PORTUGAL: Live blog of Festival da Canção semi-final two from 22.05 CET In Portugal, we’ll be a little closer knowing who’ll be brandishing the golden ticket. The second semi-final of Festival da Canção will see four songs out of eight progressing to next week’s grand Final in Portimão. […]
BIRTHDAY: Lise Haavik from Denmark is 57 today It’s a common thing that countries don’t always pick a national when they’re deciding who should sing for them. That’s down to the country concerned, whether it’s right or wrong. Some places had almost no national singing for them. Sometimes […]
UKRAINE: Live blog of Vidbir 2019 Final from 18.00 CET Ukraine has been quietly moving through semi-finals to select an entry for the 2019 Eurovision Song Contest. Tonight is the big final. Six acts will compete for the golden ticket to Tel Aviv. You know how things work. […]
FINLAND: Darude reveals third and final UMK song As we know, Uuden Musiikin Kilpailu is the Finnish selection for Eurovision. This year, Darude and Sebastian Rejman will be carrying hopes and sending one of three songs. Today we heard the third, called Look away. Here it is. The first […]
BIRTHDAY: Alf Poier from Austria is 52 today Eurovision is full of wonder. I often wonder why Schlager is so popular. Or why Carola is so popular. Or even why we never see Monaco anymore. But what also makes me wonder sometimes is why certain countries pick certain […]
EDITORIAL: How do you pick a song? Don’t worry, we’re not using a certain Norwegian in this editorial, as we know small children sometimes read our work. You may have read around the Internet about the selection processes of certain countries. We at EI think this needs to […]
BIRTHDAY: Phil Coulter is 77 today Today’s a different birthday. It’s not always about the singers, although they’re the people you associate with any given song. There’s a whole team behind them. We shouldn’t forget that our favourite TV show a songwriter’s contest. So today it’s the birthday […]
BIRTHDAY: SuRie from the UK is 30 today You might be a little weary of Eurovision after super Saturday – and Sunday. Or you might be wanting more and more and more. And did you spot one of Saturday’s winning song titles? And that tenuous link brings me […]
BIRTHDAY: Elhaida Dani from Albania is 26 today Just occasionally a song passes me by completely. It’s not a bad song, or a silly song. It might just be unfortunate enough to be in a contest with more memorable songs. I’ll stop digging a hole for myself now. […]
ESTONIA: Interview with Stig Rästa at Eesti Laul 2019 Eurovision Ireland caught up with Stig Rästa after his song-writing victory at Eesti Laul 2019. He co-wrote Storm with Vallo Kikas, Fred Krieger and Victor Crone. He tells us about his third Eesti Laul victory and, more importantly, a […]