Eurovision 2009

[Shiva]

Well to start off early the latest news.

The Prime Minister of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin appointed his deputy Alexander Zhukov chairman of the organizing committee of "Eurovision-2009", which will happen in May 2009, in Moscow.
The organizing committee will deal with coordinating federal agencies and the Government of Moscow.
Also in the committee included: Mayor of Moscow Yuri Luzhkov, head of the Ministry of Information Technologies and Communications of Russia Igor Shchegolev and director of television channel "First channel" Konstantin Ernst. Final of Eurovision will be in Moscow on May 16, 2009. Number of television viewers finals contest around 100 million.

Looks like the mafia have got their hands on the Eurovision now. Well someone has to after Italy left the competition.

[Shiva]

Last night it was announced who would be the two hosts for Eurovision 2009.
Filipp Kirkorov (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Filipp_Kirkorov) and Anna Netrebko (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anna_Netrebko).

While Anna is a fairly famous Russian opera singer most of ye, particulary Vonnie, should remember Filipp. Bulgarian born, he once sang for Russia in Dublin '95 with the song "Kolybelnaya dlya vulkana" and finished in 17th place. He co-wrote the Belarusian entry at the Eurovision Song Contest 2007, "Work Your Magic" for Dmitry Koldun, and wrote the 2008 Ukrainian entry "Shady Lady", performed by Ani Lorak.

Fillip has been a staunch supporter of the Eurovision for many many year.

And now Fillip in all his glory:
http://gaycork.com/forum/picture.php?albumid=58&pictureid=584http://gaycork.com/forum/picture.php?albumid=58&pictureid=583
Even Putin, the ex-KGB agent, looks afraid.

And for the ladies (and Popeye) here's Anna:
http://gaycork.com/forum/picture.php?albumid=58&pictureid=586http://gaycork.com/forum/picture.php?albumid=58&pictureid=587

I'm excited already :)

[curley]

we allways keep our hopes up for some good looking presenters, and look what we are stuck with!!

bully for the women though, she's gorgous!

[JoannaRyde]

Georgias entry - "Give us back our breakway republics!"

[-Vonnie-]

While Anna is a fairly famous Russian opera singer most of ye, particulary Vonnie, should remember Filipp. Bulgarian born, he once sang for Russia in Dublin '95 with the song "Kolybelnaya dlya vulkana" and finished in 17th place. He co-wrote the Belarusian entry at the Eurovision Song Contest 2007, "Work Your Magic" for Dmitry Koldun, and wrote the 2008 Ukrainian entry "Shady Lady", performed by Ani Lorak.


I was very worried about where you were going with that one! Can't believe Eurovision is coming up in conversation already - excitement much!!!! [:-D]

[crazymonkey]

Eurovision Partaaaaaaaay!!! relive the eurovision greats according to me at a very special venue soon..... details probably not coming soon.....

[-Vonnie-]

Eurovision Partaaaaaaaay!!! relive the eurovision greats according to me at a very special venue soon..... details probably not coming soon.....

Friday night you say - I'm so there! [:-P]

[Shiva]

Time for another wee update from your local Euro queen.

The list of countries confirmed participating so far (notice the lack of Ireland)
* Albania* Andorra* Azerbaijan* Belarus* Belgium
* Bosnia and Herzegovina* Bulgaria* Cyprus* Czech Republic
* Denmark* Estonia* Finland * France* Germany* Greece
* Iceland* Israel* Latvia* Malta* Netherlands* Norway* Portugal
* Russia* Serbia* Slovenia* Spain* Sweden* Switzerland
* Turkey* United Kingdom

Possible returns

* Austria - Edgar Böhm, director of entertainment for Austria's public broadcaster Österreichischer Rundfunk (ORF), has stated that the 2008 format with two semi-finals "still incorporates a mix of countries who will be politically favoured in the voting process," and "that, unless a clear guideline as to how the semifinals are organised is made by the EBU, Austria will not be taking part in Moscow 2009." It is not yet known whether the inclusion of juries into the voting procedure will alter the format to the satisfaction of ORF and other broadcasters dissatisfied with the voting procedure.
* Monaco - Télé Monte Carlo (TMC) had once stated that they would not enter into the competition when they have no chance of progressing from the semi-final. Now that the voting system has changed, Monaco could return.
* Slovakia - Slovenská Televízia (STV) is currently considering their budget to participate in the 2009 edition.

Possible debuts

* Kosovo - Radio Television of Kosovo (RTK) wants to enter the Eurovision Song Contest in 2009[10] but is not currently an active member of the EBU, which is required to enter the contest. EBU members are states within the European Broadcasting Area, or members of the Council of Europe. The European Broadcasting Area is defined by the United Nations International Telecommunication Union. Kosovo is currently neither a member of the Council of Europe nor of the United Nations.

Withdrawals

* Georgia - Georgian Public Broadcasting (GPB) has confirmed withdrawal from the 2009 Eurovision Song Contest due to the 2008 South Ossetia war in protest of the foreign policies of Russia.

Possible withdrawals

* FYR Macedonia - Makedonska Radio Televizija (MKRTV) is uncertain of their participation at the Eurovision Song Contest 2009. The future of the station will be determined by the Macedonian government. The government has refused to comment on the financial situation of the broadcaster, although it has indicated that the most likely option for MKRTV is bankruptcy or liquidation.
* Lithuania - The head of Lietuvos Nacionalinis Radijas ir Televizija (LRT) has stated that they will consider boycotting the 2009 contest "if Russia continues to showcase power and ignores international law", referring to the war in South Ossetia.
* Poland - Telewizja Polska (TVP) will decide in October 2008 if they will participate in the contest in 2009.[65] TVP has confirmed that it is considering withdrawing from the contest, but is waiting to review any changes the EBU makes to the show's format or voting procedure. Poland's victory in the 2008 Eurovision Dance Contest and its evaluation on whether to host the 2009 Eurovision Dance Contest will also be a factor in TVP's decision. Aneta Wrona, a spokesperson for TVP, stated that Poland's participation or withdrawal in next year's contest will have nothing to do with the political situation between Russia and Georgia.[16] No word as of yet has come from TVP over their participation at the contest after the annoucement of a jury system in the final.
* San Marino - San Marino RTV (SMRTV) will decide by the end of 2008 whether they will participate in the Eurovision Song Contest for a second time. The Sammarinese Minister of Youth has commented that they have "good hopes" of returning to the Eurovision Song Contest.
* Ukraine - Natsionalna Telekompaniya Ukrainy (NTU) is considering withdrawal due to financial problems with its broadcasting network, though it is also still looking for a sponsor for the event.

So lets say that all possible countries, returns and debuts take part as well as the regulars that makes an impressive 46 countries. There is also the rumor they will abolish the rule for the big 4 (England, Germany, France and Spain) automatic qualification.

[Shiva]

Already only 9 months away from the next competition and Greece brings out the big guns Sakis Rouvas (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sakis_Rouvas).
http://www.gaycork.com/forum/picture.php?albumid=56&pictureid=643http://www.gaycork.com/forum/picture.php?albumid=56&pictureid=642
He represented Greece in Eurovision 2004 with "Shake it" 7TSonShZz04
He was also the host of the 2006 Athens Eurovision. No song has been chosen yet.

[Invincible]

Oh i liked him. Especially when he ripped off his t-shirt.

The song was pretty daycent too.

[Shiva]

Here is the Nordic selection Times

* January 2009
* 09 Finland semifinal 1
* 16 Finland semifinal 2
* 23 Finland semifinal 3
* 24 Norway semifinal 1
* 31 DENMARK FINAL
* 31 Norway semifinal 2
* 31 FINLAND FINAL

* February 2009
* 07 Sweden semifinal 1
* 07 Norway semifinal 3
* 14 Sweden semifinal 2
* 14 Norway semifinal 4
* 21 Sweden semifinal 3
* 21 NORWAY FINAL
* 28 Sweden semifinal 4

* March 2009
* 07 Sweden 2nd chance
* 14 SWEDEN FINAL

Austria has officially announced it's not going to Moscow.

[Shiva]

http://www.gaycork.com/forum/picture.php?albumid=17&pictureid=645
De Toppers, there's an open call for the songs and the national final should be on February1

[Shiva]

Bulgaria is this year's Iceland with endless semifinals and selections starting October 2 and ending December 19. Several names from the previous Bulgarian selections are giving it yet another try. Nine songs of the list below will make it to the final joined by 3 wildcards:

1.Zona - Senki 2.Todor Kalchev - Ne moga da zaspya 3.Big Mama Scandal - By you 4.Antoniya Markova - Don't leave by the day 5. Svetozar Hristov - Barrow from the shadow 6.Vatticana - Sun is shining 7.Mario Denev - Lipsvash mi tatko 8.Mario Marinov - La ragazza che ho lasciato 9.Iskren Petsov - Zashto se Varna 10.Perfect Stranger - I promise 11.Venelina Milanova - Neka s pesen 12.Moto - Razstoyaniya 13.Freeway - Sama 14.Monika Kirovska - I won 15.Asya Rusanova - Ako nyama koy da vi obicha 16.Gligor - Sazdadeni 17.Tsetso Vlaykov - What does it take 18.Gergana Dimova - Yasno slantse 19.Bobi Kokera, Bleki & Sunnie - Tozi pat 20.Teni - Fall 21.Fizicheski Fakultet - Kosmonavti bez raketa 22.Itso Petroff & Priyateli - Rokendrol izkustvo 23.Hristo Karakanchev & Priyateli - Pesen za pirin 24.Vihren - Once upon a summer 25.Emilya Valenti - S teb 26.Annayah - Az te chakam 27.Sunay Chalakov - Neshto ludo 28.Emil Sokolov -Deystvitelnost ili izmama 29.Deyan Dzhenkov - Imam tvoeto ime 30.Anna Star - Stranger 31.Prima Vista - Let's spread love 32.Konkurent - Placha v noshtta 33.Stefan Ilchev - Get up 34.Lazar Kisyov - You're not alone 35.Iliyan Tsvetanov - Tozi ritam 36.Iskra & Misha Iliev - Dokosni me 37.Teodora Kutsarova - Droga 38.Biby Michael Sfriends - Valshebni noti 39.Ruth - Sometimes 40.Lorado - More ot mechti 41.Shara - Don't kiss for the money 42.I Velina - Ready for love 43.Hari ot Balgariya - Bez dumi 44.Just Elly - My song 45.Tereza Kolarova - Samo edno more 46. X-R@Y - We 47.Georgi Varbanov - Europe is my home! 48.Tedu Slavcheva - Don't look for me 49.Zheni Karavacheva - Dumi 50.Hristo Dimitroc Polyakoc - Uprek 51.Plamen Penev - Dalechen svyat 52.Fanagora & Milena Peeva - Love never ends 53.Martin Aleksandrov - Mi fai male 54. Petya Hristova - Sacred journey

[Cinaed]

http://gaycork.com/forum/picture.php?albumid=58&pictureid=583

..does anyone else think that Filip looks a bit like Kelly Klit?

[Shiva]

Norway
The deadline for submitting songs for Melodi Grand Prix 2009 in Norway has passed and the songwriters of the country have sent in more than 350 songs in total. This year the rules have been changed and the contest is now only open for Norwegian songwriters. Total number of submitted songs is down from almost 600 last year, but as only a third of the songs were from Norwegian composers last time, the number is actually up compared to the number of eligable songs under the new rules.

The national finals were a great public success in Norway in 2008, and 8 out of 10 viewers tuned in to see Maria clear her way to a 5th place in Belgrade. This is the best audience for the Eurovision Song Contest in Norway since 1999 and the contest is also the most watched programme of the year.

NRK, the Norwegian broadcaster, says it is hoping MGP will be a forum for songwriters to improve themselves both on domestic and international level and has therefore allowed participation only from Norwegian songwriters. This means they have to either have Norwegian citizenship or have a permanent Norwegian residence. A co-operation with foreign songwriters is allowed, but the at least 50% of the team must still be Norwegian.

Estonia
At a meeting at ETV headquarters earlier today, it was decided that Estonia will not boycott the 2009 Eurovision Song Contest as 66% of the public voted to see their country participate. Earlier this year, a member of the Estonian Parliament had campaigned for the country to miss the event in Moscow and for Latvia and Lithuania to join them in responce to Russian activity in Georgia.

The poll launched earlier this month by ERR showed that Estonians wish to see their flag flown in Moscow by a majority of 66%. Although Margus Allikmaa, ERR Chairman of the board, is still not convinced Estonia should participate in the 2009 Eurovision Song Contest, the board's decision was in accordance with the poll's outcome.

Mr Allikmaa would like to see a local, well-organised song contest for Estonians only and he still feels going to Moscow is not the right decision: "Eurovision was never free of politics", he says, "every country has used the contest for political reasons and so will Russia!. It is very naïve to believe that singing and politics can be kept apart. But as our poll showed that the majority of Estonians wish our country to participate, I have to respect that", he concluded.

Slovenia
For the third time, RTVSLO will use the same system to choose the song that will represent Slovenia at the Eurovision Song Contest in Moscow, with slight changes.

The annual EMA will be held in February 2009. RTVSLO will invite ten artists to take part, and a committee will choose the other ten. In total 20 songs will take part in two semifinals - ten songs in each. From each semifinal, the top five will qualify for the final. In the final, the top two out of the ten will take part in a superfinal on the same evening, and the winner will go to Moscow for Slovenia.

Last year, the superfinal was very exciting as Rebeka Dremelj got only 400 votes more than the runner-up, Langa & Civili. Rebeka, along with her song Vrag naj vzame, finished 11th in the first semifinal and did not qualify to the final. Therefore the winner of EMA 2009 will have to take part in the semifinals of the Eurovision Song Contest 2009.

United Kingdom
The BBC will bring a complete overhaul to the United Kingdom's Eurovision Song Contest selection in 2009. Amongst the planned changes are the replacement of Terry Wogan with Graham Norton as host of the selection shows, a multi-week format and the most prominant name in musical theatre, Andrew Lloyd Webber, as a lead judge. esctoday.com believes that he will also write the song that the winner will take to Moscow to represent the country.


The format of the United Kingdom's new selection show is set to follow the successful series such as How do you solve a problem like Maria, Any dream will do and I'd do anything. In the shows, 12 candidates each completed for a lead role in Andrew Lloyd Webber stage productions (The sound of music, Joseph and the amazing technocolour dreamcoat and Oliver! respectively). The shows have all been ratings hits and have won several television awards.

In today's Sun and Telegraph newspapers, a BBC insider is said to have stated: "Millions of Brits watch the Eurovision but always leave disappointed that we’ve done so badly...So next year we’re going all out. Graham’s been drafted in to host and Lord Andrew will give his important input, possibly as part of a panel or as a mentor. There is likely to be a public voting element to it as well. Next year really could be the year Britain comes out on top.”

With the newly annouced changes to the Eurovision Song Contest voting, and the return of the juries to form part of the voting process, the BBC will feel that they have a real chance to make an impact on the voting board after years of what has been perceived as underachievement due to the voting patterns across the continent.

Earlier this year, Andrew Lloyd Webber went on record to say that following the success of the first three shows, he will wait until 2010 before doing the next one to select a performer for a stage show. That leaves the spring schedules clear to create a show along the same format that can be used to find the United Kingdom's Eurovision Song Contest entry.

With John Barrowman amongst the Lord Andrew show judges as well as a pundit and judge in recent British national finals, it seems increasingly likely that the BBC are set to take a highly successful show and use it as the basis of selecting their next Eurovision Song Contest representative, perhaps in a show titled How do you solve a problem like Eurovision after recent results in the competition (also touted as the title of the 2008 national final by several newspapers).

The Big 4
More news coming out from Moscow today is that one rumour that surfaced after the 2008 Eurovision Song Contest has been laid to rest. France, Germany, Spain and the United Kingdom will not lose their 'Big Four' privilege of an automatic place in the Eurovision Song Contest final.

Following another year of poor results for the Eurovision Song Contest 'Big Four', many media speculated that the four countries would surrender their automatic place in the final of the competition. As the four large financial contributors to the competition, their entries have been automatically qualified for the final since the introduction of a semi final in 2004. There will be no change in that status in Moscow.

In Belgrade, Spain finished in 16th place and France could only manage 19th position, despite having two of the most talked about entries of the year. Germany were 23rd and the United Kingdom finished in last place, both with 14 points.

There is a general view that under the current televoting system, not performing in one of the semi finals puts the countries at a disadvantage because their song is only heard once in the final rather than twice - by not performing live in a semi final, even though a small part of the official video clips are now shown in both semi finals during the voting window.

Traditionally, the Big Four have done well at the Eurovision Song Contest. France and the United Kingdom have each won the competition five times, Spain twice and Germany once. The United Kingdom also holds the record for the most number of second place finishes and the most entries in the top three of the competition but their results have fallen dramatically in recent years. Spain's last win came 39 years ago, France have waited 31 years since their last victory, Germany's only win came in 1982 and the United Kingdom has won once since 1981.

In fact, at least two of the Big Four have occupied places in the bottom four on the scoreboard for the last four years. In that time, with a total of 16 entries between them, none have achieved a place in the top half of the scoreboard. Germany came closest in 2006 with Texas Lightning. The song was one of the favourites to win the competition according to fans and bookmakers before the night but could only finish 15th.

2008 positions (out of 25)

* 16th - Spain
* 19th - France
* 23rd - Germany
* 25th - United Kingdom

2007 positions (out of 24):

* 19th - Germany
* 20th - Spain
* 22nd - France
* 23rd - United Kingdom

2006 positions (out of 24)

* 15th - Germany
* 19th - United Kingdom
* 21st - Spain
* 22nd - France

2005 positions (out of 24)

* 21st - Spain
* 22nd - United Kingdom
* 23rd - France
* 24th - Germany

[Captain Ass]

Let me just say a few things...


I personally watch the Eurovision for "the laugh" but am disappointed with some of the ridiculous acts in it-including some of Irelands and GB's...

Also...I CAN NOT WAIT! for Graham Norton to take over from Terry Wogan, I always disliked Terry's form of presenting it, and can't wait for Graham Norton to do it...I know I'll be watching the BBC's coverage before RTE's this year!

WE ALSO NEED A HUGE CHANGE IN HOW OURS IS JUDGED AND SELECTED....the UK is taking this seriously....Why don't we!?-We could hold next year's if we REALLY tried and put the big guns into it!

[Shiva]

I totally agree with you Captain Ass, see:

http://gaycork.com/forum/showthread.php?t=7161

for more updates ;)

Most countries hold a huge national song competition, we have 4 turkeys and a muppet on a stage in Limerick (no offence to people in Limerick, actually thats a lie :P )

[Shiva]

3440. That's the number of songs SVT has received. A new European record. 32 will be selected to the semifinals. Poor judges who have to listen them through trying to find a song that will lift Sweden back to its former glory. The final will be watched by 4 million Swedes. Big numbers. HINT RTE HINT!!!

Tomorrow I'll be telling you about the Finnish 12 finalists: Sign language, pop, rock n' tango!

[Shiva]

YLE has also announced the running order for the semis and it seems Kwan, Remu and Jari Sillanpää will easily make it to the final. The other spot in the first one is widely open. In the second propably Waldo's People will make it, too and in the third one Signmark... Or then not!

First semifinal on January 9, 2009: Kwan, Tiara, Tapani Kansa and Riikka
http://www.gaycork.com/forum/picture.php?albumid=17&pictureid=656

Second semifinal on January 16, 2009: Sani, Passionworks, Remu and Waldo's People
http://www.gaycork.com/forum/picture.php?albumid=17&pictureid=657

Third semifinal on January 23, 2009: Signmark, Janita, Vink and Jari Sillanpää
http://www.gaycork.com/forum/picture.php?albumid=17&pictureid=658

Here are some tracks from the artists involved. These are not the tracks they will be playing.

Riikka (http://www.myspace.com/riikkatoarie) Very Angelic voice, I like her.
Waldo's People (http://ie.youtube.com/watch?v=uAOmRjo1dBM) This is very catchy.
Vink (http://www.vinkrock.com/video) Sort of a Scandanavin McFly.
Tiara (http://ie.youtube.com/watch?v=-CuWf7NWmv4) Very Dido like.
Jari Sillanpää (http://ie.youtube.com/watch?v=SWSYC7OALdk) A previous entrant for Finland in 2004 (and obviously not gay). There is a reason they send in heavy metal these days...
Signmark (http://ie.youtube.com/watch?v=zbKXlTXQCN0) R&B act.
Sani (http://ie.youtube.com/watch?v=fL43e4mjw5E) Random Dance.
Remu (http://ie.youtube.com/watch?v=ACkaWE4hIu4) A 60 year old rock legend in Finland [:-?] The song is catchy for a completely made up language.
Passionworks (http://ie.youtube.com/watch?v=EcvAhnIi27w) Evanescence like, really more pixie rock.
Kwan (http://ie.youtube.com/watch?v=YuV88CX8hbk) See above except more upbeat :)
Tapani Kansa (http://ie.youtube.com/watch?v=28I08JLAcQM) A Finnish Beach Boys fanatic [:-P]
Janita (http://ie.youtube.com/watch?v=yRNHeSXxN5Y) Funky

[Invincible]

I dont think there are any good looking men in Finland. The other Scandanavian countries must have the monopoly.

[Shiva]

I dont think there are any good looking men in Finland. The other Scandanavian countries must have the monopoly.

Remember that freaky Swedish cleansing law I told you about?

[Shiva]

http://www.gaycork.com/forum/picture.php?albumid=17&pictureid=668

After two years as both the host of the Swedish national final selection and commentator on the Eurovision Song Contest for the Swedish broadcaster SVT, Kristian Luuk, 42, will step down this year. He will instead be heading a major new live music programme by the same broadcaster. Mr. Luuk tells the Swedish press that he was made an offer to head a new live music TV show he could not refuse.
"We are glad to be able to give Kristian a show that he can call his own," says Ronnie Lans, project leader of Melodifestivalen to Aftonbladet. “He has done a remarkable job with Eurovision and Melodifestivalen, and we are now ready to search for his replacement”, says Mr. Lans. “We are not ready to discuss any names yet, however”, he concludes.

Kristian Luuk tells Expressen, that he would like to see a glamorous lady take over the Melodifestivalen duties from him. Kristian Luuk has been popular with the viewers and an Aftonbladet poll saw 61% of the readers voting in favour of keeping him as the Melodifestivalen host in 2009. Usually the hosts have changed every year, so Mr. Luuk staying on for two years was already unusual. Aftonbladet are currently running a poll for its readers who they wish to see as Mr. Luuk's replacement.

Aftonbladet poll (http://www.aftonbladet.se/nojesliv/tv/article3495452.ab)

His style of commentating, full of innuendo and sometimes even rude language, has landed him occasionally in trouble with his bosses, but he has mostly kept the Melodifestivalen audience entertained during the tour consisting of six shows in different cities. Melodifestivalen is the most popular entertainment programme on Swedish television.

SVT are expected soon to announce the start of the ticket sales for the 2009 Melodifestivalen tour. Also expected is the announcement of the 28 songs that have been selected from the 3440 songs submitted to the broadcaster. 4 places will be offered to invited artists or songwriters as wildcards. SVT has announced earlier, that the rules for Melodifestivalen are from 2009 somewhat different from Eurovision rules. For example, pre-recorded backing vocals will be allowed and a total of 8 people on stage. This will make the eventual winner of Melodifestivalen to plan the performance again before Moscow, rather than send the same national performance as has been the case for Sweden for some years.

Report from esctoday.com (http://esctoday.com)

[Shiva]

http://www.gaycork.com/forum/picture.php?albumid=17&pictureid=669

Eurovision 2009 started last week, on October 2nd in Bulgaria. Five songs were presented and ... well, to be honest I haven't quite figured out how it all works out but here's the televoting outcome. Combined with the jury vote apparently the top-3 qualified for semifinals.

01. Perfect Stranger - I promise 38.60 % (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VYVKAZsGr3I)
02. I Velina - Ready for love 32.22 % (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DNUceic-GNk)
03. Venelina Milanova - Neka s pesen 22.04 % (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1z5cZg0TAVA)
04. Emil Sokolov - Deystvitelnost ili izmama 4.86 % (http://ie.youtube.com/watch?v=E4A1AEfVXnU)
05. Monika Kirovska - I won 2.28 % (http://ie.youtube.com/watch?v=hd71rcbyQSc)

Apparently Perfect Stranger and Venelina Milanova go on with televote and the jury picked up I Velina. Before we reach the final there are other selections, votings, jury votes, wildcards and god only knows what....

Tonight,they continue in the journey to select their entry for 2009, with the second heat.

The show will last for an hour and new five songs will be performed:

1. Iskra & Misha Illiev - Dokosni me
2. Prima Vista - Let's spread love
3. Konkurent - Placha v noshtta
4. Mario Marinov - La ragazza che ho lasciato
5. Tereza Koralova - Samo edno more

From these 5 songs, the jury will choose one song and the televoters will choose another two to qualify to the quraterfinal to be held in October 23rd.

The show can be watched through BNT's webstream.

[Shiva]

Kostas Martakis is been proposed to be asked to represent Cyprus in Moscow. Kostas, also known as the best eyes on Greek TV previously was in the preselection for Greece last year. He would be a good choice for Cyprus as he is a well known name in Eastern Europe particularly Russia.

-kQ93atFYsE

[Shiva]

During last weeks successful UK OGAE convention in Birmingham, attendees at the event were questioned by a BBC researcher on changes they would like to see in the UK selection process for 2009. The researcher spend most of the day and evening asking for the opinions of fan club members on what was needed to bring about a change in fortune for the UK in the Eurovision Song Contest. It was promised that all suggestions will be considered for the development of next year's UK Eurovision selection show.

Recent stories in the UK media had reported that the UK selection show for 2009 would involve Sir Andrew Lloyd Webber using the same format employed successfully to select leading stars in West End shows. How do you solve a problem like Maria?, Any dream will do and I'd do anything, proved to be ratings hits for the BBC in the prestigious prime time Saturday evening television schedules. The BBC researcher stated that no decision yet been made on a format for the selection of the UK's song for the 2009 contest and that the Sir Andrew Lloyd Webber story was to be seen as pure speculation on the part of the press. The researcher also confirmed that a decision had not been made on Sir Terry Wogan's future involvement in the Eurovision Song Contest for the BBC.

Since last winning the contest in 1997 the UK have only managed to finish in the top 10 on two occasions, the last time in 2002. The UK regularly finishes in the bottom half of the final scoreboard and the public perception is that the song contest has become so political that the UK had little chance of doing well, regardless of which song was selected. This is why the new BBC production team in charge of the UK selection for 2009 has commissioned the issue to be researched in advance with this fan consultation being one part of that process.

Amongst the comments given by the fans were to get support of the British record industry to obtain an internationally recognised singer with an established team of song writers and producers, using regional heats over a number weeks and a grand final in a Melodifestivalen type format and even importing singers and songwriters from Sweden were suggested. Using reality and talent shows to select the UK entry were also suggested. The UK fans also emphasised the importance for the tickets for the televised final being made available to the true fans of the show as well as finding a TV commentator who could cover the contest in a positive manner.

The fans felt encouraged that they were being consulted by the BBC on the best way to find a successful entry for the UK in Eurovision for the first time in a number of years. They certainly kept the BBC researcher busy with their ideas during the whole Euro Bash event.

[Shiva]

http://gaycork.com/forum/picture.php?albumid=17&pictureid=689

The jury has listened through the 3440 entries and picked up the semifinalists. Wildcards will be added later but we are ready to start the speculation. Alcazar, BWO and Måns Zelmerlöf might be safe bets for artists, and Ace of Base for wildcards. The jury had 17 members including Bruno Berberes, the head of Eurovision delegation of France; Tomas Lundin, the Swedish speaking commentator for the Finnish TV and Barry Viniker, managing director for esctoday.com.

The songs and writers are:

The song titles and the authors:
01 I got you (Rodrigo Pencheff, Tobias Karlsson)
02 Stay the night (Anders Hansson, M. Sanden, A. Lundstedt, Tess M. och L. Hedlund)
03 Love, love, love (Anders Hansson)
04 Show me Heaven (Sussie Päivärinta, C. Kindbom, Tomas G:son, Pär Lönn, N. Geli)
05 Med hjärtat fyllt av ljus (Ingela Pling Forsman, Bobby Ljunggren, Henrik Wikström)
06 Alla (Dimitri Stassos, Henrik Wikström, Irini Michas, Nina Karolidou)
07 What if? (Robin Abrahamsson, Amir Aly, Maciel Numhauser)
08 Så vill stjärnorna (Ingela Pling Forsman, Bobby Ljunggren, Marcos Ubeda)
09 Männskobarn (Ingela Pling Forsman, Bobby Ljunggren, Henrik Wikström)
10 Never been here before (Jennifer Brown, Peter Kvint)
11 Tick tock (Johan Lyander, Matti Alfonsetti)
12 Killing me tenderly (Amir Aly, Henrik Wikström, Tobbe Petterssen)
13 It's my life (Alexander Bard, Bobby Ljunggren, Oscar Holter)
14 Moving On (Sarah Dawn-Finer, Fredrik Kempe)
15 Hope and Glory (Fredrik Kempe, Måns Zelmerlöw, Henrik Wikström)
16 Higher (Johan Fjellström, Joakim Udd, Johan Becker)
17 You're not alone (Fredrik Kempe, Alexander Bard, Anders Hansson)
18 Snälla, snälla (Caroline af Ugglas, Heinz Liljedal)
19 Här för mig själv (Tomas G:son, Marcos Ubeda)
20 Jag ska slåss i dina kvarter (Lasse Lindh)
21 Du vinner över mig (Tomas G:son)
22 Jag tror på oss (Lars Dille Diedrison, Martin Hedström, Ingela Pling Forsman)
23 Esta Noche (Michael Xavier Barraza, Jimmy Almgren, Adam Soliman)
24 1000 miles (Niklas Jarl, David Stenmarck)
25 You're my world (Emilia Rydberg, Fredrik Figge Boström)
26 The Queen (Tony Nilsson, Henrik Jansson)
27 Welcome to my life (Samuel Waermö, Didrik Thott)
28 Den första kyssen (Lina Eriksson, Målgan B-son)

http://gaycork.com/forum/picture.php?albumid=17&pictureid=690

The Swedish tabloid Aftonbladet didn't waste time, in picking up the singers for the songs announced yesterday. The list will have many changes before SVT will make it public but this is what they came up for now and it looks pretty good. However, it may be good to keep in mind this is what they/we wish the artist list would look like.

Agnes - Love love love
Alcazar - Stay the night
Susanne Alfvengson - Männskobarn
Johan Becker ft Star Pilotz - Higher
Linda Bengtzing - Jag tror på oss
Sofia Berntson - Alla
Jennifer Brown - Never been here before
BWO - You're not alone
Shirley Clamp - Med hjärtat fyllt av ljus
Cookies and beans - What if
Sarah Dawn Finer - Moving on
Amy Diamond - It's my life
Emilia - You're my world
Jonathan Fagerlund - Welcome to my life
Maja Gullstrand - Här för mig själv
Lili & Susie - Show me heaven
Lasse Lindh - Jag ska slåss i dina kvarter
Rigo - I got you
Ola - The queen
Lasse Stefanz - Den första kyssen
Mikael Rickfors - Du vinner över mig
Molly Sanden - Så vill stjärnorna
Martin Stenmark - 1000 miles
Nina Söderqvist - Tick tock
Carolina af Ugglas - Snälla snälla
Måns Zelmerlöv - Hope and glory
? - Esta noche
? - Killing me tenderly

[Shiva]

In a press conference, held at the Hilton Hotel in Athens, ERT, the Greek broadcaster, presented the team for the 2009 Eurovision Song Contest. Greece was the first country this year to announce their representative who is no other than Sakis Rouvas, who also represented the country in 2004 and hosted the 2006 contest in Athens.

Although the Greek broadcaster did not confirm the exact date or venue of the Greek final, it was reported by local media that it will be held on 17 February. ERT announced that it will be hosted once more by the Maggira sisters, who hosted last year's show and commentated for the Greek TV from Belgrade. Sakis will perform three songs by Dimitris Kontopoulos. When asked on the type of songs he wil be singing, the Greek mega star joked : "If you have watched me these 17 past years, do you think I would go with a ballad?"

ERT executive, Mr Johnny Kalimeris said that his year, ERT decided to select internally at all levels. Sakis Rouvas will be representing Greece with a song by Dimitris Kontopoulos, the show will be choreographed by Fokas Evangelinos, who also choreographed Helena's Paparizou victorious entry in 2005, Ani Lorak and Dima Bilan last year and was the art director of the 2006 contest, held in Athens. Fokas Evangelinos will not be working with another delegation next year, like he did in the 2008 contest.

“2004 in Istanbul was the “time of innocence” for us” said Mr Kalimeris, “we had no idea what all this was about. Since then though, I think we have mastered it. The team aims for the top, and Greece has a tradition in the contest, nevertheless I want to stress that difficulties do exist everywhere and always so we need a lot of serious work until the semi final in Moscow, consistency, great effort, a big promo tour. I am sure for Sakis, I know he is a “soldier”, as for us … I hope we find the courage.” he concluded.

Sakis Rouvas stated that he is touched and flattered to be back to the Eurovision Song Contest which brings back fond memories. He wants to give it his best shot and he is happy for his team with which he has been working for a long time. "Everyone's aim is to hold Eurovision 2010 in Athens", he smiles.

When Sakis was asked whether he is prepared for a bad result in Moscow he answered: "No, I do not want to think negatively. Istanbul was a tremendous experience but we have more to give. We are readier now. Until recently I was telling myself "Ok, I went to Eurovision" but something was missing. And now I feel ready." Mr Kalimeris added to that: " The only way not to lose is not to play!"

Sakis was also asked whether the songs Dimitris Kontopoulos will write will be written by Eurovision standards or will they be songs to his personal liking, he answered that the songs will be tailor made to him, as Dimitris knows Sakis' style very well having worked extensively with him. Sakis was also asked which of the 2004 mistakes he would not want to repeat. He reassured everyone that ERT as well as the entire team are now more experienced and they have a deeper knowledge of the contest: " We are going well prepared", he said

Sakis also sent out a message to Kalomira, who left for the States after placing third in Belgrade last year due to a conflict with her label: "I like her and I continue to support her. Kalomira is and will continue to be a star. She is a star! She is the one who will make the decisions on her life and her career. Everyone is entitled to a break. One thing is certain, what she has accomplished is not accidental"

WNmhXhwUST0

[Shiva]

A few days after the change of guard in the Estonian headquarters was announced, with Heidy Purga taking over from Juhan Paadam as executive producer of the local Eurovision Song Contest projects, a landslide of changes has been announced by ERR. The well-known Eurolaul is no more, having been replaced by Eesti Laul 2009 and an entirely different philosophy in the way Estonia will be approaching the selection of their representatives henceforward. The country's final has been scheduled for 7th March 2009.

Heydi Purga, executive producer of Eesti Laul 2009, explains the change from Eurolaul (Eurosong) to Eesti Laul (Estonian song): "Because our purpose is to change the nature of that competition, we had to change name as well. We expect and hope that musicians will send us songs that associate with themselves and suit Estonian musical taste. Musicians must not lose their personality because it is an international competition and become some kind of "euro product". In addition we wanted to organise an open competition and let the jury know who they are listening to and who the composers are", and she concludes: "And if one day there will be decision that we don't want to participate in the Eurovision Song Contest any more, then Eesti Laul could continue as a important music event in Estonia."

ERR have launched an open call for songs for all Estonian residents, the closing deadline is 8th December. This time the jury who will be making the initial shortlisting will know all the names of the creators of the songs unlike past years. The jury will select ten of the songs until 11 December which will be announced on the same night on an ETV special show.

The ten finalists will be presented to the Estonian public through a series of televised shows: "It will be the biggest TV-show series which will promote local pop-music" says Head of Entertainment Mart Normet. "Hopefully we can now and in the future offer the best Estonian song to Estonian people." The introductory live show will be broadcast 7th February, three more shows will follow on February 14th, 21st, and 28th. The Final of Eesti Laul 2009 will be held in March 7th 2009. The exact method of voting will be announced at the latest February 7th 2009 and the running order will be announced at the latest February 28th 2009.

[Shiva]

After two years of televoting only, Slovenian television, RTVSLO, re- introduces jury voting to decide who will be Slovenia's representative in Eurovision 2009 to be held in Moscow, Russia.

Like last year, EMA, the annual Slovenian competition to decide the country's Eurovision- representative, will be held in February. But as far as the rules are concerned, there will be some slight changes. The two semi finals will be reduced to one with 14 participating acts.

RTVSLO is going to invite six songwriters through an internal selection. The invitations will be sent to those songwriters who had the most success on EMA in recent years and celebrated some hits in the Slovenian charts. The invited songwriters themselves will then choose the artist or band who performs their song. Besides the six invited song writers, all other musicians are also invited to submit a song for EMA.

14 acts will eventually compete in the final. It remains open how many songs of the invited artists and how many of the other submitted entries will compete: Maximum six songs of the invited songwriters can compete in the final and at least eight songs by the other musicians will qualify. The invited authors are automatically qualified for the final if they submit a song.

Another crucial point is the altered voting procedure. The voting consists of a mix of televoting (lines will be open for ten minutes) and an expert jury (50: 50) appointed by RTVSLO.

Contrary to the last two years, there won't be a superfinal anymore- it's going to be only one voting round. Slovenian superfinals were very exciting in the past as the acts placing second in the first round eventually won the superfinal. In 2007, Alenka Gotar placed second in the first voting round only a few votes behind Eva Cerne. But in the superfinal, Alenka won against Eva by a landslide with an impressive amount of votes and thus got the ticket to Eurovision. This year, EMA had the closest result ever with Rebeka Dremelj winning over Langa in Civili with only 395 votes separating them.

However, the presence of jury voting has already led to some controversy in previous editions of EMA as the jury often completely ignored the public's choice. The biggest uproars were caused in 2006, when Anzej Dezan won over Sasa Lendero in 2006 and when Sestre won over Karmen Stavec in 2002. Both Sasa and Karmen had massive support of the Slovenian public which protested heavily against the results.

It is yet to be seen which artists will participate in EMA 2009 or if there are any possible returns of former participants. A lot of new faces are expected though.

[Shiva]

Drastic changes have taken place in the way Malta will be selecting their next Eurovision Song Contest participant for Moscow as it was announced back in September. Horace Joseph Anastasi, President of the Union for Maltese composers, authors, artists etc. (U.K.A.M.), has spoken to partner site Escmalta.com on the latest developments on the still on-going procedure.

Fifty six is the final number of songs which will be competing for a ticket to Malta's national final, as revealed exclusively to partner site escmalta.com, by Mr Anastasi. All of them will, for the first time, be released in a triple CD compilation so that they are promoted to the Maltese public.

In a long meeting, held last Friday, U.K.A.M. also pleaded with PBS that in case one singer submits two songs which both qualify, then the second one should not be dropped as originally stated in the Eurosong rules. PBS, though, remained adamant in their initial position that although a singer may submit up to two songs, only one of them will proceed. "It is true that U.K.A.M. stressed and stressed on this issue, but, at this point in time, for the benefit of all those participating in this traditional festival it felt wiser to let go. U.K.A.M. is to cater for all its members. Surely, that many others prefer one singer, one song, for they stand a better chance." Mr Anastasi stated.

[admin]

as from here (http://www.breakingnews.ie/Entertainment/mhidcwojcwsn/rss2/)


Lloyd Webber to pen UK Eurovision Song Contest entry

http://newsfeed.tcm.ie/media/images/a/andrewlloydwebberx.jpg
18/10/2008 - 19:59:25

Andrew Lloyd Webber said today he has accepted “mission impossible” as he attempts to win the Eurovision song contest for the UK.

The composer of musical hits including the 'Phantom of the Opera', 'Evita', and 'Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat', will pen the UK’s Eurovision entry and search for the perfect voice to perform it in Moscow next year.

However, in a competition dogged by accusations of ’bloc-voting’, which led presenter Terry Wogan to threaten walking out on the competition he first hosted 35 years ago, Lord Lloyd Webber has admitted it will be his toughest challenge yet.

He said: “In my life I have never shied away from the impossible and this looks like the biggest mission impossible of all time, but with the might of the British public behind me who knows what will happen?”

The composer will embark on a televised talent search for the vocalist and hopefuls have until November 21 to send their auditions to the BBC website.

BBC One will be screening a series of live shows called ’Your Country Needs You’ to choose the winner from a shortlist of six finalists.

Graham Norton will once again present the programme, having previously worked with Lord Lloyd Webber on BBC talent shows ’Any Dream Will Do’ and ’How Do You Solve a Problem Like Maria’.

The composer who has had number one hits with songs ’Any Dream Will Do’; ’No Matter What’; and ’Don’t Cry for me Argentina’, will begin working on the song once he has selected the finalists.

[Captain Ass]

lol omg...ireland needs wat the UK is doing for the eurovision!! [:-?]

[Shiva]

http://www.gaycork.com/forum/picture.php?albumid=17&pictureid=693
http://www.gaycork.com/forum/picture.php?albumid=17&pictureid=692

[Invincible]

Surely this is simply a version of 'You're A Star'??? It didnt work for Ireland, so why will it work for the UK?

Yes u have ALW writing the song, but still. It's more a case of the BBC wanting to get a high viewing audience for their saturday night slot for a few weeks rather than them seriously wanting to win Eurovision.

I'm not convinced.

[louislestat]

Looooooove Andrew Lloyd Webber, have loads of his music and love his shows but I think this is a disaster

[Shiva]

Taken from here (http://esctoday.com/news/read/12406)

Lord Andrew Lloyd Webber has spoken out for the first time since announcing that he will manage the United Kingdom's Eurovision Song Contest national selection in 2009. Speaking to BBC Newsbeat, he says Eurovision is a poison chalice and that he'd be happy if known celebrities enter the selection process.

In a full interview, Andrew Lloyd Webber says that Eurovision is "the biggest poison chalice I've ever been given in my career. I quite like poison chalices and this is a particularly interesting brew if you ask me." He also says tha he would be thrilled if big names came forward to try out for the chance to represent the country, asking "Cliff, where are you?"

On the UK's recent poor form and how to rectify it, he explains:
"I'm not going to do anything other than try and get the best song and the best act. Whether we win or not in a way is not really the point, providing we've got a really great song. Over the years Eurovision has come up with an awful lot of very good songs and they haven't necessarily won it".

On the new selection format, he explains:
"People might feel that they're more in touch with it than the have been in the past. I really want to be completely open-minded. For example, if a boy band came and one of the boys was good, I'm not going to rule out the possibility of saying 'I want to take that band member and put them with someone else'. If we had been casting a girl band out of the Oliver programme I did, there were four girls who came out through that programme who would be a match for Girls Aloud any time of the day."

Talking about the style of the song that he will prepare, Andew Lloyd Webber says:
"I'm quite proud of the fact that most of my musicals have had big pop hits out of them and therefore I'm going to write this for the charts - I'm not going to write it as if it's a show song."

Read the full article at the BBC website here. (http://news.bbc.co.uk/newsbeat/hi/entertainment/newsid_7680000/7680376.stm)

[Shiva]

The BBC has opened submissions for singers to represent the United Kingdom at the 2009 Eurovision Song Contest. In a short clip screened just before Strictly Come Dancing, the Lord asks the nation to "ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country". You can see the clip below, or at the BBC website (may not be available to non-British residents).

You can watch the video at the end of this article courtesy of the BBC.

The BBC have launched online submissions on their website at www.bbc.co.uk/eurovision. The competition is open to amateur, semi and professional singers or bands. Entrants may have up to six people in the group, but all members of a group must sing. Entrants must be UK residents (including the Channel Islands and Island of Man) or eligable to work in the UK - which means anyone living within the European Union is entitled to enter.

HOW TO ENTER (from BBC website)

* Send the BBC a video clip of you or your group performing.
* It can be any song - either self composed or a cover of an existing track.
* For copyright reasons, do not sing over a commercial track with vocals - please sing unaccompanied OR over a non-vocal backing track OR with accompaniment by live musicians. It must be sung in English.
* If you choose an existing track, do not change the lyrics or tune.
* NB: It is your responsibility to gain permission from any musicians used on your entry.
* Your video should be a minimum of 30 seconds but can be a mix of different performances or songs.
* All members of the group have to be singers. Musicians who cannot sing are not eligible to take part in the competition.
* You must complete the attached application form and send it to us with your entry via this website or by post. Each member of a group must fill in an individual form.
* For entry forms, please go to www.bbc.co.uk/eurovision/yourcountryneedsyou/
* You can upload the video at the BBC website or send VHS/mini DVD or DVD to: Eurovision HQ, PO Box 60920, London, W12 7UR, UK

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[Shiva]

The 56 songs in the Maltese selection have been made public and the list is filled with the usual familiar names: Ray Agius, Paul Giordimaina, Paul Abela, Rita Pace and so on and it's nice to see even Claudia Faniello has got two songs in as a writer! Also Eurovision veteran, Mr Schlager from Germany, uncle Ralph Siegel is in the running with three entries at this point. Then the usual, multi winning couple Gerard James Borg-Philip Vella: Gerard with 9 entries and Philip.... 16 entries!! That's 28,6% folks!

Here are the Vella-Borg-Faniello-Siegel entries - 22 in total:

Smoke-screen - Jessica Muscat - (Philip Vella, Gerard J. Borg)
Midas Touch - Claudia Faniello - (Sean Vella, Philip Vella)
For a moment - Derrick Schembri & Yanika Fava - (Philip Vella, Rita Pace)
Crossroads - Raquela - (Philip Vella, Gerard J. Borg)
Typical Me - Alison Ellul - (Philip Vella, Gerard J. Borg)
Earth & Sky - Talitha Dimech - (Philip Vella, Gerard J. Borg)
Another side of me - Corazon Mizzi - (Philip Vella, Philip Vella)
Kamikaze Lover - Baklava - (Philip Vella, Gerard J. Borg)
Rock & Rise - Klinsmann - (Philip Vella, Gerard J. Borg)
Inferno - Ludwig Galea - (Philip Vella, Gerard J. Borg)
Something about you - Laura Bruno - (Philip Vella, Gerard J. Borg)
Sexy Girls - Evita Magri - (Philip Vella, Melchiore Magri)
Visions of you - Christine Barbara - (Philip Vella, Philip Vella)
Fjamma tas-Sliem - Dario & Grecia Bezzina - (Philip Vella, Philip Vella)
Lament - Ludwig Galea ft. Fidela tal-Bambinu - (Philip Vella, Philip Vella)
Castaway - Marija Galdes - (Philip Vella, Rita Pace)
Innocent Heart - Ruth Portelli - (Ralph Siegel, John O'Flynn)
This ain't a love song - Christian Arding - (Trevor Fenech, Claudia Faniello)
Army of Lovers - Annabelle Debono - (Sean Vella, Gerard J. Borg)
Love me or leave me - J. Anvil - (Trevor Fenech, Claudia Faniello)
Tonight at the opera - Classic Rebels - (Ralph Siegel, John O'Flynn)
Blame it on your heart - Ruth Portelli - (Ralph Siegel, John O'Flynn)

Chiara, Ludwig, Miriam Christine Malta's previous Eurovision entrants hope to make it again. Chiara obviously wants to make it 3-2-1 for her and if she does that would be historic moment. Usually there is no third time lucky in Eurovision... Miriam Christine and Ludwig are hoping another go as well while Claudia Faniello, Klinsmann and Natasha & Charlene are still trying to make it for the first time. And many other familiar names and faces a s well... Ralph Siegel's song promises night at the opera but as we have both Ludwig and Trilogy returning we might be in for some high notes here!

Here is the rest of the songs in Malta:

Midas Touch - Claudia Faniello - (Sean Vella, Philip Vella)
Blue Sonata - Claudia Faniello - (Ray Agius, Ray Agius)
Someday - Eleanor Cassar - (Paul Giordimaina, Fleur Balzan)
Rhythm of the night - Justine ft. Siconix - (Renato Briffa, Doris Chetcuti)
Love was made of clay - Gloriana Arpa Belli - (Renato Briffa, Doris Chetcuti)
Avalon - Georgina & Ruth Casingena - (Paul Abela, Joe Julian Farrugia)
Carry Me - Rebecca Bonnici - (Renato Briffa, Rita Pace)
The song in your heart - Trilogy - (Paul Abela, Joe Julian Farrugia)
To be myself - Georgina - (Rafael Artesero, Joe Julian Farrugia)
What if we – Chiara - (Marc Paelinck, Gregory Bilsen)
Mozart Revives - Dorothy Bezzina - (Chan Vella, Alexia Schembri)
Promises - Vittorio & Dorothy - (Chan Vella, Alexia Schembri)
Let it shine - Kylie Coleiro - Andrew Zahra, Joe Julian Farrugia)
Where was I? - Jamie Tonna - (Jason Paul Cassar, Mario J. Farrugia)
Falling in love - Francesca Borg - (Jason Paul Cassar, Mario J. Farrugia)
Mama - Miriam Christine - (Miriam Christine Warner, Miriam Christine Warner)
Shades of memories - Julie Pomorski - (Johann Schembri, Johann Schembri)
I'm in heaven - Dominic Cini - (Elton Zarb, Rita Pace)
Circus - Josmar - (Josmar, Josmar)
Hey you - Jessica Muscat - (Rafael Artesero, Rafael Artesero)
King - Natasha & Charlene - (Charlene Grech, John A. Agius)
Alchemy - Natasha & Charlene - (Charlene Grech, John A. Agius)
This is our life - Eleanor Cassar - (Paul Giordimaina, Fleur Balzan)
Before you walk away - Q - (Paul Giordimaina, Fleur Balzan)
Live for today - Q - (Paul Giordimaina, Fleur Balzan)
Butterfly Sky - Klinsmann - (Klinsmann Coleiro, Joe Julian Farrugia)
One million ways - Rosman Pace - (Rosman Pace, Rosman Pace)
Life is an opera - Christine Barbara - (Rita Pace, Rita Pace)
I'm me - Jo Zette - (Steve Compagno, Noel Zammit)
Love in the sahara - Maria Mallia - (Charlene Grech, Clinton Paul)
Ha Hi Hu - The Elements - (Carm Fenech, Carm Fenech)
Where you belong - Wayne Micallef - (Wayne Micallef, Luke Ambrogio)
Lament - Ludwig Galea ft. Fidela tal-Bambinu - (Philip Vella, Philip Vella)
Soulmate - Daniela Vella - (Ray Agius, Alfred C. Sant)
Choose your number - J. Anvil - (Augusto Cardinali, Giovann Attard)
Harmony - Claire Caruana - (Augusto Cardinali, Giovann Attard)

[Shiva]

http://gaycork.com/forum/picture.php?albumid=17&pictureid=755
There hasn't been much to report of the preparations for next year's event in Moscow but now Russia's vice prime minister Alexander Zhukov has announced that one billion ruble (29 million euros) has been laid aside in the federal budget. Zhukov is the head of the organization committee. That's more than double the budget in Helsinki 2007! The city of Moscow will add some extra money to the event. "Interesting and beautiful" is all he says how the event will be stating the details are secret.

http://gaycork.com/forum/picture.php?albumid=17&pictureid=754
Well, it looks like the good old Eurovision mascot might make a welcome return in Moscow, and what is better than a bear? A big Russian bear. We all remember Misha from Moscow Olympics, don't we?

[Shiva]

Believe it or not I was actually given out for not updating this thread. It just goes to show I'm not the only fan here, thanks guys :)

I'll do a post for each countries updates.

[Shiva]

Well the first bit of news has to be the new voting for the competition. Its now 50/50 televoting and jury.

See more here: http://www.gaycork.com/forum/showpost.php?p=103158&postcount=23

[Shiva]

1589
Azerbaijan has started their selection process. The first closed door phase is over and the following ten artists are still in the running. The finalists (3 like last year perhaps?) will be announced propably next week. Elnur & Samir gained a respectable 8th place with Day after day, the country's debut this year in Belgrade.

Nura Suri, Gunesh Abbasova, Aysel Teimurzadeh, Arzum, Azad Shukurov, Vusala Seidova, Emin Hasan, Elnara, Natavan Habibi and Sevda Yahyaeva

[Shiva]

1590

Punctual as always the rumours about Ha'rel Ska'at and Maya Buskila started circulating in the net. Apparently, again, IBA has shortlisted them as the possible ones to follow Boaz Mauda's succesful footsteps. No doubt I would prefer and welcome Ha'rel Ska'at with open arms! But has his "career now reached a right moment" for him to enter Eurovision?
Here they sing some Eurovision songs as a duet:

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Updated

http://www.gaycork.com/forum/picture.php?albumid=17&pictureid=1237

The rumours seem to be right once again: Harel Skaat (27) has been apparently announced the Israeli represant in Moscow 2009. He rose to fame in Israeli Idol like reality show in 2004 and after releasing his debut album in 2006 won numerous awards and scored several hits. His name has been listed as possible Eurovision entrant every year since, but only Boaz Mauda's success, or his own fading success? seem to have changed his mind. However, a good choice! If true.

[Shiva]

1591

The early rumours and speculations from Armenia suggest a popular male singer Arame would fly the country's succesful flag in Moscow 2009. Arame started his career in 2004 in a talent show and has become very popular since then. Check him out here:

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and
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Armenia has been one of the most succesful countries in Eurovision the past three years it has participated, placing 8th both in 2006 and 2007, and 4th in 2008.

[Shiva]

1592

The enthuasism amogst the Lithuanian artists doesn't seem very high as apparently only 30 singers applied before the original deadline. After throwing out the worst only 19 of them are still in the running, amongst them some familiar names like Aiste Pilvelyte (hoping to be 7th time lucky), Ruslanas Kirilkinas (participated in the Finnish Idols but was eventually kicked out because he spoke no Finnish and is now better remembered for carrying around his teddybear and the other participation: Lithuanian gay porn), Erica Jennings (lead singer of Skamp that sung for Lithuania in 2000) and a few other names from the previous national finals. Due to poor quality LRT has extended the song submission deadline until December 5.

Here are the names so far:
Bix, 69 Danguje, Sokoledas, Fuego, Blogos mergaites, N.E.O., Laiptai, Funny Beat, Auguste, Stano, Ruta Sciogolevaite, Donatas Montvydas, Irena Starosaite, Zilvinas Zvagulis, Milano, Merunas, Aiste Pilvelyte, Ruslanas Kirilkinas, Erica Jennings

[Shiva]

I have literally given up. The are currently in their 7th round of the semi final or something like that. I'm not kidding you. When they have less then 10 entrants I'll keep you updated about them again :)

Its Iceland 2008 all over again.

[Shiva]

Semifinal 1
http://www.gaycork.com/forum/picture.php?albumid=17&pictureid=1219

Malta is the second country after Bulgaria to start its lenghty process to find the winner for Moscow 2009. Ludwig Galea, who already represented the island with Julie back in 2004 has the honor to open the contest and familiar faces Klinsmann and Rosman Pace are there as well, along with even more familiar song writers Philip Vella, Gerard James Borg and Ralph Siegel.

01. Ludwig Galea ft. Fidela tal-Bambinu - Lament (Philip Vella)
02. Dominic Cini - I'm in heaven (Elton Zarb/Rita Pace)
03. Classic Rebels - Tonight at the opera (Ralph Siegel/Bernd Meinunger as 'John O'Flynn')
04. Klinsmann - Rock & rise (Philip Vella/Gerard J. Borg)
05. Talitha Dimech - Earth & sky (Philip Vella/Gerard J. Borg)
06. Rosman Pace - One million ways (Rosman Pace)
07. Francesca Borg - Falling in love (Jason Paul Cassar/Mario J. Farrugia)

Semifinal 2
http://www.gaycork.com/forum/picture.php?albumid=17&pictureid=1220

Three Philip Vella songs in this heat, 2 of them with Gerard J. Borg, one with Rita Pace. Also Eurovision veteran Paul Giordimaina is in as a composer and his duet partner Georgina from 1991 as a singer, for someone else's song though. And Claudia Faniello's boyfriend, Josmar making his debut.

1. Q - Live For Today
2. Josmar - Circus
3. Jessica Muscat - Smoke-Screen
4. Georgina - To Be Myself
5. Laura Bruno - Something About You
6. Marija Galdes - Castaway
7. Vittorio & Dorothy - Promises

Semifinal 3
http://www.gaycork.com/forum/picture.php?albumid=17&pictureid=1221

No songs by Gerard J. Borg in this one but there are 2 by Philip Vella and one by Paul Abela and also Claudia Faniello as a song writer.

01. Trilogy - The song in your heart
02. Dorothy Bezzina - Mozart revives
03. Derrick Schembri & Yanika Fava - For a moment
04. Jo Zette - I'm me
05. Evita Magri - Sexy girls
06. Christian Arding - This ain't a love song
07. Gloriana Arpa Belli - Love was made of clay

Semifinal 4
http://www.gaycork.com/forum/picture.php?albumid=17&pictureid=1222

01. Ruth Portelli - Innocent Heart
02. Eleanor Cassar - Someday
03. Dario & Grecia Bezzina - Fjamma tas-Sliem
04. Claire Caruana - Harmony
05. Maria Mallia - Love in the Sahara
06. Natasha & Charlene - Alchemy
07. Claudia Faniello - Midas Touch

[Shiva]

For a while it looked bad for De Toppers, they had split up. Gerard Joling and Gordon have ended up in a real cat fight. If you remember they were the band that The Netherlands had chosen to represent them next year in Moscow.

However Jeroen van der Boom will now replace Gerard Joling and the new De Toppers is made of Jeroen (36), Gordon (40) and René Froger (48). For some reason De Toppers all of sudden became much more likeble. Jeroen seems to have the voice and the looks, and besides if one's surname is Boom how cannot you like him at least a little?

1593

[Shiva]

http://www.gaycork.com/forum/picture.php?albumid=17&pictureid=1223
SVT revealed the first eight artists in Melodifestivalen 2009 and started off with some of the most awaited and biggest names. No surprises here though. All names have been circulating already since the day one the songs were made public. The first wild card will be announced tomorrow!

Alcazar - Stay The Night
BWO - You're Not Alone
Caroline af Ugglas - Snällä, Snälla
Emilia - You're My World
Jennifer Brown - Never Been Here Before
Lasse Lindh and Band - Jag Slåss I Dina Kvarter
Måns Zelmerlöw - Hope & Glory
Sarah Dawn Finer - Moving on

Alcazar, BWO and Måns have all placed in Top-3 previously and also Sarah a respectful 4th. Emilia and Jennifer Brown are in for the very first time.

http://www.gaycork.com/forum/picture.php?albumid=17&pictureid=1224

On November 25th SVT announced 7 more names (The Scotts were announced already Saturday night) and if the first group was big names and Melodifestivalen veterans, this group is made of new comers. Or rather new comers in this situation and event, but most of them have already hits and experience. Mikael Rickfors has been doing music since early 1980's and makes his MF debut; he has been backing various artists previously, including Tomas Ledin back in 1980. Molly Sandén did Junior Eurovision in 2006 (3rd) and finally has the age to do the real thing. Also the guys in Next 3 are barely legal, all around 17. Maja Gullstrand grew up in a circus van driving around Sweden! She's also known from Fame factory reality show. Teenage heartthrob Jonathan Fagerlund, hard rock group HEAT and caribian hip hoppers Rico & co. complete the list.

Mikael Rickfors - Du vinner över mig
HEAT - 1000 miles
Molly Sandén - Så vill stjärnorna
Maja Gullstrand - Här för mig själv
Next 3 - Esta noche
Jonathan Fagerlund - Welcome to my life
Rico & The Topaz Sound ft Red Fox - I got you

http://www.gaycork.com/forum/picture.php?albumid=17&pictureid=1225

December 2nd SVT announced more names in the 2009 Melodifestivalen and this group is made of female artists. All of them have participated previously with the exception of Idols Agnes.

Velvet - The Queen
It's her third solo try after Mi amore and Deja vu. Besides that she has been backing other acts five times.
Agnes - Love love love
She's here for the first time, but her song writers have plenty of experience!
Shirley Clamp - Med hjärtat fyllt av ljus
Shirley's a real fan favourite and it's her much awaited fourth time as soloist after successes of Min kärlek and Att älska dig. She has also backed previously other acts, including Antique (Greece) in 2001.
Sofia Berntsson - Alla
This is her second try after Hypnotizied back in 2006.
Lili & Susie - Show me heaven
The fantastic Päivärinta sisters are back! So Finland sneaks in again, besides Markoolio! They did Melodifestivalen 20 years ago with Okey! Okey!
Amy Diamond - It's my life

She debuted last year with Thank you and is back for a revenge.

[Shiva]

The 4th Melodifestivalen round is actually for Wildcards.

http://www.gaycork.com/forum/picture.php?albumid=17&pictureid=1226

The first Melodifestivalen wildcard is a surprise indeed: Markoolio! He's actually a Finn, born in Lahti 33 years ago as Marko Lehtosalo but lives in Stockholm since he has 6 months old. He has released most of his material in Swedish. Seven albums since 1998 and the 8th one coming out in December. His song is titled Kärlekssång från mig (A lovesong from me). His only Melodifestivalen experience to date is hosting. Hear him in Finnish here: AAPu_X0T6MY
and making fun of schlager here:
Pcndal-pk4k

http://www.gaycork.com/forum/picture.php?albumid=17&pictureid=1227

The Scotts. They will perform Jag tror på oss, a song that was sung by Linda Bengtzing on demo. A little bit of them here, doing Cara mia and stuff: IxMhMOEoRMI

http://www.gaycork.com/forum/picture.php?albumid=17&pictureid=1228

Malena Ernman. A Swedish opera diva with an edge. She is mezzo soprano but can sing like a tenor. She seems to be fun, too. The song is called La voix and its written by Fredrik Kempe. Sounds promising!
Check her out yourself here: z_ZS9s-3iFg

http://www.gaycork.com/forum/picture.php?albumid=17&pictureid=1229

Marie Serneholt (25) of A*teens fame. After A*teens she has released a few hit singles (That's the way my heart goes and I need a house) and a debut album Enjoy the ride in 2006. A*teens released four albums between 1999-2003 and enjoyed global success. A good and surprising wildcard, just the way they should be! She will sing Disconnect me.
fdU5mcHmTDsg_9fu9wKXSQ

http://www.gaycork.com/forum/picture.php?albumid=17&pictureid=1230

Also on December 9th we have first timers Susanne Alfvengren, Nina Söderqvist, Cookies'n Beans and Thorleifs, another dansband who's participation leaked already days ago. The biggest surprise is the veteran duet: Anna Sahlene (Estonia 2002/3rd) and Maria Haukaas Storeng (Norway 2008/5th) (I think I just heard Curley squeel)

Susanne Alfvengren - Du är älskad där du går
Anna Sahlene and Maria Haukaas Storeng - Killing me tenderly
Thorleifs - Sweet kissin' in the moonlight
Nina Söderqvist - Tick Tock
Cookies 'n Beans - What If

We know now 31 out 32 artists. Who will be the last wildcard?

"We have some contractual problems with that" says Christer Björkman. "Also, the last wildcard is not decided yet. We are toying with several names and the pressure is high to get it right. We started with the wildcards by approaching 15-16 artists and songwriters, and choose from what they give us. When it's down to one place only it's getting very difficult" he admits.

The final artist is expected to be announced within the next 2 days.

[Shiva]

http://www.gaycork.com/forum/picture.php?albumid=17&pictureid=1240

After Finland and Sweden - Norway also has started revealing names from their 2009 national selection. They announced the first 11 songs that are taking part in their national selection, and two of the artists were announced previously (Surferosa and Aaberge), but the others we can just guess so far. Most writers are singers themselves so it might be safe bet to predict a return of Zuma for example, and Christian Ingebrigtsen's debut. He's known from the boyband A1 that scored a hit with Caught in the middle many years ago.

TBA (Ricochets?) - Two of a kind
TBA (Marte Wulff?) - Ride
TBA (Simone Larsen?) - Seven Seconds
TBA - Do it again
TBA - Tricky
TBA (Zuma?) - Find my girl
TBA - Fairytale
TBA (Christian Ingebrigtsen?) - Sweeter than a kiss
TBA - Men, men, men!
Surferosa - U Look Good
Tone Damli Aaberge - Butterflies

[Shiva]

http://www.gaycork.com/forum/picture.php?albumid=17&pictureid=1232

It's 5-7 to English this time around in Euroviisut. Kwan is the only one singing in English in the first semi but Remu the only one singing in Finnish in the second one, but then in the last and third one only Jari Sillanpää sings in Finnish, quite surprisingly. On the other hand Sani goes English already at this point when I thought she would sing in Finnish. Also I thought Remu would go for English but no.

SEMIFINAL 1 - January 9

1. Kwan - 10.000 light years
music: Harry Sommerdahl / Pauli Rantasalmi / Jaani Peuhu lyrics: Mariko Pajalahti arr. Harry Sommerdahl / Pauli Rantasalmi

2. Riikka - Meren
Music: Ville Laaksonen lyrics: Ville Laaksonen / Riikka Timonen / Saara Honkanen / Suvi Nurmi arr.Ville Laaksonen / Marko Timonen

3. Tapani Kansa - Rakkautta on, rauhaa ei
music: Mika Toivanen lyrics: Tapani Kansa arr.Mika Toivanen

4. Tiara - Manala
music: Tiara lyrics: Tiara arr.Olli Saksa / Tiara

SEMIFINAL 2 - January 16

1. Sani - Doctor, doctor
music: Maki Kolehmainen / Mats Tärnfors lyrics: Steven Stewart arr.Maki Kolehmainen / Mats Tärnfors

2. Passionworks - Surrender
music: Kristian Pihlajaharju / Harriet Hägglund lyrics: Harriet Hägglund arr.Kristian Pihlajaharju / Harriet Hägglund / Tomi Meriläinen / Markus Lintunen / Heikki Puhakainen

3. Remu - Planeetta
music: Remu lyrics: Remu / Ilkka Vainio / Risto Asikainen arr.Risto Asikainen

4. Waldo's People - Lose control
music: A. Lehtonen / Karima lyrics: Waldo / A. Lehtonen / Karima / A. Kratz Gutå arr.A. Lehtonen

SEMIFINAL 3 - January 23

1. Signmark ft. Osmo Ikonen - Speakerbox
music: Osmo Ikonen / mahtotapa / sulava lyrics: Brandon / Osmo Ikonen / Signmark arr.Osmo Ikonen / mahtotapa / sulava

2. Janita - Martian
music: Janita / Tomi Sachary lyrics: Janita arr.Janita / Tomi Sachary

3. Vink - The greatest plan
music: Vink lyrics: Vink arr: Vink / Jimmy Westerlund

4. Jari Sillanpää - Kirkas kipinä
music: Petri Laaksonen lyrics: Pekka Laaksonen arr. Ville Riippa

SECOND CHANCE and FINAL - January 31

Listen to the songs here:
http://euroviisut.yle.fi/euroviisut/2008-11-20/karsintakappaleet-2009

http://www.gaycork.com/forum/picture.php?albumid=17&pictureid=1233

[Shiva]

http://www.gaycork.com/forum/picture.php?albumid=17&pictureid=1234

RTVSLO announced today the acts in the EMA 2009 and two previous winners take part again: Omar of 2005 and Karmen Stavec of 2003.

Six composers were invited directly and are already in final:
Omar Naber (songwriter) –> Omar Naber
Boštjan Grabnar (songwriter) –> Eva Černe
Jan Plestenjak (songwriter) –> Alya & Rudi Bučar
Matjaž Vlašič (songwriter) –> Skupina Langa & Manca Špik
Aleš Klinar (songwriter) –> Samuel Lucas
Jože Potrebuješ (songwriter) –> Skupina Čuki

Out of these 14 semifinalists 8 will join the other six in the final:
Karmen Stavec – A si želiš
Brigita Šuler – Druga liga
Bjonde – Blond Power
Nuška Drašček – Kako lepo
Aynee – Zdaj vem
Tadeja Molan and Retro Beat – Sanje
Gianni Rijavec – Gloria
Krema – Ob meni si
Mitja – Mission
Quartissimo – Love Symphony
Nexys – Vsaj za en dan
Ne me jugat and Slavko Ivančič – Kaj me briga
Lea Sirk – Znamenje iz sanj
Petra Slapar – Mistery

[Shiva]

http://www.gaycork.com/forum/picture.php?albumid=17&pictureid=1235

So, Anjeza Shahini is not in, nor last year's Olta Boka. However Luiz Ejlli (2006) returns. Also Rovena Dilo, who won Festivali i Kënges 2000 returns. Albanian Idols 2007 winner Kejsi Tola tries her luck, too. Change in format this year: The first night all songs will be performed by the artists below, the second night by other famous Albanian singers (a bit Sanremo style) and the last night again by these artists. A jury will choose the winner and the 6th Albanian Eurovision entrant.

Rovena Dilo, Grupi “West Side Family”, Endri dhe Stefi, Juliana Pasha and Luiz Ejlli, Soni Malaj, Kejsi Tola, Dorina Garuci, Marjeta Billo, Evis Mula, Kujtim Prodani, Era Rusi, Julian Lekoçaj, Besa Kokëdhima, Agim Poshka, Grupi “Burn”, Vedat Ademi, Bledi Polena, Shpat Kasapi, Erga Halili, Adelina Thaçi

[Shiva]

http://www.gaycork.com/forum/picture.php?albumid=17&pictureid=1236

Belarus has announced the 15 names that will compete in the semifinal on December 15. Five of them will be picked up by a jury to go to the final in January where the winner will be chosen by "televoting".... Gunesh is back for the 4th time, The Champions for the 2nd, Litesound for the 3rd and of course we have also an artist from various Idols/Fame factory reality shows of some kind: Dakota - as solo and with Litesound.

01. Alex Patlis / Александр Патлис - Who said it
02. The Champions - Shake it Europe
03. Anna Blagova & Yuriy Vaschuk
/ Анна Благова & Юрий Ващук - Behind
04. Petr Elfimov / Петр Елфимов - Eye that never lie
05. Gunesh / Гюнешь - Fantastic girl
06. Venera / Венера - Big game
07. Kola / Кола - Honk
08. Dakota / Дакота - Forgetting you
09. SingeRin / Сингерин - Don't think about it
10. Dyadya "Uncle" Vanya / Дядя Ваня - Our Belarussia
11. Litesound feat. Dakota - Miracle
12. Alexey Krechet / Алексей Кречет - Joy and freedom
13. Dominika / Доминика - My day
14. Veter v Golove / Ветер в голове - And, or and
15 . Victoria Belova / Виктория Белова - Don't give up on love

[Shiva]

http://www.gaycork.com/forum/picture.php?albumid=17&pictureid=1238

The rumour is Nina Petkovic, a veteran of Montenegro and Serbia-Montenegro national finals has been chosen to represant Montenegro. Hopefully she will do better than Stevan and Stefan!

[Shiva]

http://www.gaycork.com/forum/picture.php?albumid=17&pictureid=1239

Two names are still missing from the list of the Latvian hopefuls, but there's the return of Valters Fridenbergs, one half of the Walters & Kazha that scored Latvia a surprise 5th place in 2005 with The war is not over. Most of the other names are Latvian national final regulars. One is missing though: Italian Roberto Meloni, whose projects Bonaparti.lv and Pirates of the sea have won the two previous years.

01 Edijs Šnipke- Make my day
02 Camillas -Time goes
03 Valters Fridenbergs - For a better tomorrow
04 Johnny Salamander -Party
05 Iveta Baumane - Tic Tac
06 Ketta -Without you
07 Fidji -Don't want to say goodbye
08 Aisha, Ella, Olga - In love we trust
09 Trianas parks - Call me any time you need a problem
10 Ginta Eke - Be yourself
11 Madara Celma - Have to say goodbye
12 Kristīna Zaharova - Angel of mine
13 Dace and Frīdis - Running around
14 Sabīne Berezina - Bye, bye
15 Kristīna Zaharova -I wish I could pretend
16 Artist TBA -When the sun is going down
17 Intars Busulis -Sastregumi
18 Miks Dukurs - Aizejot
19 Girts Zebulinš - Place to be
20 Aisha - Hey
21 Artist TBA - Dynamite

[Shiva]

A bit of midweek Euro madness there :)
But anyway here is the current standing of the various heats yet to air for the various countries.


* D E C E M B E R 2 0 0 8
* 11 Bulgaria heat 9
* 13 Malta Eurobox 5
* 15 Belarus semifinal
* 18 Bulgaria voting 3
* 18 Albania semifinal
* 19 ALBANIA FINAL
* 20 Malta Eurobox 6

* J A N U A R Y 2 0 0 9
* 03 Malta Eurobox 7
* 09 Finland semifinal 1
* 10 Iceland semifinal 1
* 10 Malta Eurobox 8
* 16 Finland semifinal 2
* 17 Iceland semifinal 2
* 23 Finland semifinal 3
* 24 Iceland semifinal 3
* 24 Bulgaria semifinal
* 24 Norway semifinal 1
* 27 Romania semifinal 1
* 29 Romania semifinal 2
* 31 Latvia semifinal 1
* 31 Slovenia semifinal
* 31 Norway semifinal 2
* 31 Iceland semifinal 4
* 31 CYPRUS FINAL
* 31 DENMARK FINAL
* 31 FINLAND FINAL
* 31 ROMANIA FINAL

* F E B R U A R Y 2 0 0 9
* 01 SLOVENIA FINAL
* 01 NETHERLANDS FINAL (De Toppers)
* 03 SPAIN FINAL
* 07 Latvia semifinal 2
* 07 Sweden semifinal 1
* 07 Norway semifinal 3
* 07 MALTA FINAL
* 14 Latvia semifinal 3
* 14 Sweden semifinal 2
* 14 Norway semifinal 4
* 14 ICELAND FINAL
* 17 Sanremo prima serata
* 17 GREECE FINAL (Sakis Rouvas)
* 18 Sanremo seconda serata
* 19 FYROM semifinal 1
* 19 Sanremo terza serata
* 20 FYROM semifinal 2
* 20 Sanremo quarta serata
* 21 Latvia second chance
* 21 Sweden semifinal 3
* 21 FYROM FINAL
* 21 SANREMO FINALE
* 21 BULGARIA FINAL
* 21 NORWAY FINAL
* 22 UKRAINE FINAL
* 27 Croatia semifinal
* 28 Sweden semifinal 4
* 27 PORTUGAL FINAL
* 28 LATVIA FINAL
* 28 CROATIA FINAL

* M A R C H 2 0 0 9
* 01 BOSNIA-HERZEGOVINA
* 07 Sweden 2nd chance
* 07 ESTONIA FINAL
* 08 SLOVAKIA FINAL
* 14 SWEDEN FINAL


Also the confirmed artisits so far:

* Greece: Sakis Rouvas (16.7.2008)
* The Netherlands: De Toppers (19.9.2008)
* Turkey: Hadise (22.10.2008)
* Israel: Harel Skaat (6.12.2008)

[Shiva]

http://www.gaycork.com/forum/picture.php?albumid=17&pictureid=1241

And while I'm here...Hadise became the third confirmed artist for Moscow 2009. As widely speculated Hadise will represent Turkey.
Check her out here:
XVcl6z-AyzQ
ypDRTQpK9w0
ipgU1mFrhdk

[Shiva]

Semifinal 1 line up
http://gaycork.com/forum/picture.php?albumid=17&pictureid=1243
SVT announced today the line up and running order for the coming Melodifestivalen, minus one wildcard and one artist yet to be decided.
Göteborg , Scandinavium 07 February 2009

01. Marie Serneholt - Disconnect me
02. Scotts - Jag tror på oss
03. Shirley Clamp - Med hjärtat fyllt av ljus
04. Caroline af Ugglas - Snälla, snälla
05. Alcazar - Stay the night
06. Nina Söderqvist - Tick tock
07. Jonathan Fagerlund - Welcome to my life
08. Emilia - You're my world

Semifinal 2 line up
http://gaycork.com/forum/picture.php?albumid=17&pictureid=1244
Skellefteå Kraft Arena 14 February 2009

01. H.E.A.T - 1000 Miles
02. Måns Zelmerlöv - Hope & glory
03. Lasse Lindh & Band - Jag ska slåss i dina kvarter!
04. Amy Diamond - It's my life
05. Markoolio - Kärlekssång från mig
06. Jennifer Brown - Never been here before
07. Lili & Susie - Show me heaven
08. Cookies'n Beans - What If

Semifinal 3 line up
http://gaycork.com/forum/picture.php?albumid=17&pictureid=1245
Leksand , Ejendals Arena 21 February 2009

01. Sofia - Alla
02. Mikael Rickfors - Du vinner över mig!
03. Maja Gullstrand - Här för mig själv
04. Rigo & The Topas Sound ft. Red Fox - I got U
05. Molly Sandén - Så vill stjärnorna
06. Velvet - The Queen
07. Wildcard TBA
08. BWO - You're not alone

Semifinal 4 line up
http://gaycork.com/forum/picture.php?albumid=17&pictureid=1246
Malmö Arena 28 February 2009

01.Susanne Alfvengren - Du är älskad där du går
02.Next 3 - Esta noche
03.TBA - Higher
04.Anna Sahlene & Maria Haukaas Storeng - Killing me tenderly
05.Malena Ernman - La voix
06.Agnes - Love love love
07.Sarah Dawn Finer - Moving on
08.Thorleifs - Sweet kissin' in the moonligh

[Captain Ass]

Where's Ireland standing in all of this?? lol[:-P]

[Shiva]

Where's Ireland standing in all of this?? lol[:-P]

nada, zilch, nothing

[Shiva]

http://gaycork.com/forum/picture.php?albumid=17&pictureid=1271

BBC has revealed the singers and acts that are going to battle it out to sing a song penned by Sir Andrew Lloyd Webber. Now let's see what we have here: shoppaholic identical twins, a footballing Tom Jones' backing singer, a singing dancer & actor, half Sicilian ex-girl band singer, a Motown tribute band that has members that used to be in Flying Pickets as well as dancer in various music videos and a youngster with big hair!

Or Francine & Nicola, Damien, Mark, Jade, Emperors of soul and Charlotte.

[Invincible]

I hope the British acts sound better than they look. After last years fiasco they surely wont go down the motown tribute-band route???

[Shiva]

I hope the British acts sound better than they look. After last years fiasco they surely wont go down the motown tribute-band route???

Well your guess is as good as mine, lets not forget he is writing the song during the contest to suit the winner...

[louislestat]

UK are pulling out all the stops arent they? As much as I love Lord Webber I dont know if he is right for this.
It'll be interesting Sat night TV at least. I loved his Maria/Joseph/Nancy shows and this is obviously a similar format.
Wonder if John 'fantastic fantastic fantastic' Barroman and Denise Van Outen will be on the panel again??
I think Cheryl Baker should be on the panel

[-Vonnie-]

They should just send Geraldine McQueen! Already a superstar with a great background story! [;-)]

[Bootyzilla]

BBC has revealed the singers and acts that are going to battle it out to sing a song penned by Sir Andrew Lloyd Webber.

Yaaaaaaaaaaaaawwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwnnnnnnnnnnn.

And, as well,

Whyyyyyyyyyy?

[Shiva]

The big rumours coming out of Ireland at the moment is that there has been a high level RTE approach to their most successful Eurovision artist - Johnny Logan.

Having won as an artist in 1980 with "What's another year?" and in 1987 with "Hold me know", Logan then penned the 1992 winner "Why me?" sung by Linda Martin.

Despite dominating the contests in the 90's, Ireland have fallen on stony ground lately and sunk to their lowest last year by being represented by a Turkey puppet! Their last good result being in 2006, when the well-known Brian Kennedy gained a top 10 finish with "Every song is a cry for love."

I hope Johnny does accept the invitation as I think it would be good to see how far Eurovision has changed since his wins. We have had a number of past female winners trying to get another win, but no past male winner. So far, those females have attracted some votes, but haven't been able to replicate the win.

It would be good to see the Eurovision back in Ireland!

[Shiva]

1652
Surprise: Latvia is back in! If I was a Latvian artists I would go nuts by now. First they announce the songs, then they withdraw and cancel the final and now.... Hello? What's going on?
Slovakia returns and San Marino withdraws and Italy, Monaco and Austria stay home so we stick to 43 countries as also Georgia is in after all. Here's the list:

Albania (RTVSH); Andorra (RTVA); Armenia (ARMTV); Azerbaijan (Ictimai TV); Belarus (BTRC); Belgium (RTBF); Bosnia & Herzegovina (BHRT); Bulgaria (BNT); Croatia (HRT); Cyprus (CyBC); Czech Republic (CT); Denmark (DR); Estonia (ERR); Finland (YLE); FYR Macedonia (MKRTV); Georgia (GPB); Greece (ERT); Hungary (MTV); Iceland (RÚV); Ireland (RTÉ); Israel (IBA); Latvia (LTV); Lithuania (LRT); Malta (PBS); Moldova (TRM); Montenegro (RTCG); the Netherlands (NOS); Norway (NRK); Poland (TVP); Portugal (RTP); Romania (TVR); Serbia (RTS); Slovakia (STV); Slovenia (RTVSLO); Sweden (SVT); Switzerland (SRG SSR idée suisse); Turkey (TRT): Ukraine (NTU): France (FT3); Germany (NDR/ARD); Russia (Channel One); Spain (TVE) and the United Kingdom (BBC).

[Uranus]

It would be good to see the Eurovision back in Ireland!

Didn't Johnny Logan say "not a hope in hell" to entering the Eurovision again already?

Maybe RTE will send Podge & Rodge this year?

[Shiva]

Didn't Johnny Logan say "not a hope in hell" to entering the Eurovision again already?

Maybe RTE will send Podge & Rodge this year?

Anything can change, he is enjoying a load of success in Sweden atm, thats pretty much Eurovision country there

[Shiva]

When the countries all choose their finalists, so here is a quick roundup:

Iceland:

Here are the songs so far through to the finals:

Johanna Gudrun Jonsdottir with Is it true: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WaCmasV92sk

Edgar Smári with The kiss we never kissed: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jyJgp2fsVfg,

Ingó´s Undir regnbogann: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fSVdRJOohaU

Hreindis Ylva Gardarsdóttir Holm's Vornótt: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tYll5jBtm8Y

Semi-final 3 is on this Saturday.

Malta: Finalists known

Finally we get to know the songs that reached the final in Malta. 20 songs will be on stage in the final on February 7 and they are:

01. Ha Hi Hu - The Elements http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d1namsLXGF8
02. Kamikaze Lover - Baklava http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iwB4rm03-LY
03. Choose Your Number - J.Anvil http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LCtQ3TvmiPI
04. Where You Belong - Wayne Micallef
05. Tonight at the Opera - Classic Rebels http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rydx3cGJCFo
06. Promises - Vittorio & Dorothy http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kCjLnfl6RzM
07. What If We - Chiara http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hpgISr5_nxA
08. One Million Ways - Rosman Pace http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DsDwRbBeV6w
09. Before You Walk Away - Q http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ctvpsfVDaYc
10. Let It Shine - Kylie Coleiro http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D4mb1YvAbHw
11. Where Was I - Jamie Tonna http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=csbOiZGelok
12. Life Is An Opera - Christine Barbara http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9mE-OPNzH-M
13. Someday - Eleanor Cassar http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xMoEEWn7elk
14. Crossroads - Raquela http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9jdDVIayvsw
15. Mama - Miriam Christine http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pMiH2d9KRGA
16. Avalon - Georgina & Ruth Casingena http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rks7mXej9aA
17. Typical Me - Alison Ellul http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A2HpUD68zMw
18. The Song In Your Heart - Trilogy http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KyIPR7W12K8
19. Blue Sonata - Claudia Faniello http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y4HZARhEbrk
20. Butterfly Sky - Klinsmann http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kdSj4GbO64E

Patricia Kaas for France

France has chosen the fabulous Patricia Kaas to represen hem in he Finals, no song has been chosen as of yet.

Here is a sample: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DpIPr9_U9eg

Denmark: Finalists known

DR has announced the finalists for their no thrills final on January 31. Quite refreshing: no semifinals, second chances and all that but a one off final! Previous winner Trine Jepsen (1999) is back, so is DQ's Drama queen writer Claus Christersen but as a singer this time. Ronan Keating has co-written Brinck's song. Then there's Christina Undhjelm from Norway and Hera Björk from Iceland whose song is co-written by Jonas Gladnikoff (Hello Jonas, what's up?), girlband Sukkerchok and then the wildcards Jeppe Laursen, Jimmy Jørgensen, Johnny Deluxe and Marie Carmen Koppel.

Brinck - Believe Again
Claus Christensen - Big Bang Baby
Christina Undhjem - Underneath My Skin
Hera Björk - Someday
Sukkerchok - Det' det
Trine Jepsen - I Never Fall In Love Again
Jeppe Laursen - Lucky Boy
Jimmy Jørgensen - Alice In The Wonderland
Johnny Deluxe - Sindssyg
Marie Carmen Koppel - Crying Out Your Name


NOA & MIRA AWAD FOR ISRAEL
It looks like this time it's for real: Noa and Mira Awad are the chosen ones in Israel ending all the rumors. The story goes Noa was asked and she accepted with one condition: she can take Mira with her. The two women are long time friends and as a Jew and an Arab it's a great choice at this tricky political situation.

Noa or Achinoam Nini are the most successful and best known Israeli singer internationally since Ofra Haza passed away and a trip to Eurovision is pretty much the only thing missing from her CV. One of her most loved songs is La vita é bella from Roberto Benigni's Oscar winning movie with the same name.
Mira is a successful singer and actress who's no stranger to Eurovision; she took part in the Israeli selection 2005 with Zman that I recall being one of my favorites...

See them perform together here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B9csbv-0A04
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UAc5o6Kce-4, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PDLStUsr77w

Bulgaria wraps it up finally

Not quite, but almost there ;)

After endless heats and quarter finals, wild cards and stuff the Bulgarian hopefuls seem to be finally put together. Krassimir Avramov, who was first presented as a wild card seems to be now competing in the semifinal after all. Three wild cards were presented last night and one of them is Mariana Popova who represented Bulgaria back in 2006 with Let me cry and didn't qualify for the final. The semifinal will take place on January 24th, 9 songs will meet the 3 wildcards in final on February 21. Listen to the songs here: http://eurovision.bnt.bg/

Wildcards:
Poli Genova - One lifetime is not enough http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PXOqw-Y03uY
Grafa - Vrag http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_nPb9AA4Izs
Mariana Popova - Crazy http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=226UgSMnFe8

Semifinalists:
Krassimir Avramov - Illusion http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AuW3WuXz-74
Moto - Razstonija
Ivelina - Ready for love
Nora - It's not right
Sahara - Don't kiss for money
Dani Milev - Njma vreme
Jury Tone feat. Lady B - Chance to love you
Stefan Dobrev - Everlasting
Dejan Dzhenkov - Imam tvoeto ime
Prima Vista - Let's spread love
Iskra & Misha Iliev - Dokosni me
Gergana Dimova - Yasno slantse
Plamen Penev - Dalechen svyat
Emilya Valenti - S teb http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OUzVSN2zB7o
Zona - Senki
Tedi Slavcheva feat. Teni & Iva - Don't look for me
Stefan Ilchev - Get up
Erilien & Najam Shiraz - Chronin na

AYSEL FOR AZERBAIJAN

The Azeri TV has announced today that Aysel Teymourzadeh will represant Azerbaijan in Moscow. She has no previous experience but surely does have a lot of self confidence declaring she will win and none of the names selected so far can beat her! Oh well...

Portugal starts its selection - on the internet!

Portugal is now "the oldest" non winning country when Greece and Finland won, and the hopes were high last year with Vania Fernandez and Senhora do mar. But no. We are not going to Lisbon yet. Sigh. Anyways, RTP received 393 songs this year and 24 have been selected to be presented on internet where anyone can vote them for a week and we will have the 12 finalists. The songs are presented and on line so do your duty and vote for the song that might bring Portugal its first well deserved win! Meanwhile you can also catch up with all the previous Portuguese winners. Here: http://ww1.rtp.pt/wportal/sites/tv/festival_cancao09/

you can listen and vote them here: http://ww1.rtp.pt/wportal/sites/tv/festival_cancao09/votacao.php. The 12 most voted will go to the final. Amogst the hopefuls we have two previous Eurovision stars; Nucha from 1990 and Armando Gama from 1983 as well as two previous Portuguese Pop Idols winners; Sérgio Lucas and Nuno Norte.

Luciana Abreu has taken an early and clear lead in the voting followed by Nuno & Fábia, Eva Danin and Fio-de-lis. My favourite is Ana Sofia with Romane.... Quite confusing compilation of songs really, and not in a good way. I'm afraid we are not heading to Lisbon in 2010 either....

01. Lyana - Vivo para a paz
02. Nucha -Tudo está na tua mão
03. Flor de Lis - Todas as ruas de amor
04. Tayti - Amore mio, amore mio
05. Pedro Daniel- Sem ti não quero acordar
06. Pedro Duvalle -Sinto sentido
07. Romana - Acordem em olhos doirados
08. Angie - Sonhar sem limites
09. Nuno e Fábia - Não demores (quero-te aquecer)
10. Infantes de Sagres - O beijo de quando te vais embora
11. Fernando Pereira - É o amor
12. Luciana Abreu - Juntos vamos conseguir (Yes we can)
13. Sérgio Lucas - Procuro-me em mim
14. Eva Danin - Amor mais forte que o vento
15. Jackpot -Há sempre um mas
16. Miguel Cervini- Não está
17. Francisco Andrade -Voar é ver
18. Armando Gama - Amor mais que perfeito
19. Ana Sofia - O meu planeta especial
20. André Rodrigues - Não vou voltar a mim
21. Nuno Norte - Lua sem luar
22. Filipa Batista - O seu lugar
23. Flávio - Jura que ainda me amas
24. Daniel Costa - Mais uma vez (este mar salgado)

SPAIN

Spain has decided how to proceed with their selection. The top-20 acts from the voting will go directly to the semifinals and the other 30 top songs will have to try to make it there by another selection by a jury. In the end 10 of them will qualify to the semifinals. In 3 semifinals there will be 10 songs each and top-3 will qualify. The rest will have a second chance round before the final so in the final there will be ten songs. Complicated?

Anyways, these acts made it directly to the semifinals:
Melody, Soraya, Santa Fe, La la Love You, Noelia Cano, El secreto de Álex, Normativa Vigente, Roel, Julia Bermejo, Vicente Casal, Virginia, Biquini, Yulia Valentayn, Jorge González, Calipop, Diqesi, Electronikboy, Mirela, Atalis, Oskee

These 30 will fight their way to the semifinals:
Rafa Saez, Solydo, Izan, Carlos Ferrer, Jaime Rojo, Gran Baobab, Salva ortega, Dulce, Vilas Mata, Isi, Beatriz, Omi Di, Ángeles Vela, David Caballero, La Red de San Luis, Leather Boys, Remembrances, No Life After Love, Bloodsuckers, Midnight, Rafael Sánchez, Iko de la Llilla, Fran Arenas, Mari Callas, Sin Tanto, Ron, Jammy & Shark, Patrix y los Raperos, Depresión Post-Parto, Adrián

The semifinals will be held in February 14, 21 and 20, and the final March 7 and the second chance sometime in between...

Ukraine reveals the hopefuls

Ukraine that has been the most succesful Eurovision country the last few years has revealed the 63 who sent in songs in hope to be selected to Moscow. A jury will select 30 of these for two semifinals. Amongst the names a lot of shady ladies, quite a few familiar national finalists and also Alexander Panaiotov from the Russian selection '08 as well as NeAngely who recently dueted with Dana International.

Gil Emmanuel - You're my heart, Nazar Savkom - Ti prosto sluhaji, Zorna Skirko - Blocao play Tikaji, Majia Yancisin - Ti ne odin, Cirkel M. and Cajikivskiji A. - Tabu, Kristal Sayenne - Control kiss, Ira Pojizon - You free me, Natalya Maksimcuk - Ciganka vira, Andriana Pyabec - Be careful, Andriji Furdicko - Don't go, Andriji Zulin - Let's make friends, Eduard Romanoyuta - Silence, Galine Eremenko - Sly lover, Def 3 - Ya garmoniya, Svitlana Loboda - You are so sexy, Ana - You're like a paradise, Oleg Skripka ta gurt - BB, Irina Bagleji - Sexy mama, Godo - Olvidamos, Nataliya Volkova - Gush, Olga Sandri- Yak kalian rozicvitae, Anna Sakre - In the silence of Eden, 4 Kings - Tearin' up my heart, Kishe - Midnight, Zaklopki - Time is up, Aleksandr Panajiotov - Superhero, Solomia - Not perfect, Petro Klimenko & Dnipropetrovsk region. - Ljubistok v yane, Lenara Osmanova - Flash, Irina Fedishin - Zakohalasya, Sergey Samsonenko - Lyubov, yaku ti ne lyubila, Tetyana Bryanceva - Sweet and sugar baby, Myata - Into the paradise, InnaOlinik - Not your babe, Goryachi Shokolad - Neba Malo, Hunting Ground - Big World, Nazad Shlyahu Nemae - Ptah Doshu, N.SH.N. - Molodist, Vesta Kameneva - My devotion

Slovakia returns

Ten years have passed since Slovakia last participated and many things have changed but they seem to be very updated anyways: three semifinals will lead to the final like in so many other countries. Three acts from each will qualify with an added wildcard. Many big names in Slovakia's music scene have sent in a song, or are rumoured to take part; amongst them Desmod, Peter Cmorik, Andrea Zimanyova, Robo Opatovsky, Robo Papp and Jana Kirschner. Official list will be made public soon. This will be Slovakia's 5th participation (including 1993's "semifinal") and their best placement is 18th, worst 21st....

[Shiva]

taken from esctoday.com

esctoday.com has received confirmation that Ireland's National final Eurosong 2009 will be taking place on Friday February 20th, 2009.

As previously reported by esctoday.com, RTÉ, the Irish broadcaster, had announced that it is having an Open National Selection to choose the Irish representative(s) for the Eurovision Song Contest 2009.

The show Eurosong 2009 will feature six shortlisted songs from all the entries received by RTÉ before Monday 02nd February 2009 at 13:00 CET (12:00 localtime).

A judging panel of five experts, chaired by former Eurovision Song Contest winner in 1992 - Linda Martin, from the music, entertainment, and television industries will select the six entries from all those received to compete in Eurosong 2009.

The judging panel will make their selections employing the following criteria:
a) suitability of the song for the ESC
b) quality of the singer/performer(s)
c) experience of the singer/performer(s)
d) stage appeal of the singer/performer(s)

RTÉ and the judging panel has yet to confirm the voting format for the show.

More details on the rules of the show can be found here. (http://www.rte.ie/tv/eurovision/)

I'm voting for Bootyzilla to enter :)

[louislestat]

I'm totally in love with Mark Evans! I think the UK will prob send Jade but I dont think it will matter to Mark. He should stick with what is already doing at the mo West End and Panto. He is so handsome and a great singer and dancer. What a stunner
http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j33/mgos/n58037405700_2345037_4892.jpg
http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j33/mgos/n58037405700_2345038_5044.jpg
http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j33/mgos/n58037405700_2345040_5200.jpg
http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j33/mgos/n58037405700_2345041_5363.jpg

[Shiva]

Jade are only in it for the ratings, its down to cute gay boy and Beyonce.

And I really hope gaybo gets it [:-D]

[Invincible]

I have to agree with Louis. Mark is one big huge flah.

[PeterMcK]

I would much prefer it if the UK weren't in it at all.

Then we could get on with the real business of the evening (viz. laughing at foreigners) without having to worry about looking like pratts ourselves. Haven't heard any of the entries either.

[louislestat]

Andrew Lloyd Webber has revealed that the United Kingdom's entry in the 2009 Eurovision Song Contest, which he co-wrote with Diane Warren, will be called ''My time''. The performer of the song will be chosen next Saturday during the final of Eurovision: Your country needs you.

[louislestat]

I am looking for the following song (in English if possible). It was the entry from Cyrus in Rome in 1991. The same year that Carola won for Sweden and Samantha Janus represented UK

I always loved this song


Elena Patroklou - S. O. S. (Cyprus 1991)
y-KZ2D4n5bU

[Shiva]

Iceland: Semifinal 3 results

Kaja Halldorsdottir - Lygin ein
Arnar, Edgar, Sverrir and Olafur - Easy to fool
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WETEfATEGAs

Slovenia is ready
Slovenia will have its EMA 2009 this weekend. Eight songs from the Saturday's semifinal will join the six invited songs in Sunday's final. Amogst the semifinalists previous winner Karmen Stavec.

01. Nexys - Vsaj za en dan
02. Petra Slapar - Skrivnost
03. Lea Sirk - Znamenje iz sanj
04. Brigita Suler - Druga liga
05. Ne me jugat & Slavko Ivancic - Kaj me briga
06. Gianni Rijavec - Gloria
07. Aynee - Zdaj vem
08. Krema - Ob meni si
09. Quartissimo - Love symphony
10. Tadeja Molan & RetroBeat - Sanje
11. Bjonde - Blond power
12. Karmen Stavec - A si zelis
13. Nuska Drascek - Kako lepo
14. Mitja - Mission

These songs/artists have been already invited directly to the final, including previous winner Omar Naber:

02. Cuki - Mal naprej pa mal nazaj
04. Omar Naber - I still carry on
07. Eva Cerne - Vse
09. Alya & Rudi - Zadnji dan
11. Samuel Lucas - Vse bi zate dal
13. Langa & Manca Spik - Zaigraj muzikant

Running order for Euroviisut 2009

YLE has announced the running orders for the second chance and the final for the next Saturday's show. Two songs from the second chance will join the finalists after being performed and televoted. Then the real final starts right way. After televote the top-3 will be re performed and televoted again to find the winner and the song that will represent Finland in Moscow 2009.

http://www.gaycork.com/forum/picture.php?albumid=17&pictureid=1300
SECOND CHANCE:
01. Passionworks ft Tony Turunen - Surrender
02. Tiara - Manala
03. Riikka - Meren
04. Vink - The greatest plan
05. Janita - Martian
06. Sani - Doctor doctor

THE FINAL:
http://www.gaycork.com/forum/picture.php?albumid=17&pictureid=1299
01. Kwan - 10.000 light years
02. Jari Sillanpää - Kirkas kipinä
03. Signmark ft Osmo Ikonen - Speakerbox
04. Tapani Kansa - Rakkautta on, rauhaa ei
05. Waldo's People - Lose control
06. Remu - Planeetta
07. from second chance
08. from second chance

FYR Macedonia: Here are the semifinalists

FYR Macedonia has also made public the list of songs and singer taking part in the 3 day national selection with 2 semifinals and the final between February 19-21. There have a been a few changes since the first list of the songs and artists was published earlier this month.

http://www.gaycork.com/forum/picture.php?albumid=17&pictureid=1301

Treta Dimenzija - Isto sto I ti
Aleksandar Belov - Zastani Solzi Izbrisi
Ana Simonovska - Dobar kraj
Emilija Gievska- Patuvam niz vremeto
Bravo band - Ne igraj si devojko
Andrijana Janevska - Drvo bez koren
Kristijan - Nema da zboram
Venera - Povtorno ljubena
Proekt Makedonija/Pere, Franc, Tuna , Igor - Pomalku naivno
Dejan Trifunovski - Ljubovta doaga
Risto Samardjiev - Samo son ke ni ostane
Verce Pandilovska - Severno od mene, juzno od tebe
Vlatko Lozanovski - Blisku do mene
Amir Ibraimovski - Otvori go srceto
Zarmena - Igra so nas
Filip Jordanovski - Volsebnik
Rock Agresori - Ding Dong
Stefan Cvetkovski - Zemi se
Vodolija - Mojot TV
Kostadin Papa - Za nea postojam
Ohrid rules - Gengsta oro
Pampersi - Zboguvanje
Lili - Za kraj
Patnici - Nasmej se
Dimitar Andonovski - Me pronajde ti
Jasmina Dimitrovska - Na moe mesto
Naum Petreski - Rum dum dum
Jane Dunimaglovski - Gledas ne sum sam
Vlatko Ilievski - Sakam da ti kazam ostani
Daniel - Sila na ljubovta
Next Time - Nesto sto ke ostane
Nade Talevska - Dali mislis na nas

Bulgaria: The final 12 - finally!

Bulgaria held its semifinal where half of the songs had to go. At this point I guess it's time to pick up some favorites. Mine are in no particular order Stefan Ilchev, Krassimir ( update: I just saw his live performance from last night and ... what an earth happened? it was beyond bad!), Grafa and Poli Genova. One can only ask why they bothered all those heats since October 2008 when only one of those original songs made it this far all the rest being some sort of wildcards or additional songs and god only knows how they got in... These 9 made it to the final:

Nora - It's not right
Dani Milev - Njma vreme
Jury Tone feat. Lady B - Chance to love you
Ivelina - Ready for love
Stefan Ilchev - Get up
Sahara - Don't kiss for money
Stefan Dobrev - Everlasting love
Krassimir Avramov - Illusion
Moto - Razstonija

They will be joined by these three wildcards:

Mariana Popova - Crazy
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xyIvelD9Ais
Grafa - Vrag
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=idDJXFM53bM
Poli Genova - One lifetime is not enough
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jfblf_QXTtQ

[louislestat]

Mark was excellent as usual. The fact he didnt get it is probably a good thing as Eurovision would do nothing for his career. He is fantastic and should stick with what he's doing

The song is a total rip off of 'Go the distance' from Hercules except 'Go the distance' is much better.

UK in trouble again methinks

IvxKU40ET_U&feature=related

[Shiva]

Andorran broadcaster ATV took advantage of the expansion of the Eurovision Song Contest in 2004, sending its first entry to the competition, but five years later, they are still waiting to get to the final, coming closest in 2007 in Helsinki, when the teen rock group Anonymous just missed out, finishing in 12th place.

This year, ATV is having one of the smallest national finals, with only three songs competing for the votes of a jury and televoters on February 4th. The three songs are being previewed, one per week, in the build up to the selection. The first contender is ""La Teva Decisió" (Get A Life) which is performed in both Catalan and English by Danish singer Susanne Georgi. This is Susanne's second attempt to get to Eurovision, as she competed in the Danish selection in 2007, as half of the My & My duo. While the video may not be the most exciting on offer this year, the song is pleasant and one can only that if it does go to Moscow, that Susanne isn't depending on ATV's regular Eurovision stylist for advice.

jfsHeLgJscg&eurl

[Shiva]

Russian TV has claims to have received over 1.000 songs for their selection, to be held in early March. Not many artists have however publicly admitted to have sent in songs. Zhenya Rasskazova from last year's selection is one though. She has sent in Neskulko slov. Also names of Sergey Agayan, Olga Fomicheva and Oksana Feldsherova have been circolating. Romeo, or Roman Bereshed has sent in a song called Another day that you can listen here: http://musicdepo.ru/users/ROMEO/

[Shiva]

Tomorrow we will know who will be the 6th Andorran Eurovision entrant and maybe the first one to bring this tiny country to the final! My personal favourite is Susanne. She has the most Eurovision friendly song I think. And very ABBA and Paulina Rubio in parts and that can't be bad, can it? I kinda like also Lluis, it's very interesting but I doubt it would set European televoters on fire (and he should grow the rasta back asap!). Mar isn't bad either but needs a new mix and arrangement....

Susanne Georgi - La teva decisió
m0jb8QHCUvo
Mar Capdevila - Passió obsessiva
sUA9509pe3g
Lluís Cartes - Exhaust
sgGSDJRKXRU

Slovakia: Listen to the entries here

Slovakian TV has announced the running order for the five semis and put the songs online here: http://www.stv.sk/eurosong/44512/sutaziaci. Originally there was meant to be only 3 semis but apparently they thought they got too many good songs to choose from....

[Shiva]

Another big Saturday night in the 2009 Eurovision Song Contest national final season is ahead of us. No less than six shows will be held all over Europe. While Cyprus and Malta will hold their national finals, Norway and Lithuania will continue their search, Sweden will kick off its televised selection and Estonia will hold their song presentations.

Norway MGP 2009 (third semi final) 19:55-21:05 CET

Sweden Melodifestivalen 2009 (first semi final) 20:00-21:35 CET

Lithuania Dainu Daina(second semi final) 20:00-22:00 CET

Cyprus Cypriot Eurovision Selection (national final)20:15-22:30 CET

Estonia Eesti Laul (song presentations) 20:35-21:30 CET

Malta Malta Song for Europe (national final) 20:40-02:00 CET

Estonia
Tonight, all ten Estonian finalists in the Eesti laul, the ETV show set to select the country's representative in the 2009 Eurovision Song Contest, will be presented live during a televised show on Estonian TV. There will also be live webcast for international fans.

Tonight between 20.35-21.30 CET, all ten finalists of the Estonian final will be presenting their songs live on a special live show on ETV.

WEBCAST

The show can be also watched through live streaming here (http://www.etv.ee/otse/).

PARTICIPANTS

The ten acts participating in the Estonian final are:
Laura - Destiny
Rolf Junior - Freedom
Chalice - Nelikümmend
Ithaka-Maria - One last dance
Sandra Nurmsalu - Rändajad
Traffic - See päev
Janne Saar - Too good for you
StereoChemistry - Öösiti kõndides
Köök - Üürnik
Lowry - You ain´t what I need

You can listen to all ten Eesti laul 2009 finalists here (http://www.esctoday.com/news/read/13004).

Cyprus
Tonight at 20.15 CET, Cyprus will be selecting their entrant for the 2009 Eurovision Song Contest. The show will be broadcast live via local TV and radio as well as via satellite TV and the internet for international fans to follow.

The show

The Cypriot final will take place at the RIK Studio 3 at 20.15 CET. It will be hosted by actors Charis Kkolos and Maria Michail. Sarbel, who represented Greece in the 2007 Eurovision Song Contest, will be a special guest on the show.Ten acts will be competing tonight and the winner will be selected by televoting.

Webcast and satellite information

The show will be broadcast live on RIK1, RIKSAT and Third Radio Program.

Live streaming will be provided here (http://www.cybc.com.cy/html/video/live/CySat.ram) (Real Player required).

The participants

1.Tefkros Neocleous - Mary
2.Christina Metaxa- Firefly
3.Marlain and the Diesel sisters- Mr (Do Right) One night stand
4.Marianne Georgiou- Heartbeat
5.Alexandros Panayi - There is love
6. Zelis Senol (Mr Zel)- I'm gonna break up with you
7.Pieros Kezos- Βleed for you
8.Christiana Theokli, Kostantina Georgiou and Andreas Christoforou - Moving on
9.Katerina (Kat) Neocleous- I believe
10.Gore Melian- I wanna thank you

None of the songs has been released so far according to the CyBC rules, to find out more about the songs click on each one to read the interview by the composer.

Lithuania

Lithuania will continue its search for the 2009 Eurovision Song Contest tonight with the second semi final in Dainu Daina being aired. The remaining quarter final qualifiers will be presented and five will move on to the national final to be held next week.

The show

The show starts at 20:00 CET. Ten songs were supposed to compete but two of them were disqualified and are yet to be replaced. Five of the participants will qualify for the national final on 14th February.

Webcast

A webcast will be available here (http://www.lrt.lt/ltv-WLD-vid.asx).

Participants

1. 69 Danguje - Meiles simfonija
2. Ruta Sciogolevaite - Redemption
3. Yva - I dangu
4. Urte Šilagalyte - The elegant blues
5. Asta Pilypaite & Onsa - Labas
6. Donatas Montvydas - I remember last time
7. El Fuego - Zvaigzdziu milijonai

Three more acts should be competing tonight but it has not been confirmed yet which ones. One of them should be a wildcard awarded by LRT and the remaining two replacements for Deivis and Ruta Lukoseviciute, the two semi finalists who were previously disqualified for plagiarism. The names of the additional contestants wil be announced tonight during the show.

Lithuania was represented in the 2008 Eurovision Song Contest by Jeronimas Milius, who finished 16th in the second semi final thus not making it to the final.

Sweden

Tonight, Sweden will kick off Melodifestivalen 2009, its national selection for the upcoming Eurovision Song Contest in Moscow. Eight acts will each present one song and two will be chosen to move forward to the national final, while another two will be chosen to enter the second chance round.

The show

The show to be broadcast on SVT1 starts at 20:00 CET and it will be hosted by Petra Mede at the Scandinavium in Gothenburg. Eight acts will present one song each and there will be two round of televoting to decide the acts to move forward to the next round. In the first round the top four songs will be chosen and they will be then compete in pair. The song of each pair that gets more votes will go forward to the national final on 14th March, the second placed songs will enter the second chace round on 7th March.

Webcast

A webcast will be made available on SVT's official website here (http://svt.se/) and on radio here (http://www.sr.se/webbradio/include/CreatePlaylist.asp?Type=live&Id=2521&broadcastDate=&IsBlock=&AudioFormat=3&AvailableAudioFormats=3&IsBlock=).

Participants

Composer/lyricist in brackets.

1. Nina Söderquist - Tick tock (Johan Lyander, Matti Alfonzetti)
2. Jonathan Fagerlund - Welcome to my life (Samuel Waermö, Didrik Thott)
3. Shirley Clamp - Med hjärtat fyllt av ljus (Henrik Wikström, Bobby Ljungren/Ingela Forsman)
4. Scotta - Jag tror på oss (Lars Diedrison, Martin Hedström/Ingela Forsman)
5. Emilia - You're my world (Emilia Rydberg, Fredrik Figge Bodström)
6. Alcazar - Stay the night (Anders Hansson, Mårten Sanden, Andreas Lundsted, Lina Hedlund, Therese Merkel)
7. Caroline af Ugglas - Snälla, snälla (Caroline af Ugglas, Heinz Liljedahl)
8. Marie Serneholt - Disconnect me (Peter Boström, Tony Nilsson)

In 2008, Sweden was represented by Charlotte Perelli with the song Hero. The song finished 12th in the second semi final but still made it to the final as a jury wildcard. Eventually, it finished 18th with 47 points. It was the first time since 1987/1988 that Sweden finished outside the top ten two years in a row following the Ark's 18th place in 2007. In 2009, Sweden will take part in the first semi final on 12th May.

[Shiva]

http://www.gaycork.com/forum/picture.php?albumid=99&pictureid=1345

Georgia decided to participate after all in Moscow 2009 and hurried to get together their national final. These 10 finalists were chosen from 25 songs sent. Let's see who will follow the Georgian success stroy in Eurovision after Sopho Khalvashi's excellent debut in Helsinki (12th) followed by Diana Gurtskaya who did even better in Belgrade (11th). You can listen the songs here: www.eurovision-georgia.ge

01. Tika Patsatsia - Miracle
02. Bachi Kitiashvili & Bermukha - Tomorrow
03. Anri Jokhadze - I
04. Stephane and 3G - We don't wanna put in
05. Keti Orjonikidze - Hang out
06. Boris Bedia - I believe
07. November - Over
08. Nodiko Tatishvili - No sun when you are near
09. Giorgi Maisuradze - Peace in the world
10. Tony & Friends - Hear my plea

Can you guess where the artists are coming from with their songs? :P

[Invincible]

http://www.gaycork.com/forum/picture.php?albumid=99&pictureid=1345

I know who i'd vote for[:-P].

[Shiva]

I know who i'd vote for[:-P].

No Invincible he's over 18...

[Shiva]

Spain had its first Gala or semifinal last night and the top-3 qualified for the final. The jury and televoters greatly agreed with the top-2 songs Melody and LaLaLove You, but the other placements were very mixed. Noelia qualified even if she placed only 7th in the televote thanks to jury votes (and I greatly wonder those votes as her vocals were horrible....) Normativa Vigente managed to qualify to the second chance round before Yulia whose televotes were too low.... Shame. And I can only add that I think there should be better songs/artists at this stage. How come these got this far Vicentes and Baobabs, Carlos or Atalis? Useless waste of time and money for everyone....

Here are the results (jury/televote):
Melody y los Vivancos - 12 + 12 = 24 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qnSQ-Tkudc8
LaLaLove You -10 + 10 = 20 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wEf1rR_ADCc
Noelia Cano - 8 + 4 = 12 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uj0thho4n8k
La Red de San Luis - 7 + 2 = 9 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vppyjqiCir0
Yulia Valentayn - 6 + 3 = 9 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zB3-pvcSyy4
Atalis - 5 + 1 = 6 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IEEmJG1OXrE
Normativa Vigente - 4 + 6 = 10 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ht39L2EK4lM
Gran Baobab - 3 + 8 = 11 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HVhp6pZOi7c
Carlos Ferrer - 2 + 5 = 7 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qBI5FlEmots
Vicente Casal - 1 + 7 = 8 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o82OzZ1Uzwo

[Shiva]

http://www.gaycork.com/forum/picture.php?albumid=99&pictureid=1352

This week has just started with the news from Belgium and the opening of Sanremo festival in Italy. Tomorrow we will have the national finals in Greece and Germany. Thursday FYR of Macedonia starts their 3 day selection process that continues also on Friday when we have also another Slovakian semifinal and the Irish final. Saturday sees again a very busy schedule: FYR of Macedonia, Norway and Bulgaria will have their national finals and Sanremo festival comes to an end. Spain will have its second semifinal and Sweden its third and also Germany will officially present its song. Finally, on Sunday the third semifinal in Slovakia. Phew....

[Shiva]

http://www.gaycork.com/forum/picture.php?albumid=99&pictureid=1405

Ukraine announced a while ago the 15 finalists after several delays. Still some song titles are unconfirmed and there wasn't much to choose from when the ineligible entries were kicked out - finally! - and it looks like we have some songs that fill in all EBU rules... However if Ukraine wants to keep up their recent record of success it will be very hard with these songs. I must honestly confess I didn't like any of them. Natalia Volkova, GODO and Kishe are ok, and ANA is quite interesting. Svetlana Loboda might be a winner. Lots of bad singing, even worse in English (NikitA a prime example) and weird staging that most of the time looks like a Victoria's Secret show. Even Panaiotov was far from a superhero with his act. Oh well, someone has to go to Moscow 2009 and at this point I wouldn't be surprised if NTU pulled out a wildcard to save the show....

I honestly think that last years format of choosing 1 singer and giving her 6 songs worked so much better.

Tori Joy - Smile
Hot Chocolate - Kiss
Tatiyana Bryantseva - Sweet and sugar baby
Zaklyopki - Time is up
Nataliya Volkova - Gush
4 Kings - Tearin' up my heart
Svetlana Loboda - Be my Valentine
Kishe - Midnight
ANA - You're like a paradise
NikitA - Save the world
Alexander Panaiotov - Superhero
Denis Barkanov - You're my love and pain
Ira Poizen - You free me
GODO - Zagadaymo bazhannya
Lenara Osmanova - Flash

[Shiva]

A few days after being chosen as the Spanish entry at this year's Eurovision Song Contest, the public broadcaster TVE has already started the promotion of La noche es para mí. Soraya's preview video has been released with subtitles both in English and French, the languages in use at Eurovision.

Soraya won the public voting last Saturday at the final show of Eurovisión 2009: El Retorno, thus earning the right to represent her home country in Moscow. La noche es para mí became a fan favourite across the continent since the moment it was released, and media fuss has increased now it has been accalimed as Spain's representative in the forthcoming Eurovision Song Contest.

TVE is starting promotion of the entry. The first step taken by the public corporation has been the release of the preview video with subtitles in English and French, the languages currently in use at the Eurovision Song Contest. You can watch them beneath:

La noche es para mí - English subtitles

RwCAlhXCNIY

La noche es para mí - French subtitles

EnTWUs73xrE

[Shiva]

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_XZ0GJO5OkIU/SbbKqnJMY2I/AAAAAAAAHPM/wS_-ValTdNY/s1600-h/georgia+put+in.bmp

... with Georgia that is. EBU has given Georgia a week, until March 16, to change the lyrics of We don't wanna put in, or change the song all together. The case is so clear they didn't wait until the meeting in Moscow next week where all the songs are presented and no changes are allowed after that. There are also the plagiarism accusations of the songs from Bosnia-Herzegovina and Cyprus to deal with....


EDIT

I spoke to soon.

Georgia drops out of Eurovision over Putin song

3 hours ago

TBILISI (AFP) — Georgia said on Wednesday it was pulling out of the Eurovision Song Contest in Moscow after contest organisers rejected a Georgian entry that poked fun at Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin.

"We have decided not to change the lyrics or choose a different song. We will not go to Moscow and will not take part in Eurovision 2009," said Natia Uznadze, a producer with Georgian public television responsible for the Caucasus nation's Eurovision entry.

"It's still not clear to us why Eurovision took this decision. We have not received a concrete explanation," she told AFP.

The song titled "We don't wanna put in," performed by the group Stephane and 3G with its play on the prime minister's surname, was rejected by Eurovision organisers on Tuesday for the May 14-16 event, which Russia is hosting.

Georgia and Russia remain deeply at odds after a brief war between the two countries over the rebel region of South Ossetia last August.

Georgia chose the song after initially considering boycotting the contest.

A group of experts that oversees the contest decided the song did not comply with a section of the rules declaring that "no lyrics, speeches, gestures of a political or similar nature shall be permitted."

The Georgian group's producer, Kakhaber Tsiskaridze, said he suspected the song was rejected under political pressure from Moscow.

"We suspect that this decision is a result of political pressure from Russia. If that is the case, it's unacceptable," he said.

He said he disagreed that the song was overtly political.

"Where in the lyrics are there any political statements or insults to someone?" he said.

With its chorus of "We don't wanna put in/The negative move/It's killin' the groove", the song was unlikely to get a warm reception in Moscow.

Russian troops and tanks poured into Georgia last August in response to a Georgian military attempt to retake the Moscow-backed rebel region of South Ossetia.

Russian forces occupied swathes of territory and bombed targets across Georgia before mostly withdrawing to within South Ossetia and another breakaway region, Abkhazia.

[Shiva]

Georgias entry - "Give us back our breakway republics!"

Haha how close you were :)

[candlemansa]

finally heard the irish song, i love it, for the first time in several years i actually like Irelands entry.[:-D]

[Shiva]

The heads of delegations are in Moscow right now and the draws for running orders were taken and we will travel from Montenegro to Bosnia-Herzegovina in the first semifinal, and from Croatia to the Netherlands in the second. France seems to be doomed in the final while the UK and Spain got good positions (and maybe Germany, too). Dima Bilan drew 3 wildcard for both semis and one for the final - meaning they could pick up their starting number (*)

SEMIFINAL 1 on May 12:
01. Montenegro
02. Czech Republic
03. Belgium
04. Belarus
05. Sweden
06. Armenia
07. Andorra
08. Switzerland
09. Turkey
10. Israel
11. Bulgaria (*)
12. Iceland
13. FYR of Macedonia
14. Romania
15. Finland
16. Portugal (*)
17. Malta (*)
18. Bosnia-Herzegovina

SEMIFINAL 2 May 14:
01. Croatia
02. Ireland
03. Latvia
04. Serbia
05. Poland
06. Norway
07. Cyprus
08. Slovakia
09. Denmark
10. Slovenia
11. Hungary
12. Azerbaijan
13. Greece
14. Lithuania
15. Moldova
16. Albania
17. Ukraine (*)
18. Estonia (*)
19. Netherlands (*)

FINAL May 16:
03. France
10. Russia
17. Germany
23. United Kingdom
25. Spain (*)

The voting order in the final will be as follows:
Spain, Belgium, Belarus, Malta, Germany, Czech Republic, Sweden, Iceland, France, Israel, Russia, Latvia, Montenegro, Andorra, Finland, Switzerland, Norway, Bulgaria, Lithuania, United Kingdom, FYR Macedonia, Slovakia, Greece, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Ukraine, Turkey, Albania, Serbia, Cyprus, Poland, the Netherlands, Estonia, Portugal, Romania, Ireland, Denmark, Moldova, Slovenia, Armenia, Hungary and Azerbaijan.

[Shiva]

15th Eurovision took place in Amsterdam on March 21, 1970 and won its biggest crisis ever. Only 12 countries took part when Finland, Sweden, Norway, Portugal and Austria stayed home to protest the voting the year before. Changes were made and there was never going to be joint winner again (the rule has been needed only once since: 1991). The night was rather revolutionary in many ways: for the first time there was a real moving elements on stage, the light show was something never seen before and there was an opening sequence that by now is already traditional. Also the postcards to present the entries were used for the very first time. Most of the singers were surprisingly big names (or big names to come): Mary Hopkins, Gianni Morandi, Guy Bonnet, Katja Epstein and certain Julio Iglesias.... but it was 17-year-old fresh and sweet Dana from Ireland who scored their first win. She went on to successful career in music first and then in politics....

wpPei22aG7c

[Shiva]

lj6mpWp6kyI

[Shiva]

http://www.gaycork.com/forum/picture.php?albumid=99&pictureid=1463

Now that Waldo's People have also made it to #1 in Finland, we set our hopes on Yohanna in Iceland.

Brinck in Denmark and Alexander Rybak in Norway already did it, while Malena Ernman in Sweden was stuck at #2 where the #1 single from Melodifestivalen was E.M.D instead.

If we look at the European top-100 this week songs from Sanremo and Melodifestivalen dominate. From Sweden we have E.M.D at #45 (peaking at #1 in Sweden), Caroline af Ugglas at #53 (#2), H.E.A.T at #58 (#3), Malena Ernman at #67 (#2), Måns Zelmerlöf at #71 (#3), Lili & Susie at #76 (#6), Starpilots at #81 (#7), Sarah Dawn Finer at #85 (#3), Alcazar at #91 (#2) and finally Sahlene & Maria at #96 (#10). None of these songs have charted abroad as yet.

From Sanremo we have Arisa at #49 (#1), Marco Carta at #56 (#2), Povia at #61 (#3) and Dolcenera at #87 (#5).

Norway has two songs in top-100: Alexander Rybak at #47 (#1) and Tone Damli Aaberge at #60 (#2). Waldo's People at #80 (#1) completes the Nordic triumph.

[JoannaRyde]

I'm still DEVESTATED over Alcazar!

[Shiva]

I'm still DEVESTATED over Alcazar!

Gogo get their album, it's AMAZING!!!!!!!

[Shiva]

http://www.gaycork.com/forum/picture.php?albumid=99&pictureid=1464

The planned stage setting for Malena Ernman’s performance at the Eurovision Song Contest has been unveiled. The stage will be turned into a Narnia themed set, and Malena will assume the role of a Nordic Ice Queen whilst performing ‘La Voix’. Ice blocks will surround her and the performers on stage. And the mixed gender backing dancers with theatrical masks will be replaced by an all female line up. Five ladies will be dressed as dark valkyries, and will all provide backing vocals too.

Apparently, the song will be slightly tweaked as well. Fredrik Kempe is working at the moment on making the verses a bit beefier, and giving the backing vocals a more commercial pop sound, and less of an operatic requirement. The operatics will be left to Malena - the master of the genre!

It’s certainly looking like we’re all in for a spectacular performance when Malena heads to Eurovision anyway!

In other Malena news; she’ll be a releasing a double album in July. One CD will be of her singing opera classics, and the second CD will be of brand new pop/opera tracks in the same vein as ‘La Voix’. Fredrik Kempe is currently writing for the project! A whole disc full of variations on ‘La Voix’ sounds like bliss to us! Bring it on

[Dima]

Anastasia Prihodko is annoyed by “niggers, chinamen” and calls her rival Svetlana Loboda a vulgar wench.

Anastasia Prihodko doesn’t feel shy to declare her racist views. While participating in TV talent show “Star Factory” (Russian analogue of “American Idol”) Anastasia called Afro-American participant a blackass and then boldly stated: “I don’t like niggers and chinamen”. Apart from this she is convinced that “Hitler was right. I think that in Germany there should be only Germans, in Africa – niggers, in Israel – Jews”. Anastasia finished such a prominent monologue with a whoop: “Heil Hitler! Untz fascism!”
The scandal is now out in the open and Prihodko has poured oil on flames by insulting other nominees. In her recent interview Anastasia was asked about her attitude towards other participants in general and her rival Svetlana Loboda in particular. Anastasia answered quite rudely: “She is vulgar and filthy. She is not the one to compete with me!”
What will be Svetlana’s reaction?

[Shiva]

http://www.gaycork.com/forum/picture.php?albumid=99&pictureid=1487

As usual the national OGAE clubs are having their Eurovision style votings in their gatherings. 6 clubs have voted so far (Turkey - Greece - Luxembourg-Azerbaijan - UK - Croatia).

Besides Norway only Spain managed to get votes from all of them! Is this is a sign how things will go in Moscow?

01. NORWAY 70
02. SPAIN 38
03. FRANCE 32
04. GREECE 25
04. SWEDEN 25
04. AZERBAIJAN 25
07. TURKEY 24
08. BOSNIA-HERZEGOVINA 19
09. ICELAND 16
10. PORTUGAL 10
11. FINLAND 9
11. ESTONIA 9
13. SLOVENIA 7
13. MALTA 7
15. ROMANIA 5
15. MONTENEGRO 5
15. GERMANY 5
18. LITHUANIA 4
18. SWITZERLAND 4
20. DENMARK 3
20. UNITED KINGDOM 3
22. RUSSIA 2
23. CROATIA 1

[Shiva]

http://www.gaycork.com/forum/picture.php?albumid=99&pictureid=1488

Nine clubs have now voted when Slovenia, the Netherlands and Serbia have given their votes and Norway scores again full points in each of them (so far only Croatia awarded 12 to France and Norway "only" 10). France takes the second place now followed closely by Spain. Iceland, Sweden, Bosnia-Herzegovina and Estonia keep getting lower points and climb up the chart slowly but steadily.

Here's the scoreboard so far (votes from Slovenia - Netherlands - Serbia)

01. NORWAY (12 - 12 - 12) 106
02. FRANCE (10 - 8 - 6) 56
03. SPAIN (0 - 7 - 10) 55
04. SWEDEN (8 - 2 - 2) 37
04. BOSNIA-HERZEGOVINA (4 - 6 - 8) 37
06. GREECE (3 - 0 - 7) 35
06. TURKEY (6 - 0 - 5) 35
08. AZERBAIJAN (0 - 0 - 3) 28
09. ICELAND (0 - 5 - 4) 25
09. ESTONIA (5 - 10 - 1) 25
11. PORTUGAL (0 - 3 - 0) 13
12. UNITED KINGDOM (7 - 0 - 0) 10
13. FINLAND (0 - 0 - 0) 9
13. MALTA (2 - 0 - 0) 9
15. SLOVENIA (0 - 0 - 0) 7
16. ROMANIA (0 - 0 - 0) 5
16. MONTENEGRO (0 - 0 - 0) 5
16. GERMANY (0 - 0 - 0) 5
16. ALBANIA (1 - 4 - 0) 5
20. LITHUANIA (0 - 0 - 0) 4
20. SWITZERLAND (0 - 0 - 0) 4
20. DENMARK (0 - 1 - 0) 4
23. RUSSIA (0 - 0 - 0) 2
24. CROATIA (0 - 0 - 0) 1

[Shiva]

http://www.gaycork.com/forum/picture.php?albumid=99&pictureid=1497

Three more OGAE clubs have voted and Norway gets the lowest vote so far: 8 from the rest of the world club! OGAE Rest of the world gives also quite different votes from the others by giving votes to Israel, Moldova and Slovakia. Norway still clearly in lead followed by France and Spain but Bosnia-Herzegovina is catching up on them. As always, here are the votes from Lithuania - Rest of the world - France:

01. NORWAY (12 - 8 - 12) 138
02. FRANCE (10 - 4 - X) 70
03. SPAIN (0 - 0 - 0) 55
04. BOSNIA-HERZEGOVINA (5 - 7 - 5) 54
05. SWEDEN (0 - 3 - 7) 47
06. AZERBAIJAN (6 - 0 - 8) 42
07. GREECE (2 - 0 - 4) 41
08. ICELAND (3 - 0 - 10) 38
09. ESTONIA (0 - 10 - 1) 36
10. TURKEY (0 - 0 - 0) 35
11. PORTUGAL (7 - 0 - 0) 20
11. UNITED KINGDOM (8 - 2 - 0) 20
13. LITHUANIA (0 - 12 - 0) 16
14. FINLAND (0 - 0 - 6) 15
15. MALTA (0 - 0 - 0) 9
15. ISRAEL (0 - 6 - 3) 9
17. SLOVENIA (0 - 0 - 0) 7
18. DENMARK (0 - 0 - 2) 6
19. ROMANIA (0 - 0 - 0) 5
19. MONTENEGRO (0 - 0 - 0) 5
19. GERMANY (0 - 0 - 0) 5
19. ALBANIA (0 - 0 - 0) 5
19. MOLDOVA (0 - 5 - 0) 5
24. SWITZERLAND (0 - 0 - 0) 4
24. UKRAINE (4 - 0 - 0) 4
26. RUSSIA (1 - 0 - 0) 3
27. CROATIA (0 - 0 - 0) 1
27. SLOVAKIA (0 - 1 - 0) 1

http://www.gaycork.com/forum/picture.php?albumid=99&pictureid=1496

Three more OGAE clubs have voted and shocking news: Andorra gave Norway only 6 and Switzerland only 5! Spain put the things back in track though giving it the usual 12. Sweden and UK climb up and Iceland continues to pick up votes from most everywhere. Will the same happen in Moscow? Here are the votes from Andorra - Switzerland - Spain)

01. NORWAY (6 - 5 - 12) 161
02. FRANCE (0 - 0 - 8) 78
03. SWEDEN (4 - 10 - 10) 71
04. SPAIN (12 - 0 - X) 67
05. BOSNIA-HERZEGOVINA (8 - 0 - 2) 64
06. AZERBAIJAN (7 - 0 - 4) 53
07. ICELAND (3 - 0 - 6) 47
07. TURKEY (5 - 0 - 7) 47
09. GREECE (0 - 0 - 1) 42
10. UNITED KINGDOM (1 - 12 - 5) 38
11. ESTONIA (0 - 1 - 0) 37
12. FINLAND (10 - 0 - 3) 28
13. LITHUANIA (0 - 8 - 0) 24
14. PORTUGAL (0 - 3 - 0) 23
15. ISRAEL (0 - 6 - 0) 15
16. MALTA (0 - 4 - 0) 13
16. DENMARK (0 - 7 - 0) 13
18. SLOVENIA (0 - 0 - 0) 7
19. ROMANIA (0 - 0 - 0) 5
19. MONTENEGRO (0 - 0 - 0) 5
19. GERMANY (0 - 0 - 0) 5
19. ALBANIA (0 - 0 - 0) 5
19. MOLDOVA (0 - 0 - 0) 5
24. SWITZERLAND (0 - X - 0) 4
24. UKRAINE (0 - 0 - 0) 4
26. RUSSIA (0 - 0 - 0) 3
27. IRELAND (2 - 0 - 0) 2
27. CYPRUS (0 - 2 - 0) 2
29. CROATIA (0 - 0 -0) 1
29. SLOVAKIA (0 - 0 - 0) 1

[Shiva]

http://www.gaycork.com/forum/picture.php?albumid=99&pictureid=1498

Azerbaijan will be represented at the Eurovision Song Contest this time with a duet between a young female singer Aysel and an experienced international star Arash. How will the mix of Swedish pop-music and Azerbaijani roots work out?

The decision to create the duet of AySel and Arash was taken by the seven-member jury of the Azerbaijani national final. It was heavily influenced by Arash’s own statements, he said he is not only a songwriter and composer, but also a successful singer, and that is why he would like “to be on the 2009 Eurovision Song Contest stage, and not just on its backstage.” This sincere acknowledgment of the author of Always gave the start to the duet from Azerbaijan.

The popular songwriter and singer makes no secret that he has long been interested in the Eurovision Song Contest. In addition, one of the decisive factors for him was the offer to sing in duet with AySel. “Performing with AySel was important for me, since I wrote Always specifically for her,” said Arash.

Watch their song below.

HmA82DlI-Pc

Eurovision Song Contest is very popular in Azerbaijan according to the female side of the duo, Aysel. She likes it because it's full of many different singers, different songs and every year more and more people get more interested in it. They also revealed the secret behind getting the jury vote and a lot of other things in an exclusive interview to Eurovision.tv.
International star meets a young singer

AySel was born in Baku on 25th of April, 1989 in the family of a University professor. Her Zodiac sign is Taurus, the underpinning of her ambitious, committed, self-confident personality, who loves the atmosphere of competition. AySel is just nineteen, but her ambition coupled with the faith in her talent has already led the young artist to the main stage of the European show business, the Eurovision Song Contest stage, as the representative of Azerbaijan.

Famous singer, author, entertainer and producer Arash was born the 23rd April 1977 in Tehran, Iran. At the age of ten he and his family moved to Sweden. His debut album Arash was released by the Warner Brothers Music in June 2005, after he had finished college. His singles, Boro Boro (Go Away) and Temptation, made it to the hit lists around Europe, and their respective videos garnered significant airplay on more than twenty MTV outlets across the world. In addition he has had hits notably in Eastern European and South-East European charts. He has gone gold in 5 countries: Germany, Russia, Slovenia and Greece for his album, Arash, and in Sweden for Boro Boro.

Here is an interview with them.

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They will perform twelfth in the second Semi-Final of this year's Eurovision Song Contest in Moscow on the 14th of May.

[Shiva]

http://gaycork.com/forum/picture.php?albumid=99&pictureid=1504

Four more OGAE Clubs have voted bringing the clubs to 19 so far. No stopping Norway in the lead even if they get the lowest votes so far: only 2 from Portugal - but Belgium and Germany give them full 12 points. Sweden passed France for a moment but thanks to Portuguese and German 10 points took the 2nd place again. (Votes from Cyprus - Belgium - Portugal - Germany)

01. NORWAY (10 - 12 - 2 - 12) 197
02. FRANCE (6 - 7 - 10 - 10) 111
03. SWEDEN (12 - 10 - 6 - 8) 107
04. BOSNIA-HERZEGOVINA (1 - 8 - 3 - 7) 83
05. SPAIN (7 - 4 - 0 - 1) 79
06. AZERBAIJAN (8 - 0 - 7 - 6) 74
07. ICELAND (5 - 0 - 5 - 0) 57
08. TURKEY (0 - 5 - 0 - 0) 52
08. UNITED KINGDOM (0 - 6 - 8 - 0) 52
10. GREECE (4 - 2- 0 - 2) 50
10. ESTONIA (1 - 0 - 12 - 0) 50
12. FINLAND (0 - 0 - 1 - 0) 29
13. LITHUANIA (0 - 0 - 0 - 0) 24
14. PORTUGAL (0 - 0 - 0 - 0) 23
15. MALTA (0 - 3 - 0 - 3) 19
16. DENMARK (0 - 0 - 0 - 5) 18
17. ISRAEL (0 - 0 - 0 - 0) 15
18. ALBANIA (3- 0 - 0 - 0) 8
18. SWITZERLAND (0 - 0 - 0 - 4) 8
20. SLOVENIA (0 - 0 - 0 - 0) 7
21. ROMANIA (0 - 0 - 0 - 0) 5
21. MONTENEGRO (0 - 0 - 0 - 0) 5
21. GERMANY (0 - 0 - 0 - 0) 5
21. MOLDOVA (0 - 0 - 0 - 0) 5
25. UKRAINE (0 - 0 - 0 - 0) 4
26. RUSSIA (0 - 0 - 0 - 0) 3
27. IRELAND (0 - 0 - 0 - 0) 2
27. CYPRUS (0 - 0 - 0 - 0) 2
29. CROATIA (0 - 0 - 0 - 0) 1
29. SLOVAKIA (0 - 0 - 0 - 0) 1

http://gaycork.com/forum/picture.php?albumid=99&pictureid=1505

Four more OGAE clubs have voted bringing the number of clubs to 23, when Norway, Austria, Israel and Finland get things sorted out. No stopping Norway in the lead, and the battle between France and Sweden continues. Here are the votes (from Norway - Austria - Israel - Finland):

01. NORWAY (X - 12 - 10 - 12) 231
02. FRANCE (6 - 10 - 12 - 5) 144
03. SWEDEN (10 - 8 - 8 - 8) 142
04. BOSNIA-HERZEGOVINA (8 - 7 - 7 - 7) 112
05. AZERBAIJAN (5 - 6 - 0 - 2) 87
06. SPAIN (0 - 5 - 0 - 0) 84
07. GREECE (12 - 1 - 0 - 6) 69
08. ESTONIA (0 - 0 - 6 - 10) 66
09. ICELAND (4 - 0 - 0 - 3) 64
10. UNITED KINGDOM (0 - 0 - 4 - 0) 56
11. TURKEY (0 - 2 - 0 - 0) 54
12. FINLAND (1 - 0 - 0 - X) 30
13. DENMARK (7 - 3 - 0 - 0) 28
14. LITHUANIA (0 - 0 - 3 - 0) 27
15. PORTUGAL (0 - 0 - 2 - 0) 25
16. MALTA (0 -0 -0 -0) 19
17. SWITZERLAND (0 - 0 - 5 - 4) 17
18. ISREAL (0 - 0 - 0 - 0) 15
19. ALBANIA (2 - 0 - 0 - 0) 10
20. RUSSIA (3 - 0 - 1 - 0) 7
20. SLOVENIA (0 - 0 - 0 - 0) 7
22. ARMENIA (0 - 4 - 0 - 1) 5
22. ROMANIA (0 - 0 - 0 - 0) 5
22. MONTENEGRO (0 - 0 - 0 - 0) 5
22. GERMANY (0 - 0 - 0 - 0) 5
22. MOLDOVA (0 - 0 - 0 - 0) 5
27. UKRAINE (0 - 0 - 0 - 0) 4
28. IRELAND (0 - 0 - 0 - 0) 2
28. CYPRUS (0 - 0 - 0 - 0) 2
30. CROATIA (0 - 0 - 0 -0) 1
30. SLOVAKIA (0 - 0 - 0 - 0) 1

[earlstvincent]

I've been uninvited to Admin's Eurovision party LOL!

He found out I don't like the Eurovision. [:-P] Although, he did say I could sit in the corner watching Grand Designs! [:-?] I might go for the company and watch Grand Designs! [:-P]

Thanks Admin!

[Shiva]

I've been uninvited to Admin's Eurovision party LOL!


When did it become Admins party?

[earlstvincent]

Mistake: I've been uninvited to Admin's Eurovision party LOL!

Correction: I've been uninvited to Admin's and Shiva's Eurovision party LOL!

*still sad* LOL! [:-P]

[Shiva]

Mistake: I've been uninvited to Admin's Eurovision party LOL!

Correction: I've been uninvited to Admin's and Shiva's Eurovision party LOL!

*still sad* LOL! [:-P]

Well seeing as how he wasn't organising it he can't un-invite you [:-P]

[earlstvincent]

Well seeing as how he wasn't organising it he can't un-invite you [:-P]

Hahaha! Awesome! [B-)]

[louislestat]

If any is in Dublin this Friday. Sinead Mulvey is in The George

[curley]

If any is in Dublin this Friday. Sinead Mulvey is in The George

Would you believe it, I am!!! Whohoooo!

[Shiva]

RTE have the first part of the Eurovision Countdown program on their media player for view anytime:

http://www.rte.ie/player/#v=1046554

Enjoy it, in all it's campy goodness. [:-D]

[Shiva]

http://www.gaycork.com/forum/picture.php?albumid=99&pictureid=1506

Five more OGAE clubs have voted and now when we have the votes from total of 28 clubs Norway is running away in the lead. Here are the votes from Italy, FYR Macedonia, Russia, Ireland and Poland.

We have 12 to Norway, 10 to Sweden, 8 to Greece, and the rest:

DENMARK - 7
FINLAND - 6
BOSNIA-HERZEGOVINA -5
SPAIN- 4
SWITZERLAND - 3
AZERBAIJAN -2
UNITED KINGDOM - 1 [:-D]

01. NORWAY (12 - 10 - 3 - 12 - 10) 278
02. FRANCE (10 - 0 - 6 - 0 - 6) 166
03. SWEDEN (0 - 1 - 0 - 10 - 7) 159
04. BOSNIA-HERZEGOVINA (1 - 8 - 0 - 5 - 3) 129
05. SPAIN (0 - 6 - 7 - 4 - 0) 101
06. AZERBAIJAN (0 - 7 - 2 - 0 - 0) 96
07. ICELAND (4 - 0 - 4 - 0 - 12) 84
08. GREECE (0 - 0 - 5 - 8 - 0) 82
09. UNITED KINGDOM (7 - 0 - 12 - 1 - 5) 81
10. ESTONIA (0 - 0 - 0 - 0 - 8) 74
10. TURKEY (0 - 12 - 8 - 0 - 0) 74
12. FINLAND (3 - 5 - 0 - 6 - 1) 45
13. DENMARK (2 - 0 - 0 - 7 - 0) 37
14. SWITZERLAND (8 - 0 - 0 - 3 - 0) 28
14. LITHUANIA (0 - 0 - 1 - 0 - 0) 28
16. PORTUGAL (0 - 0 - 0 - 0 - 0) 25
17. MALTA (0 - 0 - 0 - 2 - 0) 21
18. ISRAEL (5 - 0 - 0 - 0 - 0) 20
19. UKRAINE (0 - 0 - 10 - 0 - 4) 18
20. ARMENIA (6 - 0 - 0 - 0 - 0) 11
21. ALBANIA (0 - 0 - 0 - 0 - 0) 10
22. RUSSIA (0 - 0 - X - 0 - 2) 9
22. ROMANIA (0 - 4 - 0 - 0 - 0) 9
24. SLOVENIA (0 - 0 - 0 - 0 - 0) 7
24. MONTENEGRO (0 - 2 - 0 - 0 - 0) 7
26. GERMANY (0 - 0 - 0 - 0 - 0) 5
26. MOLDOVA (0 - 0 - 0 - 0 - 0) 5
28. CROATIA (0 - 3 - 0 - 0 - 0) 4
29. IRELAND (0 - 0 - 0 - X -0) 2
29. CYPRUS (0 - 0 - 0 - 0 - 0) 2
31. SLOVAKIA (0 - 0 - 0 - 0 - 0) 1

[Rubys]

if any is in dublin this friday. Sinead mulvey is in the george

i will be up as going to match sat in dublin, how straight am i hey lol

dermot

[Rubys]

well seeing as how he wasn't organising it he can't un-invite you [:-p]

reminder

opening night of eurovision

tue in sinners

[Shiva]

http://www.gaycork.com/forum/picture.php?albumid=99&pictureid=1507

The queen of the new burlesque renaissance, Dita von Teese will be shaking it on stage in Moscow with Alex and Oscar. Her website describes her like this: She is one of a kind. She is the biggest name in Burlesque since Gypsy Rose Lee. She tops international Best Dressed lists. She is a modern day Fashion Icon. She inspires designers from Marc Jacobs and John Galliano to Jean Paul Gaultier and Zac Posen. She is credited for bringing back the glamour and allure of Old Hollywood stars. Self-created. Distinctive. Iconic. Flawless. Often imitated, never duplicated. She is Dita Von Teese. Check her website www.dita.net

[Shiva]

Sweden: Malena's 40.000 euros dress

http://www.gaycork.com/forum/picture.php?albumid=99&pictureid=1508

"I love it" says Malena Erman, the Swedish opera diva in Moscow 2009 about her dress. Designed by Camilla Thulin its estimated to be worth of almost 40.000 euros, filled with sequins from Turkey that alone cost about 1.000 euros. And don't be scared if Malena will spread her wings on stage as well....

Ireland: Sony snap up Sinead

irst she won the Irish national final with Black Daisy, and now Sinead Mulvey has bagged a record contract with Sony just a couple of weeks before she takes Irish hopes to the Eurovision stage in Moscow.

Sony BMG Music completed negotiations with the artist last week, and the Eurovision single Et Cetera will be released this coming Friday. An excited Sinead explains "We're really excited about having Sony on board. They have been fantastic. The single is out on May 1 and I can't wait". Despite partnering up with the music giant, she stresses that her focus is on the Eurovision Song Contest right now, and her determination to do well for Ireland.

Balancing act

Sinead has been working hard with vocal coach Maureen Ward over the last few weeks to ensure a top performance in the second semi-final in Moscow. Impressively, she has continued to honour her commitments as a full-time air hostess with Aer Lingus throughout the preparations for the contest, balancing rehearsals with work duties. Soon, however, it will be her turn to sit in the passenger seat as she flies off to Moscow to begin stage rehearsals.

Romania: Elena to act as a fairy on stage

Elena Gheorghe, this year's Romanian representative, discussed within the frames of the farewell press conference of the Romanian delegation, her plans for staging The Balkan girls at the Eurovision Song Contest 2009.

The concept of the show is a modern interpretation of the Romanian myth of Iele, described as virgin fairies with great seduction power over men, with magic skills, attributes similar to the ancient Greek nymphs.

"The scenary changes in three minutes, as much as it would change in three months. As the sun rises, the atmosphere changes from a misty dark fantastic forest, lit occasionally by a fire fly, to a glittering, full of life forest. The video art design will create a full 3D effect as some brunches are growing and fire flies are passing by" says Mr. Dan Manoliu, the head of the Romanian delegation.

The concept was created by Bobo Barbulescu (film and advertising director), Oana Draghici (art director), Ioana Macarie (choreographer) and Matei Ovejad (visual FX supervisor).

Iceland: Digital dream for Yohanna

Iceland's Yohanna has received a digital helping hand in her Moscow preparations in the form of a beautiful new video clip for her Eurovision Song Contest entry, Is It True?

In the computer-generated video filmed entirely in green-screen, Yohanna sings in a cloud-like, other-worldly environment, bathed in pastel lights in a swirling nebula. The cellist of the national final also makes an appearance in the video, suggesting that the instrument will feature in the Moscow stage performance as well.

The clip was produced by the creative team at Digital & Sons and Z Productions, and it would seem that the team worked flat-out on the production, as the Digital & Sons site exclaims "Alex and Sölvi sacrificed countless ski turns and a much needed tanning opportunity when they used their easter holiday to create the video for Iceland's song in the European Song Contest 2009".

Digital & Sons is the digital arm of Icelandic advertising agency Hvita Husid (White House), and the video and can be viewed at the Digital & Sons website at this link, or below:

tTaTFaQPyWw

United Kingdom: Jade in BBC documentary

A documentary is in the pipeline from British broadcaster BBC, following United Kingdom Eurovision Song Contest hopeful Jade Ewen from the beginning of her journey to her live performance in front of millions.

Jade's Story will showcase the young singer's journey, from her victory in the show Your Country Needs You to her Eurovision adventures in Moscow. Viewers will be able to see close-hand behind-the-scenes footage showing how the media whirlwind picked up after Jade's win in a frenzy of interviews, TV appearances, stylist and recording sessions. Highlights will include Jade's whistle-stop promotional tour of Europe, which saw her performing at the Maltese national final just days after her UK success.

Words of advice

The programme will also feature former UK winners Lulu and Katrina along with vocal coach Arlene Phillips, who are on hand to offer some words of advice - and warning! - to Jade in the run-up to May 16th. Presented by Your Country Needs You host and UK commentator Graham Norton, the documentary should be a fascinating close-up of the media machine and preparations behind a Eurovision Song Contest entry, and the personal story of a young singer at the centre of it all.

The date and time of the show, to be aired on BBC1, are yet to be confirmed.

[Shiva]

Croatia: Oprah sets eyes on Igor

The most famous talk show host in the world Oprah Winfrey has decided to dedicate a show to Croatian singer Igor Cukrov, the Slobodna Dalmacija daily writes. How she has found out about Igor and the Croatian entry is not known as Eurovision is not so very well known in the USA. Her producers have however asked for footage of Igor and an invitation to the show is in the air. This little extra promotion comes very welcome in the Croatian team as the entry is not ranked very high in the various fan polls.

Turkey: Hadise number one in Belgium with Düm tek tek

Hadise, Turkish representative in the Eurovision Song Contest 2009, has reached the top of Flemish single charts Ultratop 50 in Belgium with her entry Düm tek tek. It is the first number one hit and second top ten hit for the singer who originates from Belgium.

The number one position is mainly based on high digital sales as it the a huge success on itunes. The itune sales however are included with a two weeks delay only so that the song fell out of the charts last week. It will re-enter the charts tomorrow, when they are officially published.

Ukraine: Svetlana's big gamble

Ukrainian hopeful Svetlana Loboda is staking more than just her reputation on this year's Eurovision Song Contest, if reports are to be believed - her Kyiv home may be part of the gamble on success in Moscow.

According to one source, the singer has been forced to fund her Eurovision escapades from her own pocket in these cash-strapped times, as financial backing was not forthcoming for the Hell Machine stageshow, costing nearly 80,000 Euros according to some reports.

Huge opportunity

Showing true belief in her entry, the singer has apparently remortgaged her home in Kyiv to pay for the show. "It's a nice apartment in Kyiv and I've used it to get a loan from the bank." She admitted: It's a risk - I could end up with nothing - but it's a huge opportunity."

Svetlana and her troupe of dancing boys have already appeared in numerous events and shows across Europe, promoting the Ukrainian entry Be My Valentine.

Andorra disappointed over Spanish decision

The approval of TVE request to the European Broadcasting Union moving Spain's voting rights to the second semifinal, to be held on May 14, and therefore, the live broadcast from semi 1 to 2, has caused major commotion in Andorra. Both the Andorran public broadcaster and Sussanna Georgi have shown concern over this issue.

A few days ago, Spanish public broadcaster TVE requested the EBU to vote in the second semifinal and broadcast it live instead of the first, as it was established by draw. The reason why TVE made this request is that the main political debate of the year in Spain, the Debate on the State of the Nation, will take place on May 12, and it is usual that the Parliament session starts in the morning and finishes very late at night or even the day after. The debate is every year broadcast live on TVE 2, as the Spanish law clearly states, the channel normally used to air the Eurovision semifinals. On the same day, TVE 1 will air the special programme dedicated to Eurovision where several national representatives will appear.

The request was finally accepted by the Reference Group and Spain has been moved to semi 2. This news has struck Andorran broadcaster officials, as well as the country's representative, Susanna Georgi. With Spain out of the semifinal they are taking part in, Andorra sees its possibilities of qualifying lower. The danish-born singer has shown her deep disappointment, saying that "everybody knows that ATV does not have a big Eurovision budget, this is why Andorra has restricted its promotion to Spain", and went on saying that "I would be pleased if the contest was about musical quality and talent, but it's not the case". Georgi complains about the TVE decision, which has been taken "too late".

Despite Spain moving to the second semifinal, Susanna is still confident about Andorra's chances of qualifying: "We will go through the final", she assures. Nonetheless, the Andorran hopeful believes that TVE move could influence the Andorran people's voting patterns the evening of the grand final.

Norway:Russian eye on Rybak

Norwegian favourite Alexander Rybak is already attracting a lot of media attention in Russia, including an appearance on a TV programme watched by up to 18 million Russian viewers.

Already the pre-contest hot favourite, Rybak is on the way to becoming a well-known name in the host country even before the rehearsals have begun. He has generated such interest in Russia, that journalists and camera crews have been travelling all the way to Norway to follow the young star's preparations for Moscow.

Genuinely likeable

Last week, a crew from Russian channel NTV - one of Russia's biggest TV concerns - arrived in the Norwegian capital to produce a documentary portrait of Alexander. According to producer Marina Sagamonyan, the programme it featured in regularly grabs audiences of up to 18 million viewers, meaning that the artist could have garnered precious major exposure in the build-up to the contest. She adds that Russians have great faith in Norway's entry this year, placing him firmly at the top of the favourites list. "A lot has been said and written about Alexander recently in Russia" she explains. "We think he's going to win. His song is great and catchy. And at the same time, Alexander has a really natural and slightly naive air about him. He comes across as genuine, and people like that."

The television crew to visit Alexander is not normally used for stories beyond the Russian borders, a fact that Alexander can take as a huge compliment; Marina adds that journalist Alexey Simiakhin, who speaks only Russian, was "over the moon to visit such a beautiful country as Norway. He's really happy to be here and meet Alexander."

Sweden: Moscow à la mode for Malena

Further details of Swedish Eurovision hopeful Malena Ernman's Moscow dress have appeared in the national press, suggesting that all records will be broken with a frock costing almost 400,000 Swedish Kronor - over 37,000 Euros.

Swedish tabloid Expressen already leaked details of Malena's costume plans earlier in April, as stylists swapped her black number from Melodifestivalen with a Narnia-esque white gown. Now, a glimpse of the proposed frock is available, boasting a glorious train of feathers, which alone are said to have cost 10,000 kronor.

A dress for a real Valkyrie

Designer Camilla Thulins says of her creation: "it's a real luxury item of clothing. It demands a real Valkyrie, a Brunnhilde to carry it off - and that's what Malena is. Tall, blond and with a fantastic body." About the dress, she explains "we've take it a step further and given it futuristic wings. But at the same time it's a classic, 1800s style."

With fabric imported from Turkey and up to 365 feathers in three different shades composing the sartorial work of art, it is a clear statement from Sweden that they want their diva to be noticed in Moscow. In the meantime, her five supporting singers and dancers will be dressed in short jackets of velvet and silk. And the lady at the centre of it all is more than pleased with her own outfit: "I love it", is Malena's judgement. Appreciation is mutual; Thulins says of Malena "I have nothing but respect for Malena. It's great to dress such a brilliant artist."

Russia: More than 8500 Eurovision Police

The Russian Interior Ministry announced today that more than 8500 police and security officers will be on duty every day at the 2009 Eurovision Song Contest in Moscow guarding the Olypmpiisky Arena, official hotels and the fans and delegations.

"Over 5,000 officers of law enforcement agencies and about 3,000 security guards from private security firms will be involved in maintaining public order and security every day," said Major General Nikolai Trifonov, the deputy chief of the ministry's public security department. They will guard the 11 designated hotels assigned for the competition and the area surrounding the Olympiisky Sports Complex.

"We don't expect any terrorist attacks, but we do not rule out the possibility of unsanctioned protests," he said, adding that the Eurovision Song Contest would coincide with the May 1 Spring and LabourDay and the May 9th Victory Day public holidays. A planed Gay Pride march is also scheduled for the day of the Eurovision Song Contest however it has not been permitted by the government.

Serbia: "Camp, kitch and chaos" for Cipela presentation

Jelena Tomasevic, the Serbian 2008 Eurovision Song Contest participant, feels certain that her successor's style and personality will attract Europe's attention. The Serbian star, who finished sixth last year with Oro, offered some advice to Marko as well as her warmest wishes for good luck.

"Marko is full of positive energy. He is an interesting and funny person with exquisite professional and human qualities. I have already advised him to stay calm and dedicate himself fully to his performance. Under no circumstances should he allow himself to be affected by trivialities. He should enjoy the beauties of Russia and get acquainted with other contestants. I wish him to qualify for the final and finish in the top ten", stated Jelena.

The promo materials for Cipela are now ready and have been presented in a press conference held at the RTS headquarters where the concept of this year's presentation was also discussed. "The presentation of the song Shoe is called 'The Shoe, Love, Live and Leave'. It consists of various gadgets which tell a story about a vagabond who is scared of ordinary life. Wherever his shoe touches the ground, that's where his world is", says Boris Miljkovic, Art Director responsible for the visual identity of the Serbian 2009 Eurovision entry.

"The presentation is a mixture of kitsch, camp and chaos which are, as Terry Wogan described it, the essential characteristics of the Eurovision Song Contest." says Mr Miljkovic who is the man behind last year's sub logo as well as the postcards, the traditional videos used to introduce each competing entry. "I think that we shall achieve a great success, despite everything", concludes Miljkovic.

[crazymonkey]

Shiva seeing as won't have time to watch eurovision please tell me who I am supposed to like this year! (I already love alexander Rybak and think sweden's could be cool when they they fix it up a bit)

[Shiva]

Shiva seeing as won't have time to watch eurovision please tell me who I am supposed to like this year! (I already love alexander Rybak and think sweden's could be cool when they they fix it up a bit)

Sweden, Norway and Azerbaijan [;-)]

[crazymonkey]

and whose do I scoff knowingly at?

[Shiva]

Macedonia, Portugal, Moldova, Serbia, Croatia, Slovakia, Latvia and the Czech Republic [:-D]

[Invincible]

But i really like Portugal!! It's a lovely gentle warm song:)

[becc0]

Azerbaijan ftw.

[Shiva]

Well the main news is that the dress rehearsals have started. I'll spare ye the running commentary on all the acts.

Here is a quick run down on todays events, semi-final 2 qualifiers (mainly because Ireland and Norway are in it).

Croatia - Very blue and dull

Ireland - More co-ordinated but suffering from a lot of technical difficulties, sound check wasn't working most of the time and the stage graphics are just spastic.

Latvia - His voice was a bit strained as he neared the end of the rehearsal but that's not completely disastrous for this style of song. This was a good rehearsal for Latvia

Serbia- This was a good rehearsal and of the first 4 rehearsals seen so far this morning has the best chance to qualify.

Poland - Really dreadful vocals for most of the rehearsal, difficulty reaching some notes and holding others. She did improve towards the end of the reharsal.

Norway - The set is now a fairytale village at night with a yellow moon and stars. Very good I think for the song. He is onstage with 3 male dancers and 2 female backing singers and the performance is pretty much the same as the national final/preview video. The backing singers are in red this time. Vocals are excellent and Alexander is very good with the cameras. The only negative is that there is a lot of activity with the 3 dancers, jumping and somersaulting. Because of all of the activity, the camera shots can look a bit messy in a few places so this needs to be sorted but, as they say, that's what rehearsals are for. No surprise that it's a definite qualifier and a possible winner, Its not the definite winner though!

[earlstvincent]

Am I the only one not excited by the eurovision...? *flinches from backlash*

[becc0]

Watched a Jelena Tomasevic interview the other day in work, she seems super cute :p Go Serbia!

[curley]

Am I the only one not excited by the eurovision...? *flinches from backlash*


I was the same last year but after being 'forced' to watch it, I am now an addict lol

[earlstvincent]

I was the same last year but after being 'forced' to watch it, I am now an addict lol

I've never been keen on it watched it for 10 minutes last year and much the same the year before. Never, ever enjoyed it. [:-P] Can't see that changing personally. As becc0 always tells me, clearly I'm the worst gay man ever. [:-P]

[Shiva]

SLOVAKIA : Very melodramatic performance, in fact more dramatic than mellow. The singing is top class which is usual for a ballad this year. Nela is truly amazing on the high notes, showing her operatic training, but I can’t help feeling it’s a little “too much” for most of the Eurovision audience. The candle effect backdrop is a little dull (we’ve seen this kind of anonymous setting for too many songs) and singing in Slovak isn’t a help for an international audience and a much as it might deserve to, I believe that this isn’t qualifying.

DENMARK : Brinck was in fine voice and the pyros added a little bit to the final chorus. This was competent if a little formulized by I can see this in the final without any hesitation.

[Shiva]

Here are some of the performances from the last 3 days.

Denmark [:-X]
QJBo1wadMRA

Ireland [:-(]
GBJBZeBY4go
Whoever thought black was a theme should be shot.

Norway [:-D]
wqZtgpLjkQw

Romania [:-?]
3NQtFpJXhXQ

Turkey [:-O ]
Ypb5bffA-Ic

Malta [:-?]
UdFksn5fM8g

Israel [:-?]
HklNyq7IIrc

Switzerland [:-)']
b2O__kbkmtI

Armenia [\:D-]
eRkfpO5TGWg

Sweden [:-?]
vgdqTQptgWY

[louislestat]

Did any of ye go to see Sinead Mulvey in The George last Friday?

[Shiva]

Yea, she was good. Admin has a few videos of her. Her live singing has gotten much better [:-D]

Her dancers were crap though - some guys they got for the night, nothing at all to do with her stage act.

[curley]

Did any of ye go to see Sinead Mulvey in The George last Friday?

Yup, she was actually FAB!! I'm sure admin has a recording that you can see, unfortunately you can't hear much of her due to Shiva and Invincible screaming the words 'ETCETERA!!' over and over again.

[louislestat]

Yea, she was good. Admin has a few videos of her. Her live singing has gotten much better [:-D]

Her dancers were crap though - some guys they got for the night, nothing at all to do with her stage act.

Glad to hear her signing has improved

[Shiva]

Last round of the first dress rehearsals!

First up today was Slovenia.

l1xZ5uS5MV8

Music was better, much more up-tempo, the singing started earlier as well which is good. However when the singing started was the problem. Lets say she is a bit of a screecher!

Hungary is the camp dance fest.

UXcFK3gAX3E

1990

Hungary next, and blue and white are the predominant colours here. with a neon effect on the floor. The song starts with everyone lying on the floor with the camera looking down on them. This is a very energetic performance but its not over the top. Along with 3 female backing dancers, there are also 2 male (female?) backing singers.

This is a huge contrast to Slovenia before it and has a chance to qualifiy I think. He got more tired with each rehearsal and his vocals suffered , but he only has to sing for 3 minutes in the show itself and his vocals were fine in the first couple of run throughs.

Azerbaijan

wM1hUB8frRg

This improved with each performance. It was a bit flat at the start but got progressively better, a bit too much ramp work maybe. Looking to be top 10 definitely.

Albania and her mighty midgets

_O3cTmfX5HM

With some of the weirdest dancers so far, Albania has vastly vastly improved since her live performance in their finals. She is much more confident in herself and it shows. this will definitely qualify.

GREECE is considered to be the major threat to Norway after Turkey's rather poor rehearsal, but if anything this was actually worse.

VemvvkNk62M

Sakis is now sporting a horrible fringe and I'm not sure if his har is getting in his eyes, because he didn't seem to know where he was going for some of the early run thoughs and actually crashed into one of the props at one point. Vocally is was ok, but lacking range, the dance routine which involves Sakis juimping into the air and an especially silly routine where they mount a platform with locked footplates so they can do some diagonal moves looks clunky. The "city by night" backdrop is great and this will qualify for sure, but it need to get a whole lot better, even to make the Top 5.

Lithuania

pYEQlgKsWpE

Lithuania was really good today , great staging, fantastic vocals and definitely the best ballad in semifinal 2 (Sorry Croatia). I wasn't sure about this before the rehearsal but I now think this is a qualifier. It's a huge contrast to Greece before it. Just take off your hat and open your eyes every now and then :)

Moldova [:-D]

Moldova is one trickster nations, its lets you believe that the are small and have terrible taste in music, and then you see this...

UKCukN-_onQ

Moldova proved to be a big surprise today. Nothing could have prepared people for this little beauty. It has turned out to be such a lovely act and the dancers... I am now in love with this song! Best rehearsal of the day!

Ukraine

WK4Q5xvDb_U

A little known fact about Ukraine is that the entire country makes nothing except ott Eurovision acts. Poor woman remortgaged her house to pay for "the machine". Nice performance, vocals are still off though.

Estonia

VPCMPscJjTo

Nice visuals, add in some dry ice and you have an ok song that won't go far, although it may surprise people...

Netherlands

uLRX2aCvC-k

Hmmm, maybe, maybe not. While camptastic, uhhhhhhhh

[Shiva]

Finally announced are the presenters for the competition. The final will be presented by Ivan Urgant and Alsou, who's names have been widely rumored. For the semis it's Andrey Malakhov and Natalia Vodianova.

http://www.gaycork.com/forum/picture.php?albumid=99&pictureid=1547
Ivan Urgant

http://www.gaycork.com/forum/picture.php?albumid=99&pictureid=1549
Alsou sang for Russia in 2001.

http://www.gaycork.com/forum/picture.php?albumid=99&pictureid=1546
Andrey Malakhov

http://www.gaycork.com/forum/picture.php?albumid=99&pictureid=1548
Natalia Vodianova

[Shiva]

Queen of the forest

Romania has taken their enchanted forest theme further and Elena enters from a weird looking throne. One can only wonder what they will actually wear on Tuesday.... Still some very shaky vocals thanks to all that dancing around. One of those entries that people kinda like but not enough to take the phone and jury vote?
ggBskHMjnvY

Finland losing control

Reports from Moscow are telling Finland hasn't improved much on stage and many bloggers are dropping it from their list of possible qualifiers. Also in OGAE poll in the Arena Finland has dropped from #2 to #7 in semifinal one. Something indeed seems to be missing in it but I can't put my finger on it. The pyros were tested today as well but there's still no idea how this will translate to TV-screens.

yxN3coa8x9U

Southern comfort

Portugal sets completely different mood after Finland and indeed it's a very colorful jolly little number. I'm starting to think people might fall for this after all. A lot depends again on how they come across on TV. A lot of happy sweet faces can go very far...
Malta follows with Chiara that has got the background she wanted. The little mermaid thingy is gone and instead we have a million stars and this starts to look like a qualifier. Not that I still like it that much. Yawn....

5l1rPBtIyTY
74tlqy6Q43Y

Like water to the wounds

Bosnia-Herzegovina sounds and looks like the most obvious winner of the first semifinal. This song and its presentation really works and has something special to it. Well rehearsed and propably well prepared for TV as well this is heading straight to Top-5 in the final. And quite interestingly it has a same old fashioned rhythm and melancholic charm as Norway has. Is it going to be a nostalgy trip for those 40somethings in Moscow?

ivXoNggqJ0I

Traffic jams, shoes et cetera.....

Croatia leads us to second semifinal and to string of songs that might, or might not, make it to the final, depending on the humor of European voting.
Ireland's Sinead is sporting a silvery suit that isn't really that flattering. Vastly improved on the first rehearsal but lacks that "umph" to actually get anywhere I'm afraid [:-(] that and she moves like a chicken!
Latvia should have been stuck in Moscow traffic jams. And come voting they might hope they actually did!
Serbia has a controllod chaos on stage and the song put you in a good mood (and you can't ever forget the feel good factor in Eurovision, just looks at Estonia 2000!) Is it me or has this gone more Russian somehow? And the trio of Mr Propers is always a good thing to have....
Poland next. It's nice. But nice never goes far in Eurovision I'm afraid.
Cyprus has improved a lot but it's still not going anywhere but the bottom of the list.

uRZ2HTR33Pc
wDTvjEcowtM
q7h0VYB2jXo
LMo6xqHiFTA
WrW9FceLWgA
F8LldsXAqXQ

Norwegian fairytale continues

Norway is the obvious winner of the second semifinal. If they will in the end the final as well remains to be seen but this is a full packet. Everything works, Alexander delivers and the whole thing looks and sounds like a winner. It would be interesting to see what will happen if Norway won't win....

mhCROYZw5ag

Everybody jan jan!

Armenia has become suprisingly one of my favourites and I wouldn't be surprised if it made a new Armenian record in the Eurovision - for sure it will follow the trend of top-10 placings for them. Very ethnic I know but still easily absorbed and fun. On top a great looking show on stage. one of the few songs to actually go up in the betting stakes [:-D]

vzs9_U2QbdQ

[Shiva]

Patricia Kaas did it again.

No one seems to have anything bad to say about her and her performance. On the contrary. Fantastic is the most common comment it seems. And indeed she is like fresh wind in this contest, despite being probably the most old fashioned one indeed. But sometimes it's good to step backwards to see ahead. It remains to be seen if the televoters and juries will agree. I fantasied for a brief moment of going to Paris next year but I guess it's still a dream. But what a beautiful dream it is!
baLQ3bLqHAk

What's with these Russians?

I just watched the vid for the 2nd Russian rehearsal and they have now the videoclip behind Anastasia where she is singing along with herself until she breaks to tears and starts to grow old and so on... plus she is very taken by her performance and looks rather shaken in the end. One question pops into my mind: Are they doing something we still haven't understood? I must admit I was rather captured now. What is going on?
fZXer3ukxdE

Vive le burlesque!

Germany is in for a good show indeed. Oscar sings very well and the whole thing swings nicely. Can't wait to see Dita tease it when she arrives next week. Things have been changed a bit on stage and it looks much better and solid now. The idea might have been risky for Eurovision but it does look good and remains entertaining and fun instead becoming embarrassing.
28u-ODWdw8A

What time is it?

Uk has made a few changes to the presentation as well, and it seems to have been confirmed Andrew Lloyd Webber himself will pretend to play the piano come Saturday. Jade sings her lungs out and it all looks very... well... the same and kinda boring, I'm afraid. But I guess many people will like this sort of thing?
1c_HBhDrnfs

Never underestimate the last one

Spain was the last to rehearse yesterday and most people reportedly left to various parties. The same is due to happen tonight when the party of the year is taking place: the Opening Party! No one learned a lesson back in 1989 when none of the journalists bothered to follow the Yogoslavian rehearsals and see what happened? Blame yourself if you were surprised! Anyways, I'm gonna do just that and step back from the PC for awhile and leave you with this video of Soraya in Arena before and after her yesterday's rehearsals and singing with Jade for example. It looked messy seen it from a far but here from these camera angles it looks mighty good. Maybe it will be Soraya's night after all?
iOyrInz8ptU

[louislestat]

UK ENTRY

There is nothing worse than someone 'trying to hard'. This is exactly what the UK are doing. They used to always have great entries but got lazy for the past decade.

Yet again this smacks of 'desparation' .What is wrong with people.
They have as much chance as winning as Dustin did

[earlstvincent]

After the cinema yesterday and seeing Admin and Shiva and saying goodbye they said they'd see me on tuesday... I was like eh? Tuesday isn't that a bit early in the week to be going out. Then Codders was like isn't Tuesday Eurovision in Sinners. I was like oh yeah... I'll probably now be stoned LOL [:-P]

[Shiva]

I'll probably now be stoned LOL [:-P]

Your views are well known at this stage, we have a plan in store for you... [;-)]

Anyways...

In case you haven't heard elsewhere, I can now confirm who will call in the Irish votes and the five members of he Irish jury for the semi-final and final. The Irish votes will be called in by television and radio presenter Derek Gay As Christmas Mooney. 42 year old Derek's radio show has been used to preview the songs in the Irish national final for the last two years and it's his second time calling in the Irish votes, the first being 2000, when Ireland finished 6th.

The five members of the Irish jury this year are former Eurovision winners Linda Martin and Paul Harrington, producer and director Bill Huges, television presenter and former member of Irish "Popstars Six, Emma O'Driscoll and young singer/songwriter Luan Perle.

Linda Martin hails from Belfast and she won the Eurovision Song Contest for Ireland in 1992, singing Johnny Logan's "Why Me?". Previously in 1984 she finished second in the contest with "Terminal 3" (also written by Logan). As a member of Chips and as a solo performer, she holds the record for the number of participations in the Irish national finals. A life-long Eurovision fan, Linda was chosen to chair the five member panel that chosen the six finalists in this year's Irish national final. In recent years Linda has worked on the Irish version of "popstars" and on the "You're A Star" national talent show, though she has often stated her belief that Eurovision in he not the stage to blood new talent and that the contest requires a more experienced performer.

Dubliner Paul Harrington is a well known singer and musician, best known for winning the Eurovision Song Contest in 1994, singing Brendan Graham's "Rock'N'Roll Kids" with Charlie McGettingan. Paul released his debut album in 1991 and his most recent album and last year he released his most recent album "A Collection", an 18 track compilation of his favorite recordings including. Paul recently hiot the Irish charts with a version of the traditional song "Mooly Malone", and in recent years he has performed as a vocalist in the Michael Flatley production "Celtic Tiger".

Bill Hughes is no stranger to Eurovision. Last year he chaired the panel that selected the six finalists in the Irish selection. The choice of Dustin The Turkey's "Ireland Douze Pointe" before and after it was selected to represent Ireland in Belgrade was widely debated and Bill was an articulate advocate of the decision of the panel. A well known television producer and director, he directed the widely acclaimed "Happy Birthday Oscar Wilde" in 2004 and has recently produced the popular "Celebrity Jig'n'Reels" on RTE.

Emma O'Driscoll comes from Limerick and first came to public attention in 2001 when she was chosen as one of the members of Six, the Irish "Popstars" group. The group became an overnight sensation in Ireland and scored a couple vof chart-topping hits, before going heir separate ways, having failed to make an international breakthrough. In recent years Emma has turned to television presenting on RTE's children's show "The Den". Emma retains an interest in music and is writing and recording her own songs and this year she called in the votes of the Limerick jury in the Irish national final.

Luan Parle is singer/songwriter, who hails from Wicklow. Her début album, "Free" was released in Ireland in early 2007. She won the 2007 Meteor award for Best Irish Female in February 2007 and completed the double by winning the Tatler "Music Woman of the Year" award in November 2007.

[earlstvincent]

Your views are well known at this stage, we have a plan in store for you... [;-)]

Anyways...



Crap... LOL [:-P] Crap. I hate all these veiled threats people make. [:-P]

[PeterMcK]

To be fair, it wasn't particularly veiled![:-P]

[Shiva]

To be fair, it wasn't particularly veiled![:-P]

Its more fun that way [:-D]

[earlstvincent]

To be fair, it wasn't particularly veiled![:-P]

Yes it is! Their intentions aren't known that's a veiled threat [:-P] Had they told me what they're doing then it's an open threat. And it's just a "plan". Damn, I hate you guys... [:-((][:-P]

[Shiva]

Lol looking at the betting atm, the funniest I have seen is "Dita Von Teese to be banned from the Eurovision Final for being too raunchy" at 3/1 odds, its not a bad bet :)

Anyways here are the odds as the bookies see them, for outright winner.


Norway 11/8
Estonia 28/1
Romania 125/1
Greece 6/1
Spain 33/1
Poland 150/1
Turkey 8/1
Finland 33/1
Netherlands 150/1
Bosnia and Herzegovina 8/1
Russia 33/1
Slovenia 150/1
UK 14/1
Israel 33/1
Hungary 200/1
Azerbaijan 16/1
Denmark 40/1
Croatia 250/1
Ukraine 16/1
Lithuania 40/1
Belarus 250/1
Germany 20/1
Albania 50/1
Andorra 250/1
Sweden 20/1
Portugal 66/1
Latvia 250/1
Montenegro 20/1
Switzerland 66/1
Bulgaria 250/1
France 25/1
Serbia 80/1
Cyprus 250/1
Malta 25/1
Ireland 80/1
Macedonia 300/1
Armenia 25/1
Moldova 100/1
Slovakia 300/1
Iceland 28/1
Belgium 100/1
Czech Rep 300/1

[louislestat]

BBC are only advertising the Final on Saturday. Easily known that they are automatically in it and dont care about the rest of the competition LOL

[Shiva]

BBC are only advertising the Final on Saturday. Easily known that they are automatically in it and dont care about the rest of the competition LOL

They show the semis on BBC3 :)
Different presenters

[louislestat]

They show the semis on BBC3 :)
Different presenters


A-ha.....BBC3 Land of the walking dead[:-|]

[Shiva]

A-ha.....BBC3 Land of the walking dead[:-|]

Pretty much, but we watched the semis on BBC3 last year and I have to say those presenters were excellent. They were doing it as fans and not sarcastic comments every 30 secs.

[louislestat]

Pretty much, but we watched the semis on BBC3 last year and I have to say those presenters were excellent. They were doing it as fans and not sarcastic comments every 30 secs.

It will be interesting to see how Mr Norton does on the night. Who is doing RTE? Is it still Marty? I do enjoy him

[Shiva]

It will be interesting to see how Mr Norton does on the night. Who is doing RTE? Is it still Marty? I do enjoy him

Marty for TV and Larry for the radio

[Shiva]

In probably the best news since Sinead Mulvey came to Moscow she has decided to change her outfit for the semi finals. That one piece silver cat suit was just awful, thank the gods she saw sense...

[admin]

in probably the best news since sinead mulvey came to moscow she has decided to change her outfit for the semi finals. That one piece silver cat suit was just awful, thank the gods she saw sense...

phew [;;)]

[Captain Ass]

Okay, sometimes Russians confuse me, but now I'm REALLY F*CKED!!!

I just watched TATU on stage...I was secretly waiting for them to snog as defiance of the ban on Gay Pride Marches in Moscow, but isn't that so effing weird that they'd a girl group who were best known for being 'the lesbians from Russia' as the interval act and yet have publicly came out and said no LGBT people should be 'parading around' their sexuality?!?!

TWISTED!

[Slayer]

So there's no Eastern block countries in the selection yet! Weird!

[louislestat]

Okay, sometimes Russians confuse me, but now I'm REALLY F*CKED!!!

I just watched TATU on stage...I was secretly waiting for them to snog as defiance of the ban on Gay Pride Marches in Moscow, but isn't that so effing weird that they'd a girl group who were best known for being 'the lesbians from Russia' as the interval act and yet have publicly came out and said no LGBT people should be 'parading around' their sexuality?!?!

TWISTED!

Did TATU say ''no LGBT people should be parading around their sexuality''? Fair play to them

[Captain Ass]

Did TATU say ''no LGBT people should be parading around their sexuality''? Fair play to them

OOPS! I meant the Moscow Mayor...LOL

Delighted Iceland and Finland got through.....
C'MON SINEAD AND THE BLACK WEEDS!!

[Shiva]

So there's no Eastern block countries in the selection yet! Weird!

They are hoping to have them wipe each other out in one semi :)

Here are the qualifiers;

* Turkey
* Sweden
* Israel
* Portugal
* Malta
* Finland
* Bosnia and Herzegovina
* Romania
* Armenia
* Iceland

Finland surprised me [:-?], disappointed that Louislestat I mean Belarus did not get through, but anyways, there was a lot of crap there tonight [:-)']

I'm gonna see if I can find the actual order somewhere. Watch this space...

[louislestat]

Turkey, Malta and Iceland were obviously the best. Sweden too but I dont like it

Belarus... I mean me was sort of crap I thought.

4 more days and its over. HURRAH!!

[Shiva]

Here is the new running order on the final based on tonights qualifiers. The ones in caps are automatic qualifiers (the big 4 plus last years winner). Looks like both Sweden and Israel have the kiss of death with France.

02 Israel
03 France
04 Sweden
06 Portugal
07 Iceland
09 Armenia
10 Russia
12 Bosnia and Herzegovina
14 Malta
17 Germany
18 Turkey
22 Romania
23 United Kingdom
24 Finland
25 Spain

The big winners tonight are the U.K. less ballads around them.
If Ireland qualify we need 20 or 21.

[curley]

Thought Iceland were very good last night, but bit surprised at some of the qualifiers. I would have put through Iceland, Malta, Finland, Sweeden, Portugal, Israel, Turkey and possibly Armenia but not the others, Bosnia & Herz?? I mean, what???? And what happened to Montenegro??

[louislestat]

Here is the new running order on the final based on tonights qualifiers. The ones in caps are automatic qualifiers (the big 4 plus last years winner). Looks like both Sweden and Israel have the kiss of death with France.

02 Israel
03 France
04 Sweden
06 Portugal
07 Iceland
09 Armenia
10 Russia
12 Bosnia and Herzegovina
14 Malta
17 Germany
18 Turkey
22 Romania
23 United Kingdom
24 Finland
25 Spain

The big winners tonight are the U.K. less ballads around them.
If Ireland qualify we need 20 or 21.

I can't believe you are worried about the running order of songs in the Eurovision. I'm speechless.
Please go back to the comics and Star Trek[:-P]

[Carraigrock]

Thought Iceland were very good last night,

There was a big cheer in the Chambers when Iceland was called out as a qualifier. I never picked up on the song before - I'm not sure what happened but she was really good last night I thought.

Competition for Norway perhaps?

[curley]

There was a big cheer in the Chambers when Iceland was called out as a qualifier. I never picked up on the song before - I'm not sure what happened but she was really good last night I thought.

Competition for Norway perhaps?

If she performs the song well she will give them a run for their money alright. Might need to change my top three choices...

[Carraigrock]

For those who may have missed Iceland.....
58Qdi8jL4cs

[PeterMcK]

Iceland were fantastic. I was kinda pleased Portugal got through as it was a sweet pleasant song, although I still think it has no chance!

Sweden was good but not as impressive as I was hoping - there was very little too the performance beyond the quality of her voice.

Goodbye Montenegro! [:-((]

(and goodbye FYR Macedonia with their twins my bf was lusting over[:-?] )

[leelum]

Iceland were fantastic. I was kinda pleased Portugal got through as it was a sweet pleasant song, although I still think it has no chance!

Sweden was good but not as impressive as I was hoping - there was very little too the performance beyond the quality of her voice.

Goodbye Montenegro! [:-((]

(and goodbye FYR Macedonia with their twins my bf was lusting over[:-?] )

Poor FYROM :(....Just call it Macedonia to piss off the Greeks [:-P]

[Shiva]

I can't believe you are worried about the running order of songs in the Eurovision. I'm speechless.
Please go back to the comics and Star Trek[:-P]

And? You worry about less trivial things. Besides its over in 4 days.

[louislestat]

And? You worry about less trivial things. Besides its over in 4 days.

Thank God. HURRAH!!

Eh no there is nothing less trivial than that LOL

[Invincible]

I was very pleased with all the qualifiers, except Israel. It's alright like, but i'm just not a lover of it. I'm so glad Portugal got through - i've been singing their praises for ages now while everyone else was moaning about it!

I'm sorry Montenegro didn't get through. Being the first song on did not help them. And the performance was a bit underwhelming. She sang it well, but there was nothing going on besides her hot dancer doing ballroom dancing. It needed more oomph to make an impact from that position.

Ahhh Bulgaria. Great song in the studio. Painful live. Bye bye.

Norway came 5th in last years final with a song quite similar to Icelands. So watch out for it!

Five of last nights qualifiers could be considered ballads: Iceland, Malta, Portugal, Israel and Bosnia&Herzegovina. Interesting maybe?

[curley]

I'm sorry Montenegro didn't get through. Being the first song on did not help them. And the performance was a bit underwhelming. She sang it well, but there was nothing going on besides her hot dancer doing ballroom dancing. It needed more oomph to make an impact from that position.

he looked like he was dislocating his shoulders every time he did a shimmy!

[louislestat]

he looked like he was dislocating his shoulders every time he did a shimmy!

He was Mr Campy McCamp. An awful looking Gazebo. I didnt like that at all

[curley]

He was Mr Campy McCamp. An awful looking Gazebo. I didnt like that at all

LOL!! this struck me as insanely hilarious, just left out a big Guffaw in the office, people are looking at me funny!

[Invincible]

LOL!! this struck me as insanely hilarious, just left out a big Guffaw in the office, people are looking at me funny!

Is a guffaw a kind of giraffe?

[curley]

Is a guffaw a kind of giraffe?

Yes, I let out a big giraffe in the office. no wonder people are looking at me funny

[Invincible]

Hungary's singer, Zoli Adok (gayest entrant this year)...hot or not?

[Dukeboxgeorge]

Will the Irish entry get through at the semi finals on Thursday?

[curley]

I think they have a good chance, it all depends on their performance on the night. Plus the fact the cat suit is apparently not being used it a definite plus

[JoannaRyde]

If we get out of the semis she might do really well

However looking at Iceland, I think the judges might really go for that!

[Shiva]

Given the reactions from todays performance, we seem to be getting worse -_-
I really really want them to get through, I just hope they can put it together on the night.

Ireland next up and Sinead's outfit is an improvement on the silver catsuit but only just. The pink skirt part looks ridiculous when the windmachine is on as it looks like a flap fluttering in the breeze. In the hall, the vocals sounded ok to me. There was one part where I think they were trying to show the band in silhouette and this did not work as the band simply disappeared! I'm reserving judgement until I see it on screen tonight but , in the hall I thought it was much better. However, its on the screen that matters.

20312032

[Tom RED]

I really like Albania's song. It's the 16th song tomorrow night. Can't wait!

i1mQR1TgAbo

[JoannaRyde]

We've Norway and Azerbaijan in our round and we're second!!!

UGH!

Funny that the EBU want to bring back all the countries that wanna pull out

Theres 42 at the mo

Then Georgia, San Marino, Austria, Luxumburg, Italy, Monaco and Morocco have all entered in the past and pulled out!

Qatar, Lebenon, Palestine and Liechtenstein could also debut next year!

That'll be 53 entrants!!!

[becc0]

http://i717.photobucket.com/albums/ww171/metaldaisy_666/BlackDaisy_003.jpg

*daydreams*

[becc0]

I wish I had a better answer than

http://i717.photobucket.com/albums/ww171/metaldaisy_666/BlackDaisy_05.jpg

*sigh*

[JoannaRyde]

I was going to enter last year but RTE told me they already had a novelty act lined up (Dustin!) I'm seriously thinking of entering

Even for Malta

They can't have many singers!

[JoannaRyde]

A fowl mouthed Turkey?!?!?!

Was that bit about me or Dustin?

[becc0]

As in the band are all totally cute. Cuteycute.

[Shiva]

Even for Malta

They can't have many singers!

They had 500 entrants to their competition, plus they held several rounds of elimination whereby Chiara ate the competition to win for them :D

[louislestat]

I like Chiara, she has come 2nd and 3rd previously hasnt she?? I think??

I like France, how is that 'rated'

[Shiva]

I like Chiara, she has come 2nd and 3rd previously hasnt she?? I think??

I like France, how is that 'rated'

Your right about Chiara. France is rated high and will do well with the Juries, the problem being as they are 3rd in the performance a lot of televotes might be lost because people would have forgotten, so to speak, by the end of the competition. However that never really stopped anyone else before, people have short term memories :)

Paris 2010 anyone?

[Captain Ass]

Paris 2010 anyone?

I think Ireland will do very well. I think a Eurovision in Dublin 2010 would be hilarious...Boom to bust and we get to hold the Eurovision again in another bust because they are gonna f*ck us over because of Lisbon!! LOL

[Shiva]

Good news from the Irish camp (for once)
Ireland on now, camera work has tightened right up. Interaction with cameras is a lot better.

Vocals sound a lot brighter and sharper. Outfits are also better. Sinead now wearing black leather jacket over long pink top. This is the best I have seen this done by a long long way. What a big improvement.Do the same tonight and Ireland do have a chance.
Please please please get through girls :)
most people seem to think that we will qualify now, if they can repeast todays performance. [:-D]

[Invincible]

According to paddypower.com the United Kingdom are now 12/1 to win the whole thing. How the fuck is that possible???

And i see Sweden have drifted out to 33/1. They were as low as 12/1 before their semifinal.

Norway 5/4 Sweden 33/1 Lithuania 100/1
Greece 5/1 Finland 33/1 Moldova 100/1
Turkey 8/1 Romania 40/1 Israel 100/1
Bosnia&H. 10/1 Estonia 50/1 Croatia 150/1
UK 12/1 Spain 50/1 Netherlands 150/1
Iceland 14/1 Russia 66/1 Slovenia 150/1
Azerbaijan 16/1 Denmark 80/1 Cyprus 200/1
Germany 20/1 Albania 80/1 Latvia 250/1
France 22/1 Serbia 80/1 Poland 250/1
Ukraine 25/1 Ireland 80/1 Hungary 300/1
Armenia 25/1 Portugal 100/1 Slovakia 300/1
Malta 33/1

[JoannaRyde]

I'm in love with Norway boy!

[Shiva]

I'm in love with Norway boy!

You and Phillip Kirkirov, he had dinner with him the last night [:-?]

[becc0]

lolwat!

[DJ Jules]

[:-((][:-((][:-((]

[Carraigrock]

So, Irelands hope of Eurovision glory is over....
Norway were fairly poor tonight I thought....maybe they are keeping some in reserve for Saturday,

Greece looking likely winners methinks
also how hot were the Ukrainian dancers with the centurion helmets?....[:-O ]

[Dukeboxgeorge]

I, like most people expected the Irish entry to get through to the final. It must be very disappointing for the girls. By all accounts they gave a very good performance and got a good response from the audience present. They should have gone through. I think it would be much better to scrap these qualifying rounds and let them all perform on the one night.

[corkybo]

It's a pity Ireland didn't get through they were really good[:-(][:-(]

Although my favourite country Denmark got through so thats some consolation for me.....GO ON THE DANES!!!!!!![:-D]

[JoannaRyde]

Right I'm going next year!

I think it'll be Oslo!

[Shiva]

Placings for Saturdays final

Draw ↓ Country ↓ Artist ↓ Song ↓
1 Lithuania Sasha Son Love
2 Israel Noa and Mira Awad There Must Be Another Way
3 France Patricia Kaas Et s'il fallait le faire
4 Sweden Malena Ernman La voix
5 Croatia Igor Cukrov feat. Andrea Lijepa Tena[57]
6 Portugal Flor-de-Lis Todas as ruas do amor
7 Iceland Yohanna[49] Is It True?
8 Greece Sakis Rouvas This Is Our Night
9 Armenia Inga and Anush Jan Jan
10 Russia Anastasiya Prikhodko Mamo
11 Azerbaijan AySel and Arash[59] Always
12 Bosnia and Herzegovina Regina Bistra voda
13 Moldova Nelly Ciobanu Hora din Moldova
14 Malta Chiara What If We
15 Estonia Urban Symphony Rändajad
16 Denmark Niels Brinck Believe Again
17 Germany Alex Swings Oscar Sings![60] Miss Kiss Kiss Bang
18 Turkey Hadise Düm Tek Tek
19 Albania Kejsi Tola Carry Me in Your Dreams
20 Norway Alexander Rybak Fairytale
21 Ukraine Svetlana Loboda Be My Valentine! (Anti-Crisis Girl)
22 Romania Elena The Balkan Girls
23 United Kingdom Jade Ewen It's My Time
24 Finland Waldo's People Lose Control
25 Spain Soraya Arnelas La noche es para mí


As we can see 6 ballards in the first 7. As there are none around the UK, coming in at 23 this will do well for Jade.

Also not a very good placing for Norway, too many other similar songs around them, Greece could do well from it.

[PeterMcK]

Can't believe I missed the second semi! Had a sudden onset of fever for some reason! [:-((]

[JoannaRyde]

UK will finish bottom 4!

FACT

[leelum]

Racist!

[louislestat]

UK will finish bottom 4!

FACT

I couldnt agree with you more. I love Sir Andrew and I love Diane Warrens work normally but that song makes me want to puke.

It is the perfect example of 'trying to hard'. JUST STOP!!

[Shiva]

Here is the order in which the countries vote;

1. Spain
2. Belgium
3. Belarus
4. Malta
5. Germany
6. Czech Republic
7. Sweden
8. Iceland
9. France
10. Israel
11. Russia
12. Latvia
13. Montenegro
14. Andorra
15. Finland
16. Switzerland
17. Norway
18. Bulgaria
19. Lithuania
20. United Kingdom
21. FYR Macedonia
22. Slovakia
23. Greece
24. Bosnia and Herzegovina
25. Ukraine
26. Turkey
27. Albania
28. Serbia
29. Cyprus
30. Poland
31. Netherlands
32. Estonia
33. Croatia
34. Portugal
35. Romania
36. Ireland
37. Denmark
38. Moldova
39. Slovenia
40. Armenia
41. Hungary
42. Azerbaijan

The voting from 1 to 7 is MUCH better better this year. They are clearer to read and stay on screen for much longer.

[JoannaRyde]

I'm not a racist! I'm a realist! The big 4 dont tend to score very well!

[Invincible]

The voting from 1 to 7 is MUCH better better this year. They are clearer to read and stay on screen for much longer.

Thank god, coz prior to this it just wasn't good enough. Too quick and hard-to-read.

And now let me discuss what i thought of the show last night!

I now ADORE ukraine. I've loved the song for a long time, but after seeing those roman centurions i'm more in love than ever :p

Greece was also very impressive. Could he find a smaller t-shirt?? One of his dancers was hot.

Norway was good, and i really like Azerbaijan and Moldova too.

Aww poor Hungary. Hot man, hot body, cool song, but it didnt work live.

I hope i never have the 'pleasure' of ever seeing those 2 presenters again. Thank god there are 2 different ones for the final. They were unbearable!!

[Shiva]

I'm not a racist! I'm a realist! The big 4 dont tend to score very well!

Haha Brits are bottoms

Also in other news :P

The official dress rehersal for the Jurys is taking place now, I'll update when all the acts are finished. Most surprising are the reactions to Iceland, potential winner has been spouted a few times.

[PeterMcK]

Haha Brits are bottoms

Also in other news :P


'Ere, y'wot now![:-O ][:-))]

[Invincible]

I was just browsing through the iTunes top 100 downloaded songs and there are 3 2009 eurovision songs on it. Guess what they are?

No.2 Et Cetera by Sinéad Mulvey & Black Daisy (Ireland)
No. 32 Fairytale by Alexander Rybak (Norway)
No.62 Is it True? by Yohanna (Iceland).

Interesting no?

[Shiva]

Its a sign from GOD!!!!!!
I was recommended Azerbaijan the last day :)

[Captain Ass]

It Has Begun!

[Captain Ass]

OMG!

Dima Bilan

[leelum]

Eugh! I HATE Dima!

(And I miss Terry Wogan :( )

[+saidin+]

OMG!

Dima Bilan

I almost died laughing when his jacket got caught!! [:-))]

Miming was awful, as was flashing back 5 minutes to him breaking through walls... [=;]

[leelum]

Woo Israel!

I like this song :) But I think last years was cooler :)

[+saidin+]

I thought Israel was rubbash! Sweden was odd. Awful dress, really hope she kept the receipt for that 37,000 pile of rags.

I LOVE Graham Norton, he's hilarious at doing this!

Croatia is cringe

[leelum]

Frances one was mank! Croatia isn't to bad...but it sounds a little plain....

[leelum]

LOL @ Greece and its dancing!

[+saidin+]

LOL @ Greece and its dancing!

Where do I go to report the rape to my eyes and ears I just suffered?!

Seriously, he didn't blink once that entire song. There's like a whole bag of coke up his nose...

[Slayer]

Israel and the obligatory let's all love one another song was alright. The peace song of the year is usually much more shite.


Loved Greece, Sakis ftw!

The girl from Sweden sang really badly on the non-opera parts I thought, I really thought she was straining her voice at the sem final for the opera sections and I think it sounded the same tonight. She really is terrifying though...someone should tell her you're not supposed to smile when you're singing opera...it's not the Billy Barrys!

[Captain Ass]

Russia = vomit

They should have destroyed the big screens....and the song is like a military chant with music!!

[leelum]

Are Russia taking the piss....?

[Slayer]

Russia = shit.

And not just cos they're homophobic bastards. :)

[+saidin+]

Russia, that was not gay enough. Take it back [=;]

[leelum]

I loved what she did at the end, shaking with the microphone....I lol'ed!

[+saidin+]

I loved what she did at the end, shaking with the microphone....I lol'ed!

I covered my ears for fear of permanent damage.

Bosnia's rather boring...

[Slayer]

Russia, that was not gay enough. Take it back [=;]

Russia in bastion of heterosexuality shocker.

[leelum]

Malta was nice :)

I like the sound of Estonia!

[Captain Ass]

POS Country FIRST: Years -
1 Ireland 7 times -96, -94, -93, -92, -87, -80, -70
2 United Kingdom 5 times -97, -81, -76, -69, -67
3 France 5 times -77, -69, -62, -60, -58
4 Luxembourg 5 times -83, -73, -72, -65, -61
5 Sweden 4 times -99, -91, -84, -74
6 Netherlands 4 times -75, -69, -59, -57
7 Israel 3 times -98, -79, -78
8 Spain twice -69, -68
9 Switzerland twice -88, -56
10 Italy twice -90, -64
11 Denmark twice -00, -63
12 Norway twice -95, -85
13 Germany once -82
14 Russia once -08
15 Belgium once -86
15 Ukraine once -04
17 Monaco once -71
18 Greece once -05
19 Estonia once -01
19 Latvia once -02
19 Turkey once -03
22 Austria once -66
22 Finland once -06
22 Serbia once -07
22 Yugoslavia once -89

[Captain Ass]

Malta to win [:-X]

she was fab!!

[Captain Ass]

OMG...Denmark guy DOES sound like Ronan Keating...(co writer of the song)

[Slayer]

Ronan sang it to him so that he could learn the words and that's how he's performing it...That's what I think anyway.

[Captain Ass]

Ronan sang it to him so that he could learn the words and that's how he's performing it...That's what I think anyway.

As Marty Whelan said....he's in his ear singing it...LOL

Love Germany!!

[leelum]

Major eww @ the Germs!

[Slayer]

Dita... :O

[Captain Ass]

Dita... :O

yeah they were scared incase she did something on stage that they'd need to censor....LOL

[Slayer]

I wish she had....So beautiful.

[leelum]

It's all the same old same old!

Nothing new :S

[Slayer]

Loving Albania!

[Captain Ass]

Yes Kookie, it was.

LOVE LOVE LOVE Norway!!