"Today the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) expressed profound dismay on behalf of Europe’s entire public service media community at reports that ERT – a founding Member of the EBU in 1950 – has been shut down with immediate effect." - eurovision.tv
"ERT may stand for: Ellinikí Radiofonía Tileórasi, Greece's former state broadcaster" - Wikipedia
Looking at the news today, the Greek national broadcaster, ERT, has now been shut down 'to save costs' with immediate effect. Now Greece does not official have a state broadcaster. And, as ERT is Greece's member of the EBU, no ERT means no there'll be no Greece for ESC. It looks highly unlikely the Greece will be participating in the Eurovision next year. So yes, it's not even one month after the final (or even one month after the first semi final) and already we have our first withdrawal. I just hope that this does not set a precedent for things to come.
Showing posts with label Eurovision. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Eurovision. Show all posts
Tuesday, 11 June 2013
More about Sunčane Skale 2013
Hey everyone, Britski here. I've just recently received an email from the project leader of Sunčane Skale and who was also in the PR for the Macedonian delegation from ESC 2013, and he told me a lot of stuff I didn't know about the contest this year, so I thought I'd share all of these things with you guys.
Well, first thing's first, I now have a link to the official Telman video, rather than a reupload - Тельман - Сердце пополам
He then also very helpfully linked me to a video of Mave O'Rick - Heaven, which was posted on Youtube yesteday.
Mave O'Rick is a German singer who took part in the Swiss national final this year, but didn't get through to the live show. Here is Mave O'Rick's song 'My Beat', which took part in the national final selection process.
And here is an article in which Mave O'Rick speaks to ESC Daily about this song.
And now about Ellyland:
"Ellyland from Azerbaijan is also very well known there not only in Germany. She was at the Azeri National Final 2010 when Safura won. She is better known as Elli in Azerbaijan. In Germany she started now the new project "Ellyland" thats why you see so many german comments on this video :) The song is at the moment released in Germany, Austria & Switzerland (so far as I know)"
I didn't actually know that Ellyland had taken part in the national final, but I found Elly's 2010 NF video here if you want to see that. She is also a former member of the German band Bisou which was formed on the German TV show Popstars by German rapper Bushido.
More on the Eurovision connection now, Pamela Ramljak was a member of the band Femminem, and Ivana Banfić was a participant at Dora, the Croatian national final for the Eurovision.
As was mentioned earlier, Glenys Vargas was the backing singer for Juliana Pasha (Albania) back at ESC 2010 in Oslo. Also, if you want to know more about this, I recently discovered that Glenys Vargas has a blog and in this article she goes into a lot more detail about her time at Eurovision 2010. If you're interesting in the behind-the-scenes type stuff at ESC, this is a very good read. Also, it appears that Glenys and Kevin have their sights set on Eurovision, and could possibly represent someone in the near future?
US/UK Entries:
2011 - Power Positive
2012 - Love Me, Let Me Go
2013 - Dream!
This will be the third time that they represent the US/UK. As always, good luck to all the entrants, and I must thank MeshPR again for his very helpful email.
-Britski
Well, first thing's first, I now have a link to the official Telman video, rather than a reupload - Тельман - Сердце пополам
He then also very helpfully linked me to a video of Mave O'Rick - Heaven, which was posted on Youtube yesteday.
Mave O'Rick is a German singer who took part in the Swiss national final this year, but didn't get through to the live show. Here is Mave O'Rick's song 'My Beat', which took part in the national final selection process.
And here is an article in which Mave O'Rick speaks to ESC Daily about this song.
And now about Ellyland:
"Ellyland from Azerbaijan is also very well known there not only in Germany. She was at the Azeri National Final 2010 when Safura won. She is better known as Elli in Azerbaijan. In Germany she started now the new project "Ellyland" thats why you see so many german comments on this video :) The song is at the moment released in Germany, Austria & Switzerland (so far as I know)"
I didn't actually know that Ellyland had taken part in the national final, but I found Elly's 2010 NF video here if you want to see that. She is also a former member of the German band Bisou which was formed on the German TV show Popstars by German rapper Bushido.
More on the Eurovision connection now, Pamela Ramljak was a member of the band Femminem, and Ivana Banfić was a participant at Dora, the Croatian national final for the Eurovision.
As was mentioned earlier, Glenys Vargas was the backing singer for Juliana Pasha (Albania) back at ESC 2010 in Oslo. Also, if you want to know more about this, I recently discovered that Glenys Vargas has a blog and in this article she goes into a lot more detail about her time at Eurovision 2010. If you're interesting in the behind-the-scenes type stuff at ESC, this is a very good read. Also, it appears that Glenys and Kevin have their sights set on Eurovision, and could possibly represent someone in the near future?
US/UK Entries:
2011 - Power Positive
2012 - Love Me, Let Me Go
2013 - Dream!
This will be the third time that they represent the US/UK. As always, good luck to all the entrants, and I must thank MeshPR again for his very helpful email.
-Britski
Monday, 10 June 2013
On the 'popular' British attitude to ESC
Hello, Britski here. I'm here to talk to you today about the popular British attitude to ESC. Granted, not everyone in Britain shares this opinion (I certainly don't), but this is the attitude which comes across most in the media. You know the one, the snarky, Wogan attitude.
"We don't need Europe, it's all political, all the songs are horrible, look at the state of this, Eurovision's a joke" blah blah blah. Let's forget for a moment that it's more cultural than political, and that ESC has been the host to some very good songs over the years. This attitude, which started with Terry Wogan, quite frankly stinks.
Then, as the votes start pouring in, it suddenly becomes "Oh my god why don't we win this contest every year?! Don't they know we Brits invented the music industry! They all hate us we should withdraw!!!!" And they say I take Eurovision seriously?
And what's with this withdrawing nonsense every year? When the England team do horrifically and get beaten by every other team every time there's a World Cup or Euro, do people say the England team should withdraw? No! Of course they don't! So what makes Eurovision so different? If we withdraw we certainly don't win. And the reason we don't win is that we're not giving this contest the respect it deserves. We're treating Eurovision as a joke and it bloody well shows. You want the contest to be held in the British Isles once more? It's take to start taking it a little more seriously.
"We don't need Europe, it's all political, all the songs are horrible, look at the state of this, Eurovision's a joke" blah blah blah. Let's forget for a moment that it's more cultural than political, and that ESC has been the host to some very good songs over the years. This attitude, which started with Terry Wogan, quite frankly stinks.
Then, as the votes start pouring in, it suddenly becomes "Oh my god why don't we win this contest every year?! Don't they know we Brits invented the music industry! They all hate us we should withdraw!!!!" And they say I take Eurovision seriously?
And what's with this withdrawing nonsense every year? When the England team do horrifically and get beaten by every other team every time there's a World Cup or Euro, do people say the England team should withdraw? No! Of course they don't! So what makes Eurovision so different? If we withdraw we certainly don't win. And the reason we don't win is that we're not giving this contest the respect it deserves. We're treating Eurovision as a joke and it bloody well shows. You want the contest to be held in the British Isles once more? It's take to start taking it a little more seriously.
Tuesday, 21 May 2013
My Top 10 ESC 2013
The quality of songs in this year's contest was very good imo, this was a hard list to choose from, but here it is!
My top 10 from the Eurovision Song Contest 2013:
#10 - 1 Point - Aliona Moon - O Mie (Moldova)
Pasha Parfeny from last year is back, this time as a song writer. With brilliant lyrics like "The Maya were not so wrong, it’s the end of the world, it’s done ’cause you are gone" Moldova made the smart decision and switched the language to Moldovan so nobody could understand it. The song itself is pretty good, and the huge growing dress is pretty impressive.
#9 - 2 Points - Bye Alex - Kedvesem (Hungary)
Hungary don't disappoint, and Kedvesem is a very catchy, sweet little song. And just check out the cute music video in the background! Also Kedvesem has been charting recently in several countries. I'm pretty sure songs in Hungarian don't chart very often so this is an acheivement to be proud of.
#8 - 3 Points - Marco Mengoni - L'essenziale (Italy)
Italy always sends something very classy to Eurovision, this year is no exception, and Italy send yet another classy song. So, Italy's gotta win sometime soon, right? They've come very close recently. Italy 2015, come on!
#7 - 4 Points - Moje 3 - Ljubav je svuda (Serbia)
I really liked this song. Unfortunately, it didn't go through to the final. But, don't be sad, Serbia fans! For Moje 3 do not go away empty handed, oh no, for they win the esteemed 'Barbara Dex' award for wearing some of the most bizarre costumes ever to grace the Eurovision stage. Better luck next year Serbia.
#6 - 5 Points - Esma and Vlatko - Pred da se razdeni (Macedonia)
Now, back in March there was a lot of drama over the Macedonian Eurovision entry, because their original song, Imperija, was withdrawn. Imperija was great, and I still don't know why they felt the need to change it. Pred da se razdeni was soon revealed as their real Eurovision entry. Europe was shocked that they didn't also change this song. This song starts out very well, but there were some problems with the way this came across on stage. Mainly that these aren't two singers go all that well together. Vlatko's singing a ballad while Esma sort of adds 'le le la la' every so often to a dubstep beat. But whatever, I enjoyed it, even though it was more like two songs than one, and for that it gets my 5 points.
#5 - 6 Points - Who See - Igranka (Montenegro)
This was great! Come on, this had everything, dubstep, rap, astronauts. Astronauts, for goodness sake! And it still didn't qualify! This should have qualified hands down! I just don't know what the voting public are looking for!
#4 - 7 Points - El Sueño De Morfeo - Contigo hasta el final (Spain)
These guys make bagpipes cool. I don't know how this didn't score higher, this song was beautiful, and the Spanish language is a joy to listen to. Sadly, Spain's good friend and neighbour, Portugal, was absent from the contest this year, and so couldn't give Spain their well deserved 12 points.
#3 - 8 Points - Anouk - Birds (The Netherlands)
This song really stood out for me. And Anouk has given the contest more popularity in her home country, after so many times of not qualifying from the semi finals, certain people in the Netherlands were even talking about withdrawing! Oh no! But that's all forgotten about now of course, with Anouk's great result.
#2 - 10 Points - Koza Mostra feat. Agathon Iakovidis - Alcohol Is Free (Greece)
Well, this song was just fun all around. This is exactly the sort of thing that the Eurovision needs more of. I would have said this deserved a higher result but Koza Mostra and Agathon are probably counting their lucky stars that they didn't win and force Greece to host the thing next year. OPAAAAAAA~
#1 - 12 Points - Elitsa Todorova and Stoyan Yankoulov - Samo Shampioni (Bulgaria)
You might remember Elitsa and Stoyan from the Eurovision in 2007, where they did amazingly well and got Bulgaria's best result at Eurovision ever. Now they are back once again to represent Bulgaria. After an initial changing of the song from Kismet to Samo Shampioni (a great improvement, I must say), it looked like Bulgaria's qualification was certain. They were great, absolutely brilliant, and I would say that Samo Shampioni was even better than their 2007 song, Voda. Then comes the second semi final. The night of the biggest injustice of this year's contest, when these two didn't get through to the final. I don't know what the juries where thinking. Wait, I know what they were thinking, 'let's vote for the countries that are giving us bribe money'. Disgraceful.
My top 10 from the Eurovision Song Contest 2013:
#10 - 1 Point - Aliona Moon - O Mie (Moldova)
Pasha Parfeny from last year is back, this time as a song writer. With brilliant lyrics like "The Maya were not so wrong, it’s the end of the world, it’s done ’cause you are gone" Moldova made the smart decision and switched the language to Moldovan so nobody could understand it. The song itself is pretty good, and the huge growing dress is pretty impressive.
#9 - 2 Points - Bye Alex - Kedvesem (Hungary)
Hungary don't disappoint, and Kedvesem is a very catchy, sweet little song. And just check out the cute music video in the background! Also Kedvesem has been charting recently in several countries. I'm pretty sure songs in Hungarian don't chart very often so this is an acheivement to be proud of.
#8 - 3 Points - Marco Mengoni - L'essenziale (Italy)
Italy always sends something very classy to Eurovision, this year is no exception, and Italy send yet another classy song. So, Italy's gotta win sometime soon, right? They've come very close recently. Italy 2015, come on!
#7 - 4 Points - Moje 3 - Ljubav je svuda (Serbia)
I really liked this song. Unfortunately, it didn't go through to the final. But, don't be sad, Serbia fans! For Moje 3 do not go away empty handed, oh no, for they win the esteemed 'Barbara Dex' award for wearing some of the most bizarre costumes ever to grace the Eurovision stage. Better luck next year Serbia.
#6 - 5 Points - Esma and Vlatko - Pred da se razdeni (Macedonia)
Now, back in March there was a lot of drama over the Macedonian Eurovision entry, because their original song, Imperija, was withdrawn. Imperija was great, and I still don't know why they felt the need to change it. Pred da se razdeni was soon revealed as their real Eurovision entry. Europe was shocked that they didn't also change this song. This song starts out very well, but there were some problems with the way this came across on stage. Mainly that these aren't two singers go all that well together. Vlatko's singing a ballad while Esma sort of adds 'le le la la' every so often to a dubstep beat. But whatever, I enjoyed it, even though it was more like two songs than one, and for that it gets my 5 points.
#5 - 6 Points - Who See - Igranka (Montenegro)
This was great! Come on, this had everything, dubstep, rap, astronauts. Astronauts, for goodness sake! And it still didn't qualify! This should have qualified hands down! I just don't know what the voting public are looking for!
#4 - 7 Points - El Sueño De Morfeo - Contigo hasta el final (Spain)
These guys make bagpipes cool. I don't know how this didn't score higher, this song was beautiful, and the Spanish language is a joy to listen to. Sadly, Spain's good friend and neighbour, Portugal, was absent from the contest this year, and so couldn't give Spain their well deserved 12 points.
#3 - 8 Points - Anouk - Birds (The Netherlands)
This song really stood out for me. And Anouk has given the contest more popularity in her home country, after so many times of not qualifying from the semi finals, certain people in the Netherlands were even talking about withdrawing! Oh no! But that's all forgotten about now of course, with Anouk's great result.
#2 - 10 Points - Koza Mostra feat. Agathon Iakovidis - Alcohol Is Free (Greece)
Well, this song was just fun all around. This is exactly the sort of thing that the Eurovision needs more of. I would have said this deserved a higher result but Koza Mostra and Agathon are probably counting their lucky stars that they didn't win and force Greece to host the thing next year. OPAAAAAAA~
#1 - 12 Points - Elitsa Todorova and Stoyan Yankoulov - Samo Shampioni (Bulgaria)
You might remember Elitsa and Stoyan from the Eurovision in 2007, where they did amazingly well and got Bulgaria's best result at Eurovision ever. Now they are back once again to represent Bulgaria. After an initial changing of the song from Kismet to Samo Shampioni (a great improvement, I must say), it looked like Bulgaria's qualification was certain. They were great, absolutely brilliant, and I would say that Samo Shampioni was even better than their 2007 song, Voda. Then comes the second semi final. The night of the biggest injustice of this year's contest, when these two didn't get through to the final. I don't know what the juries where thinking. Wait, I know what they were thinking, 'let's vote for the countries that are giving us bribe money'. Disgraceful.
Monday, 20 May 2013
My Melodifestivalen 2013 Top 4
Here's a little ranking I did for MF, thought I'd post it here.
My Top 4 Melodifestivalen Final Songs:
#4 - 7 Points - Robin Stjernberg - You
The overall winner of MF. It wasn't the worst choice that Sweden could have made, and it's a pretty decent song.
#3 - 8 points - Louise Hoffsten - Only the Dead Fish Follow The Stream
This was a very pretty little song, and this could have done well at ESC. I mean, look at how well Anouk's song about birds falling down did for the Netherlands, this type of song is what the contest needs.
#2 - 10 Points - Yohio - Heartbreak Hotel
Now this was bloody brilliant, and this song was insanely catchy. I would have been very happy if this had won MF. In fact, when the votes first came pouring in, it looked like Yohio would win the contest. But alas, it wasn't to be.
#1 - 12 Points - Ravaillacz - En riktig jävla schlager
My absolute favourite song from Melodifestivalen 2013. I don't care what anyone else says, I loved this. The Swedish language is just great to listen to (seriously there needs to be more songs in Swedish in MF), and I really hope that one day Sweden once again chooses a Swedish song to represent them. Not to mention that Tommy Körberg sent two of my favourite ESC songs of all time in 1969 and 1988. This is clearly the true winner of Melodifestivalen.
Honourable Mentions: Copacabanana by Sean Banan was hilarious, but I'm not sure Sweden would have wanted it to represent their country.
Friday, 15 March 2013
Melodifestivalen and Google Translate
Looking at articles on Melodifestivalen 2013 and in particular my favourites Ravaillacz, I discovered that Google Translate translates 'Tommy Körberg' as 'Jump the gun'. Why it does this, I don't know, but looking further into this, it seems that Google Translate has a lot of trouble with Swedish names.
For example, typing 'Carola Häggkvist' into google translate gives the result 'Sweet Dreams'. Markoolio is now 'Metallica'. And finally, Niklas Strömstedt means 'Diamond Rio', whatever that is.
It's all very confusing, I don't know how they reach these conclusions. I still don't know what 'Diamond Rio' means. Silly google. That's all for now, and if you know any more weird name translations, leave a comment!
For example, typing 'Carola Häggkvist' into google translate gives the result 'Sweet Dreams'. Markoolio is now 'Metallica'. And finally, Niklas Strömstedt means 'Diamond Rio', whatever that is.
It's all very confusing, I don't know how they reach these conclusions. I still don't know what 'Diamond Rio' means. Silly google. That's all for now, and if you know any more weird name translations, leave a comment!
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