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: 

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: Finland. Käärijä UMK, the Finnish national final for the Eurovision Song Contest, has been won by Käärijä. His song “Cha-cha-cha” was written and composed by Johannes Naukkarinen, Aleksi Nurmi and Jukka Sorsa. Käärijä himself also contributed to the lyrics. Käärijä’s real name is Jere Pöyhönen. He started his career in 2014. In the beginning, he released his own music. It took until 2017 before he had a contract with a record company and released his first single “Koppi tules” / “Nou roblem“. He released a lot of singles. His EP “Peliä” was released in 2018, with two singles “Klo23” and “Puuta heinää” as an extract. His first album, “Fantastista”, reached the Finnish album charts. His real breakthrough however, came when he won the national final for the Eurovision Song Contest. “Cha-cha-cha” reached the no.1 spot in the Finnish charts. Songs in Finnish “Cha-cha-cha” could well be the very first ever song in the Finnish language, ending up in the top-5 of the Eurovision Song Contest. The best score so far is a 7th place. Finland managed to reach that place twice in the sixties, once in the eighties. Marion Rung made it in 1962 with her sweet song “Tipi tii”. Two years later it was Lasse Mårtenson with his song “Laiskotellen”. And in 1989 Anneli Saaristo brought her Finnish song with Spanish sounds to the 7th place. Finland in the Eurovision Song Contest Finland takes part in the Eurovision Song Contest since 1961, but has not been one of the most successful countries so far. The aforementioned Marion Rung and Lasse Mårtensson held the record until 1973. In that year, Marion Rung broke her own record by becoming 6th with “Tom Tom Tom”. Pihasoittajat did quite well in 1975 with “Old man fiddle”. And yes, we have to mention Monica Aspelund and her song “Lapponia”. She was among the favourites to win, but in the end she became 10th.Finland only reached the top-5 on one occasion, and they won. The unforgettable band Lordi got the first place in 2006 with “Hard rock hallelujah”. The masks and costumes were clearly not a Eurovision gimmick. The man always dress up like that. Just a few people know how the Lordi guys really look! Bookmakers If you look at the betting odds, there is reason for the Finnish to be happy. They currently have the 2nd place. As mentioned, it will be unique for Finland: their 2nd top-5, and the first top-5 for a song in Finnish! 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: The Netherlands. Mia and Dion The Dutch song “Burning daylight”, sung by Mia Nicolaï and Dion Cooper, was chosen internally. Duncan Laurence and his husband-to-be Jordan Garfield wrote and composed the song with Mia, Dion and Loek van der Grinten.  Mia and Dion were both quite unknown to the Dutch audience. Mia from Amsterdam, who studied music in Melbourne, currently lives in Los Angeles. She released two singles in 2020: “Set me free” and “Mutual needs”. In 2023 she didn’t only co-write the Dutch song, but also one of the contestants in the Moldovan national final. She wrote “When love’s real” for Corina Ivanov.Dion from Amstelveen debuted in 2020 with the release of the EP “Too young, too dumb”. In February 2022, Dion released a new single called “Know”. In april of the same year he opened for Benedict Cork and on 5 May he performed at the annual Bevrijdingsfestival. On 29 September 2022, his new single “Blue jeans” was released.Both Mia and Dion started working with Duncan Laurence. He got the idea of bringing them together for the song “Burning daylight”. The team submitted it to the Eurovision selection committee. The rest is history. Dutch artists for other countries In 1970 the Eurovision Song Contest was held in Amsterdam. Easy for David Alexandre Winter, as he lived there. However, he did not represent the Netherlands. For Luxembourg he sang “Je suis tombé du ciel”. The Dutch group were Patricia & The Hearts of Soul. And that group went to Belgium, changed their name into Dream Express and represented Belgium in 1977. One of the members, Stella, did the job again for Belgium in 1982.It was 1979 when German group Dschingis Khan took the stage. There was also a Dutch member in this group. The blond woman singing for Luxembourg in 1985 was Margo, whose real name is Annemieke Verdoorn. And than, in 2001, a Dutch artist won for another country: Dave Benton represented Estonia and won with “Everybody”. The year after, Belgium sent Sergio & The Ladies. All the ladies were Dutch as well. In 2005 we had Marian van de Wal representing Andorra. And of course, in 2021, Greek/Dutch Stefania sang for Greece. The Netherlands in the Eurovision Song Contest The Netherlands take part in the Eurovision Song Contest from the very beginning. And as Jetty Pearl had the honour to open the first contest, we can say that “De vogels van Holland” was the very first Eurovision Song ever.In the fifites the country was very successful with two victories: Corry Brokken (“Net als toen”, 1957) and Teddy Scholten (“Een beetje”, 1959). After a long row of bad scores, the Dutch were back in 1969 with Lenny Kuhr and her “De troubadour”. Years with high scores followed, resulting in another victory in 1975, with Teach In and their “Ding-a-dong”.Lesser years followed, with even a row of 8 entries not reaching the final. Things changed when one of the Netherlands’ biggest stars, Anouk, took part in 2013. A 2nd place with the Common Linnets followed a year later, and Duncan Laurence took the trophy back in 2019. Bookmakers Currently, Mia and Dion have a 15th place at the betting odds. That would be a good score for the two, wo will make sure the long row of songs that make it to the final continues. 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: Czechia. Vesna Vesna won the national final for the Eurovision Song Contest in Czechia. The all girl band will sing “My sister’s crown”. The song is written and composed by Patricie Kaňok Fuxová, Tanita Yankova and Kateryna Vatchenko. Vesna is an alternative music band with strong folklore features. It consists of singer, composer and lyricist Patricie Fuxová, violinist and vocalist Bára Šůstková, keyboardist Olesya Ochepovská, drummer Markéta Vedralová and bassist Tereza Čepková. It was Patricie who founded the group in 2016. It was a year later when their debut single “Morona” was released, followed by their debut album in 2018. A second album was released in 2020.  Girl bands in Eurovision We don’t want to be pessimistic to the Czech, but an all girl group has never won the Eurovision Song Contest. Only on a few occasions, girl bands made it to the top-3. In 1994 it was MeKaDo who reached the 3rd place. The girls (Melanie, Katy and Dorkas) did an attempt, according to Dutch commentor Willem van Beusekom, “…to let German not sound as German”. That attempt was “Wir geben ‘ner Party”.Female duo t.A.T.u. also reached the 3rd place, for Russia in 2003. The girls sang “Ņe ver’, ņe boisia (ņe prosi)”. For the performance, they announced a kiss on stage. EBU forbid that and they decided not to do it. But the result was that they became the talk of the town. It was a Russian girl band again who made it to the 3rd place in 2007: Serebro. After “Song #1” they managed to had some international hits. And as we do not consider the Buranovskiye Babushki a girl band, that’s all… Czechia in the Eurovision Song Contest Czechia, a.k.a. the Czech Republic, participated in the Eurovision Song Contest for the first time in 2007. The country had a lot of difficulties in doing well. When they finally reached the final in 2016 with Gabriela Gunčíková, they ended up 25th. The televoter didn’t award the song with any points. The one who broke the curse for Czechia was Mikolas Josef. He became 6th in 2018 with “Lie to me”. So far, that is the biggest succes for Czechia. Bookmakers Currently, Czechia has the 8th place in the betting odds. That would be a great score for the country and for Vesna. Let’s keep our fingers crossed that this is gonna be true in May. 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: Azerbaijan. TuralTuranX For the first time since 2008, Azerbaijan chose for a song that was written and composed by an Azerbaijani team. The lyrics of “Tell me more” are from the singing duo TuralTuranX themselves, they wrote the music together with Nihad Aliyev and Tunar Taghiyev. TuralTuranX are twins. Their names are Tural and Turan Bağmanov and they were born on 30 October 2000. They are from Zaqatala, in the northwest of Azerbaijan. At a young age, they started playing the piano, soon followed by the synthesizer and the guitar. However, when their father passed away it made them stop making music for a while. Tural moved to Baku and played in a band called TheRedJungle. He was later joined by his brother. Their Eurovision Song, “Tell me more”, is their debut as a duo. Twins in Eurovision TuralTuranX are twins. They are, however, not the first twins in Eurovision. In 1959, the sisters Alice and Ellen Kessler were the first ever twins in Eurovision history. They sang “Heute Abend woll’n wir tanzen geh’n” for Germany. But don’t forget Sophie & Magaly, who made “Le papa pinqouin” Eurovision history in 1980. Unfortunately, both girls passed away already. In 2010, we saw Twiins…. true, Daniela and Veronika Nízlová, representing Slovakia, are also twins. They didn’t reach the final. But who forgot Edward and John Grimes, aka Jedward. They were on Eurovision stage twice: in 2011 and 2012. And it looks like this was the decennium of the twins. In 2013, we saw Anastasiya and Maria Tolmachevy for Russia on stage. And what to think of OG3NE? In 2017 the three sisters represented the Netherlands. Two of the three, Amy and Shelley, are twins. In 2021 we saw twins again on stage. And again it was for The Netherlands. Jeangu Macrooy performed as a soloist, but his twin brother Xilan was in the backings. And now we have TuralTuranX! Azerbaijan in the Eurovision Song Contest Azerbaijan was quite a successful country in Eurovision so far. They took part for the first time in 2008. In all those years, they only missed the final on one occasion. The country won in 2011 with Ell & Nikki and their “Running scared”. But the top-5 was reached more often: already at their 2nd participation in 2009, AySel & Arash reached a 3rd place with their “Always”. Being the favourite at the betting odds, Safura became 5th with her song “Drip drop” in 2010. As a host country contribution in 2012, Sabina Babayeva‘s “When the music dies” became 4th. And in 2013 they almost won it again: Farid Mammadov ended up in 2nd place with his “Hold me”. Bookmakers It currently doesn’t look good for Azerbaijan in the betting odds. They have a 30th place, which is not enough to reach the final. That would be the 2nd time in Eurovision history for Azerbaijan. Let’s hope for the country that the bookmakers are wrong. 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: Sweden. Loreen Loreen won the Swedish Melodifestivalen with a landslide. Her song “Tattoo” is written and composed by Thomas G:son, Jimmy ‘Joker’ Thörnfeldt, Jimmy Jansson, Moa Carlebecker, Peter Boström and Loreen herself.  Loreen’s real name is Lorine Talhaoui. She rose to fame when she took part in Idol 2004. She reached the live shows with her performances. After that she featured in a song of Rob ‘n’ Raz, “The snake” and hosted a tv show. In 2011 we saw her back as a singer, in Melodifestivalen. She sang “My heart is refusing me“. The song did not reach the final of Melodifestivalen. A year later she was the favourite from the first moment on. She won Melodifestivalen and went on to win the Eurovision Song Contest with “Euphoria“. The song became one of the most successful Eurovision winners ever. After this, she released two albums and a lot of singles, some of which became hits in Sweden. “We got the power“, which she sang in the 2013 Eurovision Song Contest, was also a success abroad.In 2017, Loreen did a new attempt to represent Sweden in Eurovision, but she failed. “Statements” did not reach the final of Melodifestivalen. It took Loreen six more years to be the Swedish representant again. “Euphoria”, performed during the 2013 Eurovision Song Contest in Malmö. Melodifestivalen Melodifestivalen is the Swedish national final for the Eurovision Song Contest. It is internationally recognized as the biggest and most viewed national final of all. Eurovision fans all over the world follow this final as if it is the one of their own country. Since 2002, Melodifestivalen expanded from a one evening event to an event with four semifinals, a 2nd chance round and a final. In recent years Eric Saade (“Every minute“) and Dotter (“Bulletproof“) were non-winners with a lot of success. Longer ago it was a group called Agnetha, Frida, Björn and Benny (Yes, Abba!), who got an international hit with “Ring ring“. Sweden in the Eurovision Song Contest Sweden first participated in the Eurovision Song Contest in 1958 with Alice Babs. She took the 4th place with her “Lilla stjärna”. The first victory is Eurovision history: ABBA won the 1974 Eurovision Song Contest with “Waterloo”. Not only because of conductor Sven-Olof Walldoff who was dressed like Napoleon. Also because no other Eurovision winner rose to fame like ABBA. Not immediately after Eurovision, but two years later.In 1984 Herreys won the contest with “Diggy-loo diggy-ley”, to be followed in 1991 by mrs. Eurovision, Carola. She sang “Fångad av en stormvind”. In 1999 it was Charlotte Nilsson who sang “Take me to your heaven”. Loreen herself won in 2012 with “Euphoria”, and Måns Zelmerlöw was the last one with “Heroes” in 2015. Will Loreen bring the 7th victory? In that case, Sweden will hold the record of most victories, shared with Ireland. Bookmakers The betting odds say Sweden ís going to win. And we all know that, since 2017, the winners all had been no. 1 in the betting odds at least at some point. A Swedish victory is of course not sure, but at least very likely. 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: Moldova. Pasha Parfeny After a very exciting national final, it was Pasha Parfeny who won the contest. His song “Soarele și luna”, which translates as “The sun and the moon”, was composed by the singer himself and Andrei Vulpe. For the lyrics, Pasha’s wife Iuliana Parfeny is responsible.  Pasha Parfeny, officially named Pavel Parfeni, studied music in the beginning of this century. He took part in several contests. He won two contests in Bulgaria in 2007. After this, he joined the group Sunstroke Project. In 2009, the group took part in the national selection for the Eurovision Song Contest with the song “No crime“. Parfeny left the group in 2010 for a solo career. Eurovision became a part of his life when he represented Moldova in 2012 with the song “Lăutar”. He became 11th in the final. A year later, he wrote the song “A million” for Aliona Moon. Fun fact: Pasha, Sunstroke Project and Aliona formed the top-3 in this year’s national final. In 2020, Pasha returned to the national selection for Eurovision. His song was called “My wine” and became 2nd. Three years later Pasha won the contest again. Ma-i-a hi, ma-i-a hu… We can talk about Pasha, Sunstroke Project and Zdob şi Zdub, but the most famous band from Moldova ever is another one: O-Zone. They rose to fame in the beginning of the century. In 2003 they released their single “Dragostea din tei“, which became a hit in Romania. But after Italian duo Haiducii covered the song, the original one became a huge hit all over the world. It reached the number 1 spot in the charts in Austria, Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Norway and Switzerland. And be honest…. who doesnt remember “Ma-i-a hi, ma-i-a hu, ma-i-a ho, ma-i-a haha”. The song was followed by another hit, “Destre tine“, but in 2005 the band split up. Isn’t there any Eurovision connection? Yes there is! Band member Arsenium took part in the 2006 Eurovision Song Contest, along with Natalia Gordienko en Connect-R. Moldova in the Eurovision Song Contest Moldova first took part in the Eurovision Song Contest in 2005, and it was an instant success. Zdob şi Zdub became 6th! Moldova kept on being succesful. The country reached the final on many occasions, and in 2017 they ended up in the top-3. Sunstroke Project managed to do that with their song “Hey mama”. Bookmakers The betting odds currently predict a 17th place for Moldova. That is not as good as Pasha did 11 years ago. Let’s hope for him that the bookmakers are wrong and he’ll do better. The song And of course, this is the song: