Malmö 2013: We’ve Arrived!

Malmö 2013 – We may be a couple of days late, but Eurovision Times has finally arrived in Malmö! We’ve successfully acquired our press accreditation, worked out the bus routes, found all the Irish pubs, and started meeting up with the delegations. See who we’ve caught up with so far in the first few hours and what our first impressions are in photos from our first evening in Malmö…

It’s Slovenia Calling… 12 Points Go to Who?

OGAE – The third OGAE fan club to announce its vote this year is Slovenia, and its 12 points go to… Azerbaijan!  The result and the full current scoreboard can be followed at http://www.ogaeinternational.com but check here now to see which countries received Slovenian Eurovision fans’ points as announced today…

Poll: Best National Final of 2013?

Eurovision 2013 – So we came to the end of the National Selection Season for 2013. We’ve had drop-outs in Israel. Moldova and Serbia, song changes in Bulgaria and we’ve had claims of plagiarism in Germany and Albania but now it’s all over. The question now is, which National Final of 2013 was the best?

Netherlands: Anouk Gives Teaser of ‘Birds’

Netherlands – A YouTube clip of Anouk, performing live, shows her singing just under a minute of her Eurovision entry ‘Birds’ a cappella. Anouk will represent the Netherlands in this year’s Eurovision Song Contest. The clip was filmed at Utrecht’s Tivoli De Helling last night. Check out the clip… 

Latvia: It’s PeR to Malmo

Latvia – The country has decided and they have chosen PeR to represent them in Malmo for Eurovision 2013 with the song “Here We Go”. A total of twelve acts competed to fly the Latvian flag in Sweden with three reaching the Super Final. Joining PeR were Samanta Tina with “I Need A Hero” and Marta Ritova and with “I Am Who I Am”.

Estonia: Eesti Laul Semi Final One… Results

Estonia – The results are in and the first bunch of songs through to the Eesti Laul Final have been decided. Ten acts performed hoping to qualify to the grand Final next month but only 5 succeeded. The jury announced their top five before the public televote was added to reveal the five qualifiers.

Israel: Presenters and Heats Announced

Israel – The Israeili national selection kicks off in two weeks time and broadcaster IBA today released more details. The 5 shows will be hosted by Orna Datz and Ron Shahar. Datz is a well knows singer, actor and news anchor, and represented Israel in ESC 1991 (3rd place). Shahar is an actor, model and tv presenter. The first heat takes place on February 26th and IBA have announced who will take part in each heat…

Finland: UMK Final Tonight!

Finland – After several weeks of heats, Finland will finally choose their representative for Malmö this evening as Uuden Muusiikin Kilpailu climaxes in Espoo, Helsinki. 8 finalists will battle it out to win a place in Malmö. The show starts at 20.00 (CET) and goes on until 22.00 (CET). There is a preview programme for 30 minutes earlier. You can watch the live show online here.

Finland: Krista Siegfrids and Arion Qualify

Finland – In the second of three heats, held tonight in Helsinki, 2 acts qualified directly for the Finnish UMK Semi-final on 31st January 2013. These were Krista Siegfrids and Arion. Three songs went through to a second chance round. Check out who they were and which act was eliminated totally…

Eurovision 2013: Calendar

Eurovision 2013 – We’ve already had our first national final, and next week sees the first clash of the season with the choice between the 2nd Lithuanian semi-final or the Swiss final on Saturday night. Here’s the calendar of known events so far. We’ll update it as and when we hear any new confirmed dates and times. Put them in your diary, you don’t want to miss a national final!

Germany: Preview of Lena’s New Single “Stardust”

  Germany -  The winner of the Eurovision Song Contest 2010, Lena Meyer-Landrut will release a new album called “Stardust” this October. The first single off the album will be “Stardust” and will be released September 21. Other than her first two albums, “Stardust” will not be produced by Lena’s mentor Stefan Raab. Lena wrote many of the songs herself and got help from Swedish songwriters such as Miss Li. Some German journalists already listened to previews of 8 songs

James Mitchell TV: San Marino 2012 Review

  James Mitchell TV – Hello everyone! Before I start giving my opinion on what’s to come, I’d like to show you, over the next few days, what I thought of some of the 2012 entries. (I have to warn you, I don’t hold back!). First up is San Marino:

FAQ: How Can I Participate in the Eurovision Song Contest?

  FAQ – “How can I participate in the Eurovision Song Contest” is by far the most asked question we get via e-mail. Young songwriters and musicians (probably mistaking us for an official Eurovision site) always want to know which steps to take to have their song performed on the Eurovision stage.

Editorial: The UK and Eurovision: Should 1 Become 4?

 

  Editorial – Seeing as this is my first post I thought I’d take it easy and talk about something close to home: The UK in the Eurovision. More specifically, the forgotten countries that seem to be left out of the contest. I just want to clarify before I get started that I am not a separatist and I’m not anti-English; I am, in fact, all for the British Union. I am not calling for complete Scottish independence, merely “Eurovision Independence”.

DR Wants New EBU Rules on Song Publishing

  EBU -The Danish national broadcaster DR has asked the EBU (see pic for new logo) to review their tough rules for the date Eurovision songs may be published. The current EBU rules state that a song that participates in the Eurovision Song Contest can not have been published or performed publicly before September 1 of the preceding year.

Netherlands: TROS Rejected Anouk for Eurovision 2013

  Netherlands – One of the biggest stars in the Netherlands has revealed today that she was rejected by the Dutch Eurovision broadcaster TROS. Through her twitter account, Anouk told her followers that she had approached TROS this year to represent the Netherlands in Sweden and that she has a “killer song” ready. However, TROS preferrs to go through with the idea to

Eurovision History Chat with Bell and Freeman: Germany

  ESC History Podcast – The story of Germany in the Eurovision Song Contest is not one of dominating glory. Just two victories in more than half a century of trying. But it is an engrossing tale. It’s in part about a nation’s cultural redemption The first ESC was 11 years & 16 days after the end of the european war. The other part of the story is about the battle for the soul of German popular culture. For years modernity went head to head with the sweet & highly sentimental schlager style.

Armenia: Juries hurt our chances

Armenia – The Head of the Armenia television Harutyunian has implicitly criticised the jury system of the Eurovision Song Contest: “If the winner of the contest would be chosen through public televote only, Armenia would’ve won or at least achieved another top position”. Armenia’s Eva Rivas reached 7th place in Oslo. Harutyunian also announced that in 2011 the Armenian entrant will be selected internally by the National television channel again.

Voting analysis 7: Who voted for France?

France – The World Cup wasn’t even a month away from the Eurovision Song Contest this year and so France3 decided to promote their official World Cup song through the Contest. Jessy Matador’s 12th place is one of the better positions France has achieved in recent years, which apparently didn’t help the French Équipe to play good soccer in South Africa…

But who gave France points this year and almost as interesting: Who didn’t?

Lena sells 1,4 million records in 4 months

Germany – Just 4 months ago Lena released her first single “Satellite” after she won the German preselection for the Eurovision Song Contest and shortly before the contest she also released her debut album “My cassette player” in Germany, Austria and Switzerland. Now her label Universal announced, that Lena has sold over a million records in Germany already! Satellite has now been sold over 600.000 times (double platinum) and “My cassette player” over 500.000 times (5x GOLD). In the rest of Europe she has sold over 300.000 records to date.

New chart positions: