first Belgian winner was Sandra Kim with “J’aime la vie”. She won with a landslide!Remarkable is the fact that all the top-5 positions for Belgium were songs, submitted by RTBF. The best scoring Flemish entry was “Me and my guitar” by Tom Dice. And it was the same Tom Dice who was 2nd in this year’s national final. Bookmakers Belgium is currently 32nd in the betting odds. That would be no final for Belgium. Somehow, people don’t believe that. The bookmakers can seriously, and hopefully, be wrong about this. The song And of course, here is the song:

We can not wait for the Eurovision Song Contest in Liverpool. Therefore, we have a closer look at one of the contestants every day. Today: Estonia. Alika The Estonian final Eesti Laul has been won by Alika. She will sing the song “Bridges”, which is written and composed by herself together with Wouter Hardy and Nina Samperman. Wouter Hardy is known for two more successfull Eurovision songs: “Arcade” and “Tout l’univers”. Alika’s full name is Alika Milova. She was born in Narva in the east of Estonia. She rose to fame in Estonia when she won Eesti Ootsib Superstaari, the Estonian version of Pop Idol, in 2021. It resulted in her debut single “Önnenumber”. She reached the number 1 spot at the Estonian charts. Other singles were “Bon appetit” and “C’est la vie”, both released in 2022. photo credits: Wikimedia Commons Eurolaul and Eesti Laul The Estonian final is called Eesti Laul. The contest has this name since 2009, in the years before that it was called Eurolaul. Estonia has always chosen their representant from a field of at least 10 different artists. The only exception was in 1993, when Janika Sillamaa was the only contestant. Her “Muretut meelt ja südametuld” did not reach the Eurovision final, because it got stuck in a Eastern European pre-contest. A very remarkable Eurolaul performance was the one of Vanilla Ninja in 2003. They sang “Club Kung Fu“, the favourite of the televoter but clearly not the one the juries liked. The juries were wrong: “Club Kung Fu” was the start of Vanilla Ninja’s (international!) career. Another very remarkable entry was that of punkband Winny Puhh in 2013. They reached a 3rd place with “Meiecundimees üks Korsakov läks eile Lätti“. Watch the performance, it’s worth it! Estonia in the Eurovision Song Contest As said, Estonia wanted to debut in 1993 but failed to qualify. Their real debut came in 1994 with the late Silvi Vrait, who became 24th. But already a year later, Maarja-Liis Illus and Ivo Linna put Estonia on the Eurovision map: “Kaelakee hääl” became 5th. Other successes were “Once in a lifetime” for Ines in 2000 (4th), winner Tanel Padar & Dave Benton with “Everybody” in 2001 and Swedish Sahlene in 2002 with “Runaway”. After these successes, Estonia did do well, for example with Urban Symphony in 2009 and Ott Lepland in 2012, but never entered the top-5 again.  Bookmakers In the betting odds Estonia is currently 22nd. That tells us that there will be a place in the final, but not a very high place. Let’s hope for Alika she is going to end up higher. The song And of course, this is the song:

We can not wait for the Eurovision Song Contest in Liverpool. Therefore, we have a closer look at one of the contestants every day. Today: Romania. Theodor Andrei The Romanian final has been won by Theodor Andrei. He won the contest with his own song “D.G.T. (Off and on”), that he wrote and composed together with Mikail Jahed. For the lyrics, Luca de Mezzo and Luca Udățeanu also signed. Theodor Andrei participated in Vocea Romaniei Junior (The Voice Kids Romania). It resulted in two records: “Young and sweet” and “Și dacă azi zâmbesc”. In 2020, Theodor took part in The X-Factor Romania. After that, he had a main role in a theatre play. 2022 was the year of his debut album “Fragile” and the song “Ţigări mentolate”. Mihai and the Eurovision Songcontest If we have to mention someone in Romania who is connected to Eurovision, the first name that pops up is Mihai Trăistariu. He had a wish to participate in Eurovision, his dream came true but he decided to keep the dream alive. The famous Romanian singer started his career with the duo Valahia. In 2000 (“Why“), 2002 (“Mother“) and 2003 (“Friends are friends“) they participated in the Romanian national selection. In 2005, when the duo split up, he sang a duet with Nico: “All the time“. In 2006, it happened: he won the national selection and represented Romania with his song “Tornero“, which brought him a 4th place in the final! After ten years, he wanted to do the job again. We saw him in 2016 (“Paradisio“), 2017 (“I won’t surrender“) and 2018 (“Heaven“). In 2019 he was also supposed to take part. However, he withdrew because he did not agree with the organization of the contest. In 2020, he expressed his disappointment for not being invited. That was the last time we saw him in a national final. But don’t worry, you can find him on Facebook, Instagram and OnlyFans. And yes, it is what you think it is… Romania in the Eurovision Song Contest Romania first took part in the Eurovision Song Contest in 1994. In the beginning, it was hard for Romania to do well. The first top-10 score was in 2002, when Monica Anghel and Marcel Pavel reached the 9th place. A very high score, 4th, was there for the afornamed Mihai. Two 3rd places were there for Romania: in 2005 (Luminița Anghel and Sistem even won the semifinal!) and for Ovi and Paula Seling in 2010. In more recent years Ilinca and Alex Florea became 7th with “Yodel it!”. Bookmakers The betting odds for Romania are not very hopeful this year: currently they have a 36th place, out of 37 participating countries. Let’s hope for Romania they will do better than that. The song: And of course, this is the song:    

We can not wait for the Eurovision Song Contest in Liverpool. Therefore, we have a closer look at one of the contestants every day. Today: Armenia. Brunette Brunette has been internally chosen to represent Armenia. She will sing the self-written song “Future lover”. Brunette’s real name is Ellen Yeremyan. She was born 27 May 2001 in the Armenian capital Yerevan. In September 2019 she released her first single, “Love the way you feel“. A year later she released a song in Armenian called “Uzum em urishin“. Two years later, the song “Smoke Break” was released in February 2022, followed a few days later by another, “Night”. The third song “Bac kapuyt achqerd” was released in June. She is the author of the music and lyrics of all her songs. In December, she was a member of the jury of the Armenian delegation at the Junior Eurovision Song Contest. Depi Evratesil This year was definitely not the first year when Armenia chose their entry internally. However, every now and then the Armenian broadcaster AMPTV chose to have a national selection called Depi Evratesil. Sometimes it was a contest with only one contestant, like with Sirusho in 2008. No surprise, as Sirusho is one of the biggest stars in Armenia. In other years, there were many contestants. Last time it was held was in 2020, when Athena Manoukyan won. She never went to Eurovision due to COVID19.One of the most remarkable contestants of Depi Evratesil was, with no doubt, Kamil Show. She became 2nd but got a lot of media attention. Armenia in the Eurovision Song Contest The first Armenian entry was “Without your love”, sung by André in 2006. It was an immediate success. Armenia reached the final and became 8th there. In 2008 the aformentioned Sirusho even reached the 4th place with her “Qele Qele”. Armenia had been successfull on several occasions, but never higher than that 4th place. Aram mp3 also reached this place in 2014. And of course we can not forget about last year’s singer Rosa Linn. She only became 20th with her “Snap”. However, it became a worldwide hit via TikTok, and is now one of the most streamed Eurovision songs ever! Bookmakers Armenia currently has a 12th place in the betting odds. If Brunette becomes 12th, the tradition of getting into the final (Armenia only missed it on 3 occasions) will remain, and Brunette will do even better than Rosa Linn last year. The song And of course, here is the song:

We can not wait for the Eurovision Song Contest in Liverpool. Therefore, we have a closer look at one of the contestants every day. Today: Denmark. Reiley Reiley won Dansk Melodi Grand Prix, the Danish final for the Eurovision Song Contest. His song, “Breaking my heart”, was written and composed by Reiley himself with Bård Mathias Bonsaksen, Sivert Hjeltnes Hagtvet and Hilda Stenmalm. Reiley (real name: Rani Petersen) is the first ever Faroese representant in the Eurovision Song Contest. His career started on TikTok, where he published a song in 2019 and meanwhile has over 10 million views. His first single was “Let it ring” in 2021, followed by “Superman” and an EP, “BRB, having an identity crisis”. In 2022 he also released a new single, “Blah blah blah“. Reiley worked together with K-Pop band AB6IX for the single “Moonlight”. 25 year old Riley was chosen in February to represent Denmark in the Eurovision Song Contest. Dansk Melodi Grand Prix Danish entries for the Eurovision Song Contest have always been chosen through a national final with multiple artists. Already the first national final, in 1957, had the name Dansk Melodi Grand Prix. Only in 1965, Birgit Brüel was chosen internally. We saw the Olsen Brothers taking part very often, from their first Melodi Grand Prix song “San Francisco” in 1978 until their last one, “Little yellow radio” in 2005. And let’s not forget their winning song “Fly on the wings of love”, or the Danish version “Smuk som et stjerneskud“. Another one coming back year after year was Tommy Seebach. Three times he managed to win the contest. However, his “Hipp hurra – det’ min fødselsdag” became a Grand Prix classic. Another one we will not forget to mention was a song from 1979: “Faders bøn“, sung by Rasmus Lyberth. It was the first ever song in Greenlandic in Melodi Grand Prix. Denmark in the Eurovision Song Contest Denmark’s debut in the Eurovision Song Contest was a very remarkable one: Birthe Wilke and Gustav Winckler sang “Skibet skal sejle i nat”, a song about a fisherman saying goodbye to his girlfriend. The song ended with a very long kiss, especially when you know that we are talking about 1957. The first Danish win was also a duo: Grethe and Jørgen Ingmann got the trophy in 1963 with “Dansevise”. However, unsatisfied with the way the voting went, Denmark withdrew in 1967. Europe had to wait for their comeback until 1978. The country became quite successfull after this comeback, with several top-5 places. The victory came in 2000 with Olsen Brothers and “Fly on the wings of love”. A third victory was for Emmelie de Forrest and her “Only teardrops”. Bookmakers Currently, Denmark has a 29th place in the betting odds. The specified top-10 for the 2nd semifinal gives a 10th place, so Denmark might reach the final but will not do very well there. Is it true? Or will the TikTok viewers vote Reiley into a high place. The song: And of course, here is the song: