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

Comments

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..... )

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 ....

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...

Boobs for summer: Samantha vs Sabrina!

The old rivals have put their bras (or the lack of them) in peace and entered the studios together to record Blondie's boombastic Call me . Life could be worse.....

UK: Naked Blue

The boys of Blue have posed nude again. This time for the Attitude magazine's annual Naked issue and they are also in the cover. Watch the video of the shooting here . Band member Duncan, who is bi-sexual, recently told The Daily Star : “We are getting our kit off for Attitude magazine like the McFly boys did. I’m up for showing everything off. I’m happy enough about the size of my manhood. ” Extra media attention won't hurt their changes in Germany to win it for the UK for the first time since 1997... They will and they can!

FRANCE: LINH - J'AVOUE

As I'm off to France for some well deserved holidays and will get back to this blog afterwards I will feature a song a day. From France as my travelling tradition goes. By my favorite French singers bien sur. Enjoy!

EUROVISION 2026: ITALY AND UNITED KINGDOM REVIEW

I wasn't planning on doing personal reviews this year either but here we go after all. Truth to be said I have listened the entries 0-2 times before sitting down now to comment them. Let's go! The usual Blogilkar's home jury will reunite later and the results revealed in due time. meanwhile, my thoughts and comments on the entries of Eurovision song contest series is right here. And I saved my beloved Italy and the my biggest surprise of the season to last. Enjoy! Italy - Sal Da Vinci - Per sempre si ***** Oh Sal. I'm so happy he's back on top, a Sanremo winner finally, having the success he merited already in the mid 1990's! Tjis song may be corny and old fashioned but there's the charm. This year especially with so many weird strange songs that aren't really songs in the true meaning of the word. This is. A proper melody, proper lyrics, performed with emotion and passion and flawless vocals. Could you ask for more? And yes, there is a remix coming ...

Life after Helsinki 2007 Eurovision

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