Martijn

7 cities on shortlist UK

Seven cities are on the shortlist to host the 2023 Eurovision Song Contest. These are Glasgow, Liverpool, Leeds, Birmingham, Manchester, Newcastle and Sheffield. Not only the place itself was a subject, but also how the cities want to reflect Ukrainian culture in the festivities. Ukraine won the Eurovision Song Contest this year but cannot organize it itself. That is why the United Kingdom and the BBC are taking on the organization. photo: EBU The next step is to create a bid book. In it, the cities show how the festival is organized in their city. The venue where the festival is held is also discussed: it must also be suitable. The infrastructure and availability of hotels are also discussed. The city must also present the financial picture. The BBC and the EBU will make a decision together, which is likely to fall in the autumn.

Dame Olivia Newton-John passed away

Today, the sad news came to us that Dame Olivia Newton John passed away. The Dame was 73 years old. Olivia Newton-John was born in Cambridge, but the family moved to Australia when she was only 5 years old. She returned to the UK in the sixties. She had her first hits in 1971: “If not for you” became a huge hit in several countries, followed by “Banks of the Ohio”, which became a number 1 hit in Australia. As a good friend of Cliff Richard, she was interested in participating in the Eurovision Song Contest. In 1974 she represented the United Kingdom. Out of 6 songs, “Long live love” was chosen. She was not too happy with the choice of the British audience, who voted with postcards. However, Olivia was one of the hot favourites at the bookmakers. In the end, she became 4th. Shortly after the Eurovision Song Contest, Olivia moved to the USA. She scored no less than 5 number 1 hits, only in the years 1974 and 1975. Her worldwide breakthrough as an actress came in 1978, when she and John Travolta performed in the teenage movie “Grease”, a movie that became and still is an evergreen. The movie produced hits like “You’re the one that I want”, “Hopelessly devoted to you” and “Summer nights”. Another worldwide movie hit was “Xanadu”, two years after “Grease”. The title song was a world wide hit as well. After these two movies she scored a worldwide hit again, the song “Physical”: After “Physical” she kept on having hits, although it became more difficult for her to have worldwide top hits. The exception came in 1990, when she and John Travolta teamed up again to record the “Grease Megamix”. In total, Olivia Newton John released 26 albums, 6 live albums and several soundtracks. In 1992, Olivia had cancer for the first time. The cancer returned in 2013 and again in 2017. In 2019, Newton-John was knighted by Queen Elizabeth, including for her contribution to cancer research. Since then she was allowed to call herself Dame.

United Kingdom hosts Eurovision 2023

The United Kingdom will host the 2023 Eurovision Song Contest. British broadcasting Corporation BBC will host the contest. This year, Ukraine won the Eurovision Song Contest. In a normal situation, Ukraine would have been responsible for the 2023 contest. However, due to safety reasons, EBU decided that Ukraine was not able to do the job. At the same moment, EBU mentioned talks with the United Kingdom about organising the contest. The United Kingdom was one of the countries willing to do so, and as the country reached the 2nd place it was quite logical to ask them first. photo: EBU ‘We’re exceptionally grateful that the BBC has accepted to stage the Eurovision Song Contest in the UK in 2023,’ said Martin Österdahl, the Eurovision Song Contest’s Executive Supervisor. ‘The BBC has taken on hosting duties for other winning countries on four previous occasions. Continuing in this tradition of solidarity, we know that next year’s Contest will showcase the creativity and skill of one of Europe’s most experienced public broadcasters whilst ensuring this year’s winners, Ukraine, are celebrated and represented throughout the event.’ Mykola Chernotytskyi, Head of the Managing Board of Ukrainian broadcaster UA:PBC added: ‘The 2023 Eurovision Song Contest will not be in Ukraine but in support of Ukraine. We are grateful to our BBC partners for showing solidarity with us. I am confident that together we will be able to add Ukrainian spirit to this event and once again unite the whole of Europe around our common values of peace, support, celebrating diversity and talent.’ Representatives of UA: PBC will work with the BBC to develop and implement the Ukrainian elements of next year’s shows. Several cities already expressed their will to organise the contest. It is likely that, within a month, the host city will be announced. source: eurovision.tv

Noa Kirel to represent Israel in 2023 (UPDATE)

Today, Israeli Broadcaster Kan announced that singer Noa Kirel has been chosen to represent Israel in the Eurovision Song Contest. According to a statement from Kan, a committee discussed 78 names “with rich and proven experience in standing in front of a large audience”. 21-year-old Kirel became famous seven years ago when she released her first single called “Medabrim”. The song was followed by a lot of hits. In addition, she start in the TV-show Double, In the movie “Kimaat mefursemet” and she participated in the show “Lo Nafsik Lashir”. Since she sings with the international label Atlantic records, Kirel released three successful songs: “Please don’t suck”, “Bad little thing” and “Reashim”. In a reaction, the singer’s representative said: “We received the news about the Eurovision Song Contest with complete surprise. We are happy and grateful for the choice of Noa and are proud to represent the State of Israel with dignity. The Eurovision song is not anounced yet. UPDATE: In an interview with radio presenter Raz Shechnik, Noa said that Kan spoke out of turn. Noa’s participation is, according to the singer herself, a ‘maybe’. To be continued…..

Happy birthday, Eurovision!

Happy birthday, Eurovision Song Contest. Today it is 66 years ago that the first Eurovision song contest was held. The Eurovision Song Contest was created after the coronation of the British Queen Elizabeth II was broadcast on French television. They wanted to use the equipment purchased for this for other events. A song contest, modeled after the Italian festival of Sanremo, was one of the ideas. The first song contest took place in Lugano, Switzerland. Ten countries wanted to participate, in the end there were seven. They each presented two songs. There was no voting as we know it now. The jury consisted of two members from each country. Remarkable: Luxembourg had no jury, two Swiss did the honors for that country. At the end of the evening, chairman Rolf Liebermann only announced that the song “Refrain” had won. That was one of Lys Assia‘s two Swiss entries. Little image has been preserved of the first Eurovision; only a part of the reprise, when Lys Assia had won. Wanna know more? Have a look at our 1956 page!

Did six countries make a mutual deal?

Six countries have mutually agreed on the voting in this years Eurovision Song Contest. That’s what Jean Philip De Tender of the EBU said to Belgian newspaper “Het Laatste Nieuws“. Earlier it was announced that the points of the aforementioned six countries were annulled. The EBU announced that there were irregularities during the broadcast. A new points list has been compiled for these countries. The EBU then looks at the voting behavior of comparable countries.This situation would concern Azerbaijan, San Marino, Romania, Montenegro, Georgia and Poland, but the EBU does not want to confirm that. It seems that the EBU had not informed the countries about the nullification of the points. Georgia and Romania were not amused. Georgia is said to have given the twelve to Ukraine and now saw them go to the United Kingdom. Romania had awarded twelve points to Moldova, which went to Ukraine.

Ukraine wins Eurovision 2022

Ukraine has just won the Eurovision Song Contest 2022 in Turin. It is the 3rd time that wins. Kalush Orchestra reached the first place with the song “Stefania”. Note that both jury and televoter had different winners. United Kingdom was the winner of the expert jury, while Ukraine won a landslide among the televoters. Here you find the full result: Ukraine, 631 pts. United Kingdom, 466 pts. Spain, 459 pts. Sweden, 438 pts. Serbia, 312 pts. Italy, 268 pts. Moldova, 253 pts. Greece, 215 pts. Portugal, 207 pts. Norway, 182 pts. The Netherlands, 171 pts. Poland, 151 pts. Estonia, 141 pts. Lithuania, 128 pts. Australia, 125 pts. Azerbaijan, 106 pts. Switzerland, 78 pts. Romania, 65 pts. Belgium, 64 pts. Armenia, 61 pts. Czech Republic, 38 pts. Finland, 38 pts. Iceland, 20 pts. France, 17 pts. Germany, 6 pts.

UK or Ukraine…. our prediction for tonight

There are bookmakers, there are polls, there are so many different opinions and predictions. Our team gave it a go too, and we have different opinions. Some of us think, like many people, that Ukraine will win tonight. However, some of us are convinced the United Kingdom will win. Anyway, this is our final top 5: 1.United Kingdom Finally, after so many years of bad scores, the United Kingdom might win the Eurovision Song Contest. Let’s all go to London (or wherever in the UK) next year! 2.Ukraine A lot of emotion comes along with a song, that got a completely different meaning after the invasion, February 24 of this year. If Ukraine doesn’t win, it will at least end up very high! 3.Italy Before the Russian invasion, Italy was the number 1 at the bookies. That was not for nothing: the song was and is popular. Whatever happens, this will be the best score for a host country in years. 4.Sweden Bad luck these two weeks for Sweden. Even in the last rehearsals, things went wrong. But still, we have a strong pop song that stands out in this contest. Sweden might not win, but do well anyway. 5.Spain What goes for the United Kingdom, goes for Spain: after so many years of struggle to find a good song, they found one. A performance with a lot of dance, and a singer who can manage that: it’s unique. Welcome back to the top, Spain!

Italian organization surprises again

The Eurovision Song Contest has been going on for almost a whole week now. We have started with the dress rehearsals of the final. But the Italian organization continues to surprise. Presenter Laura Pausini was not present at the start of the rehearsals. Her colleague Alessandro Cattelan told the press that the singer and presenter is doing well, but she had to take some rest. Mika was present, but left before the rehearsal had really started. Someone from the production had to replace him. It has never happened in recent years that one of the presenters did not rehearse. Most notable was one of Petra Mede’s rehearsals. She hosted the festival in 2013. She appeared on stage with curlers in her hair. And believe it or not, the participant from Sweden struggled with technical problems again. Cornelia Jakobs started singing “Hold me closer”, the music started, but the sound cut out again. That makes the singer the unluckiest person of this year towards the end: for her so far no rehearsal has gone without problems. source: nu.nl

Running order: from Czech Republic to Estonia

This Saturday, the Eurovision Song Contest will start with the song that was the last one in the 2nd semifinal: the Czech song. It will end with one from the same semifinal: Estonia. There are some remarkable things in the running order: the contest starts with two uptempo songs with a lot of show: Czech Republic and Romania. At the end of the show, three powerballads (Australia, United Kingdom and Poland) will be performed in a row. Whether this will be a good running order or not, we will see. This is the complete overview: