Eurovision 2019 – It was confirmed today that there will be 42 countries taking part in next year’s Eurovision Song Contest in Tel Aviv. Host country Israel, along with the big 5 of France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the United Kingdom will pre-qualify for the grand final on 18 May 2019.
The remaining countries will battle it out in the two semi-finals on 14 May and 16 May. The countries confirmed by their broadcaster (in brackets) are:
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Albania (RTSH)
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Armenia (AMPTV)
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Australia (SBS)
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Austria (ORF)
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Azerbaijan (İctimai TV)
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Belarus (BTRC)
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Belgium (RTBF)
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Croatia (HRT)
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Cyprus (CYBC)
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Czech Republic (ČT)
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Denmark (DR)
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Estonia (ERR)
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Finland (YLE)
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France (FT)
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FYR Macedonia (MKRTV)
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Germany (ARD/NDR)
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Georgia (GPB)
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Greece (ERT)
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Hungary (MTVA)
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Iceland (RÚV)
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Ireland (RTÉ)
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Israel (IPBC/KAN)
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Italy (RAI)
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Latvia (LTV)
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Lithuania (LRT)
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Malta (PBS)
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Moldova (TRM)
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Montenegro (RTCG)
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The Netherlands (AVROTROS)
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Norway (NRK)
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Poland (TVP)
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Portugal (RTP)
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Romania (TVR)
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Russia (RTR)
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San Marino (SMRTV)
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Serbia (RTS)
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Slovenia (RTVSLO)
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Spain (RTVE)
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Sweden (SVT)
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Switzerland (SRG/SSR)
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Ukraine (UA:PBC)
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United Kingdom (BBC)
The Eurovision Times 
Good luck to everyone. :)
@hulluna, I hope that you are doing fine despite the tragic Leicester City accident.
Thanks Toggie. The last 10 days have been very hard, we were broken. The whole city has been in mourning. I’ve been at the club for a few days. The staff there have been amazing. I’ve also been ill, and my father has been diagnosed with terminal cancer :(. I’m sorry I’ve not been on here much.
I thought of you immediately when I heard the terrible news.
I am very sorry to hear about your father’s medical condition. I wish you and your family the strength and support you will need. Hugs …
I’m so sorry to hear about your father, hulluna. Stay strong.
Thanks, he’s started new treatment to hopefully give him as long as possible.
These are tough times for you and your family. Hang in there, hulluna.
Sorry to see this news Hulluna. Sending you and your family love and light at these difficult times. Hugs.
I still can’t get over the fact that after so many years of following eurovision I was under the wrong impression that some day we could actually see all 50+ member countries taking part in the same edition :)
I think the rules are capped at 46 anyway. We could hit that number if Bulgaria, Bosnia, Slovakia and Turkey made come backs.
Yep. The thing is that I only very recently realized that there is this “46 rule” :P
Good luck to all 42.
On another note, now that all songs have been released, my ranking for jesc 2018 with small comments :
1. FYR Macedonia – 9.5/10 (This is among their best entries in the esc universe as a whole. Spine tingling orchestration, a beautiful voice with substance that is very versatile. This could not only stand in esc but bring them their best result if rightly presented. I don’t know if it will win – probably not – but it should be a dead certain top 5)
2. Kazakhstan – 9+/10 (this is the winner here – Daneliya is a force of nature performing a robust, memorable, atmospheric song. It’s excellent in every aspect)
3. France – 8.5+/10 (comes back with a bang – fresh, very jesc, cute, catchy. It has all the ingredients for success but maybe jesc has grown a bit too much in terms of musical maturity for this ? It’s still great)
4. Georgia – 8+/10 (it feels distinctive I think and carries a nice melody with a beautiful orchestration and variation between a strong chorus and subtle verses)
5. Australia – 8/10 (empowering anthem – pretty standard but very effective and she has the voice to carry it)
6. Belarus – 7.5+/10 (another underrated one – very well composed and sung with a nice urban contemporary feel to it. It shows effort has been put in making this one)
7. Armenia – 7.5/10 (I usually don’t like these armenian uptempo efforts but this has stuck with me – I like him, I like his energy and the song – he is not a great live singer though)
8. Wales – 7.5/10 (This is an underrated little gem especially after the revamp. Atmospheric, well performed and has a nice jesc-appropriate cozyness)
9. Portugal – 7+/10 (A very decent and fresh effort from Portugal and huge improvement from last year. A bit too generic maybe but it’s pleasant and she is likable)
10. Poland – 7-/10 (It’s not bad, it’s quite refreshing but I don’t see what the hype is about – lacks memorability and she is a bit stiff)
11. Netherlands – 6.5/10 (They are great live and have good chemistry but I find it dated and dull after a while – overhyped)
12. Malta – 6+/10 (She is a good singer but given the recent maltese entries this is extremely underwhelming and poorly crafted song-wise)
13. Albania – 6/10 (I like the message and the attitude and fits jesc but not my cup of tea)
14. Italy – 5.5/10 (The song is mediocre and they have little to no chemistry – the boy is overtly dramatic and the girl disengaged and uncharismatic)
15. Ukraine – 5.5/10 (receives a lot of praise but while it has contemporary qualities it ends up annoying and overtly aggresive)
16. Azerbaijan – 4.5+/10 (a song that goes nowhere and makes no sense with a cute singer)
17. Serbia – 4.5/10 (she is charismatic but the song does not suit her voice nor it is memorable in any way)
18. Israel – 3/10 (irritating and without discernable melody)
19. Ireland – 2/10 (I cannot think of a single reedeming quality other than it is a bit catchy – what a tragic downgrade for the irish jesc presence)
I have only listened to the Macedonian song because you keep campaigning for it. ;) :)
I wish that Macedonia put as much effort into their ESC entries …
Marija has my full support and will keep my bandwagon going ! :-)
If I was into JESC, I would hop on. :)
I didnt even listen to the French song!
I only listened to MAK because Guitar got me excited. LOL
Proud that Germany is among the few countries that have never done JESC.
Well I do think Macedonia is putting more effort in Eurovision lately (if you call trying to match as much as possible mainstream music and effort, since this is what’s more or less expected these days…) but they struggle with choices concerning visual and staging presentations.
And I haven’t heard the French song either.
I’d say I agree with most of these observations :)
It is going to be Kazakhstan vs Netherlands for me, with France maybe surprising.
Poland and Ireland are trying something different, but the former is more English than Polish, so a clunky translation may happen. Ireland… finally tries something different, I am extremely indifferent for them except 2015, and I’ll give him the benefit of the doubt. Glandikoff is behind it after all.
Armenia is a grower. The song may not be all that polished, but it is definitely more engaging than if it was more standard, I am into it.
I think The Netherlands have been losing groumd constantly in online polls as well etc. I dont see it going further than lower top 10 tbh. At this point I dont see how Kazakhstan can lose this. Its a winning song, a great singer and it has the debut hype as well to carry it. Maybe France can spoil this but I think Kazakhstan starts with a more solid voting base from its neighbours.
“more solid”? France has no voting base from neighbours: even Patricia Kaas only got 1pt from Belgium… it’s not the 60s anymore!
Well I don’t disagree, I just said the same thing in a different way. And Belgium doesn’t even participate in JESC anymore :P
Good round number! Good luck to all!
216 songs have been submitted for Eesti Laul 2019.The 2 semis will take place in Tartu on January 31 and February 2 while the final is on February 16.
https://menu.err.ee/875319/eesti-laulu-konkursile-laekus-216-laulu
Jacques Houdek has submitted a song for DORA 2019,as a composer thus time.The provisioanl number of songs for the final is 16.
Ι ran all the countries in a random pick program. Computer predicts 2019 winner will be Moldova :-P
Good news from New Hampshire: Restaurateur and Harvard graduate Chris Pappas will be the first openly gay greek-american to sit in the US Congress, after winning New Hampshire’s first congressional district for the democrats with 53% of the vote.
https://www.google.gr/amp/s/usa.greekreporter.com/2018/11/07/greek-american-chris-pappas-wins-new-hampshire-house-seat/amp/
The 6 finalists of Unser Lied Fur Israel: http://infegreece.gr/germania-anakoinw8hkan-6-apo-tous-upopshfious-gia/?fbclid=IwAR0lLaZFd-HqMNw2pYR3zpC1taeHwgNyQnmRn74IL0OafzkfDICxzlpzjW4
Linus and Gregor are cute, the line up in itself isnt strong and I guess they can only hope for something à la 2018 success story, else they’ll be back with charming singers, nice songs, that’ll fall flat in the contest (2014-2017)
I don’t know any of them. lilly among clouds seems to be the most interesting option at this point.
The sun isn’t even out and we have 18 degrees today. In November. That is absurd …
42 countries. :)
P.S. – I hope Bulgaria returns in 2020.
EMA 2019 will consist only of a final of up to 10 songs.The jury will be the 2 superfinalists and then televoters will pick the winner among those 2.
*the jury will select
The 3 choices for Ms Merkel’s succession:
1. An elderly man who wants to return to the laissez fair capitalism we had before the 2008 crisis.
2. A gay man who wants to compensate for that deficit by being reactionary on most other topics.
3. A pious catholic lady who would like to abolish marriage for all if she could. She compared gay marriage to polygamy and incest on tv last night.
Have your choice. :(
* laissez faire
I think you can use the term reactionary for all 3. Ironically AKK/the anti-gay woman looks like a bad cliché of a lesbian while the gay guy looks like a perpetually single straight IT guy.
ROFL
You are right 100 %. :) <3
Btw, good to see you back here, my favourite penguin. :)
Thx it’s good to see you too! Been out of the loop on the ESC circuit a bit ’cause of a project and, above all because there hadn’t been much going on news-wise – plus of course evidenced by racist Germanophobic lack of coverage on German pre-pre-selection here /s.
Lilly among the clouds to me seems most interesting among German pre-selection choices so far as well, based on current songs available , which undoubtedy means it won’t win the pre-selection. Curious about the actual songs like in (most) other countries but so far she seems the one most likely one to be interesting. I’ve to say that for me so far she doesn’t seem to be up to the level of the (mega-star) Clean Bandit & Marina & mega-hot mega-star Luis Fonsi’s Baby – if you haven’t already check it out, curious what u think. It’s def no “Perfect life”!
Lilly among the clouds sounds most interesting/promising to me too but I fear that the vote will go for some spotty lad warbling egocentric and lachrymose stuff.
LOL
Watching the celebrations in Compiegne atm, this Stanley Kubrick masterpiece comes to mind!
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0050825/
I visited Compiègne in 1988. Gosh, I have been around for quite some time.
I adore Stanley Kubrick’s work but then I am probably the least person you could call a movie expert here.
I adore everything related to Kubrick :)
5 more rumored artists for MF 2019 among them Anton Hagman,86 y.o Jan Malmsjo and 76 y.oAnn-Louise Hanson. http://infegreece.gr/souidia-kallitexnes-gia-melodifestivalen-2/?fbclid=IwAR1WttkEdfU0ToSGk2K6dkVbrfKLSkf7r0zrSzPF3sGdT7QSWtYcssAaMZk
Bishara Morad is a youtuber that’s ok vocally but without any personal material yet… I thought he was too young to participate to MF? Vlad Reiser’s music is not MF friendly at all and that’s interesting to see! Anton, after beating Loreen, seems to be a new MF bubble then… as for the two veterans, good for them but they seem filler to get the last spots in semis (unless one has a joke entry, then they’ll Q to final where they’ll be last with juries)
I suppose he may be 16 when esc takes place nect May.Good to see Anton back.
I’m sad to not see Bulgaria after their huge rise, but the OCD in me is happy that both the semifinals got the same number of songs. And I’m glad that, so far, no countries have been reactionary about Israel and keeping it streamlined as possible
I feel the same about the semis (my bf thinks I have a small asperger though I think I’m just weird), plus it’s only fair (even if random allocation can be considered fair too) that both semis have the same ratio of Q and non-Q
Every year after the confirmation, I do my own little draw of 41 contestants, and this year is no exception. :-)
My SF1 would be opened by 01.Romania, 02.Finland…. and closed by 16.Ukraine, 17. Iceland.
Israel, Spain and UK would vote in SF1.
My SF2 would be opened by 01.Norway, 02.Malta…. and closed by 17.Albania, 18.Georgia.
France, Germany and Italy would vote in SF2.
Although running order of finalists is decided after the semis, I did that too :-)
05. United Kingdom
08. France
11. Spain
12. Italy
22. Germany
23. Israel
All the best to all contestants at the beginning of NF season!
How many do you normally get right?
It all depends. Last year not so much, but in 2017 I actually predicted a lot!
When I do the SF alocation, before the draw, I don’t use „groups“ as in real draw.
I prefere to make pairs (when ever it is possible).
For example, I pair NOR-SWE, DEN-ISL, FIN-EST, LAT-LIT, MLD-ROM, SRB-MNE, BUL-MKD, GRE-CYP, BEL-NED, AUT-SUI…..
I believe it is much more fair then the actual alocation system.
After the semis, when all the finalists are known, I make draw for the finals.
Last year my finals was supposed to be closed by your „favourite“ Michael Schulte. :-) :-)
As Israel and Cyprus were drawn at positions 02 and 03 respectivly, we may have seen ESC from Germany this year…. if it was a real draw. :-)
Love the concept Aram MP3’S new video. 😂