RTÉ have announced who their Mentors for their 2013 Eurovision entry to Malmo are. It is an interesting line up and different to past line ups so we may see a few different type of acts at the National Final.

So who are they?

• Mairéad Farrell – Radio (Today FM) and television presenter.
• Shay Healy – Songwriter and performer, who composed What’s Another Year? the winning song for Ireland in the 1980 contest.
• Mark McCabe – Radio DJ and producer. (Remember Maniac 2000?)
• Niall Mooney – Songwriter who was part of the team behind the Irish entries in 2009 and 2010.
• Stuart O’Connor – Producer

The National Final will again take place in the new year on a Late Late Show Eurosong special and the winner will be decided by a combination of Public and Jury votes.

It is your chance to vote in the final of the Eurovision Song Contest. It is time to make your choice of the 26 countries that have made it to the final of the 57th Eurovision Song Contest in Baku.

Will the favourites Sweden win? Or will neighbours Norway pip them to it? Can Jedward do it for Ireland or will Italy win bragging rights? Will the Russia grannies show they can do it like the youngsters? (That is enough name dropping – Ed.)

So you know the deal! Pick your top ten award them points 12, 10, and 8-1.

So vote here 

See the results here

See the animated scoreboard here

Related articles

• EBU Press Conference (escireland.com)
• Jedward through to Eurovision Finals (newstalk.ie)
• First Semi-Final concludes, we have ten finalists! (eurovision.tv)

The Second Semi Final of the 57th Eurovision Song Contest has ended in Baku, Azerbaijan. 10 countries qualified to join the automatic finalists (Big 5 and the host nation) and the 10 qualifiers from the First Semi Final on Tuesday night.

The automatic finalists are United Kingdom, France, Germany, Spain, Italy and Azerbaijan.

Joining them are tonight’s qualifiers; Lithuania, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Serbia, Ukraine, Sweden, FYR Macedonia, Norway, Estonia, Malta and Turkey.

Jon Ola Sand, the Executive Supervisor, Sietse Bakker, the Event Supervisor of the Eurovision Song Contest and Annika Nyberg Frankenhaeuser the new Media Director and representing Ictimai TV the Host Broadcaster,  Adil Kermu, Tahir Mamadov and Camran Agasi held a Press Conference this afternoon in Baku following last night’s staging of the Semi-Final of the Eurovision Song Contest.

Source: Elke Roels, Thomas Hanses (EBU) First Semi-Final Winners Press Conference

Tonight saw the first Semi-Final of the 57th Eurovision Song Contest take place in Baku. In what was an agonising wait for Ireland fans we clinched the “Golden Ticket” and the last spot in the final. The other qualifiers were Romania, Moldova, Iceland, Hungary, Denmark, Albania, Cyprus, Greece and Russia.

Scandipop.co.uk has gone and given us fans a treat…….a very special treat…..they have only gone and opened their own radio station online playing all my (ok….and our) favourite songs and artists from those lovely Scandinavian countries!   

Scandipop have released their new station on www.we7.com and I know many of my friends have all been listening since they saw it on my facebook page over the last week. Playing lots of Melodifestivalen songs as well as ones from the Norwegian and Danish National selection for Eurovision, they also play songs  from the artists of these competitions as well as other artists who have not competed. 

The great advantage,well…. many great advantages to this website is that you can “like” and/or “share” any of the songs being played so that they are displayed on any of the other social media that you might use (Facebook, Twitter,Myspace, Google, MSN, Dig, LinkedIn and many more) so that any of your friends or family can see it and pick it up very easy!  You can also play requests once you sign in to have your own account.

Another great advantage is once you are logged in and if you are not listening to a particular station, the website will play music that it thinks suits you based on some that you have already listened to and I have to admit, it has hit the target for me a good 95% of the time!

Over the past week, I have been stuck listening to this new station and I cannot get enough, it goes on whenever I am online!

What a great place to hear all you favourites throughout the day AND night! No more boring national or local radio stations!

Now you can listen to all of your favourites and more with the click of your mouse to the link below:

http://www.we7.com/listen/ident/h2301817/radio?play

Image via Wikipedia

Tonight sees the first National Final to select a song to send to the 57th Eurovision Song Contest in Baku next May. Switzerland again will be the first to choose. 14 acts from across different musical styles will compete for the chance.

It all kicks off at 20:05 CET (19:05 GMT) in Bodensee Arena in Kreuzlingen with the Televoters having their say.

The show will be broadcast on SF 1 and La 2 for those in Switzerland and will be streamed online also!

Check out the 14 acts performing tonight and don’t forget to vote in our poll!

Related articles

• Swiss National Final – The Running Order (escireland.com)
• Concerns About Lys Assia’s Health (eurovisiontimes.wordpress.com)
• 38 Countries preparing for Baku (escireland.com)

Ahead of Saturdays Swiss National Final it is time for your say on who you would like to win the the Swiss Final.

To hear all the songs see here. The running order for the show is here. The show will get under way at 8:00pm Swiss Time (7:00pm Irish Time).

Related articles

• Editorial: Assessing the Swiss National Final (eurovisiontimes.wordpress.com)

The running order for the Swiss National Final was announced tonight on twitter. The entrants shall perfrom in the following order:

1. Patric Scott feat. Fabienne Louves – Real Love
2. Emel – She
3. Chiara Dubey – Anima Nuova
4. Guillermo Sorya – Baby Baby Baby
5. Macy – Shining
6. Sosofluo – Quand je ferme les yeux
7. Atomic Angels – Black Symphony
8. Ivo – Peace and Freedom
9. Ze Flying Zézettes Orchestra – L’autre
10. Raphael Jeger – The Song In My Head
11. I Quattro – Fragile
12. Sinplus – Unbreakable
13. Lys Assia – C’était ma vie
14. Katherine St-Laurent – Wrong to let you go

Related articles

• The Swiss National Final (escireland.com)
• Switzerland: The Full National Final Line-Up (eurovisiontimes.wordpress.com)

Georgia have been crowned the winners of the 9th Junior Eurovision Song Contest in Yerevan, Armenia. In what ended as a three-way contest between Belarus, The Netherlands and Georgia. Georgia was eventually crowned the winners following the final vote from Belgium.

Georgia entered a group called CANDY with a song called “Candy Music”

In pink “Candy” outfits, Georgia managed to pick up enough votes and did the deed.

The Netherlands, next years host country, finished second on 103 points and last years host Belarus ended 3rd on 99 points.

All in all the Junior Eurovision Song Contest was a good show with some high class showed by the entrants.  It takes some getting used to the fact that Australia give all the acts 12 points at the start!

It was interesting to note in the Junior Eurovision Song Contest that voting followed similar lines (in most cases) as the adult Eurovision.

Related articles

• Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2011 (escireland.com)