Switzerland

Switzerland: Remo Forrer to sing “Watergun”

(Photo by Lukas Mäder/SRF) It was already revealed that Remo Forrer was going to represent Switzerland. Today, at 12:00 CET, the song was revealed. Remo is especially known as the winner of The Voice Of Switzerland 2020. On 20 February of this year, it was announced that he will represent Switzerland in the Eurovision Song Contest. Now we know that the song is titled “Watergun”. Switzerland will perform in the 2nd half of the 1st semifinal. Do you like the song? You can watch the video here.

Remo Forrer

© EBU/Chloe Hashemi About Quick Facts NameRemo Forrer Born2001 Nationality🇨🇭 Swiss National SelectionInternal selection 2023 In Eurovision2023 Liverpool SongWatergun (2023) Biography Remo Forrer lives in Hemberg, Switzerland. He has been involved with music since childhood; he began flute lessons before devoting himself to playing the accordion. He then began playing the piano and singing. He taught himself to play the piano and learned it purely by ear. He did an apprenticeship as a retail specialist in a sports shop. In 2020 he won the third season of The Voice of Switzerland with his coach Noah Veraguth. On April 17, 2020 he released his winning single Home, which was written by Veraguth. In July 2022 he appeared on the RTL television show Zeig uns deine Stimme!, in which he was introduced as a real estate agent. On February 20, 2023, it was announced that he would represent Switzerland in the Eurovision Song Contest 2023. His song, “Watergun”, was presented on 7 March. He reached the final with the song and became 20th. Entries Watergun Country🇨🇭 Switzerland Year2023 LanguageEnglish LyricsArgyle SinghAshley HicklinMikolaj Tribulec MusicArgyle SinghAshley HicklinMikolaj Tribulec DancersEllinea SiambalisKenny LantzLovisa BengtssonMarco Wihlborg Results Semi Points: 97Position: 7Running order: 8 Results Finals Points: 92Position: 20Running order: 3 https://youtu.be/l4NDErv49mk

Remo Forrer sings for Switzerland 2023

(Photo by Lukas Mäder/SRF) Today it has been anounced that 21 year old singer Remo Forrer will represent Switzerland at the Eurovision Song Contest 2023. It’s the fifth year in a row a young man will represent the small country. Remo got selected internally by a small group of 120 people. 100 of those were regular television viewers, while the other 20 were music professionals. The vote of both groups each weighted 50% of the total outcome, making Remo Forrer the ultimate winner. The young singer is not unknown in his own country, as he won The Voice Of Switzerland in 2020. He later on took part in several other Television Shows. Remo is also known in Germany for taking part in Zeig Uns Deine Stimme 2022. Maybe it will him gather some points from his neighbouring country. After making a name for himself, he went on to release four singles. You can find his latest release “Out Loud” over here: His Eurovision entry will be released on the 7th of March, but Forrer stated that the song has “earworm potential”. With that Remo hopes he can win over the public, and qualify in the First Semi-Final on May 9th.

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!

Marius Bear

© EBU/Nathan Reind About Quick Facts NameMarius Hügli Born21 April 1993 Nationality🇨🇭 Switzerland National SelectionInternal selection 2022 In Eurovision2022 Turin SongBoys don’t cry (2022) Biography Marius Bear, whose real name Marius Hügli, is a Swiss singer born in Schlatt-Haslen, in the canton of Appenzell Innerrhoden, Switzerland. Marius discovered his musical talent during his military service for the Swiss army, being noticed by one of his comrades. He studied to become a construction mechanic, but in 2016 he decided to concentrate on a musical career.. He started to perform as a street musician in Switzerland and Germany. At a music festival, he met a producer who invited him to join him in New York. He then quickly integrated into the Swiss music scene in the city.In 2017, he left for a year to study music production at the British and Irish Modern Music Institute (BIMM Institute).The following year released his first EP, titled “Sanity”, which ranked thirty-sixth on the Swiss charts.In 2019 his first album, “Not Loud Enough”, was released. This album reached a 20th place in the charts. The same year, he received a Swiss Music Award in the category “Best Talent”. In 2020 and 2021, Marius took part in several television shows, including “I Can See Your Voice” and “1 gegen 100”. On March 8, 2022, it was announced that Marius had been selected by Swiss public broadcaster SRG SSR to represent the country at Eurovision 2022, which is being held in Turin, Italy. His song, titled Boys Do Cry, was released the same day. Marius reached the final of the Eurovision Song Contest in Turin. Entries Boys do cry Country🇨🇭 Switzerland Year2022 LanguageEnglish LyricsMarius BearMartin Gallop MusicMarius BearMartin Gallop Backings– Results Semi Points: 118Position: 9Running order: 4 Results Finals Points: 78Position: 17Running order: 5 https://youtu.be/hq2HCmHv5p4

And this is what we know about the following order

Tonight, during the winners’ press conference, every artist had to draw a ballot for the final. Will they perform in the 1st or in the 2nd half? Last week, the Big 5 already had their draw. However, there is one exception. The organizing country, in this case Italy, had already drawn for the 9th place on an earlier stage. As you notice, most of the countries drew a place in the first half. That means, next Thursday there will be a lot of places available in the 2nd half. 1st half: Armenia France Germany Italy (9th place) Norway Portugal Spain Switzerland The Netherlands Ukraine 2nd half: Iceland Lithuania Moldova United Kingdom

Our predictions for the first semifinal

Tomorrow, the moment is there. We will have the first semifinal for the Eurovision Song Contest. What does the team of Eurovision Universe think? You will read it here. In fact, we are convinced of a final place for these countries: Albania, after all the fuzz around the act. Song and act are strong, Rona will qualify! Latvia: A song about veggies and (….). Cheerful, colourful and with a very modern topic. Lithuania: The act might not be what Monika wished for, but the song will stand out. Switzerland: The swiss song is in the style of Duncan Laurence and Gjon’s Tears, but less strong. It’s gonna be hard for Switzerland, but it is possible. Ukraine, because…. it’s Ukraine. The country is the hot favourite to even win the final. The Netherlands, S10 manages to tell the people where she sings about. Even in Dutch! Portugal: You can’t explain “Saudade” in any other language. MARO explains it by music. Not a sure qualifier, but we think it will. Greece; there is no such a song in Eurovision this year. It is unique and the act is strong. Norway, because every year needs an act like this. People vote for yellow masked wolves. Armenia: The song is strong, the singing is strong, the act is strong….. it has written final all over! But of course, we wish all the artists good luck. Tomorrow, by this time, we will know more….

Day 5: A sun that doesn’t move, a Greek tavern and COVID19

Today we saw the second rehearsals for the first 14 countries from the first semifinal. For the first time the press was allowed to see the rehearsals on large TV screens in the press center. It is now certain that the kinetic sun does not rotate. During the first rehearsals it turned out that the time between performances was too short to move the center part of the sun. As a result, several countries had to adjust their graphics, because they were not or only partially visible ALBANIA: The outfit had been changed and Ronela Hajati also had her own blond hair again, instead of the pink hair she had during the first rehearsal. It was a dynamic performance, in which there was almost constant dancing, together with her four dancers and a dancer. After the first rehearsal, there were some comments about an allegedly offensive dance move by Ronela with her dancer, but she kept it in anyway. LATVIA: The six were wearing the familiar colorful suits and the decor was also very colorful. Various types of vegetables were displayed on the LED screen. In the middle of the song there was a moment for the saxophonist. The performance ended with the singer making a split. LITHUANIA: Monika Liu stood alone on the big stage in Turin and mainly sang her song into the camera. She moved elegantly and attracted all the attention. The song doesn’t really need anything more. SWITZERLAND: Dressed all in black, Marius Bear was on stage and a broken heart was visible on his face and on the floor. So emotions abound. SLOVENIA: As said before, it was a big disco ball that mainly caught the attention of the Slovenian act. The boys wore 1970s-style velvet suits and the drummer appeared to be drumming above the disco ball. Compared to the previous rehearsal, there was little change. UKRAINE: There was a lot to see on stage, besides the colorful costumes there was a lot of visual spectacle. It was traditional, ethnic with a modern twist, just like last year’s contribution. Because of the war in Ukraine, this performance has something emotional and that is subtly reflected in the visual spectacle. BULGARIA: The performance started with a split screen, showing the drummer on one side and another member of the group. A small rock concert with all the trimmings, including a lot of fire(work). THE NETHERLANDS: There were few noticeable changes from the first rehearsal of S10. In the Netherlands, there was some fuss about the singer’s bare belly, but it is still naked for a while. A lot has been taken out of the lighting of S10. MOLDOVA: After the intimate moment of the Netherlands, a party erupted on stage with the contribution of Zdob şi Zdub, who are participating for the third time. They used the entire stage for their folklore song: Hey ho, let’s go…, but no train on stage. Lots of color, matching the contribution. CROATIA: During rehearsals today, Mia had problems with her in-ears. No surprises at Mia’s performance. The postcards were also shown to the press today. A drone searches for the location where the artist of the country in question can be seen and we see the visual artist in the area. DENMARK: The beginning was just like in the national final, Siggy starts alone at the piano, with her quieter part of the song and then the rock show starts. Last year we went back to the eighties with Denmark, now it seems back to the nineties. In case you don’t remember the name of the band, REDDI appeared on the LED screen. AUSTRIA: Of course there is a Halo on stage. Lots of fireworks and strong staging. The vocal part of the duo was, as we can see now, quite disappointing. GREECE: For those who don’t understand the act of Greece: Amanda seems to be in a Greek tavern; hence the chairs around her. But some of the seats have fallen over. That fits with the lyrics of the song. Amanda could count on a big round of applause from the audience. PORTUGAL: A delegation member from Portugal tested positive for corona, so the entire delegation had to go back to the hotel and be tested. Fortunately none of the ladies tested positive and they were able to rehearse for their performance, but later than planned. After all the rehearsals had been completed, Portugal was allowed to go on stage after Greece. During this rehearsal it was clear that it was one of the background singers who tested positive for corona. The ladies were lined up in a circle and brought this atmospheric contribution in a good way.

UEFA 2020: Quarter finals DAY 1

We are getting closer and closer to the final of UEFA 2020, the European Soccer Championship. Today we will have two quarter finals. The first match will be between Spain and Switzerland. In the sixties, both countries had a song with a double title. In 1965, Conchita Bautista brought the song “Que bueno, que bueno” for Spain. In 1969, Paola Del Medico sang “Bonjour, bonjour” for Switzerland. For the second match, Belgium vs Italy, we look at duos. Belgium sent quite a few, but the most outstanding one was the duo Nicole & Hugo in 1973. Their song was “Baby, baby”, but they are particularly famous for… well have a look yourself. In 1985, Al Bano & Romina Power represented Italy. They had Europe wide fame already when they sang “Magic, oh magic”.

UEFA Eighth finals: DAY 3

It is already the 3rd day of the UEFA eighth finals. The first match of today is between Croatia and Spain. Both countries decided to celebrate with a song. Croatian Daria sang her song “Celebrate” in 2011, while Spanish Rosa sang “Europe’s living a celebration” in 2002. France meets Switzerland. These countries are united in one man: Jean Philippe. The French singer participated for both countries: in 1959 he defended the French colours with the song “Oui, oui, oui, oui”. In 1962 he came out for Switzerland with the song “Le retour”.