8 more artists have been announced for Melodifestivalen, that makes it 12 out of 15 of the wildcards announced so far. These are the artists that have been chosen by SVT, what we have left now is 3 wildcard - expect big names, 2 web jokers and 15 submitted entries from the 3.8 thousand sent in.

1.

Song Title: In the club

Composer: Figge Boström, Peter Boström and Danny Saucedo.

Artist: Danny

And here comes our eye candy portion of the evening, Danny is a very famous solo artist and 1/3 of E.M.D. who particpated

2.

Song Title: I’m in love

Composer: Bobby Ljunggren, Thomas G:son, Peter Boström, Irini Michas and Sanna

Artist: Sanna Nielsen

An old hack at Melodifestivalen, she is mostly remembered for her Empty Room song in 2008 when she came second to Charlotte Perelli.

3.

Song Title: Enemy

Composer: Niclas Lundin and Anton Malmberg Hård af Segerstedt

Artist: Sara Lumholdt

She is an ex member of the A*Teens, joining the ranks of the other members of the band, this is her first time in MF.

4.

Song Title: Try again

Composer: Niklas Pettersson and Linda Sonnvik

Artist: Dilba

One of the most inspiring artists from Sweden with music that’s completely out of time she back after a long break.

5.

Song Title: Social butterfly

Composer: Amir Aly and Henrik Wikström

Artist: Rasmus Viberg

He is a 20 year old new to the Swedish audience, although he and his band Old School have toured in different African countries.

6.

Song Title: The Hunter

Composer: Kristofer Östergren, Erik Stenemo, Jon Axelsson and Niklas Stenemo

Artist: Melody Clubs

A somewhat known rock band in Sweden with a few top 10 hits, how lost their drummer because they agreed to go into MF.

7.

Song Title: My heart is refusing me

Composer: Moh Denebi, Björn Djupström and Loreen

Artist: Loreen

First Swedish Idol participant who completely disappeared for years after the show.

8.

Song Title: Tid att andas

Composer: Fredrik Kempe

Artist: Simon Forsberg

Mr Gay Sweden, a Fame Factory entrant, a singer and an athlete all rolled into one, plus with Mr Kempe writing the song expect this to to be a high energy song, cannot wait!

Denmark spurred on by last years result (#4 In a Moment like this) have come out fighting this year.

The amount of entries received have broken a national record with 663 submissions (101 from than last year). 6 will be chosen by a jury and then 4 wildcards will be selected to join as well, making it 10 again in the final. Which has been confirmed as returning back to the capital, Copenhagen after several years in the  Jylland region.

DR Head of Entertainment, Jan Lagermand Lundme described Dansk Melodi Grand Prix as being “the Crown Jewel of Danish entertainment”. With this so-called institution comes responsibility and this responsibility has been bestowed upon the Ballerup Super Arena, located in the municipality of Ballerup some 15 kilometres west of Copenhagen City Centre. Mr Lundme went on to say “We’re building up to a huge party and with that in mind it is Ballerup and its Super Arena that’s in a position to carry it off”.

As in the past two years when Herning in 2009 and Aalborg in 2010 hosted the Danish final, Ballerup will become the Grand Prix City in the week leading up to the final with various events being held all over the town.

While Ronan Keating is keeping out of Denmark this year other names to emerge so far are Christina Schilling Ireland 09, Peter Andersen Denmark 06 and it’s also said that after his last years triumphant entry Thomas G:son has submitted another schlager stomper.

Tickets will go on sale tomorrow, October 20th for the grand final which will be held on February 26th in the Ballerup Super Arena, Copenhagen.

You know, I haven’t been to Denmark yet. I think that this year is a good time to break that habit, anyone else want to come with me?

Nicole (Winner DE ’82) releases a special edition of her hits on October 29th entitled “Nicole – 30 Jahre mit Leib und Seele” or “30 Years with Body and Soul”.

The first of the 2 CDs is all new stuff to coincide with her new Church tour in November. The second is old favorites. Also released will a DVD of the songs as well.

Thanks to ESC Daily for the info.

After several Preselection Shows in Kiev, the final artists and heats have been announced for Ukraine. This make a bit of a difference from last years debacle where there was allegations of bribery, the head of the TV station being fired by the country’s new president, a brand new hasty selection process, illegal songs and then on top of all of that coming 10th overall in Oslo. You really could not make it up.

Despite participating in the castings for the selection, Verka Serduchka has withdrawn his application to participate, so will be replacedby Pavlo Tabakov. All of the shows will be prerecorded (with live televoting), with the recording finishing yesterday. The songs participating have not all been revealed, but some song titles have been announced by each singer. From each semi-final, four acts will qualify – the jury will choosing three entries, and the televoters choosing one. The first show will be broadcasted this Sunday.

Heat 1
01. El Kravchuk – “Nadiya”
02. Group “Zaklyopki”
03. Inna Voronova
04. Yakiv Smyrnov
05. Christina Kim
06. Group “Zhemchoog”
07. Dariya Medova

Heat 2
01. Para Normal’nyh
02. Ivan Berezovskiy – “Ave Maria”
03. Mika Newton
04. Eduard Romanyuta
05. Shanti
06. Group “Metropolitan”
07. Group “Bahroma”

Heat 3
01. Group “ARMIYA”
02. Alexey Matias
03. Shanis
04. Vitaliy Galai
05. Arina Domski
06. Olena Korneeva – “Why Didn’t I Say Goodbye”
07. Oleksiy Kvarta

Heat 4
01. Anastasiya Pryhod’ko
02. Zlata Ognevich
03. Mila Nitich
04. Vladislav Levitskiy
05. Group “HEKSI”
06. Group “Dash”
07. Nataliya Pugatchova

Heat 5
01. Jamala – “Smile”
02. Denis Povaliy
03. Masha Sobko
04. Tanya Vorzheva
05. Maxim Novyts’kiy
06. Group “Vroda”
07. Pavlo Tabako

This really good remix, thanks you Keith for this one. At least they both have crazy in common as well I suppose

Britney Spears – Circus or Fairytale

Do you know of any mash-ups? Don’t keep it to yourself, let us know

The Local.de have the story that will send Eurovision fans to their travel agents to try and sort out flights and accommodation for next May. ARD have selected the North Rhine-Westphalian city of Düsseldorf to host the Eurovision Song Contest 2011. Düsseldorf beat off stuff competition from Berlin, Hannover and Hamburg to host the contest.

Explaining the decision ARD’s director of entertainment programming Thomas Schreiber. had the following to say, “The city’s is at the centre of a huge region with the Rhine-Ruhr metro area all the way into the Netherlands and Belgium“.

The contest will most likely be held at the Esprit Arena which has a capacity of 60,000 people for concerts.

Related articles

• The city of Düsseldorf to host Eurovision 2011 (current.com)

So the time of year has come around again that we get the slow trickle of artists announced, with the announcement of Linda Bentzing participating we’ve all got the shivers. We here at ESCIreland have our favorites from the previous years and we would like these ones to return for this year Mr Christer Bjorkman, pretty please with sugar on top! In no particular order.

1 – Le Kid

While they have just been around for a few months Le Kid have that certain poppy sound that just makes them brilliant.

2 Måns Zelmerlöw

He hosted last years competition and was in 2 previous MFs with great success. 3rd in 2007 with Cara Mia and 2nd in 2009 with Hope & Glory. It’s an odd year so he needs to come back

3 Timoteij

This goes without saying, we love the girls too much to not have them in our 10. Their album was pure gold. They came from nowhere last year to win their semi final above one of the favourites – Darin. Their futures are bright indeed.

4 Lili & Susie

No other explanation needed!

5 Velvet

We love this woman a little too much, plus she is the Queen.

6 Eric Saade

He stole our hearts last year and should have won instead of “This is my life”, we can but hope that he will be back with a splash this year.

7 Gravitonas

While Alexander Bard may have written for a Dansband this year Melodifestivalen still would not be Melodifestivalen without one of his bands involved

8 Lena Ph

It’s about time this Diva made a return to the stage. I mean who else could get away with a song about anal sex in front of 100 million people and get away with it!

9 Alcazar

This time give them something with a bit more umph to it, headlines was ok but didn’t cut the mustard!

10 Nanne

It’s time for the tiny terror to make her way back, with a recent album launch (next week) she is on the up at the moment. Plus we need that added bit of crazy!

Do you have any favorites that you want to see in it this year? Why not let us know.

It has begun, the first 4 names for Melodifestivalen have been announced and 2 welcome names make a comeback in a collaboration that can only end in fabulousness!

1

Song title: E de fel på mig

Composer: Pontus Assarsson, Thomas G:son, Jörgen Ringqvist

Artist: Linda Bengtzing

Weak.com cannot begin to describe how excited I am about this entry. It seems like the Swedes have forgiven Thomas G:son for going to the dark side (Denmark ’10), and he has forgiven them for rejecting him in 2009 for the classic “In a moment like this” (Sorry Keith I know you don’t like it ). And Linda is an old ham at this as well with 3 separate entries into MF over the years. This will be Schlager gold at its best!!!

2

Song title: Me and my drum

Composer: Teron Beal, Patrik Magnusson, Johan Ramström

Artist: Swingfly

This is the rap entry for this year. Swingfly is an American – Swedish rapper and singer. He is best known lending his vocal talents to other artists records. He is currently working on his solo career and a rock & electronica influenced album was released in March 2009. He was born Ricardo DaSilva II in New York (He is sometimes known as Swing-fly, Richie Pasta or Swing). Swingfly has also lived in Trinidad & Tobago and Panama before relocating to Stockholm, Sweden in 1991

3

Song title: Desperados

Composer: Pernilla Andersson

Artist: Pernilla Andersson

Looks like a bit like little Anna from last year, her songs are a bit alternative/country.

4

Song title: En blick och något händer

Composer: Alexander Bard, Ola Håkansson, Tim Norell

Artist: Lasse Stefanz

Lasse Stefanz, earlier Lasse Stefans, is a country music-inspired dansband, formed in 1967 in Kristianstad, Sweden. The band was popular during the 1980s. The band was formed by Hans Sigfridsson, Lars Sigfridsson and Olle Jönsson. Later members are Christer Ericsson, Anders Pettersson and Gunnar Nilsson. Olle Jönsson is the singer, as well as the ex-drummer. Lasse Stefanz had hits with songs as “Oh, Julie” (1982) and released albums as Peppelinos Bar (1988). 1989-1990, Lasse Stefanz and Christina Lindberg had a Svensktoppen hit with the song De sista ljuva åren. In 1989, Lasse Stefanz was awarded a Grammis for “Dansband of the year”.

What puzzles me is Alexander Bard (Army of Lovers, BWO and Gravitonas) is involved. But in the last 2 years in particular MF has included a Dansband in as well. Could be an interesting mix or a train wreck.

From ESCDaily.com

After 3 years of “silence”, Austria is coming back to the Eurovision Song Contest. The biggest Austrian radio station, Hitradio Ö3, is going to organize a national final to choose the Austrian Eurovision entrant.

From this month on, the event will be promoted on the radio station. The goal is to find 9 regional winners (from Steiermark, Kärnten, Vienna, Salzburg, Burgenland, Oberösterreich, Niderösterreich, Voralberg, and Tirol) by February, which will enter the national final. At the same time, composers are invited to send in their songs.

The Austrian television broadcaster, ÖRF, is also considering of entering participants from its talent show for young people, called “Helden von Morgen” (The heroes of tomorrow) to the national final selection.

Its great to see Austria coming back when the Contest will be taking place in Germany. Im looking forward to the final in February.

It has been confirmed today that Andorra will not be featuring in the 2011 Eurovision Song Contest in Germany.

Speaking to Diari d’Andorra, an Andorran Newspaper, the director general of RTVA, Mr. Jordi Marticella had to the following to say

This is a recurring project, but currently there is no possibility due to economical reasons, hence there is no option to  participate in the contest

Andorra participated in the contest 6 times between 2004 and 2009. I personally always enjoyed their entries. My Favourites are Casanova from 2008 and Salvem el Mon.

It has been hinted that Andorra may not return to the contest as it will be up to the share holders of RTVA to decide on whether or not to participate in the future.

I hope this will not be a permanent decision.