General

the last Melodi Grand Prix 2023 semi-final has ended

Tonight was the last night for artists to qualify for the Melodi Grand Prix 2023 final in Trondheim. Norway has chosen it’s qualifiers, and here they are: Alte Pettersen is back in the final of Melodi Grand Prix! Last time we saw him was two years ago in 2021. Then he managed to get pre-qualified for the final, but this year he got all the support from the public. Tonight he sung his ballad, that later turns into a pop song called “Masterpiece”. From the start of her music carreer it’s drag queen Skrellex. She’s trough with her pop song “Love Again”. Skrellex burns up the stage as she dances with her four backing dancers. Not only her dance moves, but the disco balls on stage light her up aswell. At last but not least we have Eline Thorp. As she’s an up coming artist in Norway, you can already tell she has a great amount of fans for “Not Meant To Be”! Will it be enough for her to take the trophy next week? Next week we have nine finalists batteling it all out in Trondheim. Who are you rooting for? Let us know, and we’ll see you next week.

Elsie Bay is back! MGP semi final 2 results

the clock strucks 9 P.M. in Norway, and the Melodi Grand Prix results came in. Jone, Elsie Bay, and Swing It are trough to the final in Trondheim! There were some familliar faces in the second semi final, and one of those faces managed to qualify! Elsie Bay isn’t new to the Eurovision family, as she competed in Melodi Grand Prix last year with her song “Death Of Us”. She then reached the second round of the final, but will “Love You In A Dream” take the victory this year? Jone was the second qualifier of the night! His EDM pop song “Ekko Inni Meg” was voted for by a lot of his fans. The staging has a neon kind of vibe, and we expect him to go even bigger in the final. And last but not least we have the fun nostalgic retro band Swing It that we will see again in Trondheim. Their 1920’s inspired party song “Prohibition” made a whole part of Norway swing indeed.

Tvorchi wins Vidbir 2023

Tvorchi has won Vidbir 2023! The group will represent Ukraine in Liverpool next year with their song “Heart Of Steel” The Jury gave them 9 points, while they won the public vote with 10 points. Tvorchi are the lucky ones to follow up Eurovision winners ‘Kalush Orchestra’, and therefore Ukraine has already granted itself a spot in the Eurovision Song Contest 2023 finals watch the performance of “Heart Of Steel” here: Tvorchi isn’t new to the Eurovision family, as they have participated in Vidbir 2020 with “Bonfire”. They went on to finals, but only ended up fourth. In 2018 producer Andriy Gutsulyak (Andrew Hutsuliak) and Vocalist Jeffery Kenny doubled up to form the musical group. Jeffery was born in Nigeria, but later on moved to Ukraine where he studied at the Ukrainian Medical University. This is where the duo met, and shared the same passion for music. Eventually they’ve loved it so much, that they started making their owns beats together.

Mia Nicolai & Dion Cooper are the Dutch representatives

On November first, it was announced that Mia Nicolai & Dion Cooper will travel to Liverpool to represent The Netherlands at the 67th Eurovision Song Contest. The 26-year-old Mia and 28-year-old Dion met about two years ago, when Duncan Laurence, Eurovision 2019 winner brought them together. Their voices blended well together, and they wanted to share the same musical message: “music that allows room for showing vulnerability and emotion. Laurence recommended the two artists to the Dutch selection committee and they unanimously selected the yet to be announced song. There’s still much speculation about the song. The general director at AvroTros said “their voices work beautifully together”. At least there’s one small hint: Duncan Laurence, and his partner Jordan Garfield, wrote the song together with the duo. Their song will be released on a later point in time.

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.

Culinary Turin – the best places to visit during Eurovision 2022

Last week we told you all about the highlights and must sees. This week, we’re taking a deep dive in all things foods and drinks. In doubt about where to go after a long day of exploring the city? Or looking for a place to dance the night away after watching the Eurovision show? Look no further, we’ve got you covered!

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.

How a British rejected song became a hit

It was 1980. The United Kingdom had a national selection for Eurovision with no less than 12 songs. It was a close call: in the end, there was a tie between two songs, only a revote could bring a decision.But in this field of participants there was also a lady with the name of Sonja Jones. She sang the Tony Colton/Jean Roussell song “Here we’ll stay”. She ended up quite anonymous at the 11th place. The song would have been long forgotten. However, things went different. Abba’s Frida released a solo album, “Something goin’ on”, produced by Phil Collins. And of course it was inevitable: a duet between the two stars. And guess what! They chose the flopped Eurosong “Here we’ll stay”! However, Collins wasn’t credited on the song. So when Frida’s record company decided to release “Here we’ll stay” as the next single, he didn’t want to be associated with it at all. A solo version of “Here we’ll stay”, by Frida only, was made for the occasion. The success of the song was not as big as the first singles from the album, “I know there’s something goin’ on” and “To turn the stone”. It reached the charts in The Netherlands and Belgium. Okay, and in the United Kingdom: 1 week, on the number 100 spot. But many people know the song, either from the album or from the single version. And who could have said thát when Frida had never added it to her album……

New music from Helena Paparizou, Little Big and more….

Former Eurovision participants released new music this week. Benny Cristo was, only two weeks after Eurovision, ready for some new work. The song is in Czech and is called “Zlobiva”. Note also the video with a clay lookalike of Benny. Former winner Helena Paparizou (Greece 2001 and 2005) recorded a duet with former Alcazar-member Magnus Carlsson, who took part in Melodifestivalen numerous times. Isaiah Firebrace represented Australia in 2017. His new song and video is called “Blame on me”. Note also the new hairdo. Little Big, the Russian participants-to-be of 2020 (and who knows also of 2022?) released an EP called “Covers”. One of the covers is the song “Everybody (Backstreet’s back”), originally sung by the Backstreet Boys. The song is now called “Everybody (Little Big is back)”. Timebelle, the group who represented Switzerland in the 2017 contest, has new material too. The group is Swiss/Romanian, their new song is in Romanian. Rapper Nosfe joined Timebelle for the occasion.