Going Dutch with 3JS

The Netherlands will be the fourth country to reveal its song for Germany tonight, when boyband 3JS (pictured above) present five songs. Snippets can be heard below.



Although it's difficult to judge from these short extracts, Eurovision Express thinks the uptempo De Stroom sounds like the best option. But we're looking forward to hearing the full versions.

Red White and ... BLUE for the UK

The news has literally come out of the blue that reformed boyband BLUE will be the UK's representatives at the 2011 Eurovision Song Contest.

It's not the first time that members of the group have bid to take part in the competition. Lee Ryan wrote and composed "Guardian Angel", Andy Scott-Lee's song for the 2005 edition of Making Your Mind Up. Furthermore, Antony Costa came second in the 2006 edition of the show with the song "It's A Beautiful Thing". Group member Duncan James was a panellist on all episodes of the Eurovision: Your Country Needs You series in 2009 , which Jade Ewen won.

The self-penned song will be called "I Can" and a BBC documentary will follow the group's preparations for the contest. This is the first time since 1994 that an act has been chosen internally by the BBC.

Although BLUE haven't had hits for a number of years, we are cautiosuly optimistic of the UK's chances in Dusseldorf and looking forward to hearing their song. This will be the first time for several years that a well-known act will represent the UK. We think this is a good thing! Bring on the song!

Final fling in Norway

Tonight sees the third and last semi final in Norway. It looks like last year's host country has saved some of the best songs for this heat.

You can hear snippets of the entries that will be performed in Skien here

Our favourite at Eurovision Express is SOS by boyband, Girl Happy (below). It's probably the most Eurovision sounding song of the 21 entries in this year's MGP.

However we think the song most likely to qualify, and also in with a very strong chance of representing Norway in Germany, comes in the shape of heavy rockers Susperia with Nothing Remains (below).

So after the gentle My Heart Is Yours, Norway might be going in a ve3ry different direction....!

We want to go to Iceland!

Eurovision Express is back off its holidays, and what do we return to? A potential Eurovision winning song from Iceland!

It's no secret that we loved Iceland's 2009 entry, Is It True? so we were anxious to hear Yohanna's entry for 2011. And our verdict? Well we reckon that if Iceland sends her song, Nott, then Eurovision could be held in Reykjavik in 2012!

Yohanna took part in this weekend's Icelandic semi-final, and is through to the Final, taking place on 12 February, Enjoy the performance below.

Will Sarah get Switzerland back on a roll?

Poor Switzerland has been doing very well at Eurovision over the past few years, despite some brilliant songs. In 2008 Era Stupendo was our absolute favourite entry, and it didn't even make it out of the semi final!

This year Switzerland is having a national final for the first time since 2004. We'll be tuning in this Saturday (11 December) to discover the first song selected for Dusseldorf.

The best song, in our opinion, comes from Sarah Burgess. Co-written by John Gordon (one the composers of Lena's Eurovision winning Satellite) Sarah's song, Just Me, sounds like it could be a Katy Perry track.

So it's not actually a great surprise to discover that Sarah is in fact from the US, and actually tried her luck at American Idol!

Enjoy the song below.

Romania - we want U!

The 13 songs competing to represent Romania in Dusseldorf are now available to listen to here.

We loved Ovi and Paula's Playing With Fire, and we reckon Romania is on to another winner if they pick Claudia Pavel and the fantastic ballad I Want U To Want Me. Enjoy the performance below.



The Romanian national final takes place on New Year's Eve - let's hope they pick Claudia's amazing song!

Junior Eurovision, and Georgia's on our mind....

This weekend sees the 8th Junior Eurovision Song Contest take place in Minsk, Belarus.

Eurovision Express has followed JESC all the way since 2003 when we ventured over to Copenhagen to cheer on the UK's Tom Morley. Of course the UK no longer takes part, and we have to watch the show on the internet these days.

14 songs are battling it out. Some of our favourite songs come from Belgium, Sweden, Armenia and Latvia. But we reckon that if there's any justice Mariam from Georgia should triumph with her Lady Gaga-esque Mari Dari. It's well performed and catchy as anything.

Enjoy one of the rehearsals below.

Radio 2's getting Butterflies!

Here at Eurovision Express we were big fans of Butterflies, the song that came 2nd in the 2009 Norwegian MGP.  Sung by Tone Damli Aaberge, it, of course, lost out to the eventual Eurovision winner, Fairytale.

But the good news is that it's getting a UK release, and is BBC Radio 2's record of the week!

Let's enjoy the MGP performance again, and hope Tone goes big in Britain!

Ticket time again for Swedish MF 2011

Tickets for the Swedish Melodifestivalen 2011 go on sale tomorrow (Thursday 21 October). 

More info here.  Best get in quick as they usually get snapped up in seconds!

It's Dusseldorf!

It's official - after months of speculation the 2011 Eurovision Song Contest will take place in the Fortuna/Espirit Arena in Dusseldorf.  Full story here

UK fans gather for Eurobash 2010 in Manchester!

Eurobash 2010, the annual gathering of the British Eurovision fanclub, OGAE UK, takes place next Saturday (16 October).  After 4 successful years in Birmingham, the sold-out extravaganza moves to Manchester!

Over 100 fans will come together to celebrate all things Eurovision - with a quiz, a special 'Firsts' themed Contest, and the eagerly anticipated Stars In Their Eurovision Eyes, where attendees become their Eurovision heroes - for one night only.  This year 11 acts will compete, all hoping to follow in the footsteps of last year's winners, who gave a knock-out performance of Laka's song from 2008.

Eurobash 2010 will also welcome 4 special guests: Kit Rolfe (better known to Eurofans as Belle from Belle and The Devotions, who sang Love Games for the UK in 1984), Hera Bjork (Iceland 2010), Sarah Cawood (UK semi-final commentator) and Craig Lees (who entered the 2005 UK heats of the Junior Eurovision).

Eurobash 2010 promises to be another fun-packed day!

Junior Eurovision details announced!

image copyright EBU

The EBU have confirmed details for this year's Junior ESC to be held in Minsk, Belarus on 20th November. 14 countries will take part with Moldova trying it out for the first time. Sweden return after a year off, as do Lithuania and Latvia, increasing the number of participants by one compared to last year.

You can find out full details here.

Austria comes home!

It might have something to do with the fact that their near neighbour has won this year, but whatever the reason, we're delighted to see that Austria will return to Eurovision in 2011!

The country that gave us Boom Boom Boomerang by Schmetterlinge in 1977 and the unforgettable Alf Poier in 2003 has decided to re-join the Eurovision family after a three-year gap. They may even be one of the first to announce their entry according to this report (in German).

Welcome back Österreich!

It's the 3 "J"'s for the Netherlands!

Netherlands are quick off the mark for ESC 2011 - they have chosen their singers already! The group that will represent Les Pays-Bas next year will be the 3 "J"'s! After Sieneke's disappointing showing in Oslo, the Netherlands are going back to the formula of choosing an artist and then a song.
The 3 "J"'s will perform 5 songs and the public will choose one to represent them in Germany. Unfortunately this process didn't work for The Toppers in 2009, but we are hoping that the Netherlands pick a great song and get to the final where they belong in 2011!

Read more here.

Lena goes for the double.....and ESC 2011 moves forward one week!

The dates of next year's semi-finals and final have moved forward one week to 10th May for Semi-Final 1, 12th May for Semi-Final 2 and the final on Saturday 14th May. NDR, the German broadcaster announced the new dates today and also announced that Lena will represent Germany again in 2011!

You can read the full details here

Germany wins televote and jury!

The jury votes of ESC 2010 have been released by the EBU and show that Germany won both televote and jury convincingly. Turkey didn't do so well with the Juries but Belgium did!

You can see the results here.

Glückwünsche, Deutschland!

Well done Lena and Well done Germany. We are delighted that a modern song with no gimmicks has won the 2010 Eurovision Song Contest. Lena Meer-Landrut has won with the song Satellite. Still can't quite believe it. We were fearing a win from either Armenia or Azerbaijan (one of the most promoted songs this year!) but in the end, the voters - and juries - of Europe decided to reward vocal ability and pick a very good song.

We are also delighted that Belgium and Romania did so well but feel sorry for Ireland.
So it's Germany 2011 - bring it on!......after a long rest!

Thank you to all our site visitors (more than ever before), we hope you enjoyed Oslo 2010 as much as we did. Stay with Eurovision Express throughout the year for all the latest on the best music competition in the world!

Algo Stupido!

The most surreal moment of last night.....scroll to just after 1 minute! Bravo Daniel for continuing!

Thank You Oslo! Takk Oslo!

What a great Eurovision we have just had. The staging, the facilities, the organisation and of course, the parties have been tremendous. Olso 2010 was everything we could have hoped for and more. We thoroughly enjoyed reporting on the rehearsals and parties and hoped you enjoyed reading them. We also had a great time catching up with old friends and making new ones.

So we say goodbye from Oslo 2010 but we will be back here next February for the Melodi Grand Prix final!

....and the winner is......

no idea!

We just cannot decide who we think will win this year.

Our ideal winners would be BELGIUM, CYPRUS or SPAIN, but we think it will probably be ARMENIA, AZERBAIJAN or even GREECE.

At the other end of the scoreboard we think it will be FRANCE or UNITED KINGDOM. Despite being great singers (especially Josh from the UK) we just don't think the songs from either country are strong enough to gain a lot of votes.

So we say VOTE FOR BELGIUM. Go TOM DICE....and his guitar!

Make Your Mind Up Time!!!

After the first Dress Rehearsal, time to pick a winner....... this is a tough one and we will have to sleep on it. Predicition tomorrow!

And finally Denmark

Denmark

A great song to end the contest.  What an interesting journey this entry has been on.  It came to Oslo as one of the favourites, and then everyone seemed to go off it, as the initial rehearsals were a little lacklustre.  But now it's back on track.  N'evergreen is popular in Russia, and the song will appeal to the West, so maybe this could actually win!  If it does, Sweden might be kicking itself, as it was a song that was entered into Melodifestival, but was rejected.  Only time will tell.

Portugal and Israel

Portugal

Another surprise qualifier.  That said, this is a good, oldfashioned Eurovision ballad.  Portugal never worries about trends in the Contest, it just does what it wants.  Filipa does well with this song, and connects with the camera very well.  This could do much better than anyone could ever have imagined.  Good.

Israel

We were surprised this qualified last night.  Harel seems to be singing well, but this song bores us.  This is an entry that strives to impress, but leaves us totally cold.  Contrived and overblown.

Armenia and Germany

Armenia

A little break before the Apricot Stone.  Now third in the betting, Eva also has a decent draw.  This should do well with both the West and the East, not that we want it to win.  We find the performance too busy, but the beat and rhythm is good, and Eva sells the song well.  Impressive, and looks like Top 5 to us.

Germany

One of the best songs in the Contest.  Modern and current, can Germany do it? Perhaps.  It's not a bad performance, but it doesn't seem to really engage the audience in any way. Much better on the dancefloor than on stage.  We applaud Germany for the effort, but this may not bring them success.

Romania and Russia

Romania

One of our favourites now, and a very good draw for Romania.  We think this would be a worthy and well-liked winner.  Some of the best vocals in the Contest, this is a modern, catchy entry.  Paula and Ovi look like they are enjoying themselves, and we just love it when Paula nails every single one of those high notes.  This could win.  Excellent.

Russia

Another song that's going to divide the voting.  We quite like Peter, and feel better about this song now knowing it's meant to be ironic.  But the first time we saw it, we thought it was very poor.  This is likely to do better than it deserves to.