Norway: MGP Semi Final 3 and a bold prediction for May…
There were no surprises in Skien last night as hot favourites to represent Norway on home soil in May, reformed boyband A1 qualified directly for the MGP Final with their uptempo “man-band” entry Don’t Wanna Lose You Again.
It’s hard to fault a very polished, professional performance but I really don’t think there’s anything particularly special about this. It’s certainly no Caught In The Middle. Anyone else remember really fancying the guys in that video way back when?
The second direct qualifier was the Schlagerboys favourite Didrik Solli-Tangen with the anthem My Heart Is Yours.
Yes, that is an original song though it does bear suspicious similarities to You Raise Me Up. Didrik is very easy on the eye, his vocal is strong and I think this is the one to watch in Oslo Spektrum. In fact, of all the songs I’ve heard in any of the National Selections so far, if I had to back one right now to triumph in May I think I’d be putting my money on this. Juries will lap it up, Didrik will pick up televotes across Europe and would be guaranteed a plethora of douze points from his Scandi neighbours. Of course I’m running ahead of myself here! I wonder what odds I could get on a Didrik Eurovision victory right now though?
Oh and before I sign off, I’m delighted to see Hera made it to the Icelandic National Final but I was a little disappointed with the stage performance of Je Ne Sais Quoi. It’s no Someday is it? Hera needs to rethink the choreography and seriously think about getting out the giant sparklers again!
Iceland: Semi final 3
All that matter is that Hera won so that makes for several happy gays 
Oh did we mention you actually can’t tell the difference between the recorded and live version, she is that good!
Oh yea Sjonni Brink – Waterslide got through as well…
Time to rescind your citizenship and become Icelandic
Tonight the Icelandic vote in their 3rd and final heat, and we insist that they vote for Hera. If not we may just have to invade to change their selection rules.
Finland: Meet the Finalists
After tonight’s semi-final we now know the 10 finalists in this years Euroviisut. So will Finland produce a winner? I don’t think so, the only real contender seems to be Amadues, who won their version of Dancing with the star “Tango King”.
The theme of this years acts seems to be dress up those crazy crazy Finns To be honest it’s a very poor showing from Finland that doesn’t leave us with the expectation that they will do any better than just outside 12th place in the semis. Recently Warner Music in Finland said that they didn’t want any of their artists taking part as they did not like the direction that Euroviisut was taking and the fact that it seems to kill their artists careers. As Warner Music is the largest of its kind in Finland by far this leaves their selection rather limited in terms of talented acts.
So so, maybe winner.
Pentti Hietanen – Il mondo é qui
Heli Kajo – Annankadun kulmassa
Sister Twister – Love at the first sight
I kind of like this one, in the way that it reminds me of last years Irish entry “Et Cetera”. Just much more tame… Think of Avril Lavigne on prozac.
Germany: National Final Details
So the Germans are trying another formula, lets hope it works out better this time around. It will be a series of 8 shows going from February 2nd to March 12th which is the grand finale.
About 4.500 people went to the castings of Unser Star für Oslo, the German preselection to determine the country’s representative at the 2010 Eurovision Song Contest in Oslo. Out of those, 20 participants were selected to compete in the first two shows on 2nd and 9th February, to be aired on ProSieben. From each show, five singers will advance to the next round, where they have to participate in the three remaining elimination rounds, again aired on ProSieben:
- 1st elimination round: February 2nd (tenacts competing, five will qualify)
- 2nd elimination round: February 9th (ten acts competing, five will qualify)
- 3rd elimination round: February 16th (eight out of ten will qualify to the next round)
- 4th elimination round: February 23rd (six out of eight will qualify to the next round)
- 5th elimination round: March 2nd (five out of six will qualify to the next round)
After those shows, ARD will host a quarter final on March 5th. Out of the five remaining acts, four will advance to the semi final on March 9th, broadcast by ProSieben. In the grand final on March 12th, broadcast by ARD, the last two hopefuls will battle it out to get the chance to be the German representative at the 2010 Eurovision Song Contest in Oslo. The winner will be decided via SMS- and televoting. Not only the winner will be chosen by the public, also the song which the winner will represent Germany with.
The jury
As the mastermind of the German selection concept, Stefan Raab will be the head of of the jury. On each show, he will be joined by two other well- known German celebrities, associated with the music business, inlcuding Jan Delay, Sasha, Adel Tawil, Cassandra Steen, Rea Gravey, Barbara Schöneberger, Xavier Naidoo, Stefanie Kloß and Joy Denalane. In the first show, to be held on February 2nd, Yvonne Catterfeld and Marius Müller Westernhagen will complete the jury. In the second show, to be held on February 9th, Sarah Connor and Peter Maffay will judge the contestants along with Stefan Raab.
Trailer
The offical trailer of Unser Star für Oslo is available as well. Just follow the link and you’ll be able to watch an over five minutes long trailer featuring clips from previous editions of the Eurovision Song Contest, as well as excerpts of various castings of Unser Star für Oslo (trailer starts after one commercial):
Tickets
Tickets for the live shows can be purchased online, following this link here.
A major national event
In a special press conference for Unser Star für Oslo, Stefan Raab described the Eurovision Song Contest as major national event: ”The wide range of the popular guest jurors shows how seriously Germany is taking the contest this year. The Eurovision Song Contest is the European Championship of singing. Our motto is: Your country, your song, your vote. The winner of Unser Star für Oslo will be our national team, which will be selected by the audience only.” Raab’s intention is to send quality to Oslo and to help in getting the deserved attention for the Eurovision Song Contest: “The contest is an unbelievable media spectacle. However, as one of the biggest shows on the planet, it has always been somewhat neglected in Germany, due to the fact that preselection had only consisted of one single show. This time, the audience will get to know his star for Oslo through eight live shows.” Raab also warns about too high expectations for the final in Oslo: “We cannot count on Germany winning the contest, however, a top 10 placing is realistic. The first and foremost task of this year’s Eurovision project is to emotionalize the German viewers, in order to give the contest the attention it deserves.” Being asked about whether he fears the competition of other casting- shows, Raab states: “We are the clear alternative. Quite on the contrast to other shows, our goal is sustainability. We are searching for a star who has the potential to survive longer.”
Stefan Raab represented Germany in 2000 as a singer and composer and in 1998 and 2004 as songwriter, reaching the top ten on all three occasions.
Taken from here.
Denmark: Meet the stars
From the country that has brought us the Viking Dance, dancing police men and off key drag queens comes the hopefuls for Denmark this year.DR have received 562 submissions this year and they narrowed that down the 7 acts with 3 wildcards (invited by the broadcaster themselves). Amongst them include a Russian pop star, a previous winners grand-daughter, a dancing queen (well ok he was in the Danish Dancing with the Stars…) and everyone’s favourite Danish girl band Sukkerchok. YAY!!! Oh and did we mention that Ronan Keating is back again?
Normally I would have written a small biography on each artist and song but I’ll use the Google translation from TR’s website do the trick for me 
Brian Rice - BreathingBryan Rice girl can melt hearts and few adult males to shed a tear. That he hopes will happen when he debut note that Grand Prix soloist with the song ‘Breathing’.
Joakim Tranberg – All about a girlA pop song, you just become fond of the lid. How to describe “Love me nat’ winner Joakim Tranberg their Grand Prix song, written by particular Irish superstar Ronan Keating.
Maria Matilde Band -Panic!Our music is well suited to the Eurovision Song Contest because it’s happy pop, “says Maria victory and Matilde Kühl – combined duo Maria Matilde Band.
Simone – How Will I KnowOne of my biggest dreams come true, says Simone to participate in the Eurovision Song Contest. Ballad ‘How Will I Know’ is composed specially for her by Grand Prix veteran Jacob Launbjerg.
Jens Marni -GloriaNoam Halby from Johnny Deluxe is one of the signatories behind the song ‘Gloria’ as the Faroese singer Jens Marni sings. – It kicks ass, they say about the song.
Chanée & N’evergreen – In A Moment Like ThisThe Danish superstar in Russia, Tomas N’evergreen, comes home to Denmark to sing the duet ‘In A Moment Like This’ with Christina Chanee. They believe themselves that their song has a good chance of getting to the top internationally.
Kaya Brüel (Wildcard)- Only TonightHer grandmother won the Danish Melodi Grand Prix in 1965. Now actor and singer Kaya Brüel make her art after his own song ‘Tonight Only’.
Thomas Barsøe - Just Like RainA good, solid feel-good pop song, everyone can sing and clap with it! To describe the Danish superstar in Asia, Thomas Barsøe, his Grand Prix hit ‘Just Like Rain’.
Sugar Shock (Wildcard) -Fighting for loveIt’s time to win the girls think Kat, Inez, and Richard, who is back in the Danish Melodi Grand Prix at a wildcard.
Silas & Cats – Come Come Run AwayWe are going to make it damn well promise Dancing with the Stars star Silas, who sings rock duet ‘Come Come Run Away’ with Kat from the band The Cat.
The final will take place in Aalborg (who knew there was more than one city in Denmark?) on Saturday 6th of February, the same day that Melodifestivalen starts. But Sukkerchok YAY!!! For those of ye that don’t remember, shame on you, here is their performance from last year where they came 3rd, as well as Hera Bjork’s fantastic second place.
Spain: Ding dong the witch is dead!
Several acts have been disqualified in the Spanish selection process. Karmele Marchante aka Popstar Queen, Chimo Bayo, Kejío and Juan Losada are officially out of the competition for allegedly breaching the rules of the official selection process.
From this moment, all 4 of them have been removed from the Spanish Eurovision website and therefore this has led to changes in the current top-10. Coral Segovia is now leading the list, followed by El Pezón Rojo and Samuel & Patricia.
Here is the current standings
Coral Segovia 103.543
El pezón rojo 67.708
Samuel y Patricia 33.945
Lorena 31.076
Venus 30.151
I am really loving Venus, Spanish Schlager! The Swede’s evil plan for world domination is coming along nicely mwahahaha!
Portugal: Let the voting begin!
RTP have released the first phase of songs that will take part in Festival da Cancao 2010. Once again Portugal takes the lead in the hippy and eclectic music industry. Listening to a few I’m not that convinced there is anything in there of real interest, but only time will tell.
You do have to give the Portuguese points for originality these past few years though, with memorable entries from both Flor-de-Lis last year and Vânia in 2008.
The first phase of the voting procedure has begun and people are asked to vote for their favourite song until 27 of January. You can listen and vote for the songs here
Spain: Voting heats up
Over 1 million votes have been cast in the first 3 days. Blogs, Facebook and the media are full of anti-Pop Star Queen and how they want her to resign from the competition, and I for one couldn’t agree more (unlike other people here I could mention).
Unfortunately she is leading with 100,000 votes, fan favourite Carol has only 80,000 in second place while third goes to El pezón rojo with less than half of that.
Come on people don’t let another joke entry ruin Spain’s chance of doing well.
Cast your vote here.
The Netherlands: I mean really?
In case you don’t know, or care, here is the Dutch song this year, Ik ben verliefd (shalalie) by Pierre Kartner.
It’s a little naff isn’t it? I mean yes there is a certain charm about it, don’t get me wrong, but it really is a song for another generation, of kids who watch the Smurfs, in the 70′s.
In fact most Dutch feel so strongly about it they don’t want it representing their country. A group of euro fanatics and several member of the Dutch music industry have petitioned TROS (The Dutch broadcaster) to remove the song in favour of other composers like Brendan Graham (Ireland 1994, 1996) and Yves Barbieux and Michél Morvan, who wrote the song for Urban Trad in 2003. They have returned several unopened submissions to composers over the past year leading to a lot of speculation amongst the Dutch press that TROS just don’t really care anymore. However according to TROS “We definately are aiming for a spot in the final”, a spokesman states.
This Friday TROS is going to announce the artists taking part in the Dutch Nationaal Songfestival, on 7 February. Lets wait and see which poor unfortunate will sing this, I for one am hoping it’s one big April Fools joke 
In fairness I’d be miffed too if entries like Hind’s 2008 performance got glossed over for other less qualified entries.
