Jedward Do The Double!!

The boys are back! Jedward will once again represent Ireland at Eurovision. The Lucan twins secured their place in Baku at last night's Late Late Eurosong Show. Panelists on the show included the wonderful Niamh Kavanagh who won in 1993 and represented Ireland again in 2010, and Marty Whelan the RTE Eurovision commentator who correctly predicted the Azerbaijan win last year! They both thought Jedward would win, and they were right.

The results last night were: 1. Mistaken ( Edele Lynch) sung by Celtic Whisper with Maria McCool. (50 Points) 2. Mercy (Marten Ericsson, Peter Mansson, Lina Ericsson and Bill Hughes) sung by Donna McCaul. (84 Points) 3. Here I Am (Greg French) sung by Andrew Mann. (94 Points) 4. Language Of Love (Éanán Patterson and Julian Benson) sung by Una Gibney and David Shannon. (58 Points) 5. Waterline (Nick Jarl) sung by Jedward. (114 Points) The Grimes boys were the favourites from Day 1 to win the Eurosong. However they faced stiff competition on the night from the excellent Donna McCaul (Ire 2005) and Andrew Mann who put in great performances. Jedward were mentored by Linda Martin who won Eurovision in 1992 for Ireland. Can she work her magic again and bring victory to the boys this year? After all, they were THE success story of the 2011 Eurovision? It should be an exciting Eurovision for Ireland again this year! You can watch the boys performance here.

Jedward favourites to win Eurosong

If the bookmakers are to be believed, Jedward will romp home to victory on Friday and will represent Ireland for the second year running at Eurovision. On Paddypower.com Jedward are the hot favourites at 1/4 followed by Donna McCaul at 3/1. Andrew Mann is next at 7/1 with the two remaining acts - David Shannon and Una Gibney and Maria McCool both at 25/1.

The Eurosong takes place on Friday at 9:30 on RTE1 TV after the news. If you can't wait until then, you can hear the songs as they were played on the Mooney Show recently on RTE Radio 1 by clicking here. Good luck to all participants!

Latvia's homage to Mr. Eurovision

The first line in Latvia's entry for Baku - Beautiful Song by Anmary - mentions the king of Eurovision himself Mr. Johnny Logan! "I was born in a distant 1980, the year the Irish Johnny Logan won" sets the tone for a jolly little ditty from Anmary.



No doubt this song will pick up a few votes from Ireland in May. We're sure Johnny would be proud to be immortalised in a Eurovision song! The Latvian song is this year's guilty pleasure.

Norway does a Sweden!

With an uncanny musical resemblance to last year's Swedish entry - Popular by Eric Saade - Norway have decided to try their hand at an uptempo number with a solo male singer. It worked for Sweden last year by securing them a top 3 placing for the first time in years. Will it do the same this year for Norway?....Quite possibly.




Tooji sings Stay for Norway. We like this song at Eirevision and would love to see Norway be in contention for the top spot in Baku after last year's disappointment when the excellent Stella Mwangi's song Haba Haba failed to qualify for the final. Hopefully Tooji won't suffer the same fate.

Eurosong 2012 - Artists and Songs Revealed!

We now know the names of the 5 songs that will compete to represent Ireland at this year's Eurovision in Baku, Azerbaijan. The 7 artists are also known, and some familiar faces are in the mix.
Jedward are back going for the double and Donna McCaul, who sang for Ireland in Kiev in 2005 with her brother Joe, flies solo this time in her bid to also represent Ireland again.

The titles of the five songs in contention are:

Maria McCool - MISTAKEN
Donna McCaul - MERCY
David Shannon & Una Gibney - LANGUAGE OF LOVE
Andrew Mann - HERE I AM
Jedward - WATERLINE

The songs will be premiered on The Derek Mooney show on RTÉ Radio 1 on the 9th February...so tune in to get your first listen to the song that will carry Ireland's hopes to Baku!

The regional juries and the Irish televoters will then choose the winning song on the 24th February on the Late Late Show on RTE 1 TV.



The winner of the Irish selection will be chosen through public televoting and regional juries.

First Finalist revealed...and it's France!

One of the automatic finalists for Eurovision 2012 has announced their song for Baku.
Anggun Cipta Sasmi, an Indonesian and French-naturalized singer-songwriter will represent France with the song "Echo (You and I). Born in Jakarta, Anggun began performing at the age of seven and will carry the hopes of her adopted home when she takes to the stage in the Grand Final of the Eurovision Song Contest on May 26th.

This lively and very likeable song will aim to bring France it's first victory at Eurovision for 35 years! Bon chance Anggun!

Baku wants to Light Your Fire!

Baku officially became the host city for Eurovision 2012 with the release of the logo and the draws for the semi-finals.

Ireland has been drawn in the second-half of the first semi-final on Tuesday 22nd May. The actual performing position will be announced later this year. Unfortunately the UK will be voting in the 2nd semi-final which may deprive Ireland (especially Jedward) of some vital qualifying votes. However, Jedward sailed into the final in 2011 without the help of the UK, so maybe they can repeat this, IF they are chosen as Ireland's representative in Eurosong 2012 (Friday 24th Feb on the Late Late Show)

The full semi-final draws are as follows:

First Semi-Final, Tuesday 22nd of May (18 countries):

First half

Montenegro , Iceland , Romania , Albania , Belgium , Latvia ,Switzerland ,
Finland , Greece

Second half

Moldova , Cyprus, Austria, Denmark , Russia, San Marino, Israel , Ireland,
Hungary

Second Semi-Final, Thursday 24th of May (19 countries):

First half

Serbia , The Netherlands, Portugal, FYR Macedonia, Belarus, Malta, Ukraine, Armenia, Bulgaria

Second half

Sweden, Georgia, Slovenia, Estonia, Turkey, Slovakia, Croatia, Norway,
Lithuania, Bosnia & Herzegovina

Six countries have already qualified for the Final of the Eurovision Song Contest, being United Kingdom, France, Germany, Spain, Italy and the Host Country Azerbaijan. As a total of 26 countries will take part in the Final on the 26th of May, then 10 from each Semi-Final will qualify for it. They are obliged to broadcast and vote in (as drawn):

Italy (first Semi-Final)
Azerbaijan (first Semi-Final)
Spain (first Semi-Final)
United Kingdom (second Semi-Final)
France (second Semi-Final)
Germany (second Semi-Final)

Denmark knew better!

Should've Known Better is the title of the Danish song for Baku. The surprise winner of the Dansk Melodi Grand Prix provided the best performance in the final when Soluna Samay romped home to victory last night in Aalborg.

The Danish people knew better than most Eurovision fans and bookies who were predicting a win by Song 8 - the Danish/Swedish combo Venter sung by Chris Brons and Patrik Isaksson. It just goes to show that the performance on the night makes a huge difference.

Eirevision had a soft spot for song 1 - Take Our Hearts sung by Danish X-Factor contestant Jesper Nohrstedt, who in the end finished 2nd to Soluna.

Listening to the winning song, you may notice a striking similarity to Crazy by Seal!

You can watch Soluna's winning performance here

Swiss Roll...and Rock

The Rock group Sinplus have won the Swiss national final for the Eurovision Song Contest 2012. 14 acts battled it out for the coveted title including the first ever winner - Lys Assia.

Of the 14 acts in the final, 6 were selected by the German broadcaster SF, three acts were chosen by the radio broadcaster DRS3 , 2 acts qualified through a regional final and 3 acts were selected by the French-language broadcaster RTS using a jury and online voting.

Sinplus was probably one of the better songs in a rather low-quality final. They won the televoting and they will represent Switzerland in the Eurovision Song Contest 2012 with the song Unbreakable. It remains to be seen if it is good enough to get Switzerland through to the final two year's running.

You can see the song here.

More Lipstick for Ireland in 2012?

According to the Irish Daily Mail today, Jedward will represent Ireland AGAIN at the 2012 Eurovision Song Contest. The duo - undoubtedly the biggest success from ESC 2011 - are apparently keen to try their hand at snatching the Eurovision crown once more.

Jedward would be following in German Eurovision winner Lena's footsteps by competing two years in a row. Given that Lipstick and Jedward were Europe-wide successes after the 2011 contest, perhaps they will capitalise on this and do even better for Ireland in Baku.

We await official confirmation before digging out the Jedheads for Baku!

Will it be President Dana for Ireland?

The Irish presidential race has a Eurovision connection this year. Dana (Rosemary Scallon) who won the 1970 contest for Ireland has been nominated as a candidate in the upcoming election.

This is not the first time that Dana has tried to become Irish president. She unsuccessfully contested the 1997 election. However Dana is no political novice as she served as a member of the European parliament for the Connaught-Ulster constituency from 1999-2004.

Will Dana get douze points from the Irish electorate? Well, All Kinds of Everything can happen! The election is due to take place on 27th October 2011. Bonne chance Dana!

You can read more about Dana's nomination here

First off the blocks for 2012...CYPRUS!

The first participant for Eurovision 2012 is now known . It is Ivi Adamou who will represent Cyprus in Baku.

Ivi is well known in the meditteranean island having competed in their version of X-Factor. No details yet from the Cyprus Broadcasting Company on how the song will be chosen but it is likely to be in a national final.

As for Ireland, no news as yet on the likely Irish representative but we will keep you posted!

Swing time for Ireland?

One of the names in the frames to represent Ireland at the next Eurovision Song Contest is that of family trio - Crystal Swing. They have become something of a You Ttube sensation in Ireland and beyond with the video of their song "He drinks Tequila" scoring over 1 million hits!

Crystal Swing consists of Mary Murray-Burke(the mother) Derek Burke(the son) and Dervla Burke(the daughter) and can best be described as a country and western sounding group. They hail from County Cork and are fast becoming one of Ireland's best known groups.
Will Europe fall for the charms of the Crystal Swing family? With RTE's Eurovision 2012 plans due to be discussed shortly, we won't have to wait too long to find out.

If you would like to know more about Crystal Swing, click here.

Jedward march on to Victory!

Following on from their Europe-wide success at Eurovision in May , Ireland's 2011 representatives Jedward are due to release a new album in August called "Victory".

The twins have been cloned on the cover, making it look like a line of never-ending high-haired Jedwards. The album is set to be released on August 15 in the UK and Ireland and will contain their Eurovision song Lipstick, as well as their newest track Bad Behaviour.

Victory will be the boys' second album and is a follow-up to Planet Jedward, which was released last year and reached number 17 in the UK album charts.

Jedward : The real "winners" of Eurovision 2011?

They were the buzz of Dusseldorf. Everyone wanted a piece of Jedward. Their press conferences were legendary. And now it seems they are THE success story of this year's Eurovision!

John and Edward Grimes have performed in many countries after the contest including Sweden and Germany. Jedwards management has been struggling to clear their diary for dates across Europe since the contest finished. The unstoppable duo - who came eighth in the Eurovision - stormed to the top of the iTunes chart in a number of countries across Europe with their infectious song Lipstick. And a huge tour of the continent is now being planned for the boys later this summer John revealed ‘ Its one big step for Jedward- we don’t go small steps like that man on the moon, it's first step Europe and next stop the world.’

The twins are also in the final stages of talks with a number of TV stations, including RTE and BBC, about fronting their own shows later this year.

Well done boys! Keep the success going!

A Little Bit of Eurovision!

For those of you in need of a Eurovision fix during the summer, tune in to RTE 1 on Tuesday evenings at 8:30pm to catch "A Little Bit of Eurovision".

In this series, RTE celebrates the record seven wins that Ireland has achieved in the contest with a look back at the glory days of Irish Eurovision! You can find out all about it here

Congratulations Azerbaijan!

They've only been in the contest a few years, but it hasn't taken Azerbaijan long to win it!

Congratulations to Eldar and Nigar who won this year's Eurovision with "Running Scared".

Italy came second with Raphael Gualazzi and "Follia D'Amore". Not a bad result either after their 13 year absence. Welcome back Italia!

Baku 2012 anyone?

Eurovision Semi 1

Last night we successfully managed to predict 8 of the 10 qualifiers from the first Semi Final. We didn't pick Lithuania (who did?!) or Georgia, having plumped for Turkey (how did it not qualify?) and Poland.

Time now for us to watch the first dress rehearsal of the second semi, which is probably harder to call.

It's all getting very exciting now!

Time for the UK

Let's take a look at the United Kingdom now. The staging includes 4 large video screens with footage of the Blue boys.

The screens can also make the words I CAN.

The boys all sounded in good vocal form, although we're a little concerned about the backing track. For some reason the track is stripped down a lot for the first chorus, which seems strange. The first chorus needs to be strong and bold, and, at the moment, it doesn't hit the spot.

Good, but not quite there yet. But that's what rehearsals are for....so let's see what tomorrow brings.

France - 12 points?

The favourite now, Amaury Vassili from France, with the opera ballad, Sognu.

An utterly brilliant backdrop of rolling clouds and Amaury's faultless vocals could see a French win for the first time since 1977.

Although there are some that think the song may be a little sophisticated for televoters, it's great to see France in with a real chance of victory.

Ding Dong - the big five enter the stage

It's Saturday and the so-called 'Big 5' have entered the building.

But five of semi 2's countries rehearsed first this morning, including Eric Saade for Sweden and Dana International for Israel. There's been talk that Sweden is below par - tosh! This is the Melodifestivalen performance on the ESC stage, and it's going to be in the Final. Smashing!

Eurovision winner 1998, Dana International, gave a competent rehearsal. She's not got the best voice, and we are disappointed that the routine used in the national final (with the five girls in long dresses) has been ditched. Even with a diva-like strut on the catwalk at the end, we're still on the fence about whether this will qualify. But, you've got to hand it to DI, she's good value for money, and her press conference was a riot.

News on France next!

Everything is sounding good to us!

Rehearsals continue here in Germany, and, to be honest, there aren't really any acts who are giving bad performances. From Friday's batch we particularly enjoyed Iceland and Bosnia-Herzegovina.

During Iceland's press conference we were treated to a medley of past Eurovision hits by the multi-talented Sjonni's Friends. And Dino Merlin told us about his previous Eurovision experiences back in 1993 (Dino wrote Sva Bol Svijeta, and loved the orchestra in Millstreet) and 1999 (Dino sand Putnici with Beatrice, and had a great time but the venue in Jerusalem was much smaller).

From other rehearsals Hungary is sounding good, although we're not sure the stage presentation is quite as strong as it could be; the song's video is so good that it's a hard act to follow.

Austria is also gaining a lot of support. And, although the song doesn't really appeal to us, it has to be said that vocally Nadine is brilliant. We're expecting it to qualify now.

The day ended with a fan party at the Euroclub, where no fewer than 23 acts performed their songs.

Excitement is building today as the Big 5 enter the fray. Check back later for our thoughts.

By Georgia!

We went along to the Georgian party last night, held in the Euroclub. Initially it didn't look like we were going to get in, but with a little patience and some assistance from our friends at esc.kaz (thanks guys!) we enjoyed a fabulous evening of Georgian hospitality.

In addition to a performance by Eldrine, we heard from the Georgian entrants from 2007 and 2010. Both Sophos were in great voice!

Also spotted amongst the crowd were Stella from Norway and Paradise Oskar from Finland.

The night ended with a Eurovision disco, so we had a nice little dance....

Will Vella bring Eurovision to Valetta?

The final rehearsal we saw yesterday was Malta. Glen Vella has a really good voice and the routine works well. Quite whether One Life is strong enough to qualify remains to be seen, but if prizes were given out for effort, then this would be among the contenders.

One thing you can't deny is that Glen is the life and soul of the party scene here in Germany. He's having a great time, and seems to be thoroughly enjoying his Eurovision experience. Good on him!

Superb Serbia and Rousing Russia

A word now on Serbia and Russia.

Nina sings Čaroban, and it's brilliant! The psychedelic backdrop is the perfect accompaniment for this retro track, and we're in no doubt this will qualify.

Alexej Vorobjov and Get You is also impressive. This is one of the few songs this year that employs quite a bit of stage business. There are big screens that move around and everyone on stage has lights on their shoes and on the back of their leather jackets.