Eric Saade, Le Kid, Danny, Linda Pritchard, Shirley Clamp, Linda Bentzing, Elisabeth Andreassen plus many more, looks like Sweden is finally going back to its pop roots. Its going to be a good year folks, I can feel it in my bones. No huge names so to speak so has it now got a bad rep in the higher ranks? I am very disappointed there is no Timoteij though, maybe they went to Denmark?

Join beautiful Eric as he talks gibberish and looks pretty, looks like he is their favorite to win this year.

Semi Final 1 – Luleå, 5th February
Pernilla Andersson- “Desperados”
Danny- “In the Club”
Swingfly “Me And My Drum”
Le Kid “Oh My God”
Jonas Matsson “On My Own”
Rasmus Viberg “Social Butterfly”
Jenny Silver “Something In Your Eyes”
Dilba “Try Again”

Semi Final 2 – Göteborg, 12th February
Anniela- “Elektrisk”
Babsan- “Ge mig en spanjor”
Sanna Nielsen- “I’m In Love”
Christian Walz- “Like Suicide”
Loreen- “My Heart Is Refusing Me”
The Moniker- “Oh My God!”
Brolle- “7 Days And 7 Nights”
Elisabeth Andreassen- “Vaken i en drom”

Semi Final 3 – Linköping, 19th February
Sara Lumholdt- “Enemy”
Shirley´s Angels (Shirley Clamp)- “I Thought It Was Forever”
Linda Sundblad- “Lucky You”
Sebastian Karlsson- “No One Else Could”
Eric Saade- “Popular”
Sara Varga- “Spring för livet”
The Playtones- “The King”
Simon Forsberg- “Tid att andas”

Semi Final 4 – Malmö, 26th February
Linda Pritchard- “Alive”
Julia Alvgard- “Better Or Worse”
Anders Fernette- “Don´t Stop”
Linda Bengtzing- “E de fel på mig”
Lasse Stefanz- “I Surrender”
Nicke Borg- “Leaving Home”
Melody Club- “The Hunter”
Love Generation- Title not yet announced

Christer Bjorkman has a little introduction here with a few of the artists

Philip Kirkirov does Romania 2010 – Playing with Fire. It really works well in the original Russian And it really works too. But then again we wouldn’t expect anything less from Philip at this stage.

With all the artists and songs announced we now know the full line up for Melody Grand Prix 2011.  With classy looking photos again NRK announced a load of relative unknowns, but they have been quoted as saying that 2010 was about the artists and 2011 is about the songs.

Heat 1 – Ørland: Jan 15th
Carina Dahl: ‘Guns & Boys’
Use Me: ‘Daisy’
Sichelle: ‘Trenger mer’
Sie Gubba: ‘Alt du vil ha’
Åste & Rikke: ‘Not That Easy’
Helene Bøksle: ‘Vardlokk’
Gatas Parlament: ‘Jobbe litt mindre og tjene litt mer’

Heat 2 – Florø: Jan 22nd
Mimi Blix: ‘Allergic’
Babel Fish: ‘Depend on Me’
Pernille & Marius: ‘I’ll be Yours’
Hanne Sørvaag: ‘You’re like a Melody’
Isabella: ‘Sand’

Endre: ‘Oh, Oh (Puppy Love)’

Marika Lejon: ‘Hungry for You (Gipsydance)’

Heat 3 – Skien: Jan 29th
Grethe Svensen: ‘Like Dreamers Do’
Girl Happy: ‘SOS’
The BlackSheeps: ‘Dance Tonight’
Noora Noor: ‘Gone With the Wind’
Susperia: ‘Nothing Remains’
Stella Mwangi: ‘Haba Haba’
The Lucky Bullets: ‘Fire Below’

After months of silence RTE have finally announced that we will indeed be going forward with Eurosong 2011 to head to Dusseldorf in May, it’s nice to see that not even financial crisis can stop entertainment. That said RTE have always made a profit from showing (not hosting) the Eurovision with Sponsorship and Ads, as it usually gets into the top 10 most watched shows every year – including the semis.

Rather than have an open call for songs as has been the format for the alst few years (after the disastrous ), which hasn’t worked out the best for Ireland over the years, RTE have changed the format for Eurosong 2011 to have 5 mentors coach 5 artists who have submitted entries (because we all know how well that worked out for the Dutch last year). In fairness though each song will be different, and they will be mentored by actual professionals in the business who have the power and scope of support to make something out of nothing. I’m decidedly confident about this one folks

Here is the list of the mentors:

• Caroline Downey-Desmond – Director of MCD and Event Producer
• Ronan Hardiman – Composer
• David Hayes – Musical Director and Arranger
• Willie Kavanagh – Chairman, EMI Music Ireland
• Liam Lawton – Composer and Performer

“Each of the mentors will source or commission the song and the performer, with all five entries to be performed for the first time on ‘The Late Late Show Eurosong 2011′ on February 11. As was the case last year, the winning entry will be selected by a combination of public vote and regional jury.”, states the national broadcaster of Ireland, RTÉ.

The winner will then represent Ireland in the 56th Eurovision Song Contest Semi-Final in Düsseldorf, Germany in May 2011.

Speaking about the new selection process, RTÉ Eurovision Co-ordinator Julian Vignoles said: “Given our mixed results in recent years, we felt it was our duty to look again at our selection procedure to see what method could improve Ireland’s chances of winning on the Eurovision stage. Ireland has a vibrant and successful music industry and we want to find the best performer to represent our country.

“This year we have decided to suspend the open call for entries and instead harness the skills and experience of professionals in the Irish music business to source the talent and the song that has the potential to be a Eurovision winner.

“We are enlisting five people who each have proven success in different areas of the music industry so the public will have five strong entries to choose from in ‘Eurosong 2011′.”

Thanks to ESCdaily and RTE.ie