Martijn

The Estonian national selection Eesti Laul has come to an end. The ten finalists will compete for a place in a superfinal. After that the Estonian entry will be chosen. The contestants are: 1 Remedy Elina Nechayeva 2 Kui vaid Jaagup Tuisk 3 Mis nüüd saab Andrei Zevakin feat. Grete Paia 4 Fire Elysa 5 Aovalguses Ott Lepland 6 Interstellar Stig Rästa 7 What to make of this Minimal Wind feat. Elisabeth Tiffany 8 Hope STEFAN 9 Champion Anna Sahlene 10 Sandra Black Velvet   Elina Nechayeva represented Estonia in the 2018 Eurovision Song Contest.Jaagup Tuisk became 2nd in 2020.Andrei Zevakin became 4th in 2021.Grete Paia became 2nd in 2013, 7th in 2016 and reached the semifinal in 2019.Ott Lepland represented Estonia in the 2012 Eurovision Song Contest.Stig Rästa represented Estonia in the 2015 Eurovision Song Contest together with Elina Born. In 2018 he became 2nd in Eesti Laul.STEFAN was 3rd in 2019 and 7th in 2021.Anna Sahlene took part in 2002 (winner) and thus represented Estonia in the 2002 Eurovision Song Contest.

Tonight is the night of Vidbir 2022, the Ukrainian national final. Different from the past is that Ukraine will decide in only one evening. The show starts at 17.30. You can watch it at Ukrainian Television, Youtube or Facebook. The contestants are: 1 All be alright Cloudless 2 Demons Michael Soul 3 Moia liubov Our Atlantic 4 Hear my words Barleben 5 Stefania Kalush Orchestra 6 Girlzzzz Roxolana 7 Nozzy bossy Welboy 8 Tini zabutykh predkiv Alina Pash Cloudless took part in Vidbir 2020 in the semifinal.

Two semifinals and a final, that’s what Slovenia’s EMA will be up to. In each semifinal, three songs will be chosen by televoting, three by an expert jury. Tonight, at 20.20 CET, the second semifinal starts. You can watch it here.  These are the competing songs and artists:  Mia Guček, “Independiente” Gušti feat. Leyre, “Nova romantika” Klara Jazbec, “Vse kar imam” Vedran Ljubenko, “H2O dieta” Leya Leanne, “Naked” LPS, “Disko” Anabel, “Tendency” BQL, “Miaj” Hauptman, “Sledim” Eva Moškon, “Kliki” The winners are in bold letters. Klara Jazbec took part in the 2020 EMA-final.Anabel stranded in the 2018 semifnial.BQL became 2nd in 2017 and in 2018.

The Swedish national selection Melodifestivalen will continue tonight with it’s 2nd heat. The show will start at 20.00 CET and you can watch it here. Two participants will go directly to the final, while two others will go to the semifinal (what was previously called ‘andra chancen’). These are the participants:  Liamoo, “Bluffin’” (final) Nello & Lisa Ajax, “Tror du att jag bryr mig” Samira Manners, “I want to be loved” Alvaro Estrella, “Suave” (semifinal) Browsing Collection, “Face in the crowd” John Lundvik, “Änglavakt” (final) Tone Sekelius, ” My way” (semifinal) Liamoo became 6th in Melodifestivalen 2018 and 2nd (with Hanna Fern) in 2019.Lisa Ajax became 7th in 2016, 9th in 2017 and in 2019.Alvaro Estrela stranded in the 2014 semifinal, reached the final in 2021 and became 10th there.John Lundvik became 3rd in 2018 and won 2019 Melodifestivalen. He represented Sweden in the 2019 Eurovision Song Contest.

Tonight, Romania will select 10 finalists out of 20 songs. The show will start at 20.00 CET and you can watch it here. Here are the 20 contestants: Aldo Blaga, “Embers” Alex Parker & Bastien, “All this love” Andra Oproiu, “Younique” Andrei Petruş, “Take me” Aris, “Do svidaniya” Cezar Ouatu, “For everyone” Cream, Minodora & Diana Bucşă, “România mea” Dora Gaitanovici, “Ana” E-an-na, “Malere” Eliza G, “The other half of me” Eugenia Nicolea feat. Cazanoi Brothers, “Doina” Gabriel Basco, “One night” Kyrie Mendél, “Hurricane” Mălina, “Prisoner” Møise, “Guilty” Oana Tăbultoc, “Utopia” Petra, “Ireligios” Vanu, “Never give up” Vizi, “Sparrow” WRS, “Llámame” Aldo Blaga became 9th in the 2019 national final.Cezar Ouato represented Romania in the 2013 Eurovision Song Contest.Dora Gaitanovici became 6th in the 2018 national selection.  

One more song will be added to the final of Norwegian Melodi Grand Prix next week. The song will be chosen out of for “Sista chancen” finalists. The show will start at 19.55 CET and you can watch it here. The contestants of tonight will be: Kim Wigaard, “La Melodia” Mari Bølla, “Your loss” Maria Mohn, “Fly” Trolfest, “Dance like a pink flamingo” finalists: Maria Mohn, “Fly” Trolfest, “Dance like a pink flamingo” MARIA MOHN won and will perform in next week’s Melodi Grand Prix final. Like in last weeks, one of the finalists will perform his or her song. This week it will be Anna-Lisa Kumoji singing “Queen bees”. Kim Wigaard and Maria Mohn sang a duet in the 2020 Melodi Grand Prix; they didn’t pass the semifinal. Maria did the same in the 2021 contest.Anna-Lisa Kumoji reached the 4th place in the 2019 contest.  

It is different from last year. After 4 rounds of Melodi Grand Prix, there will be a last chance show… in two parts. The first part will be aired on radio today at 20.05 CET. Four songs will be chosen, and they will perform live in the show of upcoming saturday. The contestants of tonight are: Mira Craig, “We still here” TrollfesT, “Dance like a pink flamingo” Eline Noelia, “Ecstasy” Lily Löwe, “Bad baby” Daniel Lukas, “Kvelertvak” Steffen Jakobsen, “With me tonight” Mari Bølla, “Your loss” Sturla, “Skår i hjertet”  Vide, “Titans” Alexandra Joner with “Hasta la vista” Kim Wigaard with “Melodia” Maria Mohn with “Fly”

photo credits: Rai Good news for the fans of Mahmood and Blanco: they confirmed that they will be happy to represent Italy in the Eurovision Song Contest. Yesterday evening, or better, this night, the duo won the famous Festival of Sanremo. The winner of the contest is always the first choice for Eurovision. It was Mahmood who caused the rule that, before the contest, artists already have to tell Italian broadcaster RAI whether they wanna go to Eurovision or not. In 2019, Mahmood also won the festival of Sanremo. Enthousiasticly he said yes to Eurovision at the winners’ press conference. Later he started to doubt and wanted to think about it. The hashtag #Mahmood4Eurovision became trending topic in Italy. Mahmood and Blanco said that the decision about singing entirely in Italian or partly in English has not been made yet.

Mahmood and Blanco have won the festival of Sanremo 2022 with the song “Brividi”. That means that they will be first choice to represent Italy in the upcoming Eurovision Song Contest in Turin. Mahmood and Blanco will tell the press whether is going to represent Italy or not in the winners press conference. However, it has been said that they are going to say yes. We will keep you updated about that. Meanwhile, here is the full result: Mahmood & Blanco, “Brividi” Elisa, “O forse sei tu” Gianni Morandi, “Apri tutte le porte” Irama, “Ovunque sarai” Sangiovanni, “Farfalle” Emma, “Ogni volta è così” La rappresentante di Lista, “Ciao ciao” Massimo Ranieri, “Lettera al di là del mare” Dargen d’Amico, “Dove si balla” Michele Bravi, “Inferno dei fiori” Matteo Romane, “Virale” Fabrizio Moro, “Sei tu” Aka7even, “Perfetta così” Achille Lauro, “Domenica” Noemi, “Ti amo, non lo so dire” Ditonellapiaga con Donatella Rettore, “Chimica” Rkomi, “Insuperabile” Iva Zanicchi, “Voglio amarti” Giovanni Trupi, “Tuo padre, mia madre, Lucia” Highsnob e Hu, “Abbi cura di te” Yuman, “Ora e qui” Le Vibrazioni, “Tantissimo” Giusy Ferreri, “Miele” Ana Mena, “Duecentomila ore” Tananai, “Sesso occasionale”