Category Archives: 2014
A Bite of “Cheesecake”: TEO wins in Belarus
Well, it’s not a National Final in Belarus without a bit of controversy, is it? After fourteen entrants (and a seemingly endless cavalcade of interval performances, including former participants Alyona Lanskaya, Polina Smolova, and Ruslan Alekhno), a split jury/televote decision led to a tie at the top of the leaderboard.
Preview: National Final in Belarus
The Belorussian National Final, scheduled for Friday, January 10th, will bring together fourteen acts, all vying for the ticket to Copenhagen. With performances by 2013 representative Alyona Lanskaya, 2006 alumna Polina Smolova, and recent Türkviziyon silver medalist (and occasional Eurofest participant) Gunesh Abasova, the show will be live-streamed on Eurovision.tv. Read the rest of this entry
A New Year’s Gift from Armenia: Aram MP3
As the clock ticked down on the final minutes of 2013 (or, in some time zones, the first moments of 2014), many eyes in the Eurovision fan sphere were fixed on Yerevan, as AMPTV’s New Year’s Gala would be where Armenia’s newest ESC representative would be crowned. Rumors had been swirling about the return of fan-favorite Sirusho after it was announced that she’d be performing on the program, but it turns out that 2014 will be featuring a fresh face. Read the rest of this entry
FiK, Yeah! Herciana Matmuja wins in Albania
There we have it, people…the second song of the Eurovision 2014 roster, and the last new entry we’re likely to hear in 2013. Live from the Pallati i Kongreseve in Tirana, the 52nd annual Festivali i Këngës brought together 16 songs, all fighting for national glory and a ticket to Copenhagen. Read the rest of this entry
Preview: Final of Festivali i Këngës
For some, the week or so between Christmas and the New Year is a time of quiet reflection, figuring out the goals and resolutions for the twelve months to come. For others, it means finishing up the copious leftovers from the holiday meal and wondering how long it will take the neighbors to take down their fairy lights and inflatable reindeer. For those in the Eurovision community, however, there’s one added tradition, nestled lovingly between the Christmas crackers and the New Year’s champagne: Albania’s Festivali i Këngës. A tradition nearly as old as the ESC itself (but only used as a National Selection since the country’s debut in 2004), the 52nd Festivali i Këngës (literally, “Festival of Song”) brings together both musical veterans and fresh faces in a multi-day event that the entire country tunes in for. Read the rest of this entry
“Tick Tock”: Sam’s Awake Too Early for This
I’m going to have to level with you guys. I am really not a morning person. During the weekends, I’m more than likely to be fast asleep until lunchtime. Getting up pre-dawn is akin to torture for me, necessitating an intricate series of alarm clocks and thermonuclear devices in order to get my lazy tush out of my cozy bed.
But for the first official National Final of the year, scheduled to start at 4:15am Central Standard Time (or a perfectly reasonable 11:15am in Kiev), desperate times called for desperate measures. If the Australian fans have to get up at the arse-crack of dawn to watch Melodifestivalen, I could brew a pot of coffee, force my eyes open, and tune in to a Ukrainian National Final.
Oh, the sacrifices I make for you, Eurovision… Read the rest of this entry
Preview: Ukraine’s National Final
Hard to believe it, but by the time the weekend wraps up, we’ll have our first song for the Eurovision 2014 roster. While we’ve already heard artist announcements from San Marino, Austria, Macedonia, Montenegro, and the Netherlands, Ukraine will present the first National Final of the year at 11:15am CET this Saturday on NTU. (So, that’s 10:15am GMT, and 4:15am here in Minnesota. I’ll put on the coffee.) Coming on the heels of a silver at Junior (hosted in Kiev) and a bronze in Malmö, will the country’s next representative keep the hot streak going? Read the rest of this entry
Ilse + Waylon = The Common Linnets for the Netherlands
Following the long-awaited Dutch return to the Eurovision Finals brought to us by Anouk last year, newly-merged national broadcaster AVROTROS decided to keep up the trend of internally selecting a major name. In this case, they picked two! Singers Ilse DeLange and Waylon, each individually famous in their own right, will be joining forces under the name The Common Linnets this year in Copenhagen. Read the rest of this entry
New Directions for Montenegro: Sergej Ćetković
Since their Eurovision debut in 2007, Montenegro has had a bit of difficulty finding its footing at the competition. A trio of pop entries (including one by veteran composer Ralph Siegel) failed to break through to the finals, and after taking a few years to regoup, an avant-garde entry from Rambo Amadeus and a modern rap submission from regionally popular hip-hop duo Who See also missed the mark. It seems like a change of tactic was in the cards… Read the rest of this entry
A bold choice from Austria: Conchita Wurst
When it comes to their recent choices for Eurovision, the Austrians are often a somewhat unpredictable lot. They might sent straightforward power-ballads (like Nadine Beiler’s entry from 2011), positive-messaged pop (like Natália Kelly this year or Eric Papilaya’s 2007 entry)…or they might go completely off-the-wall and send Alpine-Cuban fusion, popo-wokiing rap, or whatever it was that Alf Poier was doing. So, after “Shine” failed to live up to its name during the First Semifinal, bringing the Austrians their second consecutive non-qualifier, one could imagine the folks at ORF shrugging their shoulders and saying “might as well try something different”!
And so they have. Read the rest of this entry
The ESC Insider 