Semi-Final #2 Predicted Top Ten
Norway Alexander Rybak - Fairytale
Estonia Urban Symphony - Rändajad
Moldova Nelly Ciobanu - Hora din Moldova
Albania Kejsi Tola - Carry Me in Your Dreams
Ireland Sinéad Mulvey and Black Daisy - Et Cetera
Greece Sakis Rouvas - This Is Our Night
Azerbaijan AySel and Arash - Always
Slovenia Quartissimo feat. Martina Majerle - Love Symphony
Denmark Niels Brinck - Believe Again
Cyprus Christina Metaxa - Firefly
Friday, April 24, 2009
Semi Finals - EDU Prediction
Semi Final #1 Predicted Top Ten
Switzerland Lovebugs - The Highest Heights
Portugal Flor-de-Lis - Todas as ruas do amor
Malta Chiara - What If We
Iceland Yohanna - Is It True?
Turkey Hadise - Düm Tek Tek
FY Macedonia Next Time - Neshto shto ke ostane
Andorra Susanne Georgi - La teva decisió
Belgium Patrick Ouchène - Copycat
Armenia Inga and Anush - Jan Jan
Bosnia Regina - Bistra voda
Switzerland Lovebugs - The Highest Heights
Portugal Flor-de-Lis - Todas as ruas do amor
Malta Chiara - What If We
Iceland Yohanna - Is It True?
Turkey Hadise - Düm Tek Tek
FY Macedonia Next Time - Neshto shto ke ostane
Andorra Susanne Georgi - La teva decisió
Belgium Patrick Ouchène - Copycat
Armenia Inga and Anush - Jan Jan
Bosnia Regina - Bistra voda
Friday, April 17, 2009
The King is Dead...
SBS has revealed its plans for Eurovision 2009 - and they involve two Australian commentators on the scene.
Now that Sir Wogan has retired, SBS will attempt to fill the vaccuum with an Aussie angle. Fans (including EDU) revolted when Des Mangan commentated in in 2003 - in lieu of Terry Wogan - and since then SBS has shied away from too much local content. Julie Zemiro - host of RockWiz and star of Eurobeat (the ESC stage comedy) - will broadcast from Moscow, alongside 3RRR broadcaster Sam Pang.
As per 2008, the two semi finals will be delayed a few days in order to screen from 7:30pm on Friday 15th & Saturday 16th May. The Final will screen at 7:30pm on Sunday May 17th.
(more details here)
This means that Australian viewers will be denied the usual BBC commentary - this year provided by Graham Norton (whose hilarious chat show is currently on ABC2 Thurdays at 9:30). For those keen to hear Norton's commentary might try UK-specialist file sharing sites like thebox.
Now that Sir Wogan has retired, SBS will attempt to fill the vaccuum with an Aussie angle. Fans (including EDU) revolted when Des Mangan commentated in in 2003 - in lieu of Terry Wogan - and since then SBS has shied away from too much local content. Julie Zemiro - host of RockWiz and star of Eurobeat (the ESC stage comedy) - will broadcast from Moscow, alongside 3RRR broadcaster Sam Pang.
As per 2008, the two semi finals will be delayed a few days in order to screen from 7:30pm on Friday 15th & Saturday 16th May. The Final will screen at 7:30pm on Sunday May 17th.
(more details here)
This means that Australian viewers will be denied the usual BBC commentary - this year provided by Graham Norton (whose hilarious chat show is currently on ABC2 Thurdays at 9:30). For those keen to hear Norton's commentary might try UK-specialist file sharing sites like thebox.
Friday, February 20, 2009
Putin' on the Politics
EDU expected Georgia to blackban this year's contest in Russia, after they decided to taunt the lion from the wrong side of the zoo cage (in the military sense). We were non-plussed when they announced they would withdraw from Moscow 2009. We were kind of surprised they re-entered only a few weeks later.
Now it becomes clearer. It is hard to flip the bird on an international level if your country's only international relations are at Eurovision. So, EDU is delighted to hear Georgia is sending Stefane & 3G to Moscow with the song '(We Don't Wanna) Put In.' Opting against more challenging puns on the name Medvedev, the Georgians swear the song is not a swipe at Vladimir Putin. Which is a good thing... we're not sure the same rules apply to singers as they do to journalists - but we hope Stefane & co have better exit strategy for Moscow than Saakashvili did.
Now it becomes clearer. It is hard to flip the bird on an international level if your country's only international relations are at Eurovision. So, EDU is delighted to hear Georgia is sending Stefane & 3G to Moscow with the song '(We Don't Wanna) Put In.' Opting against more challenging puns on the name Medvedev, the Georgians swear the song is not a swipe at Vladimir Putin. Which is a good thing... we're not sure the same rules apply to singers as they do to journalists - but we hope Stefane & co have better exit strategy for Moscow than Saakashvili did.
Thursday, January 22, 2009
/delurk
(Not) In the words of Scripture, it is time to put aside non-camp things. With a mere four months to go until the next Eurovision Song Contest, the first contestants are being announced and even a tune or two being released.
The big news thus far is that Sakis Rouvas is back! Sakis (3rd in 2004 and host of 2006's show) will represent Greece once more. He is sure to be the early favourite in betting - esp after Dima's 'Lazarus with a quadruple bypass' of a song won last year.
Four other nations have announced their acts, with the songs they will perform to be decided later on. They are:
Azerbaijan (sending: AySel Aysel Teymurzadeh), Israel (Mira Awad - the first Arab-Israeli singer to represent Israel and Noa Achinoam Nini), Netherlands (De Toppers - who are old enough to know better) and Switzerland (the Britpop stlyings of Lovebugs)
Only four countries have unleashed their songs onto the unsuspecting public.
Albania - As usual, the Albanian nationals were first cab off the rank (in December) and were won by Kejsi Tola with 'Më merr në ëndërr' (Take me into your Dreams). Turkey was not far behind, announcing Belgian-born Hadise Hadise Açıkgöz would represent them with 'Düm Tek Tek' (Boom Bang Bang - relax Lulu, it sounds totally different!).
Belarus are offering David Cassidy look-a-like Petr Elfimov with 'Eyes That Never Lie' and Bosnia-Herzegovina are sending U2 wannabes Regina with 'Bistra voda' (Clear water).
The big news thus far is that Sakis Rouvas is back! Sakis (3rd in 2004 and host of 2006's show) will represent Greece once more. He is sure to be the early favourite in betting - esp after Dima's 'Lazarus with a quadruple bypass' of a song won last year.
Four other nations have announced their acts, with the songs they will perform to be decided later on. They are:
Azerbaijan (sending: AySel Aysel Teymurzadeh), Israel (Mira Awad - the first Arab-Israeli singer to represent Israel and Noa Achinoam Nini), Netherlands (De Toppers - who are old enough to know better) and Switzerland (the Britpop stlyings of Lovebugs)
Only four countries have unleashed their songs onto the unsuspecting public.
Albania - As usual, the Albanian nationals were first cab off the rank (in December) and were won by Kejsi Tola with 'Më merr në ëndërr' (Take me into your Dreams). Turkey was not far behind, announcing Belgian-born Hadise Hadise Açıkgöz would represent them with 'Düm Tek Tek' (Boom Bang Bang - relax Lulu, it sounds totally different!).
Belarus are offering David Cassidy look-a-like Petr Elfimov with 'Eyes That Never Lie' and Bosnia-Herzegovina are sending U2 wannabes Regina with 'Bistra voda' (Clear water).
Friday, September 19, 2008
ASIA-vision
Eurovision Song Contest heads to Asia
Bettina Brinkmann of Eurovision.tv announces: "Having brought the European version of the Eurovision Song Contest to the Middle East and North Africa, we are now delighted that viewers across Asia will enjoy one of the best established entertainment shows in the world."
And it's not even April 1st. (Seriously - Middle East and North Africa! Was Morocco in it once?! Lebanon was banned and Turkey considers itself European... which leaves Israel as the sole nation in the Middle East and North Africa. In her down-time Bettina scripts adverts for the McCain campaign.)
Asia's version will start in 2009, and involve competitors from Cambodia, China, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Japan, Laos, Macao, Malaysia, Pakistan, Philippines, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand and Vietnam. Can we be the first to de-cry the bloc-voting of China, HK, Macao and Taiwan - which is ruining Asiavision?
It will be produced and marketed by a new company - Asiavision Pte Ltd. National and regional finals will take place over six months - with one Grand Final.
Asiavision's CEO - Andreas Gerlach - claims the "format is highly suited to the Asia region and its people who love popular music and have a strong national pride." Oh, so they're the unique people in the world who like popular music and have national pride. I was wondering where they'd gone.
Having lived next door to international students in down-town Melbourne for nearly 10 years - the EDU editors have been exposed to more Asian pop than anyone should be. (Imagine castrated cats covering Celine Dion songs). We predict that this Asiavision Contest will not be a Contest to be listened to, but a Contest to be avoided
Because People Count...
The EBU have announced the return of the International Jury to Eurovision 2009!
Apparently in the face of demands of the BBC (one of the major funders of the Contest) the EBU have decided to be seen to do something to negate the appearance of Eastern Europe's neighbourhood-friendly voting patterns overwhelming another year's results. An International Jury will cast their votes on the performance and these will be considered along with the televoting of the public.
As yet there has been no announcement on how the jury will be used - whether they will account for 50% of the scores or (more wildly conjectured) that a popular winner and jury winner may be announced.
The EBU went to lengths to explain that western Europe has been voting for eastern European acts for several years and that is the real reason they've been winning, but they also acknowledged the rise in technology allowing people to vote for their own nation through trickery or diaspora votes.
Apparently in the face of demands of the BBC (one of the major funders of the Contest) the EBU have decided to be seen to do something to negate the appearance of Eastern Europe's neighbourhood-friendly voting patterns overwhelming another year's results. An International Jury will cast their votes on the performance and these will be considered along with the televoting of the public.
As yet there has been no announcement on how the jury will be used - whether they will account for 50% of the scores or (more wildly conjectured) that a popular winner and jury winner may be announced.
The EBU went to lengths to explain that western Europe has been voting for eastern European acts for several years and that is the real reason they've been winning, but they also acknowledged the rise in technology allowing people to vote for their own nation through trickery or diaspora votes.
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