Holding out for a hero in Horsens!

We almost forgot that the Danish MGP final is also happening this coming Saturday in Horsens. After last year's high-quality final, we were hoping for some great Danes in 2008, but alas we only have one!

Eurovision Express is throwing its support solidly behind the best song in the final - All Night Long - sung by Simon Mathew. The main competition seems to come from Faeroese islanders The Dreams.

One thing's for sure....it's all a far cry from the halcyon days of Eurovision royalty Kirsten and Søren

We'll be cheering Simon on with word and gesture come Saturday.
Here's Mr. Mathew...

Same Difference For Estonia?

We've been perusing the Estonian songs for the Eurolaul on Saturday.

Eurovision Express's hopes are pinned on Estonia's answer to X Factor's Same Difference - Luisa and Traffic, with their fabulous High School Musical inspired tune - It's Never Too Late.

Luisa has another song in the final, so has got two bites of the cherry. It worked for Morena in Malta, although not for Claudia of course.

The 10 songs are all available to watch on the ETV website here. But if you can't wait, here's our "favourite ringtone" It's Never Too Late ....

Fowl-Play for Ireland?

According to the allkindsofeverything website, Ireland may be resorting to a very odd way of chasing success in Belgrade. One of Ireland's biggest star-puppets - Dustin the Turkey - is rumoured to have a song in their national final, scheduled for 23rd February. Who? What? Yes, indeed, a turkey!

Well, it certainly is different. And let's face it, Ireland need to do something really different to improve their success, as their Eurovision "heyday" is very much in the past. Can Dustin turn things around? Well, it sure is a far cry from Linda Martin and Johnny Logan....here's a bit of Dustin in a TV commercial.

Czech-Mate

OK, so we have totally changed our opinions on the Czech songs, especially the winner. Tereza Kerndlová sings Have some fun for the republic. This is quite good and miles better than their first effort in 2007. We confidently predict it will do better than Kabat (well, it couldn't do worse!!).

You can Czech out the song in our list of all entries selected so far, on the right-hand section of this blog.

We now leave Malta and the Czech Republic and press on to Estonia and Azerbaijan, who choose their songs at the weekend.

Vodka from Malta...or Cider from the UK?

We were scratching our heads tonight trying to figure out where we thought we had heard the tune for Morena's Maltese winning song Vodka before...and then we figured it out...

The Wurzels from the UK with I am a Cider Drinker....check it out here.....



and here's Morena's Vodka....



Of course, we are in no way suggesting that this is a copy. The accordian sound in both songs is similar-ish, that's all. And both songs are about drinks aswell!

Cheers!

Mine's a large one!

Well, Malta have chosen the obvious "let's get the Eastern vote" song - Vodka! We thought Caravaggio was a much better song but hey, whatever, if Malta wins, we will be very pleased!

Malta have tried so hard in the past and drawn a blank...will Morena change this? Wait and see!

Ice and lemon anyone?

Malta Decides..Caravaggio versus Vodka?

It's Malta Day and as Mary Spiteri boards her flight out of Maltese Eurovision Land and into retirement, we look forward to the Maltese Song For Europe Final 2008 tonight!

After Thursday's semi-final shocker, which deprived St Mary of a place in the final, we look forward with some trepidation to what might happen tonight in the tent in the middle of Malta which is playing host to the MSFE final.

We think it's a two-horse race between Vodka (on the right) sung by Morena, and Caravaggio (on the left) sung by Claudia Faniello. Our money is on Claudia, so she will probably finish 8th (and 7th as she has two songs in the final)..........did you hear that Mary, TWO songs?

Good luck Claudia.....Fingers crossed for you!

Tor-de-Force in Bodø

picture nrk.no

Eurovision Express is delighted, not to mention 50 big ones better off, after Torstein Sødal with Eastern Wind made it direkt til Spektrum in tonight's Norwegian MGP semi-final.

Torstein, along with the King of Trolls with Far Away, saw off competition from the Boobylicious Lene Alexander with Sillycone Valley to snatch victory.

So the line-up is almost complete with 6 of the 8 finalists decided...and what a final it promises to be.

Our hopes are with Veronica Akselen with Am I supposed to love again? and Maria Haukaas Storeng with Hold on be strong. They face stiff competition from the King of Trolls and also from the Sami song - Andagassii. Who knows, even Onkle Torstein might prove a surprise winner.....and then there's always the 2 songs yet to make it to Spektrum from the Sistesjansen. How exciting!

And now, the Eurovision Express moves onto Malta! Choo Choo!

Czech-Out!

We've had an in-depth listen to the songs for tomorrow's EuroSong final in the Czech Republic. Our advice is:

Watch Malta instead!

Having said that, we fully expect the totally bizarre "Holiday" to win, otherwise the Czechs may find themselves at the bottom of the pile again after the voting, as all of the other entries are, frankly, abysmal!

See what we mean by listening to the 10 songs here, if you can bare it!

You can play my Bungles....!

As we speak Lene Alexandra is singing in the 3rd Norwegian semi final. Her song, Sillycone Valley is one of the hot favourites. But we are more interested in the fact that she would like to invite us to play her Bungles.....

Shocka in Malta!

Poor old Mary Spiteri! The final 8 songs for the Maltese final have just been announced by the 'expert' jury, and the Eurovision Diva didn't get either of her songs - My Last Encore or If You Believe - through! Eurovision Express is in shock!

It looks now as if it's a straight sing off between our favourite Caravaggio, and Vodka, a song we like far less. Knowing the way these things go, we expect Vodka to walk it.

Mary now goes the way of that other Eurovision legend, Vicky Leandros, who tried and failed to represent Germany in 2006 - back home. The temptation to give Eurovision can be very strong, but sometimes it looks like it's best to leave things as they are.

Tension mounting in Malta

Tonight the 17 songs in the Maltese semi-final will be whittled down to just 8, which will then take part in this Saturday's final to see who will follow in the footsteps of Olivia Lewis.

The decision on which 8 songs will make it is in the hands of a so-called 'expert jury'. Here's our prediction, in no particular order, of the songs that should get through tonight:

Caravaggio by Claudia Faniello. Uptempo disco stomper.
Whispers by Pamela. Good, well sung ballad.
If You Believe by Mary Spiteri. Despite the crazy lyrics, a sentimental ballad by a Eurovision legend.
Loved By You by Pamela and Glen. Like something from the musical Grease.
Vodka by Moreno. Bonkers but will get through.
Love Is Just The Way by Rosman Pace. Midtempo and pleasant.
Streetcar of Desire by Petra Zammit. Funky blues number.
My Last Encore by Mary Spiteri. Mary deserves another premiere night of glamour.

Let's see if the Eurovision Express jury agrees with the experts!

S.O.S. - Save Our Swiss(song)

Well, we're only a couple of weeks into the 2008 season and we already have the first accusations of plagiarism. This time it's aimed at the marvellous Swiss song - Era Stupendo. And the accusations have come from one of the Swedish Melodifestival participants - Amy Diamond . Amy's manager (her father) has officially complained to SVT and to the EBU stating that the Swiss song's tune is identical to a song of Amy's.

The bit that is supposed to be the same is the ballad part in the first minute or so, so maybe they'll just ditch that part. It needs to be changed anyway, as the song is over three and a half minutes at the moment.

Let's hope that the song isn't disqualified as it's a great song and hopefully Paolo Meneguzzi succeeds where DJ Bobo failed, and at least gets Switzerland into the final!

Save Our Swiss song we say!

"How do you solve a problem like Eurovision?"...or... "Any song will do"

News has reached Eurovision Express from The Sunday Mirror that Making Your Mind Up - the UK's national final - will be made up of contestants from the BBC's successful talent shows - How Do You Solve A Problem Like Maria? and Any Dream Will Do, which were used to find stars for new productions of The Sound Of Music and Joseph and His Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat.

Apparently the Beeb reckon these two shows unearthed plenty of talent, which could be put to use on the Eurovision stage. Maybe. Let's just hope that the search for talent doesn't focus totally on singers. Ultimately we need a good song, which means good songwriters. Gary Barlow has already been touted as someone who may throw his hat in the ring, and, if the rumour mill is to be believed, Andrew Lloyd Webber might give it a go as well.

Here at Eurovision Express we have a vague recollection that I Don't Know How To Love Him (from Lloyd Webber's Jesus Christ Superstar) was once submitted as a possible Eurovision entry, so it wouldn't be the first time The Lord has tried to fly the flag for the UK.

It's a Bullseye

Eurovision Express is relishing in the knowledge that it pretty much predicted the exact result of last night's MGP semi final.

Amy Winehouse-soundalike Maria Haukaas Storeng and mini-rockers Crash are through to the Final, and The Lightning Seeds (aka Zuma) and Andrea Corr (that is Anne Hvidsten) are lining up for Siste Chance...

We did like I'm In Love You, but the poor lad couldn't sing....!

Keep your eyes peeled for our prediction for next Friday's semi - coming soon....

It's gonna be close in Kongsvinger!

Eurovision Express will be missing tonight's 2nd semi-final in Norway's MGP - coming from Kongsvinger - but we'll be doing our best to watch the show later without knowing the result.

It's a pretty strong line up. We're loving Hold On Be Strong by Maria Haukaas Storeng. Think modern. Think Amy Winehouse. Think potential MGP winner.

Also probably direckt til Spektrum will be former MGP contenders, Crash, with Get Up, written by Teeny - some geezer from Norway's Eurovision 2005 entrants, Wig Wam, who, you will remember, were a bit like Slade circa 1974.

Second Chance places to Zuma, Sven Garas or Corrs soundalike Anne Hvidsten. The only song we don't like is Would You Spend The Night with Me? by Cube, which, if we're interpreting our shaky Norwegian correctly, is written by Glam, again from Wig Wag. Sorry Glam!

Should be a nail-biter in Norway!

Is it Bye Bye to Junior Eurovision?

It has been confirmed by Mr. Svante Stockselius, Eurovision Supremo, that there will be NO commercial release of a DVD for the most recent Junior Eurovision Song Contest which took place in Rotterdam in December 2007. This will be the first time that there has not been a DVD release for the Junior contest. The official line from Mr. Stockselius was "it was decided not to release a DVD of the JESC07. It was not commercially realististic to produce a DVD this time".

This has come as no surprise to us here at Eurovision Express. When the UK pulled out of the contest in 2006, and then Spain followed suit in 2007, the potential for a large audience vanished with them. How much longer can the JESC continue? We don't see it continuing into the next decade......time will tell!

Malta turns to an old master

Malta has previewed 8 of the 17 songs vying to follow in the steps of Olivia Lewis. Whilst Eurovision Express is still rooting for a belter of a ballad from Mary Spiteri ('the big grand woman' as Wogan called her back in 1992), we're highly impressed by Claudia Faniello (Fabrizio's sister), and her uptempo stomper - Caravaggio.



For the uninitiated, Caravaggio was some Italian painter, who according to Wikipedia was "considered enigmatic, fascinating, rebellious and dangerous". Sounds like a right nightmare! Anyway, Claudia's song is fab - and a sure-fire Euroclub floor filler (should it get the nod from the Maltese public).

Snoozing in Slovenia

After watching more than an hour of Slovenian television last Sunday, this week we knew exactly when to tune in to Spetdoma to hear a preview of the next five songs in the EMA line-up.

Here are Eurovision Express' thoughts, with marks out of ten:

Song 1 - Corpomento (Jutri jadram sam) - a guitar led ballad, which didn't really go anywhere. Sorry Andraz 2/10

Song 2 - Zabava - A Feminnem-esque song, although the trio consisted of two girls and one boy. But not in the league of that other Eurovision supertrio, Sweet Dreams. 3/10

Song 3 - Nasel Si Me - Is it a ballad? Is it from a musical? Oh, hang on it's getting faster. Now it's rock. In fact it's just a bit scary. 2/10

Song 4 - Se Vedno Nekaj Cutim - a little better, this one. Starts slow, and, guess what, it gets faster. How very Slovenian. Quite a catchy chorus, but doesn't blow you away. 5/10

Song 5 - Butn Butn - some rock palava from Johnny Bravo, who seem to have been in every EMA since 1935. This certainly will get you reaching for the butn - the 'button' on your remote control that is!! 0/10

So it's not looking great for Slovenia. And after the Cyprus and Danish disappointments, Eurovision Express is starting to think the Norwegians are now very good indeed!!

Swooning for Switzerland

Well, Eurovision Express has just arrived back at HQ, after an evening (or should we say 'endurance test')! First up was the first Danish semi-final, which contained not one good song, so the less said about it the better.

Then we moved on to the Cypriot final, featuring Marlain, who represented the island in 1999. However, her offering tonight was no where near as good as Thane Erotas. The other nine songs on offer were all pretty poor too, and the final winner was, despite its title, the only Greek language song in the line-up: Femme Fatale by Evdokia Kadia. There's loads of palava going on during the presentation of the song, with the singer being carried around on the table. But this doesn't take away from the fact that this is one of Cyprus' weakest entries in recent years.

However, good news on the Swiss front. After the disappointment of DJ Bobo not qualifying for the Final in 07, we're very confident that Paolo Meneguzzi with Era Stupendo should do much better in 08. A very slick, modern Italian song, that is, by a long way, the best song to have been chosen this year. We love it!

Well done, and good luck Svizzera!

All Onboard..! Full Steam Ahead!

Well, we're a busy Eurovision Express today. We're rushing off to many different countries tonight via the marvel of satellite tv and the good ol' interweb, as no less than 5 countries display their offerings for this year's contest.

Top of the pile is the Cyprus final! It's Kalispera Nicosia as we tune in to watch the first national final selection of the year. Haven't heard any of the songs yet so can't comment on them. Let's hope it's a good choice tonight!

Switzerland will also show off their song tonight on the various different French/German/Italian TV channels over there, so we should catch it on at least one of them. We know the singer and the song, so all we need now is to hear it! As it's in Italian, we're hoping for a corker!

Also kicking off their selections tonight are Denmark and Lithuania, and continuing their mammoth search is Iceland.

Phew, it's gonna be a long night! Ladies, start your engines!

Reports and comments tomorrow.

Tusen takk Veronica!

Yes! Well Done Veronica. She's on her way to the final in Spektrum. By far, the best song got through in the MGP tonight in Stavanger, Norway. A beautiful song "Am I supposed to love again" has secured us quite a few Krone tonight. Veronica, however, needs to work on her styling and presentation. Swaying from side to side just won't cut the mustard in the final.

The other qualifier was a surprise - Andagassii by Ann-Marie Anderson was sung in the Sami language. Everyone expected the pretty boy - Nicholas Carlie - to sail through to the final....he didn't even make the 2nd chance round!

In the reprise the crowd clearly loved Ann-Marie. Remember the only "ethnic" song in MGP 2006? Will the same happen in 2008? If so, it could be Ann-Marie's year. We're still hoping for a showdown between the Trolls and Veronica!

The two songs through to the 2nd chance round were: Podium with Lystgass and Tinkerbells with Hold On.

Who says Eurovision is predictable?

Come on Veronica!

Norway kicks off the first semi-final tonight for the MGP. We're hoping for "direct til Spektrum" for our fave in this semi..the marvellous Veronica Akselsen with "Am I supposed to love again?".

Come on Norge, put this lovely ballad through and give the King of Trolls a fight for the MGP crown (not to mention the couple of Krone we have riding on this song to qualify!!!) Also, it's co-written by the fabulous Anne Takle who sings the fully-worded version of the ESC 1995 winner Nocturne on the latest Secret Garden CD. Veronica's song has winner written all over it!!

We'd also like to see Michelle with "Baby don't stop the music" qualify for the final.

Fingers crossed!

Sandra Ox-and-dry is back in Pole Position

Let's face it - a Polish national final isn't really that exciting, so you can imagine that we nearly fell off our chairs when we read that former Estonian representative, Sandra Oxenryd ("Ox-and-dry" to her friends!) is back, back, back!

Eurovision Express was sorely disappointed when our Sandra didn't make it through the semi-final in 2006 with Through My Window. But, undeterred, the Swedish songstress is giving it another go for Poland with a song called Super Heroes. Is Sandra trying to out do Charlotte Perelli who has her own Heroes in this year's Melodifestivalen? Time will tell if it will be battle of the heroes in Belgrade!

Good luck, Sandra!

Norway's numbers are up! Here come the Trolls!

Today we were treated to the 18 songs competing in Norway's MGP 2008! Here are Eurovision Express' initial musings on the melodies. We have selected our 8 finalists in bold and our comments and marks are after the :

"Lystgass" : Hard Rock Hallelu-no! 1/10
"Hold On" : Wilson Philips Wannabees 6/10
"Colliding" : Faux Rock Anthem 3/10
"Andagazzi" : Bollywood meets Bologna 3/10
"Baby don't stop the music" : Human League-esque 5/10
"Am I supposed to love again" : nice piano ballad 7/10

"Always Always" : Lightning Seeds-esque 7/10
"Would you spend the night: with me" : No I wouldn't! 3/10
"A little more" : The Corrs for Norway 6/10
"Get up" : Don't bother getting up! 3/10
"I'm in love" : Soft Rock Ballad 4/10
"Hold on be strong" :very Amy Winehouse 6/10

"Two monkeys(on the roof)" : Beach Boys bye bye 2/10
"Hear when I'm calling" : yet another Lite Rock song 3/10
"Som i himmelen" : Uncle at wedding gets up to sing! 2/10
"Sillycone valley" : Bring back Rocket Ride 4/10
"Eastern wind" : West End musical 5/10
"Far away" : Roger Pontare returns 8/10 - THE WINNER!

So we predict "Far Away" by King of the Trolls to win.

Go Norge! Go Trolls!

Not blown away by the selection but we can see the Trolls winning!

A Slow Start in Slovenia

Here at Eurovision Express we're always prepared to make sacrifices to keep you up to date with all the latest euronews. And tonight, in a bid to bring you our reaction to the first 5 Slovenian songs, we ditched the last Sunday Coronation Street and tuned into Spetdoma, some sort of chat/gameshow. We had to wait over an hour before we got about 40 seconds of each song!

Was it worth it? To be frank, no. Here's our initial thoughts and marks out of 10:

Song 1: Za svobodo divjega srca - a dull, drinking song, sung by 2 chaps in blacksuits called Skupina Langa who should know better. 2/10

Song 2: Kako je ne bi imel rad - really quite abysmal. And we're so over this idea of mentioning your country in the title of the group (Slovenia United, Gabriel and Grupa občanov). LT United - that was original in 06, and Bonaparti.lv was ok in 07, but Slovenia United in 08? No ta. 0/10

Song 3: Lepi fantje - another nondescipt ditty. Nice Slovenian name though (Mirna Reynolds)....not. 3/10

Song 4: Ni me sram - this was a bit better. Definitely more contemporary. Dennis was looking sharp-ish in his suit, which, if we remember correctly, he started to unbutton. The song was trying to be Justin Timberlake, but was a little bit rappy and not really memorable. And with a name like Dennis we don't think he's going to make it in the cut and thrust world of R'n'B. 4/10

Song 5: Extrem - a disco track, which wasn't bad, although Petra screamed her way through the chorus. 5/10

All in all, a poor start for Slovenia. Next week we'll try and tune in just for the 5 mins in which the next 5 songs are previewed. Things, surely, can only get better.

First off the blocks..it's Slovenia!

Kicking off the new Eurovision Year this weekend, it's the first preview of songs in the Slovenian selection. January 6th is the date, and RTVSLO is the place. There are other preview shows from RTVSLO on 13th, 20th and 27th January, culminating in the semi and final on 1st and 2nd February. Hurrah! Now that Coronation Street is being axed from Sunday schedules, we will be tuning in to review the songs each week....here are the songs that we will hear this Sunday:


Skupina Langa - Za svobodo divjega srca
Gabriel, Slovenia United & Grupa občanov - Kako je ne bi imel rad
Mirna Reynolds - Lepi fantje
Dennis - Ni me sram
Petra - Extrem

No well known names here from the Eurovision circuit, as yet! Appearing in coming weeks will be EMA faves - Andraž Hribar (2002/2003), Rebeka Dremelj (2004/2005) and Johnny Bravo (2005). Alas no Karmen, Sestre, or Nusa this year. Hey Ho!

Slovenia always gives us an entertaining final so we will be on the lookout for some quality entries over the next few Sundays

Channel hopping for Wogan?

BBC Eurovision commentator Terry Wogan is reportedly on the verge of signing a deal to front a new quiz show for ITV. The channel is said to be considering three possible programmes to lure the veteran broadcaster away from the BBC.

An ITV source told UK newspaper The Sun : “ITV are desperate to get Terry on board and he is keen."

The new show would see Wogan go up against Paul O'Grady in his popular 5pm slot on Channel 4.

But before you get too excited/disappointed (delete as appropriate), Terry is not expected to sever his link with the Eurovision Song Contest. Well, not yet anyway!
The deal is not thought to be exclusive, with Wogan still expected to present Children In Need, The Eurovision Song Contest and Points Of View for the BBC, as well as his Radio 2 show.