The Eurovision 2017 season has been officially open for two weeks now and some countries have already closed their submissions and started working on the material, like Finland where YLE is once again keeping quiet about the number of entries and all the rest. The artists will be notified their fate by the end of October and most probably the rest of us will know the selected ones only in January.
In Denmark the Eurovision fever is high despite failing to make the final this year and even their entrant Lighthouse X is also history as they broke up earlier this summer. A total of 1.115 entries were submitted, a new record.
France is looking for a new Amir, aka following this year's successful format of finding an artist and a song that could be a hit already before we know it's the one for the Eurovision.
Submissions are open in Estonia and sadly they are opening up for non-native authors so that's where all the Melodifestivalen rejects will end up. Luckily they have kept the rule we have in order in Finland, some of the writing and performing team must be Estonian though.
Norway is set again with a ten song final one night only affair, but the international juries are back to help them in the job - maybe after Agnete's failure. Curiously NRK has used the international juries only twice before, namely in 1985 and 1995 and we all know how that ended.... :-)
Sweden has already the first artist selected for the Melodifestivalen semifinals: Les Gordons. They were voted the winner at Svensktoppen Nästa.
Spain is once again full of rumors. The main focus is on Ruth Lorenzo making a comeback, as she promised back in 2014, but some other candidates have put themselves out there, like Lorena Gómez.
In the Netherlands the ex-Junior Eurovision participants and The Voice of Holland winners O'G3NE are eager to do it next year, but still haven't received a call from AVROTROS.....
Germany is also turning back to a winning formula, and having a winner involved. Lena will be one of the judges at Unser Song 2017. Applications are open for "young artists" and five of them will make the final, where they will get songs penned by true international hitmakers. Anything to stop the three last places in a row hat trick I guess.....
Czech Republic is also back after they made the final for the very first time this year, and once again will go with an internal choice.
The host country Ukraine will repeat this year's successful selection process, and the reigning Eurovision queen Jamala will be one of the judges.
Comments