#BIRTHDAY: Natalia Barbu from Moldova is 43 today If you’ve read a recent novel by a certain Eurovision fan, you’ll know which country he sets his story in. It’s a country that has yet to win the real thing, but they’re ever hopeful. And so are we. Our […]
#BIRTHDAY: Sopho Khalvashi from Georgia is 36 today The first decade of this century saw a big expansion of the amount of countries taking part in our favourite TV show. Fifteen countries débuted. That’s more countries than took part in the first contests. One such début came from […]
#BIRTHDAY: Marija Šerifović from Serbia is 37 today It seems that English rules these days. No, not the (sub-)national entity. I mean the language. It’s rampant in the presentation of the shows. It’s all pervasive in the press centre. And it’s the main tongue of song too. So […]
#OBITUARY: Hayko from Armenia has died aged 44 Eurovision Ireland is sorry to hear of the death of Armenia’s Hayk ‘Hayko’ Hakobyan (Հայկ Հակոբյան). He was 44. Hayko participated in the 2007 Eurovision Song Contest with the song Anytime you need. He had already qualified for the Grand Final in […]
#BIRTHDAY: Stevan Faddy from Montenegro is 35 today You know when you’re new at something, and you’re really enthusiastic about it? You want to make a good impression, and so you put on your best frock, your best voice, and you try to be dead nice. Our friends […]
#BIRTHDAY: Eric Papilaya from Austria is 43 today We often mention the props acts use to enhance their three minutes on stage. But just think of the stage hands. Their hearts must sink , especially as they have 45 seconds or so to get one act off stage […]
#BIRTHDAY: Hanna Pakarinen from Finland is 40 today Would you want to be the home entrant if you were in a Eurovision Song Contest. You have no issues with the host country’s culture, but you won’t get to travel to somewhere exotic. On the plus side, the crowd […]
#BIRTHDAY: Magdi Rúzsa from Hungary is 35 today We miss Hungary. There, we’ve said it. Putting politics aside, they’ve put in some memorable stuff since that début in sunny Ljubljana in 1993. It’s not all been plain sailing, but without Hungary, it would be a far poorer contest. […]
HALLOWE’EN: Eurovision goes bump in the night Hallowe’en and Eurovision. Does it scare you? Do you tremble on 31 October when you get a sinister knock at your door? Are you relieved when you find out it’s only the local kids going trick-or-treating? Or do you leave the […]
#BIRTHDAY: Dado Topić from Croatia is 71 today We celebrate all manner of things with our birthdays. The winners, the losers, the ‘also-ran’s. They all count, and you can guarantee that someone out there will like every single Eurovision song. So just occasionally, a song might not quite […]