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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!

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• 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).

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• 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)

Last year the Swiss were the first to choose their finalists and this year they will again as their National Final “Die Grosse Entscheidungs Show” takes place next Saturday 10th of December. 14 finalists battle it out to represent Switzerland in Baku and the winner will be chosen by 100% televote. There are some interesting entrants.

There has already been four selection rounds for the main channels of for the four languages in Switzerland (French, German, Italian and Romansch)

The finalists are:

Guillermo Sorya with “Baby Baby Baby”

Guillermo calls his music “Eclectic Soul” drawing influence from soul, blues, hip-hop and reggae. He has written and sang with some big Swiss acts such as Steff la Cheffe, Lea Lu, Dodo Jud, Big Zis and Nubya. His entry dosent do much for me. Can’t see it winning.

Patric Scott feat. Fabienne Louves with “Real Love”

Patric Scott is a musician and actor having starred in many musicals as well as releasing singles and albums. He is joined in this duet by the winner of Music Stars, Fabienne Louves. This is a lovely song, something the Swiss are great for, but will it be enough to win?

Atomic Angels with “Black Symphony”

Atomic Angels are a Swiss pop group from Bern. Two members of the group were born in Philippines but moved to Bern in their youth. Beyonce, Nicole and Rihanna are all listed as favourite musicians and that definately comes through in their entry. Could do well.

Katherine St-Laurent with “Wrong To Let You Go”

Katherine, originally from New York state, won Canadian Idol in 2008 and has decided to follow in Celine Dion’s footsteps and try to represent Switzerland at Eurovision. This uplifting ballad really shows off her voice and definitely deserves its place in the final.

Sosofluo with “Quand je ferme les yeux”

Sosofluo is a 22 year old Swiss-Canadian, she was a finalist in Concours International de Comédie Musicale in Paris back in February. She has enterted this fun song in French and I must say I like it.

Ze Flying Zézettes Orchestra with “L’autre”

Ze Flying Zézettes Orchestra are a 8 member band (though only 6 will be allowed on stage in Baku if they win) from Chateau-d’Oex. They have entered this beautiful song. Its a bit folksy but Eurovision voters seems to like that every now and then.

Sinplus with “Unbreakable”

Sinplus bring a bit of rock to the National Final. Sinplus are two brothers Gabriel Broggini and Ivan Broggin. They wrote “Shoot” which became one of the anthems of the 2009 World Hockey Championships. Its a fast, indie song reminiscent of the Killers. I like it!

Chiara Dubey with “Anima nuova”

Chiara enters the only Italian composition in this years final and its a sweet melodic song, but it dosent really stand out. Chiara has an amazing voice, so she could impress on the night.

Lys Assia with “C’était ma vie”

And now a lady who needs no introduction and who won the very first Eurovision Song Conest back in 1956. Lys Assia re-enters the lives of Eurovision fans in an attempt to represent Switzerland again. This is an old fashioned Eurovision Ballad but its full of class, plus her voice is still fantastic. Definitely one to watch!

Emel with “She”

Emel is a Turkish-Swiss singer and that certainly comes across in this song. It seems to have a number of failsafes built in. Turkish instruments and a chorus of “La La La”. Not sure how the Swiss votes will go on this one.

Ivo with “Peace & Freedom”

Ivo brings the traditional concept of Peace and gives a rock song. Quite a powerful song for someone whos been singing professionally since 2003. Depending on the mood of the voters on Saturday it could do well.

I Quattro with “Fragile”

I Quattro bring some Opera to the National Final. The 4 singers came together in 2009 in a show called “Die grössten Schweizerhits“ having performed as separate artists. They have two albums together and have had many sell out concerts. This song is quite mellow, and very slow in comparison to the entrants and therefore forgettable.

Raphael Jeger with “The Song In My Head”

This entry with its violins, reminding me of Fairytale, is an interesting number. Its got a catchy chorus, that certainly gets stuck in your head! Could do very well, as it is a good song.

Macy with “Shining”

Macy are band that were founded in 2007 and have a few hits. This year they have decided to enter a pop song to the Swiss National Final. This is a fun song, and one that would be played on the radio.

So thats the 14 entries. Later today the draw for the running order will take place. Who do you think will win?

So the 2011 edition of the Eurovision Song Contest is barely over and moves are already underway for the 57th Eurovision Song Contest. So far we have a logo and location city.

We also have some prelimary dates for your calender.

• Semi Final 1: 22nd May 2012
• Semi Final 2: 24th May 2012
• Final: 26th May 2012

So far 8 countries have confirmed their participation in Eurovision next year. They are:

• Austria
• Azarbaijan (host)
• Belgium
• Estonia
• Finland
• Germany
• Netherlands
• Switzerland

In 2009/2010 Azerbaijan was suppoesed to host the 3rd Eurovision Dance Contest. This was cancelled due to not enough interest. It is doubtful that this will happen to next years contest, but it means that ?ctimai Television have an idea of what they have to organise in 12 months time.

So who is going to Baku?

Image by kjelljoran via Flickr

So the first Semi-Final of the 56th Eurovision Song Contest took place last night and the ten countries that qualified are as follows:

• Serbia,
• Lithuania,
• Greece,
• Azerbaijan,
• Georgia,
• Switzerland,
• Hungary,
• Finland,
• Russia,
• Iceland

The results go to show the pot allocation and the jury votes have stopped the block voting with Armenia and Turkey missing out on qualifiacation. Delighted that Iceland and Finland go through. Last night was definitely a victory for songs rather then countries with Switzerland first qualification from the Semi-Finals! A lovely song!

So what does the running order for the final look like now?

1. Finland
2. -
3. -
4. Lithuania
5. Hungary
6. -
7. -
8. -
9. Greece
10. Russia
11. France
12. Italy
13. Switzerland
14. United Kingdom
15. -
16. Germany
17. -
18. -
19. Azerbaijan
20. -
21. Iceland
22. Spain
23. -
24. Serbia
25. Georgia

The ideal draw for Jedward will be 17, 18 or 20, with a Ballad drawn in the others! We need to avoid the number 2 spot!!

So can you predict who will fill the remaining ten places? Have a go here!

Related articles

• Liveblogging and Predicting the Eurovision! (escireland.com)
• How to take part in our liveblog! (escireland.com)

Continuing on from songs that were very good but did not qualify for the Eurovision, today we have DQ or Drama Queen who tried to get through for Switzerland this year. Peter Anderson resumed his role as DQ with the wonderful song “Take My Heart”, unfortunately he failed to qualify, which is a pity considering what they sent through instead. He originally represented Denmark in 2007 with ironically enough “Drama Queen”

DQ feat. Auf Hi’Dee – Take My Heart

We in Ireland are normally known for being behind, and at the moment we are living up to that stereotype! We apologise for the delay in bringing you the results of the Swiss National Final, “Die grosse Entscheidungs Show”.

The Swiss have gone head first into this years Eurovision and have picked their singer and their song for the contest in Düsseldorf next May. Will this early be a stroke of genius or will we be fed up of it by the time the contest comes around?

The Swiss had a novel idea for their National Final this year, it invited DSR 3, the Swiss Radio Broadcaster, RSI, the Italian Swiss TV station and TSR, the French Swiss TV station, to send finalists to a show that would be broadcast on Schweizer Fernsehen.

SF sent 7 finalists, DSR 3 sent 3 finalists and RSI and TSR sent one each.

On the night, SF Finalist Anna Rossinelli won with her song “In Love For a While”. She got 23.93% of the vote, the runner up, Bernarda Brunovic, got 13.36% of the vote. The winner was decided by televote.

The swiss entry this year is an up-tempo ballad with a catchy rhythm and of course a “na na na” line to sing-a-long too. Its growing on me with every listen.

What do you think?

When Celine Dion won the Eurovision Song Contest on the 30th of April 1988, I was five years old. It would take me 7 years and one Eurovision 40 year montage later to see her performance for the first time…and what a performance.

Celine Dion entered the Swiss National Song Contest to much criticism back in 1988. As a French speaking Canadian singing a song penned by a non Swiss National she had a battle on her hands to convince the Swiss public to back her and send her to Dublin. Her performance at the Swiss final blew away the other contenders and she quickly became favourite to win the contest in Dublin with her song “Ne Partez Pas Sans Moi” roughly translated as “Don’t Leave Without Me”.

The song itself wasn’t the most original on offer that year but Celine’s voice and her stage presence (she owned that huge stage in the RDS) gave her the edge when it came to the final results on the night. Celine’s song won on the last vote from Yugoslavia, with the UK just one point behind her.

The song wouldn’t become a huge hit across Europe but it highlighted again that despite that song and in fairness that outfit, the Eurovision Song Contest could act as a springboard for singers to become huge international stars. We must therefore ask ourselves the question; Without Eurovision would be have had “My Heart Will Go On”?

Ps for all the Celine fans out there, it was in Dublin after her win that Celine and her manager René got it on!

For today’s hit of the day we are going back to 2008 when Paolo Meneguzzi represented Switzerland with “Era Stupendo”. This song never made it out of the Second Semi, but it did come 13th with 47 points. Its a cool soft rock song. I enjoy singing along! But like Paolo on the night, I can’t reach the high notes!