Eurovision

UEFA 2020: DAY 11

It’s day 11 of the European Championship soccer already. Today, no less than four matches will be played. To start with Ukraine against Austria. Both countries once had an act containing a burning fake piano. It was Mélovin who played the piano in his song “Under the ladder” in 2018. He was not the first one to do so. In 2015 The Makemakes had a piano burning during the performance of “I am yours”. The second match is between North Macedonia and the Netherlands. Both countries once had a song about darkness and light. The 2012 North Macedonian entrant Kaliopi sang “Crno i belo”, which means black and white. The Dutch sisters of O’G3NE sang “Lights and shadows” in 2017. Russia will meet Denmark tomorrow. It was back in 2000 when Russia and Denmark ended up in the top, Denmark as the winner, Russia as the number 2. When The Olsen Brothers won with “Fly on the wings of love”, Alsou was the runner up with “Solo”. Another match will be the the one from Finland against Belgium. In 1977, both countries were favorites to win the contest. Both ended up disappointed. Finnish Monica Aspelund and her “Lapponia” ended up in 10th place, while Belgian Dream Express brought their “A million in one, two, three” to a 7th place.

UEFA 2020: DAY 10

And again, we will have two matches in the European Soccer Championship. The first match will be between Italy and Wales. For this one we are going to look at male duos. In 1987, Umberto Tozzi and Raff, both big stars in Italy and abroad already, represented their country. They sang “Gente di mare”, which became third. It became a Eurovision classic. The United Kingdom was represented by Joe and Jake in the 2016 contest. Joe Woolford, the half of the duo, was a Welshman. With “You’re not alone” they became 24th. For the match between Switzerland and Turkey we add only one song: “Ne partez pas sans moi”. You are right, the singer Celine Dion is neither Swiss nor Turkish: she is a Canadian. But the song is composed by Atilla Şereftuğ, who is Turkish. The lyrics are from Nella Martinetti. And yes, she is Swiss!

Turkey: TRT director talks with EBU

İbrahim Eren, director of the Turkish broadcaster TRT, talks with the EBU about Eurovision. Mr. Eren confirms this news in the Turkish newspaper Miliyet. Turkey wanted to withdraw already after the contest of 2011, when they did not reach the final. They only participated in 2012 because the contest was held in Azerbaijan, a country Turkey has strong bounds with. The reason of their withdrawal was the expert jury. The former jury system, with 100% televoting, was quite positive for Turkey. As many people with Turkish roots automatically voted for Turkey every year, the country got the 12 points from several Western European countries year by year. The new 50/50 system made an end to it. In 2015, Turkey added another reason when Austrian Conchita Wurst won the contest. ““As a public broadcaster, we also cannot broadcast live at 9 p.m. — when children are still awake — someone like the bearded Austrian who wore a skirt, do not believe in genders and says that he is both a man and a woman.”, mister İbrahim Eren stated back then. But now that does not seem to count anymore. Mr. Eren stated that the 2021 contest was a wonderful show. He is now in talk with mr. Marcus Österdahl, the new executive producer of the contest. Whether it’s going to lead to a renewed Turkish participation or not, is of course not known yet. But we keep you updated. Can Bonomo, the last Turkish representant so far in 2012.

UEFA2020: Day 9

And the European soccer Championship continues with day 9. We start with Hungary and France. Hungary, the country where the authorities consider LGBT+ as a crime. Well, Hungary, remember who and what you sent in 2009? Watch Zoli Ádok and his “Dance with me”. And we have France. We have Bilal Hassani’s “Roi” here. No explanation needed. The second match is between Portugal and Germany. In 1988, the Portuguese singer Dora sang “Voltarei”, which means “I’ll come back”. In 2000, the German singer Stefan Raab opened his entry “Wadde hadde dudde da” with “He’s been to America and said: if I make it there I’m never gonna make it to Germany again. And tonight, here he is, back again”. Spain will meet Poland today. And although Spain won twice, there are a lot of successful second places for the country. We chose for Anabel Conde’s “Vuelve conmigo” from 1995. One year before that, Poland debuted, also with a second place. Poland has never done better so far, so watch and listen Edyta Gorniak’s “To nie ja!”.

UEFA 2020: DAY 7

We already face the 7th day of UEFA 2020. Again, three matches will be played. The first one will be Ukraine against North Macedonia. Both countries have had a contestant who faced troubles because of his or her identity. Gaitana sang “Be my guest” in 2012. The song is a soccer anthem, with the music being based on the vuvuzela. Yuriy Syrotyuk, politician of a nationalist political party, said that with this contestant people might think Ukraine is an African country. Gaitana is half Congolese. 2021 North Macedonian contestant Vasil faced a petition because in the video, something that looked like the Bulgarian flag was shown. Vasil also has the Bulgarian nationality. The second match is Denmark vs Belgium. We all know that the only Belgian winner, Sandra Kim, was a 13 year old child. But it was also a child star who participated in the 1985 contest for Denmark. It was Leah Bundgård, the 8 year old daughter of Søren Bundgård. Søren was the male half of the duo Kirsten & Søren. The third and last match will be between The Netherlands and Austria. That reminds us of 2014, when it was either one of them to get the win. It was the duo Common Linnets for the Netherlands coming second with “Calm after the storm”. It was Conchita Wurst for Austria winning with “Rise like a Phoenix”. But hey, you published “Rise like a Phoenix” before? Touché, but who minds watching Conchita’s performance twice?

UEFA 2020: Day 6

Again, three matches in UEFA 2020. To start with Finland against Russia. Where have we seen this battle before? Well, remember the 2006 contest. Lordi from Finland won with a landslide. Their song “Hard rock hallelujah” broke all the records. It was hard for Dima Bilan from Russia to get there with his song “I never ever let you go”. But you don’t have to feel sorry for him: two years later Dima got the prize! Turkey and Wales meet today as well. In 2004, the contest was held in Turkey. For the host country the group Athena participated with the song “For real”. One of the other contestants that year was Welshman James Fox. He represented the United Kingdom with the song “Hold onto our love”. Italy will meet Switzerland in the arena today. In both countries, Italian is one of the main languages. So that might be an easy connection. But in fact, we found another one. Both countries once sent a song in a minority language. In 1991, host country Italy sent Peppino di Capri who sang “Comme e’ ddoce o’ mare”, sung in the Neapolitan language. Switzerland, also host country but in 1989, decided to sing a song in Romansh: “Viver senza tei”, song by the group Furbaz.

Duncan Laurence recovering

Duncan Laurence has been quite ill due to the corona virus, but it’s now getting better. That’s what he told on Dutch radio today. It was the first time that the singer spoke in public after the Eurovision Song Contest. “I am now fully on my feet, we are going back into the studio today to see what I can do,” the singer told. His voice was still a little hoarse. “I was very sick, we know it can be an awful disease. But we have faced worse things.” The winner of the Eurovision song contest 2019 was watching the Grand Final at home on the couch, he said. “I got a lot of messages, of course it’s not the same as when you’re there. I was awaiting this for two years, and not just me, but the whole country did. So it felt bad. But I was happy with the recording and what my team has made of it.” Duncan also addressed the rumors that he would not suffer from the corona virus, but was absent on the final night due to fear of failure. “If I had had a fear of failure, I would not have gone to the rehearsals either,” he said emphatically. “If I had suffered from fear of failure, I would have been honest about it. Look at my documentary: I think it is very important to talk about mental health. I wouldn’t hold it back. But people are always talking.” source: nu.nl

TIX wins Barbara Dex Award

Norwegian contestant TIX has won the Barbara Dex Award. The award is reached out by our friends of songfestival.be. It is a prize for the contestant with the most remarkable clothes in the Eurovision Song Contest. This year, the fake furr coat with huge wings TIX was wearing, gets the award. Here is the entire top-5: 1.Norway (TIX)2.Romania (Roxen)3.Croatia (Albina)4.United Kingdom (James Newman)5.Israel (Eden Alene) photo credits: EBU

Måneskin, back in Italy

It is two days ago now that the Italian band Måneskin won the Eurovision Song Contest in Rotterdam. They are back in Rome now, the city where it all started for the band. Eurovision Universe already paid attention to the history of the band last saturday. Let’s have a look at what happened after their victory. Already on stage the band had a statement, just like Duncan Laurence did two years ago. “Rock and roll never dies!’. “Zitti e buoni” appeared to be one of the first songs the band wrote. “It’s very special to us that exactly this song is the winning Eurovision song”, they told the press. Yesterday, the band arrived at Fiumicino Airport in Rome, where the Italian press and a lot of fans were waiting for Damiano, Victoria, Thomas and Ethan, the four members of Måneskin. They told the press about their victory, about the party that followed and about the one hour sleep they had that night. In a Dutch tv-show they also added how satisfied they were with the Dutch organisation of the Eurovision Song Contest. The band added that they want the next Eurovision Song Contest to be in Rome, their home base. Officials of RAI, the Italian broadcaster, already announced there will be a bidding proces in order to select the best place for the next Eurovision Song Contest. So we have to await whether Måneskin’s wish will come true or not. Unfortunately, we cannot deny the rumour going on about Damiano using cocaine in the greenroom during the Eurovision live broadcast. Already at the press conference Damiano said he did not use cocaine but tried to clean the mess of a broken glass. The band will undergo a drugs test to prove their right. The band also states that they are against the use of drugs anyway. People working in Ahoy confirm the band’s version of the story: broken glass had been found on Måneskin’s table. People who know what it looks like to use cocaine confirm that this was clearly not what Damiano was doing. All these facts together makes us hope this storm will lay down and we can follow Måneskin closely in what they will do the upcoming year. One thing we can already reveal: two of the band members can be heard in the Italian version of a new Disney film, called “Cruella”… yes, it iss a spin-off of “101 dalmatians”.

Problems around Dutch voting

Yesterday evening many people in The Netherlands, who voted by text message, did not receive any confirmation of their votes. Strangely enough they only got the confirmation in the night, with the message that their votes were received and they were too late with their vote. As many Dutch viewers complained about this, EBU decided to investigate everything. The outcome of this investigation was that there was a technical malfunction at Dutch provider T-Mobile. EBU decided not to count in the votes as this is a problem of T-Mobile, not of the EBU. Furthermore, the entire voting went well. If this is the end of the story or not… we don’t know it yet.