EUROVISION 2018: LET THE REHEARSALS BEGIN! ALL ABOARD!

Today's the day. Azerbaijan will kick off the rehearsals 11am local time behind closed doors, as it has been now for a couple of years. Even more rules have been set by EBU in the last minute this year: a maximum of two minutes footage can be published by fan sites and blogs, and if I understood corretly none in private social media pages but only on blogs and sites. Same goes for photos.... But hey, I'm all for it. Too many times "fans" have slaughtered acts even before they have got their act together on that new stage (think Belgium last year for example) making them drop in betting odds etc. It's not only question of peace of mind for the delegations and the artist and money, it's a question of respect. Let them get their act together before you judge, ok? If you complain have a long look at the mirror. Fandom gets what fandom deserves. Simple as that. One of the best decisions by EBU for years, the best since closed doors rehearsals actually. Now if they only also closed the screens in press center and only showed the last run through or so - or let the delegations decide whether to show anything in these first technical rehearsals.... Media has opportunities to interview the artists and get other content 24/7 so it's not like they don't have thngs to do and publish if they only want...

As an old school blogger, working more on words than videos I think this will put some new school "journalists" into test. Making a video is easy and going on for two minutes really saying nothing but try the same in written form.... Good luck with that!

This said, I hope everyone present in Lisbon will have a great time and that this Portuguese edition of Eurovision will be an awesome one - all ingredients are there!

Today's schedule:

11:00-11:30 – Azerbaijan

11:40-12:10 – Iceland

12:20-12:50 – Albania

13:00-13:30 – Belgium

13:30-14:40 – break

14:40-15:10 – Czech Republic

15:20-15:50 – Lithuania

16:00-16:30 – Israel

16:30-17:00 – break

17:00-17:30 – Belarus

17:40-18:10 – Estonia

18:20-18:50 – Bulgaria

Each country will have a press Meet & Greet after their rehearsal

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SONGS OF THE YEAR 2015: #5 KRISTA SIEGFRIDS - ON & OFF

Krista Siegfrids is delivering nice pop tunes one after another and this one is particularly catchy and soon you will be singing along..... Hopefully her Melodifestivalen entry will be equally good!

ESC 2016 WISH LIST: MARGARET FOR POLAND

Małgorzata Jamroży aka Margaret has also been tipped for Eurovision and apparently she did turn it down but she'd be perfect. She's got a look and persona you can't unnotice nor forget, she's got hit songs, she has been voted or nominated for everything from Trendy artist to the Hope of the Year, Fashion Icon and Glamour Woman of the year besides the usual best video, song, album, debut..... Oh she's also a fashion designer! She's very clever with social medias and would surely use it to her advantage if selected for Stockholm 2016. Her debut album is titled Add the blonde , do we need to say more? Except it includes mostly Swedish written pop tunes like Tell me how are ya , Wasted , Start a fire and Heartbeat . And of course her debut single and internationally noticed Thank you very much that you can enjoy below with all its anti-textil feel. I think she's Eurovision perfection, she's cheeky and fun, can we have her?

ESC 2016 BELARUS: NAKED WITH WOLVES?

Today's funniest Eurovision related story comes from Belarus. Some sources claim Ivan wants to perform on stage naked and with live wolf or wolves. It surely would be a first on Eurovision stage! We have seen some forgotten underwear over the years, and some cardbox animals though..... Is it time to take things a bit further? No, according the rules live animals are not allowed, and Eurovision being a family show nudity won't do either. (It seems to be ok to be half naked if you are a dancer though..... )

GREECE: HELENA PAPARIZOU HITS AGAIN WITH HAIDE

Eurovision song contest 2005 winner Helena Paparizou has been enjoying Top-5 hits every year since 2003 with the exception of 2010 and 2014, this latest one being already her 27th! And Haide is charting also in Bulgaria and Finland, of all places. The catchiness of her hits has changed less over the years than her face.... Here's the English version , below the Greek version.

ESC 2015 SERBIA: BOJANA GOES POLYGLOT AND RELEASES A NEW VIDEO AND REMIX

Serbian Bojana Stamenov hasn't been having beauty sleeps while prepairing for Vienna. She has just released a new proper video replacing the previous fans featuring beauty video , right after she has given us Spanish ( El mundo bajo mis pies ) and French ( Le monde est à moi ) versions of the song! And an Autobahn remix that is kinda fabulous! Busy girl! PS. I still think the original Ceo svet je moj takes the prize! Oh WAIT! There's yet another version: Die ganze Welt is mein ! And that's something else ....

TIM SCHOU AND HIS NAKED GRAVITY

Tim Schou has a pretty good solo career going since he left his friends in London. He's travelling the world and relesing songs and videos. The latest one is a great track and comes with a steamy video that kinda takes away from the song really. But who's complaining. If you got it, flaunt it. Enjoy the video below. This post coming after the other Dane, Rasmus Seebach as wishlist for Eurovision. To think about it, Tim would do nicely, too. Maybe he should give it another go?

CAROLA'S BOOBS STEAL THE SHOW, SVT APOLOGIES

Update! Another thing got Swedes talking last night: Carola's boobs when she was giving away an award. This is not the first time her boombs cause headlines; her misfortunate adventures in the 80's in Japan wer explained with her boobs being too big for Japanese market. Ok.... Or was it the song ? Anyways, Carola apologies and says she thinks the dress is stylish and elegant (even her friends said so) and she's a mature woman in her 40s, not a 16-year-old girl and looks like one. The Swedish Oscars, Guldbagge awards were given out last night. Carola was there as a guest star to sing Barbra Streisand's The way we were when honoring the movie stars who passed away during 2012. However, the cameras were too much on Carola, not on the stars showed in photos in the background and that upset many viewers as that part of the show was to celebrate them, not Carola. Oh well... The producer of the show tells in Aftonbladet the part of the show was made the sam...

MALTA MUSIC: CLAUDIA FANIELLO - MILES AWAY

Claudia Faniello, one of the finest voices in Malta. Often compared to Ira Losco and known as Fabrizio's little sister but she has proven in the past ten years she's a star of her own right. She may have taken part in the Maltese Eurovision selection with 8 songs between 2006-2012 but not winning (yet...), She came second with Caravaggio and Pure though. Miles away is a lovely pop tune with a hint of country. Check out also her latest video and self written song You said .

EUROVISION 2025: THOSE WHO DIDN'T MAKE IT ALL THE WAY TO BASEL - MARCO RODRIGUES - A MINHA CASA

Marco Rodrigues offered one of those timeless beautiful songs that makes Festival da Canção very dear national selection for me. A minha casa was just one of those, masterfully sung by successful and multi awarded, Grammy nominated fado singer Marco and one of those that sneakily starts playing in your head after the more instant and upbeat songs fade away and you grow tired of.

Life after Helsinki 2007 Eurovision

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