Slovenia: Langa v Manca

EMA - the contest used to choose Slovenia's entry to Eurovision - takes place tonight, and we think it's between Langa with Roko mi daj, and Manca Spik and Tukaj sem doma, written by Eurovision veteran, Andrej Babic.  Which is best? Choose for yourself below:

This weekend: FYR Macedonia, Malta and Slovenia

This weekend another 3 countries will choose their entries for Oslo.  On Saturday, after two semi-finals, FYR Macedonia host Skopje Fest. We'll be taking a listen to the finalists and picking our winner tomorrow.

Saturday is also the night for Malta EuroSong 2010.  We've been dipping in and out of the numerous weekly heats, but don't see a clear winner amongst the 20 finalists.  It seems to be between Claudia Faniello (who should have represented Malta a couple of years back with Caravaggio) and Lawrence Gray, but our favourite is Foxy Federation with Fired Up (below).  Unfortunately they are performing in the dreaded 2nd place....



The Slovenian final is set for Sunday.  There's a semi-final on Saturday so we'll see which songs emerge from that before making any predictions.

More updates over the weekend!

A word on Armenia

Armenia chooses its Eurovision entry for 2010 today.  For us it's a 2 horse race between Razmik Amyan with My Love and Eva Rivas with Apricot Stone.  Razmik's song is perhaps a little more formulaic, with Eva's entry being slightly more original, but they are both of a high standard.  Choosing between them will be quite difficult!

Judge which you think has more chance of doing well in Oslo below.

In 'Pole' Position

After the excitement of last weekend's national finals, this Sunday sees Armenia and Poland choose their songs for Oslo. 

10 songs are battling it out in Poland, and amongst the favourites are Aneta Figiel with the catchy Mysl o tobie, Anna Cyzon with the rocky Love me, and Marcin Mrozinski with the Balkan sounding Legenda.

However our favourites here at Eurovision Express are Iwona Wegrowska with the mid-tempo ballad, Uwiezionais, and the girl duo Dziewczyny (pictured) with the laid-back, jazzy Cash box.  With cheeky lyrics like "Do you wanna be my cashbox? Do you wanna be my boy?" it seems this is a quirky song about the girls wanting to find Mr Rich.  Enjoy the song below.

Norway - 12 points!

Eurovision Express has now just about recovered from its very first trip to the Norwegian Melodi Grand Prix.  And what a great time we had!

We arrived in Oslo on Friday afternoon, and made our way to the Hard Rock Cafe, where the Norwegian Fan Club were holding a get-together.  And what a friendly bunch of people they are!  Of course, everyone was chatting about who was going to win, with most thinking it was a battle between Keep of Kalessin and Didrik Solli-Tangen. 

The highlight of the evening was when MGP hosts Per Sundnes and Marte Stokstad arrived with the MGP competitors (although, alas, Alexander Stenerud couldn't make it) in tow!  Venke Knutson, our favourite, was the life and soul of the party, but we also managed a quick chat with Maria Haukaas Storeng too.

Saturday meant meeting up with the guys who run the Schlagerblog.  After a bit of sight-seeing and a bite to eat, we made our way to the Spektrum, where we'd been kindly granted access to the dress rehearsal by NRK.

All eight acts appeared calm and gave great performances, and, although we still thought Didrik was going to win, we knew it was going to be a fantastic evening's entertainment.  It became even more exciting when we, together with the Schlagerblog boys, were asked to take part in the show in a quick interview after Venke's song.  Per was keen to know what we thought about the MGP as visitors from outside Norway.

So, after a few drinks, the final came.  The atmosphere in the hall was electric. Just after the second song we were ushered backstage to meet with Per and get ready for the 'interview'.  Ben from A1 introduced himself and we wished him luck.

The 'interview' was good fun, especially as we were slightly 'naughty boys' and revealed that Venke was our favourite (not that it did her much good!)

The rest of the show passed by at top speed.  We thought all the acts came across really well, and were especially impressed with Alexander Stenerud, and Venke of course!

Didrik's win came as no surprise, and we're convinved Norway is in with a good chance of claiming a second victory.  After the show we mingled with some of the contestants before heading off to the Latter Club, where former MGP hopefuls Jenny Jensen, Queentastic and Birgitte Einarsen entertained us with some of the songs they had sung in the Norwegian finals.  A good few hours later we staggered back to our hotel after a brilliant evening.

We had a fab time in Oslo.  Yes, it is expensive and we're going to need to save our pennies for our return trip in May, but the welcome is incredibly warm.  We can't wait to go back!

Denmark, Iceland, Cyprus and The Netherlands

It's been the busiest weekend of the national final season so far.  Eurovision Express was in Norway for MGP, and there will be a full report on our time there posted soon.

Saturday night also saw Iceland and Denmark pick its songs, and we're delighted that the wonderful Hera Björk (pictured with Örlyg Smára, with whom Hera wrote the song) will be in Oslo with Je Ne Sais Pourquoi.  Having met Hera last year in Moscow we can't wait for the fun to begin in a few months time.

We haven't had time to watch the Danish Final yet, but reports say that national broadcaster DR put on a great show.  Chanée and N'evergreen (pictured above) will fly the flag for Denmark with In A Moment Like This, a catchy song that's really grown on us.  We can't claim to have picked it as the winner, although we did list it on this blog as one of three songs to keep an eye on.

The first heat of the Swedish Melodifestivalen began on Saturday, with Ola and Sakim Al Fakir making it through to the Final. 

Sunday saw two national finals.  Our web connection to the Cypriot Final wasn't the best, but it was clear for us there was only one song to send to Norway, and thankfully it was the one chosen! Welsh singer, Jon Lilygreen will perform as Jon Lilygree and The Islanders with the excellent Life Looks Better in the Spring.  It's our favourite Cypriot entry for a long time. 

The weekend closed with the Dutch National Final.  5 acts sang their own versions of Ik ben verliefd (Shalalie), written by Pierre Kartner. 

The voting was incredibly dramatic.  The 4 person panel each voted for one act, and, combined made up a staggering 80% of the vote, with the public vote being worth a mere 20%.  2 members of the jury picked girl group, Loekz, and 2 picked 17 year old Sieneke.  The public preferred Vinzzent.  So there was a tie between Loekz and Sieneke, and the composer had the unenviable choice of choosing between them.  Initially he refused, but after much pressing, he eventually plumped for Sieneke (pictured above). 

It will be very interesting to see how the Dutch song does this year, as it's very obviously an old-fashioned.  It makes us feel nostalgic for Eurovisions of old, but our fear is that, unfortunately, the Netherlands may struggle to qualify for the final yet again.

Weekend Roundup

Eurovision Express is back from Oslo, and we had a great time.  We'll be posting a full report on our Norwegian activities tomorrow, and will also be taking a look at what's been happening at the weekend's other national finals.

Meanwhile you can enjoy the 8 songs selected so far on the right-hand side of this page.

Stay tuned!

Greetings from Oslo

Eurovision Express is reporting from Oslo this weekend as we attend the final of the Norwegian Melodi Grand Prix. And what a final it promises to be! We've seen our favourite songs get through each week during the heats and today it's time to choose the song that will represent the host country in May.

The running order for tonight's final is:
1. A1 - Don't Want To Lose You Again
2. Maria Haukaas Storeng - Make My Day
3. Venke Knutson - Jealous Cause I Love You
4. Bjørn Johan Muri - Yes Man
5. Maria Arredondo - The Touch
6. Alexander Stenerud - Give It To Me
7. Didrik Solli-Tangen - My Heart Is Yours
8. Keep Of Kalessin - The Dragontower

The standard is very high this year, and we really like most of the songs on offer.  Our favourite is Venke Knutson's Jealous Cause I Love You, a catchy and quirky entry, but we think it will end up being a battle between Didrik, A1 and Keep Of Kalessin. 

And, surprise surprise, we're tipping Didrik to win.  In fact if he wins, he may well go on to come very close to securing a 2nd Norwegian victory just down the road at the Fornebu Arena in May.

For those of you who can't be in Oslo tonight, you can watch the excitement unfold here

Danish Delights?

Don't think Eurovision Express has forgotten about the Danish Final!  We'd never do that.  Denmark gave us the legendary Hot Eyes in the 80s, who cemented our love of all things Eurovision.  And we've really enjoyed their more recent entries too.  We tipped Brinck to win the MGP last year, and Simon Mathew the year before, so let's see if we can get it right this year too.

It's actually quite hard to predict who will come out on top this Saturday evening, as there doesn't seem to be a stand out song from the 10 on offer.  All are pretty good. 

Amongst the favourites is Simone with the ballad How Will I Know, but this seems to lack that certain something.  For us it's a toss up between Chanee and N'evergreen with In A Moment Like This (although this might be just a tad too Swedish sounding for the Danes), Bryan Rice with Breathing, and girlgroup Sukkerchok with Kæmper For Kærlighed.

We're going to plump for Sukkerchok. They were in last year's Danish final with Det Det, and this year they are back with another good uptempo song.  We wish them well, and hope to see them in Oslo.

Judge which song you think is best from the snippets below.

Semi-Final Draws - This Sunday!

The draws for the running order of the 2010 ESC Semi-finals will take place on Sunday 7th Feb at 14:00 CET. There will be 17 countries in each semi-final, drawn from the following pots:

Pot 1: Albania, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Croatia, FYR Macedonia, Serbia, Slovenia, Switzerland


Pot 2: Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Iceland, Latvia, Lithuania, Sweden

Pot 3: Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Israel, Moldova, Russia, Ukraine

Pot 4: Armenia, Belgium, Cyprus, Greece, Malta, the Netherlands, Turkey

Pot 5: Bulgaria, Ireland, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia
 
The draw will also be made to decide which semi-final the big 4 plus Norway will vote in! You can watch the draw live here.

Hera for Iceland!

This Saturday is the first Super Saturday of the season as Norway, Denmark and Iceland all choose their representatives for Oslo.

We're hoping that the fantastic Hera Björk will triumph in Iceland with the uptempo Je Ne Sais Quoi (video below).  2009 was the year of coming 2nd for Hera, seeing her take the runner-up position in both the Danish final with Someday, and in the Eurovision itself, as one of Yohanna's backing singers.

The main competition for Hera this Saturday will come from Íris Hólm with The One, a strong ballad.  But we have a feeling in our water, a certain je ne sais quoi you could say, that Iceland is going to pick Hera. 

In Moscow Hera was the life and soul of the party, and her brilliant sense of humour contiunally shone through.  We're hoping this year's contingent of Eurovision singers will get to experience Hera's friendly attitude in May. 

Bon chance Hera!

Finland decides. Vote Nina!

Tonight Finland chooses its Eurovision entry for Oslo.  The hot favourite is Eläkeläiset with Hulluna humpasta - apparently they're very popular. 

But we're backing Nina Lassander with the brilliant Cider Hill (video below), although we wish the umbrella choreography would be removed from the performance!

We also love Heli Kajo's quirky entry, Annankadun kulmassa, and over the past few days we've become fond of the act that will be performing last, Kuunkuiskaajat  with Työlki ellää.

So who will fill the shoes left by Waldo's People? Unfortunately, if it's Hulluna humpasta, we fear Finland may really struggle to make it out of whichever semi final they are drawn in.

UK chooses The Hitman!

The BBC have announced this year's UK songwriter/producer who will compose their entry for Oslo. After Jade's 5th place success last year with the Andrew Lloyd-Webber / Dianne Warren song "It's My Time" - the BBC will be hoping to replicate a similar success in 2010.

This year the UK has asked songwriter/producer Pete Waterman, who is famous as part of the Stock, Aitken and Waterman team, to produce the entry for 2010.

Details here

Who will make it through the Last Chance round in Norway?

This Saturday sees 8 acts battling it out to take the last 2 spots in the Norwegian Melodi Grand Prix, which takes place on Saturday 6 February.

The 6 acts that came 3rd and 4th in the 3 semi finals will compete with 2 acts that (we think!) got the highest number of votes or pencentage of votes without coming in the Top 4 each week.

To make things even more exciting, Norway will be using a 'duel' system, which will see songs pitted against each other.  Initially 8 songs will be whittled down to 4, and then, finally, 2 will be triumphant.  The chart above illustrates how things will work.

So who do we think will get through? Here are our predictions with the act making it through each round in bold:

First duel:
Skanksters (Life Is Here Today) v  Bjørn Johan Muri (Yes Man)

Second duel:
Gaute Ormåsen (Synk eller svøm) v Heine Totland (The Best Of Me Is You)

Third duel:
Johnny Hide (Rewind Love) v Mira Craig (I'll Take You High)

Fourth duel
Karoline Garfjell (Tokyo Night) v Venke Knutson (Jealous Cause I Love You)

So, we see the 2nd round of duels looking like this:
Bjørn v Gaute and Mira v Venke

This is where it gets much harder to predict what will happen.  On paper it looks like Bjørn will win (Yes Man has done well in the itunes chart and he did well in Norwegian Idol) but Gaute's song is the only entry in the Norwegian language and is pretty good).  But we'll plump for Bjørn (although are just as happy if it's Gaute).

We love Mira because she wrote the fabulous Hold On Be Strong, but I'll Take You High isn't in the same league.  And, more importantly, Jealous Cause I Love You is just fantastic.  We're hoping the Norwegians will go with the better song....so fingers crossed for Venke here.

Whatever happens it's going to be an exciting night!

The Eurovision Night Project!

UK comedian Justin Lee Collins has launched his bid to represent Ireland at the Eurovision Song Contest in Oslo. On RTE's Late Late Show last night Justin said he has always been a fan of the conest and was very serious about entering Eurovision. A camera crew from UK TV Channel FIVE are currently recording his effort for a special documentary to be shown in the UK in 2010. Justin is best know as a co-presenter of the Channel 4 programme "The Sunday Night Project".

The song he will enter to be selected for the Irish National Final on March 5th is called 'All I Ever Want Is You' written by Ronan Keating - singer/songwriter from Boyzone and Paul Barry - songwriter who wrote 'Hero' for Enrique Iglesias and 'Believe' for Cher.

Will Ireland choose a comedian to represent them? Well they choose a turkey not so long ago! We'll wait until we hear the song before we give our verdict.

Our tip for the Norwegian MGP crown!

The third and final set of entries for the Norwegian MGP have just been released. Having now heard the full versions of all 21 songs taking part this year, we predict that the winner will be:

Didrik Solli-Tangen with the excellent My Heart is Yours.

It's a strong ballad that sounds very similar to Cyndi's ballad in the UK final three years ago. Unlike the UK in 2007, Norway in 2010 know a good song when they hear one, and it helps that the co-author is a certain Mr. Fredrik Kempe! The song competes in the 3rd heat on Saturday hoping to make it to the final in Oslo on February 6th.

We confidently predict that Didrik will sail through to Spektrum on Saturday and will win the MGP final and go onto represent his home country in May. We will be in the arena on the night of the MGP final to cheer him on!

You can hear a snippet of the song here.

Be sure to tune in on Saturday night to see and hear the full version!

Getting to know Hera!

Eurovision Express was delighted to meet the wonderful Hera Bjork in Moscow and are equally delighted that she is attempting to represent Iceland in Oslo.

Let's get to know a little about Hera....



and here's the song that we hope will get our favourite Icelandic to Oslo....
we wish you all the best Hera!

Rolf proves he's still got The Touch!

From the sunny climes of Gran Canaria, Eurovision Express has still managed to listen to the full length versions of this week's Norwegian songs.

And we're pleased to say that the full version of The Touch, written by Rolf Lovland and performed by Maria Arredondo, is very good: if anything the verse outshines the chorus. It builds to a suitably arresting climax, and we're pretty convinced it will qualify directly to the Final in Oslo.

We still love Venke's Jealous Cause I Love You, although the verse here is decidedly weaker than the chorus. The full version of Alexander Stenerud's Give It To Me didn't live up to our initial expectations; that said we're sure Alexander will give a fantastic performance on Saturday, and there's no denying the power of the song's ending.

So our thoughts are: Maria and Venke to the Final, with Alexander and Tomine Harket to 2nd Chance round.

It just proves you can't rely on 30 seconds, but have to hear a song in full.

Waiting until this weekend comes...

Eurovision Express is currently getting away from all the snow, and has headed South to the Canary Islands for some sun. But, of course, we're still keeping our ear to the ground on the Eurovision front.

We're looking forward to the semi-finals taking place this weekend in Finland, Norway and Iceland.

Here are our tips:

Finland
The best song this Friday evening is the irresistibly quirky Annankadun kulmassa sung by Heli Kajo. It makes us think of something that could be used as part of the soundtrack in a Charlie Chaplin film, and is like something Finland might have sent in the 1970s. It's great!

Norway
Our favourite this week is Venke Knutson with the very catchy Jealous Cause I Love You. We also think Alexander Stenerud is in with a chance of going directly into the Final with Give It To Me. We're a tad disappointed with the entry penned by Rolf Lovland, The Touch, sung by Maria Arredondo. But to be fair we've only heard snippets so far, so things could change!

Iceland
The song that stands out this week is I Believe In Angels, performed by Sigrun Vala, which should sail into the Final.

Switzerland Eurovision 2010: Michael von der Heide

Hot off the press, here's the Swiss entry for Eurovision 2010: Michael von der Heide with Il Pleut De l'Or.

Ice Ice Baby

Tonight Iceland begins its quest to find a successor to Yohanna, who came 2nd in last year's Contest.

Eurovision Express is backing Íris Hólm with The One, a big, heart-breaking ballad. You can hear the song here, and find out more about Íris below.

In her interview she reveals that her favourite Eurovision moment is Selma's 2nd place in 1999. Apparently she kept watching that contest again and again, hoping Selma might win! She's also keen to be a hairdresser....well here at Eurovision Express we reckon you should keep to singing good songs, just like The One.

Who will represent Norway on home turf?

The search to find out who will follow in Alexander Rybak's footsteps and represent Norway at this year's Eurovision begins this evening. The first 'semi' final comes from Ørland. Seven acts are competing for 2 spaces in the Final, with the songs coming 3rd and 4th going through to a Second Chance Round.

Having listened to the seven songs, we think Norway is easing us in gently, as all of the entries are reasonably good, but none really sounds like a song that will actually make it to May's Eurovision. Big hitters, like A1, Mira Craig and Maria Arredondo, are coming up in the next two 'semis'.

The name that stands out tonight is Maria Haukaas Storeng (pictured below), but unfortunately You Make My Day is not a patch on Hold On Be Strong, Norway's entry in 2008. It's pleasant, but not a winner. That said, it has a good chance of going straight to the Final.


Our favourites this evening are probably Bjørn Johan Muri's Yes man, Elisabeth Carew's Rocketfuel and we think Gaute Ormåsen could surprise people and qualify with the only song in the Norwegian language, Synk eller svøm which has a strong oom-pah-pah feel to it.


But if we had to stake our mortgage on which song will definitely get through to the Norwegian Final, we'd have to plump for rock/thrash/metal group Keep of Kalessin (pictured above) with The Dragontower. It's not our cup of tea, but we're sure the stage act will be spectacular, and it's likely to stand out amongst the six other more laid back entries.

You can watch the show from 19.40 (CET) here

Will Nina finnish on top with some vintage cider?

This weekend sees a number of countries kicking off their Eurovision selections. Alongside Norway and Iceland, Finland begin their search for a song.

Here at Eurovision Express our fingers are firmly crossed for Nina Lassander and the fabulous Cider Hill. This is a beautiful, arresting song. We're just hoping that Finland, better known of late for sending rock songs, will realise just how good this song is.

So Nina, sock it to 'em, and let's hope everyone gets drunk on your vintage cider.

You can hear the song below.

Norwegian Semi 1 snippets online

Snippets of the seven songs in the first Norwegian semi final (taking place this Friday) can be heard here.

Is it true....? Dana is a granny!

A very happy new year to all our readers.

Two news stories to start 2010.



First off, we attended a very lavish do indeed last night at a secret location to select the best ESC song of the previous decade -or the "noughties" as they have become known. It was a close run thing but in the end, the Shady Lady - Ani Lorak - was pipped at the post (quite rightly in our view) by the excellent "Is it true?" by Johanna from Iceland ,which came 2nd in 2009. Congratulations to Johanna!



On another note, Congratulations go to Ireland's first ever Eurovision winner - Dana - who has just become a grandmother. Details here