Switzerland: Takasa Release Video and New Name

Switzerland – It was announced today, finally, that Heilsarmee have agreed to change their name. They will be known as Takasa in Malmö. The Salvation Army band, who will sing ‘You and Me‘ in May, were ordered to change their name or drop out of the contest. Takasa comes from the Swahili word meaning  to purify. The official video for the song has also been released today.

Switzerland: Heilsarmee to Change Name

Switzerland – The Swiss Salvation Army band, Heilsarmee, selected to represent the country at this year’s Eurovision Song Contest, says it will perform but under a different name. According to Swiss World Radio the group says they plan to take part under a new name, but without completely giving up their uniform. They say they have a proposal ready to present to Swiss TV RTS.

Switzerland: No Uniforms and Change Your Name!

Switzerland – Hot on the heels of the Estonian disqualification comes the news that EBU has told the Swiss entry, Heilsarmee (Salvation Army), that they will have to use a different name and not wear their uniforms if they are to represent their country in Malmö. The group will now have to decide if they will comply with these demands.

Switzerland: Heilsarmee to Malmö!

Switzerland - Big news today as a second country held a national final on Saturday the 15th of December to pick its next Eurovision entry. Switzerland picked Heilsarmee’s “You And Me” out of nine possible entries to represent the Helvetic Republic to Malmö at the Eurovision Song Contest 2013. Read more here!

Switzerland : Line-up Complete

Switzerland - Today was revealed the full line-up for the Swiss National Final 2013, to be held in the Bodensee Arena in Kreuzlingen on 15 December. After the two entries selected by a live TV show from the Italian broadcaster and the three announced French entries, the German broadcaster announced the four winners of the Web selection to complete the line-up. Get the results here along with the full line-up.

Switzerland: Chiara and Ally Qualify

Switzerland – Tonight saw the Swiss-Italian broadcaster RSI hold its regional heat consisting of 7 songs. Two songs were chosen to go through to the Swiss national final, Die Grosse Entscheidungsshowon, on December 15th. The jury selected Ally, who sang ‘Catch Me‘ and the Televoters picked Chiara Dubey with ‘Bella Sera‘ after a live radio show from Lugano, where the following seven acts performed their songs:

Switzerland: First Songs online

Switzerland – The Swiss/Italian broadcaster RSI recently announced the participants of its Regional Final which will be held on On Tuesday, October 23rd. Two of the songs from the seven competitors will qualify for the Swiss national final, which takes place on December 15th. The songs have been placed online and you can now listen to them.

Switzerland: National Final in 6 Months

  Switzerland – Eurovision-fr.net reports that the Swiss national final for the Eurovision Song Contest 2013 will be held in 6 months. The “Bodensee Arena” in Kreuzlingen will once again be the venue for the national final “Die große Entscheidungsshow“, which is to be held on December 15. Once again, the Swiss will thus be the first to choose their Eurovision entry for 2013. Last year Sinplus were chosen with their song “Unbreakable” and they only missed qualification for the Eurovision final by some points.

Eurovision 2012: Day 1 Rehearsals Completed

Eurovision 2012 – The first day’s rehearsals have been completed. Despite a initial 2 hour delay, Switzerland, Belgium and Finland have now all made their debuts on the Crystal Hall Stage. Plasma screens for the press to watch them weren’t delivered until late afternoon though; another unprepared moment in Baku to embarrass officials. See the rehearsals here:

Switzerland: Sinplus Sign Record Deal

Switzerland – Congratulations to Swiss entry Sinplus who have just secured themselves a major record deal with Warners. Brothers Ivan and Gabriel Broggini were the first act to be chosen for Eurovision 2012 with their song ‘Unbreakable‘. Their debut album ‘Disinformation’ will be released in Switzerland , Germany, Poland and Austria initially after Eurovision.

Eurovision 2011 Related Releases

Eurovision – 2011’s last months brought lots and lots of new Eurovision related releases, including five albums from the Düsseldorf-sent contestants. Each one of them has its own style, similar to their entries or not. However, they are all interesting and easy-listening. Here are short reviews for the five albums released within November/December that are worth paying some attention to.

Switzerland: Lys Assia To Perform at Eurovision 2012 After All?

  Switzerland -It’s not easy to get a Lys Assia down. The grand dame of Eurovision (she was the first winner of the contest in 1956) wanted to participate in the Eurovision Song Contest again, 56 years after her first triumph. In the Swiss national final, however, she only came eight and later started a tabloid feud with judge “Stämpf” who had criticized her song for being too old-fashioned. She had called him uncouth and called for a written apology.

After National Final: Lys Assia to Hospital

  Switzerland – The stress due to her participation in the Swiss national final, and more importantly her loosing at it, has taken its toll on 87-year old Lys Assia. She has been examined for several hours at the Hirslanden-Klinik in Zürich. She admitted for the first time that she “might have overtaxed” herself. Assia is also still outraged about the events of the last days, namely only reaching 8th place despite being the favourite to win the Swiss national final and the comments of judge Stämpf that she calls “impudent” and “uncouth“.

Switzerland: Lys Assia Demands Written Apology and May Return Next Year

  Switzerland – In an interview at the after show party of this year’s Swiss national final this Saturday, where she severely criticized one of the judges for offering her the informal form of adress on stage and calling her song “old-fashioned”, Lys Assia now calls for a written apology of Stämpf. “I was shocked and felt humiliate in front of all of Switzerland,” she told Swiss newspaper Blick.

Switzerland: Frustrated Lys Assia Criticizes Judges, Voting Mode

Switzerland – Last night the Swiss national final was held in Kreuzlingen and the newcomer band Sinplus won the ticket to Baku. Lys Assia, the first Eurovision winner in 1956, failed to get enough televotes and only came 8th. She seemed quite frustrated at the after show party when she was interviewed by SF and found lot’s of reasons for her failure, including the judges and the tide of time. “I feel sorry for the composer and lyricist, because it really is a good song and they put a lot of work into it, especially Mister Siegel… one can’t really imagine it.”

Switzerland: Sinplus Optimistic for Baku

Switzerland – Last night the Swiss national final was held in Kreuzlingen and the newcomer band Sinplus won the ticket to Baku. The brothers Ivan and Gabriel were completely surprised about their win. Whether competitor Lys Assia referred to them when calling the contest “Tonk Tonk Tonk” is not clear, but nothing could have clouded their enthusiasm anyway.  “We didn’t expect to go to Baku! We did believe in our song, but it is simply an amazing surprise,” Ivan told SF “Unbelievable! We’ll need time to realize it,” his brother Gabriel added.  When asked whether the

“Sinplus – Unbreakable” to Represent Switzerland at Eurovision 2012

Switzerland – The group Sinplus will represent Switzerland at the Eurovision Song Contest 2012, after winning the Swiss national final “Die grosse Entscheidungsshow”. Thus, the first song for the 57th edition of Europe’s favourite TV-show is finally known. The show saw 14 artists competing for the ticket to Baku. A jury of “experts” assessed the entries. However, only televoting declared the winner, the professional jury commenting on all the songs had no say in the final outcome. Chiara Dubey, Ivo and Sinplus were the Top 3, while Sinplus was the eventual winner of the Swiss national final.

Switzerland Decides Tonight: Die Große Entscheidungshow

  Switzerland -  Today the national final season of the Eurovision Song Contest 2012 will be kicked off in Kreuzlingen, Switzerland. The “Die große Entscheidungsshow” will see 14 artists from all over the country competing for the ticket to Baku and the honor to fly the Swiss flag on the Eurovision stage. The biggest star among the 14 participants is arguable Lys Assia, who won the first ever Eurovision Song Contest in 1956 in Lugano and returned the following two years achieving a second place. She will be performing second to last.

Concerns About Lys Assia’s Health

  Switzerland – Lys Assia’s participation in the Swiss national final has produced headlines in Switzerland for months and today all of the most important media in Germany report about her ambitions. With such publicity Assia has to be considered the number one favourite to win the Swiss national final tomorrow. However, friends and family of the 87 year-old singer have expressed their concern about Assia’s state of health.

Switzerland: National Finalists In Luzern

  Switzerland – This Wednesday the finalists of the Swiss national selection were presented on the “Engelsstimmenbühne” at the train station in Luzern. Among the guests was Anna Rossinelli, last year’s Swiss representative who performed her new single “Joker”. The host of the national final Stephen Epiney  talked to the competitors about their songs and their story. Here are some of the comments they made:

Switzerland: SF Reveals Running Order

  Switzerland – The Swiss national broadcaster SF has revealed the running order of the Swiss National Final on its official twitter page tonight. The “Die große Entscheidungsshow” will see 14 artists form all over the country competing for the ticket to Baku and the honor to fly the Swiss flag on the Eurovision stage. The biggest star among the 14 participants is arguable Lys Assia, who won the first ever Eurovision Song Contest in 1956 in Lugano and returned the following two years achieving a second place. She will be performing second to last.

Switzerland: Amnesty Puts Pressure on SF

  Switzerland – The fact that next year’s Eurovision Song Contest will be held in Azerbaijan is a throne in the side of Amnesty International. Just recently they published a report about the human rights violations of the Azeri government. The Swiss newspaper Tagesanzeiger reports today, that the Swiss subdivision of the organization has caused a predicament for the Swiss national broadcaster SF. They sent buttons saying “Free me” to all the participants of the national final and asked them to wear them during the televised show on December 10.

Editorial: Assessing the Swiss National Final

  Switzerland – The Swiss entry to the Eurovision Song Contest in Baku will be the first to be selected in this Eurovision season. The national final is held in Kreuzlingen on December 10 and will see 14 acts from all over the country compete for the Swiss ticket to Baku. In this editorial I have written down my thoughts (quite randomly) while listening to the songs, have assessed their chances at winning the national final and if they were selected, their chances at the Eurovision Song Contest. I don’t mean to hurt anyone’s feelings, tastes can differentiate! So here we go:

Switzerland: Cat Fight Between Lys Assia and Atomic Angles?

Switzerland – A cat fight seems to have broken out in the Alps: Between the Atomic Angles and Lys Assia the age difference is no less than 7 decades! For the grande dame of chanson, however, the youngsters are no competition. With their 16 years of age, Michèle, Martina and Francesca of the Atomic Angles are the youngest participants in SF’s national final “Die große Entscheidungsshow“. “We are incredibly happy to participate,” Michèle told Swiss online portal “20min.ch” “Our biggest wish is to perform well”. The three girls work out every day for the

Switzerland: Lys Assia to Wear Her 1956 Winning Dress

  Switzerland – According to the SF official twitter page, Lys Assia is going to wear her winning dress of the 1956 Eurovision Song Contest in the Swiss national final which is due to be held 10th December. The tweet read “I’m going to wear the 1956 winning dress at the national final (hope it still fits…)“.

Lys Assia is a strong favourite to win the Swiss ticket to Baku with her ballad “C’etait Ma Vie”. Could

Switzerland: The Full National Final Line-Up

Switzerland – The Swiss national broadcaster SF has announced the last 5 qualifiers from the Internet selection. We hence now have the full line-up of the Swiss national final which will be held December 10 to determine the Swiss representative at the Eurovision Song Contest 2012. Yesterday SF had already revealed that the 1956 Eurovision winner Lys Assia had qualified to the final. A total of 14 songs will compete on December 10 in Kreuzlingen. 6 qualified from the

Switzerland: Lys Assia Qualifies for Kreuzlingen

  Switzerland – The Swiss national broadcaster has announced via twitter, that Lys Assia has qualified to the Swiss national final in Kreuzlingen. Her entry “C’était Ma Vie” was written by no other than (former?) German Eurovision powerhouse Ralph Siegel. Assia is the first qualifier from the internet selection being revealed and thus joins the 8 entries that were already selected by regional radio and television stations. Assia is of cours famous for winning the first ever

Switzerland: Sinplus And Chiara Dubey to the Final

  Switzerland– The Italian broadcaster in Switzerland RSI  held it’s regional final tonight in Serocca d’Agno near the Lugano lake. Seven songs had been chosen out of a field of 27 entries. These songs competed tonight for the two Italian places in the Swiss national final, to be held December 10 in Kreuzlingen. The two lucky winners were the band Sinplus and Chiara Dubey.

Switzerland: RSI Holds Regional Final

  Switzerland – The Italian broadcaster in Switzerland RSI will hold it’s regional final tonight in Serocca d’Agno near the Lugano lake. Seven songs have been chosen out of a field of 27 entries. These songs will compete tonight for the two Italian places in the Swiss national final, to be held December 10 in Kreuzlingen. The two lucky winners will be determined via televoting.